Defining the Social Dimension of Triple Bottom Line for the Australian Dairy Industry: Challenges, Priorities and Opportunities

Understanding the social impact the dairy industry has on employees and local communities is part of Dairy Australia’s commitment to the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework, which emphasises that businesses have social, environmental and economic impacts and responsibilities. This social impact assessment project, currently underway, aims to identify and quantify the social value of the dairy industry, whilst proactively identifying areas for improvements. Through an online survey for employees and a random postal survey of 15,000 dairy community residents, the project investigates how Australians perceive the Dairy Industry, as well as their wellbeing, quality of life, community involvement and work experiences. This paper provides an overview of the study, outlining why developing quantifiable indicators for the social dimension of TBL that are designed to be as rigorous as current financial reporting is a business priority. Examples of how the findings will contribute to the identification and management of issues, measures of industry sustainability and future strategy are discussed

Multitask Evolution with Cartesian Genetic Programming

We introduce a genetic programming method for solving multiple Boolean circuit synthesis tasks simultaneously. This allows us to solve a set of elementary logic functions twice as easily as with a direct, single-task approach.Comment: 2 page

Grades 7-8 Mean, Median, and Mode

This lesson is a math lesson for seventh and eighth grade students on mean, medium, and mode. Through this lesson students will be able to understand the measures of central tendency and their definitions, how to calculate them and what steps are involved, and how the theories can be applied on real life. In this lesson, students are tiered by ability and are able to pick a project based off of their interest and the math concept they are working on. Each activity has a tiered task card to guide the students

Inventory and Mapping of Aquatic Plants at Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area

Lake Roosevelt is a large reservoir in northeast Washington State formed by the Grand Coulee Dam. The reservoir, which inundates portions of the Columbia River, the Spokane River, and other rivers and streams, is the focus of the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area (LARO) that is managed by the National Park Service. LARO encompasses 100,390 acres (40,625 ha) and includes significant cultural and recreational resources. The surface area, volume, and shoreline length of Lake Roosevelt at full pool is 82,691 acres (33,490 ha), 9.41 × 1010 acre-ft (1.16 × 1010 m3) (Nigro et. al. 1981), and 630 miles (1014 km) (www.lrf.org/AboutLR/ALRFastFacts.html accessed 28 January 2008), respectively; thus, the reservoir provides a significant aquatic resource for fish and wildlife as well as recreation in the region. Invasive plants are a high-priority “vital sign” of LARO ecosystem health (Garret et. al. 2007). In recent years, LARO staff noted an increase in the density of submersed aquatic plants (macrophytes), including Myriophyllum spicatum (Eurasian watermilfoil), in the lake. M. spicatum is a highly invasive weed that forms dense surface mats that interfere with boating and angling and degrade water quality. In an effort to reduce recreational impacts of aquatic plants LARO staff established test plots of nonchemical methods of control during the drawdown period in the spring of 2007. The National Park Service contracted Portland State University Center for Lakes and Reservoirs to accomplish two main objectives: 1) document the effects of nonchemical control measures of submersed aquatic plants in the reservoir, and 2) describe the composition of the aquatic plant community at selected locations in LARO