Predicting avian distributions to evaluate spatiotemporal overlap with locust control operations in eastern Australia.

Locusts and grasshoppers cause considerable economic damage to agriculture worldwide. The Australian Plague Locust Commission uses multiple pesticides to control locusts in eastern Australia. Avian exposure to agricultural pesticides is of conservation concern, especially in the case of rare and threatened species. The aim of this study was to evaluate the probability of pesticide exposure of native avian species during operational locust control based on knowledge of species occurrence in areas and times of application. Using presence-absence data provided by the Birds Australia Atlas for 1998 to 2002, we developed a series of generalized linear models to predict avian occurrences on a monthly basis in 0.5 degrees grid cells for 280 species over 2 million km2 in eastern Australia. We constructed species-specific models relating occupancy patterns to survey date and location, rainfall, and derived habitat preference. Model complexity depended on the number of observations available. Model output was the probability of occurrence for each species at times and locations of past locust control operations within the 5-year study period. Given the high spatiotemporal variability of locust control events, the variability in predicted bird species presence was high, with 108 of the total 280 species being included at least once in the top 20 predicted species for individual space-time events. The models were evaluated using field surveys collected between 2000 and 2005, at sites with and without locust outbreaks. Model strength varied among species. Some species were under- or over-predicted as times and locations of interest typically did not correspond to those in the prediction data set and certain species were likely attracted to locusts as a food source. Field surveys demonstrated the utility of the spatially explicit species lists derived from the models but also identified the presence of a number of previously unanticipated species. These results also emphasize the need for special consideration of rare and threatened species that are poorly predicted by presence-absence models. This modeling exercise was a useful a priori approach in species risk assessments to identify species present at times and locations of locust control applications, and to discover gaps in our knowledge and need for further focused data collection.

Development by design in Western Australia : Overcoming offset obstacles

Biodiversity offsets can be an important tool for maintaining or enhancingenvironmental values in situations where development is sought despite negativeenvironmental impacts. There are now approximately 45 compensatory mitigationprograms for biodiversity impacts worldwide, with another 27 programs in development. While offsets have great potential as a conservation tool, their establishment requires overcoming a number of conceptual and methodological hurdles. In Australia, new policy changes at the national and state (i.e., Western Australia) level require that offsets follow a set of general principles: (1) Environmental offsets may not be appropriate for all projects and will only be considered after avoidance and mitigation options have been pursued;(2) Environmental offsets will be based on sound environmental information andknowledge; (3) Establishing goals for offsets requires an estimate of expected direct and indirect impacts; (4) Environmental offsets will be focused on longer term strategic outcomes; (5) Environmental offsets will be cost-effective, as well as relevant and proportionate to the significance of the environmental value being impacted. Here we focus on the challenges of determining and implementing offsets using a real world example from a voluntary offset process undertaken for Barrick Gold’s Kanowna Belle mine site in Western Australia to highlight those challenges and potential solutions.

Protocol for the implementation and evaluation of a community-based intervention seeking to reduce dietary salt intake in Lithgow, Australia

Excess dietary salt is a leading risk for health. Multiple health, government, industry and community organisations have identified the need to reduce consumption of dietary salt. This project seeks to implement and evaluate a community-based salt reduction intervention.

The politics of boganism and public relations in contemporary Australia

What is meant by the term ‘bogan’ and how does its popular usage distinguish a new public occupying a particular class position and social presence in Australian society. Examining a number of media texts, this paper explores the bogan phenomenon and asks if it normatively repositions Marxist ideas of class within the contemporary construct of lifestyle politics and classless capitalism (Beck). Challenging the idea the term is politically benign, the paper argues that the rise ‘boganism’ and its stigmatic associations has implications for public relations. In particular, it argues successful framing techniques designate a group of people occupying social risk positions and that are dis-empowered by eco-discourses and targeted for social control. These marginalised publics lack the sociocultural resources required for participation in the public sphere and as such are malleable and highly receptive to intrinsic and extrinsic forms of public relations.

A population-based observational study of diabetes during pregnancy in Victoria, Australia, 1999-2008

Objectives: This paper reports secular trends in diabetes in pregnancy in Victoria, Australia and examines the effect of including or excluding women with pre-existing diabetes on gestational diabetes (GDM) prevalence estimates.

Affective energies : Sensory bodies on the beach in Darwin, Australia

Emerging debates on anti-racism within white majority cultures centre emotion and affect to explore the visceral nature of racialised encounters that unfold in public spaces of the city. This paper builds on such understandings by conceptualising whiteness as a force that exerts affective pressures on bodies of colour who are hypervisible in public spaces. I show that these pressures have the potential to wound, numb and immobilise bodies affecting what they can do or what they can become. This paper argues, however, that affective energies from human and non-human sources are productive forces that are also sensed in public spaces such as the suburban beach. These energies entangle sensuous bodies with the richness of a more-than-human world and have the potential to offer new insights into exploring how racially differentiated bodies live with difference. The paper draws on ethnographic research conducted in Darwin, a tropical north Australian city at the centre of politicised public debates on asylum seeker policy, migrant integration and Indigenous wellbeing. My attention to affective pressures and affective energies contributes to understanding how bodies with complex histories and geographies of racialisation can inhabit a world of becoming. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Everyday multiculturalism: Catching the bus in Darwin, Australia

Following acts of violence in major cities, the future of multiculturalism as a philosophy and a state-sponsored policy to promote peace and interdependence in white majority societies seem uncertain. Ethnographic research that explores the lived experience of multiculturalism in shared public spaces, however, offers the possibility to explore emotional stress as well as possibilities for change in culturally diverse cities. Within this literature, however, there is little grounded research that explores Indigenous-ethnic minority relationships. This paper foregrounds and describes a seemingly mundane event such as catching a bus that entangles my body with an Aboriginal woman and a migrant woman from Fiji in Darwin, Australia. The paper demonstrates how injury, anger, shame and discomfort unfolds when bodies of colour are sites of stress. I explore the emergence of this bodily stress that has outcomes for the capacity of racially differentiated bodies of colour to respond ethically in encounters with strangers. I argue that thick descriptions of events, conceptualisations of agency as distributed and broader understandings of the social have the potential to contribute to anti-racist agendas in Euro-colonial societies with separate Indigenous and multicultural policy frameworks in ways that do not require bodies to 'accumulate' or 'inhabit' whiteness. © 2014 © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

Coronary heart disease risk in volunteer firefighters in Victoria, Australia

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a major problem for firefighters, even when considering the healthy worker effect (HWE). Although volunteer firefighters outnumber paid personnel, previous research has focused on paid US firefighters. By contrast, no CHD data for Australian firefighters exist. Risk factor data were collected from 2,943 Australian volunteer firefighters and CHD risk was compared with reference "low-risk" and Australian population data. Predicted CHD risk for male and female firefighter was 19.2% and 5.1%, respectively. Female firefighters high blood pressure and fasting glucose was significantly lower than the general population, whereas all other risk factors was similar to the general population. Firefighters' CHD risk was greater than other volunteer and paid emergency services, but the prevalence for most risk factors was similar to the general population. Therefore, Australian volunteer firefighters may not benefit from the HWE.

Physical environments, policies and practices for physical activity and screen-based sedentary behaviour among preschoolers within child care centres in Melbourne, Australia and Kingston, Canada

Characteristics of preschool and child care centres have previously been shown to be associated with children's health behaviours such as physical activity and screen-based sedentary behaviour. This paper investigates differences in physical environments, policies and practices between child care centres in Melbourne, Australia and Kingston, Canada which may be associated with such behaviours.

Student and school factors associated with school suspension : A multilevel analysis of students in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States.

One of the common issues schools face is how best to handle challenging student behaviors such as violent behavior, antisocial behavior, bullying, school rule violations, and interrupting other students' learning. School suspension may be used to remove students engaging in challenging behaviors from the school for a period of time. However, the act of suspending students from school may worsen rather than improve their behavior. Research shows that suspensions predict a range of student outcomes, including crime, delinquency, and drug use. It is therefore crucial to understand the factors associated with the use of school suspension, particularly in sites with different policy approaches to problem behaviors. This paper draws on data from state-representative samples of 3,129 Grade 7 and 9 students in Washington State, United States and Victoria, Australia sampled in 2002. Multilevel modeling examined student and school level factors associated with student-reported school suspension. Results showed that both student (being male, previous student antisocial and violent behavior, rebelliousness, academic failure) and school (socioeconomic status of the school, aggregate measures of low school commitment) level factors were associated with school suspension and that the factors related to suspension were similar in the two states. The implications of the findings for effective school behavior management policy are that, rather than focusing only on the student, both student and school level factors need to be addressed to reduce the rates of school suspension.

New directions in education? A critique of contemporary policy reforms

This paper draws on facets of Foucault's theoretical resources to critique current education policy reform from within the Australian State of Victoria, namely the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development's (DEECD) discussion paper New directions for school leadership and the teaching profession. Implicit in the reform effort is decentralization, including penalties for “underperforming” classroom teachers and “ineffective” teacher education courses. Principals will hold a pre-eminent rank in the reforms proposed as they are charged with their oversight and implementation, including intervening in the education and preparation of pre-service teachers.

The influence of stocking rate and mixed grazing of Angora goats and Merino sheep on animal and pasture production in southern Australia. 4. Gastrointestinal parasitism

Gastrointestinal nematodes limit the growth, production and welfare of goats but there are few reliable sources of information for recommending management practices across flocks. The effects of animal species (Angora goat, Merino sheep, mixed-grazed goats and mixed-grazed sheep at the ratio of 1:1) and stocking rate (SR: 7.5, 10, 12.5 animals/ha) on gastrointestinal parasitism were determined in a replicated experiment on improved annual temperate pastures in southern Australia, from 1981 to 1984. Detailed monitoring of gastrointestinal nematodes was undertaken on animals before, during (five times per year) and at the conclusion of studies using faecal strongyle egg counts (WEC) and total worm counts. Sheep had a greater proportion of nematodes as Teladorsagia spp. and goats a greater incidence of Trichostrongylus spp. Both goats and sheep developed resistance to Nematodirus spp. during the experiment. WEC was similar in goats and sheep at the start of the experimental period but, thereafter, was consistently greater in goats than in sheep. While WEC was highly related to total worm count, the regressions for sheep and goats were different. Increasing the SR increased the WEC of goats and mixed-grazed goats but not of sheep. During the experiment, WEC declined at 7 and 10 animals/ha but increased at 12.5/ha. Mixed grazing with goats provided beneficial effects for sheep at all stocking rates, but the effects for goats were dependent on the stocking rate, being beneficial at 7.5 and 10/ha but harmful at 12.5/ha. The WEC of separately grazed goats were generally higher than the WEC of mixed grazed goats. The WEC of mixed sheep were lower than those of separately grazed sheep. During the experiment, the WEC of mixed grazed sheep declined faster than the WEC of separately grazed sheep but the WEC of separately grazed goats at 12.5/ha and of mixed grazed goats at 10 and 12.5/ha increased. Under the environmental and pastoral conditions examined, Angora wether goats should not be grazed at SR above those recommended for wether sheep. In the present study, the impact of gastrointestinal-nematode infections in goats was reduced at lower SR. Further, mixed grazing of Angora wether goats with wether sheep at or below the recommended SR resulted in reduced gastrointestinal parasitism for both sheep and goats, compared with monospecific grazing conditions. Goats did not represent a gastrointestinal-nematode hazard to sheep. © 2014 CSIRO.

Energy performance of medium-sized healthcare buildings in Victoria, Australia- a case study

This paper investigates the energy performance of three medium-sized healthcare buildings in Victoria, Australia, that operate only during the daytime. The aim is to provide preliminary understanding of energy consumption in this particular typology in Australia in relation to the available benchmarks. This paper also identifies the differences of energy consumption between different functional areas within medium health facilities. Building features and operational characteristics contributing to the variations in healthcare energy performance are discussed. The total annual energy consumption data ranging from 167-306 kWh/m(2) or 42-72 kWh/m(3) were compared against international data from various climatic zones. Some of the drivers of energy consumption were determined and potentials for energy and water conservation were identified. Comparison with international standards shows a possibility to achieve lower energy consumption in Victorian healthcare buildings.

Incidental physical activity in Melbourne, Australia: health and economic impacts of mode of transport and suburban location.

Using the known health impacts of physical activity (PA), levels of incidental PA in Melbourne were analysed, and after determining key behavioural associations, economic modelling estimated potential long-term health and economic benefits of changes in active transport (AT) patterns.