An open standard for the exchange of information in the Australian timber sector

The purpose of this paper is to describe business-to-business (B2B) communication and the characteristics of an open standard for electronic communication within the Australian timber and wood products industry. Current issues, future goals and strategies for using business-to-business communication will be considered. From the perspective of the Timber industry sector, this study is important because supply chain efficiency is a key component in an organisation's strategy to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Strong improvement in supply chain performance is possible with improved business-to-business communication which is used both for building trust and providing real time marketing data. Traditional methods such as electronic data interchange (EDI) used to facilitate B2B communication have a number of disadvantages, such as high implementation and running costs and a rigid and inflexible messaging standard. Information and communications technologies (ICT) have supported the emergence of web-based EDI which maintains the advantages of the traditional paradigm while negating the disadvantages. This has been further extended by the advent of the Semantic web which rests on the fundamental idea that web resources should be annotated with semantic markup that captures information about their meaning and facilitates meaningful machine-to-machine communication. This paper provides an ontology using OWL (Web Ontology Language) for the Australian Timber sector that can be used in conjunction with semantic web services to provide effective and cheap B2B communications

Regional tourist destinations - the role of information and communications technology (ICT) in collaboration amongst tourism providers

The tourism industry can be seen as one of the first business sectors where business functions are almost exclusively using information and communications technologies (ICT). This has impacted on the way in which regional tourism destinations are promoted. The method of promoting regions via the development of regional tourist destination websites or portals using Internet technologies is increasingly being adopted both in Australia and around the world. This paper investigates whether this approach is the most effective to achieve increased awareness and subsequent visitation of a region. Are there other ways to achieve a similar outcome? One such alternative is via a bottom up approach achieved through co-opetition or collaboration established within the group of local tourism industry operators. This cooperative networking is made possible via the use of ICT to facilitate the establishment of virtual business networks amongst tourism operators in a local community, cascading into an informal secondary tourism network within that region. In many Australian regional areas the tourism bureau has been the key node for local tourism, but this structure has been fraught with many problems. Little is known about their effectiveness in delivering services to local small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs). The role of tourism bureaus in local tourism networks is changing and a study of this dynamic is provided here as an example of the interaction between top down and bottom up approaches. Published case studies from around the world are considered demonstrating alternative approaches to using ICT to promote a region and communicate with potential visitors. Future empirical research is required to more fully understand the effectiveness of the different approaches

Diffusion of Innovation - the adoption of e-commerce by small to medium enterprises (SME\u27s) - a comparative analysis

This paper explores the issues that influence the diffusion of innovation as it relates to the adoption of e-commerce by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). It seeks to identify factors facilitating and inhibiting such adoption across contexts – regional, small city and large city. This analysis is cross cultural so the impact of differing economic and cultural issues also will be identified in this research. Whilst it is generally accepted that the strategic use of information technology (IT) is vital in the marketplace, the rate of such uptake between small and large businesses varies. This research seeks to identify the reasons for this variation. It is critical to understand such factors so that steps can be taken to redress inequity of uptake that might be identified. The paper endeavours to explore factors that are needed to facilitate and encourage IT adoption and so positively influence user acceptance and use of IT innovations in SMEs. Reasons for such uptake as well as strategic approach to the adoption of e-commerce, and variations regarding same also will be considered. The paper examines existing theory as it pertains to the diffusion of innovation acknowledging the perspective of regional and urban SMEs in various cultural contexts. Empirical investigation exploring this diffusion, the rate of and approach to the uptake by SMEs is planned using a case study methodolog

AN INTRODUCTION TO VIRGINIA ISSUES: INFORMATION AND ANALYSIS: SPECIAL REPORT FOR VIRGINIA COOPERATIVE EXTENSION

Community/Rural/Urban Development, Labor and Human Capital, Land Economics/Use,

The direct role of enzyme hydrolysis on ammonium regeneration rates in estuarine sediments

Benthic ammonium (NH4 +) regeneration in coastal marine sediments has a fundamental role in nitrogen (N) cycling and N supply to primary producers. Nitrogen regeneration involves benthic microbial mineralization of organic-N, which, in turn, depends on protein hydrolysis. These processes were examined in Aransas Bay (Texas, USA) sediments by monitoring NH4 + evolution as a function of enzyme activity in controlled sediment slurries. Casein and tannic acid were added to evaluate the direct role of aminopeptidase on NH4 + production and the effects of a polyphenolic enzyme inhibitor, respectively. Casein additions increased the NH4 + concentration from 19 ± 0.3 to 737 ± 150 μM in 120 h, a final concentration 4.3-fold higher than that of control samples and 2.9-fold higher than that of samples with casein and tannic added together. Lower NH4 + concentration in samples with tannic acid indicated that inhibiting aminopeptidase activity reduced NH4 + production rates. The concentration of the regenerated NH4 + related directly to aminopeptidase activity in controls (r = 0.86, p \u3c 0.01), casein-enriched (r = 0.89, p \u3c 0.01), and casein plus polyphenol treatments (r = 0.71, p \u3c 0.01) over the first 72 h. The results demonstrate the importance of aminopeptidase in regenerating NH4 + in sediments and provide insights about mechanisms of enzyme hydrolysis and NH4 + fluxes in estuarine sediments

Experimental Test of Connector Rotation during DNA Packaging into Bacteriophage ϕ29 Capsids

The bacteriophage ϕ29 generates large forces to compact its double-stranded DNA genome into a protein capsid by means of a portal motor complex. Several mechanical models for the generation of these high forces by the motor complex predict coupling of DNA translocation to rotation of the head-tail connector dodecamer. Putative connector rotation is investigated here by combining the methods of single-molecule force spectroscopy with polarization-sensitive single-molecule fluorescence. In our experiment, we observe motor function in several packaging complexes in parallel using video microscopy of bead position in a magnetic trap. At the same time, we follow the orientation of single fluorophores attached to the portal motor connector. From our data, we can exclude connector rotation with greater than 99% probability and therefore answer a long-standing mechanistic question

LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie

Influenza A Gradual and Epochal Evolution: Insights from Simple Models

The recurrence of influenza A epidemics has originally been explained by a “continuous antigenic drift” scenario. Recently, it has been shown that if genetic drift is gradual, the evolution of influenza A main antigen, the haemagglutinin, is punctuated. As a consequence, it has been suggested that influenza A dynamics at the population level should be approximated by a serial model. Here, simple models are used to test whether a serial model requires gradual antigenic drift within groups of strains with the same antigenic properties (antigenic clusters). We compare the effect of status based and history based frameworks and the influence of reduced susceptibility and infectivity assumptions on the transient dynamics of antigenic clusters. Our results reveal that the replacement of a resident antigenic cluster by a mutant cluster, as observed in data, is reproduced only by the status based model integrating the reduced infectivity assumption. This combination of assumptions is useful to overcome the otherwise extremely high model dimensionality of models incorporating many strains, but relies on a biological hypothesis not obviously satisfied. Our findings finally suggest the dynamical importance of gradual antigenic drift even in the presence of punctuated immune escape. A more regular renewal of susceptible pool than the one implemented in a serial model should be part of a minimal theory for influenza at the population level

Growth of Yersinia enterocolitica O:3 in Minced Pork Meat

Yersinia enterocolitica patogena je bakterija od javnozdravstvenog značenja u proizvodnji svinjskog mesa. U radu je istražen potencijal rasta u mljevenom mesu tijekom pohrane na 4 i 10 °C soja Yersinia enterocolitica O:3 izoliranog iz tonzila svinja. Determinirana je pomoću MALDI- TOF masene spektrometrije i inokulirana u svinjsko mljeveno meso u broju 3 log CFU/g. Nakon prvog dana pohrane broj patogena u uzorcima mljevenog mesa na 4 °C bio je veći za 0,4 log, a na 10 °C za 1,2 log (P<0,05). Drugoga dana pohrane na 4 °C broj je rastao za dodatnih 0,7 log, a na 10 °C za 1,71 log (P<0,05). Zadnjeg dana pohrane broj Y. enterocolitica bio je u mljevenom mesu na 4 °C 2,72 log veći u odnosu na početni broj, a na 10 °C konačni broj je bio veći za 4,46 log u odnosu na inicijalnu populaciju. Rezultati ukazuju na važnost provođenja dobre higijenske prakse u klaoničkoj obradi i proizvodnji mljevenog mesa, budući da se hlađenjem na navedenim temperaturama ne sprječava rast patogene Y. enterocolitica.Yersinia enterocolitica is a pathogenic bacteria of public health relevance in pork meat production. This study evaluated the growth potential of Y. enterocolitica O:3 isolated from pig´s tonsils in minced meat stored aerobically at 4 °C and 10 °C. Y. enterocolitica was determined using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and inoculated to pork at a level of 3 log CFU/g. After the first day of storage, the pathogen count in minced meat at 4 °C and 10 °C was 0.4 log and 1.2 log higher, respectively (P<0.05). On the second day of storage, the increase of the population was 0.7 and 1.71 log (P<0.05). At the end of storage, the Yersinia count in samples stored at 4 °C was 2.72 log higher than the initial population, while in samples stored at 10 °C it was 4.46 log higher. These results indicate the importance of implementing good hygiene practices in slaughter processing and production of minced pork, since cooling at the usual temperatures does not prevent the growth of the pathogenic Y. enterocolitica