An evolutionary economic perspective on technical change and adjustment in cane harvesting systems in the Australian sugar industry

Australian sugar-producing regions have differed in terms of the extent and rate of incorporation of new technology into harvesting systems. The Mackay sugar industry has lagged behind most other sugar-producing regions in this regard. The reasons for this are addressed by invoking an evolutionary economics perspective. The development of harvesting systems, and the role of technology in shaping them, is mapped and interpreted using the concept of path dependency. Key events in the evolution of harvesting systems are identified, which show how the past has shaped the regional development of harvesting systems. From an evolutionary economics perspective, the outcomes observed are the end result of a specific history.Crop Production/Industries,

Success Strategies Being Implemented in Fresh Milk Supply Chains

Deregulation of the Australian dairy industry, and ensuing supermarket strategies are transforming the fresh milk supply chains. Factors such as increasing consumer awareness, concerns about food safety and environment, innovation, supply chain integration and rationalisation of supply base are adding momentum to this transformation. Milk processors in response to changing market expectations are getting proactive in their relationship with retailers across all aspects of business, innovating to generate sufficient returns from proprietary brands and strategically orienting themselves to develop a mixed customer portfolio and appropriate management structures to service that portfolio. Milk producers are expanding businesses to achieve production and cost efficiencies and strengthening contractual relationships on input and output side for a greater security.Livestock Production/Industries,

Decision Support Systems in Australian Agriculture: State of the Art and Future Development

This paper reports and discusses the results of a survey conducted with experts working in the field of decision support systems (DSS) in Australian agriculture. It also reviews the literature on DSS in the light of these experts' responses. The findings from this survey have consolidated our understanding of the current state of DSS in Australian agriculture. The uptake of DSS by farmers has been slow and various issues said to be contributing to this include fear of using computers, time constraints, poor marketing, complexity, lack of local relevance, lack of end-user involvement, and mismatched objectives between developers and users. The future prospect for the development of DSS was generally regarded to be poor. Never-the-less, the authors believe that new DSS which embrace the suggested criteria could be widely accepted by farmers. These criteria mean that to be widely used by farmers, any successful DSS needs to address widespread problems: they need to be location specific, and gain strong support from initial users. They also need to be simple to use, relevant, effective, low cost, and user friendly and it is most likely that farmers would have been involved in their development. We believe that farmers' personalities, and their attitudes towards risk management and decision making, will influence the pattern of adoption of DSS in Australian agriculture while the intergenerational change that is occurring in the management of Australian farms is a positive factor that may encourage more widespread use of these tools.DSS, farmers' decision-making, expert opinion, management decisions, Farm Management, D7, D8, Q12, Q13, Q16,

Risk Management Strategies by Australian Farmers

Australian farmers operate in one of the most risky environment in the world. They have to cope with various sources of risk in their businesses. This paper reports results of two case studies undertaken to examine the issues of farming risks and risk management strategies in Australia. The first case study found that climate variability, financial risk, marketing risk, and personal risk were regarded as the major sources of farming risk in the Upper Eyre Peninsula of South Australia. The main management strategies used by farmers included diversifying varieties, minimising tillage, minimising area of risky crops and maximising area of the least-risky crop, having high equity, having farm management deposits and other off-farm investments, and "leaving marketing to experts". The second case study revealed that climate variability was ranked as the most important source of farming risk in southwest Queensland. This was then followed by financial risks, government policy, and marketing risks. The main management strategies used were enterprise diversification (having predominantly cattle and farming cash crops), conserving moisture, using zero till planting, diversified sales (selling only part of the farm's production at any one time), and having off-farm investments. The paper then attempts to reconcile the two case studies by comparing the results with studies from the United States of America, Canada, Netherlands, and New Zealand.risk, risk management, strategies, farmers, Australia, Farm Management, Risk and Uncertainty,

Multicentre evaluation of MRI variability in the quantification of infarct size in experimental focal cerebral ischaemia

Ischaemic stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in the developed world. Despite that considerable advances in experimental research enabled understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease and identified hundreds of potential neuroprotective drugs for treatment, no such drug has shown efficacy in humans. The failure in the translation from bench to bedside has been partially attributed to the poor quality and rigour of animal studies. Recently, it has been suggested that multicentre animal studies imitating the design of randomised clinical trials could improve the translation of experimental research. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could be pivotal in such studies due to its non-invasive nature and its high sensitivity to ischaemic lesions, but its accuracy and concordance across centres has not yet been evaluated. This thesis focussed on the use of MRI for the assessment of late infarct size, the primary outcome used in stroke models. Initially, a systematic review revealed that a plethora of imaging protocols and data analysis methods are used for this purpose. Using meta-analysis techniques, it was determined that T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) was best correlated with gold standard histology for the measurement of infarctbased treatment effects. Then, geometric accuracy in six different preclinical MRI scanners was assessed using structural phantoms and automated data analysis tools developed in-house. It was found that geometric accuracy varies between scanners, particularly when centre-specific T2WI protocols are used instead of a standardised protocol, though longitudinal stability over six months is high. Finally, a simulation study suggested that the measured geometric errors and the different protocols are sufficient to render infarct volumes and related group comparisons across centres incomparable. The variability increases when both factors are taken into account and when infarct volume is expressed as a relative estimate. Data in this study were analysed using a custom-made semi-automated tool that was faster and more reliable in repeated analyses than manual analysis. Findings of this thesis support the implementation of standardised methods for the assessment and optimisation of geometric accuracy in MRI scanners, as well as image acquisition and analysis of in vivo data for the measurement of infarct size in multicentre animal studies. Tools and techniques developed as part of the thesis show great promise in the analysis of phantom and in vivo data and could be a step towards this endeavour

Optimum number of regional trials for selection of wheat varieties in northern grain region

The major purpose of any testing program is to establish repeatable differences between cultivars in a given environment but cultivars rarely perform consistently across the range of environments in which they are tested. Plant breeders recognise that the nature of genetic material and the environments in which it is tested are such that there is a lot of uncertainty involved in the selection of superior varieties. Economists have not been closely involved with the cultivar selection process and only recently has there been much interest taken by economists in the costs and management of breeding programs (Brennan et al. 1998). This paper tries to estimate long term variable costs of conducting regional variety trials and to determine the optimal number of trials for south Queensland and northern New South Wales graingrowing regions