Virtual discussions to support climate risk decision making on farms

Climate variability represents a significant risk to farming enterprises. Effective extension of climate information may improve climate risk decision making and adaptive management responses to climate variability on farms. This paper briefly reviews current agricultural extension approaches and reports stakeholder responses to new web-based virtual world ‘discussion-support’ tools developed for the Australian sugar cane farming industry. These tools incorporate current climate science and sugar industry better management practices, while leveraging the social-learning aspects of farming, to provide a stimulus for discussion and climate risk decision making. Responses suggest that such virtual world tools may provide effective support for climate risk decision making on Australian sugar cane farms. Increasing capacity to deliver such tools online also suggests potential to engage large numbers of farmers globally

Real-time detection of TDP1 activity using a fluorophore-quencher coupled DNA-biosensor

Real-time detection of enzyme activities may present the easiest and most reliable way of obtaining quantitative analyses in biological samples. We present a new DNA-biosensor capable of detecting the activity of the potential anticancer drug target tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase 1 (TDP1) in a very simple, high throughput, and real-time format. The biosensor is specific for Tdp1 even in complex biological samples, such as human cell extracts, and may consequently find future use in fundamental studies as well as a cancer predictive tool allowing fast analyses of diagnostic cell samples such as biopsies. TDP1 removes covalent 3'DNA adducts in DNA single-strand break repair. This enzymatic activity forms the basis of the design of the TDP1-biosensor, which consists of a short hairpin-forming oligonucleotide having a 5'fluorophore and a 3'quencher brought in close proximity by the secondary structure of the biosensor. The specific action of TDP1 removes the quencher, thereby enabling optical detection of the fluorophore. Since the enzymatic action of TDP1 is the only "signal amplification" the increase in fluorescence may easily be followed in real-time and allows quantitative analyses of TDP1 activity in pure enzyme fractions as well as in crude cell extracts. In the present study we demonstrate the specificity of the biosensor, its ability to quantitatively detect up- or down-regulated TDP1 activity, and that it may be used for measuring and for analyzing the mechanism of TDP1 inhibition

Research Notes : United States : Superoxide dismutase (SOD) in soybean

We are using vertical polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (Davis, 1964) and a staining system modified after Beauchamp and Fridovich (1971) to study superoxide dismutase polymorphisms in the subgenus soja. This staining system generates superoxide radical; hence, it is specific for SOD activity. We re-solve up to 9 SOD bands in dry or germinating soybean cotyledons, and in leaves

Progress on outbound tourism expenditure research: A review

This study aims to identify how the paradigm of outbound tourism expenditure (OTE) research transforms from economic to social concern. It also explicates the evolution of OTE from an advocacy platform to a sustainability platform. This study adopts a hybrid of narrative and systematic reviews to study OTE as a complex social phenomenon. This hybrid review is complemented by a thematic review and semantic network analysis on gaps and future directions of relevant studies. The results reveal that the paradigm of OTE research is directed from economic toward social thinking. This study proposes an application of socially related antecedent configurations, social theories, pragmatic methods, and various scales of study contexts as promising solutions to address the complexity and heterogeneity of OTE. The study concludes that the conceptual structure of OTE is premised on a sustainability platform, which is influenced by socio-cultural, environmental, economic, and political issues. This study provides a road map that enlightens the current state of OTE, prevailing topics, and pathways for further research

Fertility, Living Arrangements, Care and Mobility

There are four main interconnecting themes around which the contributions in this book are based. This introductory chapter aims to establish the broad context for the chapters that follow by discussing each of the themes. It does so by setting these themes within the overarching demographic challenge of the twenty-first century – demographic ageing. Each chapter is introduced in the context of the specific theme to which it primarily relates and there is a summary of the data sets used by the contributors to illustrate the wide range of cross-sectional and longitudinal data analysed

The Development of Virtual World Tools to Enhance Learning and Real World Decision Making in the Australian Sugar Farming Industry

In farming, the outcome of critical decisions to enhance productivity and profitability and so ensure the viability of farming enterprises is often influenced by seasonal conditions and weather events over the growing season. This paper reports on a project that uses cutting-edge advances in digital technologies and their application in learning environments to develop and evaluate a web-based virtual ‘discussion-support’ system for improved climate risk management in Australian sugar farming systems. Customized scripted video clips (machinima) are created in the Second Life virtual world environment. The videos use contextualized settings and lifelike avatar actors to model conversations about climate risk and key farm operational decisions relevant to the real-world lives and practices of sugarcane farmers. The tools generate new cognitive schema for farmers to access and provide stimuli for discussions around how to incorporate an understanding of climate risk into operational decision-making. They also have potential to provide cost-effective agricultural extension which simulates real world face-to-face extension services but is accessible anytime anywhere

Virtual Discussions to Support Climate Risk Decision Making on Farms

Climate variability represents a significant risk to farming enterprises. Effective extension of climate information may improve climate risk decision making and adaptive management responses to climate variability on farms. This paper briefly reviews current agricultural extension approaches and reports stakeholder responses to new web-based virtual world ‘discussion-support’ tools developed for the Australian sugar cane farming industry. These tools incorporate current climate science and sugar industry better management practices, while leveraging the social-learning aspects of farming, to provide a stimulus for discussion and climate risk decision making. Responses suggest that such virtual world tools may provide effective support for climate risk decision making on Australian sugar cane farms. Increasing capacity to deliver such tools online also suggests potential to engage large numbers of farmers globally

The New Politics of Global Tax Governance: Taking Stock a Decade After the Financial Crisis

The financial crisis of 2007–2009 is now broadly recognised as a once-in-a-generation inflection point in the history of global economic governance. It has also prompted a reconsideration of established paradigms in international political economy (IPE) scholarship. Developments in global tax governance open a window onto these ongoing changes, and in this essay we discuss four recent volumes on the topic drawn from IPE and beyond, arguing against an emphasis on institutional stability and analyses that consider taxation in isolation. In contrast, we identify unprecedented changes in tax cooperation that reflect a significant contemporary reconfiguration of the politics of global economic governance writ large. To develop these arguments, we discuss the links between global tax governance and four fundamental changes underway in IPE: the return of the state through more activist policies; the global power shift towards large emerging markets; the politics of austerity and populism; and the digitalisation of the economy

Analysis of Social Work Theory Progression Published in 2004

The authors reviewed 67 articles that discussed and/or tested human behavior theories from social work journals published in 2004 in order to assess the level and quality of theory progression. The articles were further sorted into Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) Foundation Curriculum content areas of HBSE, practice, policy, field education, values & ethics, diversity, populations-at-risk/social and economic justice, and research for purposes of categorization. Results indicated that HBSE and practice were by far the largest group of articles reviewed.Also found was that social work has a limited amount of theory discussion in the content areas of field, values and ethics, diversity, and populations-at-risk/social and economic justice. Thirty-three articles were found to demonstrate theory progression, eight articles presented new/emerging theories, and 26 articles discussed or critiqued theories without presenting evidence of theory progression

The low density, hot Jupiter TOI-640 b is on a polar orbit

TOI-640 b is a hot, puffy Jupiter with a mass of $0.57 \pm 0.02$ M$_{\rm J}$ and radius of $1.72 \pm 0.05$ R$_{\rm J}$, orbiting a slightly evolved F-type star with a separation of $6.33^{+0.07}_{-0.06}$ R$_\star$. Through spectroscopic in-transit observations made with the HARPS spectrograph, we measured the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, analysing both in-transit radial velocities and the distortion of the stellar spectral lines. From these observations, we find the host star to have a projected obliquity of $\lambda=184\pm3^\circ$. From the TESS light curve, we measured the stellar rotation period, allowing us to determine the stellar inclination, $i_\star=23^{+3\circ}_{-2}$, meaning we are viewing the star pole-on. Combining this with the orbital inclination allowed us to calculate the host star obliquity, $\psi=104\pm2^\circ$. TOI-640 b joins a group of planets orbiting over stellar poles within the range $80^\circ-125^\circ$. The origin of this orbital configuration is not well understood.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in A&A, in pres