Public policy in knowledge-based economies: Foundations and frameworks

Knowledge is a product of human social systems and, therefore, the foundations of the knowledge-based economy are social and cultural. Communication is central to knowledge creation and diffusion, and Public Policy in Knowledge-Based Economies highlights specific social and cultural conditions that can enhance the communication, use and creation of knowledge in a society.The purpose of this book is to illustrate how these social and cultural conditions are identified and analysed through new conceptual frameworks. Such frameworks are necessary to penetrate the surface features of knowledge-based economies - science and technology - and disclose what drives such economies.This book will provide policymakers, analysts and academics with the fundamental tools needed for the development of policy in this little understood and emerging area.

Birds - their importance to visitors to an Australian rainforest

Lamington National Park in Queensland, Australia is noted for its rainforest and is part of Australia’s fourteen World Heritage listed properties but no systematic study has been done of the importance of birds to its visitors. This study rectifies this situation. It is based on data from survey forms handed to visitors at an important site in this park and completed by visitors following their visit. This yielded 622 useable replies. These enabled us to establish the comparative importance of birds as an attraction to this site. Furthermore, logit regression is used to analyze and to identify factors that increase the likelihood of a visitor saying that birds are an important attraction. In addition, the relative importance to visitors of various attributes of birds at this site is established. These attributes include hearing birds, diversity of birds, seeing lots of birds, presence of rare birds, presence of brightly colored birds and physical contact with birds. Logit regression analysis is used to isolate independent variables that increase or decrease the likelihood that visitors find diversity of birds, brightly colored birds or physical contact with birds at this site to be important. For example, factors such as the level of education of visitors, their gender, knowledge of birds and conservation attitudes are statistically significant influences.

Knowledge and willingness to pay for the conservation of wildlife species: Experimental results evaluating Australian tropical species

The nature of an experiment involving 204 residents is outlined and the results are reported and analysed. Two consecutive surveys of the respondents provide data about their stated knowledge of 23 wildlife species present in tropical Australia, most of which exclusively occur there. In addition, these surveys provide data about the willingness of respondents to pay for the conservation of those species belonging to three taxa; reptiles, mammals, and birds. Thus it is possible to compare the respondents’ stated knowledge of the species with their willingness to pay for their conservation, and to draw relevant inferences from this. From the initial survey and these associations, interesting relationships can be observed between those variables (knowledge and willingness to pay). The second survey was completed after the respondents’ knowledge of the species was experimentally increased and became more balanced. This is shown to result in increased dispersion (greater discrimination) in willingness to contribute to conservation of the different species in the set of wildlife species considered. Both theoretical and policy conclusions are drawn from the results.

Birds in an Australian rainforest: Their attraction for visitors and visitors' ecological impacts

Lamington National Park in Queensland, Australia is noted for its rainforest and is part of the World Heritage listed property but prior to this work, no systematic study has been done of the importance of birds to its visitors. This study is based on data from survey forms handed to visitors at an important site in the park and completed by visitors following their visit. It yielded 622 useable responses. These enabled us to establish the comparative importance of birds as an attraction to this site for this sample of visitors. Furthermore, logit regression is used to target analysis and to identify factors that increase the likelihood of a visitor saying that birds are an important attraction. In addition, the relative importance to visitors of various attributes of birds at this site is established. These attributes include hearing birds, diversity of birds, seeing lots of birds, presence of rare birds, presence of brightly coloured birds and physical contact with birds. Logit regression analysis is used to isolate independent variables that increase or decrease the likelihood that visitors find diversity of birds, brightly coloured birds or physical contact with birds at this site to be important. For example, factors such as the level of education of visitors, their gender, knowledge of birds and conservation attitudes and statistically significant influences. As a result of the analysis potential conflicts between different types of park visitors in relation to human interaction with birds are identified. Some potential ecological implications of human interactions with birds are modelled and discussed, and their economic conservation and biodiversity consequences are considered

Antarctic tourists: A case study of their evaluation of Antarctic wildlife and environmental issues

Reports the results of surveys of Antarctic cruise ship passengers on the ‘Akademik Ioffe’ who undertook their Antarctic journey in January 2003. The prime purposes of the surveys were to determine the socio-economic profile of these travellers, evaluate the importance of Antarctic wildlife for their travel, their attitude to Antarctic wildlife conservation as well as environmental issues involving Antarctica, both prior to their tourist visit to Antarctica and following it. This paper reports on the socio-economic profile of respondents, their willingness to pay for their Antarctic trip, and their knowledge of Antarctica. The comparative importance of Antarctic wildlife as a factor motivating respondents to undertake their journey is assessed and the evaluation of travellers following their Antarctic visit is considered. The relative importance of different Antarctic wildlife species is taken into account as well as Antarctic attractions other than wildlife. The attitudes of respondents to several environmental issues involving Antarctica, (eg. the commercial use of its natural resources and global environmental change impacting on Antarctica) are canvassed and summarised. In conclusion, the relevance of the survey results for Antarctic conservation are discussed. Particular attention is given to the question of whether Antarctic tourism favours or threatens Antarctic nature conservation.

An initial assessment of policies for saving a rare Australian glider: Experimental results, economics and ecology

Reviews the ecological status of the mahogany glider and describes its distribution, habitat and abundance, life history and threats to it. Three serial surveys of Brisbane residents provide data on the knowledge of respondents about the mahogany glider. The results provide information about the attitudes of respondents to the mahogany glider, to its conservation and relevant public policies and about variations in these factors as the knowledge of participants of the mahogany glider alters. Similarly data is provided and analysed about the willingness to pay of respondents to conserve the mahogany glider. Population viability analysis is applied to estimate the required habitat area for a minimum viable population of the mahogany glider to ensure at least a 95% probability of its survival for 100 years. Places are identified in Queensland where the requisite minimum area of critical habitat can be conserved. Using the survey results as a basis, the likely willingness of groups of Australians to pay for the conservation of the mahogany glider is estimated and consequently their willingness to pay for the minimum required area of its habitat. Methods for estimating the cost of protecting this habitat are outlined. Australia-wide benefits seem to exceed the costs. Establishing a national park containing the minimum viable population of the mahogany glider is an appealing management option. This would also be beneficial in conserving other endangered wildlife species. Therefore, additional economic benefits to those estimated on account of the mahogany glider itself can be obtained.

Knowledge of birds and willingness to pay for their conservation: An Australian case study

This case study concentrates on the extent of knowledge of members of the Australian public of Australia’s tropical bird species and their willingness to pay for their conservation. In order to place this issue in context, it first provides background information on the status of Australian bird species, focusing attention on species that occur in tropical Australia. Then, using survey results, this study considers the hypothesis that the public’s relative support for the conservation of different bird species depends on its comparative knowledge of their existence and status. Based on experimental results from a sample of residents of Brisbane, Queensland (Australia), it is found that their knowledge of bird species that occur exclusively in the Australian tropics (including tropical Queensland) is very poor compared to those that also occur in the Brisbane area and are relatively common. Experimental results indicate that when respondents in the sample had an option to allocate $1,000 between ten bird species listed in the survey, it resulted in a greater allocation of funds to the better known and more common species than when they were provided with balanced information about all the selected species. With balanced information the average allocation to bird species confined mostly to the Australian tropics, particularly those threatened or endangered, increased. The general consequences of this for policies for the conservation of birds are discussed.

A novel, open access, elliptical cross-section magnet for paediatric MRI

Almost all clinical magnetic resonance imaging systems are based on circular cross-section magnets. Recent advances in elliptical cross-section RF probe and gradient coil hardware raise the question of the possibility of using elliptical cross-section magnet systems, This paper presents a methodology for calculating rapidly the magnetic fields generated by a multi-turn coil of elliptical cross-section and incorporates this in a stochastic optimization method for magnet design, An open magnet system of elliptical cross-section is designed that both reduces the claustrophobia for the patients and allows ready access by attending physicians, The magnet system is optimized for paediatric use, The coil geometry produced by the optimization method has several novel features.

Young children, adolescents and alcohol - Part I: Exploring knowledge and awareness of alcohol and related issues

This article explores young children's and adolescents' views pertaining to: knowledge and awareness of alcohol and alcohol related issues; social situations in which. alcohol use is present; orientation to alcohol risk; perceived and actual alcohol use; social image and reputation; and short and long term health beliefs in relation to alcohol. Forty focus groups were conducted with 240 primary school students (118 males and 122 females) and 24 focus groups were conducted with 192 high school students (90 males and 102 females); the total being 64 focus groups comprising 432 school students. Participants ages ranged from five years three months to 16 years 10 months. The videotaped discussions revealed that approximately 75% of the primary school-aged children and almost all of the high school students reported that they had tasted alcohol. Parents were primarily responsible for providing the alcohol. Virtually all participants recognised and were able to correctly name a selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and levels of knowledge and awareness of the health and safety aspects of alcohol were relatively mixed. Presentation of bottles and cans was reported as being important in attracting young persons. These data suggest there is an urgent need for research addressed to the development of prevention/intervention education curriculum materials for use with primary school-aged children.

Moneyless business exchange - Practitioners' attitudes to business-to-business barter in Australia

In recent years, domestic business-to-business barter has become institutionalized as an alternative marketing exchange system in Australia, and elsewhere. This article reports the findings of a survey of 164 members of Australia's largest trade exchange, Bartercard There are few, if any, published empirical studies on this topic. This study is exploratory. Most firms surveyed are small firms in the services sectors. Although Bartercard has an extensive membership, trading within the system is limited with most members trading less than once per week and with barter transactions contributing less than 5% of their annual gross sales. The main benefits of membership include new customers and increased sales and networking opportunities. The main limitations include the limited functionality of the trade dollar limited trading opportunities, and practical trading difficulties. In selling, there appears to be no differential between the cash and trade prices, whereas trade dollars are discounted in purchasing. Participants acknowledge that business-to-business barter will remain and grow regardless of cyclical macroeconomic changes. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.

The knowledge gap: A perspective on trade, industry, technology and policy from pre-war Australian music technology manufacturing (1903-30)

Australia struggles to achieve economic competitiveness, prevent expansion of the trade deficit and develop value-added production despite applications of policy strategies from protectionism to trade liberalisation. This article argues that these problems were emerging at the turn of the century, and that an investigation of music technology manufacturing in the first two decades of this century reveals fundamental problems in the conduct of relevant policy analysis. Analysis has focused on the trade or technology gap which is only symptomatic of an underlying knowledge gap. The article calls for a knowledge policy approach which can allow protection without the negative effects of isolation from global markets and without having to resort to unworkable utopian free-trade dogma. A shift of focus from a 'goods traded' view to a knowledge transaction (or diffusion) perspective is advocated.

Knowledge discovery and data mining in biological databases

The new technologies for Knowledge Discovery from Databases (KDD) and data mining promise to bring new insights into a voluminous growing amount of biological data. KDD technology is complementary to laboratory experimentation and helps speed up biological research. This article contains an introduction to KDD, a review of data mining tools, and their biological applications. We discuss the domain concepts related to biological data and databases, as well as current KDD and data mining developments in biology.

Attachment style as a predictor of sexual attitudes and behavior in late adolescence

This research applied attachment theory to the study of sexual attitudes and behaviors in a sample of late adolescents. Four hundred and seventy heterosexual undergraduate students completed questionnaires assessing attachment (discomfort with closeness; anxiety over relationships), relationship history, communication about sex, sexual self-efficacy and locus of control, and attitudes to condoms. Eight weeks later, participants reported on sexual behaviors occurring during the eight-week interval, and perceived risk of these activities. Both discomfort with closeness and anxiety over relationships were associated with external locus of control for sexual outcomes, and with use of drugs before sexual contact. Anxiety over relationships was linked to unsafe sex and to negative attitudes to condoms, but discomfort with closeness was associated with a more cautious approach to sexual risk-taking. Some results were qualified by gender differences, and by differences between the full sample and those who were sexually active. The findings are discussed in terms of attachment style and its links with communication and affect regulation.