Organizational Ineffectiveness and Professional Influence

The present study is concerned with the consequences of the lack of congruence between the social work profession and the social agency, for the effectiveness with which the agency, as an administrative organization is able to provide social work services efficiently

Derivation of supply curves for catchment water effluents meeting specific salinity concentration targets in 2050: linking farm and catchment level models or “Footprints on future salt / water planes”

The salt burden in a stream reflects the blend of salty and fresh flows from different soil areas in its catchment. Depending not only on long-run rainfall, water yields from a soil are also determined by land cover: lowest if the area is forested and greatest if cleared. Water yields under agro-forestry, lucerne pasture, perennial grass pasture, and annual pasture or cropping options span the range of water yields between the extremes of forested and cleared lands. This study explores quantitative approaches for connecting the hydrologic and economic consequences of farm-level decisions on land cover (productive land uses) to the costs of attaining different catchment level targets of water volumes and salt reaching downstream users; environmental, agricultural, domestic, commercial and industrial. This connection is critical for the resolution of the externality dilemma of meeting downstream demands for water volume and quality. New technology, new products and new markets will expand options for salinity abatement measures in the dryland farming areas of watershed catchments. The development of appropriate policy solutions to address demands for water volumes and quality depends on the possibility of inducing targeted land use change in those catchments or parts of catchments where decreased saline flows or increased fresh water flows can return the best value for money. This study provides such a link.salinity, targets, opportunity cost, concentration, dilution, effluent, externality, supply, demand, policy, water quality, new technology, new markets, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Impulse oscillometry identifies peripheral airway dysfunction in children with adenosine deaminase deficiency.

Adenosine deaminase-deficient severe combined immunodeficiency (ADA-SCID) is characterized by impaired T-, B- and NK-cell function. Affected children, in addition to early onset of infections, manifest non-immunologic symptoms including pulmonary dysfunction likely attributable to elevated systemic adenosine levels. Lung disease assessment has primarily employed repetitive radiography and effort-dependent functional studies. Through impulse oscillometry (IOS), which is effort-independent, we prospectively obtained objective measures of lung dysfunction in 10 children with ADA-SCID. These results support the use of IOS in the identification and monitoring of lung function abnormalities in children with primary immunodeficiencies

Calcium and magnesium absorption and retention by growing goats offered diets with different calcium sources

Calcium addition is necessary in order to balance the high phosphorus concentrations that are characteristic of high-concentrate ruminant diets. However, calcium sources differ in their bioavailability. Our objective was to determine apparent calcium and magnesium absorption and retention in goats offered diets containing different sources of calcium. Spanish-Boer goats (n = 18; 19.6 ± 1.88 kg) were stratified by body weight (BW) and sex and randomized to dietary treatments consisting of Purina Antlermax 16 containing either calcium carbonate (CC), Calmin (CM) or Milk Cal (MC). Goats were adapted to a control, corn-based high-concentrate diet on pasture and then moved to individual 1.0 × 1.5-m pens with plastic coated expanded metal floors, and adjusted to their respective diets along with removal of hay from the diet over a 7-d period. Goats were then offered their respective diets at a total of 2% of BW in equal feedings at 8:30 AM and 5:00 PM for an additional 14-d adaption period to diet and facilities followed by a 7-d collection of total urine and feces. Data were analyzed using PROC MIXED of SAS. Calcium and magnesium intake were not different (P ≥ 0.12) among diets. Calcium and magnesium apparent absorption and retention (g/d and % of intake) were greatest (P \u3c 0.05) in goats offered CC and did not differ (P ≥ 0.20) between goats offered the CM and MC diets. Therefore, calcium and magnesium were more available for goats from the diet containing calcium carbonate compared with diets containing Calmin and Milk Cal