An economic model for evaluating strategies on the south coast of W.A. which reduce wind erosion : documentation

The sandplain region on the south coast has predominately sandy soils which are subject to erosive winds when ground cover is likely to be scarce. This can often result in production losses of crop and pasture. There is concern that wind erosion will lead to the depletion of the soil resource in the long term. The model is multi-period linear programming with a planning horizon of 10 years. Effects of wind erosion on production can be imposed on the model for the first five years after the erosion event

The effect on farm profit of conserving stubble to prevent wind erosion

Over-grazing of stubbles is a major cause of winf erosion on WesternAustralian farms. Stubble contributes to the \u27roughness\u27 of the paddock; as the roughness is reduced, the risk of winf erosion is increased. The risk of lupinosis in sheep has previously reduced the likelihood of lupin stubble being over grazed, but the development of Gungurru, a phomopsis-resistent variety of lupin, has increased the potential for over-grazing and hence the probability of wind erosion. This article describes the economic benefit (or cost) of conserving stubble at the conservation standards

Derivation of supply curves for catchment water effluents meeting specific salinity concentration targets in 2050: linking farm and catchment level models or “Footprints on future salt / water planes”

The salt burden in a stream reflects the blend of salty and fresh flows from different soil areas in its catchment. Depending not only on long-run rainfall, water yields from a soil are also determined by land cover: lowest if the area is forested and greatest if cleared. Water yields under agro-forestry, lucerne pasture, perennial grass pasture, and annual pasture or cropping options span the range of water yields between the extremes of forested and cleared lands. This study explores quantitative approaches for connecting the hydrologic and economic consequences of farm-level decisions on land cover (productive land uses) to the costs of attaining different catchment level targets of water volumes and salt reaching downstream users; environmental, agricultural, domestic, commercial and industrial. This connection is critical for the resolution of the externality dilemma of meeting downstream demands for water volume and quality. New technology, new products and new markets will expand options for salinity abatement measures in the dryland farming areas of watershed catchments. The development of appropriate policy solutions to address demands for water volumes and quality depends on the possibility of inducing targeted land use change in those catchments or parts of catchments where decreased saline flows or increased fresh water flows can return the best value for money. This study provides such a link.salinity, targets, opportunity cost, concentration, dilution, effluent, externality, supply, demand, policy, water quality, new technology, new markets, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The Structural Determinants of Insulin-Like Peptide 3 Activity

Insulin-like peptide 3 (INSL3) is a hormone and/or paracrine factor which is a member of the relaxin peptide family. It has key roles as a fertility regulator in both males and females. The receptor for INSL3 is the leucine rich repeat (LRR) containing G-protein coupled receptor 8 (LGR8) which is now known as relaxin family peptide receptor 2 (RXFP2). Receptor activation by INSL3 involves binding to the LRRs in the large ectodomain of RXFP2 by residues within the B-chain of INSL3 as well as an interaction with the transmembrane exoloops of the receptor. Although the binding to the LRRs is well characterized the features of the peptide and receptor involved in the exoloop interaction are currently unknown. This study was designed to determine the key INSL3 determinants for RXFP2 activation. A chimeric peptide approach was first utilized to demonstrate that the A-chain is critical for receptor activation. Replacement of the INSL3 A-chain with that from the related peptides INSL5 and INSL6 resulted in complete loss of activity despite only minor changes in binding affinity. Subsequent replacement of specific A-chain residues with those from the INSL5 peptide highlighted that the N-terminus of the A-chain of INSL3 is critical for its activity. Remarkably, replacement of the entire N-terminus with four or five alanine residues resulted in peptides with near native activity suggesting that specific residues are not necessary for activity. Additionally removal of two amino acids at the C-terminus of the A-chain and mutation of Lys-8 in the B-chain also resulted in minor decreases in peptide activity. Therefore we have demonstrated that the activity of the INSL3 peptide is driven predominantly by residues 5–9 in the A-chain, with minor additional contributions from the two C-terminal A-chain residues and Lys-8 in the B-chain. Using this new knowledge, we were able to produce a truncated INSL3 peptide structure which retained native activity, despite having 14 fewer residues than the parent peptide

Events and their impact on place - towards an international practice-based classification system

Events and festivals have been shown to be catalysts for place making, particularly in terms of community engagement, pride of place and even place branding, though the latter remains a contested topic. Whilst a substantial and growing body of literature exists on the impact of events and festivals on town and city centres, much of the focus of past research has been on economic and social issues. Yet, as the focus of event impact evaluation begins to shift towards their longer term legacy - the London Olympic Games have been a prime example of this -, this paper argues that the environmental impact research agenda will grow in importance and summarises some of the early findings of a pan-European research study led by the University of East London with project partners in ten different countries and funding from the European Regional Development Fund’s INTERREG IVC programme. In line with this and building on earlier work on town centre management and urban revitalisation schemes across Europe, this paper argues the case for the development of an international classification system for events and festivals that helps funders and local policy makers to compare international practice and improve decision making with regards to event planning, funding and implementation with particular emphasis on sustainability

An assessment of the efficacy of deep drains constructed in the wheatbelt of Western Australia Part 1 A discussion on drainage implmentation in the wheatbelt : a case study review, summary, conclusions and recommendations

Australia has undertaken a strategic review of current and historical deep drainage projects. A \u27rapid appraisal\u27 methodology was utilised, based principally on existing hydrological investigations and interpretation and anecdotal evidence provided by landholders to clarify the role of drainage in managing water in dry land rural landscapes. The objectives of this discussion paper are to: 1. Review the current status of groundwater drainage practice 2. Provide an assessment of deep drains in the landscape and 3. Propose recommendations on the development of drainage policy to enable the application of best management practice in groundwater drainage.https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/bulletins/1012/thumbnail.jp

Care of HIV-Infected Pregnant Women in Maternal–Fetal Medicine Programs

Objective: To survey the evolution over the past decade of attitudes and practices of obstetricians in maternal–fetal medicine fellowship programs regarding the management of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected pregnant women. Methods: Directors of all 65 approved maternal–fetal medicine training programs were sent questionnaires, responses to which were to reflect the consensus among members of their faculties. Programs were stratified based upon the number of HIV-infected pregnant patients cared for in the previous year. Results: Responses reflect experience with over 1000 infected pregnantwomen per year, nearly one-quarter with advanced disease. Combination antiretroviral therapy was prescribed by all respondents, universally in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters. A three-drug regimen (often containing a protease inhibitor) was used more often by those who treated at least 20 HIV-infected pregnant patients per year than by those programs seeing a lower number of patients (80 vs 59%).Despite the known and unknown risks of the use of antiretrovirals during pregnancy, only half of all responding programs report adverse events to the Antiretroviral Pregnancy Registry; reporting was more common among the institutions seeing a higher number of patients (61 vs 45%). Seventy-eight percent of higher volume programs enroll their patients in clinical studies, usually multicenter, versus 35% of lower volume programs. Conclusions: Care for HIV² pregnant women has dramatically changed over the past decade. Antiretroviral therapy is now universally prescribed by physicians involved in maternal–fetal medicine training programs. Given limited experience with these agents in the setting of pregnancy, it is essential for maternal–fetal medicine practitioners to actively report on adverse events and participate in clinical trials

Swell wave direction off Tweed Heads monitored by HF ocean surface radar

We present results of an analysis of data collected in coastal waters off Tweed Heads during an ocean surface monitoring survey using the HF Ocean Surface Radar (COSRAD). The radar was deployed for a 30-day period during February and March of 2001 to routinely measure surface currents and wind wave parameters. The deployment also offered an opportunity to develop techniques for measuring swell wave parameters. This paper presents theory and a case study showing how second order swell peaks are observed in the Doppler spectrum. COSRAD produces an entire sweep every 30 min with spatial resolution of the order of 3 km. We average 8 adjacent pixels over a 2 h period to produce swell parameters. Swell parameters are produced from second-order (sideband) energy near the strong first-order Bragg peaks in the spectrum. Space and time averaging is done to reduce spectral noise. Our analysis indicates that the COSRAD HF radar is suitable for monitoring swell in the near-shore zone

Moyamoya Disease in Pregnancy: Management after Intracranial Bypass Grafting

Moyamoya disease (MD) is a chronic, progressive cerebrovascular disease distinguished by bilateral stenosis or occlusion of the arteries around the circle of Willis with resulting prominent arterial collateral circulation. We describe a pregnant woman in whom this diagnosis was confirmed by cerebral angiogram and treated with bilateral superficial temporal artery-middle cerebral artery (STA-MCA) bypass grafting prior to conception. The patient was managed with strict blood pressure monitoring and low-dose aspirin antepartum, intrapartum, and postpartum. The patient presented in spontaneous labor at term and underwent a spontaneous vaginal delivery without complications