Advocate or adversary: The declining membership of young people in unions

Recent figures show that participation of young workers between the ages of 15-24 in trade unions is by far the lowest of all age groups. Of 1.5 million young workers in this age category only one third are unionised. Not only is membership low but it is also fast declining. While there has been some discussion and debate over the reasons for this decline, few of the more popular explanations have been comprehensively and critically examined. These explanations include: i) dramatic changes in the world of work over the past twenty years ii) poor images of unions and a lack of constructive marketing strategies to counter these images and iii) incompatibility between the interests of young people and unions. This thesis investigates the question: Why has there been a decline in the numbers of young people joining trade unions in Australia? The study includes an examination and analysis of documents such as union and government policy statements, union membership statistics, and reports that consider the participation of young people in unions. This secondary research material is supported by data collected in a series of interviews involving twenty young people of various ages, both sexes and from a range of localities, work, educational, social and ethnic backgrounds. The findings of the dissertation are that, in and of themselves, none of the three explanations or perspectives provide an adequate explanation for the decline. Rather the study demonstrates that the incidence of young people\u27s membership in unions cannot be fully understood without first critically examining the social construction of youth and how this impacts upon the trade union activity of young workers

Auto-Responders: An E-Mail List Productivity Tool

Shrinking budgets and growing demands require Extension to become as efficient and effective as possible. An auto-responder is an online service built to automate much of the effort required to maintain and use an e-mail list. Auto-responders have many features and benefits that could help Extension reduce staff time and become more efficient

Raising the Visibility of Extension Web Sites

Extension Web sites are not as visible to search engines as they could be. In fact, many are nearly invisible. The search engine optimization techniques described in this article can help bring Extension Web sites--and their content--to millions of searchers. Increased Extension productivity will result

What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love (Punks)

This article explores the development and creative outcomes of the Yijala Yala Project. This project was created in the Pilbara region as a long-term, inter-generational, multi-platform arts project that set out to highlight cultural heritage as living, continually evolving and in the ‘here and now’ rather than something static. The project name Yijala Yala means ‘now’ in the two main regional languages of Yindjibarndi and Ngarluma. Yijala Yala works with members of the local Aboriginal community to create content that reflects cultural heritage in new ways, and is also created using new methods of teaching and skill-building.Yijala Yala has created content in the following media: films, music, recordings, photographs, books, animation and apps. A major artistic outcome of the project is the beautiful operatic, cross-cultural, multi-media performance work Hipbone Sticking Out, which has played in the Centenary of Canberra Festival and the Melbourne Festival, as well as in Roebourne and Perth

Organic-Conventional Dairy Systems Trial in New Zealand: Four Years’ Results

The Organic-Conventional Comparative Dairy Systems trial at Massey University began in August 2001, and the organic farmlet achieved certification in August 2003. The trial is unique because it is the only comparative grassland-based open grazing dairy study in the world. The organic and conventional systems are managed individually according to best practice, and both are intensively monitored for production, animal health, and environmental impacts. The systems remained similar for the first two years, but began to diverge in the third and fourth years. Production has been 10-20% lower on the organic farm, but environmental impacts appear to be less than on the conventional unit, and net incomes would be similar given a 20% price premium for the organic product. Animal health issues have been manageable on the organic farmlet, and not too dissimilar from the conventional farmlet. Full results after four years of the trial will be available and presented at the conference

Pirnilu Nintipungkupayi (Everyone Is a Teacher): Keeping Old People's Spirit Healthy Through Education

In the Ngaanyatjarra Lands of desert Western Australia, older people are being encouraged to participate meaningfully in student education. This initiative is being led by two of the authors of this article, senior Ngaanyatjarra women, both of whom work with the Ngaanyatjarra Lands School with its campuses in eight remote communities spread over hundreds of kilometres. Elderly men and women, some of whom are residents in the Ngaanyatjarra Aged Care home (Ngaanyatjarra Health Service, 2021), are eagerly participating in the planning of bush trips, gathering their traditional resources, seeds, grinding stones, bush resins, recalling stories, songs, and dances - as they prepare for the bush camps with students. During the camps the schoolteachers step back and the elderly lead in what is known as two‐way science. At first glance, this work may look like it is simply focused on the educational needs of students with senior Yarnangu acting in a supporting role. However, this article will demonstrate the continuous connections and responsibilities, laid out in the Tjukurrpa (the Dreaming), between the old and the young, to their ancestral lands. It sets out how according to "Tjukurrpa thinking," the principal way to provide good care is by helping senior people remain on country with family, pass on their knowledge to younger people, and thus keep strong languages and kurrunpa (people's spirit) alive

Odkrycie i zastosowanie pegwisomantu: antagonisty hormonu wzrostu

Growth hormone (GH) is a well established participant in several complex physiological processes including growth, differentiation, and metabolism. Recombinant human GH is a drug that has been approved for use for several clinical conditions where the action of GH is diminished or completely lacking. Thus there is considerable interest in developing novel drugs that modify the function of GH. Only in the last several decades have the detailed structural features of GH along with its interaction with its receptor been elucidated. In this review we summarise the basic structural and functional properties of GH, its receptor and their interaction. In addition, we discuss the discovery and development of an effective GH receptor antagonist, pegvisomant, and summarise potential therapeutic uses of this drug. (Pol J Endocrinol 2007; 58 (4): 322-329)Hormon wzrostu (GH, growth hormone) uczestniczy w wielu fizjologicznych procesach dotyczących wzrastania, różnicowania i metabolizmu. Leczenie rekombinowanym ludzkim GH jest akceptowane w wielu schorzeniach wiążących się z całkowitym brakiem lub zmniejszeniem działania GH. Wynika stąd znaczne zainteresowanie rozwojem nowych leków mogących modyfikować czynność GH. Dopiero niedawno wyjaśniono dokładną strukturę GH i jego interakcje z receptorem. W niniejszej pracy autorzy podsumowują wiedzę dotyczącą podstawowej budowy GH, jego receptora i interakcji między nimi. Ponadto, omówiono odkrycie i rozwój skutecznego antagonisty receptora GH, pegvisomantu i przedstawiono potencjalne możliwości zastosowania terapeutycznego tego leku

Debris-flow risk-to-life: Upper-bound preliminary screening

Where the potential for future debris-flow occurrence is unrecognised, developments can be unknowingly exposed to debris-flow impact, with corresponding risks to lives. Debris-flow modelling is unsuited to routine local office use, so a simple screening procedure is proposed to enable local officials to identify locations where debris flow risk-to-life may be unacceptable, and prioritise where expert modelling and risk analysis are most urgently required for risk-management decision-making . This procedure calculates catchment Melton ratio R from topographic data, uses a linear upper bound of field data relating R to the annual probability of debris-flow occurrence, and matches a model-based debris-flow risk-to-life analysis for Matata, New Zealand. Our data suggest that any development exposed to debris flows will require a detailed risk assessment to ensure that risk-to-life does not exceed acceptable levels

Applying Occam's razor to global agricultural land use change

We present a parsimonious agricultural land-use model that is designed to replicate global land-use change while allowing the exploration of uncertainties in input parameters. At the global scale, the modelled uncertainty range of agricultural land-use change covers observed land-use change. Spatial patterns of cropland change at the country level are simulated less satisfactorily, but temporal trends of cropland change in large agricultural nations were replicated by the model. A variance-based global sensitivity analysis showed that uncertainties in the input parameters representing to consumption preferences are important for changes in global agricultural areas. However, uncertainties in technological change had the largest effect on cereal yields and changes in global agricultural area. Uncertainties related to technological change in developing countries were most important for modelling the extent of cropland. The performance of the model suggests that highly generalised representations of socio-economic processes can be used to replicate global land-use change