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Abstract: We examined concentrations of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) and [delta][.sup.15]N value in Sphagnum sections Acutifolia and Cuspidata inhabiting hummocks and hollows from eight bogs along a transect from [...]

This article describes the results from a national project that investigated institutional approaches to the development of student English language capabilities in Australian higher education. The project aimed to identify the various approaches and strategies that higher education providers have established and to gauge whether they have been evaluated by those in the field as successful in attaining their objectives. The results of the study indicated that those institutions identified as successful had a number of elements in common, elements missing from those universities which were considered as less effective. The article concludes by identifying the key factors that were identified by project participants as being essential in the development of successful institution-wide strategies for promoting student language growth.

Previous studies have shown that atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition is detrimental to sphagna, which are a group of mosses that are important for carbon cycling in northern peatlands. Little is known about species interactions, such as relative responses of tall moss Polytrichum strictum Menzies ex Brid. and sphagna. We studied the effects of N deposition on growth, abundance, and C[O.sub.2] exchange of the moss species Sphagnum capillifolium (Ehrh.) Hedw. and Polytrichum strictum in an experiment at a temperate bog. Sphagnum growth and cover decreased significantly with high-dose N treatment (6.4 g N x [m.sup.-2] x [year.sup.-1]) in years 4 and 5 of treatment, whereas the same parameters increased for Polytrichum compared with the control. Net C[O.sub.2] exchange, gross photosynthesis ([P.sub.g]), and dark respiration (R) in the intact moss cores, which were measured in year 5 of treatment, were elevated in the cores that had been treated with the high-dose of N, compared with the control, and this was associated with increased abundance of Polytrichum. The moss cores where Polytrichum was removed, however, had increased mass-based R with the high-dose N treatment. Our results showed that S. capillifolium at Mer Bleue may be close to N saturation, as 5 years of high-dose N loading (6.4 g N x [m.sup.-2] x [year.sup.-1] + background) was harmful to this species, possibly as a result of increased respiratory cost. Polytrichum strictum had a competitive advantage, at least in the short-term, through allocating excess N to growth. This change in moss layer composition deserves further attention, as a shift to more easily decomposable litter, without corresponding increases in plant production, could reduce the carbon sequestration of the bog. Keywords: peatland, photosynthesis, chlorophyll fluorescence, respiration, vegetation change, moss. Des etudes precedentes ont montre que le depot de N atmospherique peut etre dommageable a la sphaigne, un genre important au recyclage de C dans les tourbieres du nord. On sait peu de choses des interactions entre les especes, telles les reponses relatives de la mousse Polytricum strictum Menzies ex Brid. et de la sphaigne. Les auteurs ont etudie les effets du depot de N sur la croissance en hauteur, l'abondance et l'echange de C[O.sub.2] des especes de mousses Sphaghum capillifolium (Ehrh.) Hedw. et Polytricum strictum lors d'une experience en tourbiere temperee. La croissance en hauteur de Sphaghum et son couvert diminuaient significativement en presence d'une forte concentration de N (6,4 g N x [m.sup.-2] x [an.sup.-1]) a la quatrieme et cinquieme annees de traitement, alors que ceux de Polytricum augmentaient, relativement au controle. L'echange net de C[O.sub.2], la photosynthese brute ([P.sub.b]) et la respiration mitochondriale (R) des mousses intactes, mesures a la cinquieme annee de traitement, etaient accrus par le traitement riche en N relativement aux controles, a cause de l'abondance accrue de Polytricum. Les mousses dont on avait retire Polytrichum presentaient cependant une R en fonction de la masse accrue par le traitement riche en N. Les resultats obtenus par les auteurs montrent que S. capillifolium de la tourbiere de Mer Bleue peut etre presqu'a saturation de N, car 5 ans de charge elevee en N (6,4 g N x [m.sup.-2] x [an.sup.-1] + niveau de base) ont ete dommageables a cette espece, possiblement a cause d'un cout respiratoire accru. Polytrichum strictum possedait un avantage competitif, du moins a court terme, reservant l'exces de N a la croissance. Ce changement dans la composition du couvert de mousse merite une plus grande attention car un deplacement vers une litiere plus facilement decomposable, sans augmentations correspondantes de la production vegetale, peut diminuer la sequestration du C par la tourbiere. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles: tourbiere, photosynthese, fluorescence de la chlorophylle, respiration, changement de la vegetations, mousse., Introduction The deposition of atmospheric nitrogen (N) drastically increased N availability in the industrialized world during the Anthropocene (e.g., Galloway et al. 2008). Excess N from deposition threatens many natural [...]

Children who experience homelessness are at risk of poor health and well-being, and negative social outcomes. They are often exposed to stressful life events, such as domestic violence, parental mental health difficulties and family breakdown. Although many experience difficulties in remaining engaged in school, children report that schools can provide them with a sense of belonging and can help them and their families to link with supports to assist them through their homeless experience. This article reports on a study with children who had experienced homelessness with their families and discusses their thoughts on homelessness and school. It highlights some of their difficulties and worries, but identifies some opportunities for support. (Contains 1 figure.)

Children who accompany their parents or guardians during a period of homelessness make up 37% (more than one in three) of all people accessing the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) services. This paper describes an Australian qualitative study that explored the experiences of children who accompanied their families during periods of homelessness. It focuses particularly on what children and young people say they want from the services that they come in contact with; particularly specialised homelessness services such as housing support services and refuges. Key themes that emerged from the research include: the need for services to engage with children as individuals in their own right, to listen to and acknowledge their stories, to have services that meet their individual needs, to act and respond when children feel unsafe and for workers who can provide support to children to talk to parents about what is going on. Children and young people wanted workers to know that they felt their parents were doing their best to keep them safe. They focused on what their parents could do and did do rather than what they were not able to provide. They called on the human service system to do the same.

I report a study that investigated ideas about critical thinking across three disciplines: Philosophy, History and Literary Studies. The findings point to a diversity of understandings and practices, ones that suggest the limitations of a more generic approach. I argue that a more useful conception of critical thinking is as a form of "metacritique"--where the essential quality to be encouraged in students is a flexibility of thought and the ability to negotiate a range of different critical modes. (Contains 3 figures.)

The cultivation of reflective practice has become a commonly accepted goal of theological education. However, theological educators must face the challenge of teaching and assessing reflective practice. Hypothesizing that this concern is best addressed in community, the authors of this article devised a collaborative action-research project using Thomas Groome's "shared Christian praxis" model. They describe the ways in which they have, over the course of the project, modified their pedagogy to improve their students' reflection on practice.

Schools play an important part in the lives of children and young people who have caring responsibilities for a family member with an illness, disability, alcohol or other drug problem or mental health condition but many of these "young carers" report difficulty in attending, achieving and participating in education. This qualitative research project aimed to gather young carers' views about school, the challenges they face in engaging with education and their peers, and ways that the system might better support others like them. It found that significant caring responsibilities, a lack of appropriate and responsive support services to meet family needs and a lack of awareness and understanding within the education system significantly reduced young carers' capacity to fully engage with their learning. Young carers in the study called for more assistance in caring for their relatives, more flexibility and responsiveness to their home lives within the design and delivery of education, and better processes for identifying and responding to the challenges they encounter in participating in the life of the school community. (Contains 1 table.)

Of the different uses of discourse analysis, one of the more significant is the way it can be used to introduce students to the culture and literary practices of the disciplines. This article describes how one type of analysis--Halliday's transitivity--has been used in an academic advising context to assist students struggling to write effectively in a range of discipline areas: history, visual art and sociology. Analysis of this kind, it is argued, has the potential not only to clarify to students the immediate requirements of the academic tasks they have to complete, but also to help them understand some of the broader epistemological issues that may be at stake. (Contains 9 figures and 3 notes.)

This article overviews prevention and early intervention approaches focusing specifically on their relevance to the health of children and young people in Australia. Australian public health has a sound track record although concealed within the aggregate profile are a number of sub-populations with poorer health indicators. Recognition of this has increased efforts to improve the health of children and young people especially in exploring the impact of social environments within the communities where children are raised. This paper examines emerging research in this area drawing out key lessons and learning from Australian experience in the field of early intervention and prevention in community settings.

A challenge for many EAP teachers working on pre-sessional programs is to find ways to reconcile the dual aims of preparing students for university study and for the IELTS test. The study described here seeks to provide some guidance on this issue through an analysis of the type of writing required in the two domains. We compared the standard IELTS Task 2 rubric with a corpus of 155 assignment tasks collected at two Australian universities and found that whilst IELTS writing bears some resemblance to the predominant genre of university study-the essay, there are also some very important difference. Our findings suggest that the type of writing the test elicits may have more in common with certain public nonacademic genres, and thus should not be thought of as an appropriate model for university writing. We conclude that it is probably best to deal with test preparation and the broader EAP writing curriculum within separate programs. (Contains 11 tables and 1 figure.)

Summary: Ericaceous shrubs adapt to the nutrient‐poor conditions in ombrotrophic peatlands by forming symbiotic associations with ericoid mycorrhizal (ERM) fungi. Increased nutrient availability may diminish the role of ERM pathways in shrub nutrient uptake, consequently altering the biogeochemical cycling within bogs.To explore the significance of ERM fungi in ombrotrophic peatlands, we developed the model MWMmic (a peat cohort‐based biogeochemical model) into MWMmic‐NP by explicitly incorporating plant‐soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycling and ERM fungi processes. The new model was applied to simulate the biogeochemical cycles in the Mer Bleue (MB) bog in Ontario, Canada, and their responses to fertilization.MWMmic_NP reproduced the carbon(C)–N–P cycles and vegetation dynamics observed in the MB bog, and their responses to fertilization. Our simulations showed that fertilization increased shrub biomass by reducing the C allocation to ERM fungi, subsequently suppressing the growth of underlying Sphagnum mosses, and decreasing the peatland C sequestration. Our species removal simulation further demonstrated that ERM fungi were key to maintaining the shrub–moss coexistence and C sink function of bogs.Our results suggest that ERM fungi play a significant role in the biogeochemical cycles in ombrotrophic peatlands and should be considered in future modeling efforts. See also the Commentary on this article by Barel & Robroek, 238: 5–7. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]