Andrew P. Robinson - Böcker

With climate change and increasing globalisation of trade and travel, the risks presented by invasive pests and pathogens to natural environments, agriculture and economies have never been greater, and are only increasing with time. Governments world-wide are responding to these increased threats by strengthening quarantine and biosecurity. This book presents a comprehensive review of risk-based techniques that help policy makers and regulators protect national interests from invasive pests and pathogens before, at, and inside national borders. Selected from the research corpus of the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis at the University of Melbourne, this book provides solutions that reflect scientific rigour coupled with practical, hands-on applications. Focusing on surveillance, stochastic modelling, intelligence gathering, decision making and risk communication, the contents combine the strengths of risk analysts, mathematicians, economists, biologists and statisticians. The book presents tested scientific solutions to the greatest challenges faced by quarantine and biosecurity policy makers and regulators today.

With climate change and increasing globalisation of trade and travel, the risks presented by invasive pests and pathogens to natural environments, agriculture and economies have never been greater, and are only increasing with time. Governments world-wide are responding to these increased threats by strengthening quarantine and biosecurity. This book presents a comprehensive review of risk-based techniques that help policy makers and regulators protect national interests from invasive pests and pathogens before, at, and inside national borders. Selected from the research corpus of the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis at the University of Melbourne, this book provides solutions that reflect scientific rigour coupled with practical, hands-on applications. Focusing on surveillance, stochastic modelling, intelligence gathering, decision making and risk communication, the contents combine the strengths of risk analysts, mathematicians, economists, biologists and statisticians. The book presents tested scientific solutions to the greatest challenges faced by quarantine and biosecurity policy makers and regulators today.

Biosecurity: A Systems Perspective provides an overview of biosecurity as a system of related components, actors, and risks. This book—directed to the biosecurity practitioner, generalist scientist, and student—introduces overall features of the biosecurity system while walking the reader through the most up-to-date research on each step of the continuum (i.e. pre-border, border, and post-border activities). This book, which explicitly incorporates economic and social dimensions as well as varied decision-making contexts, paves the way for a more systemic approach to biosecurity risk management. The work spans statistics, ecology, mathematics, economics, veterinary science, human medicine, and sociology, involving collaborators across government, academia, and the private sector.This book uses a broad definition of biosecurity, rather than solely focusing on plant health, animal health, security, or one step of the biosecurity system (e.g. surveillance). As such, this book is a one-stop shop for readers interested in all aspects of biosecurity.The content and language are accessible to a wide range of audiences, including generalist scientists, biosecurity practitioners, and graduate students. More complex content is introduced in standalone boxes or chapters.The book follows a clear, simple structure within and among chapters (i.e. following the structure of the biosecurity system), making it a preferred option for graduate students.This book introduces novel cross-cutting themes, such as the importance of economic efficiency and institutional and social factors, going beyond the traditional science-based approach to biosecurity.Written in partnership with government agency practitioners, this book uses on-the-ground case studies to demonstrate how biosecurity principles are applied in practice.The book addresses challenges common to regulators in general, namely efficient regulation in uncertain and rapidly changing environments with multiple stakeholders who have—at times—conflicting priorities.Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 and 14 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

Biosecurity: A Systems Perspective provides an overview of biosecurity as a system of related components, actors, and risks. This book—directed to the biosecurity practitioner, generalist scientist, and student—introduces overall features of the biosecurity system while walking the reader through the most up-to-date research on each step of the continuum (i.e. pre-border, border, and post-border activities). This book, which explicitly incorporates economic and social dimensions as well as varied decision-making contexts, paves the way for a more systemic approach to biosecurity risk management. The work spans statistics, ecology, mathematics, economics, veterinary science, human medicine, and sociology, involving collaborators across government, academia, and the private sector.This book uses a broad definition of biosecurity, rather than solely focusing on plant health, animal health, security, or one step of the biosecurity system (e.g. surveillance). As such, this book is a one-stop shop for readers interested in all aspects of biosecurity.The content and language are accessible to a wide range of audiences, including generalist scientists, biosecurity practitioners, and graduate students. More complex content is introduced in standalone boxes or chapters.The book follows a clear, simple structure within and among chapters (i.e. following the structure of the biosecurity system), making it a preferred option for graduate students.This book introduces novel cross-cutting themes, such as the importance of economic efficiency and institutional and social factors, going beyond the traditional science-based approach to biosecurity.Written in partnership with government agency practitioners, this book uses on-the-ground case studies to demonstrate how biosecurity principles are applied in practice.The book addresses challenges common to regulators in general, namely efficient regulation in uncertain and rapidly changing environments with multiple stakeholders who have—at times—conflicting priorities.Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 and 14 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

Forest Analytics with R combines practical, down-to-earth forestry data analysis and solutions to real forest management challenges with state-of-the-art statistical and data-handling functionality. Theauthors adopt a problem-driven approach, in which statistical and mathematical tools are introduced in the context of the forestry problem that they can help to resolve. All the tools are introduced in the context of real forestry datasets, which provide compelling examples of practical applications.The modeling challenges covered within the book include imputation and interpolation for spatial data, fitting probability density functions to tree measurement data using maximum likelihood, fitting allometric functions using both linear and non-linear least-squares regression, and fitting growth models using both linear and non-linear mixed-effects modeling. The coverage also includes deploying andusing forest growth models written in compiled languages, analysis of natural resources and forestry inventory data, and forest estate planning and optimization using linear programming. The book would be ideal for a one-semester class in forest biometrics or applied statistics for natural resources management. The text assumes no programming background, some introductory statistics,and very basic applied mathematics.

This extensively revised, updated, and expanded second edition of a classic laboratory manual applies new understanding of molecular mechanisms to the rational design and development of vaccines. Here the working researcher will find readily reproducible techniques for the development and production of live attenuated vaccines, and vaccines based on inactivated toxins, peptides, and polysaccharide conjugates. New to this edition are cutting-edge chapters on two different viral vectors (Vaccinia and Semliki Forest), lactic acid bacteria for delivery of foreign antigens, incorporation of immunomodulators into plasmid DNA vaccines, construction of tetramer complexes to detect CMI responses, assessment of functional antibody responses, and the use of complete genome sequences for vaccine design. There are also chapters describing more general techniques for vaccine formulation, delivery, and assessment of immune responses, and review discussions of scale-up to manufacture, vaccine quality assurance, and clinical trials.