The effects of leaf litter treatments, post-harvest urea and omission of early season fungicide sprays on the overwintering of apple scab on Bramley’s Seedling grown in a maritime environment.

peer-reviewedThe theory that orchards with zero or low levels of apple scab post harvest do not need scab protection at the start of the next growing season was evaluated under Irish conditions. In addition, a range of post-harvest orchard sanitation practices (application of urea to rot overwintering leaves, mowing the orchard or total leaf removal in February) were also evaluated. Due to the high summer rainfall in Ireland (compared to all other European apple growing areas) and the severe susceptibility of the apple cultivar Bramley’s Seedling to scab (Venturia inaequalis), neither clean orchards in the autumn nor sanitation practices were sufficient to eliminate the requirement for full fungicide protection programmes at the start of the following growing season. Post harvest applications of urea proved difficult due to late harvesting of pollinator fruit for the juice market and wet weather. Total removal of leaf litter from plots prior to the commencement of growth did not significantly reduce disease incidence. Regardless of orchard cleanliness in autumn, missing the first fungicide application in the spring always reduced yield.This work was funded by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Northern Ireland

The Experience at Trinity College Dublin

This is a script of a play(ing). A performance once enacted and then reflected upon is herein described

Ireland and the financial crisis.

The growth of the Irish economy in the years 1995-2007 was dramatic and unparalleled by Western economies, earning Ireland the moniker “The Celtic Tiger”. Emerging from conditions of high unemployment, very high rates of emigration of graduates, and enormous government debt in the 1980s, the transformation of the Irish economy in two decades was remarkable and lauded by economists and commentators. High growth rates were facilitated by a number of factors, including the presence of a large number of multinationals producing goods for export, generally benign world economic conditions, low interest rates, a low taxation regime, and an expansionary government policy which embraced the tenets of the ‘free market’. With the onset of the financial crisis, however, came another rapid transformation in the Irish economy. From being one of the fastest growing Western economies in the late 1990s, in 2009 Ireland suffered the greatest contraction of any OECD country since the second world war. The reasons for this dramatic reversal of fortune were attributable not only to the global financial crisis, but also to government policies and the structure of the Irish economy. In this chapter, the remarkable rise and fall of the Irish economy is described and analysed. Influences on the performance of the Irish economy in this period, including the benign world economy, government policy, and the structure of the Irish economy are analysed and examined. Proposals on how best to initiate recovery are also assessed, particularly the narrow focus of discourse which largely concentrates on attempts to ‘fix’ the current system, without considering alternative approaches

An empirical investigation of the financial growth life cycle

Purpose - This paper empirically examines the financing of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) through a financial growth life cycle model. Reporting and analysing a large primary data set across six age categories, a number of statistical tests are conducted to test the financial growth life cycle model (Berger and Udell, 1998). Design/methodology/approach - Data in publicly available databases is generally unsuitable to examine the financial life cycle model, thus a questionnaire survey was employed to collect data. Because of the well-documented reticence of SME owners to reveal detailed financial information (Avery et al., 1998), data was requested in percentage form. This innovative methodology was successful, as 92 percent of respondents disclosed detailed financing data. A response rate of 42.6 percent across six industry sectors provided data to employ parametric techniques. Findings – Analysis of respondents’ capital structures across age groups indicates distinct changes in sources of finance employed by firms over time. Financing choices are consistent with Myers’s (1984) pecking order hypothesis, and the importance of profitability in financing SMEs is emphasised. Contrary to conventional wisdom, respondents in the youngest age category report a relatively high use of debt financing. This is explained by the provision of firm owners’ personal assets to secure firm debt. Originality/value - The key contribution of this paper is to provide an empirical examination of the financial growth life cycle model by combining a number of statistical tests. This approach is significantly different to that traditionally adopted in empirical investigations of SME financing, which is to examine the applicability of theories developed in corporate finance on panel data. Additionally, it presents data on personal sources of finance employed by firm owners, which is typically not available, even in comprehensive secondary databases

Individual level assessment in entrepreneurship education: an investigation of theories and techniques.

This paper examines a number of commonly used theories and constructs applied to the investigation of the entrepreneur (at the individual level). For each of these theories, an existing measure is selected and assessed on its applicability to the study of entrepreneurship education, reflecting on past research and an empirical investigation in the entrepreneurship education context. Focusing on trait theory, self-efficacy, intentionality and passion, a measure for each construct was investigated by administering it on a sample of students (n=367) taking an entrepreneurship education module. Aspects of the reliability, validity, internal consistency and factor structure of each test were examined using SPSS and MPlus statistical analyses. The findings allow for a direct comparison to be made of the measures in a controlled environment. Theoretically there is a justification for applying each assessment approach to entrepreneurship education. Based on past research it was noted that trait theory has often been criticised for inconsistent empirical findings. This was echoed in our study as empirical analysis supported the use of the entrepreneurial intentionality and entrepreneurial self-efficacy measures, yet the trait measure, the General Enterprise Tendency (GET) test displayed worrisome reliability and structural validities and would not be recommended for future research without significant revision. The measure used to examine entrepreneurial passion was stable in the context, and furthermore suggested that this construct may offer valuable insight about the mindset of students undertaking entrepreneurship education in future. Limitations of the study include use of a mainly homogenous sample with no control group. The measures for analysis were selected as they were intended for entrepreneurship research and have since been applied to entrepreneurship education. The measures are not reflective of respective theory as a whole. Different and many theories could have been selected, as well as alternative measurement instruments. The measures could have been integrated together into a more complex analysis, however the intended purpose was to examine them in parallel. There have been repeated calls to systematise the assessment of entrepreneurship education, to converge existing knowledge and research. It is hoped that this paper provides educators with an overview and empirical insight regarding theories and measures to adopt for future research and assessment approaches

Appropriate settings and supports for third level diagnostic testing in mathematics

Mathematical diagnostic tests are issued to first year students by many third level institutions, including Dublin City University and the National University of Ireland Maynooth. The aim of such tests is to provide staff and students with an immediate picture of which mathematical concepts are well-known to the student. The tests are also a mechanism through which students who are struggling are made immediately aware of a wide range of follow-up initiatives, which are provided by the respective Mathematics Learning Support Centres. A common questionnaire was issued to students in both institutions to ascertain their attitudes towards diagnostic testing. In this paper, we present an overview of the role of the diagnostic test in both institutions, look at the mathematical backgrounds of the students tested, and present their views on the purpose of the test and the environment in which they took it. We also investigate their views on the subsequent feedback they received and the supports available to them. Finally, we look at the changes that both institutions have made as a result of this questionnaire

Social loafing in student entrepreneurship teams

This paper assesses the level of social loafing which occurs in an entrepreneurship education context, using a sample of 310 student teams from an Irish University. While teamwork is a common element of most deliveries of entrepreneurship education (Hytti & O’Gorman 2004), there are few studies which explore the actual impact of the team on performance in this context. In entrepreneurship more generally it has been found that team-level variables has an impact on team effectiveness (Hill et al. 2013) however studies like these are limited in the field of entrepreneurship education. As team-led entrepreneurship is gaining both academic and wider interest, as seen in the review by Klotz et al. (2014), the teamwork dynamic in an educational setting of entrepreneurship may have discrete characteristics, warranting its own research inquiry

The Irish economy: Three strikes and you’re out?

We examine the three interlinked Irish crises : the competitiveness, fiscal and banking crises, showing how all three combined to lay a lethal trap for Ireland. Starting from a point of economic balance, a series of poor government decisions led to the country once dubbed the “Celtic tiger” become the second eurozone state after Greece to seek a bailout, with the EFSF/IMF intervening in late 2010

An Irish mathematics learning support network (IMLSN) report on student evaluation of mathematics learning support: Insights from a large scale multi-institutional survey

In this section we provide a summary of the main outcomes of this survey on Mathematics Learning Support (MLS), for full and further information we refer the reader to the relevant part of the report