Evaluating the risks of pasture and land degradation in native pastures in Queensland

The objective of the project was to develop an approach to quantify the risks of land nd pasture degradation. This objective was achieved by developing an operational model of the condition of native pastures in Queensland. The results of the project showed that: 1) historical and current pasture data can be used with models to simulate grazing lands in near real-time; 2) spatial models of production can be developed and validated with existing spatial data and monitoring systems; 3) data from graziers indicate that safe utilisation rates are 15-25% of average pasture growth; 4) relative risks of land and pasture can be quantified from simulations using actual numbers compared to safe stocking rates; and 5) case studies using the pasture growth model and models of grazing feedback on pasture and land degradation to evaluate the economic consequences of stocking rate strategies have been used in other projects (e.g. DroughtPlan: McKeon et al. 1996, Stafford Smith et al. 1996)

Barriers to development and progression of women entrepreneurs in Pakistan

This article would help integration of women entrepreneurs into the mainstream economy in Pakistan.In Pakistan, women entrepreneurs do not enjoy the same opportunities as men due to a number of deep-rooted discriminatory socio-cultural values and traditions. Furthermore, these restrictions can be observed within the support mechanisms that exist to assist such fledgling businesswomen. The economic potential of female entrepreneurs is not being realised as they suffer from a lack of access to capital, land, business premises, information technology, training and agency assistance. Inherent attitudes of a patriarchal society, that men are superior to women and that women are best suited to be homemakers, create formidable challenges. Women also receive little encouragement from some male family members, resulting in limited spatial mobility and a dearth of social capital. The research suggests that in order to foster development, multi-agency cooperation is required. The media, educational policy makers and government agencies could combine to provide women with improved access to business development services and facilitate local, regional and national networks

A Glasgow tipple-transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt insertion prior to Whipple resection

Abdominal surgery performed in patients with significant liver disease and portal hypertension is associated with high mortality rates, with even poorer outcomes associated with complex pancreaticobiliary operations. We report on a patient requiring portal decompression via transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) prior to a pancreaticoduodenectomy. The 49-year-old patient presented with pain, jaundice and weight loss. At ERCP an edematous ampulla was biopsied, revealing high-grade dysplasia within a distal bile duct adenoma. Liver biopsy was performed to investigate portal hypertension, confirming congenital hepatic fibrosis (CHF). A TIPS was performed to enable a pancreaticoduodenectomy. Prophylactic TIPS can be performed for preoperative portal decompression for patients requiring pancreatic resection. A potentially curative resection was performed when abdominal surgery was initially thought impossible. Notably, CHF has been associated with the development of cholangiocarcinoma in only four previous instances, with this case being only the second reported distal bile duct cholangiocarcinoma

Poisson structures on affine spaces and flag varieties. I. Matrix affine Poisson space

The standard Poisson structure on the rectangular matrix variety Mm,n(C) is investigated, via the orbits of symplectic leaves under the action of the maximal torus T ⊂ GLm+n(C). These orbits, finite in number, are shown to be smooth irreducible locally closed subvarieties of Mm,n(C), isomorphic to intersections of dual Schubert cells in the full flag variety of GLm+n(C). Three different presentations of the T-orbits of symplectic leaves in Mm,n(C) are obtained – (a) as pullbacks of Bruhat cells in GLm+n(C) under a particular map; (b) in terms of rank conditions on rectangular submatrices; and (c) as matrix products of sets similar to double Bruhat cells in GLm(C) and GLn(C). In presentation (a), the orbits of leaves are parametrized by a subset of the Weyl group Sm+n, such that inclusions of Zariski closures correspond to the Bruhat order. Presentation (b) allows explicit calculations of orbits. From presentation (c) it follows that, up to Zariski closure, each orbit of leaves is a matrix product of one orbit with a fixed column-echelon form and one with a fixed rowechelon form. Finally, decompositions of generalized double Bruhat cells in Mm,n(C) (with respect to pairs of partial permutation matrices) into unions of T-orbits of symplectic leaves are obtained

Interplay of Mott Transition and Ferromagnetism in the Orbitally Degenerate Hubbard Model

A slave boson representation for the degenerate Hubbard model is introduced. The location of the metal to insulator transition that occurs at commensurate densities is shown to depend weakly on the band degeneracy M. The relative weights of the Hubbard sub-bands depend strongly on M, as well as the magnetic properties. It is also shown that a sizable Hund's rule coupling is required in order to have a ferromagnetic instability appearing. The metal to insulator transition driven by an increase in temperature is a strong function of it.Comment: 5 pages, revtex, 5 postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Climate Change in Queensland's Grazing Lands: II. An Assessment of the Impact on Animal Production From Native Pastures

The 160 million ha of grazing land in Queensland support approximately 10 million beef equivalents (9.8 million cattle and 10.7 million sheep) with treed and cleared native pastures as the major forage source. The complexity of these biophysical systems and their interaction with pasture and stock management, economic and social forces limits our ability to easily calculate the impact of climate change scenarios. We report the application of a systems approach in simulating the flow of plant dry matter and utilisation of forage by animals. Our review of available models highlighted the lack of suitable mechanistic models and the potential role of simple empirical relationships of utilisation and animal production derived from climatic and soil indices. Plausible climate change scenarios were evaluated by using a factorial of rainfall (f 10%) * 3260C temperature increase * doubling CO, in sensitivity studies at property, regional and State scales. Simulation of beef cattle liveweight gain at three locations in the Queensland black speargrass zone showed that a *lo% change in rainfall was magnified to be a f 15% change in animal production (liveweight gain per ha) depending on location, temperature and CO, change. Models of 'safe' carrying capacity were developed from property data and expert opinion. Climate change impacts on 'safe' carrying capacity varied considerably across the State depending on whether moisture, temperature or nutrients were the limiting factors. Without the effect of doubling CO,, warmer temperatures and +lo% changes in rainfall resulted in -35 to +70% changes in 'safe' carrying capacity depending on location. With the effect of doubling CO, included, the changes in 'safe' carrying capacity ranged from -12 to +115% across scenarios and locations. When aggregated to a whole-of-State carrying capacity, the combined effects of warmer temperature, doubling CO, and +lo% changes in rainfall resulted in 'safe' carrying capacity changes of +3 to +45% depending on rainfall scenario and location. A major finding of the sensitivity study was the potential importance of doubling CO, in mitigating or amplifying the effects of warmer temperatures and changes in rainfall. Field studies on the impact of CO, are therefore a high research priority. Keywords: climate change, Queensland, simulation, rangelands, beef production, cattle, carrying capacity, CO,, utilisatio

Inhomogeneities in dusty universe - a possible alternative to dark energy?

There have been of late renewed debates on the role of inhomogeneities to explain the observed late acceleration of the universe. We have looked into the problem analytically with the help of the well known spherically symmetric but inhomogeneous Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi(LTB) model generalised to higher dimensions. It is observed that in contrast to the claim made by Kolb et al the presence of inhomogeneities as well as extra dimensions can not reverse the signature of the deceleration parameter if the matter field obeys the energy conditions. The well known Raychaudhuri equation also points to the same result. Without solving the field equations explicitly it can, however, be shown that although the total deceleration is positive everywhere nevertheless it does not exclude the possibility of having radial acceleration, even in the pure dust universe, if the angular scale factor is decelerating fast enough and vice versa. Moreover it is found that introduction of extra dimensions can not reverse the scenario. To the contrary it actually helps the decelerating process.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

User guide BGS Coastal Vulnerability Index version 1

Coastal vulnerability indexing is a GIS-based analysis tool for indicating multi-hazards and interdependencies within the coastal zone of Great Britain (GB). The mainland of Great Britain is surrounded by over 11 000 miles of coastline. It is a very diverse coastline both in terms of geology and geomorphology, ranging from the high chalk cliffs of Sussex to the flat expanses of The Wash and Morecambe Bay. The coast has been shaped by the continual forces of erosion from the wind, waves and tide and the characteristics and composition of the coastline dictate the degree of its vulnerability. The winter storms of 2013-14 starkly demonstrated the vulnerability of the GB coastline to erosion and overtopping but during media enquiries it became clear that a national picture of the sections of coastline susceptible to erosion didn’t exist. The Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) has been created to bring together a suite of data to fill this knowledge gap. With climate change forecasts of an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms, BGS has developed a coastal vulnerability index (CVI), drawing on existing BGS datasets and expertise, and we intend to work in collaboration with other organisations to help manage these changes in the future. The CVI will offer anyone with assets or an interest in the coastline around Great Britain access to easy-to use indexes linked to geohazard data. This will allow users to interpret potential interdependencies in terms of erosion, flooding, habitat and other vulnerabilities. Version 1 of the CVI represents the natural geological coastline (around the mainland of GB only) as if no coastal defences or made ground are present. Due to their complex geometry, the coastlines of N and W Scotland have not been included in version 1. This will be of particular value in areas where coastal defences are no longer maintained. Future versions of the CVI will include all coastal defences and made ground

User guide British Geological Survey Coastal Vulnerability Dataset (version 1)

This report describes the national scale BGS Coastal Vulnerability Dataset. The methods used to create the dataset have been critically assessed and its fitness for purpose determined by specialists in BGS. This document outlines the background to why the dataset was created, its potential uses and gives a brief description of the content. Technical information regarding the GIS and how the data was created is described and advice is provided on using the dataset

Scalar hairy black holes and solitons in asymptotically flat spacetimes

A numerical analysis shows that a class of scalar-tensor theories of gravity with a scalar field minimally and nonminimally coupled to the curvature allows static and spherically symmetric black hole solutions with scalar-field hair in asymptotically flat spacetimes. In the limit when the horizon radius of the black hole tends to zero, regular scalar solitons are found. The asymptotically flat solutions are obtained provided that the scalar potential $V(\phi)$ of the theory is not positive semidefinite and such that its local minimum is also a zero of the potential, the scalar field settling asymptotically at that minimum. The configurations for the minimal coupling case, although unstable under spherically symmetric linear perturbations, are regular and thus can serve as counterexamples to the no-scalar-hair conjecture. For the nonminimal coupling case, the stability will be analyzed in a forthcoming paper.Comment: 7 pages, 10 postscript figures, file tex, new postscript figs. and references added, stability analysis revisite