Search

Pandemics threaten world stability; however, spread is mitigated with prevention behaviors. We introduce "personally relevant knowledge" to explain the knowledge–behavior gap (i.e., objective and subjective knowledge on information acquisition and behavioral change). Hypotheses are derived from prior knowledge literature, economic psychology, and relevance theory. Multimethod analysis (survey data, partial least squares structural equation path modeling [PLS-SEM], and an asymmetric information theoretic statistical analysis) is applied to H1N1 data from the USA and Australia. Personally relevant knowledge is an important addition to prior knowledge conceptualizations, and information theory uncovers asymmetric variable relationships concerning the knowledge–behavior gap, not captured by PLS-SEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent climate change has contributed to shifts in the seasonal interplay between precipitation and potential evapotranspiration, which have in turn increased droughts and reduced freshwater availability in Mediterranean climate regions. To overcome limitations in existing indices for comparing these seasonal hydroclimatic drivers at the global scale, we introduce an information theory‐based, nonparametric asynchronicity index that captures both the temporal alignment and relative magnitudes of precipitation and potential evapotranspiration. We use this asynchronicity index to first identify Mediterranean climates around the world. We then apply the asynchronicity index over two Mediterranean climate regions and show that their boundaries have shifted between 1960 and 2018, resulting in a regional expansion in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and a contraction in southwestern Australia. These results highlight the need for globally consistent measures of seasonal climatic water supply and demand for diagnosing potential changes in water resources and ecosystem responses within Mediterranean climate regions. Plain Language Summary: Climate change is likely to change the boundaries of what are typically considered Mediterranean climate regions, which have dry summers and mild, wet winters. To analyze how these regions' water availability may be influenced by climate change, we introduce a metric for quantifying the mismatch in the timing and amount of precipitation relative to atmospheric water demand. This new metric is able to identify the boundaries of Mediterranean climate regions more effectively than other existing indices and can be used to analyze how these boundaries shift over time. Key Points: A new metric is proposed to measure the seasonal mismatch between atmospheric water supply (precipitation) and demand (potential evapotranspiration, PET)Compared to existing metrics, the proposed metric can more accurately distinguish between climates with synchronized versus desynchronized seasonal signals of precipitation and PETMediterranean climates are characterized by high climate asynchronicity, and their geographical extents have expanded in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and contracted in Western Australia since the turn of the century [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] An online questionnaire was used to access a large number of Australian shoppers. [•] Seven different front-of-pack labelling schemes and nine product pairs were tested. [•] Front-of-pack schemes including numerical information for nutrients performed best. [•] For those schemes, shoppers identified the healthier product over 80% of the time. [•] The scheme that provided only information about energy performed poorly. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In water resources there is an increasing demand for interoperable data and information systems to provide people and software agents seamless access to multiple relevant data sources. Information and data modelling, with associated standards, controlled vocabularies and ontologies provide the key components in overcoming the syntactic and semantic challenges of interoperability. When combined with metadata registries and data services these components allow users to search and find data and information through structured approaches, and to access and obtain these for a range of end uses. This paper describes the concepts and fundamental components required for successful use of information modelling, including the work in Australia led by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Bureau of Meteorology to develop and apply information modelling to the problems of interoperability for Australian water resources information systems. These initiatives are delivering tools and methods that support the long term maintenance of information models as they evolve to meet new needs and expanded requirements. The investigation reveals that we have a strong conceptual framework along with rapidly maturing methods and tools, suggesting that we are at the forefront of a new generation of water resources data and information access and interoperability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a trial undertaken in a LIS education program to help prepare students from different cultural backgrounds to work in virtual, multicultural work places. The focus of the trial was developing teamwork, which may now involve global, multicultural and virtual components, for which students need to be prepared, given work place changes of recent years. The trial took place in a school of information studies at a large, multi-campus rural university in Australia. The lecturer grouped students from an off-shore campus, with a different cultural background, with local students to work online on a group assignment. Evaluation involved an anonymous, web-based survey after all group assignments were completed. The survey explored the experiences of students regarding their group work in multicultural teams. The findings highlight the challenges of group work in fully online environments. They include language and cultural diversity, time zone spread and lack of face-to-face communication. Some of these challenges are likely to be replicated in the work place where multicultural team work is involved. Some of these challenges are likely to be replicated in the work place where multicultural team work is involved. Some suggestions to overcome these challenges are included at the end of the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Three candidate, non-nested, growth models (von Bertalanffy, Gompertz and inverse logistic) were fitted to multiple samples of tag-recapture data (n =27 samples) to determine the best statistical model for blacklip abalone (Haliotis rubra) populations in Tasmania, Australia. Wild populations of blacklip abalone were sampled for growth data using tag-recapture methods. The best statistical model was identified for each sample using Akaike''s Information Criteria and Akaike weights to measure the relative statistical fit. Using these criteria, the best fitting model was the inverse logistic for 21 of the 27 samples, both the von Bertalanffy and the Gompertz models were the best fitting model in three samples each. When the inverse logistic was the best fitting model it was the best unambiguously, as indicated by the high Akaike weight values (generally ; 0.65–1.0). In contrast, when either the von Bertalanffy or the Gompertz growth models were statistically optimal, the highest Akaike weights ranged between 0.15 and 0.44 across both models. We conclude that the use of either the von Bertalanffy or Gompertz growth models in the assessment of Tasmanian blacklip abalone would be statistically sub-optimal and may mislead assessments of Tasmanian abalone stocks. The inverse logistic model can be considered as a good candidate growth model for other fished invertebrate stocks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Families immigrating to Australia face many challenges integrating into the educational system, including language barriers and interrupted schooling. We have qualitatively evaluated the educational concerns of Arabic migrants from Sudan and Iraq to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, a city that receives a high percentage of Australia''s immigrants. Using an interactive paradigm incorporating focus group discussions for thematic analysis, we concluded that the parents’ frame of reference for education was a more didactic style of learning. Parents viewed education as an essential part of the way forward for their children in Australia. However, it was stressful for them to try to cope with a new host nation''s expectation of their involvement in their children''s education while at the same time dealing with a language barrier. Professionals should look to empower parents with structural information about the key elements of the educational curriculum with minimal reliance on written technical language and match their expectations of parental involvement to the situation of the parents. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Australian sheep Cooperative Research Centre has initiated an information nucleus with the aim to estimate genetic parameters for new traits, to undertake a large-scale whole-genome association study and to enhance the breeding values of breeding animals in commercial studs. This paper presents the rationale behind the current design factors to meet the main objectives. It then discusses the potential design of an information nucleus if it were a sustainable part of commercial sheep-breeding programs in the long term. Advantages of such an information nucleus are summarised and quantified where possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The critical weight range (CWR) hypothesis for Australian mammals states that extinctions and declines have been concentrated in species with body mass between 35 g and 5.5 kg. The biological basis for this hypothesis is that species of intermediate size are disproportionately impacted by introduced predators. The CWR hypothesis has received support from several statistical studies over the past decade, although the evidence is weaker or non-existent for certain groups such as mesic-zone mammals and arboreal mammals. In this study, we employ an information-theoretic model selection approach to gain further insights into the relationship between body mass and extinction risk in Australian mammals. We find evidence, consistent with the CWR hypothesis, that extinction risk peaks at intermediate body masses for marsupials, rodents and ground-dwelling species, but not for arboreal species. In contrast to previous studies, we find that the CWR describes extinction patterns in the mesic zone as well as the arid zone. In the mesic zone, there is also a weaker tendency for large species above the CWR to be more vulnerable, consistent with extinction patterns on other continents. We find that a more biological plausible Gaussian distribution consistently fits the data better than the polynomial models that have been used in previous studies. Our results justify conservation programmes targeted at species within the CWR across Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses instrumental data from natural speech to examine the phenomenon of pause placement within the verbal word in Dalabon, a polysynthetic Australian language of Arnhem Land. Though the phenomenon is incipient and in two sample texts occurs in only around 4 of verbs, there are clear possibilities for interrupting the grammatical word by pause after the pronominal prefix and some associated material at the left edge, though these within-word pauses are significantly shorter, on average, than those between words. Within-word pause placement is not random, but is restricted to certain affix boundaries; it requires that the paused-after material be at least dimoraic, and that the remaining material in the verbal word be at least disyllabic. Bininj Gun-wok, another polysynthetic language closely related to Dalabon, does not allow pauses to interrupt the verbal word, and the Dalabon development appears to be tied up with certain morphological innovations that have increased the proportion of closed syllables in the pronominal prefix zone of the verb. Though only incipient and not yet phonologized, pause placement in Dalabon verbs suggests a phonology-driven route by which polysynthetic languages may ultimately become less morphologically complex by fracturing into smaller units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on the Information Seeking in Context (ISIC) Conference that was held at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, from 19-21 July 2006. Various interesting papers were presented at the symposium which focused on information theory. One of the sessions focused on rural communities. Theresa Anderson from the University of Technology Systems and Chun Wei Choo from the University of Toronto were two of the speakers among the several who presented their papers.