Research

Funding for water efficiency study

A new research project in the Department of Biological Sciences is hoping to solve the problem of diminishing fresh water supplies for agricultural use by investigating ways of improving water management.

Professor Phil Mullineaux and Dr James Morison have been awarded over £180,000 by the Leverhulme Trust to study how the amount of water required by a crop might be reduced without a loss of yield or quality.

The project will look at novel irrigation practices in which most of the root system is watered but a portion is denied water. This results in the crop consuming less water without adversely affecting its yield. Understanding the early events in this partial root drying system and identifying those genes that control the process could lead to important new applications and are the aims of this study.

Professor Mullineaux explained: 'We hope to identify the genes that code for the early events in the detection by roots of a declining soil water content. Detection triggers the release of the chemical signals from the roots which, in turn, initiate alterations in the plant's metabolism and growth. The desired genes would code for proteins that are important components of a water-sensing mechanism in roots.

'The significance of this research in the long term is that it will lead directly to new crop varieties that are able to use less water but still maintain yield and product quality. Other possible findings will be the development of so-called "sentinel" plants that could provide the grower with early warning of a problem of water supply thus aiding crop management.'

Skills shortage threatens county's prosperity

A new study of community and social needs in Essex has identified that a lack of basic skills is threatening the county's future prosperity.

The research was carried out by Rachel Hine and Professor Jules Pretty of the University's Centre for Environment and Society, on behalf of Essex Community Foundation.

It identified that Essex is undergoing a period of significant social and economic change, with a growing population which will put pressure on local resources.

With much of Essex identified as a Government development area, the research concludes it would be a missed opportunity if the lack of skills meant that the jobs created by the planned regeneration could not be filled by the local population.

Key issues emerging included:

• 29 percent of adults have no formal qualifications; 22 per cent lack basic skills.

• The highest proportion of unemployed are aged between 20 and 24.

• Difficulties are emerging in recruiting staff to fill vacancies in key sectors.

• There is a shortage of housing, particularly for low-income households in rural areas.

• The fastest growth in population is among the 80-plus age group, the group most likely to need more health and social care.

The 200-page report focused on themes including health, housing, education, transport, crime, the economy and skills, and assessed the level of services available to groups such as the elderly, young people, and people with disabilities.

It assessed the role of the voluntary sector and found it provided a range of specialist skills, often plugging gaps in statutory service provision. However, the report pointed out that these services were vulnerable to fluctuations in their levels of funding.

The Essex Community Foundation hopes the research will help its work in the county to increase the amount of funds available to support voluntary and community groups.

The report, Community and Social Needs Survey of Essex, is available at £15 a copy (£7.50 to voluntary organisations) from Essex Community Foundation, 52A Moulsham Street, Chelmsford, CM2 0JA or on the internet at www.essexcommunityfoundation.org.uk.

European focus on care work

Provision of care across European countries was the subject of a conference organised by Professor Miriam Glucksmann and Dr Dawn Lyon from the Department of Sociology as part of their research on transformations of work.

The conference took place at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, EUI, in Florence and brought together European scholars to reflect on the interconnections of different work activities. Care work was selected as a focus of discussion because of its broader relevance in contemporary transformations of work. It is an activity which is at times undifferentiated from non-work, and in which the boundaries between paid and unpaid work, market and non-market, formal and informal sectors are dynamic and indistinct.

Conference participants Monique Kremer, Rosanna Trifiletti and organiser Dr Dawn Lyon

Amongst the speakers during the two-day conference was Daniel Guinea, from the Office of National Statistics, who analysed modes of care provision in the voluntary sector in Italy, demonstrating how associations distinguish themselves from one another through moral boundaries, and Monique Kremer, from the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy, who discussed ideals of care in cross-national perspective. The Conference also welcomed Rossana Trifiletti from the University of Florence who presented findings from the European Union funded SOCCARE project which exposed the interconnections between different modes of provision of care services and the ways in which people 'blend' resources.

For further information on the conference please contact Professor Glucksmann, e-mail glucm@essex.ac.uk or Dr Lyon, e-mail dawnl@essex.ac.uk.

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Also in the printed January edition of Wyvern:

• Broadband for all
• Chimera feeds policy discussions
• Researchers make diabetes breakthrough