Description:
Guest Box 5 Loss of biodiversity is among the greatest problems facing the world today. Conservation and the Genetics of Populations gives a comprehensive overview of the essential background, concepts, and tools needed to understand how genetic information can be used to conserve species threatened with extinction, and to manage species of ecological or commercial importance. New molecular techniques, statistical methods, and computer programs, genetic principles, and methods are becoming increasingly useful in the conservation of biological diversity. Using a balance of data and theory, coupled with basic and applied research examples, this book examines genetic and phenotypic variation in natural populations, the principles and mechanisms of evolutionary change, the interpretation of genetic data from natural populations, and how these can be applied to conservation. The book includes examples from plants, animals, and microbes in wild and captive populations. This second edition contains new chapters on Climate Change and Exploited Populations as well as new sections on genomics, genetic monitoring, emerging diseases, metagenomics, and more. One-third of the references in this edition were published after the first edition. This book is essential for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of conservation genetics, natural resource management, and conservation biology, as well as professional conservation biologists working for wildlife and habitat management agencies.
Description:
AimsThe effects of pastoralism on grassy vegetation are predicted to vary across spatial scales. However, local-scale effects have generally been better considered than large-scale effects that may be pertinent for plant diversity conservation. We examined variation in plant diversity in an agricultural region by comparing patterns observed at large and local scales for different land uses. We tested whether habitat specificity (which relates to how specific different species are to particular land uses) can indicate the importance of land uses to plant diversity conservation. MethodsWe surveyed 127 quadrats of grassy vegetation across four land uses: previously cultivated and never-cultivated native pastures, grazed woodland and ungrazed woodlands (grazing refugia). We assessed (1) species density at the quadrat scale, (2) correlations among explanatory variables and species composition using ordination techniques, and (3) habitat specificity at the regional scale using the -diversity contribution index. ResultsAt the quadrat scale, differences in species density among land uses were not pronounced. In contrast, habitat specificity was highest in ungrazed, unfertilized woodlands. Land uses that were grazed, cleared of trees and fertilized were generally species dense at the quadrat scale (>40 species 400m(-2)), but were comprised of a limited suite of native and exotic grasses and forbs, with relatively homogeneous composition across the region. ConclusionsIn the region studied, grazing refugia with no tree clearing or history of fertilizer application were valuable for conserving a large number of native species, and so should be protected. Such land uses are currently rare in the region. Simple measures of native or total species density were insufficient for evaluating conservation value, as they did not distinguish habitats with large numbers of common, generalist native species from those with species that were rare or restricted in the region. Analyses of habitat specificity may potentially overcome the pitfalls of basing conservation management decisions on local-scale measures. Our results also highlighted a need to understand the processes associated with management practices that serve to reduce species diversity at landscape and regional scales.
Description:
This research explores the extent to which VFR travellers utilise commercial accommodation in the Sunshine Coast, Australia, and profiles the characteristics and behaviours of this particular type of VFR traveller. The research indicated that 26% of the VFRs stayed in commercial accommodation (CVFRs). This closely aligned with research using the same method in a comparative destination, Ballarat, Australia, indicating that 22% of VFRs stayed in commercial accommodation. CVFR travellers occupied similar types of commercial accommodation as non-VFRs and engaged in similar tourism activities. However, they came from different generating regions and used different sources of information for planning their trip. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Although infamous for its focus on adolescent sexual strivings, the vulgar teen comedy film has been the subject of little sustained analysis. Yet there are numerous reasons to examine more closely this teen subgenre, of which the most prominent examples are Porky's and American Pie. The vulgar teen films of the early 1980s and late 1990s exemplify contemporary Hollywood production strategies and reflect changes in youth's social and economic status. In particular, the pivotal early 1980s cycle reflects a crisis in young, middle-class men's presumed right to behave hedonistically on other people's territory. Such films as Porky's, Losin It and Spring Break revolve around characters whose belief in their hedonistic freedom is oblivious to the social implications of their actions. A waning male, middle-class privilege is evident in the failure of the male sexual quest in Porky's and prefigures the subsequent suburbanization of teenage sexuality in American Pie. Vulgar teen comedy films thus reflect the changing social status of male youth.
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A complex set of issues underlies the pricing of the diverse range of goods and services from which Australian local governments derive a significant portion of their revenues. Although local governments have a not-for-profit orientation, they are expected to be financially viable and embrace a broad notion of accountability. They are also expected to influence the behaviour of constituents in accordance with policy decisions, but be equitable in doing so. These and related parameters are discussed and illustrated in order to reveal and elucidate the nature of pricing decisions in local government, and to differentiate the local government context from other price-setting environments.
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Trauma registries, like disease registries, provide an important analysis tool to assess the management of patient care. Trauma registries are well established and relatively common in the USA and have been used to change legislation, promote trauma prevention and to evaluate trauma system effectiveness. In Australia, the first truly statewide trauma registry was established in Victoria in 2001 with an estimated capture of 1700 major trauma cases annually. The Victorian State Trauma Registry, managed by the Victorian State Trauma Outcomes Registry and Monitoring (VSTORM) group, was established in response to a ministerial review of trauma and emergency services undertaken in 1997 to advise the Victorian Government on a best practice model of trauma service provision that was responsive to the particular needs of critically ill trauma patients. This taskforce recommended the establishment of a new system of care for major trauma patients in Victoria and a statewide trauma registry to monitor this new system. The development of the Victorian state trauma registry has shown that there are certain issues that must be resolved for successful implementation of any system-wide registry. This paper describes the issues faced by VSTORM in developing, implementing and maintaining a statewide trauma registry.
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Drawing on the findings from studies in Australia and Norway that explored the use of laboratories in the preparation of nursing students for entry to practice, this article identifies the pedagogical challenges for the undergraduate education of nurses. The findings from both countries are compared and, in spite of distinct differences in the level of financial investment, there are striking similarities between the ways in which laboratories are used in the two countries. The laboratories were designed to predominately represent acute care hospital environments. The participants demonstrated a high level of commitment and strongly held beliefs in the laboratory as a safe place to facilitate self-paced learning and as an environment where students can practice until they become competent and confident. However, at the same time, there was a striking lack of evidence to support these views. The participants in both countries reported a common approach to instruction: a proce! ss of teacher demonstration, followed by student repetition and practice. Variability in students' motivation also was reported and the participants especially expressed concern for those students with a low level of interest in the basic skills associated with personal care. The possibilities and limitations of using skill laboratories as part of the practical preparation for nursing are discussed, using the metaphor of laboratories as "fiction".
Description:
Offensive Internet chats, particularly the child-exploiting type, tend to follow a documented psychological behavioral pattern. Researchers have identified some important stages in this pattern. The psychological stages broadly include befriending, information exchange, grooming, and approach. Similarities among the posts of a chat play an important role in differentiating as well as in identifying these stages. In this article a novel similarity measure is constructed which gives high Inter-post-similarity among the chat-posts within a particular behavioral stage and low inter-post-similarity across different behavioral stages. A psychological stage corpus-based dictionary is constructed from mining the terms associated with each stage. The dictionary works as a background knowledge-base to support the similarity measure. To find the inter-post similarity a modified sentence similarity measure is used. The proposed measure gives improved recognition of inter-stage and intra-stage similarity among the chat posts compared with other types of similarity measures. The pairwise inter-post similarity is used for clustering chat-posts into the psychological stages. Results of experiments demonstrate that the new clustering method gives better results than some current clustering methods.
Description:
In Australia, the number of practice nurses is growing at a rapid rate. On the nursing landscape, this group of nurses stand out because of their relationship with the Australian Government who both fund them, and concern themselves with their continuing professional development. This paper provides a construction of the social world of Australian practice nurses, identifying stakeholders in the business of practice nursing. Literature produced by the various social world segments is analysed for the influence of medical dominance on the role, image, power and politics of practice nurses.
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Tropical cyclones (TCs) can have severe impacts on Australia. These include extreme rainfall and winds, and coastal hazards such as destructive waves, storm surges, estuarine flooding, and coastal erosion. Various aspects of TCs in the Australian region have been documented over the past several decades. In recent years, increasing emphasis has been placed on human-induced climate change effects on TCs in the Australian region and elsewhere around the globe. However, large natural variability and the lack of consistent long-term TC observations have often complicated the detection and attribution of TC trends. Efforts have been made to improve TC records for Australia over the past decades, but it is still unclear whether such records are sufficient to provide better understanding of the impacts of natural climate variability and climate change. It is important to note that the damage costs associated with tropical cyclones in Australia have increased in recent decades and will continue to increase due to growing coastal settlement and infrastructure development. Therefore, it is critical that any coastal infrastructure planning and engineering decisions, as well as disaster management decisions, strongly consider future risks from tropical cyclones. A better understanding of tropical cyclones in a changing climate will provide key insights that can help mitigate impacts of tropical cyclones on vulnerable communities. An objective assessment of the Australian TCs at regional scale and its link with climate variability and change using improved and up-to-date data records is more imperative now than before. This article is categorized under: Paleoclimates and Current Trends > Modern Climate Change.
Description:
Tropical cyclones (TCs) can have severe impacts on Australia. These include extreme rainfall and winds, and coastal hazards such as destructive waves, storm surges, estuarine flooding, and coastal erosion. Various aspects of TCs in the Australian region have been documented over the past several decades. In recent years, increasing emphasis has been placed on human-induced climate change effects on TCs in the Australian region and elsewhere around the globe. However, large natural variability and the lack of consistent long-term TC observations have often complicated the detection and attribution of TC trends. Efforts have been made to improve TC records for Australia over the past decades, but it is still unclear whether such records are sufficient to provide better understanding of the impacts of natural climate variability and climate change. It is important to note that the damage costs associated with tropical cyclones in Australia have increased in recent decades and will continue to increase due to growing coastal settlement and infrastructure development. Therefore, it is critical that any coastal infrastructure planning and engineering decisions, as well as disaster management decisions, strongly consider future risks from tropical cyclones. A better understanding of tropical cyclones in a changing climate will provide key insights that can help mitigate impacts of tropical cyclones on vulnerable communities. An objective assessment of the Australian TCs at regional scale and its link with climate variability and change using improved and up-to-date data records is more imperative now than before. This article is categorized under: Paleoclimates and Current Trends > Modern Climate Change.