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Abstract We analyze foreign investment risk-mitigating effects of host-country policy stability, firm experience and equity stakes using an empirical context largely ignored by international business (IB) research: project investment companies [...]

Market-based instruments are increasingly seen as an option for policy-makers to achieve the environmental and economic outcomes that society demands. The attitudes of farmers towards the concept of producing environmental services on farms and what they would need to be paid for such services were explored in a study of 45 farmers in the Walgett Shire of north-west NSW. To contractually manage and maintain parcels of their land for conservation inperpetuity, participants reported that they would need to be paid $25/ha for ‘basic’ grazing country, $53/ha for country considered to be ‘special’ grazing country (e.g. riparian zone, unique topography, wildlife corridors), and $206/ha for cropping country. While farmers were receptive to the concept of becoming involved in payments for the production of environmental services, factors such as age, land value, concerns about the environment, the role of government, and the binding nature of in-perpetuity contractual arrangements, affected their willingness to participate.

Abstract. The improvement of the sustainability of meat and wool production in the high rainfall temperate zone of Australia depends, in part, on the extension of grazing management approaches to maintain a desirable species composition. A survey of producers in this zone was undertaken to describe some of the factors relevant to the adoption of grazing management practices. It was found that there is widespread concern among producers about pasture decline. Weeds and weed control appear to play an important role in producers’ perceptions of the problem and appropriate remedial action. Producers do not seem to doubt that grazing management might be used to maintain a desirable species composition, but substantial numbers believe that other influences, such as drought, may over-ride the capacity of grazing management to maintain a desirable species composition. The implications of these findings for the extension of grazing management practices to producers, are discussed. pasture decline, grazing management, farmer attitudes, sustainability

To determine the prevalence of completed elective total hip replacements in a defined elderly population.

Plasmids coding for colonization factor antigen I (CFA/I) and heat-stable enterotoxin (ST) were identified in 10 strains of human enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli. The strains, which belonged to serogroups O63, O114, O128, and O153, were isolated in Bangladesh, Latin America, Spain, and South Africa. Two strains produced heat-labile enterotoxin in addition to ST. CFA/I-ST plasmids were mobilized from two O128 strains into E. coli K-12 with the R factor R1-19K-. Like the prototype CFA/I-ST plasmid NTP113, mobilized previously from an E. coli O78 strain into K-12, these two plasmids were non-autotransferring. All 10 CFA/I-ST plasmids were incompatible with NTP113 and had molecular weights ranging from 59 X 10(6) to 72 X 10(6). The molecular properties of seven of these plasmids were compared with those of six CFA/I-ST plasmids previously mobilized from O78 strains from Ethiopia, South Africa, and Bangladesh and with those of one plasmid coding for CFA/I, ST and heat-labile enterotoxin from a South African strain of serogroup O63. Digestion with the restriction endonuclease HindIII showed that several plasmids had very similar fragment patterns and two were identical. Generally, a larger proportion of HindIII fragments were of common size in digests of plasmids identified in strains from related geographical areas, regardless of serogroup. However, all except one plasmid shared five or six HindIII fragments of the same size, one of which had been shown previously to be involved in CFA/I production. There was at least 90% DNA homology between CFA/I-ST plasmids with a molecular weight of about 58 X 10(6) from O78 strains from different sources. Most of the DNA sequences of these plasmids were present in a larger CFA/I-ST plasmid (72 X 10(6) from an O128 strain. The results of genetic and molecular studies suggest that CFA/I and ST production is determined by very similar plasmids in different serogroups of human enterotoxigenic E. coli from several sources.