The classification of lands managed for conservation : existing and proposed frameworks, with particular reference to Australia

Comprehensive classification systems to accurately account for lands managed for biodiversity conservation, are an essential component of conservation planning and policy. The current international classification systems for lands managed for nature conservation are reviewed, with a particular emphasis on Australia. The need for a broader, all-encompassing, categorisation of lands managed for conservation is presented and a proposed broader categorisation system is developed—the Conservation Lands Classification. This classification system has the advantage of incorporating data on both tenure and protection mechanisms and has been applied in this paper using conservation lands in three Australian jurisdictions as examples. It is envisaged that this method of classification has the potential to significantly improve the ability to measure current and future trends in nature conservation across all land types at a variety of scales and hence is put forward in order to stimulate discussion on this important topic.

On their own terms : indigenous communities, development in the new economy

Around the world Indigenous Peoples are struggling to rebuild their 'nations' and improve the socioeconomic circumstances of their people. As a group they constitute an emerging market of more than 500 hundred million people. Participation in the global economy through entrepreneurship is widely accepted as the key to success by most Indigenous people. Importantly, most want this participation to be 'on their own terms' terms in which traditional lands, history, culture and values play an important role. Using regulation theory, we explore the feasibility of the emerging Indigenous approach to development and conclude that is theoretically sound. Then we present a case study on the Osoyoos First Nation that illustrates how the community has use entrepreneurship to participate in the broader economy 'on its own terms'.

Underpricing of infrastructure of IPOs: evidence from India

This paper explores the underpricing of initial public offerings (IPOs) made by infrastructure companies in India from 2004 to 2010, and follows Dimovski who reported that in the Australian market, infrastructure IPOs did not produce underpricing returns that were statistically significantly different to zero. The objective of this paper is to investigate the underpricing of infrastructure IPOs in the emerging market of India and to explore factors that may influence the underpricing of infrastructure IPOs in India. The results show that, on average, the underpricing returns were 25.4% and statistically significantly different to zero, while money left on the table, in aggregate is not. In contrast to Australian evidence, significant underpricing in Indian infrastructure IPOs indicates greater risk of these investments. We find that oversubscription, government ownership and issue size are significant variables in explaining underpricing in Indian infrastructure IPOs.

Towards a politics and art of the land : gothic cinema of the Australian new wave and its reception by American film critics

This article will drill down to the level of the reception of two examples of Australian gothic film-making by two well-known American critics. Rayner’s comparison of Australian gothic with American film noir is useful; however, it begs the question of how American critics such as Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris influentially shaped the reception of Australian gothic in America and in other locations (such as Australia itself) where their reviews found an audience either at the time or afterwards. The significance of the present article rests on the fact that, as William McClain observes, following in Rick Altman’s footsteps, “critics form one of the key material institutions that support generic formations” (54). This article nurtures the suggestion that knowing how Australian gothic cinema was shaped, in its infancy, in the increasingly important American market (a market of both commerce and ideas) might usefully inform revisionist studies of Australian cinema as a national mode.

Baby, it`s you : international capital discovers the under threes

Well-established international entertainment firms such as Disney and Fisher-Price are joining new start-up firms such as Baby Einstein to create a 'Baby' market of products (including toys, games and videos) specifically targeted at children aged 0-3 years. Despite its novelty, the 'Baby' market mirrors older markets that these firms have created around other demographic groups (e.g. older children, adolescents and adults) - it redefines its target demographic group around specific commodities and promotes its redefinition as 'common sense'. The 'Baby' firms redefine babies solely as early learners whose potential to learn can be released by these firms' brand-name 'educational' or 'developmental' products. Many adults buy these products because they accept the firms' redefinition of babies, but other adults ignore the firms' promotional messages and buy the products to give themselves some time apart from their babies. The 'Baby' market is significant for children and adults because it changes young children's relationships with adults and because it subordinates local cultural differences to a children's culture that purports to be 'global' but has, in reality, extremely narrow foundations in class, race and gender.

Competition in mature software markets

A theoretical framework is built for capturing properties of competition in mature monopolistic digital product markets. Based on an empirical study of the market of accounting software for small and medium enterprises, a consumer choice model is suggested, where a rational consumer is already using a particular version of a software package and is considering to chose from the following three options: either to continue using it, or to upgrade to a newer version of the product, or to switch to a competitive product. Consumer decision is justified by software quality, and network effects, under the price and switching costs constrains. A modified consumer demand function is used for the model, and theoretical conditions are analysed for choosing from one of the three above-mentioned options. The results are applicable to a wide range of digital products.

澳大利亚房地产投资信托的透视

There has been a long history of Australian Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) market, which has become the second largest RElTs one in the world, just following the American REITs market. Australian REITs market has been attracting worldwide attentions by : its mature and complete development. furthermore, with several unique features as well. This article has comprehensively studied the history and recent development of Australian RElTs market, and the trading rules and relative regulations. In addition. the introduction of the derivative market of Australian REITs is also included, and finally conclusions about the excellent experiences from Australian REITs market are stated for recommendations and references
for the further development of the Chinese REITs market.

Heightened sour preferences during childhood

Basic research has revealed that the chemical sensory world of children is different from that of adults, as evidenced by their heightened preferences for sweet and salty tastes. However, little is known about the ontogeny of sour taste preferences, despite the growing market of extreme sour candies. The present study investigated whether the level of sourness most preferred in a food matrix and the ability to discriminate differences in sour intensity differed between 5- to 9-year-old children and their mothers, by using a rank-by-elimination procedure embedded in the context of a game. Mothers also completed a variety of questionnaires and children were asked several questions to assess whether children's temperament and food preferences and habits related to sour preferences. The results indicated that, although every mother and all but two of the children (92%) were able to rank the gelatins from most to least sour, more than one-third (35%) of the children, but virtually none of the adults, preferred the high levels of sour taste (0.25 M citric acid) in gelatin. Those children who preferred the extreme sour tastes were significantly less food neophobic (P < 0.05) and tended to experience a greater variety of fruits when compared with the remaining children (P = 0.11). Moreover, the children's preference for sour tastes generalized to other foods, such as candies and lemons, as reported by both children and mothers. These findings are the first experimental evidence to demonstrate that sour taste preferences are heightened during childhood and that such preferences are related to children's food habits and preferences. Further research is needed to unfold the relationship between the level of sour taste preferred and the actual consumption of sour-tasting foods and flavors in children.

Can virtual world property be considered a digital good?

What types of goods should be considered digital goods? This paper discusses the question of whether virtual property, such as items available in virtual world environments like Linden Lab’s Second Life and Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, should be considered a valid digital good. The makeup of a virtual property items are explored in this paper and their key features compared and contrasted with that of digital goods. Common examples of digital goods include: electronic books, software, digital music and digital movies. These goods are considered a tangible commodity, that is they have an unlimited supply and secondly they are in a digital/binary form (a sequence of 1’s and 0s’). When looking at why a virtual property items should be included in the category of ‘digital goods’, it is important to consider how items in a virtual world come to exist and how the availability of these items are often controlled by publishers and developers. The aim of this paper is show that digital goods should not be limited to the traditional views such as electronic books, software, music and movies; but in fact the term ‘digital good’ should also include the active market of virtual property
items.

Lessons from large-scale conservation networks in Australia

Australia has seen a rapid growth in the establishment of networks of lands managed for connectivity conservation across tenures, at landscape and sub-continental scales. Such networks go under a variety of names, including biosphere reserves, biolinks, wildlife corridors and conservation management networks. Their establishment has varied from state government-led initiatives to those initiated by non-government organizations and interested landholders. We surveyed existing major landscape scale conservation initiatives for successes, failures and future directions and synthesized common themes. These themes included scale, importance of social and economic networks, leadership, governance, funding, conservation planning, the role of protected areas and communication. We discuss the emergence of national policy relating to National Wildlife Corridors in Australia and the relationship of this policy to the long standing commitment to build a comprehensive, adequate and representative National Reserve System. Finally we outline areas for further research for connectivity conservation projects in Australia.

Are Chinese stock markets increasing integration with other markets in the greater China region and other major markets?

This paper investigates the cointegrating and long-term causal relationships between the Shanghai A and B-share market, and between these two markets and the Hong Kong, the Taiwanese, the Japanese and the US market of two sub periods between July 1993 and March 2007. On the basis of a new Granger non-causality test procedure developed by Toda-Yamamoto (1995) and Johansen’s (1988) cointegration test, my results suggest that a long-term equilibrium relationship measured by cointegration has been merged between
the Chinese A-share market and the other markets in greater China region as well as the US market during the post-crisis period which covers the period since Chinese A-share market was opened to the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) in 2002. I also found that the Shanghai A-share market uni-directionally Granger-causes the other regional markets after the Asian financial crisis, while the A-share market and Hong Kong H-share market have had a significant feedback relationship since then. However, I found no evidence there has been cointegrating relationship between Shanghai B-share market and any other market ever since the B-share market was opened to the local retail investors in 2001.

How do cross-border mergers and acquisitions affect firms’ management and stakeholders? Part 2

The effect of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) on different stakeholders is dependent on a number of factors. These factors can include but are not limited to: the type of M&A; each firm's reasons for the M&A; the offer amount; the product market of both the acquirer and target firms; the political environment; the economic environment; and the current situation of each firm. Employees play a significant role in businesses in which employee satisfaction affects the quality and quantity of business output. Firms interested in embarking on cross-border mergers have new employees to manage and must determine an appropriate wage to match the level of productivity of target employees. Wages may need to be altered as a result of employee relocation; employee compensation can be a complex matter, as the cost of living in each area varies greatly.