Measuring and decomposing changes in agricultural productivity, nitrogen use efficiency and cumulative exergy efficiency: Application to OECD agriculture

This paper uses an aggregate quantity space to decompose the temporal changes in nitrogen use efficiency and cumulative exergy use efficiency into changes of Moorsteen–Bjurek (MB) Total Factor Productivity (TFP) changes and changes in the aggregate nitrogen and cumulative exergy contents. Changes in productivity can be broken into technical change and changes in various efficiency measures such as technical efficiency, scale efficiency and residual mix efficiency. Changes in the aggregate nitrogen and cumulative exergy contents can be driven by changes in the quality of inputs and outputs and changes in the mixes of inputs and outputs. Also with cumulative exergy content analysis, changes in the efficiency in input production can increase or decrease the cumulative exergy transformity of agricultural production. The empirical study in 30 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development from 1990 to 2003 yielded some important findings. The production technology progressed but there were reductions in technical efficiency, scale efficiency and residual mix efficiency levels. This result suggests that the production frontier had shifted up but there existed lags in the responses of member countries to the technological change. Given TFP growth, improvements in nutrient use efficiency and cumulative exergy use efficiency were counteracted by reductions in the changes of the aggregate nitrogen contents ratio and aggregate cumulative exergy contents ratio. The empirical results also confirmed that different combinations of inputs and outputs as well as the quality of inputs and outputs could have more influence on the growth of nutrient and cumulative exergy use efficiency than factors that had driven productivity change. Keywords: Nutrient use efficiency; Cumulative exergy use efficiency; Thermodynamic efficiency change; Productivity growth; OECD agriculture; Sustainability

The use of temporal speech and lip information for multi-modal speaker identification via multi-stream HMMs

Investigates the use of temporal lip information, in conjunction with speech information, for robust, text-dependent speaker identification. We propose that significant speaker-dependent information can be obtained from moving lips, enabling speaker recognition systems to be highly robust in the presence of noise. The fusion structure for the audio and visual information is based around the use of multi-stream hidden Markov models (MSHMM), with audio and visual features forming two independent data streams. Recent work with multi-modal MSHMMs has been performed successfully for the task of speech recognition. The use of temporal lip information for speaker identification has been performed previously (T.J. Wark et al., 1998), however this has been restricted to output fusion via single-stream HMMs. We present an extension to this previous work, and show that a MSHMM is a valid structure for multi-modal speaker identification

HRM’s impact on innovative work behavior

The importance of innovation to the long-term survival and growth of an organization has been well recognized and acknowledged, and HRM practitioners face a critical challenge to design and implement practices that ensure the behaviors and attitudes necessary for sustained innovation. In this paper, we present the findings from an exploratory study that establish initial indications of links between work design, training and dcvelopment, employee engagement, and innovative work behaviors, setting the agenda for lurther investigation of how spccific HR practices of work design and training and development can supp0l1 employee engagement, and facilitate sustained innovation.

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) in the north of Vietnam : a multi-method approach

The antiretroviral therapy (ART) program for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) in Vietnam has been scaled up rapidly in recent years (from 50 clients in 2003 to almost 38,000 in 2009). ART success is highly dependent on the ability of the patients to fully adhere to the prescribed treatment regimen. Despite the remarkable extension of ART programs in Vietnam, HIV/AIDS program managers still have little reliable data on levels of ART adherence and factors that might promote or reduce adherence. Several previous studies in Vietnam estimated extremely high levels of ART adherence among their samples, although there are reasons to question the veracity of the conclusion that adherence is nearly perfect. Further, no study has quantitatively assessed the factors influencing ART adherence. In order to reduce these gaps, this study was designed to include several phases and used a multi-method approach to examine levels of ART non-adherence and its relationship to a range of demographic, clinical, social and psychological factors. The study began with an exploratory qualitative phase employing four focus group discussions and 30 in-depth interviews with PLHIV, peer educators, carers and health care providers (HCPs). Survey interviews were completed with 615 PLHIV in five rural and urban out-patient clinics in northern Vietnam using an Audio Computer Assisted Self-Interview (ACASI) and clinical records extraction. The survey instrument was carefully developed through a systematic procedure to ensure its reliability and validity. Cultural appropriateness was considered in the design and implementation of both the qualitative study and the cross sectional survey. The qualitative study uncovered several contrary perceptions between health care providers and HIV/AIDS patients regarding the true levels of ART adherence. Health care providers often stated that most of their patients closely adhered to their regimens, while PLHIV and their peers reported that “it is not easy” to do so. The quantitative survey findings supported the PLHIV and their peers’ point of view in the qualitative study, because non-adherence to ART was relatively common among the study sample. Using the ACASI technique, the estimated prevalence of onemonth non-adherence measured by the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was 24.9% and the prevalence of four-day not-on-time-adherence using the modified Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Group (AACTG) instrument was 29%. Observed agreement between the two measures was 84% and kappa coefficient was 0.60 (SE=0.04 and p<0.0001). The good agreement between the two measures in the current study is consistent with those found in previous research and provides evidence of cross-validation of the estimated adherence levels. The qualitative study was also valuable in suggesting important variables for the survey conceptual framework and instrument development. The survey confirmed significant correlations between two measures of ART adherence (i.e. dose adherence and time adherence) and many factors identified in the qualitative study, but failed to find evidence of significant correlations of some other factors and ART adherence. Non-adherence to ART was significantly associated with untreated depression, heavy alcohol use, illicit drug use, experiences with medication side-effects, chance health locus of control, low quality of information from HCPs, low satisfaction with received support and poor social connectedness. No multivariate association was observed between ART adherence and age, gender, education, duration of ART, the use of adherence aids, disclosure of ART, patients’ ability to initiate communication with HCPs or distance between clinic and patients’ residence. This is the largest study yet reported in Asia to examine non-adherence to ART and its possible determinants. The evidence strongly supports recent calls from other developing nations for HIV/AIDS services to provide screening, counseling and treatment for patients with depressive symptoms, heavy use of alcohol and substance use. Counseling should also address fatalistic beliefs about chance or luck determining health outcomes. The data suggest that adherence could be enhanced by regularly providing information on ART and assisting patients to maintain social connectedness with their family and the community. This study highlights the benefits of using a multi-method approach in examining complex barriers and facilitators of medication adherence. It also demonstrated the utility of the ACASI interview method to enhance open disclosure by people living with HIV/AIDS and thus, increase the veracity of self-reported data.

Towards the biofortification of banana fruit for enhanced micronutrient content

In Uganda, vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) are major public health problems with between 15-32% of children under 5 years of age showing VAD and 73% being anaemic. This is largely due to the fact that the staple food crop of the country, banana, is low in pro-vitamin A and iron, therefore leading to dietary deficiencies. Although worldwide progress has been made to control VAD and IDA through supplementation, food fortification and diet diversification, their long term sustainability and impact in developing countries such as Uganda is limited. The approach taken by researchers at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia, in collaboration with the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), Uganda, to address this problem, is to generate consumer acceptable banana varieties with significantly increased levels of pro-vitamin A and iron in the fruit using genetic engineering techniques. Such an approach requires the use of suitable, well characterised genes and promoters for targeted transgene expression. Recently, a new banana phytoene synthase gene (APsy2a) involved in the synthesis of pro-vitamin A (pVA) carotenoids was isolated from a high â-carotene banana (F’ei cv Asupina). In addition, sequences of banana ferritin, an iron storage protein, have been isolated from Cavendish banana. The aim of the research described in this thesis was to evaluate the function of these genes to assess their suitability for the biofortification of banana fruit. In addition, a range of banana-derived promoters were characterised to determine their suitability for controlling the expression of transgenes in banana fruit. Due to the time constraints involved with generating transgenic banana fruit, rice was used as the model crop to investigate the functionality of the banana-derived APsy2a and ferritin genes. Using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, rice callus was transformed with APsy2a +/- the bacterial-derived carotene desaturase gene (CrtI) each under the control of the constitutive maize poly-ubiquitin promoter (ZmUbi) or seed-specific rice glutelin1 (Gt1) promoter. The maize phytoene synthase (ZmPsy1) gene was included as a control. On selective media, with the exception of ZmUbi-CrtI-transgenic callus, all antibiotic resistant callus displayed a yellow-orange colour from which the presence of â-carotene was demonstrated using Raman spectroscopy. Although the regeneration of plants from yellow-orange callus was difficult, 16 transgenic plants were obtained and characterised from callus transformed with ZmUbi-APys2a alone. At least 50% of the T1 seeds developed a yellow-orange coloured callus which was found to contain levels of â-carotene ranging from 4.6-fold to 72-fold higher than that in non-transgenic rice callus. Using the seed-specific Gt1 promoter, 38 transgenic rice plants were generated from APsy2a-CrtI-transformed callus while 32 plants were regenerated from ZmPsy1-CrtI-transformed callus. However, when analysed for presence of transgene by PCR, all transgenic plants contained the APsy2a, ZmPsy1 or CrtI transgene, with none of the plants found to be co-transformed. Using Raman spectroscopy, no â-carotene was detected in-situ in representative T1 seeds. To investigate the potential of the banana-derived ferritin gene (BanFer1) to enhance iron content, rice callus was transformed with constitutively expressed BanFer1 using the soybean ferritin gene (SoyFer) as a control. A total of 12 and 11 callus lines independently transformed with BanFer1 and SoyFer, respectively, were multiplied and transgene expression was verified by RT-PCR. Pearl’s Prussian blue staining for in-situ detection of ferric iron showed a stronger blue colour in rice callus transformed with BanFer1 compared to SoyFer. Using flame atomic absorption spectrometry, the highest mean amount of iron quantified in callus transformed with BanFer1 was 30-fold while that obtained using the SoyFer was 14-fold higher than the controls. In addition, ~78% of BanFer1-transgenic callus lines and ~27% of SoyFer-transgenic callus lines had significantly higher iron content than the non-transformed controls. Since the genes used for enhancing micronutrient content need to be expressed in banana fruit, the activity of a range of banana-derived, potentially fruit-active promoters in banana was investigated. Using uidA (GUS) as a reporter gene, the function of the Expansin1 (MaExp1), Expansin1 containing the rice actin intron (MaExp1a), Expansin4 (MaExp4), Extensin (MaExt), ACS (MaACS), ACO (MaACO), Metallothionein (MaMT2a) and phytoene synthase (APsy2a) promoters were transiently analysed in intact banana fruit using two transformation methods, particle bombardment and Agrobacterium-mediated infiltration (agro-infiltration). Although a considerable amount of variation in promoter activity was observed both within and between experiments, similar trends were obtained using both transformation methods. The MaExp1 and MaExp1a directed high levels of GUS expression in banana fruit which were comparable to those observed from the ZmUbi and Banana bunchy top virus-derived BT4 promoters that were included as positive controls. Lower levels of promoter activity were obtained in both methods using the MaACO and MaExt promoters while the MaExp4, MaACS, and APsy2a promoters directed the lowest GUS activity in banana fruit. An attempt was subsequently made to use agro-infiltration to assess the expression of pVA biosynthesis genes in banana fruit by infiltrating fruit with constructs in which the ZmUbi promoter controlled the expression of APsy2a +/- CrtI, and with the maize phytoene synthase gene (ZmPsy1) included as a control. Unfortunately, the large amount of variation and inconsistency observed within and between experiments precluded any meaningful conclusions to be drawn. The final component of this research was to assess the level of promoter activity and specificity in non-target tissue. These analyses were done on leaves obtained from glasshouse-grown banana plants stably transformed with MaExp1, MaACO, APsy2a, BT4 and ZmUbi promoters driving the expression of the GUS gene in addition to leaves from a selection of the same transgenic plants which were growing in a field trial in North Queensland. The results from both histochemical and fluorometric GUS assays showed that the MaExp1 and MaACO promoters directed very low GUS activities in leaves of stably transformed banana plants compared to the constitutive ZmUbi and BT4 promoters. In summary, the results from this research provide evidence that the banana phytoene synthase gene (APsy2a) and the banana ferritin gene (BanFer1) are functional, since the constitutive over-expression of each of these transgenes led to increased levels of pVA carotenoids (for APsy2a) and iron content (for BanFer1) in transgenic rice callus. Further work is now required to determine the functionality of these genes in stably-transformed banana fruit. This research also demonstrated that the MaExp1 and MaACO promoters are fruit-active but have low activity in non-target tissue (leaves), characteristics that make them potentially useful for the biofortification of banana fruit. Ultimately, however, analysis of fruit from field-grown transgenic plants will be required to fully evaluate the suitability of pVA biosynthesis genes and the fruit-active promoters for fruit biofortification.

The role of life friendly policies on employees’ work-life balance

Employees' inability to balance work and non-work related responsibilities have resulted in an increase in stress related illnesses. Historically, research into the relationship between work and non-work has primarily focused on work/family conflict, predominately investigating the impact of this conflict on parents, usually mothers. To date research has not sufficiently examined the management practices that enable all 'individuals' to achieve a 'balance' between work and life. This study explores the relationship between contemporary life friendly HR management policies and work/life balance for individuals as well as the effect of managerial support to the policies. Self-report questionnaire data from 1,241 men and women is analysed and discussed to enable organizations to consider the use of life friendly policies and thus create a convergence between the well-being of employees and the effectiveness of the organization.

The challenge of assessing professional competence in work integrated learning

A fundamental aspect of work integrated learning (WIL) is the development of professional competence, the ability of students to perform in the work place. Alignment theory therefore suggests that the assessment of WIL should include an assessment of students’ demonstration of professional competence in the workplace. The assessment of professional competence in WIL is, however, problematic. It may be impractical for the academic supervisor to directly assess professional competence if there is a large number of students in external placements. If evidence of professional competence is provided by the student, the student’s ability to articulate his or her own capabilities will interfere with the validity of the assessment. If evidence of professional competency is provided by the supervisor then the assessment is heavily dependent on the individual supervisor and may be unreliable. This paper will examine the literature relating to the assessment of professional competence in WIL. The paper will be informed by the author’s experience in coordinating a WIL subject in an undergraduate law course. It will recommend that a mix of evidence provided by the student, the workplace supervisor and the academic supervisor should be used to assess professional competence in WIL.

English Teachers at Work : Narratives, Counter Narratives and Argument

Do English teachers around the world share a common set of values, knowledge and experiences? Do they face the same kind of challenges? What can English teachers from different national settings learn by engaging with dialogue with one another? What histories shape the professional practice of English teachers? What impact have government policies and curricula had on English teachers' sense of professional identity? English Teachers at Work focuses on the professional knowledge and practice of teachers of English in a range of national settings.

Measuring and monitoring soil organic carbon stocks in agricultural lands for climate mitigation

Policies that encourage greenhouse-gas emitters to mitigate emissions through terrestrial carbon (C) offsets – C sequestration in soils or biomass – will promote practices that reduce erosion and build soil fertility, while fostering adaptation to climate change, agricultural development, and rehabilitation of degraded soils. However none of these benefits will be possible until changes in C stocks can be documented accurately and cost-effectively. This is particularly challenging when dealing with changes in soil organic C (SOC) stocks. Precise methods for measuring C in soil samples are well established, but spatial variability in the factors that determine SOC stocks makes it difficult to document change. Widespread interest in the benefits of SOC sequestration has brought this issue to the fore in the development of US and international climate policy. Here, we review the challenges to documenting changes in SOC stocks, how policy decisions influence offset documentation requirements, and the benefits and drawbacks of different sampling strategies and extrapolation methods.