Grazing and management of saltland shrubs

areas of bare saltland on farms need not be unproductive etesores. Many Western Australian farmers are now successfully growing salt-tolerant or halophytic shrubs such as bluebush (Maireana brevifolia), saltbushes (Atriplex spp.) and samphires (Halosarcia spp.) on these areas. Department of agriculture trials and farmers\u27 experience indicate that if saltland is planted with recommended shrubs, it can provide two months\u27 valuable grazing for sheep during autumn and early winter, a time when paddock feed is scarce. Research by the Department has also identified a range of salt-tolerant shrubs suited to the various types of saltland. Grazing trials to determine the value of salt-tolerant shrub pasture for sheep started at Wickepin and Kondut in the 1970s and the early results were reported in this Journal in 1982 (Clarke, 1982). The Kondut trial has been continued and the results from six years\u27 grazing are discussed here. This article also contains additional information from the large grazed plots on farms and from farmers experienced in management and use osd saltland shrub pastures

Torsion models for tensor-triangulated categories: the one-step case

Given a suitable stable monoidal model category $\mathscr{C}$ and a specialization closed subset $V$ of its Balmer spectrum one can produce a Tate square for decomposing objects into the part supported over $V$ and the part supported over $V^c$ spliced with the Tate object. Using this one can show that $\mathscr{C}$ is Quillen equivalent to a model built from the data of local torsion objects, and the splicing data lies in a rather rich category. As an application, we promote the torsion model for the homotopy category of rational circle-equivariant spectra from [18] to a Quillen equivalence. In addition, a close analysis of the one step case highlights important features needed for general torsion models which we will return to in future work.Comment: 35 pages, minor changes in the introductio

Phase behaviour of binary mixtures of diamagnetic colloidal platelets in an external magnetic field

Using fundamental measure density functional theory we investigate paranematic-nematic and nematic-nematic phase coexistence in binary mixtures of circular platelets with vanishing thicknesses. An external magnetic field induces uniaxial alignment and acts on the platelets with a strength that is taken to scale with the platelet area. At particle diameter ratio lambda=1.5 the system displays paranematic-nematic coexistence. For lambda=2, demixing into two nematic states with different compositions also occurs, between an upper critical point and a paranematic-nematic-nematic triple point. Increasing the field strength leads to shrinking of the coexistence regions. At high enough field strength a closed loop of immiscibility is induced and phase coexistence vanishes at a double critical point above which the system is homogeneously nematic. For lambda=2.5, besides paranematic-nematic coexistence, there is nematic-nematic coexistence which persists and hence does not end in a critical point. The partial orientational order parameters along the binodals vary strongly with composition and connect smoothly for each species when closed loops of immiscibility are present in the corresponding phase diagram.Comment: 9 pages, to appear in J.Phys:Condensed Matte

School health in Europe:a review of workforce expenditure across five countries

Background: Most European countries have implemented a form of school health services (SHS) to provide young children and adolescents with various types of healthcare. No estimations on SHS expenditure for European countries have been published until now. We estimated SHS workforce expenditure in Europe, expected to serve as the main driver of school healthcare costs. Methods: Using two networks of experts on healthcare provision for children we contacted various country representatives to provide data on the number of professionals working in SHS and salaries. These data were used, together with publicly available data, to estimate annual SHS workforce expenditure on the national level. Results: We received sufficient data for five European countries, and estimated the SHS workforce expenditure. Nurses were the most widely reported professionals working in this field, followed by doctors and psychologists. Our SHS expenditure estimations ranged from 43,000 for Estonia to 195,300 in Norway (per 1000 pupils). For Norway, Estonia, Finland and Iceland, school nurses were the main drivers of SHS expenditure, mainly due to their large numbers, while in Austria, school doctors played the largest role in SHS expenditure. Conclusions: We estimated the spending on SHS workforce for five European countries, which comprises relatively minor parts of total healthcare spending (0.16 to 0.69%). Many questions regarding SHS spending in Europe remain, due to a general lack of data on national levels

The Effects of Dried Distillers Grains on Heifers Consuming Low or High Quality Forage

Two forage sources, high and low quality, were used to evaluate effects of five levels of dried distillers grains on forage intake. Ninety heifer calves were fed high or low quality forage, supplemented with 0, 1.5, 3, 4.5, or 6 lb DM dried distillers grains. Forage intakes linearly decreased as dried distillers grains increased. Average daily gain increased linearly with increased dried distillers grains indicating that dried distillers grains can be a protein and energy supplement source and a substitute for forage. Dried distillers grains are an economical supplement to cattle on either high or low quality forage diets

The Effects of Dried Distillers Grains on Heifers Consuming Low or High Quality Forage

Two forage sources, high and low quality, were used to evaluate effects of five levels of dried distillers grains on forage intake. Ninety heifer calves were fed high or low quality forage, supplemented with 0, 1.5, 3, 4.5, or 6 lb DM dried distillers grains. Forage intakes linearly decreased as dried distillers grains increased. Average daily gain increased linearly with increased dried distillers grains indicating that dried distillers grains can be a protein and energy supplement source and a substitute for forage. Dried distillers grains are an economical supplement to cattle on either high or low quality forage diets