Farming Systems in the Central West of NSW: An Economic Analysis

The objectives of this report have been to describe important farming systems in the Central West of NSW, to gain some insights into current financial performance and to examine in more detail the role of pastures in these farming systems at a time when the profitability of wool growing has been low relative to grain growing. While farms and farming systems vary considerably across the region, a majority can be broadly grouped into a mixed livestock and cropping category. Although there is also significant variability within this category, two representative farms and farming systems were developed for the region with the assistance from a small group of farmers and extension staff from NSW Agriculture. One represents the farms and farming systems east of Condobolin and the other represents the farms and farming systems to the west of Condobolin. Whole-farm budget models have been developed for each to provide a description of the farms in this region and an indication of their current profitability. They are useful to give an indication of how farm income might be altered by the introduction of some new technology, a new enterprise such a pulse crop, or an alternative management practice. This report presents some examples of their application but importantly it has provided a template for the development of additional whole-farm budgets for alternative farming systems in this and other regions. Using the whole-farm budget representing farms east of Condobolin, and a linear programming model, PRISM Condobolin, this report shows that the optimal length of pasture is fairly insensitive to changing market signals for both cropping and livestock commodities. It also shows that although length of pasture is insensitive, the optimal mix of enterprises does change, highlighting the importance of considering the interactions between enterprises in whole-farm analysis.Industrial Organization, Production Economics,

Farming Systems in the Pastoral Zone of NSW: An Economic Analysis

A ‘broad brush’ picture of farming in the pastoral zone of NSW is presented in this report. The pastoral zone of NSW is characterised by wide variations in climatic conditions, soil type and vegetation species. Hence representative faming system analysis was conducted for three sub-regions - the Upper Darling, the Murray-Darling and Far West. The regions were defined and described in terms of their resources, climate and the nature of agriculture. The main enterprises that farmers choose between were described and whole farm budgets and statements of assets and liabilities for the representative farms were developed. The representative farm models were used to compare traditional Merino based sheep enterprises with alternative sheep enterprises where meat was an important source of income. We found that the farming systems that have evolved in these areas are well suited to their respective environments and that the economic incentives to switch to more meat focussed sheep enterprises were not strong.Western Division, farming systems, economic, analysis, New South Wales, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Livestock Production/Industries, Production Economics, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Q160,

Structure and play: rethinking regulation in the higher education sector

This paper explores possible tactics for academics working within a context of increasing regulation and constraint. One suggested tactic is to move outside of a creativity-conformity binary. Rather than understanding creativity and conformity as separable, where one is seen as excluding the other, the authors consider the potential of examining the relationships between them. The theme of 'structure and play' illustrates the argument. In the first part of the paper, using various examples from art and design - fields generally associated with creativity - the authors explore the interrelatedness of creativity and conformity. For example, how might design styles, which are generally understood as creative outcomes, constrain creativity and lead to conformity within the design field? Is fashion producing creativity or conformity? Conversely, the ways in which conformity provides the conditions for creativity are also examined. For example, the conformity imposed by the state on artists in the former communist bloc contributed to a thriving underground arts movement which challenged conformity and state regulation. Continuing the theme of 'structure and play', the authors recount a story from an Australian university which foregrounds the ongoing renegotiation of power relations in the academy. This account illustrates how programmatic government in a university, with its aim of regulating conduct, can contribute to unanticipated outcomes. The authors propose that a Foucauldian view of distributed power is useful for academics operating in a context of increasing regulation, as it brings into view sites where power might begin to be renegotiated

Direct Classification of All American English Phonemes Using Signals From Functional Speech Motor Cortex

Although brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) can be used in several different ways to restore communication, communicative BCI has not approached the rate or efficiency of natural human speech. Electrocorticography (ECoG) has precise spatiotemporal resolution that enables recording of brain activity distributed over a wide area of cortex, such as during speech production. In this study, we investigated words that span the entire set of phonemes in the General American accent using ECoG with 4 subjects. We classified phonemes with up to 36% accuracy when classifying all phonemes and up to 63% accuracy for a single phoneme. Further, misclassified phonemes follow articulation organization described in phonology literature, aiding classification of whole words. Precise temporal alignment to phoneme onset was crucial for classification success. We identified specific spatiotemporal features that aid classification, which could guide future applications. Word identification was equivalent to information transfer rates as high as 3.0 bits/s (33.6 words min), supporting pursuit of speech articulation for BCI control

The maintenance of urban circulation: An operational logic of infrastructural control

This paper examines the increased visibility of urban infrastructures occurring through a close coupling of information technologies and the selective integration of urban services. It asks how circulatory flow is managed in the contemporary city, by focusing on the emergence of new forms of governmentality associated with “smart” technologies. Drawing on Foucault’s governmentality, and based on a case study of Rio de Janeiro’s Operations Centre (COR), the paper argues that new understandings of the city are being developed, representing a new mode of urban infrastructure based on the partial and selective rebundling of splintered networks and fragmented urban space. The COR operates through a “un-black boxing” of urban infrastructures, where the extension of control room logics to the totality of the city points to their fragility and the continuous effort involved in their operational accomplishment. It also functions through a collapse in relations of control—of the everyday and the emergency—, which, enabled by the incorporation of the public in operational control, further raise public awareness of urban infrastructures. These characteristics point to a specific form of urban governmentality based on the operationalisation of infrastructural flows and the development of novel ways of seeing and engaging with the city

Realising governmentality: pastoral power, governmental discourse and the (re)constitution of subjectivities

Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality has been hugely influential in sociology and other disciplinary fields. However, its application has been criticised by those who suggest it neglects agency, and gives overwhelming power to governmental discourses in constituting subjectivities, determining behaviour, and reproducing social reality. Drawing on posthumously translated lecture transcripts, we suggest that Foucault’s nascent concept of pastoral power offers a route to a better conceptualisation of the relationship between discourse, subjectivity and agency, and a means of understanding the (contested, non-determinate, social) process through which governmental discourses are shaped, disseminated, and translated into action. We offer empirical examples from our work in healthcare of how this process takes place, present a model of the key mechanisms through which contemporary pastoral power operates, and suggest future research avenues for refining, developing or contesting this model

The Democratic Biopolitics of PrEP

PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) is a relatively new drug-based HIV prevention technique and an important means to lower the HIV risk of gay men who are especially vulnerable to HIV. From the perspective of biopolitics, PrEP inscribes itself in a larger trend of medicalization and the rise of pharmapower. This article reconstructs and evaluates contemporary literature on biopolitical theory as it applies to PrEP, by bringing it in a dialogue with a mapping of the political debate on PrEP. As PrEP changes sexual norms and subjectification, for example condom use and its meaning for gay subjectivity, it is highly contested. The article shows that the debate on PrEP can be best described with the concepts ‘sexual-somatic ethics’ and ‘democratic biopolitics’, which I develop based on the biopolitical approach of Nikolas Rose and Paul Rabinow. In contrast, interpretations of PrEP which are following governmentality studies or Italian Theory amount to either farfetched or trivial positions on PrEP, when seen in light of the political debate. Furthermore, the article is a contribution to the scholarship on gay subjectivity, highlighting how homophobia and homonormativity haunts gay sex even in liberal environments, and how PrEP can serve as an entry point for the destigmatization of gay sexuality and transformation of gay subjectivity. ‘Biopolitical democratization’ entails making explicit how medical technology and health care relates to sexual subjectification and ethics, to strengthen the voice of (potential) PrEP users in health politics, and to renegotiate the profit and power of Big Pharma

Histopathological and molecular heterogeneity among individuals with dementia associated with Presenilin mutations

BACKGROUND: Mutations in the presenilin (PSEN) genes are associated with early-onset familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD). Biochemical characterizations and comparisons have revealed that many PSEN mutations alter gamma-secretase activity to promote accumulation of toxic Abeta42 peptides. In this study, we compared the histopathologic and biochemical profiles of ten FAD cases expressing independent PSEN mutations and determined the degradation patterns of amyloid-beta precursor protein (AbetaPP), Notch, N-cadherin and Erb-B4 by gamma-secretase. In addition, the levels of Abeta40/42 peptides were quantified by ELISA. RESULTS: We observed a wide variation in type, number and distribution of amyloid deposits and neurofibrillary tangles. Four of the ten cases examined exhibited a substantial enrichment in the relative proportions of Abeta40 over Abeta42. The AbetaPP N-terminal and C-terminal fragments and Tau species, assessed by Western blots and scanning densitometry, also demonstrated a wide variation. The Notch-1 intracellular domain was negligible by Western blotting in seven PSEN cases. There was significant N-cadherin and Erb-B4 peptide heterogeneity among the different PSEN mutations. CONCLUSION: These observations imply that missense mutations in PSEN genes can alter a range of key gamma-secretase activities to produce an array of subtly different biochemical, neuropathological and clinical manifestations. Beyond the broad common features of dementia, plaques and tangles, the various PSEN mutations resulted in a wide heterogeneity and complexity and differed from sporadic AD.Fil: Maarouf, Chera L.. Sun Health Research Institute; Estados UnidosFil: Daugs, Ian D.. Sun Health Research Institute; Estados UnidosFil: Spina, Salvatore. Universita Degli Studi Di Siena; Italia. Indiana University; Estados UnidosFil: Vidal, Ruben. Indiana University; Estados UnidosFil: Kokjohn, Tyler A.. Sun Health Research Institute; Estados Unidos. Midwestern University; Estados UnidosFil: Patton, R. Lyle. Sun Health Research Institute; Estados UnidosFil: Kalback, Walter M.. Sun Health Research Institute; Estados UnidosFil: Luehrs, Dean C.. Sun Health Research Institute; Estados UnidosFil: Walker, Douglas G.. Sun Health Research Institute; Estados UnidosFil: Castaño, Eduardo Miguel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Beach, Thomas G.. Sun Health Research Institute; Estados UnidosFil: Ghetti, Bernardino. Indiana University; Estados UnidosFil: Roher, Alex E.. Sun Health Research Institute; Estados Unido

An academic challenge to the entrepreneurial university: the spatial power of the ‘Slow Swimming Club’

© 2018 Society for Research into Higher Education. The entrepreneurial university is a vague notion that has evolved by applying the concepts of enterprise and entrepreneurship to a university context. The blurring of enterprise with entrepreneurship has allowed the entrepreneurial university to be increasingly underpinned by a managerialist discourse, typified by functionalisation and marketisation; culminating in academic disempowerment, dissatisfaction and subsequent disengagement. In response to such dissatisfaction, this paper reflects on a playful space, called the Slow Swimming Club (SSC), produced by several academics. The research takes a collective auto-ethnographic approach and employs Foucault’s heterotopology, as a conceptual frame, to understand the collective impact of this SSC entrepreneuring space. We relate the disconnection of the SSC to the process of critically connecting academics, back to their universities and consider whether such academic resistance, rooted in play, corporeal sensibility and emancipation, has the potential to enact social change and enhance entrepreneurial potential