Balancing beef with biodiversity: faunal responses to different cattle grazing strategies

Native wildlife is protected in national parks and reserves, but it is becoming increasing clear that these areas are not large enough to protect biodiversity into the future. There is great potential for rangelands, used for livestock grazing, to be managed in ways that not only provide profits for graziers but also maintain the ecological processes that support native wildlife. This concept is known as 'off-reserve conservation'. To make recommendations about the best way to achieve off-reserve conservation, we first need to understand how fauna respond to different grazing strategies and how this relates to profitability. I examined the bird, mammal and reptile communities at an experimental grazing trial (established in 1997) in north Queensland. I aimed to find out how these fauna communities responded to four different grazing strategies and two vegetation types and determine whether a trade-off existed between economic performance, land condition, and biodiversity. Twice a year, over three years, I conducted aural and visual bird surveys, mammal cage trapping and reptile pitfall and funnel trapping. Additionally, I measured terrestrial and arboreal microhabitats at each survey site. I found that the effect of grazing on wildlife is complex and can be strongly influenced by the vegetation type and seasonal rainfall. I found that abundance and richness can sometimes mask more complex community compositional changes. Overall, reptile abundance responded negatively to heavy grazing. In birds, reptiles and mammals I identified species that benefited from heavy grazing, those negatively influenced by heavy grazing, and species that showed no response to the grazing treatments. In some species, microhabitat selection was a strong driver of grazing response. I found that there was no trade-off between reptiles and profitability: the heavily grazed treatment was the least profitable, and also had the lowest number of reptiles. My research shows that biodiversity can be maintained in grazing strategies that also have high profitability. As such, economically sustainable red meat production and conservation on rangelands are not necessarily opposing goals. Conserving native wildlife on rangelands is important due to the ecosystem services that wildlife can provide e.g. maintaining soil health, pollination, seed dispersal and insect pest control. For corporate graziers, using sustainable grazing practices and maintaining native wildlife populations suggests excellent stewardship and may be highly valued by consumers

The response of an arboreal mammal to livestock grazing is habitat dependant

Inappropriate livestock grazing is implicated in the decline of vertebrate fauna species globally. Faunal responses to grazing can interact with the vegetation community in which they occur. We measured the response of an arboreal marsupial, the common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula vulpecula) to different cattle grazing strategies and vegetation types, and examined whether micro-habitat selection is driving this response. We hypothesised that where arboreal habitat is intact, brushtail possums would be resistant to the impacts of heavy grazing. We conducted a mark-recapture survey among four grazing treatments and in two vegetation types (Box and Ironbark), at a 20-year grazing trial in northern Australia. We found that brushtail possums were resistant to the impact of heavy grazing in both vegetation types, but preferred the heavy grazing treatment in the Box vegetation type. Complex arboreal habitat and low ground cover was preferred, and high grass cover and low tree species richness avoided. Most individuals exclusively used one vegetation type, with few using both, suggesting a 'matrix' vegetation between the Box and Ironbark may be creating a movement barrier. Vegetation type should provide a context for determining the benefits to arboreal wildlife of adopting a particular grazing management strategy

Image of the Orient in E. T. A. Hoffmann’s writing

Although the field of German Romantic Orientalism has been growing in recent years, the prolific writer E. T. A. Hoffmann has largely escaped critical attention. This study of his oeuvre reveals, however, that it was shaped and influenced by both the scholarly and popular orientalist discourses of his time. Furthermore, Hoffmann satirises literary orientalist practices even as he takes part in them, and so his work exposes the ambivalence of the apparent German veneration for the ‘Romantic’ Orient. While Hoffmann responds to the Romantic image of the Orient set up by his predecessors (J.G. Herder, Novalis, Friedrich Schlegel), he does so in order to reveal both the uses and the limits of this model for the Romantic artist in the modern world. The Orient serves as an inspiration for Romantic art, and thus Edward Said’s claim that the Romantics appropriated the East merely for the rejuvenation of European literature must be acknowledged. Nevertheless, as an extremely self-aware writer, Hoffmann does not utilise this approach uncritically. My thesis shows how Hoffmann responded to the image of the Orient as it was produced by writers, musicians, and scholars inside the German-speaking lands. The Orient resists successful imitation, as his texts acknowledge when they turn a critical eye towards German cultural production. Furthermore, Hoffmann’s famous criticism of nineteenth-century society is enhanced by comparison of German and oriental characters, with the latter often coming out more favourably. Hoffmann’s tales therefore demand a reassessment of the view that the Romantics constructed the Orient exclusively as a paradisaical land of poetic fulfilment. His (self-) reflective response to the nineteenth-century treatment of the Orient in Germany marks him out as an original – and essential – voice in Romantic Orientalism

Are Early Warning Scores Useful Predictors for Mortality and Morbidity in Hospitalised Acutely Unwell Older Patients? : A Systematic Review

Funding: No funding was gained to directly support the conduct of this study. Toby Smith is supported by funding from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR. Acknowledgments: We thank Samuel Ronald Neal who proofread the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

German Romanticism as Translational World Literature: Friedrich Schlegel’s 'Lucinde' and Andrés Neuman’s 'El viajero del siglo'

World Literature theorists understand translation to be intrinsic to the creation of literature, over and above a necessary tool in its circulation. In dialogue with Emily Apter’s call for a “translational model of comparative literature”, this article proposes a re-reading of German Romanticism as translational World Literature, and argues that this model has been critically taken up in contemporary Latin American fiction. The German Romantic universe is a kaleidoscope where internal changes pay homage to overarching unity; these variations are present both within a single language, and when we translate between languages. Precisely because of the inherent flexibility of language, Romantic translation theorists doubt the need for absolute fidelity to the original, suggesting instead a new kind of writing that formally merges the foreign and the familiar. Within this context, Friedrich Schlegel’s 1799 novel Lucinde can be read as an allegory for translational literature. Schlegel’s protagonist Julius must learn to write his own subjective language and yet simultaneously speak in a new, objective way. This is a Romantic fusion of self and world that nonetheless respects and upholds differences. Lucinde’s linguistic model has recently been revived by the Argentinian-Spanish author Andrés Neuman in his 2009 novel El viajero del siglo (Traveller of the Century), in which two translators celebrate not only foreign literature, but the strangeness of their own language. The foreignization of the familiar is a central tenet of Neuman’s literary aesthetic: translation is a metaphor for speaking poetic language in one’s own tongue. Translational World Literature begins at home; it can be produced within a single language. Moreover, since the category “Latin American Literature” relies on a similarity that transcends territorial, political, and cultural boundaries, the German Romantic model of difference-within-sameness resonates with writers like Neuman who cross borders within their mother tongue

K–1st Grade: English Level 3, Learning Packet #1 • Theme: Space

These packets are self-contained. Everything a child will need to be successful with the activities is provided in the packet. Students will only need a writing utensil. Additional tools like crayons or scissors can be used, but do not have to be. Day 1 • Vocabulary trace, Label My Buddy, Space shapes, Let\u27s move Day 2 • Reading passage, Mix it fix it, Space dot-to-dot, Window or walk Day 3 • Vocabulary matching, Let\u27s compare, Astronaut writing, Move with your Buddy Day 4 • Space graphing, Space addition, If I lived in space, Let\u27s draw Day 5 • My journal, Would your rather writing, Let\u27s create, Space patterns My Packet Journal Reference Shee

Multiscale modelling of snow depth over an agricultural field in a small catchement in southern ontario, canada.

Snow is a common overlying surface during winter-time and the redistribution of snow by wind is a very important concept for any hydrological research project located within the cryosphere. Wind redistributes snow by eroding it from areas of high wind speed, such as ridge tops and windward slopes, and deposits it in areas of lower wind speeds, such as the lees of ridge tops, vegetation stands, and topographic depressions. The accurate modelling of blowing snow processes such as erosion, deposition, and sublimation have proven to be rather problematic. The largest issue that many modellers must deal with is the accurate collection of solid precipitation throughout the winter season. Without this, incorrect energy and mass balances can occur. This thesis makes use of a new method of acquiring solid precipitation values through the use of an SR50a ultrasonic snow depth sensor and then incorporates it into a version of the Cold Regions Hydrological Model (CRHM) which includes the Prairie Blowing Snow Model (PBSM) and the Minimal Snowmelt Model (MSM) modules. The model is used to simulate seasonal snow depth over an agricultural field in southern Ontario, Canada and is driven with half-hourly locally acquired meteorological data for 83 days during the 2008-2009 winter season. Semi-automated snow surveys are conducted throughout the winter season and the collected in situ snow depth values are compared to the simulated snow depth values at multiple scales. Two modelling approaches are taken to temporally and spatially test model performance. A lumped approach tests the model‟s ability to simulate snow depth from a small point scale and from a larger field scale. A distributed approach separates the entire field site into three hydrological response units (HRUs) and tests the model‟s ability to spatially discretize at the field scale. HRUs are differentiated by varying vegetation heights throughout the field site. Temporal analysis compares the simulated results to each day of snow survey and for the entire field season. Model performance is statistically analyzed through the use of a Root Mean Square Difference (RMSD), Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient (NS), and Model Bias (MB). Both the lumped and distributed modelling approaches fail to simulate the early on-set of snow but once the snow-holding capacities are reached within the field site the model does well to simulate the average snow depth during the latter few days of snow survey as well as throughout the entire field season. Several model limitations are present which prevent the model from incorporating the scaling effects of topography, vegetation, and man-made objects as well as the effects from certain energy fluxes. These limitations are discussed further

Real time measurement of intramuscular pH during routine knee arthroscopy using a tourniquet

Funding statement This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.Peer reviewedPublisher PD