Effects of afforestation on soil carbon turnover in China's subtropical region

Afforestation in China's subtropics plays an important role in sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere and in storage of soil carbon (C). Compared with natural forests, plantation forests have lower soil organic carbon (SOC) content and great potential to store more C. To better evaluate the effects of afforestation on soil C turnover, we investigated SOC and its stable C isotope (delta C-13) composition in three planted forests at Qianyanzhou Ecological Experimental Station in southern China. Litter and soil samples were collected and analyzed for total organic C, delta C-13 and total nitrogen. Similarly to the vertical distribution of SOC in natural forests, SOC concentrations decrease exponentially with depth. The land cover type (grassland) before plantation had a significant influence on the vertical distribution of SOC. The SOC delta C-13 composition of the upper soil layer of two plantation forests has been mainly affected by the grass biomass C-13 composition. Soil profiles with a change in photosynthetic pathway had a more complex C-13 isotope composition distribution. During the 20 years after plantation establishment, the soil organic matter sources influenced both the delta C-13 distribution with depth, and C replacement. The upper soil layer SOC turnover in masson pine (a mean 34% of replacement in the 10 cm after 20 years) was more than twice as fast as that of slash pine (16% of replacement) under subtropical conditions. The results demonstrate that masson pine and slash pine plantations cannot rapidly sequester SOC into long-term storage pools in subtropical China.

Inferring Intention

Inferring Intention, (2004) 55(1) Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 69-77

Intention and Causation in Medical Non-Killing: The impact of criminal law concepts on euthanasia and assisted suicide

null RAE2008

Absence of turnover and futile cycling of sucrose in leaves of Lolium temulentum L.: implications for metabolic compartmentation

Cairns, A. J., Gallagher, J. A. (2004). Absence of turnover and futile cycling of sucrose in leaves of Lolium temulentum L.: implications for metabolic compartmentation. Planta, 219 (5), 836-846. Sponsorship: BBSRC RAE2008

How Spinal Neural Networks Reduce Discrepancies between Motor Intention and Motor Realization

This paper attempts a rational, step-by-step reconstruction of many aspects of the mammalian neural circuitry known to be involved in the spinal cord's regulation of opposing muscles acting on skeletal segments. Mathematical analyses and local circuit simulations based on neural membrane equations are used to clarify the behavioral function of five fundamental cell types, their complex connectivities, and their physiological actions. These cell types are: α-MNs, γ-MNs, IaINs, IbINs, and Renshaw cells. It is shown that many of the complexities of spinal circuitry are necessary to ensure near invariant realization of motor intentions when descending signals of two basic types independently vary over large ranges of magnitude and rate of change. Because these two types of signal afford independent control, or Factorization, of muscle LEngth and muscle TEnsion, our construction was named the FLETE model (Bullock and Grossberg, 1988b, 1989). The present paper significantly extends the range of experimental data encompassed by this evolving model.

Job retention and turnover: a study of child protection and welfare social workers in Ireland

Retaining social workers in child protection and welfare organisations has been identified as a problem in Ireland (McGrath, 2001; Ombudsman for Children, 2006; Houses of the Oireachtas, 2008) and internationally (Ellet et al., 2006; Mor Barak et al., 2006; Tham, 2006). While low levels of retention have been identified, there is no research that examines the factors in Ireland that influence the retention of social workers. In this thesis, data is analysed from qualitative interviews with 45 social workers in the Health Service Executive South about what influences their decisions to stay in or leave child protection and welfare social work. These social workers’ views are examined in relation to quantitative research on the levels of turnover and employment mobility of child protection and welfare social workers employed in the same organisation. Contrary to expectations, the study found that the retention rate of social workers during the period of data collection (March 2005 to December 2006) was high and that the majority of social workers remained positive about this work and their retention. The quality of social workers’ supervision, social supports from colleagues, high levels of autonomy, a commitment to child protection and welfare work, good variety in the work, and a perception that they were making a difference, emerged as important factors in social workers’ decisions to stay. Perceptions of being unsupported by the organisation, which was usually described in terms of high caseloads and demanding workloads, a lack of resources, work with involuntary clients and not being able to make a difference, were the most significant factors in social workers’ decisions to leave and/or to want to leave. Social workers felt particularly professionally unsupported when they received low quality and/or infrequent professional supervision. This thesis critiques the theories of perceived organisational support theory, social exchange theory and job characteristics theory, and uses the concept of ‘professional career’, to help analyse the retention of social workers in child protection and welfare.

Costa Rica's payment for environmental services program: intention, implementation, and impact.

We evaluated the intention, implementation, and impact of Costa Rica's program of payments for environmental services (PSA), which was established in the late 1990s. Payments are given to private landowners who own land in forest areas in recognition of the ecosystem services their land provides. To characterize the distribution of PSA in Costa Rica, we combined remote sensing with geographic information system databases and then used econometrics to explore the impacts of payments on deforestation. Payments were distributed broadly across ecological and socioeconomic gradients, but the 1997-2000 deforestation rate was not significantly lower in areas that received payments. Other successful Costa Rican conservation policies, including those prior to the PSA program, may explain the current reduction in deforestation rates. The PSA program is a major advance in the global institutionalization of ecosystem investments because few, if any, other countries have such a conservation history and because much can be learned from Costa Rica's experiences.