Restormel Fish Counter Annual Report 2003

This is the Restormel Fish Counter, Annual Report 2003 produced by the Environment Agency South West Region on March 2004. The report presents the daily upstream counts of migratory salmonids recorded on the River Fowey at Restormel weir fish counting station (SX 107 613) in 2003. Data contained within this report covers the period of the commercial migratory salmonid net buy-back scheme and the National Spring Salmon Bylaws. The run pattern observed for salmon and sea trout in 2003 was generally consistent with that of previous years. The upstream salmon / large sea trout count for 2003 was 1777, 2% lower than that recorded in 2002. The overall increase in the salmon and sea trout counts, together with the consistency of the numbers over recent years suggests that measures designed to protect salmonid stocks were working.

Restormel Fish Counter Annual Report 2005

This is the Restormel Fish Counter, Annual Report 2005 produced by the Environment Agency South West Region on March 2006. The report presents the upstream counts of migratory salmonids recorded on the River Fowey at Restormel weir fish counting station (SX 107 613) over the period March 2005 to February 2006 inclusive. Data contained within this report covers the period of the commercial migratory salmonid net buy-back scheme and the National Spring Salmon Byelaws (from 2 March to 15 June Inclusive). The minimum upstream salmon estimate for 2005 was 1046, this is the second highest count recorded over the past 11 years. The total sea trout count (10448) was 8% higher than 2004 (9608). This overall increase in the salmon and sea trout counts, together with the consistency of the numbers of fish returning over recent years suggests that measures designed to protect salmonid stocks in the River Fowey are working.

Restormel Fish Counter Annual Report 2006

This is the Restormel Fish Counter, Annual Report 2006 produced by the Environment Agency South West Region on March 2007. The report presents the upstream counts of migratory salmonids recorded on the River Fowey at Restormel weir fish counting station (SX 107 613) over the period March 2006 to February 2007 inclusive. Data contained within this report covers the period of the commercial migratory salmonid net buy-back scheme and the National Spring Salmon Byelaws (2 March- 15 June inclusive). The minimum upstream salmon estimate for 2005 (1046), over the period July 2005 to February 2006, was 20% lower than that recorded over the same period in 2004 (1301). However, this is the second highest count recorded over the past 11 years. The total sea trout count (10448) was 8% higher than 2004 (9608). The number of salmon and large sea trout was lower than average in 2005. However, the overall numbers of adult salmon and sea trout returning have been increasing year on year since 1997. This overall increase in the salmon and sea trout counts, together with the consistency of the numbers of fish returning over recent years suggests that measures designed to protect salmonid stocks in the River Fowey are working.

Barriers to and facilitators of interventions to counter publication bias: thematic analysis of scholarly articles and stakeholder interviews.

BACKGROUND: When the nature and direction of research results affect their chances of publication, a distortion of the evidence base - termed publication bias - results. Despite considerable recent efforts to implement measures to reduce the non-publication of trials, publication bias is still a major problem in medical research. The objective of our study was to identify barriers to and facilitators of interventions to prevent or reduce publication bias. METHODS: We systematically reviewed the scholarly literature and extracted data from articles. Further, we performed semi-structured interviews with stakeholders. We performed an inductive thematic analysis to identify barriers to and facilitators of interventions to counter publication bias. RESULTS: The systematic review identified 39 articles. Thirty-four of 89 invited interview partners agreed to be interviewed. We clustered interventions into four categories: prospective trial registration, incentives for reporting in peer-reviewed journals or research reports, public availability of individual patient-level data, and peer-review/editorial processes. Barriers we identified included economic and personal interests, lack of financial resources for a global comprehensive trial registry, and different legal systems. Facilitators identified included: raising awareness of the effects of publication bias, providing incentives to make data publically available, and implementing laws to enforce prospective registration and reporting of clinical trial results. CONCLUSIONS: Publication bias is a complex problem that reflects the complex system in which it occurs. The cooperation amongst stakeholders to increase public awareness of the problem, better tailoring of incentives to publish, and ultimately legislative regulations have the greatest potential for reducing publication bias.

The 'emotionalization of the 'war on terror'': counter-terrorism, fear, risk, insecurity and helplessness

The ‘war on terror’ has marked the existence of exceptional measures involving military action abroad and the introduction of counter-terrorism legislation in the United Kingdom. Within this context fear, risk and insecurity have been intrinsic in legitimizing the measures created as being necessary to maintain national security. This article presents the findings from a study investigating the impact of the ‘war on terror’ on British Muslims’ emotions. The study revealed how facets of the ‘war on terror’, including ‘human rights and policing’, ‘What if? and pre-emption’, ‘geopolitics and reflexive fear and risk’ and ‘fear from inside the binary’ impacted participants’ emotions. Through exploring how thepolicy measures implemented in the ‘war on terror’ have influenced British Muslims’ emotions, the article takes a small step in addressing the analytical gap in criminological research on emotions in the ‘war on terror’.

The EU, counter-terrorism and the protection of Muslims as European minorities

This article examines the EU’s promotion of the religious identity of Muslims within the context of European counter-terrorism measures. Counter-terrorism laws of the EU and its Member States impact on the religious identity of Muslims. They have an arguably disproportionate effect on the civil rights of individuals in the quest to combat terrorism and can be seen to increase Islamophobia in two ways: a rise in general discrimination against Muslims and a requirement on Muslims to distance their connection to Islamic practice and traditions. EU law dealing with terrorist offences speak little of this backlash that Muslims face in European countries. Although the EU has somewhat of a framework in place which concerns the protection of Islamic identity, the reluctance of the EU to take a determined stance on the issue of the protection of religious identity is illustrated through the ambiguous nature of its legislation.

Biometrics in ABC: counter-spoofing research

Automated border control (ABC) is concerned with fast and secure processing for intelligence-led identification. The FastPass project aims to build a harmonised, modular reference system for future European ABC. When biometrics is taken on board as identity, spoofing attacks become a concern. This paper presents current research in algorithm development for counter-spoofing attacks in biometrics. Focussing on three biometric traits, face, fingerprint, and iris, it examines possible types of spoofing attacks, and reviews existing algorithms reported in relevant academic papers in the area of countering measures to biometric spoofing attacks. It indicates that the new developing trend is fusion of multiple biometrics against spoofing attacks.

Counter-terrorism and (in)security : Fallout from the Bali bombing

In the wake of the Bali bombing the Australian government has proposed a number of national security measures that pose a real danger to human security in Australia and the region. These measures include renewed and increased military and intelligence exchanges with Indonesia, and laws that allow the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) to detain people without charge or even suspicion in order to gather intelligence. In less emotional times these initiatives would be rejected as contrary to human rights concerns and Australia’s democratic traditions, which include the rule of law and due process protections. In the current climate, however, human rights and civil liberties are apt to be portrayed as unaffordable luxuries.

`Counter-terrorism`, human security and globalisation - from welfare to warfare state?

The continuing erosion of civil liberties in Western democracies, and in particular Australia, as a response to the threat of terrorist attack - the position taken that laws eroding civil liberties will ultimately fail in its attempt to combat terrorist activity while adding to human insecurity and violence - counter-terrorism measures resulting in the militarisation of law enforcement and provoking terrorism - linking counter-terrorism with globalisation.

Security networks in the field of counter-terrorism in Australia

This thesis examines networks as a means of organising counter-terrorism in Australia and the conditions that promote the effectiveness of security networks. It presents a framework for analysing network dynamics and network effectiveness in this field that can assist researchers to better understand networks and practitioners to better manage networks.

Analyses and comparison of counter-movement jump performance and self-rated recovery in state under-18s Australian Rules Football players during a national championship

Recovery of team sport athletes during multiple competitive games is an important area for strength and conditioning coaches to monitor as it facilitates for athletes to be ready to perform (11,13). Utilising athletic performance data in conjunction with self-rated reporting measures can help determine if in fact a player or team has recovered sufficiently or shown a trend towards recovery prior to a competitive match (11). Positive improvement in recovery variables can provide confidence in the effectiveness of recovery methods used and assist in determining the training schedule in order to positively manipulate the fitness-fatigue relationship (3).

Various methods of analysing the recovery of athletes have been reported in the literature and are available to the strength and conditioning coach. These include subjective, self-rated scales and perceived level of recovery questionnaires (11,12,13). Athletic performance measures during exercises such as the counter movement jump (CMJ) have also been analysed, predominantly utilising force plates to obtain kinetic data. (5,13,14). However, such equipment can be difficult to transport, requires continual calibration and is costly to purchase. A linear transducer can provide important information on CMJ variables in the assessment of athletic movements and due to its size and portability could serve as a valuable tool to assist strength and conditioning coaches, (8,10), and potentially enable the monitoring of recovery.

Previous studies have investigated the fatigue effects of competitive games in various sports (11,13,14) including Australian Rules Football (AFL) at the senior elite league level (5, 6). To the authors’ knowledge, however, there is yet to be a study investigating the recovery response in AFL players, specifically in players 18 years and under competing in the National Under 18s Championships. Australian Rules football is an extremely physically demanding and fatiguing sport where players participate in games time exceeding 120 minutes duration, covering large distances (~12-18km, position dependent) with many high intensity efforts performed at random times throughout the game (2,6,16). Hence, it would seem pertinent to analyse the fatigue effects of competitive matches in an Australian Rules Under-18’s National Championship and the subsequent recovery from these games.

The aim of this study was to analyse and compare two self-rated subjective measures of recovery; they being muscle soreness (MS) of the lower body, overall perceived total recovery (TR), and the performance measure of peak velocity (PV) obtained from a CMJ analysed with a linear transducer. Data collection occurred between rounds four and five of the Australian Football League Under-18’s National Championship, representing a four-day recovery analysis period between matches.

Counter-credit-risk yield spreads: a puzzle in China's corporate bond market

In this paper, using China's risk-free and corporate zero yields together with aggregate credit risk measures and various control variables from 2006 to 2013, we document a puzzle of counter-credit-risk corporate yield spreads. We interpret this puzzle as a symptom of the immaturity of China's credit bond market, which reveals a distorted pricing mechanism latent in the fundamental of this market. We also find interesting results about relationships between corporate yield spreads and interest rates and risk premia and the stock index, and these results are somewhat attributed to this puzzle.

Brazil: the international financial crisis and counter-cyclical policies

Includes bibliography

Legal Implications of the Use of Export Taxes in Addressing Carbon Leakage: Competing Border Adjustment Measures

The prevailing uncertainties about the future of the post-Kyoto international legal framework for climate mitigation and adaptation increase the likelihood of unilateral trade interventions that aim to address climate policy concerns, as exemplified by the controversial European Union initiative to include the aviation industry in its emissions trading system. The emerging literature suggests that border carbon adjustment (BCA) measures imposed by importing countries would lead to substantial legal complications in relation to World Trade Organization law and hence to possible trade disputes. Lack of legal clarity on BCAs is exacerbated by potential counter or pre-emptive export restrictions that exporting countries might impose on carbon-intensive products. In this context, this paper investigates the interface between legal and welfare implications of competing unilateral BCA measures. It argues that carbon export taxes will be an inevitable part of the future climate change regime in the absence of a multilateral agreement. It also describes the channels through which competing BCAs may lead to trade conflicts and political complications as a result of their distributional and welfare impacts at the domestic and global levels.

Russia’s Punitive Trade Policy Measures towards Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. CEPS Working Document No. 400, September 2014

While EU and US sanctions against Russia over its aggression in Ukraine, and Russia’s counter-sanctions, are much discussed due to their evident political significance, less attention has been given to Russia’s punitive sanctions against the three Eastern European states – Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia – that have signed with the EU Association Agreements (AA), which include Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) provisions. This paper therefore documents these trade policy restrictions and embargoes imposed by Russia, and provides some first indications of their impact. The immediate impact on trade flows, especially for agri-food products, has been substantial, albeit with some leakage through Belarus. The main instrument for the Russian measures has been allegations of non-conformity with Russian technical standards, although the correlation of these allegations with movements in Russia’s geopolitical postures makes it obvious that the Russian technical agencies are following political guidelines dressed up as scientific evidence. These measures also push the three states into diversifying their trade marketing efforts in favour of the EU and other world markets, with Georgia already having taken significant steps in this direction, since in its case the Russian sanctions date back to 2006. In the case of Ukraine, Russia’s threat to cancel CIS free trade preferences infiltrated trilateral talks between the EU, Ukraine and Russia, leading on 12 September to their proposed postponement until the end of 2015 of the ‘provisional’ implementation of a large part of the AA/DCFTA. This was immediately followed on 16 September by ratification of the AA/DCFTA by both the Rada in Kyiv and the European Parliament, which will lead to its full and definitive entry into force when the 28 EU member states have also ratified it. However Putin followed the day after with a letter to Poroshenko making an abusive interpretation of the 12 September understanding.