Using an inverse-logistic model to describe growth increments of blacklip abalone (Haliotis rubra) in Tasmania

A new description of growth in blacklip abalone (Haliotis rubra) with the use of an inverse-logistic model is introduced. The inverse-logistic model avoids the disadvantageous assumptions of either rapid or slow growth for small and juvenile individuals implied by the von Bertalanffy and Gompertz growth models, respectively, and allows for indeterminate growth where necessary. An inverse-logistic model was used to estimate the expected mean growth increment for different black-lip abalone populations around southern Tasmania, Australia. Estimates of the time needed for abalone to grow from settlement until recruitment (at 138 mm shell length) into the fishery varied from eight to nine years. The variability of the residuals about the predicted mean growth increments was described with either a second inverse-logistic relationship (standard deviation vs. initial length) or by a power relationship (standard deviation vs. predicted growth increment). The inverse-logistic model can describe linear growth of small and juvenile abalone (as observed in Tasmania), as well as a spectrum of growth possibilities, from determinate to indeterminate growth (a spectrum that would lead to a spread of maximum lengths)

The character of telework and the characteristics of teleworkers

A flexible definition of teleworking suggests that it is more widespread than is generally believed. However, is telework technologically driven? This is tested with data from six countries. As the categories of the definition have distinctive social characteristics, telework seems to reflect traditional occupational practices rather than a major technological shift

Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) - Report of the Working Group on Harvest Control Rules (SGRST 08-02)

SGRST-08-02 was held on 9-13 June 2008 in Lowestoft (UK). For a number of fish stocks, long-term management plans have been agreed and implemented. For those stocks not yet subject to long-term plans, the Commission must propose fishing opportunities that are sustainable inter alia in biological terms. Candidate harvest control rules were evaluated to determine the likely consequences of the application of such rules, for a typical range of biological stock situations currently encountered in Community waters. In total 34 different harvest rule scenarios were evaluated for setting TACs for two generalised fish stocks with different life history parameters. These scenario evaluations fall into two main groups: Evaluations of HCR rules based on the results from analytical assessments and evaluations of HCR rules when no analytical assessment is available. The performances of the harvest control rules are discussed and a number of modifications proposed. STECF reviewed the report during its plenary meeting on 7-11 July 2008.JRC.G.4-Maritime affair

Long-term trends in invertebrate-habitat relationships under protected and fished conditions

Few studies examine the long-term effects of changing predator size and abundance on the habitat associations of resident organisms despite that this knowledge is critical to understand the ecosystem effects of fishing. Marine reserves offer the opportunity to determine ecosystem-level effects of manipulated predator densities, while parallel monitoring of adjacent fished areas allows separating these effects from regional-scale change. Relationships between two measures of benthic habitat structure (reef architecture and topographic complexity) and key invertebrate species were followed over 17years at fished and protected subtidal rocky reefs associated with two southern Australian marine reserves. Two commercially harvested species, the southern rock lobster (Jasus edwardsii) and blacklip abalone (Haliotis rubra) were initially weakly associated with habitat structure across all fished and protected sites. The strength of association with habitat for both species increased markedly at protected sites 2years after marine reserve declaration, and then gradually weakened over subsequent years. The increasing size of rock lobster within reserves apparently reduced their dependency on reef shelters as refuges from predation. Rising predation by fish and rock lobster in the reserves corresponded with weakening invertebrate-habitat relationships for H. rubra and sea urchins (Heliocidaris erythrogramma). These results emphasise that animal-habitat relationships are not necessarily stable through time and highlight the value of marine reserves as reference sites. Our work shows that fishery closures to enhance populations of commercially important and keystone species should be in areas with a range of habitat features to accommodate shifting ecological requirements with ontogenesis

Anthropological proselytism : reflexive questions for a Hare Krishna ethnography

This paper is an anthropological exegesis on the Hare Krishna theology and practice of sankirtana - a form of proselytisation in which devotees chant the Holy Names of the Lord through city streets and in other public places, and which can also involve other means of 'spreading the word'. This is also an inquiry into the relationship between anthropology and proselytism and their respective modes of communication, a topic I approach reflexively by addressing the awkward methodological question as to whether my writing about Hare Krishna proselytisation is itself a form of proselytisation.20 page(s

The nectar of translation: conversion, mimesis, and cultural translation in Krishna Consciousness

"July 2003".Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy, Department of Anthropology, 2004.Bibliography: p. 337-345.Introduction: representing ISKCON: spreading the message of Krishna Consciousness -- "Easy journey" to another planet: fieldwork, culture conversion, and the location of the spiritual -- A taste for Krishna: aesthetic theology and transubstantiation of culture -- Spiritual culture: varnasrama-dharma and brahminical training -- ISKCON and imitation: appropriating the model in Gaudiya-Vaisnavism -- Remembering Prabhupada: hagiography as spiritual practice -- The nectar of translation: mantra, text and the "yoga of spiritual transmission" -- Conclusion: conversion, mimesis, translation: self-realisation and the other in Krishna Consciousness.This is a cultural anthropological study of The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), or the Hare Krishna movement. Data for this research derive primarily from ethnographic participant-observation, and include tape-recorded interviews with Hare Krishna informants as well as ISKCON literature collected during fieldwork. -- Analysis focuses on Hare Krishna techniques (saddhana, or yoga) of religious transformation, including physical, aesthetic, and discursive practices involved in the pursuit of spiritual realisation in ISKCON. Conversion, mimesis, and translation are the three key conceptual themes which inform a critical analysis of the production and effect of cultural difference in Hare Krishna spiritual practice. Ethnicity and conversion emerge as parallel concerns as the involvement of diasporic Indian and Indo-Fijian Hindus at the congregational level of ISKCON's ministry in Sydney, Australia, is examined for its effect on Western converts' experiences of Krishna Consciousness. A new conceptual approach to the meaning of 'conversion' to ISKCON is developed from this account. -- Recent sectarian developments in ISKCON's relationship with the Indian tradition of Gaudiya-Vaisnavism are also examined within a comparative theological framework. Hagiographic practices surrounding ISKCON's Bengali founder, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977), and textual practices surrounding the founder's translations of Vaisnavite scripture, are both analysed as core features of Hare Krishna spirituality. The theological significance of these practices is directly correlated with recent sectarian tensions between ISKCON and the Indian tradition.Mode of access: World Wide Web.345 p. ill. (some col.

Contested genealogies and cross-cultural dynamics in the Hare Krishna movement

When and where to begin the story of Hare Krishna? I could begin by tracing the genealogy of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON, or the Hare Krishna movement) back to the long established tradition of Krishna devotionalism to which its founding leader, the Bengali Vaisnava renunciate A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977), belonged in India. ISKCON devotees themselves trace their sacred genealogy, through Prabhupada and the Bengali Vaisnava tradition, all the way back to Lord Krishna (God) Himself. As an outside observer, I can tentatively concede there is a historical Indian tradition which Prabhupada represented