Excursion to Avon Gorge and Aust Cliff

Guidance for Def ( Aust ) 5679

The Australian Standard for safety-critical systems development, Def(Aust) 5679, was first released in 1998. As part of the release of Issue 2 (Department of Defence 2008) of the Standard, guidance material has been prepared to assist those who need to apply the Standard. The guidance is made up of three main parts: a case study that demonstrates how the Standard can be applied to an example sa...

Cliff hangers

The peregrine falcon holds a special place in the minds of environmentalists and conservation biologists. The crash in its population throughout the 1950s and 60s was linked to the rapidly increasing use of agricultural organochlorine pesticides which led to a thinning of the birds’ eggshells and dramatic breeding failure. Since the widespread ban on the use of these chemicals, populations have...

Cliff hanger

The asparagus season has recently ended for northern hemisphere crops. Tradition has it that, at the summer solstice, growers stop cutting spears to allow the plant to grow and produce enough resources to generate spears for the next spring’s crop. The plant is becoming increasingly fashionable and production is increasing to meet demand. But the cultivated asparagus has a wild relative that is...

CLiFF Notes

Diaphragmatic hernia in Avon.

A study of diaphragmatic hernia in Avon suggests that the incidence of this malformation is increasing. The incidence in Avon from 1974 to 1977 was 0.54 per 1000 births, higher than any previously published figure for the incidence of diaphragmatic hernia.