An Assessment of Tarong Bottom Ash for Use on Agricultural Soils

Coal combustion by-products (CCBs), including fly ash and bottom ash, present a waste disposal problem in Australia due to a continuing demand for coal fired power. Pozzolanic Enterprises handle ash produced by the Tarong Energy coalfired power station in SouthWest Queensland, which produces approximately 1,200,000 tonnes per annum of CCBs. This comprises roughly 1,100,000 tonnes of fly ash and 100,000 tonnes of furnace bottom ash. The volume and unique properties of the Tarong bottom ash present a significant opportunity for agronomic use. Of particular interest is the ability of Tarong bottom ash to markedly improve the water holding capacity of soils. Given Australia's rural environment is currently enduring a 'one-in-one- hundred-year' drought a study of the ability of Tarong bottom ash to improve water holding capacity is timely. This paper details physical and chemical properties relevant to agronomic use and water holding capacity of ash/soil blends along with some results from initial field trials

Whale Watching as Ecotourism: How Sustainable is it?

Australia has long tried to portray itself as an environmentally responsible state and has consistently been a strong supporter of Whale Watching as an alternative to the practice of commercial and ‘scientific’ whaling. This paper explores whale watching in an effort to determine the economic and social viability of it as a sustainable marine tourism activity —and whether in the future the whale and the tourist can coexist or will the latter as with previous human activities such as whaling yet again create a ‘tragedy of the commons’ and displace the former. As an ecotourism product, whale watching holds the potential for sustainable practice, one that is both ecological and profitable. Responsible whale watching is seen as a clean, green industry that simultaneously supports local economies and promotes whale education and conservation. The question is can it live up to these expectations

Effects of phosphonate and salicylic acid treatments on anthracnose disease development and ripening of 'Kensington Pride' mango fruit

This study investigated treatment of mango (Mangifera indica L.) fruit with 2 host defence-promoting compounds for suppression of anthracnose disease (Colletotrichum gloeosporioides). Cultivar ‘Kensington Pride’ fruit were treated at concentrations of up to 1000 mg/L with either potassium phosphonate or salicylic acid. Applications were by various combinations of pre- and postharvest dips and vacuum infiltration. Postharvest treatments at up to 2000 mg/L salicylic acid were evaluated in a second fruiting season. Fruit were either uninoculated or inoculated with the fungal pathogen. Colour, firmness and disease-severity were assessed during shelf life at 23°C. There were no significant (P>0.05) effects of potassium phosphonate or salicylic acid on anthracnose disease severity in the first season. Moreover, phosphonate or salicylic acid treatment did not significantly affect fruit colour or firmness changes. There were significant (P<0.05) reductions in anthracnose severity in the second season, especially at the highest concentration of 2000 mg/L salicylic acid. Mango fruit skin colour and firmness changes were also slowed down significantly (P<0.05). These effects of salicylic acid were attributed to inhibition of mango fruit skin ripening (senescence)

Hyperbolic Language and its Relation to Metaphor and Irony

Hyperbolic use of language is very frequent but has seldom been thought worthy of serious analytical attention. Hyperbole is usually treated as a minor trope which belongs with one or the other of the two dominant figurative uses of language, metaphor and irony. In this paper, we examine the range of ways in which hyperbole is manifest, in both its ‘pure’ uses and its prevalent co-occurrences with other tropes. We conclude that it does not align closely with either metaphor or irony but is a distinctive figure of speech in its own right, characterized by the blatant exaggeration of a relevant scalar property for the purpose of expressing an evaluation of a state of affairs. The relative simplicity of hyperbole enables its exploitation of a range of independent mechanisms of non-literal linguistic communication including loose use, metaphor, simile, and expressions of ironical and other attitudes

Metaphor and Hyperbole: Testing the Continuity Hypothesis

In standard Relevance Theory, hyperbole and metaphor are categorized together as loose uses of language, on a continuum with approximations, category extensions and other cases of loosening/broadening of meaning. Specifically, it is claimed that there are no interesting differences (in either interpretation or processing) between hyperbolic and metaphorical uses (Sperber & Wilson, 2008). In recent work, we have set out to provide a more fine-grained articulation of the similarities and differences between hyperbolic and metaphorical uses and their relation to literal uses (Carston & Wearing, 2011, 2014). We have defended the view that hyperbolic use involves a shift of magnitude along a dimension which is intrinsic to the encoded meaning of the hyperbole vehicle, while metaphor involves a multi-dimensional qualitative shift away from the encoded meaning of the metaphor vehicle. In this article, we present three experiments designed to test the predictions of this analysis, using a variety of tasks (paraphrase elicitation, self-paced reading and sentence verification). The results of the study support the view that hyperbolic and metaphorical interpretations, despite their commonalities as loose uses of language, are significantly different

The acute response of tendon to loading: implications for rehabilitation

Achilles tendinopathy is a common disorder involving physically active and sedentary individuals alike. Although the processes underlying its development are poorly understood, tendinopathy is widely regarded as an ‘overuse’ injury in which the tendon fails to adapt to prevalent loading conditions. Paradoxically, there is emerging evidence that heavy eccentric loading of the Achilles tendon may be an effective conservative approach for treatment of tendinopathy, with success rates of 60–80% reported. Interestingly, loading exercises involving other forms of muscle action, such as concentric activation, have been shown to be less effective treatment options. However, little is known about the acute response of tendon to exercise at present, and there are few plausible explanatory mechanisms for the observed beneficial effects of eccentric exercise, as opposed to other forms of strain stimuli. This paper presents the findings from a series of experiments undertaken to evaluate the effect of various strain stimuli on the time-dependent response of human Achilles tendon in vivo. It was shown for the first time, that heavy resistive ankle plantarflexion/ dorsiflexion exercises induced an immediate and significant decrease in Achilles tendon thickness (~15%). While thickness returned to pre-exercise levels within 24 hours, the recovery was exponential, with primary recovery occurring in less than 6 hours post-exercise. We proposed that such a diametral strain response with tensile loading reflects collagen realignment, Poison’s effects and radial extrusion of water from the tendon core. With unloading, the recovery of tendon dimensions likely reflects the re-diffusion of water via osmotic and/or inflammatory driven processes. Interestingly, prolonged walking was found to induce a similar diametral strain response. In subsequent studies, we demonstrated that eccentric exercise resulted in a greater reduction (-21%) in Achilles tendon thickness than isolated concentric exercise alone (-5%), despite a similar loading impulse. These novel findings, coupled with observations of a reduced diametral strain response with tendon pathology, highlight the importance of fluid movement to tendon function, nutrition and health. They also provide new insights into potential mechanisms underlying Achilles tendinopathy that impact rehabilitation strategies

Viral Evolution in the Genomic Age

The remarkable increase in the number of viral genome sequences represents both opportunities and challenges for understanding disease ecology and evolution, and must stimulate researchers to address questions that were previously considered out of reach