Progress through partnership

The National Literacy Strategy Framework (DfEE, 1998) requires primary children to, 'become increasingly conscious of the writer's intentions' (p.7) and The National Curriculum for English (1999) states that children should, ‘use and adapt the features of a form of writing, drawing on their reading’ (p.28). Developing a process approach to writing, where children are supported as they draft and redraft texts, was the aim of a university funded school-partnership project between Sycamore Junior School, in the City of Nottingham, and Nottingham Trent University. The article describes how Years 3 and 4 children developed an understanding of narrative structure and became reflective writers, as they responded to each other’s work, during writing workshops

Forestry policy and poverty: the case of community forestry in Nepal

Common forests in developing countries are valuable sources of raw material supplies, employment and income generation, particularly for low income households. This paper looks at the effect on income and employment when common forest resources have external policies that constrain their use. Using a mixed-integer linear programming model, this study examines the impacts of conservation-oriented community forest policies in Nepal on three household income groups. The results show that current community forest policies, which focus on environmental outcomes through forest use restriction for environment conservation and timber production, result in a large reduction in employment and income of the poorest households and largely explain the recent increase in poverty of rural areas.Forestry policy, poverty, Nepal, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Valuing agricultural externalities in Canterbury rivers and streams

Water quality and quantity concerns in Canterbury are intrinsically related to agriculture. Monetary values for impacts on streams and rivers is lacking in policy debate. This paper employs choice modelling to estimate values of three impacts on rivers and streams in Canterbury associated with agriculture: health risks of E coli from animal waste, ecological effects of excess nutrients, and low-flow impacts of irrigation. This study provides a valuation of outcomes for public policy implemented in Canterbury such as The Dairy and Clean Streams Accord, Living Streams, and The Restorative Programme for Lowland Streams.non-market-valuation, choice experiment, agricultural externalities, New Zealand, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy,

The Close Binary Fraction of Dwarf M Stars

We describe a search for close spectroscopic dwarf M star binaries using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to address the question of the rate of occurrence of multiplicity in M dwarfs. We use a template-fitting technique to measure radial velocities from 145,888 individual spectra obtained for a magnitude-limited sample of 39,543 M dwarfs. Typically, the three or four spectra observed for each star are separated in time by less than four hours, but for ~17% of the stars, the individual observations span more than two days. In these cases we are sensitive to large-amplitude radial velocity variations on timescales comparable to the separation between the observations. We use a control sample of objects having observations taken within a four-hour period to make an empirical estimate of the underlying radial velocity error distribution and simulate our detection efficiency for a wide range of binary star systems. We find the frequency of binaries among the dwarf M stars with a < 0.4 AU to be 3%-4%. Comparison with other samples of binary stars demonstrates that the close binary fraction, like the total binary fraction, is an increasing function of primary mass

Alternative to Comprehensive Ecosystem Services Markets: The Contribution of Forest-Related Programs in New Zealand

Due to the public goods characteristics of many ecosystem services and their vital importance to human welfare, various mechanisms have been put in place to motivate private landowners in the provision of ecosystem services. A common approach is to try to develop a comprehensive ecosystem services market where landowners can receive payments from beneficiaries of ecosystem services. Much research has been directed at developing methods for valuing the range of ecosystem services so that they can be incorporated into ecosystem services markets. However, valuation methods are difficult, expensive and time consuming. Other approaches to the provision of ecosystem services such as payments for ecosystem services usually focus on a single service like water or biodiversity. However, in the provision of a particular ecosystem service, there are spill-over effects of providing other ecosystem services, and thus studying those spill-over effects may provide a simple and cost-effective way of ensuring the provision of a wide range of ecosystem services. In New Zealand, there are a variety of forestry programs which provide incentives to landowners to plant trees on their lands to meet particular objectives, but which also produce other ES. This research aims to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the provision of a wide range of ES by these approaches, the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme, the East Coast Forestry Scheme, and the QEII National Trust.ecosystem services market, spill-over effect, cost-effectiveness, New Zealand, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Factors influencing adoption of agroforestry among smallholder farmers in Zambia

Agroforestry technologies have been extensively researched and introduced to smallholder farmers in Zambia for over two decades. Despite the research and extension effort over this period, not many farmers have adopted these technologies. The purpose of this paper is to determine why agroforestry technologies are not being taken up by examining factors that influence the adoption of agroforestry practices. Based on data obtained from 388 farming households, statistical analysis show an association between adoption of both improved fallows and biomass transfer technologies with knowledge of the technology, availability of seed, and having the appropriate skills. In addition some household characteristics are found to be linked to the incidence of adoption. However, the strength of association between these variables is low, giving an indication that there might be other factors at play limiting agroforestry adoption. It is anticipated that these findings will point to other areas beyond the household and community level that need further exploration in order to understand factors limiting agroforestry adoption.Agroforestry adoption, smallholder farmers, limitations to adoption, chi-square tests of independence analysis, Zambia, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

Chemiluminescence of asbestos-activated macrophages

Chemiluminescence, a measure of reactive oxygen release by phagocytes, was compared in peritoneal exudate macrophages elicited with chrysotile asbestos, Corynebacterium parvum and saline. Chrysotile asbestos- and C. parvum-activated macrophages produced significantly more chemiluminescence than saline-elicited macrophages. In a second series of experiments the ability of opsonized chrysotile asbestos to act as a trigger for the release of chemiluminescence was tested. Opsonized chrysotile asbestos produced a dose-related release of chemiluminescence from activated macrophages except at the highest dose where chemiluminescence was reduced due, possibly, to a toxic effect of chrysotile during the assay. Opsonized latex also triggered a dose-related chemiluminescent response from activated macrophages. The potential role of toxic reactive oxygen species, released from macrophages, in the development of asbestos-related pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis are discussed

Climbing the Weiquan Ladder: A Radicalizing process for rights-protection lawyers

It is commonly acknowledged that weiquan lawyers operate in a narrow space, and lawyers with a radical stance work within a harsh environment. Weiquan lawyers advance and retreat in response to the changing macro-political-legal environment, but there is no sign that they are giving up their legal struggles. A steadily growing number of weiquan lawyers are tending to become more radical in their approach as their experience advances. This article studies the process in which weiquan lawyers start and sustain weiquan lawyering in a harsh environment and the factors that contribute to the radicalizing process. Its principal purpose is to identify and explain a radicalization process in which a lawyer climbs up the ladder of weiquan lawyering, from a moderate lawyer providing legal aid in individual cases to a critical or radical lawyer. © 2011 The China Quarterly.published_or_final_versio