Risk Management Strategies by Australian Farmers

Australian farmers operate in one of the most risky environment in the world. They have to cope with various sources of risk in their businesses. This paper reports results of two case studies undertaken to examine the issues of farming risks and risk management strategies in Australia. The first case study found that climate variability, financial risk, marketing risk, and personal risk were regarded as the major sources of farming risk in the Upper Eyre Peninsula of South Australia. The main management strategies used by farmers included diversifying varieties, minimising tillage, minimising area of risky crops and maximising area of the least-risky crop, having high equity, having farm management deposits and other off-farm investments, and "leaving marketing to experts". The second case study revealed that climate variability was ranked as the most important source of farming risk in southwest Queensland. This was then followed by financial risks, government policy, and marketing risks. The main management strategies used were enterprise diversification (having predominantly cattle and farming cash crops), conserving moisture, using zero till planting, diversified sales (selling only part of the farm's production at any one time), and having off-farm investments. The paper then attempts to reconcile the two case studies by comparing the results with studies from the United States of America, Canada, Netherlands, and New Zealand.risk, risk management, strategies, farmers, Australia, Farm Management, Risk and Uncertainty,

Curriculum implementation exploratory studies: Final report

Throughout the history of schooling in New Zealand the national curriculum has been revised at fairly regular intervals. Consequently, schools are periodically faced with having to accommodate to new curriculum. In between major changes other specifically-focused changes may arise; for example, the increased recent emphasis upon numeracy and literacy

Tuberculosis immunopathology: the neglected role of extracellular matrix destruction

The extracellular matrix in the lung must be destroyed for Mycobacterium tuberculosis—the agent that causes tuberculosis (TB)—to spread. The current paradigm proposes that this destruction occurs as a result of the action of proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines, immune cells, and lipids that mediate TB-associated necrosis in the lung. However, this view neglects the fact that lung matrix can only be degraded by proteases. We propose an original conceptual framework of TB immunopathology that may lead directly to treatments that involve inhibition of matrix metalloproteinase activity to hinder matrix destruction and reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with T

Bristol Girls Dance Project Feasibility Trial: Outcome and process evaluation results

Background: Many adolescent girls do not engage in sufficient physical activity (PA). This study examined the feasibility of conducting a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate an after-school dance program to increase PA among 11-12 year old girls in Bristol, UK.Methods: Three-arm, cluster RCT. Three secondary schools were assigned to intervention arm. Intervention participants received a 9-week dance program with 2, 90-minute dance classes per week. Participants at 2 control schools received incentives for data collection. Participants at 2 additional control schools received incentives and a delayed dance workshop. Accelerometer data were collected at baseline (time 0), during the last week of the dance program (time 1) and 20 weeks after the start of the study (time 2). Weekly attendance, enjoyment and perceived exertion were assessed in intervention participants. Post-study qualitative work was conducted with intervention participants and personnel.Results: 40.1% of girls provided consent to be in the study. The mean number of girls attending at least one dance session per week ranged from 15.4 to 25.9. There was greater number of participants for whom accelerometer data were collected in control arms. The mean attendance was 13.3 sessions (maximum = 18). Perceived exertion ratings indicated that the girls did not find the sessions challenging. The dance teachers reported that the program content would benefit from revisions including less creative task time, a broader range of dance genres and improved behavioral management policies. At time 2, the 95% confidence intervals suggest between 5 and 12 minutes more weekday MVPA in the intervention group compared with the control incentives only group, and between 6 minutes fewer and 1 minute more compared with the control incentives plus workshop group. Between 14 and 24 schools would be required to detect a difference of 10 minutes in mean weekday MVPA between intervention and control groups.Conclusions: It is possible to recruit 11-12 year old girls to participate in an after-school dance study. An after-school dance intervention has potential to positively affect the PA levels of 11-12 year old girls but an adequately powered RCT is required to test this intervention approach. © 2012 Jago et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Some , And Possibly All, Scalar Inferences Are Not Delayed: Evidence For Immediate Pragmatic Enrichment

Scalar inferences are commonly generated when a speaker uses a weaker expression rather than a stronger alternative, e.g., John ate some of the apples implies that he did not eat them all. This article describes a visual-world study investigating how and when perceivers compute these inferences. Participants followed spoken instructions containing the scalar quantifier some directing them to interact with one of several referential targets (e.g., Click on the girl who has some of the balloons). Participants fixated on the target compatible with the implicated meaning of some and avoided a competitor compatible with the literal meaning prior to a disambiguating noun. Further, convergence on the target was as fast for some as for the non-scalar quantifiers none and all. These findings indicate that the scalar inference is computed immediately and is not delayed relative to the literal interpretation of some. It is argued that previous demonstrations that scalar inferences increase processing time are not necessarily due to delays in generating the inference itself, but rather arise because integrating the interpretation of the inference with relevant information in the context may require additional time. With sufficient contextual support, processing delays disappear

Design of the Subpopulations and Intermediate Outcome Measures in COPD (SPIROMICS) AIR Study.

IntroductionPopulation-based epidemiological evidence suggests that exposure to ambient air pollutants increases hospitalisations and mortality from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but less is known about the impact of exposure to air pollutants on patient-reported outcomes, morbidity and progression of COPD.Methods and analysisThe Subpopulations and Intermediate Outcome Measures in COPD (SPIROMICS) Air Pollution Study (SPIROMICS AIR) was initiated in 2013 to investigate the relation between individual-level estimates of short-term and long-term air pollution exposures, day-to-day symptom variability and disease progression in individuals with COPD. SPIROMICS AIR builds on a multicentre study of smokers with COPD, supplementing it with state-of-the-art air pollution exposure assessments of fine particulate matter, oxides of nitrogen, ozone, sulfur dioxide and black carbon. In the parent study, approximately 3000 smokers with and without airflow obstruction are being followed for up to 3 years for the identification of intermediate biomarkers which predict disease progression. Subcohorts undergo daily symptom monitoring using comprehensive daily diaries. The air monitoring and modelling methods employed in SPIROMICS AIR will provide estimates of individual exposure that incorporate residence-specific infiltration characteristics and participant-specific time-activity patterns. The overarching study aim is to understand the health effects of short-term and long-term exposures to air pollution on COPD morbidity, including exacerbation risk, patient-reported outcomes and disease progression.Ethics and disseminationThe institutional review boards of all the participating institutions approved the study protocols. The results of the trial will be presented at national and international meetings and published in peer-reviewed journals

In situ micro gas tungsten constricted arc welding of ultra-thin walled 2.275 mm outer diameter grade 2 commercially pure titanium tubing

Ultra-thin walled cooling tubes for heat exchangers and condenser units have applications in multiple high-value manufacturing industries. Grade 2 commercially pure titanium (CP-2 Ti) requires far less mass to achieve the same mass flow handling abilities as stainless steel tubing yet it is more challenging to join, particularly at wall thicknesses less than 500 μm (termed ultra-thin walled tube). This paper presents a single-pass joinery method that produces reliable welds on 2.275 mm outer diameter (OD), 160 ± 10 μm wall thickness tubing with a service life of 20 of more years. This is achieved through an automated orbital gas tungsten constricted arc welding (GTCAW) process incorporating enveloping low-mass sleeves used in tandem with a buttressing internal gas pressure to support the molten metal and maintain consistent internal diameter inside the tube. The industrial applicability is demonstrated through the production of a 1:1 scale mock-up of a fixed geometry CO2 cooling circuit for a next-generation particle detector. The tensile strengths of the joints, 403.8 ± 4.2 MPa, exceed the tensile strength of the parent CP-2 Ti

Fibrinogen regulates the cytotoxicity of mycobacterial trehalose dimycolate, but is not required for cell recruitment, cytokine response, or control of mycobacterial infection

During inflammatory responses and wound healing, the conversion of soluble fibrinogen to fibrin, an insoluble extracellular matrix, long has been assumed to create a scaffold for the migration of leukocytes and fibroblasts. Previous studies concluded that fibrinogen is a necessary cofactor for mycobacterial trehalose 6,6-dimycolate-induced responses, because trehalose dimycolate-coated beads, to which fibrinogen was ad-sorbed, were more inflammatory than those to which other plasma proteins were adsorbed. Herein, we investigate roles for fibrin(ogen) in an in vivo model of mycobacterial granuloma formation and in infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis. In wild-type mice, the subcutaneous injection of trehalose dimycolate-coated polystyrene microspheres, suspended within Matrigel, elicited a pyogranulomatous response during the course of 12 days. In fibrinogen-deficient mice, neutrophils were recruited but a more suppurative lesion developed, with the marked degradation and disintegration of the matrix. Compared to that in wild-type mice, the early formation of granulation tissue in fibrinogen-deficient mice was edematous, hypocellular, and disorganized. These deficiencies were complemented by the addition of exogenous fibrinogen. The absence of fibrinogen had no effect on cell recruitment or cytokine production i

A symmetry breaking mechanism for selecting the speed of relativistic solitons

We propose a mechanism for fixing the velocity of relativistic soliton based on the breaking of the Lorentz symmetry of the sine-Gordon (SG) model. The proposal is first elaborated for a molecular chain model, as the simple pendulum limit of a double pendulums chain. It is then generalized to a full class of two-dimensional field theories of the sine-Gordon type. From a phenomenological point of view, the mechanism allows one to select the speed of a SG soliton just by tuning elastic couplings constants and kinematical parameters. From a fundamental, field-theoretical point of view we show that the characterizing features of relativistic SG solitons (existence of conserved topological charges and stability) may be still preserved even if the Lorentz symmetry is broken and a soliton of a given speed is selected.Comment: 23 pages, no figure