Institutional Arrangements for the Community Engagement in the Natural Resources Management: Case Study of the Lake Eyre Basin

This paper presents an overview of the formal institutional arrangements for natural resource management (NRM) in the Lake Eyre Basin (LEB) and the role of these arrangements as an enabling environment for community engagement in NRM. The appropriate scale of NRM management and the complexity and expense of effective community engagement is discussed. The paper highlights challenges faced by NRM groups in remote regions and their need for proper support and sharing in significant decision making processes. Regional interface groups are presented as relatively recent experiments in ecological intervention that have operated in a rapidly changing policy environment. The paper concludes with a summary of potential key challenges for NRM in the LEB region and suggests that interface organisations require understanding, capacity and support to utilise their investments and program activities to learn about how to improve and adapt to meet the challenges of their operating environment.institutional arrangements, NRM, participation, public consultation

Terms of Engagement: Consensus or Control in Remote Australian Resource Management?

Community based natural resource management (NRM) has seen a shift in the discourse from participation to engagement, reflecting a focus on increasingly active citizen involvement in management and action. This paper considers this shift in relation to two contrasting theoretical perspectives. The first is deliberative democracy, drawing on Habermas, which emphasises the importance of discussing and rationalising values and actions. The second is governmentality, or ‘governing through community’ which draws on Foucault, emphasising neo-liberal management styles and ‘self-help’. In considering the empirical relevance of these theoretical perspectives, this paper draws on a case study of public engagement in NRM in the Lake Eyre Basin, a remote, inland region of Australia. This research yielded a practical set of “factors for success” for public engagement in remote areas. The findings support the view that, especially in remote regions, public engagement in NRM reflects contrasting goals. We make two conclusions. First, that these contrasting objectives emphasise the tension between deliberative and neo-liberal conceptualisations of engagement; and second, the evidence for neo-liberal interpretations of engagement are stronger than for deliberative interpretations of engagement in the case study region.participation, decentralisation, governmentality, deliberation

In silico modeling indicates the development of HIV-1 resistance to multiple shRNA gene therapy differs to standard antiretroviral therapy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Gene therapy has the potential to counter problems that still hamper standard HIV antiretroviral therapy, such as toxicity, patient adherence and the development of resistance. RNA interference can suppress HIV replication as a gene therapeutic via expressed short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs). It is now clear that multiple shRNAs will likely be required to suppress infection and prevent the emergence of resistant virus.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have developed the first biologically relevant stochastic model in which multiple shRNAs are introduced into CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells. This model has been used to track the production of gene-containing CD4+ T cells, the degree of HIV infection, and the development of HIV resistance in lymphoid tissue for 13 years. In this model, we found that at least four active shRNAs were required to suppress HIV infection/replication effectively and prevent the development of resistance. The inhibition of incoming virus was shown to be critical for effective treatment. The low potential for resistance development that we found is largely due to a pool of replicating wild-type HIV that is maintained in non-gene containing CD4+ T cells. This wild-type HIV effectively out-competes emerging viral strains, maintaining the viral <it>status quo</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The presence of a group of cells that lack the gene therapeutic and is available for infection by wild-type virus appears to mitigate the development of resistance observed with systemic antiretroviral therapy.</p

Natural resources management arrangements in the Lake Eyre Basin: an enabling environment for community engagement?

An overview of the formal institutional arrangements for natural resource management (NRM) in the Lake Eyre Basin (LEB) and the role of these arrangements as an enabling environment for community engagement in NRM constitute our broad research focus. The appropriate scale of NRM management and the complexity and expense of effective community engagement are discussed. The research highlights challenges faced by NRM groups in remote regions and their need for proper support and sharing in significant decision making processes. Regional interface groups are presented as relatively recent experiments in ecological intervention within a rapidly changing policy environment. The study concludes with a summary of key challenges for NRM engagement in the LEB region and suggests that interface organisations require understanding, capacity and support to learn how to improve, adapt and meet the challenges of their operating environment

Farming Alternatives: Experience in New York State

A.E. Res. 89-1