The Sustainable Beef Profit Partnership Approach to the Adoption of New Beef Industry Technologies

Technology adoption in the Australian beef industry has been low and slow compared to the intensive livestock and cropping industries. The principles of accelerated adoption provide an innovative solution to this problem. In the Beef CRC, Sustainable Beef Profit Partnership (BPP) members will meet regularly to measure their current performance, set targets for future productivity increases, and use a profitability framework to assess the potential impact of new technology. Capacity building and partnership outcomes will also be assessed. The BPP teams will be supported with appropriate tools and resources. The information generated will be used to underpin the achievement of Beef CRC commercialisation outputs and profitability outcomes.Accelerated adoption, continuous improvement and innovation, beef industry, profit, Livestock Production/Industries,

New measurement paradigms

This collection of New Measurement Paradigms papers represents a snapshot of the variety of measurement methods in use at the time of writing across several projects funded by the National Science Foundation (US) through its REESE and DR K–12 programs. All of the projects are developing and testing intelligent learning environments that seek to carefully measure and promote student learning, and the purpose of this collection of papers is to describe and illustrate the use of several measurement methods employed to achieve this. The papers are deliberately short because they are designed to introduce the methods in use and not to be a textbook chapter on each method. The New Measurement Paradigms collection is designed to serve as a reference point for researchers who are working in projects that are creating e-learning environments in which there is a need to make judgments about students’ levels of knowledge and skills, or for those interested in this but who have not yet delved into these methods

AluY-mediated germline deletion, duplication and somatic stem cell reversion in <i>UBE2T</i> defines a new subtype of Fanconi anemia

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare inherited disorder clinically characterized by congenital malformations, progressive bone marrow failure and cancer susceptibility. At the cellular level, FA is associated with hypersensitivity to DNA-crosslinking genotoxins. Eight of 17 known FA genes assemble the FA E3 ligase complex, which catalyzes monoubiquitination of FANCD2 and is essential for replicative DNA crosslink repair. Here, we identify the first FA patient with biallelic germline mutations in the ubiquitin E2 conjugase UBE2T. Both mutations were aluY-mediated: a paternal deletion and maternal duplication of exons 2-6. These loss-of-function mutations in UBE2T induced a cellular phenotype similar to biallelic defects in early FA genes with the absence of FANCD2 monoubiquitination. The maternal duplication produced a mutant mRNA that could encode a functional protein but was degraded by nonsense-mediated mRNA decay. In the patient's hematopoietic stem cells, the maternal allele with the duplication of exons 2-6 spontaneously reverted to a wild-type allele by monoallelic recombination at the duplicated aluY repeat, thereby preventing bone marrow failure. Analysis of germline DNA of 814 normal individuals and 850 breast cancer patients for deletion or duplication of UBE2T exons 2-6 identified the deletion in only two controls, suggesting aluY-mediated recombinations within the UBE2T locus are rare and not associated with an increased breast cancer risk. Finally, a loss-of-function germline mutation in UBE2T was detected in a high-risk breast cancer patient with wild-type BRCA1/2. Cumulatively, we identified UBE2T as a bona fide FA gene (FANCT) that also may be a rare cancer susceptibility gene.</p

The Capacity, Capability and Competency Strategy

In the beef industry, as in many agricultural industries in Australia, there is a wealth of high quality capacity building available in topics such as animal breeding, nutrition, grazing land management, record keeping, property planning etc. However there are very few capacity building opportunities targeting (1) the higher level knowledge and skills needed to achieve both rapid and sustainable improvement and innovation, and (2) the knowledge and skills needed to lead and manage sustainable industry improvement and innovation. The BPP Capacity, Capability and Competency Strategy is designed to equip all BPP partners, teams and networkers with the knowledge, skills, resources and support to achieve and sustain beef business and industry improvement and innovation, and to fulfil their functions and roles in the BPP project. A secondary focus targets other beef industry participants i.e. those not directly involved in the BPP project

The Underpinning Science of Sustainable Industry Improvement and Innovation

In this paper the science underpinning the Beef Profit Partnerships project methodology is explained. The science is organised around headings associated with the six key elements of the project system model which was outlined in Paper 1 and is described in more detail in Paper 4. The headings are: (1) Focus, targets, outcomes and key measures; (2)Partnerships, networks, social infrastructure and social capital; (3) Technology and information – development, integration, valuation and diffusion; (4) Continuous improvement and innovation process and tools; (5) Capacity, tools and expertise; and (6) Momentum, culture development and institutionalisation

The Continuous Improvement and Innovation Process

Continuous Improvement and Innovation (CI&I) is both a management process and a management strategy. In this paper we aim to provide some background on the development of CI&I as a management concept and to describe the steps involved in implementing the CI&I process in the Beef CRC project. There are six key steps in the CI&I process: Situation Analysis; Impact Analysis; Action Design; Action Implementation; Results Assessment; and Creation and Synthesis. Focus and Refocus steps are added at the front and back respectively. We also describe how to use CI&I as rapid improvement and innovation

The Project System Improvement and Innovation Strategy

The purpose of the Project System Improvement and Innovation Strategy is to ensure regular and frequent improvement and innovation of the design, leadership and performance of the project system and its component elements, and to manage the interaction between the project system and the broader meta-system. The importance of this strategy has become more apparent over the past year. Initially it was treated as a 'supporting' strategy, but with time, recognition of its importance is growing. This strategy will require greater ingenuity and attention over the next two years to ensure project success, efficiency and sustainability

The Sustainable Beef Profit Partnership Approach to the Adoption of New Beef Industry Technologies

Technology adoption in the Australian beef industry has been low and slow compared to the intensive livestock and cropping industries. The principles of accelerated adoption provide an innovative solution to this problem. In the Beef CRC, Sustainable Beef Profit Partnership (BPP) members will meet regularly to measure their current performance, set targets for future productivity increases, and use a profitability framework to assess the potential impact of new technology. Capacity building and partnership outcomes will also be assessed. The BPP teams will be supported with appropriate tools and resources. The information generated will be used to underpin the achievement of Beef CRC commercialisation outputs and profitability outcomes

The Sustainable Improvement and Innovation Model

The Beef CRC's 'Sustainable Beef Profit Partnerships' (BPP) project is built around the Sustainable Improvement and Innovation (SI&I) Model – a model for the design, leadership and management of projects to achieve rapid and sustained improvement and innovation, and accelerated adoption. The model is implemented through a systemic approach to project design, and the development of a number of integrated strategies to guide the targeting of priority outcomes and work plans. The emphasis is on a sustainable project methodology such that the intended outcomes can continue to be delivered long after the Beef CRC funding is terminated. Further, there is an emphasis on rapid implementation of the process in the short-term such that outcomes can be generated quickly and evidence can be provided about the efficiency and effectiveness of the project

Learning by Writing: Applying Continuous Improvement and Innovation Principles to Project Management by Formal Documentation and Publication

In recent years we have been involved in designing, implementing, monitoring and assessing a number of agricultural RD&E projects that have had a specific outcome focus on increasing the profitability of the participating businesses. These projects are based on ongoing research and development of the Sustainable Improvement and Innovation (SI&I) model which has Continuous Improvement and Innovation (CI&I) as its key process. A number of issues and dilemmas have arisen in managing these projects. One solution has been to write down in a formal way, at frequent intervals, what we have designed, what we have done, what we have achieved, and consequently what we need to do better. In this paper we describe several of these recent writing tasks, spread over several years. Apart from attempting to resolve the broad range of issues and dilemmas noted above, we have had two additional objectives: first, to expand interest in the concept of CI&I in the broader RD&E community and to stimulate its adoption in RD&E projects; and second, to use the writing task itself as a CI&I process to stimulate new thinking and action and to improve and innovate in our project management. We conclude by offering some lessons we have learnt from this process