Issues and Research Needs of the Australian Organic Food Products Market

Worldwide, the demand for organic food products has expanded rapidly in the past decade, stimulated by consumer perceptions that organic products are safer, cleaner and more ethical than conventional products. The demand for organic products is estimated to be growing at a rate of 15-20 per cent per annum, with sales reaching $US23 billion in 2002. The biggest growth in consumption has occurred in developed countries such as the United States and Europe, which are major importers of organic foods. Australia, as a major exporter of agricultural products, stands to benefit from this expansion in demand. However, little is known about the organic industry by other agribusinesses and little research on organics has been conducted in Australia, especially compared to the United States and Europe. The objective of this paper is to provide a contemporary overview of the Australian organic food products industry, including production, marketing and certification of organic foods. Major supply issues such as the small production base and the low rate of conversion to organic farming and major demand issues such as availability, prices and product integrity are discussed. Areas identified for further research include data collection and reporting of production, consumption and trade of organic products, consumer and producer attitudes towards, and expectations of, organic farming, product integrity and labelling regulation, competition from other sustainable farming systems, and future industry structure of the organic sector. Outputs from the research will provide market information to the organic industry that helps identify marketing opportunities and develop strategies for meeting market requirements and sustaining industry growth.Agribusiness, Marketing,

An Overview of the Organic Food Products Market in Australia

Worldwide, the demand for organic food products appears to have expanded quickly in recent years, stimulated by consumer perceptions that organic products are safe, clean and ethical. The growth rate was estimated to be around 10-20 per cent per annum in the next few years, with sales reaching $US 29-31 billion in 2005. The biggest growth in consumption has occurred in developed countries, such as the United States, Western Europe, and Japan that are also major importers of organic foods. It is clear that Australia, traditionally a major exporter of agricultural products, stands to benefit from the expansion in demand for organic products. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the Australian organic food products industry, including production, marketing and certification of organic foods, with the aim of assessing whether the opportunity presented in the world market will be able to be taken. Major issues facing the Australian organic industry are discussed and areas for future research are identified. Production issues include the small production base and conversion to organic farming, while marketing issues focus on prices and product integrity. When applicable, market situations for organics in Europe and the United States are also reviewed to serve as a reference point for comparison.Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Marketing,

Demand for Organic Food in Australia: Results from a Focus-Group Study

Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis,

Currency Hedging Strategies Using Dynamic Multivariate GARCH

This paper examines the effect on the effectiveness of using futures contracts as hedging instruments of: 1) the model of volatility used to estimate conditional variances and covariances, 2) the analyzed currency, and 3) the maturity of the futures contract being used. For this purpose, daily data of futures and spot exchange rates of three currencies, Euro, British pound and Japanese yen, against the American dollar are used to analyze hedge ratios and hedging effectiveness resulting from using two different maturity currency contracts, near-month and next-to-near-month contract. We estimate four multivariate volatility models (CCC, VARMA-AGARCH, DCC and BEKK) and calculate optimal portfolio weights and optimal hedge ratios to identify appropriate currency hedging strategies. Hedging effectiveness index suggests that the best results in terms of reducing the variance of the portfolio are for the USD/GBP exchange rate. The results show that futures hedging strategies are slightly more effective when the near-month future contract is used for the USD/GBP and USD/JPY currencies. Moreover, CCC and AGARCH models provide similar hedging effectiveness although some differences appear when the DCC and BEKK models are used.Multivariate GARCH, conditional correlations, exchange rates, optimal hedge ratio, optimal portfolio weights, hedging strategies.

Prospective unmasked randomized evaluation of the iStent inject (®) versus two ocular hypotensive agents in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare outcomes of subjects with open-angle glaucoma (OAG) not controlled on one medication who underwent either implantation of two iStent inject (®) trabecular micro-bypass devices or received medical therapy consisting of a fixed combination of latanoprost/timolol. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Of 192 subjects who qualified for the study and were enrolled, 94 were randomized to surgery with implantation of two iStent inject(®) devices in the treated eye and 98 to receive medical therapy. RESULTS: At the month 12 visit, 94.7% of eyes (89/94) in the stent group reported an unmedicated intraocular pressure (IOP) reduction of ≥20% versus baseline unmedicated IOP, and 91.8% of eyes (88/98) in the medical therapy group reported an IOP reduction ≥20% versus baseline unmedicated IOP. A 17.5% between-group treatment difference in favor of the iStent inject group was statistically significant (P=0.02) at the ≥50% level of IOP reduction. An IOP ≤18 mmHg was reported in 92.6% of eyes (87/94) in the iStent inject group and 89.8% of eyes (88/98) in the medical therapy group. Mean (standard deviation) IOP decreases from screening of 8.1 (2.6) mmHg and 7.3 (2.2) mmHg were reported in the iStent inject and medical therapy groups, respectively. A high safety profile was also noted in this study in both the iStent inject and medical therapy groups, as measured by stable best corrected visual acuity, cup-to-disc ratio, and adverse events. CONCLUSION: These data show that the use of iStent inject is at least as effective as two medications, with the clinical benefit of reducing medication burden and assuring continuous treatment with full compliance to implant therapy as well as having a highly favorable safety profile

Humor, music, and the mental world: the creation of‬‭ Laughter in the Deep‬ ‭

Humor serves as both an artistic tool and a mechanism for navigating complex emotional landscapes. Laughter in the Deep is a multimedia performance project that explores the intersection of humor, music, and mental states through a combination of pantomime, audiovisual counterpoint, and conceptual metaphor. The piece consists of three sections— “Snow, My Dearest Friend,” “Word of Mouth,” and “Albert Run”—each employing humor to highlight psychological tension and human vulnerability. The theoretical foundation for this work draws from Tom Schneller’s concepts of audiovisual parallelism and counterpoint, which articulate how the alignment or dissonance between sound and image can create comedic or dramatic effects. Conceptual Metaphor Theory further informs the compositional approach by mapping abstract emotional experiences onto concrete musical and theatrical elements. In “Snow, My Dearest Friend,” shifts between serene winter melodies and exaggerated physical reactions create an interplay between comfort and absurdity, using humor to reflect inner dissonance. “Word of Mouth” transforms the mundane discomfort of a dentist visit into an exaggerated sonic spectacle, where familiar dental sounds morph into industrial machinery, heightening the absurdity through metaphor and sound design. “Albert Run” explores humor in sound alone, as a ChatGPT-generated voice narrates an overwhelming mental struggle in an emotionally detached tone, juxtaposed against chaotic environmental sounds to amplify the contrast between narration and lived experience. The creative process behind Laughter in the Deep emerged organically, with theoretical frameworks applied retrospectively to analyze the intuitive use of humor, music, and multimedia elements. The work extends prior explorations of non-verbal drama, digital interaction, and musical humor, expanding on influences from comedic musicians and theatrical traditions. By integrating AI-generated narration, pantomime, and digital media, the piece not only engages with contemporary performance practices but also raises questions about the role of humor in processing anxiety, identity, and digital communication. Ultimately, Laughter in the Deep demonstrates how humor, when embedded within musical and theatrical structures, becomes a means of artistic and psychological exploration, transforming discomfort into a shared, cathartic experience.Musi

Mitotic chromosomes are compacted laterally by KIF4 and condensin and axially by topoisomerase IIα

© 2012 Samejima et al. This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication dateMitotic chromosome formation involves a relatively minor condensation of the chromatin volume coupled with a dramatic reorganization into the characteristic "X" shape. Here we report results of a detailed morphological analysis, which revealed that chromokinesin KIF4 cooperated in a parallel pathway with condensin complexes to promote the lateral compaction of chromatid arms. In this analysis, KIF4 and condensin were mutually dependent for their dynamic localization on the chromatid axes. Depletion of either caused sister chromatids to expand and compromised the "intrinsic structure" of the chromosomes (defined in an in vitro assay), with loss of condensin showing stronger effects. Simultaneous depletion of KIF4 and condensin caused complete loss of chromosome morphology. In these experiments, topoisomerase IIα contributed to shaping mitotic chromosomes by promoting the shortening of the chromatid axes and apparently acting in opposition to the actions of KIF4 and condensins. These three proteins are major determinants in shaping the characteristic mitotic chromosome morphology

The anterior insula processes a time-resolved subjective risk prediction error

The insula processes errors in the prediction of risky, motivationally relevant outcomes and thereby is thought to respond similarly to better-than-predicted and worse-than-predicted outcomes. However, the nature of the encoded risk prediction error signals remained unclear. Moreover, the insula was proposed to preferentially process events and stimuli in the aversive domain, rather than in a domain-general fashion. Here, we aimed to illuminate these issues. In a Pavlovian task, participants (n = 41; 19 women) rated both cues and outcomes, allowing us to quantify not only objective but also trial-specific subjective risk prediction errors. We found preferential coding of subjective risk prediction errors in the anterior insula and adjacent frontal cortex. This contrasted with preferential coding of objective risk prediction errors in the mid-insula. The anterior insula encoded the subjective risk prediction errors not only at the time of outcomes but also at the time of cues, in line with a temporally fine-grained computation of these prediction errors. Cue-induced subjective risk prediction error signals occurred predominantly in the aversive domain, while outcome-induced subjective risk prediction error signals occurred also in the appetitive domain. Domain-specific analyses of risk prediction errors elicited by the preceding outcome at the time of the next cue indicated that the anterior insula updates risk predictions more strongly in the aversive than the appetitive domain. Together, our findings specify the nature of risk prediction errors processed by the anterior insula as subjective, time-resolved, partly domain-general (outcome), and partly domain-preferential (cue), thereby reconciling apparently disparate lines of research