Applications of pedigree-based genome mapping in wheat and barley breeding programs.

The aim of the pedigree-based genome mapping project is to investigate and develop systems for implementing marker assisted selection to improve the efficiency of selection and increase the rate of genetic gain in breeding programs. Pedigree-based whole genome marker application provides a vehicle for incorporating marker technologies into applied breeding programs by bridging the gap between marker-trait association and marker implementation. We report on the development of protocols for implementation of pedigree-based whole genome marker analysis in breeding programs within the Australian northern winter cereals region. Examples of applications from the Queensland DPI&F wheat and barley breeding programs are provided, commenting on the use of microsatellites and other types of molecular markers for routine genomic analysis, the integration of genotypic, phenotypic and pedigree information for targeted wheat and barley lines, the genomic impacts of strong selection pressure in case study pedigrees, and directions for future pedigree-based marker development and analysis.

A measure of logical complexity of programs

The research in software science has so far been concentrated on three measures of program complexity: (a) software effort; (b) cyclomatic complexity; and (c) program knots. In this paper we propose a measure of the logical complexity of programs in terms of the variable dependency of sequence of computations, inductive effort in writing loops and complexity of data structures. The proposed complexity mensure is described with the aid of a graph which exhibits diagrammatically the dependence of a computation at a node upon the computation of other (earlier) nodes. Complexity measures of several example programs have been computed and the related issues have been discussed. The paper also describes the role played by data structures in deciding the program complexity.

Development of hazard site surveillance programs for forest invasive species: A case study from Brisbane, Australia

Hazard site surveillance is a system for post-border detection of new pest incursions, targeting sites that are considered potentially at high risk of such introductions. Globalisation, increased volumes of containerised freight and competition for space at domestic ports means that goods are increasingly being first opened at premises some distance from the port of entry, thus dispersing risk away from the main inspection point. Hazard site surveillance acts as a backstop to border control to ensure that new incursions are detected sufficiently early to allow the full range of management options, including eradication and containment, to be considered. This is particularly important for some of the more cryptic forest pests whose presence in a forest often is not discovered until populations are already high and the pest is well established. General requirements for a hazard site surveillance program are discussed using a program developed in Brisbane, Australia, in 2006 as a case study. Some early results from the Brisbane program are presented. In total 67 species and 5757 individuals of wood-boring beetles have been trapped and identified during the program to date. Scolytines are the most abundant taxa, making up 83% of the catch. No new exotics have been trapped but 19 of the species and 60% of all specimens caught are exotics that are already established in Australia.

The ACA effect: Examining how current affairs programs shape victim understandings and responses to online fraud

In recent years, numerous current affairs stories on online fraud victimisation have been broadcast on Australian television. These stories typically feature highly organised, international ‘sting’ operations, in which alleged offenders are arrested and investigated by law enforcement. These portrayals of police responses influence the expectations that some online fraud victims have about how their individual cases will be handled by law enforcement. Based on interviews with 80 online fraud victims, this article argues that a narrow media portrayal of online fraud by television current affairs programs — termed the ‘ACA effect’ — informs victims’ understandings of online fraud and their responses to it. In particular, current affairs programs influence what victims of online fraud expect from police. The article further demonstrates that current affairs programs present themselves as de facto law enforcement agencies, to which victims who receive an unsatisfactory response from police might turn. Overall, the article highlights the importance of current affairs programs portraying a more realistic image of official responses to online fraud.

Harmonising GAP programs for fresh produce in ASEAN region

Many forces are driving the global demand for assurance that fruit and vegetables are safe to eat and of the right quality, and are produced and handled in a manner that does not cause harm to the environment and the health, safety and welfare of workers. The impact of these driving forces is that retailer requirements for suppliers to comply with Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) is increasing and governments are strengthening legal requirements for food safety, environmental protection, and worker health, safety and welfare. The implementation of GAP programs currently within the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) region varies, with some countries having government certified systems and others beginning the journey with awareness programs for farmers. Under a project funded by the ASEAN Australia Development Cooperation Program, a standard for ASEAN GAP has been developed to harmonise GAP Programs in the region. The goal is to facilitate trade between ASEAN countries and to global markets, improve viability for farmers, and help sustain a safe food supply and the environment. ASEAN GAP is an umbrella standard that individual member countries will benchmark their national programs against to gain equivalence. The scope of ASEAN GAP covers the production, harvesting and postharvest handling of fresh fruit and vegetables on farm and postharvest handling in locations where produce is packed for sale. ASEAN GAP consists of four modules covering food safety, environmental management, worker health, safety and welfare, and produce quality. Each module can be used alone or in combination with other modules. This enables progressive implementation of ASEAN GAP, module by module based on individual country priorities.

ShadowBoxer and LocusEater: programs to optimise experimental design and multiplexing strategies for genetic mark-recapture

Genetic mark–recapture requires efficient methods of uniquely identifying individuals. 'Shadows' (individuals with the same genotype at the selected loci) become more likely with increasing sample size, and bias harvest rate estimates. Finding loci is costly, but better loci reduce analysis costs and improve power. Optimal microsatellite panels minimize shadows, but panel design is a complex optimization process. locuseater and shadowboxer permit power and cost analysis of this process and automate some aspects, by simulating the entire experiment from panel design to harvest rate estimation.

Use of part records in Merino breeding programs - The inheritance of wool growth and fibre traits during different times of the year to determine their value in Merino breeding programs

Fibre diameter can vary dramatically along a wool staple, especially in the Mediterranean environment of southern Australia with its dry summers and abundance of green feed in spring. Other research results have shown a very low phenotypic correlation between fibre diameter grown between seasons. Many breeders use short staples to measure fibre diameter for breeding purposes and also to promote animals for sale. The effectiveness of this practice is determined by the relative response to selection by measuring fibre traits on a full 12 months wool staple as compared to measuring them only on part of a staple. If a high genetic correlation exists between the part record and the full record, then using part records may be acceptable to identify genetically superior animals. No information is available on the effectiveness of part records. This paper investigated whether wool growth and fibre diameter traits of Merino wool grown at different times of the year in a Mediterranean environment, are genetically the same trait, respectively. The work was carried out on about 7 dyebanded wool sections/animal.year, on ewes from weaning to hogget age, in the Katanning Merino resource flocks over 6 years. Relative clean wool growth of the different sections had very low heritability estimates of less than 0.10, and they were phenotypically and genetically poorly correlated with 6 or 12 months wool growth. This indicates that part record measurement of clean wool growth of these sections will be ineffective as indirect selection criteria to improve wool growth genetically. Staple length growth as measured by the length between dyebands, would be more effective with heritability estimates of between 0.20 and 0.30. However, these measurements were shown to have a low genetic correlation with wool grown for 12 months which implies that these staple length measurements would only be half as efficient as the wool weight for 6 or 12 months to improve total clean wool weight. Heritability estimates of fibre diameter, coefficient of variation of fibre diameter and fibre curvature were relatively high and were genetically and phenotypically highly correlated across sections. High positive phenotypic and genetic correlations were also found between fibre diameter, coefficient of variation of fibre diameter and fibre curvature of the different sections and similar measurements for wool grown over 6 or 12 months. Coefficient of variation of fibre diameter of the sections also had a moderate negative phenotypic and genetic correlation with staple strength of wool staples grown over 6 months indicating that coefficient of variation of fibre diameter of any section would be as good an indirect selection criterion to improve stable strength as coefficient of variation of fibre diameter for wool grown over 6 or 12 months. The results indicate that fibre diameter, coefficient of variation of fibre diameter and fibre curvature of wool grown over short periods of time have virtually the same heritability as that of wool grown over 12 months, and that the genetic correlation between fibre diameter, coefficient of variation of fibre diameter and fibre curvature on part and on full records is very high (rg > 0.85). This indicates that fibre diameter, coefficient of variation of fibre diameter and fibre curvature on part records can be used as selection criteria to improve these traits. However, part records of greasy and clean wool growth would be much less efficient than fleece weight for wool grown over 6 or 12 months because of the low heritability of part records and the low genetic correlation between these traits on part records and on wool grown for 12 months.

The Eligibility Definition Used in the Social Security Administration’s Disability Programs Needs to be Changed

In its October 2003 report on the definition of disability used by the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) disability programs [i.e., Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for people with disabilities], the Social Security Advisory Board raises the issue of whether this definition is at odds with the concept of disability embodied in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and, more importantly, with the aspirations of people with disabilities to be full participants in mainstream social activities and lead fulfilling, productive lives. The Board declares that “the Nation must face up to the contradictions created by the existing definition of disability.” I wholeheartedly agree. Further, I have concluded that we have to make fundamental, conceptual changes to both how we define eligibility for economic security benefits, and how we provide those benefits, if we are ever to fulfill the promise of the ADA. To convince you of that proposition, I will begin by relating a number of facts that paint a very bleak picture – a picture of deterioration in the economic security of the population that the disability programs are intended to serve; a picture of programs that purport to provide economic security, but are themselves financially insecure and subject to cycles of expansion and cuts that undermine their purpose; a picture of programs that are facing their biggest expenditure crisis ever; and a picture of an eligibility determination process that is inefficient and inequitable -- one that rations benefits by imposing high application costs on applicants in an arbitrary fashion. I will then argue that the fundamental reason for this bleak picture is the conceptual definition of eligibility that these programs use – one rooted in a disability paradigm that social scientists, people with disabilities, and, to a substantial extent, the public have rejected as being flawed, most emphatically through the passage of the ADA. Current law requires eligibility rules to be based on the premise that disability is medically determinable. That’s wrong because, as the ADA recognizes, a person’s environment matters. I will further argue that programs relying on this eligibility definition must inevitably: reward people if they do not try to help themselves, but not if they do; push the people they serve out of society’s mainstream, fostering a culture of isolation and dependency; relegate many to a lifetime of poverty; and undermine their promise of economic security because of the periodic “reforms” that are necessary to maintain taxpayer support. I conclude by pointing out that to change the conceptual definition for program eligibility, we also must change our whole approach to providing for the economic security of people with disabilities. We need to replace our current “caretaker” approach with one that emphasizes helping people with disabilities help themselves. I will briefly describe features that such a program might require, and point out the most significant challenges we would face in making the transition.

Who Participated in School-to-Work Programs in 1998? Technical Report

[Excerpt] This report is based on a survey of 7425 students attending high school during the 1998/99 academic year that asked about recent participation in school-to-work (STW) activities. The survey is the first wave of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth begun in early 1997 (NLSY97). Ninety-three percent of the youth surveyed in the initial wave were interviewed in the second follow up that we are analyzing here. The statistics reported below are based on weighted data and so represent the population of 15 to 19 year olds attending school during the 1998/99 academic year. Youth who graduated from or dropped out of high school before fall 1998 were not asked questions about participation in school-to-work programs and so are not included in our analysis.

Social Security Programs Throughout the World: Asia and the Pacific, 2006

[Excerpt] This second issue in the current four-volume series of Social Security Programs Throughout the World reports on the countries of Asia and the Pacific. The combined findings of this series, which also includes volumes on Europe, Africa, and the Americas, are published at 6-month intervals over a 2-year period. Each volume highlights features of social security programs in the particular region. This guide serves as an overview of programs in all regions. A few political jurisdictions have been excluded because they have no social security system or have issued no information regarding their social security legislation. In the absence of recent information, national programs reported in previous volumes may also be excluded. In this volume on Asia and the Pacific, the data reported are based on laws and regulations in force in July 2006 or on the last date for which information has been received.1 Information for each country on types of social security programs, types of mandatory systems for retirement income, contribution rates, and demographic and other statistics related to social security is shown in Tables 1­4 at the end of the guide. The country summaries show each system's major features. Separate programs in the public sector and specialized funds for such groups as agricultural workers, collective farmers, or the self-employed have not been described in any detail. Benefit arrangements of private employers or individuals are not described in any detail, even though such arrangements may be mandatory in some countries or available as alternatives to statutory programs. The country summaries also do not refer to international social security agreements that may be in force between two or more countries. Those agreements may modify coverage, contributions, and benefit provisions of national laws summarized in the country write-ups. Since the summary format requires brevity, technical terms have been developed that are concise as well as comparable and are applied to all programs. The terminology may therefore differ from national concepts or usage.

Union-Management Training Programs in the Public Sector: The New York Experience

[Excerpt] New York State has a long history of union-management education and training programs, making it unique in public sector employment. This chapter examines the programs undertaken at both state and city levels, as well as the applicability of the New York experience to other public sector jurisdictions. Although the profile of the New York State and city work force differs from that of the rest of the nation, there is much of value here for educators, union leaders, and others involved in public sector employment.

Evaluating progress in weed eradication programs

Evaluating progress towards eradication is critically important because weed eradication programs are very expensive and may take more than 10 years to complete. The degree of confidence that can be placed in any measure of eradication progress is a function of the effort that has been invested in finding new infestations and in monitoring known infestations. Determining eradication endpoints is particularly difficult, since plants may be extremely difficult to detect when at low densities and it is virtually impossible to demonstrate seed bank exhaustion. Recent work suggests that an economic approach to this problem should be adopted. They propose some rules of thumb to determine whether to continue an eradication program or switch to an alternative management strategy.

Evaluation of weed eradication programs: containment and extirpation

Weed eradication programs often require 10 years or more to achieve their objective. It is important that progress is evaluated on a regular basis so that programs that are 'on track' can be distinguished from those that are unlikely to succeed. Earlier research has addressed conformity of eradication programs to the delimitation criterion. In this paper evaluation in relation to the containment and extirpation criteria is considered. Because strong evidence of containment failure (i.e. spread from infestations targeted for eradication) is difficult to obtain, it generally will not be practicable to evaluate how effective eradication programs are at containing the target species. However, chronic failure of containment will be reflected in sustained increases in cumulative infested area and thus a failure to delimit a weed invasion. Evaluating the degree of conformity to the delimitation and extirpation criteria is therefore sufficient to give an appraisal of progress towards the eradication objective. A significant step towards eradication occurs when a weed is no longer readily detectable at an infested site, signalling entry to the monitoring phase. This transition will occur more quickly if reproduction is prevented consistently. Where an invasion consists of multiple infestations, the monitoring profile (frequency distribution of time since detection) provides a summary of the overall effectiveness of the eradication program in meeting the extirpation criterion. Eradication is generally claimed when the target species has not been detected for a period equal to or greater than its seed longevity, although there is often considerable uncertainty in estimates of the latter. Recently developed methods, which take into consideration the cost of continued monitoring vs. the potential cost of damage should a weed escape owing to premature cessation of an eradication program, can assist managers to decide when to terminate weed eradication programs.

A review of Australian classical biological control of weeds programs and research activities over the past 12 years

Considerable progress has been made towards the successful classical biological control of many of Australia’s exotic weeds over the past decade. Some 43 new arthropod or pathogen agents were released in 19 projects. Effective biological control was achieved in several projects with the outstanding successes being the control of rubber vine, Cryptostegia grandiflora, and bridal creeper, Asparagus asparagoides. Significant developments also occurred in target prioritization, procedures for target and agent approval, funding, infrastructure and cooperation between agencies. Scientific developments included greater emphasis on climate matching, plant and agent phylogeny, molecular diagnostics, agent prioritization and agent evaluation.

Retinal photography screening programs to prevent vision loss from diabetic retinopathy in rural and urban Australia: A review

Purpose This review assessed the effectiveness of diabetic retinopathy (DR) screening programs, using retinal photography in Australian urban and rural settings, and considered implications for public health strategy and policy. Methods An electronic search of MEDLINE, PubMed, and Embase for studies published between 1 January 1996 and the 30 June 2013 was undertaken. Key search terms were “diabetic retinopathy,” “screening,” “retinal photography” and “Australia.” Results Twelve peer-reviewed publications were identified. The 14 DR screening programs identified from the 12 publications were successfully undertaken in urban, rural and remote communities across Australia. Locations included a pathology collection center, and Indigenous primary health care and Aboriginal community controlled organizations. Each intervention using retinal photography was highly effective at increasing the number of people who underwent screening for DR. The review identified that prior to commencement of the screening programs a median of 48% (range 16–85%) of those screened had not undergone a retinal examination within the recommended time frame (every year for Indigenous people and every 2 years for non-Indigenous people in Australia). A median of 16% (range 0–45%) of study participants had evidence of DR. Conclusions This review has shown there have been many pilot and demonstration projects in rural and urban Australia that confirm the effectiveness of retinal photography-based screening for DR