The Implications of Information Asymmetry for the Achievement of Australia's National Water Objectives

On 29th April 2008, Senator Penny Wong outlined details of Water for the Future; the Rudd Government’s $12.9 billion plan to secure the long term water supply of all Australians. Funding under Water for the Future will be used to support significant water reform across the country. In order to formulate strategies to achieve the objectives of the Plan, decision makers will require information related to the relative profitability of different irrigation activities, such as production costs and returns, as well as the potential irrigator response to and impacts of reductions in water availability or changes to water policy more generally. The aim of this paper is to highlight the potential for unexpected outcomes to arise from policies which are formulated in a world of information asymmetry. The heterogeneity of irrigation sectors and indeed individual irrigators within these sectors mean that actual impacts or responses will vary significantly between sectors/individuals. Hence while governments may try to predict the potential consequences/impacts of changes to water policy, the resulting outcomes may be far from what was intended.Crop Deaths, Irrigator Behaviour, Economic Assessment, Water Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Optimising Broadacre Crop Rotations using Dynamic Programming

A Dynamic programming Model is used to select the most profitable crop rotation from seven crop alternatives including pasture. Crop yields within a rotation are estimated by specifying growing season rainfall, water use efficiency and weed and disease penalties caused by the three previous years crop history. A provision exists to include the effect on yield of other natural resource limitations. Regional variations can be accounted for by varying rainfall, management practices, yield penalties and input costs. A nitrogen-phosphorous calculator ensures sufficient fertiliser is applied for the crop to achieve its expected yield. This approach can be used to measure the productivity implications of advances in technology as well as the impact of rainfall, yield and price variations on optimal rotations.Crop Production/Industries,

Violent Political Resistance: Defence Against Injustice in Partially Just States

This thesis contributes to the growing literature on the ethics of violent political resistance to the state and its constituent institutions. Political theory has historically been defined by two traditions: the revolutionary tradition, and the civil disobedience tradition that limits political participation to (generally) non-violent communicative law-breaking. Theorists have recently sought to forge a third path by describing the conditions for justified non-revolutionary violence. In particular, these theorists have drawn on the resources of the literature on defensive action to discern the normative limits of political violence, arguing that violence against an unjust state constitutes a form of defence. This thesis investigates the moral permissibility of violent political resistance. It assesses what it would take for political violence to satisfy the criteria of necessity, success, and proportionality, drawing nuanced moral distinctions between different kinds of political violence. In the process, this thesis considers in detail a range of topics: whether political violence impermissibly manipulates its victims; which agents of the state are liable to be harmed by virtue of their complicity in injustice; what moral implications follow from empirical evidence of the ineffectiveness of political violence; and whether the victims of injustice can commit violence to defend their dignity. While the thesis applies the defensive framework to a range of real and hypothetical examples throughout, it pays particular attention to the case of Fees Must Fall, a South African student movement that resorted to violence against state institutions and public universities. This thesis finds that limited violence can be permissible as a defence against injustice, particularly if violence is non-manipulative and directed discerningly at individuals complicit in institutions responsible for injustice. This thesis also defends violence against empirical criticisms of its inefficacy, but it reaches sceptical conclusions about the use of violence in defence of dignity

Revival and relevance: The walled kitchen garden in 21st century public history

Trelissick walled kitchen garden currently lies dormant at the heart of a thriving National Trust property on the outskirts of Truro in Cornwall. Created in the 18th century, this highly productive space fed and adorned the estate throughout its ever-evolving lifespan and numerous proprietors. The mid-20th century saw its decline and enforced state of redundancy, mirroring the fate met by many similar sites across the nation. The site now stands on the brink of regeneration. This thesis locates the public historic walled garden within the wider historiography and seeks to present a framework in which the National Trust can present the walled kitchen garden to a 21st century audience, one that respects its historic origins yet responds to the needs and wants of its visitors, all the while retaining relevance. Despite the development of wider historical discourse surrounding concepts of public history, history from below and new museology, the discipline of garden history has mostly fixated its gaze upon conventional elitist narratives which gravitate towards the 18th century British landscape movement. This thesis explores the limitations of such an approach, as well as the means by which garden history can reassess its dependence upon hegemonic discourse, thereby becoming more responsive and future oriented, embracing notions of co-curatorship and dialogue that are at the heart of alternative methodological perspectives such as new museology, public history and history from below. Thus, Trelissick’s walled garden has the potential to embody the manifestation of garden history – often regarded as a purely scholarly discipline – in historic gardens themselves

SOCS proteins in development and disease

Cytokine and growth factor signaling mediates essential roles in the differentiation, proliferation, survival and function of a number of cell lineages. This is achieved via specific receptors located on the surface of target cells, with ligand binding activating key intracellular signal transduction cascades to mediate the requisite cellular outcome. Effective resolution of receptor signaling is also essential, with excessive signaling having the potential for pathological consequences. The Suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) family of proteins represent one important mechanism to extinguish cytokine and growth factor receptor signaling. There are 8 SOCS proteins in mammals; SOCS1-7 and the alternatively named Cytokine-inducible SH2-containing protein (CISH). SOCS1-3 and CISH are predominantly associated with the regulation of cytokine receptor signaling, while SOCS4-7 are more commonly involved in the control of Receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) signaling. Individual SOCS proteins are typically induced by specific cytokines and growth factors, thereby generating a negative feedback loop. As a consequence of their regulatory properties, SOCS proteins have important functions in development and homeostasis, with increasing recognition of their role in disease, particularly their tumor suppressor and anti-inflammatory functions. This review provides a synthesis of our current understanding of the SOCS family, with an emphasis on their immune and hematopoietic roles

Maternal and infant infections stimulate a rapid leukocyte response in breastmilk

Breastmilk protects infants against infections; however, specific responses of breastmilk immune factors to different infections of either the mother or the infant are not well understood. Here, we examined the baseline range of breastmilk leukocytes and immunomodulatory biomolecules in healthy mother/infant dyads and how they are influenced by infections of the dyad. Consistent with a greater immunological need in the early postpartum period, colostrum contained considerable numbers of leukocytes (13–70% out of total cells) and high levels of immunoglobulins and lactoferrin. Within the first 1–2 weeks postpartum, leukocyte numbers decreased significantly to a low baseline level in mature breastmilk (0–2%) (P\u3c0.001). This baseline level was maintained throughout lactation unless the mother and/or her infant became infected, when leukocyte numbers significantly increased up to 94% leukocytes out of total cells (P\u3c0.001). Upon recovery from the infection, baseline values were restored. The strong leukocyte response to infection was accompanied by a more variable humoral immune response. Exclusive breastfeeding was associated with a greater baseline level of leukocytes in mature breastmilk. Collectively, our results suggest a strong association between the health status of the mother/infant dyad and breastmilk leukocyte levels. This could be used as a diagnostic tool for assessment of the health status of the lactating breast as well as the breastfeeding mother and infant

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-based metabolite profiling of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium differentiates between biofilm and planktonic phenotypes

The aim of this study was to utilize gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to compare and identify patterns of biochemical change between Salmonella cells grown in planktonic and biofilm phases and Salmonella biofilms of different ages. Our results showed a clear separation between planktonic and biofilm modes of growth. The majority of metabolites contributing to variance between planktonic and biofilm supernatants were identified as amino acids, including alanine, glutamic acid, glycine, and ornithine. Metabolites contributing to variance in intracellular profiles were identified as succinic acid, putrescine, pyroglutamic acid, and N-acetylglutamic acid. Principal-component analysis revealed no significant differences between the various ages of intracellular profiles, which would otherwise allow differentiation of biofilm cells on the basis of age. A shifting pattern across the score plot was illustrated when analyzing extracellular metabolites sampled from different days of biofilm growth, and amino acids were again identified as the metabolites contributing most to variance. An understanding of biofilm-specific metabolic responses to perturbations, especially antibiotics, can lead to the identification of novel drug targets and potential therapies for combating biofilm-associated diseases. We concluded that under the conditions of this study, GC-MS can be successfully applied as a high-throughput technique for "bottom-up" metabolomic biofilm research

Lightning myths and beliefs in South Africa: Their effect on personal safety

Every year, lightning kills and injures people and animals and damages property in South Africa. Rural people who work outdoors tending the land or herding animals are particularly vulnerable to lightning strikes. A lightning awareness effort might help to reduce the annual number of lightning deaths in South Africa. This thesis describes an attempt at understanding southern African traditional myths and beliefs related to lightning and to examine how these could inform lightning awareness and education. Lightning awareness efforts in other countries are assessed in terms of their suitability with respect to South Africa. Finally, a model for a mobile lightning warning and awareness is proposed based on the current African mobile culture. Mobile telephones have created a revolution in communications in Africa. Millions of people living in rural areas never had any infrastructure: no fixed-line telephone infrastructure, not even electrical power, hence no computer communications, but mobile telephones and the short message service (SMS) have changed that. The proposal suggests leveraging the exponential growth of a mobile culture in Africa and gives a high-level outline of what such a system might look like

Untargeted metabolomic analysis of Rat neuroblastoma cells as a model system to study the biochemical effects of the acute administration of methamphetamine

Methamphetamine is an illicit psychostimulant drug that is linked to a number of diseases of the nervous system. The downstream biochemical effects of its primary mechanisms are not well understood, and the objective of this study was to investigate whether untargeted metabolomic analysis of an in vitro model could generate data relevant to what is already known about this drug. Rat B50 neuroblastoma cells were treated with 1 mM methamphetamine for 48 h, and both intracellular and extracellular metabolites were profiled using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Principal component analysis of the data identified 35 metabolites that contributed most to the difference in metabolite profiles. Of these metabolites, the most notable changes were in amino acids, with significant increases observed in glutamate, aspartate and methionine, and decreases in phenylalanine and serine. The data demonstrated that glutamate release and, subsequently, excitotoxicity and oxidative stress were important in the response of the neuronal cell to methamphetamine. Following this, the cells appeared to engage amino acid-based mechanisms to reduce glutamate levels. The potential of untargeted metabolomic analysis has been highlighted, as it has generated biochemically relevant data and identified pathways significantly affected by methamphetamine. This combination of technologies has clear uses as a model for the study of neuronal toxicology