Public Finance for REDD+ in Kenya

Kenya aims to prepare for both public and private Reduced Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) investment flows. This chapter examines how current Kenyan law can be used as a starting point for building a regulatory regime to support public sector finance. For present purposes, ‘public sector finance’ is defined as money flowing from multilateral international institutions and bi-lateral donor funds. Key issues addressed by this chapter • The nature and form of public sector finance for REDD+ in Kenya. • The management and laws relating to public funds in Kenya; • Mechanisms that can be utilised to manage risk associated with REDD+ investments with a focus on Kenyan anti-corruption laws and policies; • The regulatory regime for distributing the benefits from REDD+ investment to relevant forest stakeholders.

Post-disaster reconstruction projects : a logical framework for community participation

In a post-disaster environment, housing reconstruction projects frequently face enormous difficulties due to the various, often apparently ill-considered, internal and external factors. Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) operating in post-disaster settings such as in Afghanistan continue to face blame over the failure of reconstruction projects, and worse, they are sometimes even viewed as being corrupt entities. While it is not always possible for NGOs to eliminate or reduce the impact of factors that are outside their control, they certainly can increase the chances of project success by placing considerable emphasis on working more effectively with the affected communities. To achieve maximum community participation in reconstruction projects , this research develops a specific logical framework to guide the process of community participation in post-disaster housing reconstruction in Afghanistan.

A comparison of techniques for the reconstruction of leaf surfaces from scanned data

The foliage of a plant performs vital functions. As such, leaf models are required to be developed for modelling the plant architecture from a set of scattered data captured using a scanning device. The leaf model can be used for purely visual purposes or as part of a further model, such as a fluid movement model or biological process. For these reasons, an accurate mathematical representation of the surface and boundary is required. This paper compares three approaches for fitting a continuously differentiable surface through a set of scanned data points from a leaf surface, with a technique already used for reconstructing leaf surfaces. The techniques which will be considered are discrete smoothing D2-splines [R. Arcangeli, M. C. Lopez de Silanes, and J. J. Torrens, Multidimensional Minimising Splines, Springer, 2004.], the thin plate spline finite element smoother [S. Roberts, M. Hegland, and I. Altas, Approximation of a Thin Plate Spline Smoother using Continuous Piecewise Polynomial Functions, SIAM, 1 (2003), pp. 208--234] and the radial basis function Clough-Tocher method [M. Oqielat, I. Turner, and J. Belward, A hybrid Clough-Tocher method for surface fitting with application to leaf data., Appl. Math. Modelling, 33 (2009), pp. 2582-2595]. Numerical results show that discrete smoothing D2-splines produce reconstructed leaf surfaces which better represent the original physical leaf.

Case note : Keegan v Sussan Corporation (Aust) Pty Ltd

A recent decision of the Queensland Supreme Court highlights that merely having a policy in a workplace is not sufficient in itself – the policy must be implemented and followed if an employer wishes to establish that it is not in breach of its duty of care owed to employees. In Keegan v Sussan Corporation (Aust) Pty Ltd an employee successfully sued in negligence for her psychiatric injury caused by her employer’s failure to follow its bullying and harassment policy.

Surface reconstruction of wheat leaf morphology from three-dimensional scanned data

Realistic virtual models of leaf surfaces are important for a number of applications in the plant sciences, such as modelling agrichemical spray droplet movement and spreading on the surface. In this context, the virtual surfaces are required to be sufficiently smooth to facilitate the use of the mathematical equations that govern the motion of the droplet. While an effective approach is to apply discrete smoothing D2-spline algorithms to reconstruct the leaf surfaces from three-dimensional scanned data, difficulties arise when dealing with wheat leaves that tend to twist and bend. To overcome this topological difficulty, we develop a parameterisation technique that rotates and translates the original data, allowing the surface to be fitted using the discrete smoothing D2-spline methods in the new parameter space. Our algorithm uses finite element methods to represent the surface as a linear combination of compactly supported shape functions. Numerical results confirm that the parameterisation, along with the use of discrete smoothing D2-spline techniques, produces realistic virtual representations of wheat leaves.

Can bone tissue engineering contribute to therapy concepts after resection of musculoskeletal sarcoma?

Resection of musculoskeletal sarcoma can result in large bone defects where regeneration is needed in a quantity far beyond the normal potential of self-healing. In many cases, these defects exhibit a limited intrinsic regenerative potential due to an adjuvant therapeutic regimen, seroma, or infection. Therefore, reconstruction of these defects is still one of the most demanding procedures in orthopaedic surgery. The constraints of common treatment strategies have triggered a need for new therapeutic concepts to design and engineer unparalleled structural and functioning bone grafts. To satisfy the need for long-term repair and good clinical outcome, a paradigm shift is needed from methods to replace tissues with inert medical devices to more biological approaches that focus on the repair and reconstruction of tissue structure and function. It is within this context that the field of bone tissue engineering can offer solutions to be implemented into surgical therapy concepts after resection of bone and soft tissue sarcoma. In this paper we will discuss the implementation of tissue engineering concepts into the clinical field of orthopaedic oncology.

Responsible reconstruction : The architect's role

This paper investigates the role of the architect in post-disaster reconstruction and questions their ability to facilitate per- manent building solutions. There is an ever-increasing population of refugees and internally displaced persons due to disasters and conflicts who have a basic need for shelter. To date, housing solutions for such people has tended to focus on short-term, temporary shelter solutions that have been largely unsuccessful. This increasing demand for shelter has led to an emerging group of architects skilled in post-disaster reconstruction. These architects acknowledge that shelter is critical to survival, but believe architects should focus on rebuilding in a manner that is quick, durable but permanent. They believe that an architect skilled in post-disaster reconstruction can produce solutions that meet the requirement of the emergency phase, through to semi-permanent and even permanent homes, without wasting time and money on interim shelters. Case Study Research was used to examine and evaluate the assistance provided by Emergency Architects Australia (EAA) to the Kei Gold community in the Solomon Islands after the 2007 earthquake and tsunami. The results indicate that an architect’s response to a disaster must go beyond providing temporary shelter; they must create permanent building solutions that respond to the site and the culture while servicing the needs of the communi- ty. The vernacular reconstruction methods implemented by EAA in Kei Gold Village have been successful in develop- ing permanent housing solutions. Further research and development is required to gain a broader understanding of the role of the architect in disasters of varying scales and typologies.

Subprime agriculture, and Australia?

Today, Australian agriculture is not where we hoped it would be. Despite being highly productive and the nation's only 'strongly competitive industry', it is struggling across the country. There are successes, as there always will be, but the bulk of our food and fibre production is from enterprises with minimal profitability and unstable or unsound finances. A debt-deflation spiral and subprime mortgage crisis are now being fuelled by property fire sales while leading bankers proclaim no problem and governments dance at the edges. However, it is not just the bush that has problems. National economic conditions are deteriorating with per capita incomes falling and real interest rates still high. Well-informed policy strategies and effective responses are needed quickly if Australians are to avoid needless losses of capacity and wealth destruction in the cities and the bush.

How does access to development finance shape our cities?

In market economies the built environment is largely the product of private sector property development. Property development is a high-risk entrepreneurial activity executing expensive projects with long gestation periods in an uncertain environment and into an uncertain future. Risk lies at the core of development: the developer manages the multiple risks of development and it is the capital injection and financing that is placed at risk. From the developer's perspective the search for development capital is a quest: to access more finance, over a longer term, with fewer conditions and at lower rates. From the supply angle, capital of various sources - banks, insurance companies, superannuation funds, accumulated firm profits, retail investors and private equity - is always seeking above market returns for limited risk. Property development presents one potentially lucrative, but risky, investment opportunity. Competition for returns on capital produces a continual dynamic evolution of methods for funding property developments. And thus the relationship between capital and development and the outcomes for the built environment are in a restless continual evolution. Little is documented about the ways development is financed in Australia and even less of the consequences for cities. Using publicly available data sources and examples of different development financing from Australian practice, this paper argues that different methods of financing development have different outcomes and consequences for the built environment. This paper also presents an agenda for further research into these themes.

When the five giants of post war reconstruction meet the four pillars of welfare reform-young people lose out, again

This paper discusses proposed changes to the Australian welfare state in the Welfare Review chaired by Patrick McClure and launched by Kevin Andrews, Minister for Social Services in the Abbott government, in a recent address to the Sydney Institute. Andrews cited the Beveridge Report of 1942, referring to Lord William Beveridge as the “godfather of the British post-war welfare state”, commending him for putting forward a plan for a welfare state providing a minimal level of support, constituting a bare safety net, rather than “stifling civil society and personal responsibility” through generous provision. In line with a key TASA conference theme of challenging institutions and identifying social and political change at local and global levels, this paper examines both the Beveridge Report and the McClure Report, identifying key issues and themes of relevance to current times in Australia.

Modeling kinect sensor noise for improved 3D reconstruction and tracking

We contribute an empirically derived noise model for the Kinect sensor. We systematically measure both lateral and axial noise distributions, as a function of both distance and angle of the Kinect to an observed surface. The derived noise model can be used to filter Kinect depth maps for a variety of applications. Our second contribution applies our derived noise model to the KinectFusion system to extend filtering, volumetric fusion, and pose estimation within the pipeline. Qualitative results show our method allows reconstruction of finer details and the ability to reconstruct smaller objects and thinner surfaces. Quantitative results also show our method improves pose estimation accuracy. © 2012 IEEE.

Magnetic resonance imaging: An accurate, radiation-free, alternative to computed tomography for the primary imaging and three-dimensional reconstruction of the bony orbit

Purpose: To determine the extent to which the accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) based virtual 3-dimensional (3D) models of the intact orbit can approach that of the gold standard, computed tomography (CT) based models. The goal was to determine whether MRI is a viable alternative to CT scans in patients with isolated orbital fractures and penetrating eye injuries, pediatric patients, and patients requiring multiple scans in whom radiation exposure is ideally limited. Materials and Methods: Patients who presented with unilateral orbital fractures to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital from March 2011 to March 2012 were recruited to participate in this cross-sectional study. The primary predictor variable was the imaging technique (MRI vs CT). The outcome measurements were orbital volume (primary outcome) and geometric intraorbital surface deviations (secondary outcome)between the MRI- and CT-based 3D models. Results: Eleven subjects (9 male) were enrolled. The patients’ mean age was 30 years. On average, the MRI models underestimated the orbital volume of the CT models by 0.50 0.19 cm3 . The average intraorbital surface deviation between the MRI and CT models was 0.34 0.32 mm, with 78 2.7% of the surface within a tolerance of 0.5 mm. Conclusions: The volumetric differences of the MRI models are comparable to reported results from CT models. The intraorbital MRI surface deviations are smaller than the accepted tolerance for orbital surgical reconstructions. Therefore, the authors believe that MRI is an accurate radiation-free alternative to CT for the primary imaging and 3D reconstruction of the bony orbit. �