A Review of Demographic Ageing in the UK: Opportunities for Rural Research

Demographic ageing is a global phenomenon. UK policy and research have, until recently, focused on national trends and implications and largely viewed ageing as a 'pensions and care' problem. While other and more positive aspects are beginning to be acknowledged, regional, local, and rural impacts remain underinvestigated. This paper, by reviewing the literature from several disciplines and countries, introduces a series of research questions that could usefully inform future geographical inquiry. It argues that the nature, experiences, and consequences of demographic ageing will vary across space, stage in the life course and numerous aspects of our everyday lives. Our current knowledge and understanding are but the tip of the iceberg in terms of the research opportunities that lie ahead.

The integrated school in a conflict society: a comparative analysis of two integrated primary schools in Northern Ireland

The purpose of this paper is to compare the approach to promoting positive relationships between Catholics and Protestants in two types of integrated primary school in Northern Ireland. Drawing on qualitative interviews with teachers, governors and parents in one transforming school and one grant maintained integrated school, i.e. one representative of each of the two types, the paper shows that whilst there are distinctions in the ways that the schools promote their image and ethos, the ‘lived reality’ of the schools, as reported by the research participants, is almost indistinguishable. The paper suggests that both schools tend not to refer to or explore cultural difference and that this tendency to ‘minimise difference’ seems to have the potential to silence school members who do wish to explore their own and other cultures. It is argued that such practices are likely to impede rather than facilitate the progress of good inter-community relations.

Implementation of Discrete and Integrated IT: The Role of Organisational Structure and Culture

ntegrated organisational IT systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM) and digital manufacturing (DM), have promised and delivered substantial performance benefits to many adopting firms. However, implementations of such systems have tended to be problematic. ERP projects, in particular, are prone to cost and time overruns, not delivering anticipated benefits and often being abandoned before completion. While research has developed around IT implementation, this has focused mainly on standalone (or discrete), as opposed to integrated, IT systems. Within this literature, organisational (i.e., structural and cultural) characteristics have been found to influence implementation success. The key aims of this research are (a) to investigate the role of organisational characteristics in determining IT implementation success; (b) to determine whether their influence differs for integrated IT and discrete IT projects; and (c) to develop specific guidelines for managers of integrated IT implementations. An in-depth comparative case study of two IT projects was conducted within a major aerospace manufacturing company.

Comparative proteome analysis of triclabendazole response in the liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica.

Control of Fasciola hepatica infections of livestock in the absence of vaccines depends largely on the chemical triclabendazole (TCBZ) because it is effective against immature and adult parasites. Overdependence on a single drug and improper application is considered a significant factor in increasing global reports of fluke resistant to TCBZ. The mode(s) of action and biological target(s) of TCBZ are not confirmed, delaying detection and the monitoring of early TCBZ resistance. In this study, to further understand liver fluke response to TCBZ, the soluble proteomes of TCBZ-resistant and TCBZ-susceptible isolates of F. hepatica were compared with and without in vitro exposure to the metabolically active form of the parent drug triclabendazole sulphoxide (TCBZ-SO), via two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE). Gel image analysis revealed proteins displaying altered synthesis patterns and responses both between isolates and under TCBZ-SO exposure. These proteins were identified by mass spectrometry supported by a F. hepatica expressed sequence tag (EST) data set. The TCBZ responding proteins were grouped into three categories; structural proteins, energy metabolism proteins, and “stress” response proteins. This single proteomic investigation supported the reductionist experiments from many laboratories that collectively suggest TCBZ has a range of effects on liver fluke metabolism. Proteomics highlighted differences in the innate proteome profile of different fluke isolates that may influence future therapy and diagnostics design. Two of the TCBZ responding proteins, a glutathione transferase and a fatty acid binding protein, were cloned, produced as recombinants, and both found to bind TCBZ-SO at physiologically relevant concentrations, which may indicate a role in TCBZ metabolism and resistance.

Strategic Spatial Planning in Berlin–Brandenburg: A Requiem for Balanced Development?

This practice review examines Berlin–Brandenburg’s new strategic spatial planning framework and considers, in particular, whether balanced development in this context is now simply a neoliberal fig leaf and mantra acting as policy cover for more pragmatic accommodations in harsh times. The article concludes that such a judgement would be too harsh with the concept continuing to mould creative engagement by decision-makers.

Impact of operator experience on information feedback and reusability

Keeping a record of operator experience remains a challenge to operation management and a major source of inefficiency in information management. The objective is to develop a framework that enables an explicit presentation of experience based on information use. A purposive sampling method is used to select four small and medium-sized enterprises as case studies. The unit of analysis is the production process in the machine shop. Data collection is by structured interview, observation and documentation. A comparative case analysis is applied. The findings suggest experience is an accumulation of tacit information feedback, which can be made explicit in information use interoperatability matrix. The matrix is conditioned upon information use typology, which is strategic in waste reduction. The limitations include difficulty of participant anonymity where the organisation nominates a participant. Areas for further research include application of the concepts to knowledge management and shop floor resource management.

Planning in young children: A review and synthesis

Research on the development of planning is reviewed in the context of a framework that considers the role of three types of cognitive flexibility in planning development: event-independent temporal representation, executive function, and self-projection. It is argued that the emergence of planning abilities in the preschool period is dependent upon the development of event-independent temporal representation. Research on the development of executive function suggests that its sub-components, in particular inhibitory control, may be linked to developmental improvements on planning tasks. Recently, new paradigms have established that self-projection to the future appears to develop over the preschool period. We consider how these different forms of cognitive flexibility may themselves be related in development. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Skills, Conflict and Spatial Planning in Northern Ireland

The skills to manage sustainable and cohesive communities have placed a particular emphasis on collaborative and consensual methods of working. This paper suggests that in ethnically divided places, the notion of collaboration is largely conceptual and that more agonistic strategies provide a sounder basis for marginal communities to advance their claims and rights. Specifically, it draws on research conducted in Northern Ireland to suggest that situated approaches to territorial competition can place learning, the sharing of knowledge, and the transformation of conflict at the heart of the skills debate.

In pursuit of parrhesia: an investigation into knowledge selection in inquisitorial planning practice

Drawing upon interviews with procedural actants from Public Inquiry and Examination in Public fora, I draw upon relevant theoretical frameworks to evaluate modes of discourse in inquisitorial planning practice. In the investigation, which is based primarily upon an empirical study, I focus upon the role of evidence, the selection and handling of multiple knowledges, the behaviour of participants, and the methodology underpinning the process. It is established that such arenas can be effective mechanisms for testing complex evidence; and suggestions are made for improved practice, procedure, and future research. I conclude by raising serious ethical questions concerning participant behaviour, particularly on the part of advocates and especially chartered town planners.

A comparative study of three techniques for determining photocatalytic activity

Quantitative measurement of the activity of photoactive films is an area of importance. The establishment of tests for standardisation of performance is important for efficient research but also a major milestone in achieving technology acceptance. In this paper, we compare three different techniques across a range of film samples from various sources. Furthermore, we demonstrate the potential of the dye-based approach as a quick and simple test. A series of photoactive film samples are compared for measured activity against each test. The test is shown to be capable of reproducible and quantitative activity results. The test has potential for use

What now for the contact hypothesis? Towards a new research agenda

This article begins with a review of recent research on the Contact Hypothesis. It will be shown that the literature in this area has become essentially closed and self-referential where the core political and theoretical premises that underpin the Hypothesis have been taken for granted and the debates have therefore become restricted simply to how best to measure the influence of inter-group contact. One of the key reasons for this is the lack of critical engagement with the Contact Hypothesis from those of a more structuralist and/or ‘radical’ perspective. This may be because the individualistic focus of the Hypothesis is seen from such a perspective as largely irrelevant to addressing racial and ethnic divisions and/or because it may be felt that to engage with the concept is to give it undue legitimacy. It will be argued in this article, however, that the wholesale dismissal of the Contact Hypothesis is a little premature. Just as recent research on racial and ethnic divisions has drawn attention to the way in which such divisions exist at a number of layers within the social formation – from the structural, political and ideological through to the sub-cultural, interactional and biographical – so must any initiatives aimed at addressing these divisions be similarly ‘multi-layered’ in their approach. However, it will be argued that for research to help inform specific strategies at the interactional level, there needs to be a significant change in the way that inter-group contact, and the Contact Hypothesis more generally, is studied. The article will ‘model out’ one potentially fruitful way in which such research can develop through the use of an ethnographic case study involving a cross-community scheme arranged for Protestant and Catholic children in Northern Ireland.