The need to accumlate human capital across levels of export intensity : activating resources that are increasingly difficult to mobilise

With increasing levels of export intensity, firms begin to face new demands. The first set of resources brought to bear on the issues, and those resources that are most quickly mobilised, are the employees. Indeed, higher levels of exporting require activating relatively less mobile resources through the building of organisational structures and mechanisms for managing repositories of knowledge (particularly organisational specialisation and selectively hiring appropriately skilled staff). This paper explores the management of human capital across different levels of export activity in Australian manufacturing firms. Analyses were based on 90 Australian-headquartered manufacturing exporters that responded to a survey. Overall, the results support the notion that firms need to accumulate knowledge as they internationalise. These results are discussed in terms of their consequences for HRM practices.

Publishing dynamic state changes of resources through state aware WSDL

A common architecture in today's development of distributed systems is the service-oriented architecture (SOA) implemented using Web services. Until recently, it was difficult to build a SOA based grid/distributed system using Web services due to the inability to learn the state of services. The state of a Web service could only be accessed through specialized clients and/or services. Should the specialized client or service fail, the state can't be accessed. This paper shows the innovative resources via Web instances (RVWI) framework. RVWI grants to web services the ability to show the state of dynamic resources in their WSDL. This was achieved via software components called connectors which watch for any changes in a resource and updates the web service. The significance of this report is the support for resources which can change state between requests and the innovation is the improvement of state updates between the service and discovery services.

Increasing population happiness through the distribution of resources

This paper concerns the ways in which public policy regarding the distribution of resources might be used to increase the happiness of the Thai population. The term happiness refers to the subjective side of life quality, which in contemporary science is more commonly referred to as subjective wellbeing (SWB). The SWB construct is described within the theoretical context of SWB homeostasis. This is a proposed management system which has the role of maintaining a positive view of the self. It will be described how the homeostatic system can be challenged by hardship. The resources that the system requires to manage such challenges will also be described. Recommended forms of SWB measurement will be considered. It is concluded that public policy which directs resources to disadvantaged population sectors may be one of the most effective initiatives to enhance population wellbeing and national productivity.

Mapping the information resources available to patients with colorectal cancer

The objectives of this study were to identify gaps in information provision along the colorectal cancer (CRC) treatment pathway as provided by health services within the North Eastern Metropolitan Integrated Cancer Service in Victoria Australia; to evaluate the information and recommend consistent, high quality health information resources; and to recommend strategies to improve delivery of patient information. A random sample of health professionals (n= 47) from various disciplines at eight health service sites participated in semi-structured interviews regarding the types of information they provided to CRC patients. Information items were mapped against a published CRC patient management framework and evaluated. A total of 193 information items were collected with 24 items specific to CRC. Gaps in information provision were evident in the community, at diagnosis, in clinics, when treatment was determined and when completed. The quality of information delivery to CRC patients across the public health sites was variable. Resources were often unavailable, out of date and inaccessible in other languages. Results indicate a need to improve health information availability and resource delivery to all CRC patients across different health services particularly at diagnosis and after treatment. Further research is required to determine patient preferences for information about CRC.

Partnerships and place : mobilising resources from outside

Partnerships facilitate sharing of resources and can create outcomes that are more than the sum of partners’ contributions. The concept of partnership has entered policy rhetoric and is urged as good practice, sometimes along with consideration of place. For example, Mears et al’s recent academic critique of health policy holds that modern health systems should have a sense of place and be partnership orientated, as well as being primary care based and pragmatic in adopting effective practice. It is easy to regard partnership as unequivocally a good thing, however this is a simplistic view that ignores issues such as power imbalances, self-seeking behaviour of partners and the often complex, resource intensive and sensitive process required to establish and sustain partnerships. Rural communities tend to have fewer resources available for the provision of services such as health and education than their metropolitan counterparts, and so could be expected to benefit from partnerships with outside services and resource providers. Factors such as distance and lack of power in many professional and political domains imply that rural communities are also more likely to encounter barriers in establishing and maintaining partnerships with metropolitan based partners.

There is a growing literature on the composition and outcomes of partnerships in a variety of contexts and settings, including rural place-based communities, but relatively little about the partnership process. Understanding this process is a key step in designing policy at the system level and in developing and maintaining partnerships at the grass roots level. This paper makes a contribution to this gap by presenting lessons from the analysis of rural-urban partnerships around health services for two rural Tasmanian communities.

Patterns of use and exchange of genetic resources of the striped catfish Pangasianodon hypophthalmus (Sauvage 1878)

The present paper reviews the use and exchange of genetic resources of the migratory freshwater fish Pangasianodon hypophthalmus (Sauvage 1878) (the striped or sutchi catfish). This species is naturally distributed in the Mekong River and Chao Phraya River basins, and is cultured in several countries, but current production occurs predominantly in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Catfish aquaculture in Vietnam has evolved from extensive systems using wild-caught seed to an intensified farming system that is entirely dependent on hatchery-produced seed. Genetic improvement programmes on catfish have started in Vietnam, but are still in their infancy. Genetic studies have revealed several subpopulations of the species. Apart from selective breeding and the production of hybrids with closely related species, no other technologies have been applied to improve the performance of catfish. The use and exchange of P. hypophthalmus genetic resources have brought benefits to rural communities. Aquaculture development of catfish has evolved from being seen as an exploitation of natural resources to an activity that can reduce pressure on wild fish populations. Management of aquaculture stocks need to be rationalised to minimise the potential impacts it might cause to wild populations.

Use and exchange of genetic resources of emerging species for aquaculture and other purposes

From a genetic resources viewpoint, emerging aquaculture species and species groups are examined mainly in terms of food use. In addition, we include species that are becoming increasingly important for biodiversity conservation and related ecotourism aspects. Together with ornamental fish species, we argue that these species are facing increasing vulnerability and warrant attention. Our intention is to raise awareness of the potential for increasing production and revenues from emerging species/species groups with an emphasis on an underlying link to biodiversity conservation and ecosystem preservation, and how this information will inform policy on access to the genetic resources and the sharing of benefits derived from their use. For food purposes, the fastest growing aquaculture sector is mariculture, and within this sector groupers and wrasses are considered to be the most important because they cater to the relatively lucrative live food fish restaurant trade (LFFRT), which is rapidly expanding in selected South-East Asian countries. In the Asian region, ecotourism is an emerging sector and a prominent fish group for this purpose is considered to be mahseer. A number of mahseer species are culturally and commercially important and are often seen as a group of indigenous species that are suitable for aquaculture. This review summarizes much of the limited information related to the patterns of use and exchange of genetic resources on emerging aquatic species/species groups, with particular reference to Asia.

"Minerals", "petroleum" and "operations" in the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 : a geologist as devil's advocate for a change? "

This article examines the meaning of "minerals", petroleum, "operations" and activities in relation to such substances to determine the ambit of the application of the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002, the type of rights necessary for such operations and activities and the ambit of these rights. The examination of the meaning of these concepts takes place with reference to prior definitions in statutes and also from a natural science and geology perspective. An attempt is made to show that the legal definitions do no always correspond with the geological meanings and the meanings on the ground. It is questioned whether in recent legislation why more reliance is not placed on input from geologists in the field.