The Role of Government in Economic Development: A Case Study of the Tourism Industry in Bruce County

This paper examines the role of government in economic development based on a case study of the tourism industry in Bruce County involving questionnaires and interviews with key stakeholders. The findings reveal that there can be a proper role for government in economic development and this role is determined by the severity of the economic and social circumstances affecting the community

Plasma-tail activity and the interplanetary medium at Halley's Comet during Armada Week: 6-14 March 1986

The encounters of five spacecraft with Halley's Comet during 6-14 March 1986 offered a unique opportunity to calibrate the solar-wind interaction with cometary plasmas as recorded by remote wide-field and narrow-field/narrowband imaging. Perhaps not generally recognized in the comet community is the additional opportunity offered by the Halley Armada to study the structure of the solar-wind and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) in three dimensions using five sets of data obtained over similar time intervals and heliocentric distances, but at somewhat different heliolatitudes. In fact, the two problems, i.e., comet physics and the structure of the interplanetary medium, are coupled if one wants to understand what conditions pertained at the comet between the encounters. This relationship is discussed

Benthic and hyporheic invertebrate community responses to seasonal flow recession in a groundwater-dominated stream

Natural hydrological variability in lotic ecosystems can include prolonged periods of flow recession. A reduction in discharge is accompanied by abiotic changes in benthic and hyporheic habitats, often including reductions in s habitat availability. Whilst the benthic invertebrate community response to low flows is well documented, little research has considered how the composition of the community within the hyporheic zone is affected. We examined benthic and hyporheic invertebrate community composition during flow recession in a temperate karst stream, at sites with contrasting historic flow permanence regimes. Changes in the benthic invertebrate community composition primarily reflected changes in habitat availability associated with discharge variability; in particular, the population density of the dominant amphipod, Gammarus pulex, increased as the area of submerged benthic sediments declined. Concurrent significant increase in the hyporheic abundance of G. pulex, and moderate increase in the proportion of the total G. pulex population inhabiting the hyporheic zone were recorded. It is postulated that G. pulex migrated into the hyporheic zone to reduce exposure to intensifying biological interactions in the benthic sediments. Increase in the hyporheic abundance of G. pulex was particularly pronounced at sites with historic intermittent flow, which could be attributed to downwelling stream water dominating vertical hydrologic exchange. The increase in G. pulex abundance reduced community diversity in the benthic sediments, but had no apparent detrimental effects on the hyporheic invertebrate assemblages

Ripley Valley – an application of GIS based runoff modelling to strategic stormwater harvesting assessment

Stormwater management broadly has been well accepted as necessary for both flood avoidance and importantly also the prevention of aquatic ecosystem degradation within and around cities. Harvesting stormwater to provide diversification of water supplies offers a way of avoiding flooding and ecosystem degradation as well as acting to improve the climate resilience of cities. With Australia's population overwhelmingly urban in character, and the climate well known to oscillate between droughts and flooding rains, the opportunities represented by stormwater harvesting are significant, for both greenfield and brownfield developments

Brief for the United States as Amicus Curiae in Support of Neither Party

Amicus ("friend of the court") brief written by the United States in support of petitioners in AMP v. Myriad Genetics (Supreme Court Case Docket No. 12-398)

Urbanisation and stormwater management in South East Queensland – Synthesis and recommendations

The ecological health of waterways is generally known to be impacted by the hydrologic and water quality changes which occur as a consequence of urbanisation. The aims of the research reported here were: to develop detailed characterisation of the hydrological, water quality and ecological impacts of urbanisation in SEQ across a range of catchments; to tease apart the likely causes of ecological impacts; and, having done so, to make a set of recommendations about how urbanisation might be managed differently to help avoid waterway ecological degradation. SEQ has a sub-tropical climate and the existing literature on the impacts of urbanisation has been developed mostly focussed on temperate climate conditions. This report provides a synthesis of the range of research results generated by the project and a set of management and research recommendations developed in critical response to the results. Twelve catchments in the Brisbane and Gold Coast areas of SEQ were gauged hydrologically for three years to yield a sufficient quantity and quality of flow and rainfall data to develop reliable catchment models using the Stormwater Management Model (SWMM) platform. In addition, the total impervious area (TIA) for those catchments was determined from aerial photographs. SWMM models were successfully developed for eight of those catchments using a generic algorithm automatic parameterisation approach. At the same time as flow data was gathered, water quality data on pH, temperature, conductivity and turbidity was gathered for each catchment using Sonde instrumentation to allow the impacts of water quality change on ecological health to be assessed. These models were used to assess how hydrology changes with urbanisation intensity and pattern. First of all, a set of baseline simulations were run using long time-series hourly rainfall data for the catchments to investigate how increasing TIA impacts on catchment hydrology. Next, three predevelopment (no urbanisation) catchment models were used to simulate, using long time-series hourly rainfall, the impacts of increasing levels of urbanisation as characterised by per cent TIA (%TIA). From the modelling results, urbanisation is clearly associated with changes in hydrology, but the changes are complex. Whilst there are some generalities (increases in high flow condition duration, increases in mean flow and 90th percentile flow, increases in the frequency and rate of runoff event rise), the hydrological impact of urbanisation depends on catchment characteristics, including size, slope, time of concentration (ToC), sub-catchment sizes and distributions, and on the pattern of urbanisation itself across sub-catchments and the catchment as a whole. The same urbanisation pattern can exert a qualitatively different impact hydrologically, depending on the composition of the whole catchment in terms of sub-catchments. Maximum hourly flows appear not to be impacted by urbanisation, but 90th percentile hourly flows and mean hourly flows are impacted, both increasing with urbanisation. The number of runoff events increases with urbanisation and the size of the rise and fall in flow with each event also increases with urbanisation. The proportion of time spent under high flow conditions tends to increase with urbanisation for any given catchment, but not necessarily so – there can be some catchment specific decreases in high flow spell duration under urbanisation, depending on sub-catchment characteristics. The mean of high flow spells may increase, but not necessarily so. The proportion of time spent under low flow conditions tends to decrease with urbanisation, probably as a consequence of the streams studied being ephemeral in their pre-development state rather than strongly base flow supported and perennial. To understand how urbanisation affects the ecology of urban streams and waterways, a conceptual model was developed to articulate the range of potential mechanisms, and these mechanisms were then investigated through a mixture of means, by way of: statistically analysing the relationships between urban land use (particularly imperviousness) and Ecosystem Health Monitoring Program (EHMP) score and indicators; characterising macroinvertebrate assemblages present in three selected case study sites (one reference and two urban) and how these assemblages vary between summer and winter seasons or high and low flow conditions; and relating the assemblage data to hydrological and water quality variables in the sites concerned. The research reported here clearly indicates that there are negative aquatic ecological impacts associated with urbanisation in SEQ. In particular, the EHMP analysis demonstrates that urbanisation (as a lumped land use category) is associated with decreases in macroinvertebrate richness, and increase in the proportion of alien fish species observed. TIA, either lumped or weighted to mimic the effect of directly connected impervious area (DCIA), was not observed to exert a strong impact on any ecological variables. The ecological results tend to indicate that the hydrological changes following urbanisation are not significant degrading factors in themselves, rather, the water quality variables, particularly temperature range, are more likely to be important. The association of lumped urban land use with ecological impact and the simultaneous lack of ecological impact associated with IA (TIA or proxied DCIA) raise the question as to whether the process of urbanisation, i.e. the process of construction, is the primary source of ecologically degrading waterway impact in SEQ, rather than the on-going impact of impervious area runoff flows. Whilst urban and pre-development streams had similar levels of macroinvertebrate species richness and diversity, and similar distributions of habitat availability (riffle and pool proportions), there were significant differences over time (seasonally) within each stream type and between each stream type in relation to species composition. Pool species composition in both urban and pre-development streams was found to be stable over time, i.e. not affected by higher summer or lower winter flows. Conversely, riffle species composition in the urban stream was found to vary significantly over time, with lower diversity in the lower flow winter months, suggesting the importance of water quality changes rather than flow changes as a driver of assemblage change. As with hydrological impact, the mechanisms of ecological change from urbanisation are complicated and based partly on catchment specific features, e.g., the winter flow supporting upstream wetlands in Stable Swamp Creek and the ecologically locally devastating iron floc problems at Blunder Creek. Finally, the evaluation of the Qld frequent flow management objectives (FFMOs) as an ecologically oriented flow management policy instrument designed to avoid the ecological impacts associated with urbanisation, suggests that they will bring catchment hydrographs back towards their pre-development profile, but are insufficiently strong. The FFMOs will have an effect which is partly dependent on catchment characteristics, the distribution and sizes of sub-catchments and the spatial pattern of urbanisation

Recruiting women with ductal carcinoma in situ to a randomised controlled trial: lessons from the LORIS study

BackgroundThe LOw RISk DCIS (LORIS) study was set up to compare conventional surgical treatment with active monitoring in women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). Recruitment to trials with a surveillance arm is known to be challenging, so strategies to maximise patient recruitment, aimed at both patients and recruiting centres, were implemented.MethodsWomen aged ≥ 46 years with a histologically confirmed diagnosis of non-high-grade DCIS were eligible for 1:1 randomisation to either surgery or active monitoring. Prior to randomisation, all eligible women were invited to complete: (1) the Clinical Trials Questionnaire (CTQ) examining reasons for or against participation, and (2) interviews exploring in depth opinions about the study information sheets and film. Women agreeing to randomisation completed validated questionnaires assessing health status, physical and mental health, and anxiety levels. Hospital site staff were invited to communication workshops and refresher site initiation visits to support recruitment. Their perspectives on LORIS recruitment were collected via surveys and interviews.ResultsEighty percent (181/227) of eligible women agreed to be randomised. Over 40% of participants had high anxiety levels at baseline. On the CTQ, the most frequent most important reasons for accepting randomisation were altruism and belief that the trial offered the best treatment, whilst worries about randomisation and the influences of others were the most frequent most important reasons for declining. Most women found the study information provided clear and useful. Communication workshops for site staff improved knowledge and confidence but only about half said they themselves would join LORIS if eligible. The most common recruitment barriers identified by staff were low numbers of eligible patients and patient preference.ConclusionsRecruitment to LORIS was challenging despite strategies aimed at both patients and site staff. Ensuring that recruiting staff support the study could improve recruitment in similar future trials

Antimicrobial resistance among migrants in Europe: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are rising globally and there is concern that increased migration is contributing to the burden of antibiotic resistance in Europe. However, the effect of migration on the burden of AMR in Europe has not yet been comprehensively examined. Therefore, we did a systematic review and meta-analysis to identify and synthesise data for AMR carriage or infection in migrants to Europe to examine differences in patterns of AMR across migrant groups and in different settings. METHODS: For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed, and Scopus with no language restrictions from Jan 1, 2000, to Jan 18, 2017, for primary data from observational studies reporting antibacterial resistance in common bacterial pathogens among migrants to 21 European Union-15 and European Economic Area countries. To be eligible for inclusion, studies had to report data on carriage or infection with laboratory-confirmed antibiotic-resistant organisms in migrant populations. We extracted data from eligible studies and assessed quality using piloted, standardised forms. We did not examine drug resistance in tuberculosis and excluded articles solely reporting on this parameter. We also excluded articles in which migrant status was determined by ethnicity, country of birth of participants' parents, or was not defined, and articles in which data were not disaggregated by migrant status. Outcomes were carriage of or infection with antibiotic-resistant organisms. We used random-effects models to calculate the pooled prevalence of each outcome. The study protocol is registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42016043681. FINDINGS: We identified 2274 articles, of which 23 observational studies reporting on antibiotic resistance in 2319 migrants were included. The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or AMR infection in migrants was 25·4% (95% CI 19·1-31·8; I2 =98%), including meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (7·8%, 4·8-10·7; I2 =92%) and antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (27·2%, 17·6-36·8; I2 =94%). The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or infection was higher in refugees and asylum seekers (33·0%, 18·3-47·6; I2 =98%) than in other migrant groups (6·6%, 1·8-11·3; I2 =92%). The pooled prevalence of antibiotic-resistant organisms was slightly higher in high-migrant community settings (33·1%, 11·1-55·1; I2 =96%) than in migrants in hospitals (24·3%, 16·1-32·6; I2 =98%). We did not find evidence of high rates of transmission of AMR from migrant to host populations. INTERPRETATION: Migrants are exposed to conditions favouring the emergence of drug resistance during transit and in host countries in Europe. Increased antibiotic resistance among refugees and asylum seekers and in high-migrant community settings (such as refugee camps and detention facilities) highlights the need for improved living conditions, access to health care, and initiatives to facilitate detection of and appropriate high-quality treatment for antibiotic-resistant infections during transit and in host countries. Protocols for the prevention and control of infection and for antibiotic surveillance need to be integrated in all aspects of health care, which should be accessible for all migrant groups, and should target determinants of AMR before, during, and after migration. FUNDING: UK National Institute for Health Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, Imperial College Healthcare Charity, the Wellcome Trust, and UK National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare-associated Infections and Antimictobial Resistance at Imperial College London