Compiling and using input-output frameworks through collaborative virtual laboratories
- Authors: Lenzen, Manfred , Geschke, Arne , Wiedmann, Thomas , Lane, Joe , Anderson, Neal , Baynes, Timothy , Boland, John , Daniels, Peter , Dey, Christopher , Fry, Jacob , Hadjikakou, Michalis , Kenway, Steven , Malik, Arunima , Moran, Daniel , Murray, Joy , Nettleton, Stuart , Poruschi, Lavinia , Reynolds, Christian , Rowley, Hazel , Ugon, Julien , Webb, Dean , West, James
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Science of the Total Environment Vol. 485-486, no. 1 (July 2014), p. 241-251
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Compiling, deploying and utilising large-scale databases that integrate environmental and economic data have traditionally been labour- and cost-intensive processes, hindered by the large amount of disparate and misaligned data that must be collected and harmonised. The Australian Industrial Ecology Virtual Laboratory (IELab) is a novel, collaborative approach to compiling large-scale environmentally extended multi-region input-output (MRIO) models.The utility of the IELab product is greatly enhanced by avoiding the need to lock in an MRIO structure at the time the MRIO system is developed. The IELab advances the idea of the "mother-daughter" construction principle, whereby a regionally and sectorally very detailed "mother" table is set up, from which "daughter" tables are derived to suit specific research questions. By introducing a third tier - the "root classification" - IELab users are able to define their own mother-MRIO configuration, at no additional cost in terms of data handling. Customised mother-MRIOs can then be built, which maximise disaggregation in aspects that are useful to a family of research questions.The second innovation in the IELab system is to provide a highly automated collaborative research platform in a cloud-computing environment, greatly expediting workflows and making these computational benefits accessible to all users.Combining these two aspects realises many benefits. The collaborative nature of the IELab development project allows significant savings in resources. Timely deployment is possible by coupling automation procedures with the comprehensive input from multiple teams. User-defined MRIO tables, coupled with high performance computing, mean that MRIO analysis will be useful and accessible for a great many more research applications than would otherwise be possible. By ensuring that a common set of analytical tools such as for hybrid life-cycle assessment is adopted, the IELab will facilitate the harmonisation of fragmented, dispersed and misaligned raw data for the benefit of all interested parties.
Financial contagion : An empirical investigation of the relationship between financial-stress indexes of Australia and the US
- Authors: Mukulu, Sandra , Hettihewa, Samanthala , Wright, Christopher
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Applied Business and Economics Vol. 16, no. 3 (2014), p. 11-34
- Full Text: false
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- Description: A key departure in this study from many earlier studies is that, on the continuum of financial stress from nil to very high, both very high levels of stress and very low levels are seen as being harmful and potential harbinger of a financial-market crisis. Specifically, a surfeit of stress can act as a tipping point into crisis and a dearth of stress can encourage hubris and increase a nation’s susceptibility to financial contagion from another nation; even one that is far removed by geographic and/or economic distance. This paper focuses on developing financial stress indices for the US and Australia using composite market indices, trade weight indices and yields on securities with different maturity dates. Monthly data from January 1989 to December 2011 was sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB), the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis website, Bank of Canada, Reserve Bank of New Zealand and Yahoo finance website. For purposes of this study the aggregate measures of stress consists of inverted yield spreads, volatility measures for market indices, volatility measures of trade weighted indexes, risk spreads, credit risk spreads and a measures of risk in the equity market.
Having enough cultural food? A qualitative exploration of the experiences of migrants in a regional area of Australia
- Authors: Yeoh, Joanne , Lê, Quynh , Terry, Daniel , McManamey, Rosa
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Food Research Vol. 4, no. 2 (2014), p. 16
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- Description: The notion of food security encompasses the ability of individuals, households and communities to acquire food that is healthy, sustainable, affordable, appropriate and accessible. Despite Australia’s current ability to produce more food than required for its population, there has been substantial evidence demonstrating that many Australians struggle to feed themselves, particularly those from a cultural and linguistically diverse (CALD) background. This qualitative phenomenological study investigated the experiences of food security among migrants in a regional area of Australia (Tasmania). 33 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Tasmanian migrants. The interviews were analysed thematically using Nvivo 10.0 and three main themes emerged: (1) migrant’s experiences of food security in Tasmania; (2) the factors that influence migrant food security in Tasmania; and (3) acculturation strategies. Participants were satisfied with their current food security in Tasmania but they still encountered some challenges in the availability, accessibility and affordability of healthy and cultural food. Factors that influenced their food security were educational background, the language barrier, socioeconomic status, geographical isolation, and their cultural background. Migrants managed to adapt to the new food culture by using different acculturation strategies. Migrants residing in Tasmania encounter a diverse number of challenges pertaining to food security and use different food security strategies while acculturating to the new environment. These findings may inform other migrant communities in Australia, relevant non-government organisations and government departments and suggest strategies to address food security challenges among migrants.
Here they come, ready or not
- Authors: Missen, Karen
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Nursing standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain) : 1987) Vol. 29, no. 6 (2014), p. 66
- Full Text: false
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- Description: As many students begin to undertake their third year of study, the prospect of registration becomes imminent. Most students will be wondering how they will cope when they don their staff nurse uniforms for the first time.
Legal risk management and injury in the fitness industry: the outcomes of focus group research and a national survey of fitness professionals
- Authors: Keyzer, Patrick , Coyle, Ian , Dietrich, Joachim , Norton, Kevin , Sekendiz, Betul , Jones, Veronica , Finch, Caroline
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Law and Medicine Vol. 21, no. 4 (June 2014 2014), p. 826-844
- Full Text: false
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- Description: The Australian Fitness Industry Risk Management (AFIRM) Project was set up to explore the operation of rules and regulations for the delivery of safe fitness services. This article summarises the results of recent focus group research and a national survey of risk management practices by the AFIRM Project. Our focus group research in four States identified the following most important concerns: (1) the competency of fitness professionals; (2) the effectiveness of pre-exercise screening and the management of de-conditioned clients; (3) poor supervision of fitness service users and incorrect use of equipment; (4) fitness trainers failing to remain within their scope of practice; (5) equipment misuse (as distinct from incorrect use); and (6) poor fitness training environments. This information was then used to develop 45 specific items for a questionnaire that was disseminated throughout the fitness industry. The survey, which is the largest ever conducted in the Australian fitness industry (n = 1,178), identified similar concerns. Our research indicates that efforts to improve risk management in the fitness industry should focus, first and foremost, on the development and monitoring of safety policy, and improvements in the education and training of fitness instructors to ensure that they can incorporate risk management practices.
- Description: C1
Measurement of the tensile strength of organic soft rock
- Authors: Tolooiyan, Ali , Mackay, Rae , Xue, Jianfeng
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Geotechnical Testing Journal Vol. 37, no. 6 (2014), p.
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Understanding all potential slope failure mechanisms is a pre-requisite for predicting the likelihood of batter movements during excavation in open cut mines. The tensile behavior of soils and rocks may be a significant contributor to a slope failure and must be known in order to quantify the risks of slope failure. The contribution can be particularly significant for Intermediate Geotechnical Materials (IGMs) that possess characteristics of both soils and rocks and where the failure mechanisms are complex due to the interplay between ductile and brittle behavior. Brown coal is such an intermediate Geotechnical Material. Recent batter movements in the brown coal mines in the Latrobe Valley, Australia have raised doubts about the current understanding of the mechanisms of slope failure in this material. Research is underway to re-evaluate all properties of the brown coal applicable to slope failure. This paper describes the investigation of brown coal tensile strength. There are alternative test methods available to determine the tensile behavior of materials, including direct tensile tests, beam bending tests and Brazilian compression tests. The applicability of each test method is material dependent, as such, it is necessary to confirm the validity of the methods for each material. Beam bending tests have achieved mixed results for both rocks and IGMs previously. Thus, the present work has explored only the use of Direct tensile and Brazilian test methods. Both methods were implemented using a modified direct shear apparatus and valid test procedures for both test methods were developed. Each test procedure has been verified by Finite Element Modelling (FEM) using ABAQUS 6.12.1 FEM code. The results from the laboratory test methods are in good agreement and show that brown coal is a predominantly brittle material with a peak tensile strength slightly greater than 100 kPa. The finite element analyses confirm that non-uniformity of the tensile stresses during sample loading tends to lead to the underestimation of tensile strength for both tests, but the Brazilian test has less bias for brown coal. It is observed that the rate of loading of low stiffness, low permeability, and saturated samples in the Brazilian test is an important test design parameter for the accurate determination of tensile strength of IGMs in the laboratory.
Social capital among migrating doctors : the “bridge” over troubled water
- Authors: Terry, Daniel , Lê, Quynh
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Health Organization and Management Vol. 28, no. 3 (2014), p. 315-326
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- Description: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of social capital among International Medical Graduates (IMGs). It will specifically examine bridging social capital and greater intercultural communication which provides IMGs access to the wider community and plays a key role in cross-cultural adaptation and acculturation. Design/methodology/approach – A review of the literature. Findings – An Australian wide shortage of doctors has led to an increased reliance on the recruitment of IMGs. As IMGs migrate, they may encounter different meanings of illness, models of care and a number of social challenges. Nevertheless, greater cross-cultural adaptation and acculturation occurs through bridging social capital, where intercultural communication, new social networks and identity aids integration. This process produces more opportunities for economic capital growth and upward mobility than bonding social capital. Practical...
The problem of belonging : Contested country in Australian local history
- Authors: Bongiorno, Frank , Eklund, Erik
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: New Scholar: An International Journal of the Humanities, Creative Arts and Social Sciences Vol. 3, no. 1 (2014), p. 39-54
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- Description: There is a moment in travel writer Bill Bryson’s account of his travels in Australia, Down Under, when he comments on the large number of local histories he encounters in second‐hand bookshops. They ‘never fail to amaze,’ he reports, ‘if only because they show you what a remarkably self‐absorbed people the Australians are. I don’t mean that as a criticism. If the rest of the world is going to pay them no attention, then they must do it themselves surely.’ He continues: ‘There were hundreds of books ... about things that could never possibly have been of interest to more than a handful of people. It’s quite encouraging that these books exist, but somehow faintly worrying as well.’ Bryson doesn’t explain any further why it worries him, but he then goes on to review with genuine admiration a book he found among these volumes (126‐127).
Walnut rootstock selection for calcareous soils in Southeastern Australia and the potential for expanding the walnut industry in the region
- Authors: Sluiter, Ian , McKenzie, Lachie , Mitchell, Jeff
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Acta Horticulturae Vol. 1050, no. (2014), p. 105-112
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Persian walnuts are grown over relatively small area within irrigated settlements of the Murray Lowlands Province of Southeastern Australia compared with traditional crops such as grapes and citrus or emerging crops such as almonds. Poor walnut tree health usually associated with wrong rootstock selection, or growth in areas with inadequate topsoil depth, have inculcated a strong traditional resistance amongst growers and horticultural developers to walnuts as a viable alternative crop for the region. Recent trials comparing Juglans hindsii, a traditional rootstock for the area, with a new selection of Paradox rootstock, have shown the Paradox 'entity' significantly outperforms J. hindsii in terms of scion growth in the first year. The Paradox hybrid has also been shown to grow vigorously in soils with shallow topsoil depth above calcareous B horizon subsoils. This suitability of the Paradox hybrid to calcareous soils provides the potential to expand the walnut industry into parts of the Murray Lowland Province characterized by Calcarosol soils with as little as 30 cm topsoil.
Women's access needs in maternity care in rural Tasmania, Australia : a mixed methods study
- Authors: Hoang, Ha , Le, Quynh , Terry, Daniel
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Women and Birth Vol. 27, no. 1 (2014), p. 9-14
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- Description: Objectives: This study investigates (i) maternity care access issues in rural Tasmania, (ii) rural women's challenges in accessing maternity services and (iii) rural women's access needs in maternity services. Methods: A mixed-method approach using a survey and semi-structured interviews was conducted. The survey explored women's views of rural maternity services from antenatal to postnatal care, while interviews reinforced the survey results and provided insights into the access issues and needs of women in maternity care. Findings: The survey was completed by n=210 women, with a response rate of 35%, with n=22 follow-up interviews being conducted. The survey indicated the majority of rural women believed antenatal education and check-ups and postnatal check-ups should be provided locally. The majority of women surveyed also believed in the importance of having a maternity unit in the local hospital, which was further iterated and clarified within the interviews. Three main themes emerged from the interview data, namely (i) lack of access to maternity services, (ii) difficulties in accessing maternity services, and (iii) rural women's access needs. Conclusion: The study suggested that women's access needs are not fully met in some rural areas of Tasmania. Rural women face many challenges when accessing maternity services, including financial burden and risk of labouring en route. The study supports the claim that the closure of rural maternity units shifts cost and risk from the health care system to rural women and their families. © 2013 Australian College of Midwives.
Work–family balance : Perspectives from higher education
- Authors: Pillay, Soma , Abhayawansa, Subhash
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Higher Education Vol. 68, no. 5 (2014), p. 669-690
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: The article examines different types of work–family pressures amongst people working within the Australian university sector. We were specifically interested in work–family experiences between domestic and migrant Australians. Among the major findings, domestic Australians experience greater levels of work–family imbalance across most of the measures used. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.
A 3D approach to first year English education
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Quality Assurance in Education Vol. 21, no. 1 (2013), p. 54-69
- Full Text:
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- Description: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the suggestive possibilities of an approach to undergraduate English teacher education that the author has called the 3D Approach - Develop professional knowledge, Display professional knowledge, Disseminate professional knowledge - in relation to a number of groups of first year pre-service teachers (PSTs) engaging the teaching and learning materials of their English education course. Design/methodology/approach: The paper examines ways in which this approach has been assessed by the PSTs themselves, constructing this as an expression of their lived experience as PSTs. The author draws on Vygotsky's concept of the Zone of Proximal Development, initiates a systematic and orchestrated program of explicit scaffolding of first year PST learning and draws on University-generated student assessment of their courses, focus groups and individual interviews to investigate ways in which the 3D approach may be considered as enhancing first year PST learning. Findings: PSTs' own informed evaluations of their own developing knowledge have made visible the teaching and learning that they have engaged and articulated. What the author outlines in this paper is not a "Eureka" moment for first year PSTs, but it is the result of careful scholarly considerations of what careful scholarly considerations by first years in Education courses may engage. For this cohort of PSTs, and for the author, it is a particular form of engagement with pedagogy. It is a pedagogy for teachers, part of active engagement on the part of the teacher and the learner, producing knowledge together. Research limitations/implications: Lack of generalisability from case study research may be considered as a limitation, but the author would argue that it is the details thrown up for careful examination in a case study which may serve to inform professional discussion and debate. Practical implications: Negative press of inadequate teachers emerging from universities, with their specious claims will not progress reasoned discussion; research on how the PSTs are themselves taught and how they develop as professionals will. PSTs' own informed evaluations of their own developing knowledge will go some way towards enabling this to happen. This sort of research opens up possibilities for starting with the right sort of questions, a shift from asking the wrong sort of questions, which the author would argue is that sort on which the media are basing their opinion pieces. Social implications: Continuing public discussions, usually conducted in and by the media, about teacher quality, particularly as this tends to be tied to notions of teacher pay, indicates a wider social concern about the need for quality teachers. This sort of social concern is also a major concern for teacher educators, and is to be addressed as such. This paper addresses some of those concerns. Originality/value: The paper engages issues about teacher education raised publicly in the media and ties these to the more private domain of university practice in a given teacher education course. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
A Chaotic field of practice: Financial reporting of the Library collections of Australia's public Universities, 2007-2011
- Authors: Carnegie, Garry , Sidaway, Shannon , West, Brian
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Academic and Research Libraries Vol. 44, no. 4 (2013), p. 195-216
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: The accounting practices adopted by Australia's 36 public universities in accounting for their library collections - including heritage and special collections - are identified and analysed. The data is collected from a survey of these institutions' annual reports over the period 2007 to 2011 and the analysis is guided by theoretical perspectives drawn from new institutional sociology (NIS). Consistent with prior research by West and Carnegie (2010), accounting for university library collections is depicted as a chaotic field of practice. Inconsistent and idiosyncratic policies that compromise the overall reliability, comparability and usefulness of university financial reports are observed, along with instances of dramatic valuation adjustments. However, the beginnings of some amelioration of the chaos are also detected, as regulatory activity and a voluntary homogenisation of accounting policies begin to take effect. In particular, a general trend towards more conservative accounting practices is evident as universities perhaps seek to guard against accounting debacles - most notably massive valuation write-downs - of the kind that have been suffered by several institutions over the last decade. Assigning financial values to the library collections and other non-financial resources of not-for-profit public institutions remains a problematic issue. © 2013 Australian Library & Information Association.
- Description: The accounting practices adopted by Australia's 36 public universities in accounting for their library collections - including heritage and special collections - are identified and analysed. The data is collected from a survey of these institutions' annual reports over the period 2007 to 2011 and the analysis is guided by theoretical perspectives drawn from new institutional sociology (NIS). Consistent with prior research by West and Carnegie (2010), accounting for university library collections is depicted as a chaotic field of practice. Inconsistent and idiosyncratic policies that compromise the overall reliability, comparability and usefulness of university financial reports are observed, along with instances of dramatic valuation adjustments. However, the beginnings of some amelioration of the chaos are also detected, as regulatory activity and a voluntary homogenisation of accounting policies begin to take effect. In particular, a general trend towards more conservative accounting practices is evident as universities perhaps seek to guard against accounting debacles - most notably massive valuation write-downs - of the kind that have been suffered by several institutions over the last decade. Assigning financial values to the library collections and other non-financial resources of not-for-profit public institutions remains a problematic issue. © 2013 © 2013 Australian Library & Information Association.
A legacy of climate and catchment change: the real challenge for wetland management
- Authors: Gell, Peter , Mills, Keely , Grundell, Rosie
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Hydrobiologia Vol. 708, no. 1 (May 2013), p. 133-144
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Wetland managers are faced with an array of challenges when restoring ecosystems at risk from changing climate and human impacts, especially as many of these processes have been operating over decadal-millennial timescales. Variations in the level and salinity of the large crater lakes of western Victoria, as revealed over millennia by the physical, chemical and biological evidence archived in sediments, attest to extended periods of positive rainfall balance and others of rainfall deficit. The recent declines in the depth of these lakes have been attributed to a 15% decline in effective rainfall since AD 1859. Whilst some sites reveal state shifts following past droughts, the response of most wetlands to millennial-scale climatic variations is muted. Regional wetland condition has changed comprehensively, however, since European settlement, on account of extensive catchment modifications. These modifications appear to have reduced the resilience of wetlands limiting their capacity to recover from the recent 'big dry'. These sedimentary archives reveal most modern wetlands to be outside their historical range of variability. This approach provides a longer-term context when assessing wetland condition and better establishes the restoration challenge posed by the impact of climate change and variability and human impacts.
- Description: C1
An Australian railway bridge management framework
- Authors: Nielsen, Dwayne , Chattopadhyay, Gopinath , Raman, Dhamodharan
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Strategic Engineering Asset Management Vol. 1, no. 3 (2013), p. 301-315
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: A large number of Australian railway bridges were constructed over 80 years ago and have become increasingly costly to maintain. Infrastructure managers are under pressure to maintain bridge structures to a specified performance level with less maintenance funding and fewer resources. Currently, some rail operators maintain bridges through generic asset management systems which are simplistic and only address immediate operational issues. This is despite the fact that a life cycle cost analysis is proven to strategically maintain bridge assets and reduce costs over their operational life. A new bridge management system (BMS) framework which consists of a life cycle cost analysis and strategy model is proposed in this paper. The model can provide solutions at the element, bridge and network levels. A brief background is provided on Australian railway bridge operational history. Finally, a new maintenance cycle is proposed and its components are discussed.
At last count : Engineering undergraduates in 21st Century Australia
- Authors: Dobson, Ian
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education Vol. 10, no. 4 (2013), p. 253-257
- Full Text:
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- Description: The number of enrolments in undergraduate programmes in engineering has grown at more than the national average this century. The main areas of enrolment growth in Australian higher education have been of women and overseas students, and the latter group has been particularly relevant in the case in engineering. The analysis undertaken for this article is based on statistical data from the ministry responsible for Australia's tertiary education. However, women remain underrepresented in engineering programmes, and there is a risk that the high proportion of overseas students means that Australia is exporting engineering talent at a cost to the development of its own knowledge-intensive labour force. © 2012 WIETE.
- Description: 2003010825
Climate variability over the last 35,000 years recorded in marine and terrestrial archives in the Australian region: An OZ-INTIMATE compilation
- Authors: Reeves, Jessica , Barrows, Timothy , Cohen, Tim , Kiem, Anthony , Bostock, Helen , Fitzsimmons, Kathryn , Jansen, John , Kemp, Justine , Krause, Claire , Petherick, Lynda , Phipps, Steven
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Quaternary Science Reviews Vol. 74, no. (2013), p. 21-34
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: The Australian region spans some 60° of latitude and 50° of longitude and displays considerable regional climate variability both today and during the Late Quaternary. A synthesis of marine and terrestrial climate records, combining findings from the Southern Ocean, temperate, tropical and arid zones, identifies a complex response of climate proxies to a background of changing boundary conditions over the last 35,000 years. Climate drivers include the seasonal timing of insolation, greenhouse gas content of the atmosphere, sea level rise and ocean and atmospheric circulation changes. Our compilation finds few climatic events that could be used to construct a climate event stratigraphy for the entire region, limiting the usefulness of this approach. Instead we have taken a spatial approach, looking to discern the patterns of change across the continent.The data identify the clearest and most synchronous climatic response at the time of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (21±3ka), with unambiguous cooling recorded in the ocean, and evidence of glaciation in the highlands of tropical New Guinea, southeast Australia and Tasmania. Many terrestrial records suggest drier conditions, but with the timing of inferred snowmelt, and changes to the rainfall/runoff relationships, driving higher river discharge at the LGM. In contrast, the deglaciation is a time of considerable south-east to north-west variation across the region. Warming was underway in all regions by 17ka. Post-glacial sea level rise and its associated regional impacts have played an important role in determining the magnitude and timing of climate response in the north-west of the continent in contrast to the southern latitudes. No evidence for cooling during the Younger Dryas chronozone is evident in the region, but the Antarctic cold reversal clearly occurs south of Australia. The Holocene period is a time of considerable climate variability associated with an intense monsoon in the tropics early in the Holocene, giving way to a weakened monsoon and an increasingly El Niño-dominated ENSO to the present. The influence of ENSO is evident throughout the southeast of Australia, but not the southwest. This climate history provides a template from which to assess the regionality of climate events across Australia and make comparisons beyond our region. © 2013.
- Description: 4 Earth Sciences
- Description: 21 History And Archaeology
Climatic records over the past 30ka from temperate Australia - a synthesis from the Oz-INTIMATE workgroup
- Authors: Petherick, Lynda , Bostock, Helen , Cohen, Tim , Fitzsimmons, Kathryn , Tibby, John , Fletcher, M. S. , Moss, Patrick , Reeves, Jessica , Mooney, Scott , Barrows, Timothy , Kemp, Justine , Jansen, John , Nanson, Gerald , Dosseto, Anthony
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Quaternary Science Reviews Vol. 74, no. (2013), p. 58-77
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Temperate Australia sits between the heat engine of the tropics and the cold Southern Ocean, encompassing a range of rainfall regimes and falling under the influence of different climatic drivers. Despite this heterogeneity, broad-scale trends in climatic and environmental change are evident over the past 30ka. During the early glacial period (~30-22ka) and the Last Glacial Maximum (~22-18ka), climate was relatively cool across the entire temperate zone and there was an expansion of grasslands and increased fluvial activity in regionally important Murray-Darling Basin. The temperate region at this time appears to be dominated by expanded sea ice in the Southern Ocean forcing a northerly shift in the position of the oceanic fronts and a concomitant influx of cold water along the southeast (including Tasmania) and southwest Australian coasts. The deglacial period (~18-12ka) was characterised by glacial recession and eventual disappearance resulting from an increase in temperature deduced from terrestrial records, while there is some evidence for climatic reversals (e.g. the Antarctic Cold Reversal) in high resolution marine sediment cores through this period. The high spatial density of Holocene terrestrial records reveals an overall expansion of sclerophyll woodland and rainforest taxa across the temperate region after ~12ka, presumably in response to increasing temperature, while hydrological records reveal spatially heterogeneous hydro-climatic trends. Patterns after ~6ka suggest higher frequency climatic variability that possibly reflects the onset of large scale climate variability caused by the El Niño/Southern Oscillation. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.
- Description: 2003011211
Effects of Tetranychus lintearius (Acari : Tetranychidae) on the structure and water potential in the foliage of the invasive Ulex europaeus (Fabaceae) in Australia
- Authors: Marriott, Jeremy , Florentine, Singarayer , Raman, Anantanarayanan
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Acarology Vol. 39, no. 4 (2013), p. 275-284
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Ulex europaeus, a native of Western Europe and the Mediterranean coast, is a serious agricultural and environmental weed in many parts of the earth, including Australia. Tetranychus lintearius attacks U. europaeus in its natural range and is one of the four biological control agents introduced into Australia to regulate populations of U. europaeus. Tetranychus lintearius is specific to different species of Ulex, which enhances its status as a key biological control agent. Little is known on the physiological effects and structural changes induced by T. lintearius on U. europaeus. This article describes anatomical changes and evaluates the physiological effects in U. europaeus consequent to feeding by T. lintearius for more than 100 d. This study demonstrates that feeding by T. lintearius reduces the quantity of photosynthetic tissue in U. europaeus, as a result of feeding on mesophyll parenchyma by inserting its stylets through the stomatal aperture. Unfed parenchyma cells display signs of stress, either exhibiting deformed cell organelles aligned along the walls of vacant cells or with cells with no well-defined cell organelles. Subsequent to T. lintearius feeding, leaves externally manifest bleaching. After feeding by a population of T. lintearius, leaf water potential is decreased by 30% and tender shoots lose their turgor, indicating water-related stress. Tetranychus lintearius has the potential to decelerate vigour and retard the competitiveness of U. europaeus by inflicting stress. Our findings reinforce the use of T. lintearius in the biological management of populations of U. europaeus in temperate Australia.
Exploring ways in which social networkers contribute to online groups : A case study of one facebook group's discussion of australian broadcaster channel 9 during the 2010 winter olympic games
- Authors: Scott, Olan , Bradshaw, Ryan , Larkin, Paul
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: First Monday Vol. 18, no. 4 (2013), p.
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: The advent of the Internet has allowed consumers more opportunities to communicate than ever before. The emergence of the Internet has decreased the gate-keeping role of the media in that Internet users can interact with media outlets and other users in real time. This study breaks ground in the analysis of media messages as one Facebook group is studied to uncover how Internet users virtually protested media outlets on social networking Web sites. © First Monday. 2013, Olan Kees Martin Scott, Ryan Bradshaw, and Paul Larkin.
- Description: 2003011106