A Very British Modernism? A review of Hugh Wood, Staking out the Territory and Other Writings on Music

Review articl

Non-standard work timing: evidence from the Australian Time Use Survey

Non-standard work is relatively common in Australia, with 63 per cent of weekday workers aged between 20 and 59 years working sometime outside 8am to 6pm. However, only 15 per cent of all working-time takes place outside standard hours. Workers in a range of service and manual industries, such as hospitality, health, mining and manufacturing, have high rates of work at non-standard times. Working long hours or part-time increases the chance of working at non-standard times, and there is some evidence that workers without post-school qualifications, in low-skill occupations and from non- English speaking backgrounds are disproportionately more likely to work at non-standard times.Non-Standard Work Timing;Australian Time Use Survey

Optimal Timber Utilisation Strategies for Wik People on Cape York Peninsula

A forestry industry based on the native Darwin stringybark forests of Cape York Peninsula has been identified as a potential generator of employment and income for Wik people. Information appropriate for examining potential Wik timber utilisation strategies is scarce, necessitating primary data collection activities in north Queensland. A mixed-integer, single-period goal program is developed to produce a suite of ‘optimal’ timber utilisation strategies from the perspective of Wik people. Optimal forestry strategies predicted by the goal programming model are financially viable and suggest, in general, that relatively low-technology forestry activities are likely to best satisfy Wik forestry objectives

Commercial Forestry: An Economic Development Opportunity Consistent with the Property Rights of Wik People to Natural Resources

Wik people on Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, aspire to economic independence. Commercial processing of native forest timbers is seen by Wik people as a culturally appropriate engine for economic development; however, much uncertainty surrounds their property rights to native forest timber. The granting of native title over some traditional Wik land in 2000 and 2004 was seen as a coup by Wik people, but some economists have argued that the inalienable and communal nature of native title is an obstacle to development in indigenous communities. An assessment of Wik property rights to timber resources reveals that a commercial forestry industry is consistent with their rights. In comparison with social and cultural factors, the inalienable and communal characteristics of native title are second-order development constraints for Wik people.native title, native forest management, Aurukun community, Cape York Peninsula.

The Elemental Abundance Distributions of Milky Way Satellite Galaxies

The chemical compositions of the stars in Milky Way (MW) satellite galaxies reveals the history of gas flows and star formation (SF) intensity. This talk presented a Keck/DEIMOS spectroscopic survey of the Fe, Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti abundances of nearly 3000 red giants in eight MW dwarf satellites. The metallicity and alpha-to-iron ratio distributions obey the following trends: (1) The more luminous galaxies are more metal-rich, indicating that they retained gas more efficiently than the less luminous galaxies. (2) The shapes of the metallicity distributions of the more luminous galaxies require gas infall during their SF lifetimes. (3) At [Fe/H] < -1.5, [alpha/Fe] falls monotonically with increasing [Fe/H] in all MW satellites. One interpretation of these trends is that the SF timescale in any MW satellite is long enough that Type Ia supernovae exploded for nearly the entire SF lifetime.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, proceeding of oral contribution to A Universe of Dwarf Galaxies, Lyon, France, July 201

Detailed Chemical Abundances of Globular Clusters in Local Group Dwarf Galaxies

We present detailed chemical abundances of Fe, Ca and Ba for 17 globular clusters (GCs) in 5 Local Group dwarf galaxies: NGC 205, NGC 6822, WLM, the SMC and LMC. These abundances are part of a larger sample of over 20 individual elements measured in GCs in these galaxies using a new analysis method for high resolution, integrated light spectra. Our analysis also provides age and stellar population constraints. The existence of GCs in dwarf galaxies with a range of ages implies that there were episodes of rapid star formation throughout the history of these galaxies; the abundance ratios of these clusters suggest that the duration of these burst varied considerably from galaxy to galaxy. We find evolution of Fe, Ca, and Ba with age in the LMC, SMC, and NGC 6822 that is consistent with extended, lower-efficiency SF between bursts, with an increasing contribution of low-metallicity AGB ejecta at late times. Our sample of GCs in NGC 205 and WLM are predominantly old and metal-poor with high [Ca/Fe] ratios, implying that the early history of these galaxies was marked by consistently high SF rates.Comment: 2 pages, To appear in the proceedings of the conference "A Universe of Dwarf Galaxies" (Lyon, June 14-18, 2010

Increasing the resilience of the Australian alpine flora to climate change

&nbsp;The alpine region around Australia’s highest mountain, Mt Kosciuszko, is part of one of the three most at risk ecosystems in Australia from climate change. With higher temperatures and decreased precipitation, snow cover is already declining with even greater reductions predicted in the short to medium term (2020 to 2050). Consequently the distribution of many native plants and animals may contract, while the distribution of weeds and feral animals may expand. Wildfires in the region are also likely to be more frequent and intense.&nbsp;To contribute to our understanding of how changes in the environment alter plant composition and ecological process, we conducted a series of functional trait analyses of existing composition datasets. We collected trait data in the field for 220 species including canopy height, leaf area, leaf dry matter content and specific leaf area (SLA). Variation in traits among the alpine flora was not related to species distributional ranges. Traits were strongly associated with growth forms, with shrubs often taller than herbs and graminoids, but often had small, tough, long-lasting leaves.&nbsp;Species traits were combined with relative cover values to calculate community trait weighted means, a commonly used measure of functional diversity. Functional diversity varied with altitude/duration of snow cover. For example, shrubs which are taller with small tough leaves dominated lower altitude summits, while at higher altitude summits, large, soft leaved herbs and graminoids dominated. Late lying snowpatches areas with short growing seasons were dominated by low growing herbs and graminoids with small leaves while areas with longer growing seasons were dominated by herbs and graminoids that were taller and had larger leaves.&nbsp;Recovery from fire differed among plant communities. The composition and functional diversity of recovering tall alpine herbfield is trending towards that of equivalent unburnt sites, while burnt windswept feldmark was colonised by graminoids and herbs that are often found in tall alpine herbfield species, with limited shrub recovery in the first nine years post fire.&nbsp;Grazing by feral hares had no effect on composition or functional diversity, while vegetation recovering from cattle grazing showed clear changes in composition and functional diversity even 43 years later. Prioritising management for this high value conservation region, therefore, involves enhancing resilience by minimising existing threats, particularly those from fire, weeds and hard-hooved grazing animals which will be exacerbate by climate change.Please cite as: Pickering, C, &amp; Venn, S, 2013 Increasing the resilience of the Australian flora to climate change and associated threats: a plant functional traits approach National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast, pp. 94&nbsp;Abstract&nbsp;The alpine region around Australia’s highest mountain, Mt Kosciuszko, is part of one of the three most at risk ecosystems in Australia from climate change. With higher temperatures and decreased precipitation, snow cover is already declining with even greater reductions predicted in the short to medium term (2020 to 2050). Consequently the distribution of many native plants and animals may contract, while the distribution of weeds and feral animals may expand. Wildfires in the region are also likely to be more frequent and intense.&nbsp;To contribute to our understanding of how changes in the environment alter plant composition and ecological process, we conducted a series of functional trait analyses of existing composition datasets. We collected trait data in the field for 220 species including canopy height, leaf area, leaf dry matter content and specific leaf area (SLA). Variation in traits among the alpine flora was not related to species distributional ranges. Traits were strongly associated with growth forms, with shrubs often taller than herbs and graminoids, but often had small, tough, long-lasting leaves.&nbsp;Species traits were combined with relative cover values to calculate community trait weighted means, a commonly used measure of functional diversity. Functional diversity varied with altitude/duration of snow cover. For example, shrubs which are taller with small tough leaves dominated lower altitude summits, while at higher altitude summits, large, soft leaved herbs and graminoids dominated. Late lying snowpatches areas with short growing seasons were dominated by low growing herbs and graminoids with small leaves while areas with longer growing seasons were dominated by herbs and graminoids that were taller and had larger leaves.&nbsp;Recovery from fire differed among plant communities. The composition and functional diversity of recovering tall alpine herbfield is trending towards that of equivalent unburnt sites, while burnt windswept feldmark was colonised by graminoids and herbs that are often found in tall alpine herbfield species, with limited shrub recovery in the first nine years post fire.&nbsp;Grazing by feral hares had no effect on composition or functional diversity, while vegetation recovering from cattle grazing showed clear changes in composition and functional diversity even 43 years later. Prioritising management for this high value conservation region, therefore, involves enhancing resilience by minimising existing threats, particularly those from fire, weeds and hard-hooved grazing animals which will be exacerbate by climate change

Accommodating Indigenous Cultural Heritage Values in Resource Assessment: Cape York Peninsula and the MurrayÐDarling Basin, Australia

In this paper we consider the problem of accommodating indigenous cultural heritage values in resource assessment and valuation. We suggest a need for price-based approaches to valuation to be replaced by or complemented with quantitative constraints, reflecting the requirement that rights should not be violated.indigenous cultural heritage, resource assessment, valuation

The Impact of Labour Market Policies on Productivity in OECD Countries

We investigate the impact of labour market policies on labour and multifactor productivity with industry-level data. First and foremost, labour market policies can influence average measured productivity through their impact on employment. Other things equal, employment growth tends to be associated with lower average measured labour productivity growth as more low-skilled workers enter the workforce. However, policies can also have sizeable direct effects on individual productivity levels and/or growth by creating incentives for workers to invest in training, facilitating reallocation of resources to their most productive uses and generating or maintaining high-quality job matches. We find that employment protection legislation, minimum wages, parental leave and unemployment benefits influence productivity through multiple channels, over and above their impact on employment levels.Regulation, Labour Market, Productivity, OECD