287 research outputs found
The evolution of water control in modern farming systems: a case study of D & S Turner, Brookton, WA
Get PDFDarrell and Suzanne Turner’s WISALTS journey began after Darrell’s father David became a firm believer of the WISALTS method. Their family’s first introduction to Harry Whittington’s work was in early 1970’s when Harry established a bank from one of their waterholes to the Aldersyde-Kweda road. They witnessed the bank running water and to this day it still does.
It was in the mid 1980’s that the first test of major renovations began, Tom Mills (WISALTS Quairading) came and surveyed an 8 kilometre bank. This bank was constructed as a double push dozer bank which had a good result initially, this confirmed to Darrell and his father that they were on the right track. However, over time the clay broke down and the bank began to leak in the sandy areas, which created other problems. To counter this problem, WISALTS decided to test whether lining the sand seams with a plastic barrier would stop the leak.
The majority of work began in the mid 1990’s with the installation of banks and plastic in the deeper sand areas. This method proved more effective than the traditional double push method, however, there were still some issues with water moving around the edges of plastic. By the late 1990’s after a WISALTS discussion with Harry and Laurie Adamson (WISALTS Quairading) it was decided that plastic should be used in all the banks as it gave a more effective and durable seal. At this time Darrell began working with Noel Powell, purchasing a shared excavator to make this labour-intensive job more efficient. From 1998 to 2005 Darrell and Noel worked together to install many kilometres of plastic lined banks on their farms and properties throughout the district.
Recently Darrell has begun filling in the banks and leaving the plastic lining. This has allowed machinery to operate over the plastic barriers and the paddocks could be worked as normal without the obstacle of the banks.
The results from installing Interceptor Barriers (plastic lined trench with-out a surface bank) gave a significant reduction in waterlogged areas and a more even distribution of water over the landscape. It stopped the water accumulating in seepage areas (sand plain seeps) and retained the water higher in the landscape for the crop to use. The recent filling in of banks has also eliminated weed problems caused by the banks.
The plastic lined method has also helped to stem water flow from neighbour’s properties (see case study 1). This has allowed areas to remain productive and prevent or slow the spread of salinity.
Darrell’s rational for installing Interceptor Barriers are driven by increases in productivity with environmental benefits as a bonus.
The vision for the future is a continuation of installing plastic barriers starting at the top of the hill and a program to fill in the old banks to take advantage of GPS technologies and weed control. With knife points, stubble retention and 100% cropping there is no longer a need to manage surface water flow.
This publication is part of the WISALTS (Whittington Interceptor Sustainable Agriculture Land Treatment Society Incorporated) Collection
Film support and the challenge of ‘sustainability’: on wing design, wax and feathers, and bolts from the blue
Get PDFIn recognition of the importance of film in generating both economic and cultural value, the UK Labour government set up a new agency – the United Kingdom Film Council (UKFC) – in 2000 with a remit to build a sustainable film industry. But, reflecting a plethora of differing expectations in relation to the purposes behind public support for film, the UKFC's agenda shifted and broadened over the organisation's lifetime (2000–11). Apparently unconvinced by the UKFC's achievements, the Coalition government which came to power in May 2010 announced the Council's abolition and reassigned its responsibilities as part of a general cost-cutting strategy. Based on original empirical research, this article examines how the UKFC's sense of strategic direction was determined, how and why the balance of objectives it pursued changed over time and what these shifts tell us about the nature of film policy and the challenges facing bodies that are charged with enacting it in the twenty-first century
Global warming and mass extinctions associated with large igneous province volcanism
Get PDFThe coincidence of large igneous province (LIP) eruptions with at least three, if not all of the “Big Five” biotic crises of the Phanerozoic implies that volcanism is a key driver of mass extinctions. Many LIP-induced extinction scenarios invoke global warming, caused primarily (but not exclusively) by greenhouse gases emitted at the site of LIP emplacement and by contact metamorphism of carbon-rich host rocks. Here we explore a) the climate-changing products of volcanism including sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) from eruptions, contact metamorphism, and melting (dissociation) of gas hydrates; b) their deadly effects, including marine anoxia and thermal stress; c) increasingly sophisticated paleotemperature proxies (e.g. δ18O of shell material) through case studies of the best-known LIP-warming-extinction nexi; and d) global warming through the lens of the putative “Anthropocene” extinction
The cost of promiscuity: sexual transmission of Nosema microsporidian parasites in polyandrous honey bees
Get PDFMultiple mating (and insemination) by females with different males, polyandry, is widespread across animals, due to material and/or genetic benefits for females. It reaches particularly high levels in some social insects, in which queens can produce significantly fitter colonies by being polyandrous. It is therefore a paradox that two thirds of eusocial hymenopteran insects appear to be exclusively monandrous, in spite of the fitness benefits that polyandry could provide. One possible cost of polyandry could be sexually transmitted parasites, but evidence for these in social insects is extremely limited. Here we show that two different species of Nosema microsporidian parasites can transmit sexually in the honey bee Apis mellifera. Honey bee males that are infected by the parasite have Nosema spores in their semen, and queens artificially inseminated with either Nosema spores or the semen of Nosema-infected males became infected by the parasite. The emergent and more virulent N. ceranae achieved much higher rates of infection following insemination than did N. apis. The results provide the first quantitative evidence of a sexually transmitted disease (STD) in social insects, indicating that STDs may represent a potential cost of polyandry in social insects
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Get PDFThe Evolution of Bat Vestibular Systems in the Face of Potential Antagonistic Selection Pressures for Flight and Echolocation
Get PDFPMCID: PMC3634842This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Promoting Value Practice in Museums Creates Impact
Get PDFThis article examines how museological value discussion can offer a tool for museum professionals to engage themselves in the current discourse regarding building sustainable futures. The focus of the article is on collection care and collection development. It describes the latest interview and workshop results regarding museum values in the field of collection development among Finnish museum professionals and students. In addition, it emphasizes the integration of theoretical knowledge and its practical application. Promoting and creating opportunities for value discussion among museum professionals increases the ability of these professionals to further engage in such value-related discourse with various stakeholders. Eventually, the benefits of this kind of value-based discussions are to be seen in the more coherent and focused ones regarding museological values between and among various parties, be they museum professionals, politicians, students or museum visitors. The initial idea for the interviews, and subsequently the workshops as well, emerged from a collection development survey conducted in 2012 among Finnish art museums, which was published in 2016 by the author. Based on the material analyzed at that time, it became clear that the issue of active values in Finnish museums would need further study.Peer reviewe
Marketing, art and voices of dissent: promotional methods of protest art by the 2014 Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement
Get PDFLimited research exists around the interrelationships between protest camps and marketing practices. In this paper, we focus on the 2014 Hong Kong protest camps as a context where artistic work was innovatively developed and imaginatively promoted to draw global attention. Collecting and analyzing empirical data from the Umbrella Movement, our findings explore the interrelationships between arts marketing technologies and the creativity and artistic expression of the protest camps so as to inform, update and rethink arts marketing theory itself. We discuss how protesters used public space to employ inventive methods of audience engagement, participation and co-creation of artwork, together with media art projects which aimed not only to promote their collective aims but also to educate and inform citizens. While some studies have already examined the function of arts marketing beyond traditional and established artistic institutions, our findings offer novel insights into the promotional techniques of protest art within the occupied space of a social movement. Finally, we suggest avenues for future research around the artwork of social movements that could highlight creative and political aspects of (arts) marketing theory
Large-Scale Transition of Economic Systems Do CEECs Converge Towards Western Prototypes?
Full text linkIn order to identify convergence patterns among the group of Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) we analyze clusters of traditional OECD countries, i.e. EU-15 plus Norway and Switzerland, Anglo-Saxon non-EU countries plus Japan, and CEECs based on macro data on government regulation and spending instead of micro data on firm relations and market characteristics as is usually applied in Varieties-of-Capitalism (VoC) analysis. This framework is supposed to incorporate some of the critique that has been expressed towards the traditional VoCapproach, especially its ignorance of government spending and performance. We acknowledge for the transition aspect by looking at cluster history and principal component analysis for periods of transition. Our analysis reveals that there is consolidation rather than convergence with CEECs being divided in clusters leaning towards CME and LME prototypes respectively. Overall, there are worlds of redistribution within which clusters differ with respect to their mix of - negatively correlated - regulation and innovation. Interestingly, CEECs do not mix up with Mediterranean MMEs, which indeed provide a kind of worst case setting, while Scandinavian CMEs as well as traditional LMEs provide a kind of role model within their respective worlds of redistribution
Job searching with a history of drugs and crime
Get PDFThis article explores the experiences and aspirations of offenders with histories of substance misuse in job searching. The analysis is based upon qualitative data from a localised study of 27 men and two women who were undertaking community-based court orders in Scotland. Their perspectives on job searching, job-readiness and aspirations for sustained employment including the role of self-employment are presented. The article concludes that with adequate support, greater tolerance and flexibility by employers and job searchers could contribute to reducing the vicious cycle of suspicion and dishonesty. Policy action needs to be sustained and possibly augmented to include enterprise training
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