The Biology and Aquaculture Potential of the Tropical Freshwater Crayfish, Cherax quadricarinatus

Despite the lack of significant development of freshwater crayfish farming elsewhere in Australia, in 1980 a group of enterprising farmers from south-east Queensland introduced the Western Australian marron (Cherax tenuimanus) which they surmised would perform well under the warmer and more equable Queensland climate. Some success and expansion of the industry was achieved until the particularly warm summer of 1986, when the bulk of the marron died. Even prior to this natural disaster, some farmers were looking for alternative species, better suited to the sub-tropics. A relatively unknown crayfish from north Queensland, Cherax quadricarinatus entered the scene and commercial trials in ex-marron ponds began. It was soon evident that this species had a substantially greater potential

Getting the Better of the Bargain: Technical Intelligence, Arms Sales, and Anglo-Israeli Relations 1967–1974

This analysis explores the nature of Anglo-Israeli intelligence relations between 1967 and 1974, focusing in particular on how the legacy of the British mandate in Palestine, the influence of senior British diplomats, as well as wider commercial interests shaped attempts by intelligence officials on both sides to move this relationship beyond the purely functional. Whilst Israel looked to barter access to recently captured Soviet equipment for greater collaboration with the British in weapons development and arms sales, London demurred. Despite the urging of some in Whitehall, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office limited any collaboration to functional exchanges and kept them firmly in the shadows. The aftermath of the October 1973 war revealed the price paid by Britain. With Israel now dependent on Washington for the bulk of its military equipment, London’s ability to exercise any influence over Tel Aviv in reaching an accommodation with its Arab neighbours diminished greatly

Ideo-theology and the Jewish State : From conflict to conciliation?

The assassination of Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin provided the most vivid demonstration to date of religious-nationalist opposition inside Israel to the principle of exchanging land for peace. This article sets out to explore this world view and its intellectual origins, exploring in the process how the use of sacred Judaic texts have become both the monopoly of religious-nationalism and the template for politically inspired violence against those in Israel suspected of condoning territorial compromise. This article concludes that if the ideotheology of religious-nationalists is to be assuaged, a religious discourse supporting territorial retrenchment has to become part of the political fabric of the centre-left in Israel.Instituto de Relaciones Internacionales (IRI

The life and prose works of Amelia Opie (1769-1853)

This thesis examines the life and prose works of Amelia Opie. It explores the moral and social ideology of the novels and tales, setting them in the context of Opie's own ideological development as she moves from the radicalism of the 1790s, through a period of intellectual and religious uncertainty to her conversion to Quakerism in 1825. It draws on a detailed analysis of all Opie's extant writing in prose, including a comprehensive survey of her letters. Biographical criticism has been rather unfashionable in recent years, though this is beginning to change. The argument put forward here is that only through detailed biographical case studies is it possible to understand the complex and shifting alignments and allegiances of the period 1790 to 1830. This has often been characterised as an era in which both society and literature were highly polarised, with a clear division between radicals and conservatives. Careful analysis of Opie's life and work reveals the difficulties involved in categorising her in either camp, and her case exemplifies the way in which this very limited, and limiting, perspective can misrepresent or oversimplify the position of individuals within this period. Opie's position was both complex at any given time, embodying elements of both radical and conservative thought, and developed and changed over time in response to public and private events. Attempts to see her as a radical, on the one hand, or conservative, on the other, are bound to distort the interpretation of her writings and the assessment of her wider significance as a writer. This thesis therefore aims to provide a new insight into the work of Amelia Opie and also to represent the importance and value of a biographically sensitive criticism to a full understanding of both individual writers and the periods in which they work. An appendix to the thesis provides an annotated register of approximately four hundred of her letters, giving details of their location

Redclaw Crayfish

Redclaw, Cherax quadricarinatus, is a species of freshwater crayfish native to the rivers of north-west Queensland and the Northern Territory. Although well known to the locals of this isolated region of tropical Australia, it remained effectively unknown to the rest of Australia until the late 1980s. Redclaw is advantaged by a host of physical, biological and commercial attributes which make it an excellent candidate for aquaculture. It is a robust species with broad geographic potential, has a simple life-cycle and straight-forward production technology, requires simple foods and is economic to produce. The texture and flavour of the flesh compares very favourably with other commonly eaten marine crustaceans, and because it looks like a lobster, it is positioned at the premium end of the crustacean market spectrum. While current production at around 60 t/year is primarily marketed domestically, the growth potential for the industry lies with the substantial export demand for this product. Although a native Australian, redclaw’s excellent aquaculture attributes have seen it transplanted to several other countries where commercial production has been established. In the short-term this will be to Australia’s advantage in increasing the market profile of this new product. Longer term, Australia will maintain a production advantage based on access to the broad genetic pool of native stocks, sustainability due to thorough environmental regulations, and isolation from recognised diseases which have decimated off-shore industries. Redclaw aquaculture in Australia is poised for significant expansion. The basic resources of suitable land and water are readily available throughout northern Australia, and could potentially support production of several thousands of tonnes. The challenge for the industry is to increase production, through expansion and new investment, so as to lift production volumes to a point where the substantial quantities required by identified export markets can be consistently supplied. Production technologies, while still being developed, are at a stage where ‘best practice’ methods have been identified. These technologies are relatively straight-forward and the skill levels required of practitioners are not onerous. Supporting documentation and training are readily available

Spiny lobster aquaculture development in Indonesia, Vietnam and Australia

The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) co-sponsored, with the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, a Symposium in Lombok Indonesia, as a forum to present findings from the project SMAR/2008/021, to discuss constraints and opportunities for the developing Indonesian lobster aquaculture industry and to identify key issues that further research might help to resolve

Spiny lobster aquaculture development in Indonesia, Vietnam and Australia

The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) co-sponsored, with the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, a Symposium in Lombok Indonesia, as a forum to present findings from the project SMAR/2008/021, to discuss constraints and opportunities for the developing Indonesian lobster aquaculture industry and to identify key issues that further research might help to resolve

Recent advances and future directions in practical diet formulation and adoption in tropical Palinurid lobster aquaculture

The spiny lobsters Panulirus ornatus and Panulirus homarus are important developing tropical aquaculture species, with high demand and limited supply. The established industry in Vietnam relies on wild-caught mixed seafood bycatch as feed, a practice linked to water quality degradation and potentially disease proliferation in lobster aquaculture, necessitating formulated feed development. The emerging Indonesian and Australian industries lack the crustacean and mollusc component of the seafood bycatch used in Vietnam, increasing the need for manufactured feeds. Development of such feeds is reliant on knowledge of nutrient requirements, ingredient quality, physical feed requirements, and the link between feeding behaviour and feeding methods. This review will elaborate on the development of these knowledge areas to date and outline the two main reference diet recipes that are available as the basis for future research. Research to date has focused on developing a feed recipe that will be consumed and supports adequate growth rather than steering commercial least-cost formulation practices. Future research is clearly needed to inform formulation, but equally an understanding of the disparate emerging lobster farming industries and their drivers for adoption of formulated feeds is required to ensure that such research is applied. This will require engagement throughout the supply chain to ensure that research is implementable and to address farmer perception toward formulated feeds. Technical aspects of feed manufacture and scale-up of feed developments will be critical to adoption of research results, while validation though semi-commercial benchmarks and demonstration farm models are expected to increase commercial uptake of developed feeds

Constraining the Anomalous Microwave Emission Mechanism in the S140 Star Forming Region with Spectroscopic Observations Between 4 and 8 GHz at the Green Bank Telescope

Anomalous microwave emission (AME) is a category of Galactic signals that cannot be explained by synchrotron radiation, thermal dust emission, or optically thin free-free radiation. Spinning dust is one variety of AME that could be partially polarized and therefore relevant for ongoing and future cosmic microwave background polarization studies. The Planck satellite mission identified candidate AME regions in approximately $1^\circ$ patches that were found to have spectra generally consistent with spinning dust grain models. The spectra for one of these regions, G107.2+5.2, was also consistent with optically thick free-free emission because of a lack of measurements between 2 and 20 GHz. Follow-up observations were needed. Therefore, we used the C-band receiver (4 to 8 GHz) and the VEGAS spectrometer at the Green Bank Telescope to constrain the AME mechanism. For the study described in this paper, we produced three band averaged maps at 4.575, 5.625, and 6.125 GHz and used aperture photometry to measure the spectral flux density in the region relative to the background. We found if the spinning dust description is correct, then the spinning dust signal peaks at $30.9 \pm 1.4$ GHz, and it explains the excess emission. The morphology and spectrum together suggest the spinning dust grains are concentrated near S140, which is a star forming region inside our chosen photometry aperture. If the AME is sourced by optically thick free-free radiation, then the region would have to contain HII with an emission measure of $5.27^{+2.5}_{-1.5}\times 10^8$ $\rm{cm^{-6}\,pc}$ and a physical extent of $1.01^{+0.21}_{-0.20} \times 10^{-2}\,\rm{pc}$. This result suggests the HII would have to be ultra or hyper compact to remain an AME candidate.Comment: 21 pages, 14 figures. Submitted to Ap