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Farmers face increasing pressure to adjust practices to reduce the risk of deterioration of water quality. This paper examines the potential of a voluntary, confidential, bespoke farm advisory initiative to support water quality improvement efforts. Results of a survey of participants in the advisory initiative provide some evidence that farmers are willing to adopt advice but the level of stated intention to implement recommendations as well as the underlying motivations differ widely across specific mitigation measures, which means that while the advisory programme has the potential to be successful in reducing water pollution attributable to agriculture, it is not certain that the intensity of engagement will be sufficient to ensure success.

Limiting the growth of final energy demand helps meet the steep greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction trajectories required to address climate change, and can also bring wider sustainability benefits. Integrated Assessment Modelling (IAM) and energy systems modelling analyses are increasingly including low energy demand (LED) measures in GHG mitigation scenarios, but their granularity and empirical basis is typically low, limiting actionable insights. Here, we contribute to addressing this gap by examining the role of spatial settlement patterns as a driver of energy service demand, particularly in the transport and residential sectors. We focus on Ireland, which has enacted ambitious decarbonisation commitments in law, that are challenging to deliver partially due to a large proportion of the population living in rural one-off housing. We perform exploratory data analysis to estimate the mathematical relationship between various energy service demands and the dispersal of population, and calculate the energy service demand level and CO2 emissions per capita at various population densities. We also review the indirect impact spatial settlement patterns have on climate mitigation, via the viability of enabling low-carbon infrastructure. We find that higher density settlement patterns are associated with lower energy service demands and greater potential for infrastructure to enable the low carbon transition. We also find that residential and transport GHG emissions are, respectively, 62% and 52% lower for populations living in the highest density regions than in the lowest. Finally, we discuss a path forward for incorporating this empirical analysis into future mitigation scenarios.

TRB proteins have been shown to recruit PRC2 for H3K27me3 deposition. This work shows that TRBs also recruit JMJ14 to remove H3K4me3, demonstrating that TRBs silence the target genes via a combinatorial histone modification mechanism.

This paper explores systematic differences in preferences for food products labelled with environmental footprints resulting from the production of food. Specifically, we use survey data from Irish consumers and explore the relative importance of the potential risk to water quality in addition to other environmental attributes associated with the production of meat (beef and chicken) and vegetable products based on a discrete choice experiment. A Latent Class Model (LCM) is employed to identify and distinguish distinct consumer segments as a function of preferences. We analyse if personal values and beliefs related to the environmental implications of producing food can differentiate preferences for different class segments. Results indicate that preferences are heterogeneous across a cohort of consumers. Specifically, consumers have a preference for environmental attributes such as carbon and water footprints, and potential risk to water quality in food products, with the majority of consumers willing to pay a price premium for more environmentally sustainable food products.

Typically, energy system decarbonisation scenarios neglect the mitigation opportunities from reducing and restructuring energy service demands (ESDs), focusing instead on technology and fuel substitutions. Models tend to be designed to factor technologies explicitly while ESDs are exogenous. However, existing literature suggests that the scale and speed of decarbonisation required to limit global warming to 1.5∘ C by the end of the century requires a shift in energy demands to avoid the need for large-scale negative emission technologies. This can be brought about by major structural changes in drivers of demand such as transport modal shifting, substituting emission intensive materials like cement, and reducing building heat demand through behaviour change and efficiency. Ireland, the subject of this paper, has legislated one of the most ambitious decarbonisation targets in the world: the need to understand the role of demand shift is paramount. To fill this gap, the Irish Low Energy Demand (ILED) mitigation narrative is developed and applied to the TIMES-Ireland Model (TIM), an energy systems optimisation model. ILED represents a scenario where ESDs are decoupled from economic growth by shifting travel, increasing end-use efficiency, densifying urban settlement, focusing on low-energy intensive economic activities and changing social infrastructure. Compared to a scenario where ESDs follow ‘Business-as-usual’ growth, ILED enables the achievement of steep decarbonisation targets with a less rapid energy system transformation, lower capital and marginal abatement costs, and with lower reliance on the deployment of novel technologies.

This paper studies the determinants of why low-income households in Ireland abandon energy efficiency retrofit applications using administrative data from a targeted energy efficiency grant. By applying for the scheme, the applicants overcome any financial barriers for undertaking retrofits and demonstrate their willingness to improve the energy efficiency of their dwellings. Hence this study contributes to the scarce literature on non-financial barriers preventing low-income households from undertaking energy efficiency retrofits. Contrary to previous findings, we find that the higher the number of retrofits to be implemented, the lower the probability of households abandoning their applications. We also find that planning to undertake retrofits such as ventilation, which can significantly improve the health and safety standards of the dwelling, is associated with a higher probability of abandonment. Both findings indicate the presence of key behavioural and informational barriers which prevent low-income households from fully comprehending the purpose or benefits of proposed energy efficient retrofits. Our findings also suggest that higher grant expenditure on dwellings with poor pre-works energy efficiency rating and on retrofits such as attic insulation and heating system upgrades may have the highest energy efficiency improvements per unit of expenditure. Within the constraints of limited budgets for retrofit grant supports, this research can inform the redesign of grant schemes to achieve the greatest aggregate improvements in residential building energy efficiency.

Household appliances represent substantial electricity load within the residential sector, particularly during the electricity system's period of peak evening load. While there is broad understanding of the factors that systematically impact on aggregate residential loads, much less is known about appliance loads. A research priority is understanding how socio-demographic, dwelling, and appliance factors are associated with the timing and scale of appliance loads. Using data from Ireland the analysis finds that the number of household occupants; number of appliances; and daytime occupancy of the home are closely associated with appliance loads but varies depending on the time of day. No association is found between appliance uses and building tenure, type or age; or socio-demographic variables such as income, age or education. The empirical findings have relevance for modelling residential electricity loads, and for design of measures to shift residential loads away from the evening peak period.

Introduction: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) develops after experiencing events that evoke fear, helplessness, or horror. The Hyperarousablity Hypothesis suggests that those with PTSD may drink more to dampen physiological reactivity. We examined the direct and indirect relationships between childhood trauma (e.g., physical-neglect, emotional-abuse, physical-abuse, sexual-abuse) versus an emotionally-supportive-family on PTSD, impaired control over drinking (IC), alcohol-use, and alcohol-related-problems. IC reflects consuming more alcohol than one originally intended. Methods: We fit a multiple-group SEM to data on 835 participants. Mediational analyses were conducted by using the (K = 20,000) bootstrap technique with confidence intervals. Results: Physical-neglect was directly linked to more IC among both genders. Emotional abuse was also found to be directly linked to more PTSD among both genders. Furthermore, PTSD was directly linked to more impaired control over alcohol use (IC) among both genders. Mediational analyses showed that physical-neglect was indirectly linked to more alcohol-related-problems through increased IC. Having an emotionally supportive family was directly linked to fewer PTSD symptoms among women. For both genders, emotional abuse was indirectly linked to more alcohol-related-problems through more PTSD symptoms, impaired control over alcohol use difficulties, and in turn, more alcohol-use. Sexual abuse was indirectly linked to increased alcohol-related- problems through increased PTSD symptoms and more IC, and in turn, more alcohol-use among men. Conclusions: Recalled childhood trauma (sexual and emotional abuse) may contribute to PTSD symptoms and dysregulated drinking. In conclusion, our data suggest that reducing PTSD symptoms may assist individuals in regaining control over their drinking.

These data support the research article “Improving energy savings from a residential retrofit policy: a new model to inform better retrofit decisions” – (Mac Uidhir et al., 2019) [1]. This article presents 3 data sources which are utilised in conjunction with a detailed energy system model of the residential sector to explore policy pathways for residential retrofitting. Data is collected from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). The first SEAI dataset is compiled for Ireland in compliance with the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) [2]. Data is collected using the Dwelling Energy Assessment Procedure (DEAP) [3]. DEAP is used to produce energy performance certificates known as Building Energy Ratings (BER). A BER indicates a buildings energy performance across a 15-point energy efficiency scale, rated alphabetically from A1 to G, in units of kWh/m2 year. A BER is required for new buildings and the rent or sale of existing dwellings – therefore the database has consistently grown in size since its inception in 2006. The BER database contains 735,906 records of individual dwellings. The database includes detailed building fabric information across a range of different building types, year of construction, Main/Secondary space/water heating fuels, heating system efficiency, ventilation method and structure type (Insulated concrete form, Masonry, Timber or Steel Frame). The second SEAI dataset (PWBER) contains aggregated pre and post BER information for a sample of 112,007 dwellings retrofitted during the period 2010–2015; this database contains mean energy efficiency improvement (kWh/m2 year) for a range of retrofit combinations as they apply to nine distinct building archetypes. The third CSO dataset is compiled from census data, representing the frequency of building types by year of construction. Keywords: Residential energy efficiency database, Building energy rating, Energy performance certificates, Dwelling energy assessment procedure

This paper examines whether water quality has an effect on recreational boating activity. The analysis is based on survey data collected by face-to-face interviews with recreational visitors to 10 waterway sites across Ireland. We model the respondent's choice decision to travel to a specific site for the purposes of beginning their recreational boating activity. Water quality data is from European Union Water Framework Directive monitoring stations. Across recreational sites, which have generally high water quality levels within our sample, we find that boaters favour sites with better water quality; as indicated by biological oxygen demand and phosphates metrics. We also find that for each additional 10 km distance from respondents' homes the probability that a site is visited declines by up to 10%. Preferences for other site attributes, such as boat slipways, parking and toilet facilities, were counter to expectation but reflects the fact that all boat users do not necessarily access or need all facilities provided.

On 27 July 2012, in his judgment following ‘The Twitter Joke Trial’, the Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales quoted from King Lear (Folio). The trial was the first time a British Court had considered the use of Twitter in the context of a bomb hoax. The judgment was hailed as ‘a victory for common sense’, reversing decisions of two lower courts. It now provides authority against similar prosecutions. This paper argues that the use of a four-hundred-year-old Shakespearean text in negotiating modern legal principles is of considerable cultural significance – both through using the familiar to respond to the new – and by invoking Shakespeare’s voice within the powerful social mechanism of the law courts. It also considers the advantages and disadvantages of literary allusions within legal proceedings, contrasting these two widely reported judgments. This piece is adapted from a transcript of: King Lear, Twitter and the Da Vinci Code given as part of the Sidelights on Shakespeare lecture series at University of Warwick on 29 November 2013. Professor Gary Watt provides a response to Curtis's critical reflection, considering judicial allusion as logic or ornament. Image: Cordelia in the Court of King Lear, Sir John Gilbert (1873)

DNA methylation has been utilized for target gene silencing in plants. However, it is not well understood whether other silencing pathways can be also used to manipulate gene expression. Here we performed a gain-of-function screen for proteins that could silence a target gene when fused to an artificial zinc finger. We uncovered many proteins that suppressed gene expression through DNA methylation, histone H3K27me3 deposition, H3K4me3 demethylation, histone deacetylation, inhibition of RNA polymerase II transcription elongation or Ser-5 dephosphorylation. These proteins also silenced many other genes with different efficacies, and a machine learning model could accurately predict the efficacy of each silencer on the basis of various chromatin features of the target loci. Furthermore, some proteins were also able to target gene silencing when used in a dCas9-SunTag system. These results provide a more comprehensive understanding of epigenetic regulatory pathways in plants and provide an armament of tools for targeted gene manipulation.

Arabidopsis telomeric repeat binding factors (TRBs) can bind telomeric DNA sequences to protect telomeres from degradation. TRBs can also recruit Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) to deposit tri-methylation of H3 lysine 27 (H3K27me3) over certain target loci. Here, we demonstrate that TRBs also associate and colocalize with JUMONJI14 (JMJ14) and trigger H3K4me3 demethylation at some loci. The trb1/2/3 triple mutant and the jmj14-1 mutant show an increased level of H3K4me3 over TRB and JMJ14 binding sites, resulting in up-regulation of their target genes. Furthermore, tethering TRBs to the promoter region of genes with an artificial zinc finger (TRB-ZF) successfully triggers target gene silencing, as well as H3K27me3 deposition, and H3K4me3 removal. Interestingly, JMJ14 is predominantly recruited to ZF off-target sites with low levels of H3K4me3, which is accompanied with TRB-ZFs triggered H3K4me3 removal at these loci. These results suggest that TRB proteins coordinate PRC2 and JMJ14 activities to repress target genes via H3K27me3 deposition and H3K4me3 removal.

We have investigated synaptic function in the hippocampus in mice of different ages carrying a null mutation in the PrP gene. Experiments carried out in vivo and in vitro in two laboratories revealed no differences in the ability of juvenile and young adult control and PrP-null mice to express long-term potentiation, paired-pulse facilitation, or posttetanic potentiation in either the dentate gyrus or in the CA1 region. However, we found a significant reduction in the level of posttetanic potentiation and long-term potentiation in the CA1 region of aged PrP-null mice. These results are discussed in relationship to reported increased levels of oxidative stress in older PrP-null mice.