Other Side of This Life : Death, Value, and Social Being in Thomas Pynchon's Fiction

This dissertation analyzes the interrelationship between death, the conditions of (wo)man s social being, and the notion of value as it emerges in the fiction of the American novelist Thomas Pynchon (1937 ). Pynchon s present work includes six novels V. (1963), The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), Gravity s Rainbow (1973), Vineland (1990), Mason & Dixon (1997), Against the Day (2006) and several short stories. Death constitues a central thematic in Pynchon s work, and it emerges through recurrent questions of mortality, suicide, mass destruction, sacrifice, afterlife, entropy, the relationship between the animate and the inanimate, and the limits of representation. In Pynchon, death is never a mere biological given (or event); it is always determined within a certain historical, cultural, and ideological context. Throughout his work, Pynchon questions the strict ontological separation of life and death by showing the relationship between this separation and social power. Conceptual divisions also reflect the relationship between society and its others, and death becomes that through which lines of social demarcation are articulated. Determined as a conceptual and social "other side", death in Pynchon forms a challenge to modern culture, and makes an unexpected return: the dead return to haunt the living, the inanimate and the animate fuse, and technoscientific attempts at overcoming and controlling death result in its re-emergence in mass destruction and ecological damage. The questioning of the ontological line also affects the structuration of Pynchon's prose, where the recurrent narrated and narrative desire to reach the limits of representation is openly associated with death. Textualized, death appears in Pynchon's writing as a sudden rupture within the textual functioning, when the "other side", that is, the bare materiality of the signifier is foregrounded. In this study, Pynchon s cultural criticism and his poetics come together, and I analyze the subversive role of death in his fiction through Jean Baudrillard s genealogy of the modern notion of death from L échange symbolique et la mort (1976). Baudrillard sees an intrinsic bond between the social repression of death in modernity and the emergence of modern political economy, and in his analysis economy and language appear as parallel systems for generating value (exchange value/ sign-value). For Baudrillard, the modern notion of death as negativity in relation to the positivity of life, and the fact that death cannot be given a proper meaning, betray an antagonistic relation between death and the notion of value. As a mode of negativity (that is, non-value), death becomes a moment of rupture in relation to value-based thinking in short, rationalism. Through this rupture emerges a form of thinking Baudrillard labels the symbolic, characterized by ambivalence and the subversion of conceptual opposites.

Getting value out of your sensory testing - the difference from control test

Non-parametric difference tests such as triangle and duo-trio tests traditionally are used to establish differences or similarities between products. However they only supply the researcher with partial answers and often further testing is required to establish the nature, size and direction of differences. This paper looks at the advantages of the difference from control (DFC) test (also known as degree of difference test) and discusses appropriate applications of the test. The scope and principle of the test, panel composition and analysis of results are presented with the aid of suitable examples. Two of the major uses of the DFC test are in quality control and shelf-life testing. The role DFC takes in these areas and the use of other tests to complement the testing is discussed. Controls or standards are important in both these areas and the use of standard products, mental and written standards and blind controls are highlighted. The DFC test has applications in products where the duo-trio and triangle tests cannot be used because of the normal heterogeneity of the product. While the DFC test is a simple difference test it can be structured to give the researcher more valuable data and scope to make informed decisions about their product.

Recovery of intravenously infused chromium EDTA and lithium sulphate in the urine of cattle and their use as markers to measure urine volume

A series of metabolism experiments investigated the recovery of continuous-, intravenously infused chromium complexed with ethylenediamine tetra-acetic acid (CrEDTA) and lithium sulphate in the urine of cattle with a view to using the markers to estimate urine and metabolite output in grazing cattle. The recovery of Cr in urine from these infusions was similar (90%) in metabolism trials when cattle consumed three very contrasting diets: high-grain formulated pellet, lucerne hay (Medicago sativa) or low-quality native grass hay (predominantly Heteropogon contortus). By contrast, Li recovery in urine averaged 46.3 +/- 0.40% and 72.6 +/- 0.43% for native pasture and lucerne hays, respectively, but was not constant across days. There was negligible transfer of Cr from CrEDTA in blood serum to the rumen or faeces, whereas appreciable quantities of infused Li were found in both. The ratio of urine volume estimated by spot samples and marker dilution of Cr, to urine volume measured gravimetrically, was 1.05. In grazing studies using rumen-fistulated (RF) steers grazing seven different tropical and temperate grass and legume pastures, the ratio of concentrations of purine derivatives (PD) to Cr in spot samples of urine was shown to vary diurnally in the range of 49% to 157% of the average 24 h value. This finding indicated the need for regular sampling of urine to achieve an accurate average value for the PD: Cr ratio in urine for use in estimating urinary PD excretion and hence microbial protein production in the rumen. It was concluded that continuous, intravenous infusion of CrEDTA resulted in a constant recovery of Cr in the urine of cattle across diets and, provided an intensive sampling regime was followed to account for diurnal variation, it would be suitable as a marker to estimate urine volume and urinary output of PD in grazing cattle.

Leaf trait co-ordination in relation to construction cost, carbon gain and resource-use efficiency in exotic invasive and native woody vine species

Background and Aims: Success of invasive plant species is thought to be linked with their higher leaf carbon fixation strategy, enabling them to capture and utilize resources better than native species, and thus pre-empt and maintain space. However, these traits are not well-defined for invasive woody vines. Methods: In a glass house setting, experiments were conducted to examine how leaf carbon gain strategies differ between non-indigenous invasive and native woody vines of south-eastern Australia, by investigating their biomass gain, leaf structural, nutrient and physiological traits under changing light and moisture regimes. Key Results: Leaf construction cost (CC), calorific value and carbon : nitrogen (C : N) ratio were lower in the invasive group, while ash content, N, maximum photosynthesis, light-use efficiency, photosynthetic energyuse efficiency (PEUE) and specific leaf area (SLA) were higher in this group relative to the native group. Trait plasticity, relative growth rate (RGR), photosynthetic nitrogen-use efficiency and water-use efficiency did not differ significantly between the groups. However, across light resource, regression analyses indicated that at a common (same) leaf CC and PEUE, a higher biomass RGR resulted for the invasive group; also at a common SLA, a lower CC but higher N resulted for the invasive group. Overall, trait co-ordination (using pair-wise correlation analyses) was better in the invasive group. Ordination using 16 leaf traits indicated that the major axis of invasive-native dichotomy is primarily driven by SLA and CC (including its components and/or derivative of PEUE) and was significantly linked with RGR. Conclusions: These results demonstrated that while not all measures of leaf resource traits may differ between the two groups, the higher level of trait correlation and higher revenue returned (RGR) per unit of major resource need (CC) and use (PEUE) in the invasive group is in line with their rapid spread where introduced.

Resin defect impacts on the value of graded recovery and evaluation of technologies for internal defect detection in slash pine logs.

The key outcome will be to identify a technology that is practical to use to scan logs identified by the modelling as suspect or marginal for sawing and to confirm their unsuitability for value adding sawing by internal scanning.

Development of a DNA based aging technique for use in fisheries assessments. Final report, Australian Fisheries Research and Development Corporation Project 2007/033.

The productivity of a fisheries resource can be quantified from estimates of recruitment, individual growth and natural and fisheries-related mortality, assuming the spatial extent of the resource has been quantified and there is minimal immigration or emigration. The sustainability of a fisheries resource is facilitated by management controls such as minimum and maximum size limits and total allowable catch. Minimum size limits are often set to allow individuals the opportunity to reproduce at least once before the chance of capture. Total allowable catches are a proportion of the population biomass, which is estimated based on known reproduction, recruitment, mortality and growth rates. In some fisheries, however, management actions are put in place without quantification of the resource through the stock assessment process. This occurs because species-specific information, for example individual growth, may not be available. In these circumstances, management actions need to be precautionary to protect against future resource collapse, but this often means that the resource is lightly exploited. Consequently, the productivity of the resource is not fully realised. Australia’s most valuable fisheries are invertebrate fisheries (Australian Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry, 2008). For example, Australian fisheries (i.e. excluding aquaculture) production of crustaceans (largely prawns, rock lobster and crab) was 41,000 tonnes in 2006/7, worth $778 million. Production from mollusc (largely abalone, scallops, oysters and squid) fisheries was 39,000 tonnes, worth $502 million. Together, in 2006/7 crustacean and mollusc fisheries represented 58% of the total value of Australian wild fisheries production. Sustainable management of Australia’s invertebrate fisheries is frustrated by the lack of data on species-specific growth rates. This project investigated a new method to estimate age, and hence individual growth rates, in invertebrate fisheries species. The principle behind the new aging method was that telomeres (i.e. DNA end-caps of chromosomes) get shorter as an individual gets older. We studied commercial crustacean and molluscan species. A vertebrate fish species (silver perch, Bidyanus bidyanus) was used as a control to standardise our work against the literature. We found a clear relationship between telomere length and shell size for temperate abalone (Haliotis rubra). Further research is recommended before the method can be implemented to assist management of wildharvested abalone populations. Age needs to be substituted for shell size in the relationship and it needs to be studied for abalone from several regions. This project showed that telomere length declined with increasing age in Sydney rock oysters (Saccostrea glomerata) and was affected by regional variation. A relationship was not apparent between telomere length and age (or size as a surrogate for age) for crustacean species (school prawns, Metapenaeus macleayi; eastern rock lobster, Sagmariasus verreauxi; southern rock lobster, Jasus edwardsii; and spanner crabs, Ranina ranina). For school prawns, there was no difference between telomere length in males and females. Further research is recommended, however, as telomeric DNA from crustaceans was difficult to analyse using the terminal restriction fragment (TRF) assay. Telomere lengths of spanner crabs and lobsters were at the upper limit of resolution of the assay used and results were affected by degradation and possible contamination of telomeric DNA. It is possible that telomere length is an indicator of remaining lifespan in molluscan and crustacean individuals, as suggested for some vertebrate species (e.g. Monaghan, 2010). Among abalone of similar shell size and among lobster pueruli, there was evidence of individuals having significantly longer or shorter telomeres than the group average. At a population level, this may be a surrogate for estimates of future natural mortality, which may have usefulness in the management of those populations. The method used to assay telomere length (terminal restriction fragment assay) performed adequately for most species, but it was too expensive and time-consuming to be considered a useful tool for gathering information for fisheries management. Research on alternative methods is strongly recommended.

Status assessment of water use research in turf growth and maintenance.

The strategic objectives of Turf Australia (formerly the Turf Producers Association (TPA)) relating to water use in turf are to: • Source and collate information to support the case for adequate access to water for the Turf production and maintenance sectors and • Compile information generated into a convincing communication package that can be readily used by the industry in its advocacy programs (to government, regulators, media etc) More specifically, the turfgrass industry needs unbiased scientific evidence of the value of healthy grass in our environment. It needs to promote the use of adequate water even during drought periods to maintain quality turfgrass, which provides many benefits to the broader community including cooling the environment, saving energy and encouraging healthy lifestyles. The many environmental, social and health benefits of living turfgrass have been the subject of numerous investigations beyond the scope of this review. However further research is needed to fully understand the economic returns achievable by the judicious use of water for the maintenance of healthy turfgrass. Consumer education, backed by scientific evidence will highlight the “false economy” in allowing turfgrass to wither and die during conditions which require high level water restrictions. This report presents a review of the literature pertaining to research in the field of turf water use. The purpose of the review was to better understand the scope and nature of existing research results on turf water relations so that knowledge gaps could be identified in achieving the above strategic objectives of the TPA. Research to date has been found to be insufficient to compile a convincing communication package as described. However, identified knowledge gaps can now be addressed through targeted research. Information derived from targeted research will provide valuable material for education of the end user of turfgrass. Recommendations have been developed, based on the results of this desktop review. It was determined that future research in the field of turf irrigation needs to focus on a number of key factors which directly or indirectly affect the relationship between turfgrass and water use. These factors are: • Climate • Cultivar • Quality • Site use requirements • Establishment and management The overarching recommendation is to develop a strategic plan for turfgrass water relations research based around the five determinants of turf water use listed above. This plan should ensure research under these five categories is integrated into a holistic approach by which the consumer can be guided in species and/or cultivar choices as well as best management practices with respect to turfgrass water relations. Worsening drought cycles and limited supply of water for irrigation were the key factors driving every research project reviewed in this report. Subsidence of the most recent (or current) drought conditions in Australia should not be viewed by the turf industry as a reason to withdraw support or funding for research in this area. Drought conditions, limited domestic water availability and urban water restrictions will return in Australia albeit in 5, 10 or 20 years time and the turf industry has an opportunity to prepare for that time.

Fair value accounting for non-current assets and audit fees: Evidence from Australian companies

We investigate the association between asset revaluations of non-current assets and audit fees, using a sample of ASX 300 companies from the years 2003–2007.We report that there is a significant increase in the audit fees paid when non-financial assets (PPEs, investment properties and intangible assets) are measured at fair values. Moreover, we provide evidence that an independent valuer or appraiser significantly weakens the positive association between asset revaluations and audit fees. Furthermore, companies whose noncurrent assets are revalued upwards and those that revalue their non-current assets upwards every year have significantly higher audit fees. Additional tests provide empirical evidence that the strength of corporate governance has a moderating effect on the level of audit fees. This study contributes to the ongoing debate on the role of fair value accounting. The findings suggest agency costs associated with fair value estimates may offset the benefits from the use of fair value accounting.

Risk-based surveillance for avian influenza control along poultry market chains in South China: The value of social network analysis.

Over the past two decades, the poultry sector in China went through a phase of tremendous growth as well as rapid intensification and concentration. Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) subtype H5N1 was first detected in 1996 in Guangdong province, South China and started spreading throughout Asia in early 2004. Since then, control of the disease in China has relied heavily on wide-scale preventive vaccination combined with movement control, quarantine and stamping out. This strategy has been successful in drastically reducing the number of outbreaks during the past 5 years. However, HPAIV H5N1 is still circulating and is regularly isolated in traditional live bird markets (LBMs) where viral infection can persist, which represent a public health hazard for people visiting them. The use of social network analysis in combination with epidemiological surveillance in South China has identified areas where the success of current strategies for HPAI control in the poultry production sector may benefit from better knowledge of poultry trading patterns and the LBM network configuration as well as their capacity for maintaining HPAIV H5N1 infection. We produced a set of LBM network maps and estimated the associated risk of HPAIV H5N1 within LBMs and along poultry market chains, providing new insights into how live poultry trade and infection are intertwined. More specifically, our study provides evidence that several biosecurity factors such as daily cage cleaning, daily cage disinfection or manure processing contribute to a reduction in HPAIV H5N1 presence in LBMs. Of significant importance is that the results of our study also show the association between social network indicators and the presence of HPAIV H5N1 in specific network configurations such as the one represented by the counties of origin of the birds traded in LBMs. This new information could be used to develop more targeted and effective control interventions.

Allelic variation at a single gene increases food value in a drought-tolerant staple cereal

The production of adequate agricultural outputs to support the growing human population places great demands on agriculture, especially in light of ever-greater restrictions on input resources. Sorghum is a drought-adapted cereal capable of reliable production where other cereals fail, and thus represents a good candidate to address food security as agricultural inputs of water and arable land grow scarce. A long-standing issue with sorghum grain is that it has an inherently lower digestibility. Here we show that a low-frequency allele type in the starch metabolic gene, pullulanase, is associated with increased digestibility, regardless of genotypic background. We also provide evidence that the beneficial allele type is not associated with deleterious pleiotropic effects in the modern field environment. We argue that increasing the digestibility of an adapted crop is a viable way forward towards addressing food security while maximizing water and land-use efficiency.

Correlation between NIRS generated and chemically measured feed quality data in barley (Hordeum vulgare), and potential use in QTL analysis identification

A study was performed to investigate the value of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) as an alternate method to analytical techniques for identifying QTL associated with feed quality traits. Milled samples from an F6-derived recombinant inbred Tallon/Scarlett population were incubated in the rumen of fistulated cattle, recovered, washed and dried to determine the in-situ dry matter digestibility (DMD). Both pre- and post-digestion samples were analysed using NIRS to quantify key quality components relating to acid detergent fibre, starch and protein. This phenotypic data was used to identify trait associated QTL and compare them to previously identified QTL. Though a number of genetic correlations were identified between the phenotypic data sets, the only correlation of most interest was between DMD and starch digested (r = -0.382). The significance of this genetic correlation was that the NIRS data set identified a putative QTL on chromosomes 7H (LOD = 3.3) associated with starch digested. A QTL for DMD occurred in the same region of chromosome 7H, with flanking markers fAG/CAT63 and bPb-0758. The significant correlation and identification of this putative QTL, highlights the potential of technologies like NIRS in QTL analysis.

Multi-trait assessment of early-in-life female, male and genomic measures for use in genetic selection to improve female reproductive performance of Brahman cattle

Early-in-life female and male measures with potential to be practical genetic indicators were chosen from earlier analyses and examined together with genomic measures for multi-trait use to improve female reproduction of Brahman cattle. Combinations of measures were evaluated on the genetic gains expected from selection of sires and dams for each of age at puberty (AGECL, i.e. first observation of a corpus luteum), lactation anoestrous interval in 3-year-old cows (LAI), and lifetime annual weaning rate (LAWR, i.e. the weaning rate of cows based on the number of annual matings they experienced over six possible matings). Selection was on an index of comparable records for each combination. Selection intensities were less than theoretically possible but assumed a concerted selection effort was able to be made across the Brahman breed. The results suggested that substantial genetic gains could be possible but need to be confirmed in other data. The estimated increase in LAWR in 10 years, for combinations without or with genomic measures, ranged from 8 to 12 calves weaned per 100 cows from selection of sires, and from 12 to 15 calves weaned per 100 cows from selection of sires and dams. Corresponding reductions in LAI were 60-103 days or 94-136 days, and those for AGECL were 95-125 or 141-176 days, respectively. Coat score (a measure of the sleekness or wooliness of the coat) and hip height in females, and preputial eversion and liveweight in males, were measures that may warrant wider recording for Brahman female reproduction genetic evaluation. Pregnancy-test outcomes from Matings 1 and 2 also should be recorded. Percentage normal sperm may be important to record for reducing LAI and scrotal size and serum insulin-like growth factor-I concentration in heifers at 18 months for reducing AGECL. Use of a genomic estimated breeding value (EBV) in combination with other measures added to genetic gains, especially at genomic EBV accuracies of 40%. Accuracies of genomic EBVs needed to approach 60% for the genomic EBV to be the most important contributor to gains in the combinations of measures studied.

Composition operators, Aleksandrov measures and value distribution of analytic maps in the unit disc

A composition operator is a linear operator that precomposes any given function with another function, which is held fixed and called the symbol of the composition operator. This dissertation studies such operators and questions related to their theory in the case when the functions to be composed are analytic in the unit disc of the complex plane. Thus the subject of the dissertation lies at the intersection of analytic function theory and operator theory. The work contains three research articles. The first article is concerned with the value distribution of analytic functions. In the literature there are two different conditions which characterize when a composition operator is compact on the Hardy spaces of the unit disc. One condition is in terms of the classical Nevanlinna counting function, defined inside the disc, and the other condition involves a family of certain measures called the Aleksandrov (or Clark) measures and supported on the boundary of the disc. The article explains the connection between these two approaches from a function-theoretic point of view. It is shown that the Aleksandrov measures can be interpreted as kinds of boundary limits of the Nevanlinna counting function as one approaches the boundary from within the disc. The other two articles investigate the compactness properties of the difference of two composition operators, which is beneficial for understanding the structure of the set of all composition operators. The second article considers this question on the Hardy and related spaces of the disc, and employs Aleksandrov measures as its main tool. The results obtained generalize those existing for the case of a single composition operator. However, there are some peculiarities which do not occur in the theory of a single operator. The third article studies the compactness of the difference operator on the Bloch and Lipschitz spaces, improving and extending results given in the previous literature. Moreover, in this connection one obtains a general result which characterizes the compactness and weak compactness of the difference of two weighted composition operators on certain weighted Hardy-type spaces.