Planning for the Peel Food Zone

The Planning for the Peel Food Zone project is part of Phase 1 of the Transform Peel initiative.Transform Peel is intended to be a ‘disruptive’ long-term program that supports economic growth, diversification and creates jobs in the Peel region. Transform Peel recognises the importance of protecting the internationally recognised waterways and wetlands of the Peel–Harvey Estuary and aims to halve the nutrient loads entering its waterways from the surrounding catchment. The $49.3 million Phase 1 program for Transform Peel comprises three main components: Peel Food Zone; Peel Integrated Water Initiative; Peel Business Park. This report summarises the findings from the Peel Food Zone project. It recommends implementing a planning approach as well as initiatives and activities that support the agriculture and food aspirations for Transform Peel, including how they align with DPIRD’s strategic intent to protect, grow and innovate primary industries and regional areas of WA

Katanning area land resources survey

This report presents results from soil and landform mapping at a scale of 1:150,000 in the Katanning area of Western Australia. It is accompanied by two soil-landscape maps covering 1.45 million hectares in the Kojonup and Darkan area (map 1) and the Katanning and Dumbleyung area (map 2). Most of the Katanning survey occurs within the Blackwood River catchment but also covers the upper catchments of the Pallinup, Frankland-Gordon and Tone-Warren Rivers. The Katanning survey falls within the Narrogin and Katanning advisory districts for Agriculture Western Australia. Twenty one soil-landscape systems have been identified and are represented on the accompanying maps. Most of these systems have been further subdivided into subsystems. The main soils, landforms, geology, land use and native vegetation are described for each system. Within each subsystem, the proportion of main soil series is indicated. One hundred and forty soil series were identified in the survey. Thirty-eight are described in detail including a representative soil profile plus chemical and physical analyses from this profile if available. The main land management characteristics and native vegetation are described. Seventy-three related soil series are also described briefly. Twenty-three minor soil series and six related series that occupy small areas are described in less detail without representative profiles. The report discusses the main properties and land degradation hazards associated with the main soils identified in the survey. This is designed to give a broad overview of the capability of the soils. For specific land capability assessment it is recommended that Agriculture Western Australia’s Map Unit Database be consulted for latest assessments of land qualities and land capabilities for specific land uses. Information on land use history, geology and physiology, climate, native vegetation and previous soil surveys is included. These sections provide additional background material about the land resources within the survey area. This land resource information has been collected to help improve decisions made by planners, researchers and land managers. The information can be used from regional and catchment scales or down to farm level. By improving knowledge of our land resources, more sustainable land uses can be developed within the Katanning region

Translating soils information into better land planning decisions: an example from the Peel-Harvey Catchment Western Australia

State planning policy for the Peel-Harvey coastal plain catchment requires decision makers to consider land suitability when assessing proposals for intensive agriculture including for horticulture. This information is not accessible or easily understood by land use planners. We will describe how we translated this information into a model Local Planning Policy (LPP) for the Peel-Harvey

Natural resource management issues in the agricultural zone of Western Australia : south west region

Provides and analysis of current pressures on agricultural resources of the South West region of Western Australia. Differing ranges of risks are shown for different degradation issues because of various impacts. Each natural resource management issues covers nature and extent of susceptibility, impacts on agriculture and the environment, management options and effectiveness of management options

Wagin-Woodanilling (zone 5) : catchment appraisal 2005

The aim of this report is to assess the current extent of salinity and other natural resource degradation issues and provide landholders with the best current management options to address natural resource management issues and enhance sustainable agricultural production

The Impact of Advocacy Organizations on Low-Income Housing Policy in U.S. Cities

Financial support for affordable housing competes with many other municipal priorities. This work seeks to explain the variation in support for affordable housing among U.S. cities with populations of 100,000 or more. Using multivariate statistical analysis, this research investigates political explanations for the level of city expenditures on housing and community with a particular interest in the influence of housing advocacy organizations (AOs). Data for the model were gathered from secondary sources, including the U.S. Census and the National Center for Charitable Statistics. Among other results, the analysis indicates that, on average, the political maturity of AOs has a statistically significant, positive effect on local housing and community development expenditures

Predicting Benefit From Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Patients With Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer by CT-Based Ensemble Deep Learning: A Retrospective Study

BACKGROUND: Only around 20-30% of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NCSLC) have durable benefit from immune-checkpoint inhibitors. Although tissue-based biomarkers (eg, PD-L1) are limited by suboptimal performance, tissue availability, and tumour heterogeneity, radiographic images might holistically capture the underlying cancer biology. We aimed to investigate the application of deep learning on chest CT scans to derive an imaging signature of response to immune checkpoint inhibitors and evaluate its added value in the clinical context. METHODS: In this retrospective modelling study, 976 patients with metastatic, EGFR/ALK negative NSCLC treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors at MD Anderson and Stanford were enrolled from Jan 1, 2014, to Feb 29, 2020. We built and tested an ensemble deep learning model on pretreatment CTs (Deep-CT) to predict overall survival and progression-free survival after treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors. We also evaluated the added predictive value of the Deep-CT model in the context of existing clinicopathological and radiological metrics. FINDINGS: Our Deep-CT model demonstrated robust stratification of patient survival of the MD Anderson testing set, which was validated in the external Stanford set. The performance of the Deep-CT model remained significant on subgroup analyses stratified by PD-L1, histology, age, sex, and race. In univariate analysis, Deep-CT outperformed the conventional risk factors, including histology, smoking status, and PD-L1 expression, and remained an independent predictor after multivariate adjustment. Integrating the Deep-CT model with conventional risk factors demonstrated significantly improved prediction performance, with overall survival C-index increases from 0·70 (clinical model) to 0·75 (composite model) during testing. On the other hand, the deep learning risk scores correlated with some radiomics features, but radiomics alone could not reach the performance level of deep learning, indicating that the deep learning model effectively captured additional imaging patterns beyond known radiomics features. INTERPRETATION: This proof-of-concept study shows that automated profiling of radiographic scans through deep learning can provide orthogonal information independent of existing clinicopathological biomarkers, bringing the goal of precision immunotherapy for patients with NSCLC closer

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Nyabing-Kukerin area land resources survey map

Map from - Percy, H M. (2003), Nyabing-Kukerin area land resources survey. Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia. Report 18.https://library.dpird.wa.gov.au/lr_images/1053/thumbnail.jp