National University Of Ireland Research Articles

Formal calibration methodology for CFD models of naturally ventilated indoor environments

Well planned natural ventilation strategies and systems in the built environments may provide healthy and comfortable indoor conditions, while contributing to a significant reduction in the energy consumed by buildings. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is particularly suited for modelling indoor conditions in naturally ventilated spaces, which are difficult to predict using other types of building simulation tools. Hence, accurate and reliable CFD models of naturally ventilated indoor spaces are necessary to support the effective design and operation of indoor environments in buildings.This paper presents a formal calibration methodology for the development of CFD models of naturally ventilated indoor environments. The methodology explains how to qualitatively and quantitatively verify and validate CFD models, including parametric analysis utilising the response surface technique to support a robust calibration process. The proposed methodology is demonstrated on a naturally ventilated study zone in the library building at the National University of Ireland in Galway. The calibration process is supported by the on-site measurements performed in a normally operating building. The measurement of outdoor weather data provided boundary conditions for the CFD model, while a network of wireless sensors supplied air speeds and air temperatures inside the room for the model calibration.The concepts and techniques developed here will enhance the process of achieving reliable CFD models that represent indoor spaces and provide new and valuable information for estimating the effect of the boundary conditions on the CFD model results in indoor environments.

Engineering in communities: learning by doing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on a number of initiatives in civil engineering undergraduate programmes at the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) that allow students to complete engineering projects in the community, enabling them to learn by doing.Design/methodology/approach – A formal commitment to civic engagement was undertaken by the NUIG in 2001 with the establishment of the Community Knowledge Initiative (CKI) to work on mainstreaming civic engagement (service learning) within the curriculum across the institution. Today, the majority of undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in the College of Engineering and Informatics at NUIG have embedded service learning into their curriculum. These initiatives allow students to work with and in local communities, international communities and multi‐disciplinary groups as part of their academic courses. The paper investigates and shows that community‐based projects can enhance student learning and engagement in a number of...

Novel therapeutic strategies for the induction of tolerance in corneal transplantation

AbstractPurpose To develop novel treatment protocols for the prolongation of corneal allograft survival.Methods Genetic manipulation of donor corneas prior to transplantation is an attractive approach to protect the graft from allogeneic rejection. A lentiviral construct which encodes for Programmed Death‐Ligand 1 (PD‐L1) was applied for ex‐vivo genetic modification of corneal grafts before transplantation. Moreover, the generation and application of regulatory cell populations such as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and tolerogenic dendritic cells (tolDCs) to modulate immune‐mediated rejection in transplanted animals and their mechanism of action will be discussed in this presentation.Results Overexpression of PD‐L1 in ex‐vivo cultured corneas prior to transplantation significantly prevents corneal allograft rejection by modulating both innate and adaptive intra‐graft allo‐immune responses. Moreover, systemic injection of MSCs and tolDCs is able to prolong corneal allograft survival and reduces neovascularisation and graft opacity. A significant reduction of graft‐infiltrating inflammatory cells was also recorded for both applications.Conclusion Local overexpression of immunomodulatory molecules is a promising approach to prevent corneal graft rejection. In addition treatment of transplanted animals with regulatory cells also modulates corneal allograft survival. These novel therapies may have the potential to be further developed towards a clinical application. [Supported by Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI 07/IN.1/B925). TR is supported by a Travel Grant from Millennium Research Funds, National University of Ireland, Galway]

Initial experience with the Baska mask, a novel supraglottic airway device, in female patients undergoing gynaecologic laparoscopic surgery

Galway Universit y Hospitals and National University of Ireland, Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Galway, Ireland

Editorial: looking forward

This is my third editorial (Ward 2010 2011), and it will be my shortest. Over the last twelve months this journal has continued to do what it does best – publish ‘ground breaking geographical research and scholarship across the field of geography.’ And why wouldn't it? We have built on the changes we outlined this time last year (Ward 2011), most noticeably the revamped Reviews format, which now does more than simply ‘review’‘books’. A small number of other changes have also been made during 2011, in order to improve our ‘offer’, if you like, to potential authors and to readers of Area. First, to support the two Editors the journal's Editorial Board has been expanded to include Sara Kindon from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. Sara has written about participatory action research and the use of participatory video in geographic research, as well as about youth geographies, feminist fieldwork and gender and development, and is a great addition to Area's Editorial Board. She joins me, Paul Wood (Loughborough University), Jurgen Essletzbichler (University College London) and Mark Whitehead (Aberystwyth University). Sara may not be the last new Board member either, as we continue to strive to achieve a sustainable balance between the day-to-day editorial work and the more strategic objectives of the journal. Of course, we do not have a monopoly on good ideas. So, we are open to suggestions you may have about changes you would like to see in Area. We can't guarantee we'll take them all on board but we will listen. Second, over the course of 2011 Area began inviting its authors to write pieces for Geography Directions (http://www.geographydirections.com). These short blog entries are based on the longer papers published in the journal and provide another way of reaching out to others with our work. They are free to access, and the journal's first author-led entry was written by Anna Davies and Ruth Doyle (Trinity College Dublin) and was entitled ‘Sustainable futures and household water usage.’ Several more have been written subsequently, including by Cian O'Callaghan (National University of Ireland) entitled ‘Urban plans lost but not forgotten in a time of financial crisis’, by Dave Bassens (Ghent University) entitled ‘Goldman Sachs rules the world, Islam style?’ and by Ilan Kelman (Center for International Climate and Environmental Research – Oslo) entitled ‘Floods should not mean disasters.’ Others are in the pipeline and are something to bear in mind when you submit your papers to the journal, as we hope you all will! This will not be the end of the journal's use of a range of technologies, as we strive to enhance the impact of the work published in Area. Third, this issue sees the first ‘Classics Revisited’ section in the journal. This will return to important papers published in Area and consists of a commentary from the original author(s), as well as a couple of shorter pieces by others on the original paper's legacy. The first in the series sees Jamie Peck (University of British Columbia) and Adam Tickell (University of Birmingham) revisit their 1994 Area paper, ‘Jungle law breaks out: neoliberalism and global-local disorder’. Not only is it one of the most cited papers in the journal's history, but it marks a very early attempt by geographers to grapple with something called ‘neoliberalism’. Did any of us really know then quite how much geographers would write on this subject? I doubt it. Julie MacLeavy (University of Bristol) and David Wilson (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) provide their thoughts on both the original and the follow-up by Peck and Tickell. From now on every year will see a Classics Revisited section. Finally, I am delighted to announce that Karin Schwiter at the University of Zurich has won the 2011 Area Prize for her paper ‘Anticipating the transition to parenthood: the contribution of Foucaultian discourse analysis to understanding life-course patterns’. Karin's contribution is a theoretically sophisticated, methodologically rigorous and empirically rich piece of work, one that epitomises the kind of research the journal wishes to publish. Honourable mentions also go to Lee Johnson (Simon Fraser University) for ‘Greening the campus without grass: using visual methods to understand and integrate student perspectives in campus landscape development and water sustainability planning’ (co-authored with Heather Castleden) and Kimberley Peters (University of Sheffield) for ‘Sinking the radio ‘pirates’: exploring British strategies of governance in the North Sea, 1964–1991’. Of course, these papers, like all the others we publish every year, had to have been reviewed by a number of you. So, thank you to the 160 plus reviewers used by Area during 2011. You know who you are, and so does everyone else, thanks to our list in the last issue!

German and European poetics after the Holocaust: crisis and creativity

Crisis presents chances for change and creativity: Adorno's famous dictum that writing poetry after Auschwitz would be barbaric has haunted discourse on poetics, but has also given rise to poetic and theoretical acts of resistance. The essays in this volume discuss postwar poetics in terms of new poetological directions and territory rather than merely destruction of traditions. Embedded in the discourse triggered by Adorno, the volume's foci include the work of Paul Celan, Gottfried Benn, and Ingeborg Bachmann. Other German writers discussed are Ilse Aichinger, Rose Auslander, Charlotte Beradt, Thomas Kling, Heiner Muller, and Nelly Sachs; concrete poetry is also treated. The final section offers comparative views of the poetics of European literary figures such as Jean Paul Sartre, Andre Malraux, and Danilo Kis and a consideration of the aesthetics of Claude Lanzmann's film Shoah. ~~~~~~ CONTRIBUTORS: Chris Bezzel, Manuel Braganca, Gisela Dischner, Rudiger Gorner, Stefan Hajduk, Gert Hofmann, Aniela Knoblich, Rachel MagShamhrain, Marton Marko, Elaine Martin, Barry Murnane, Marko Pajevic, Tatjana Petzer, Renata Plaice, Annette Runte, Hans-Walter Schmidt-Hannisa, Michael Shields, Peter Tame. ~~~~~~~~ VOLUME EDITORS: GERT HOFMANN is a Lecturer in German, Comparative Literature, Drama, and Film and RACHEL MAGSHAMHRAIN is a Lecturer in German, Film, and Comparative Literature, both at University College Cork; MARKO PAJEVIC is a Lecturer in German at Queen's University Belfast; MICHAEL SHIELDS is a Lecturer in German at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

The creation of a 'living laboratory' for structural engineering at the National University of Ireland, Galway

The recently completed New Engineering Building (NEB) at the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) is a new state of the art academic facility on the university's north campus. The building unites all five engineering disciplines within the university and at 14,250m2 is now the largest engineering school in Ireland. It represents a milestone in the construction of engineering educational facilities by incorporating the use of numerous types of sensors to create an interactive learning environment for engineering students. Not only will it be a centre of education, but the building itself will act as a 'living laboratory' and teaching tool. This paper outlines the instrumentation of the structural elements within the building and the part they will play in the teaching and understanding of structural engineering within the university.

Getting tough on pain

More than a decade after the discovery of nociceptors, physicians still have very few options for treating chronic pain. Recent research on pain perception might finally be leading to new therapeutic strategies and drugs.

Editorial: Pain management and the undergraduate curriculum – is it a case of ‘could do better’?

There is an old adage that says a society should be judged by how it treats the most vulnerable. It is interesting to apply this concept to the area of pain management. There is perhaps nothing as distressing as a child in pain; the helpless suffering of children touches us at a deeply human level and, I would argue, represents a profound failure of the healthcare system to address the needs of a very vulnerable group. A recent publication by King et al 1 suggests that chronic persistent or recurrent pain in children is ‘overwhelmingly prevalent’ and represents a major health concern for this population. In their review of epidemiological studies, King et al 1 found that the prevalence of headache in children ranged from 8-83%, abdominal pains from 4-53%; and for conditions that physiotherapists are perhaps more associated with , the prevalence rates were: back pain 14 – 24%, musculoskeletal pain 4 – 40%, multiple pains 4 – 49%, and general pain 5 – 88%. Because of the wide variation in reported prevalence rates it is difficult to make generalisations, however, chronic pain in children increased with age, tended to affect girls more than boys, and was associated with psychosocial variables including anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. Most worryingly, these authors suggested that the prevalence of chronic pain in children had increased in the last number of decades. When pain in children becomes chronic or persistent, it can signal long term future health problems. 2 Children with pain often become adults with pain; it is well recognised that pain during infancy causes longlasting changes in pain processing that extend well into childhood and adulthood . 3 Another recent study exploring pain in an extremely vulnerable group, by Maria Walsh and colleagues at the National University of Ireland 4 reported the prevalence and impact of chronic pain in adults with intellectual disability in Ireland (n = 753). These authors found that the overall prevalence of chronic pain in those with intellectual disability was 15.4%, and again the prevalence among females (20.1%) was higher than males (13.4%); Walsh et al 4 cautioned that these figures may even represent an under estimation of the problem. Among the most frequent causes of pain in this population was arthritis and musculoskeletal pain, and with respect to management, massage (29.8%) and physiotherapy (21%), featured among the most common treatments. For those with intellectual disability to have to carry the burden of chronic pain (and almost one third of cases had moderate to severe pain) in addition to the other challenges that their condition brings, is an appalling situation.

Raiffeisenism Abroad: Why Did German Microfinance Fail in Ireland But Prosper in the Netherlands?

This paper draws on graduate research conducted by the authors: Colvin, C. L., ‘Religion, competition and liability: Dutch cooperative banking in crisis, 1919-1927’ (unpub. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2011); and McLaughlin, E., ‘Microfinance institutions in nineteenth century Ireland’ (unpub. PhD thesis, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, 2009). They thank Ewen Cameron, Vincent Comerford, David Greasley, William Smyth, and participants at the European Historical Economics Society Conference (Dublin, 2011) and the Women’s Committee Workshop of the Economic History Society (Oxford, 2011) for commenting on an earlier version of this paper.

Advantages of Using Quantitative Shape Descriptors in Protocols for Plant Cultivar and Postharvest Product Quality Assessment

Shape of plant and agricultural products is one of the most important factors for classification and grading. Shape is crucial to species, cultivar and variety identification and authenticity, commercial quality and organoleptic properties assessment. The need to quantitatively assess shape has always been thwarted with the multivariate and multidimensional complexity of shape itself. For this reason, only agricultural product size parameters (e.g. length, width, volume or ratios) are widely measured as criteria for quality grading in the industry. However, the subjective appearance of such products is a primary criterion in making purchasing decisions at retail outlets (Kays 1991). Typically, the appearance of products is visually evaluated by consumers based on size, shape, form, colour, freshness and the absence of visual defects. All these characteristics contribute to the overall appearance and are used as an important quality indicator throughout the value chain, from production and processing to storage, marketing and purchase by the end user. Among appearance features of agricultural products, shape plays a central role (Costa et al. 2011). Shape is an important factor in distinguishing among different phenotypes (Xiao et al. 2008) or among the same cultivar depending on farming conditions (McKenzie 1971). For example, gross irregularities in the shape of fruit and vegetables are a critical rejection factor in consumer decision making (Cubero et al. 2011). While shape is an essential parameter, little attempts have been made to quantify it until recently. Recent research advances that combine imaging, morphometrics and multivariate analyses allow the development of quantitative shape measurement protocols such as automated shape processing system (Costa et al. 2011). While the use of shape in an automated sorting system has many potential applications, it is suggested to focus on its use in the context of the certification systems based on the technical protocols of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, Community Plant Variety Office or those for the three EU schemes known as protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI) and traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG). These protocols do not consider shape as a quantitative variable, and phenotype and variety assessment and/or certification is mainly based on general semantic and qualitative shape descriptors set out in visual charts. Some recent studies have showed inconsistencies of shape descriptions among different semantic or visual charts that are currently in use, such as the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI 1999), citrus industry (Hodgson 1967) and instrumental measurements (Costa et al. 2009; Antonucci et al. 2011). In the last few years, advances in food optoelectronic detection, computational hardware and imaging algorithm developments coupled with the second generation multivariate modelling approaches has led to the technical feasibility to measure different shape features and variation D.-W. Sun (*) Food Refrigeration & Computerised Food Technology, School of Biosystems Engineering, University College Dublin, National University of Ireland, Agriculture & Food Science Centre, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland e-mail: dawen.sun@ucd.ie URL: http://www.ucd.ie/refrig; http://www.ucd.ie/sun

Novel therapeutic strategies for the induction of tolerance in cornea transplantation

AbstractPurpose With more than 60,000 procedures per year, the cornea is the most commonly transplanted solid tissue. However, immunologic rejection is still the leading cause of corneal allograft failure, especially in high‐risk recipients with a history of previous graft rejection, inflammation or neovascularization. Therefore, novel treatment protocols are desirable.Methods The genetic engineering of tissues prior to transplantation is an attractive approach to protect the graft from allogeneic rejection. Here the role of lentivirus mediated overexpression of Programmed Death‐Ligand 1 (PD‐L1) to prevent corneal graft rejection will be discussed. Moreover the injection of regulatory cell populations to modulate immune‐mediated rejection will be discussed in this presentation.Results Overexpression of PD‐L1 in ex‐vivo cultured corneas prior to transplantation significantly prevents corneal allograft rejection by modulating both innate and adaptive intragraft allo‐immune responses. Moreover, injection of regulatory cells is able to prolong corneal allograft survival.Conclusion Local overexpression of immunomodulatory molecules is a promising approach to prevent corneal graft rejection. In addition treatment of transplanted animals with regulatory cells also modulates graft rejection. These novel therapies may have the potential to be further developed towards a clinical application. [Supported by Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI 07/IN.1/B925). TR is supported by a Travel Grant from Millennium Research Funds, National University of Ireland, Galway]

Response to a Letter to the Editors re: “Comparison of Behavioral Intervention and Sensory-Integration Therapy in the Treatment of Challenging Behavior”

Dear Editors, We provide a reply to a letter to the editors in relation to ‘‘Comparison of Behavioral Intervention and SensoryIntegration Therapy in the Treatment of Challenging Behavior’’ (Devlin et al. 2010). We conducted a study using a robust design (‘‘alternating treatments design’’; Barlow and Hayes 1979) to provide an analysis, without prejudice, comparing the outcomes of two distinct interventions for challenging behavior in children with autism diagnoses. Crucially, this design allows separate interventions to be administered concurrently, by randomizing the order of intervention, giving opportunity for both interventions to be administered under the different stimulus conditions, for an equal number of times, across each of the conditions of administration (see Kazdin 1982). This design allowed for a thorough scientific analysis of two prevalent interventions, both aiming to alter rates of challenging behavior observed in children with autism diagnoses. The letter expresses concern in relation to three specific areas. Firstly, it declares that we have misrepresented sensory integration therapy in the approach that was used in our study. Our colleagues state that the approach used was not at all in keeping with the principles and practices of sensory integration. However, from the description of the design of interventions in our paper it is clear that we, the authors, had no role in the design of the sensory integration intervention for any of the four participants. All sensory integration interventions were designed by an occupational therapist with extensive expertise and experience in SIT, who had completed comprehensive direct observations of each participant over a period of one month. The kernel of this research program was to assess two types of interventions that are provided in ‘‘real world’’ school settings on outcomes for challenging behaviors. The sensory integration assessment and interventions were provided by an expert in this field and the functional behavior assessment and interventions were designed and facilitated by behavior analysts. Effectively, what is presented in this study under the intervention of sensory integration is a reflection of practice ‘‘on the ground’’ by an expert in sensory integration assessment and therapy. It was our aim to assess the outcomes of such an intervention to alter the rates of challenging behavior, not to design the sensory integration protocol. We therefore, did not misrepresent the practices of sensory integration in anyway but merely assessed the outcomes of an intervention that was recommended for the four participants included in the study. Our colleagues set forth that there was a failure to provide systematic and standardized assessment of the participants’ sensory processing challenges. However, during the one month observation periods, prior to the design of sensory integration programs for participants, the occupational therapist did provide detailed assessments including direct and indirect assessments of each participant’s sensory profile. These results provided the basis on which the sensory integration interventions were designed and tailored to each participant’s individualized needs. Once again, we reiterate that the focus of this research design was to compare function-based behavioral interventions to sensory integration therapy in a conventional daily school setting. Furthermore, our colleagues cite a number of articles that report ‘‘promising results’’ for sensory integration. O. Healy (&) B. M. Hughes G. Leader S. Devlin School of Psychology, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland e-mail: olive.healy@nuigalway.ie

Chloroplast biotechnology, genomics and evolution: current status, challenges and future directions

Chloroplast biotechnology, genomics and evolution: current status, challenges and future directions

Obituary of Christopher Kevin Boyle

Obituary of Christopher Kevin Boyle* Nigel Rodley (bio) Kevin Boyle, who has died of cancer aged 67, was an internationally respected human rights lawyer, activist and academic. He had recently become emeritus professor of law at the University of Essex after more than two decades there as one of its leading scholars. From 1990 to 2003 and again in 2006-07, Kevin was director of the university's Human Rights Centre, developing it into a multidisciplinary powerhouse. At the same time, as a practising barrister (he was called to the bars of Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic and England and Wales, and from 1992 was associated with Doughty Street Chambers in London), Kevin brought many human rights cases before the European commission and court of human rights. The numerous cases against Turkey that he and his Essex colleague Françoise Hampson took on behalf of the Kurdish Human Rights Project concerned the gravest violations: torture, murder and enforced disappearances. In recognition of this work, the two colleagues were named lawyers of the year in 1998, an award made by Liberty and the Law Society Gazette to mark the 50th anniversary of the UN declaration of human rights. Such successful prosecutions became the raw material for scholars and practitioners to trace a fast-evolving field of international human rights law. They also laid a strong foundation of precedent which helped the European court of human rights to address similar atrocities perpetrated by Russian forces in Chechnya. Kevin took a year away from teaching when, in 2001, the then UN high commissioner for human rights, Mary Robinson, the former president of [End Page 586] Ireland, asked him to join her in Geneva as her senior adviser and speech-writer. His first day in office was 11 September 2001, when, after consulting colleagues around the world, he advised Robinson to denounce the attacks on the World Trade Centre as a crime against humanity, rather than simply a violation of human rights. After his return to Essex, Kevin became chair of Minority Rights Group International, an office he reluctantly had to give up when his health declined. Kevin was born in Newry, County Down, one of nine children of a Northern Irish Catholic taxi driver, Louis Boyle, and his wife Elizabeth. His upbringing was traditional, strict Catholic: he was educated by the Christian Brothers and served as an altar boy, but when in 1961 he went to study law at Queen's University Belfast, the sectarian outlook gave place to broader humanitarianism. After graduation in 1965 and a diploma in criminology from Cambridge in 1966, Kevin became a lecturer at Queen's and by 1968 was active in the Northern Ireland civil rights movement. He was a spokesman for the People's Democracy group, formed by students protesting at the repression of civil rights' demonstrations, and later centred his activities on the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, of which he became an executive board member. Together with his colleague and friend Professor Tom Hadden, Kevin spent his time during the Troubles exploring avenues for the peaceful resolution of the conflict, presenting some of their ideas in their book, co-authored with Paddy Hillyard, Law and State: The Case of Northern Ireland (1975). In 1972 Kevin went to Yale University for a year of intellectual renewal, returning first to Queen's and then in 1978 becoming the first full-time staff member of the law school of University College Galway (now the National University of Ireland, Galway). In 1976 he had married Joan Smyth, a language teacher, and both came to regard their years in Galway, raising their two sons, as a magical time. There, Kevin founded the Irish Centre for Human Rights in 1980, bringing in new full-time staff and enticing his many friends in the field to visit Galway and share their experience with the students. He also became active in international human rights work, going on several missions for Amnesty International, including a trial observation in the Gambia and a major two-year study of South Africa's pass laws. In this context, observation was sometimes complemented by practical humanitarianism: shocked by the oppressive system and its impact on poor migrant...

Online Assignments in Economics: A Test of Their Effectiveness

This article compares the effectiveness of online and paper-based assignments and tutorials using summative assessment results. All of the students in a large managerial economics course at National University of Ireland, Galway were asked to do six assignments online using Aplia and to do two on paper. The authors examined whether a student's performance on a particular section of the exam is affected (1) by how he or she performed on the corresponding assignment and (2) by whether the student completed the corresponding assignment on paper or online. Our results provide little evidence that a student's performance on an assignment helps him or her perform better on the corresponding section of the exam. We also found little evidence that the way in which one completes an assignment—on paper or online—has an effect on how one performs on a particular section of the exam.

Primary Marine Aerosol Fluxes

No Abstract available.

ACE up the sleeve – are vascular patients medically optimized

ObjectiveTo examine the current medical management of arteriopathic patients attending a vascular surgical service at a university teaching hospital over a 6-month period. The prescribing of antiplatelets, statins, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, or angiotensin receptor blockers and beta-blockers was specifically examined. Vascular patients are often under the care of multiple specialties, and therefore the influence of different medical specialties on the patients’ medical management was also examined.DesignBetween January and June 2009, data were recorded on sequential patients with arterial disease attending the vascular surgical service. Patients’ demographics, type of arterial disease, medical consultations within the previous 12 months, and current medications were recorded.ResultsThe study included 180 patients with a mean age of 69 years (39–88 years). All but 4% were taking an antiplatelet or anticoagulant, predominantly aspirin. There were 86% taking a statin, 44% taking a beta-blocker, and 51% taking an ACE inhibitor. Suboptimal prescription of ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers was evident regardless of the type of medical consultations in the previous year. No specialty group differed significantly from vascular surgeons in their prescribing pattern.ConclusionsWhile almost all arteriopaths receive some form of antiplatelet and statin in line with clinical evidence, ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers appear to be under-prescribed in this arteriopathic population. We conclude that opportunity exists for vascular surgeons to embrace recent guidelines and lead the way in both surgical and medical optimization of arteriopathic patients through improving links with primary care physicians or taking greater responsibility themselves for the medical as well as the surgical care of their arteriopathic patients.

Cannabis use and non-clinical dimensions of psychosis in university students presenting to primary care

To explore the relationship between cannabis use and self-reported dimensions of psychosis in a population of university students presenting for any reason to primary care. One thousand and forty-nine students attending the Student Health Unit, National University of Ireland, Galway, completed self-report questionnaires on alcohol and substance misuse, non-clinical dimensions of psychosis [Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE)], anxiety and depression [Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)]. Association of cannabis use with psychiatric symptoms was explored whilst controlling for confounds. More frequent cannabis use was independently associated with greater intensity of positive, negative and depressive psychotic symptoms. The earlier the age of onset of cannabis use, the more positive psychotic symptoms were reported. These findings support the hypotheses that cannabis use increases the risk of developing psychotic symptoms and that this risk is further increased in those individuals who use cannabis more heavily and commence it at a younger age.

The Environmental Movement in Ireland. By Leonard Liam. London: Springer, 2007. xvi + 234 pp. Tables, bibliography, and index. Cloth $169.00.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBOOK REVIEWSThe Environmental Movement in Ireland. By Leonard Liam. London: Springer, 2007. xvi + 234 pp. Tables, bibliography, and index. Cloth $169.00.Thomas DuddyThomas Duddy Thomas Duddy is senior lecturer in philosophy in the School of Humanities at the National University of Ireland, Galway, where he teaches a postgraduate course on ethics and the environment. His publications include A History of Irish Thought (Routledge, 2002), and, as editor, A Dictionary of Irish Philosophers (2004). He has also edited a reprint series, The Irish Response to Darwinism (Thoemmes Continuum, 2004). Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 15, Number 4October 2010 Published for the American Society for Environmental History and the Forest History Society Views: 1Total views on this site Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/emq064 Views: 1Total views on this site HistoryPublished online October 11, 2010 © 2010 The Author. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.