Antarctic tourists, wildlife and the environment: Attractions and reactions to Antarctica

Provides background on the development and nature of Antarctic tourism and associated environmental issues, as well as agreements and regulations affecting environmental management in Antarctica. Following an outline of the survey methodology and provision of information on the socioeconomic profiles of the respondents, results of a survey of Antarctic tourists on the Russian registered ship the ‘Akademik Ioffe’ are reported. The importance of Antarctic wildlife as an attraction for these Antarctic tourists is then given particular attention. The study considers amongst other things how important Antarctic wildlife was in convincing these tourists to undertake their trip to Antarctica, the importance to the tourists of seeing different species of wildlife and the relative importance of wildlife compared with other attractions of the tour to Antarctica. Views both prior to and following visits to Antarctica are given. The views of the tourists about selected environmental issues involving Antarctica were canvassed. These are reported and discussed. Amongst the subjects discussed is whether the sampled tourists favour an expansion in tourism to Antarctica and why. An overall assessment completes the study.

Economics, Wildlife Tourism and Conservation: Three Case Studies

This report presents the results of an economics component of the National Interdisciplinary Project (NIP) on wildlife tourism in Australia. The main objectives of the study were to outline and assess the role that economics can play in the valuation and management of wildlife-based tourism, undertake appropriate case studies to highlight the value of economics and its limits in assessing wildlife tourism in each case, take into account relevant environmental issues involved in wildlife tourism, and make future recommendations.

Glow worms as a tourist attraction in Springbrook National Park: Visitor attitudes and economic issues

nsect-based tourism mainly caters to a niche market, but its popularity has been growing in recent years. Despite its popularity this form of tourism has remained under-researched and in a sense its contribution to the tourism industry has gone mostly unnoticed. This paper reports the results of a study undertaken on one form of popular insect-based tourism, namely glow worms. The study was undertaken in Springbrook National Park (Natural Bridge section) southeast Queensland, which has one of the largest glow worm colonies in Australia that attracts thousands of visitors each year. A study of this form of tourism is important and useful for several reasons. It is important to understand this hitherto under-studied tourism activity to determine the type of visitors, their socio-economic attributes, economic benefits to the local economy, visitors’ knowledge of glow worms, education imparted, visitor satisfaction of glow worm viewing and visitor attitudes for the introduction of a user fee system to view glow worms. An understanding of these issues could not only help to better manage this valuable biological resource, but can be used to develop the industry to cater to a growing number of visitors. Tourism in glow worms can potentially be used not only to educate the public on the threats affecting glow worms and their colonies, but could also be used to conserve them. Lessons learnt from glow worms as an attraction to Springbrook National Park can be used to better manage and further develop other existing and new glow worm sites in Australia and elsewhere for tourism. Furthermore, it could provide some guidance for the management and development of other forms of current insect-based tourism activities (eg. butterflies) and develop new tourism ventures based on species such as stick insects and jewel beetles for which Australia is well known (Reader’s Digest, 1997)

Career development and systems theory: Connecting theory and practice

The Systems Theory Framework was developed to produce a metatheoretical framework through which the contribution of all theories to our understanding of career behaviour could be recognised. In addition it emphasises the individual as the site for the integration of theory and practice. Its utility has become more broadly acknowledged through its application to a range of cultural groups and settings, qualitative assessment processes, career counselling, and multicultural career counselling. For these reasons, the STF is a very valuable addition to the field of career theory. In viewing the field of career theory as a system, open to changes and developments from within itself and through constantly interrelating with other systems, the STF and this book is adding to the pattern of knowledge and relationships within the career field. The contents of this book will be integrated within the field as representative of a shift in understanding existing relationships within and between theories. In the same way, each reader will integrate the contents of the book within their existing views about the current state of career theory and within their current theory-practice relationship. This book should be required reading for anyone involved in career theory. It is also highly suitable as a text for an advanced career counselling or theory course.

Development and evaluation of neural network freeway incident detection models using field data

This paper discusses a multi-layer feedforward (MLF) neural network incident detection model that was developed and evaluated using field data. In contrast to published neural network incident detection models which relied on simulated or limited field data for model development and testing, the model described in this paper was trained and tested on a real-world data set of 100 incidents. The model uses speed, flow and occupancy data measured at dual stations, averaged across all lanes and only from time interval t. The off-line performance of the model is reported under both incident and non-incident conditions. The incident detection performance of the model is reported based on a validation-test data set of 40 incidents that were independent of the 60 incidents used for training. The false alarm rates of the model are evaluated based on non-incident data that were collected from a freeway section which was video-taped for a period of 33 days. A comparative evaluation between the neural network model and the incident detection model in operation on Melbourne's freeways is also presented. The results of the comparative performance evaluation clearly demonstrate the substantial improvement in incident detection performance obtained by the neural network model. The paper also presents additional results that demonstrate how improvements in model performance can be achieved using variable decision thresholds. Finally, the model's fault-tolerance under conditions of corrupt or missing data is investigated and the impact of loop detector failure/malfunction on the performance of the trained model is evaluated and discussed. The results presented in this paper provide a comprehensive evaluation of the developed model and confirm that neural network models can provide fast and reliable incident detection on freeways. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of a dietary supplement database

Data describing the composition of dietary supplements are not readily available to the public health community. As a result, intake from dietary supplements is generally not considered in most dietary surveys and, hence, little is known about the significance of supplement intake in relation to total diet or disease risk. To enable a more comprehensive analysis of dietary data, a database of the composition of various dietary supplements has been compiled. Active ingredients of all dietary supplements sold in Australia are included in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG), maintained by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. Products included in the database were restricted to those vitamin, mineral and other supplements identified in dietary data collected from studies conducted in southeast Queensland and New South Wales (850 supplements). Conversion factors from ingredients compounds to active elements were compiled from standard sources. No account has been made for bioavailability, consistent with current practice for food composition databases. The database can be queried by ARTG identification number, brand, product title, or a variety of other fields. Expected future developments include development of standard formulations for use when supplements are incompletely specified, and expansion of products included for more widespread use.

Incubation of turtle eggs at different temperatures: Do embryos compensate for temperature during development?

Freshwater turtle eggs are normally subjected to fluctuations in incubation temperature during natural incubation. Because of this, developing embryos may make physiological adjustments to growth and metabolism in response to incubation at different temperatures. I tested this hypothesis by incubating eggs of the Brisbane river turtle Emydura signata under four different temperature regimes, constant temperatures of 24 degrees C and 31 degrees C throughout incubation, and two swapped-temperature treatments where incubation temperature was changed approximately halfway through incubation. Incubation at 31 degrees C took 42 d, and incubation at 24 degrees C look 78 d, with intermediate incubation periods for the swapped-temperature treatments. Hatchling mass, hatchling size, and total oxygen consumed during development were similar for all incubation regimes. The pattern of oxygen consumption during the last phase of incubation as reflected by rate of increase of oxygen consumption, peak oxygen consumption, and fall in oxygen consumption before hatching was determined solely by the incubation temperature during the last phase of incubation; that is, incubation temperature during the first phase of incubation had no influence on these factors. Thus there is no evidence of temperature compensation in growth or development during embryonic development of E. signata eggs.

Development, prevention and treatment of iron deficiency in women

Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in the world. Women of childbearing age are at particular risk of developing iron deficiency due to the iron losses associated with menstruation and childbirth. Women in less developed countries are often unable to obtain adequate dietary iron for their needs due to poor food supplies and inadequate bioavailable iron. In this situation, fortification and supplementation of the diet with extra iron is a reasonable approach to the prevention and treatment of iron deficiency. In Western countries however, food supply is unlikely to be an issue in the development of iron deficiency, yet studies have shown that many women in these countries receive inadequate dietary iron. Research has shown that the form of iron and the role of enhancers and inhibitors of iron absorption may be more important than total iron intake in determining iron status. Despite this, very little research attention has been paid to the role of diet in the prevention and treatment of iron deficiency. Dietary modification would appear to be a viable option for the prevention and treatment of iron deficiency in Western women, especially if the effects of enhancers/inhibitors of absorption are considered. While dietary modification has the potential to address at least part of the cause of iron deficiency in women of childbearing age, its efficacy is yet to be proven. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.