Perception of native grasslands in south-eastern Australia: some implications for landscape aesthetics and other landscape values

Grasslands are considered to be Australia’s most threatened ecosystems, yet relatively little is known about human preferences and attitudes which contribute to continued degradation of these landscapes. In a study conducted in south-eastern Australia, landholders were asked to assess the agricultural, ecological and aesthetic value of native grassland and other rural landscapes. The results confirm suggestions of low regard for treeless landscapes. Landholders’ preferences for native grass on their own property appear most closely related to the perceived aesthetic value of the landscape. This paper discusses the implication of these findings for programs seeking to protect native grasslands on private properties

Landscape preferences, ecological quality and biodiversity protection

The loss of biological diversity is a major environmental problem occurring on a global scale. Human-environment researchers have an important role in shaping policy and programs at a local, national and international level. This paper explores human preference for landscapes relative to ecological quality and assesses the relationship between these preferences and land management behavior. A survey of more than 1000 urban and rural residents of southeastern Australia examined preferences for 36 black and white photographs of native vegetation. There was more commonality than difference between urban and rural preference for different arrays of native vegetation. Preference for Eucalyptus species was higher than preference for non-Eucalyptus species. Preference ratings indicate minimal differences across landscapes with distinct variation in ecological quality. The study suggests that preference for landscapes of relatively high ecological quality is associated with behavior that is protective of this resource

The Morita equivalence between parametrized spectra and module spectra

We give a Quillen equivalence between May and Sigurdsson's model category of parametrized spectra over BG, and Mandell, May, Schwede, and Shipley's model category of modules over the orthogonal ring spectrum \Sigma^\infty_+ G, for each topological group G. More generally, for a topological category C we introduce an "aggregate" model structure on the category of diagrams of spectra indexed by C, and prove that it is Quillen equivalent to spectra over BC. This lifts several earlier results, and leads to a complete characterization of the dualizable parametrized spectra, answering a question of May and Sigurdsson.Comment: 24 pages, to appear in Contemporary Mathematic

The Transfer is Functorial

We prove that the Becker-Gottlieb transfer is functorial up to homotopy, for all fibrations with finitely dominated fibers. This resolves a lingering foundational question about the transfer, which was originally defined in the late 1970s in order to simplify the proof of the Adams conjecture. Our approach differs from previous attempts in that we closely emulate the geometric argument in the case of a smooth fiber bundle. This leads to a "multiplicative'" description of the transfer, different from the standard presentation as the trace of a diagonal map.Comment: This is the final preprint version. The article is to appear in the Advances in Mathematic

SUSTAINABLE AGRIBUSINESS: DEVELOPING LOCAL SOLUTIONS TO GLOBAL CHALLENGES IN THE REGIONAL AGRIBUSINESS SECTOR IN AUSTRALIA

The competitiveness of the agribusiness sector is critical to the social and economic sustainability of regional Australia, where agribusiness is directly responsible for one in five jobs (DNRE, 2002). Although it is recognised that environmental issues must be considered in order to 'sustain' the natural resources used to produce food, this paper focuses on the social and economic issues relating to sustainability (Cocklin et at., 2001). Social sustainability has only recently been upheld as an aim of agricultural and regional policy in Australia, however, it has typically been considered less important than economic and ecological sustainability (Cocklin et al., 2001). In rural Australia, social sustainability is typically reflected in the maintenance of social networks among residents of a rural area, the viability of the rural towns and the associated provision of infrastructure, facilities and services. The State Government of Victoria is actively encouraging the development and maintenance of sustainable networks of agribusiness-related entities in regional and rural Victoria. The Victoria Agribusiness Networks program is an example of how government is engaging agribusiness communities in regional Victoria.Agribusiness,

Origin and reduction of wakefields in photonic crystal accelerator cavities

Photonic crystal (PhC) defect cavities that support an accelerating mode tend to trap unwanted higher-order modes (HOMs) corresponding to zero-group-velocity PhC lattice modes at the top of the bandgap. The effect is explained quite generally from photonic band and perturbation theoretical arguments. Transverse wakefields resulting from this effect are observed in a hybrid dielectric PhC accelerating cavity based on a triangular lattice of sapphire rods. These wakefields are, on average, an order of magnitude higher than those in the waveguide-damped Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) copper cavities. The avoidance of translational symmetry (and, thus, the bandgap concept) can dramatically improve HOM damping in PhC-based structures.Comment: 11 pages, 18 figures, 2 table