Can Regional NRM arrangements reduce net transaction costs by increasing social capital?

In Australia significant resources are invested into Regional NRM arrangements where some authority and decision-making responsibilities are devolved to Regional NRM groups. However, little empirical evidence is available to guide policymakers in determining whether investments in such a governance regime will yield optimal outcomes. In this paper, we focus on exploring whether the Regional NRM model may result in a reduction in net transaction costs by generating social capital. By improving levels of trust and cooperation, and minimising levels of conflict between various stakeholders involved in NRM activities, costs such as those associated with monitoring and compliance can potentially be reduced. Evidence from a survey of landholders involved with NRM programs run by the Regional NRM group in the Central Queensland region suggests that social capital is generated under the Regional NRM governance model.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Automatic sound synthesizer programming: techniques and applications

The aim of this thesis is to investigate techniques for, and applications of automatic sound synthesizer programming. An automatic sound synthesizer programmer is a system which removes the requirement to explicitly specify parameter settings for a sound synthesis algorithm from the user. Two forms of these systems are discussed in this thesis: tone matching programmers and synthesis space explorers. A tone matching programmer takes at its input a sound synthesis algorithm and a desired target sound. At its output it produces a configuration for the sound synthesis algorithm which causes it to emit a similar sound to the target. The techniques for achieving this that are investigated are genetic algorithms, neural networks, hill climbers and data driven approaches. A synthesis space explorer provides a user with a representation of the space of possible sounds that a synthesizer can produce and allows them to interactively explore this space. The applications of automatic sound synthesizer programming that are investigated include studio tools, an autonomous musical agent and a self-reprogramming drum machine. The research employs several methodologies: the development of novel software frameworks and tools, the examination of existing software at the source code and performance levels and user trials of the tools and software. The main contributions made are: a method for visualisation of sound synthesis space and low dimensional control of sound synthesizers; a general purpose framework for the deployment and testing of sound synthesis and optimisation algorithms in the SuperCollider language sclang; a comparison of a variety of optimisation techniques for sound synthesizer programming; an analysis of sound synthesizer error surfaces; a general purpose sound synthesizer programmer compatible with industry standard tools; an automatic improviser which passes a loose equivalent of the Turing test for Jazz musicians, i.e. being half of a man-machine duet which was rated as one of the best sessions of 2009 on the BBC's 'Jazz on 3' programme

The environment of x ray selected BL Lacs: Host galaxies and galaxy clustering

Using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, we have imaged a complete, flux-limited sample of Einstein Medium Sensitivity Survey BL Lacertae objects in order to study the properties of BL Lac host galaxies and to use quantitative methods to determine the richness of their galaxy cluster environments

Successful use of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator in a patient with relapsing peritonitis

Intraperitoneal (IP) administration of either streptokinase (SK) or urokinase (UK) has assumed an adjunctive role to antibiotic therapy in selected patients with relapsing peritonitis. In these circumstances, bacteria may be protected from antibiotics through sequestration in either fibrinous structures or biofilms within the lumen of the peritoneal dialysis (PD) catheter or the peritoneal cavity. In some cases, it appears that disruption of these sheltered microenvironments by thrombolytic agents facilitated eradication of the offending organism and obviated the need for catheter removal, replacement, or interim hemodialysis. Although IP SK has been generally well tolerated as additive therapy in relapsing peritonitis, sporadic reports of significant complications, such as abdominal pain, fever, and severe hypotension, have precluded its more widespread acceptance. The only other thrombolytic agent used in this setting, UK, is presently unavailable because of a manufacturing shortfall. Therefore, adjunctive thrombolytic therapy for relapsing peritonitis is currently restricted. To circumvent these limitations, we devised an IP tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) protocol to eliminate recurring infection in a patient undergoing chronic ambulatory PD. After a third episode of peritonitis caused by Enterobacter cloacae, treated twice previously with an adequate antibiotic regimen, we instilled 6 mL of tPA (1 mg/mL) into the PD catheter for a 2-hour dwell time. The treatment was well tolerated and, in conjunction with a third course of antibiotic therapy, has produced an infection-free interval of 8 months. © 2001 by the National Kidney Foundation, Inc

Wideband finite difference time domain implementation of surface impedance boundary conditions for good conductors

Surface impedance boundary conditions are used to reduce the solution volume during the analysis of scattering from lossy dielectric objects. In a finite difference solution, they also can be used to avoid using small cells, made necessary by shorter wavelengths in conducting media, throughout the solution volume. A one dimensional implementation is presented for a surface impedance boundary condition for good conductors in the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) technique. In order to illustrate the FDTD surface impedance boundary condition, a planar air-lossy dielectric interface is considered

Finite difference time domain implementation of surface impedance boundary conditions

Surface impedance boundary conditions are employed to reduce the solution volume during the analysis of scattering from lossy dielectric objects. In a finite difference solution, they also can be utilized to avoid using small cells, made necessary by shorter wavelengths in conducting media throughout the solution volume. The standard approach is to approximate the surface impedance over a very small bandwidth by its value at the center frequency, and then use that result in the boundary condition. Two implementations of the surface impedance boundary condition are presented. One implementation is a constant surface impedance boundary condition and the other is a dispersive surface impedance boundary condition that is applicable over a very large frequency bandwidth and over a large range of conductivities. Frequency domain results are presented in one dimension for two conductivity values and are compared with exact results. Scattering width results from an infinite square cylinder are presented as a 2-D demonstration. Extensions to 3-D should be straightforward