Issue salience in regional and national party manifestoes in the UK

The study reveals the salience of particular issues in the manifestos of the main British parties for the 1997 and 2003 UK general elections, as well as the 2003 Scottish and Welsh elections, using the method introduced by the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP) and a modified list of issue categories to reflect the division of government competences between the central and regional governments. Ideological and social base of a party, as well as the delimitation of government competences, are found to be important determinants of issue salience. A more consensual institutional design of the regional government in Scotland and Wales seems to have conditioned larger differences among the issue profiles of parties competing in regional elections, in comparison with general elections. With the institutionalisation of devolution, however, we observe an increase in the similarity of the issue profiles of the same parties in general and in Scottish and Welsh elections, as well as among different parties competing in the same regional elections. © 2005 Taylor & Francis.

Direct Democracy and Regional Integration::Citizens' Perceptions of Treaty Implications and the Irish Reversal on Lisbon

Analyses of voting in European Union referendums typically distinguish between ‘second-order’ effects and the impact of substantive ‘issues’. In order to explain change in referendum outcome, two types of substantive issues are distinguished in this article. Focusing on Irish voting in the Lisbon Treaty referendums and using data from post-referendum surveys, it is found that perceptions of treaty implications outperform underlying attitudes to EU integration in predicting vote choice at both referendums, and perceptions of treaty implications are strong predictors of vote change between the referendums. The findings have broadly positive implications for normative assessments of the usefulness of direct democracy as a tool for legitimising regional integration advance.

The Houses of the Oireachtas:Parliament in Ireland

The Irish parliament - the Oireachtas - is nearing the centenary year of its foundation, making it one of the oldest continuously surviving parliaments in the world. As the most important national institution in the state, it plays an essential role in giving voice to a diversity of views and opinions, providing stable governments, approving law and national budgets and upholding democratic values. For much of its existence, however, and most pointedly in the context of recent banking and economic crises, it has been subject to criticism concerning its ability to adequately hold the executive to account, to act as a coherent policy-making forum, to meet the challenges arising from European Union membership, to embrace wide-ranging reforms and to develop with purpose and ambition.

This comprehensive new volume considers all aspects of the Houses of the Oireachtas - including their evolution, composition, organisation, financing, administration and reform. Contributors include academics, administrators and sitting and former parliamentarians. Contemporary challenges brought about by transformations in media style, increased inter-parliamentarism and the changing character of politics are also addressed. The book questions a number of assumptions about parliament and its work, including the efficacy of the legislative and budgetary processes, the nature of executive-legislative relations and the perceived encroachment of the courts on the legislature. Combined, this wide-ranging and detailed study fills a long-standing void, and provides essential reading not alone for those interested in Irish politics and government, but also for students and scholars of legislative studies.

Determining the regional potential for a grass biomethane industry

Grass biogas/biomethane has been put forward as a renewable energy solution and it has been shown to perform well in terms of energy balance, greenhouse gas emissions and policy constraints. Biofuel and energy crop solutions are country-specific and grass biomethane has strong potential in countries with temperate climates and a high proportion of grassland, such as Ireland. For a grass biomethane industry to develop in a country, suitable regions (i.e. those with the highest potential) must be identified. In this paper, factors specifically related to the assessment of the potential of a grass biogas/biomethane industry are identified and analysed. The potential for grass biogas and grass biomethane is determined on a county-by-county basis using multi-criteria decision analysis. Values are assigned to each county and ratings and weightings applied to determine the overall county potential. The potential for grass biomethane with co-digestion of slaughter waste (belly grass) is also determined. The county with the highest potential (Limerick) is analysed in detail and is shown to have ready potential for production of gaseous biofuel to meet either 50% of the vehicle fleet or 130% of the domestic natural gas demand, through 25 facilities at a scale of ca. 30ktyr of feedstock. The assessment factors developed in this paper can be used in other resource studies into grass biomethane or other energy crops. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

The spatial ecology of the whiskered bat (Myotis mystacinus) at the western extreme of its range provides evidence of regional adaptation

Although widespread, the ecology of the whiskered bat, Myotis mystacinus in Europe remains poorly understood. Ireland is positioned at the most western extreme of this species' range. To ascertain the ecology of M. mystacinus at its geographic range extreme, the roosting behaviour, home range and habitat use of females in a maternity roost in Ireland was investigated by radio-tracking. M. mystacinus were active in a diversity of habitats: namely, mixed woodland, riparian vegetation, arable land and rough grassland. However, only mixed woodland and riparian habitats were selected as core foraging areas. This is in contrast to a previous study from Britain where only pasture was utilised but is in agreement with data from Slovakia, where woodland was also selected, whilst riparian areas were also utilised by this species in Germany. A high degree of overlap in the foraging areas of individuals was observed. A total of seven roosts were utilised by tracked bats and roost switching behaviour was observed. We discuss our contrasting results in respect to range limitations, regional variability in landscape structure and the composition of bat communities. The present results have implications for the conservation of M. mystacinus within Ireland and other parts of its range, highlighting the need for range wide ecological studies. Regional variability in the ecology of bats related to landscape factors is an important consideration for bat conservation and therefore must be incorporated into future management plans. (C) 2012 Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Saugetierkunde. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

The Palisades is a key reference site for the middle Pleistocene of eastern Beringia: New evidence from paleomagnetics and regional tephrostratigraphy

The Palisades, in central Alaska, is one of the most prominent exposures of Quaternary sediments on the Yukon River. Perennially-frozen silt and sand at the Palisades are presently thought to preserve paleoenvironmental records from the Holocene to ~Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 8 and, beneath a major unconformity, the earliest Pleistocene (~2 Ma). We present new paleomagnetic and tephrochronologic constraints that substantially revise the age of the sediments at the Palisades. We describe 15 new tephra beds, including five beds below the prominent PAL tephra that correlate to known tephra with independent age control from other sites in eastern Beringia. These five known tephra include Chester Bluff tephra, which is present in east-central Alaska and the Yukon, and the newly named Alyeska Pipeline and Taylor Highway tephra from central Alaska; all are constrained to the middle Pleistocene. Paleomagnetic transects from the base of the bluff to the MIS 5e forest bed yield normal polarity, with the exception of a brief reversal event between Old Crow tephra (124 ± 10 ka) and the MIS 5e forest bed that is likely the first documentation of the Blake paleomagnetic event in Alaskan loess. The detailed tephrostratigraphy and paleomagnetic data collectively suggest that most of the sedimentary record at the Palisades is middle Pleistocene in age. The Palisades thus preserves a rare record of late to middle Pleistocene paleoenvironments with multiple regionally distributed tephra beds. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

A ten year audit of clinical psychology referrals in the regional Adult Cystic Fibrosis Unit in Northern Ireland

Objectives: A retrospective audit was conducted into Clinical Psychology referrals made by the adult cystic fibrosis (CF) team over a ten year period from 2001-2010. The aim of the audit was to examine the psychological difficulties referred to Clinical Psychology and identify any trends.
Methods: A database of all referrals received over a ten year period was created. A coding template was created by KR and AC which allowed for the categorisation of referrals into three main themes: Mood disturbance, CF related events and non-CF related events. The same coding template was used to categorise referrals to the children’s CF service. Descriptive statistics were used to interpret the data.
Results: In 2009/10, 11% of the adult CF population in Northern Ireland were referred to Clinical Psychology. In the past 10 years there were 200 referrals and 105 adults who accessed Clinical Psychology services. The majority of referrals (67%) were re-referrals (range 2-7). More females were referred and they were also more likely to be referred repeatedly The main reason for referral was anxiety. Depression, adherence and end of life/transplant issues also accounted for a large proportion of referrals. A small proportion of referrals were due to non CF related events. There were age and gender differences in the reasons for referral.
Conclusion: A minority of CF patients attending the regional unit were referred to Clinical Psychology. Those who accessed the services appear to be at increased risk of psychological morbidity as re-referral rates are high. The gender difference in referral and re-referral rates may reflect a difference in psychological morbidity or males not accessing services.

Profiling the ionome of rice and its use in discriminating geographical origins at the regional scale, China

Element profile was investigated for their use to trace the geographical origin of rice (Oryza sativa L.) samples. The concentrations of 13 elements (calcium (Ca), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), phosphorus (P), boron (B), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), arsenic (As), selenium (Se), molybdenum (Mo), and cadmium (Cd)) were determined in the rice samples by inductively coupled plasma optical emission and mass spectrometry. Most of the essential elements for human health in rice were within normal ranges except for Mo and Se. Mo concentrations were twice as high as those in rice from Vietnam and Spain. Meanwhile, Se concentrations were three times lower in the whole province compared to the Chinese average level of 0.088 mg/kg. About 12% of the rice samples failed the Chinese national food safety standard of 0.2 mg/kg for Cd. Combined with the multi-elemental profile in rice, the principal component analysis (PCA), discriminant function analysis (DFA) and Fibonacci index analysis (FIA) were applied to discriminate geographical origins of the samples. Results indicated that the FIA method could achieve a more effective geographical origin classification compared with PCA and DFA, due to its efficiency in making the grouping even when the elemental variability was so high that PCA and DFA showed little discriminatory power. Furthermore, some elements were identified as the most powerful indicators of geographical origin: Ca, Ni, Fe and Cd. This suggests that the newly established methodology of FIA based on the ionome profile can be applied to determine the geographical origin of rice.