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This study sought to compare early physiological and performance adaptations between a two-week cycle sprint interval training (SIT) and uphill run sprint training (UST) programs. Seventeen recreationally active adult males (age = 28 ± 5 years; body mass (BM) = 78 ± 9 kg) were assigned to either a control (n = 5), SIT (n = 6), or UST (n = 6) group. A discrete group of participants (n = 6, age = 33 ± 6 years, and body mass = 80 ± 9 kg) completed both training protocols to determine acute physiological responses. Intervention groups completed either a run or cycle peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) test (intervention type dependent) prior to and following two weeks of training. Training comprised of three sessions per week of 4 × 30-s "all-out" sprints with a four-minute active recovery between bouts on a cycle ergometer against 7.5% of body mass in the SIT group and on a 10% slope in the UST group. The VO2peak values remained unchanged in both training groups, but time-to-exhaustion (TTE) was significantly increased only in the UST group (pre—495 ± 40 s, post—551 ± 15 s; p = 0.014) and not in the SIT group (pre—613 ± 130 s, post—634 ± 118 s, p = 0.07). Ventilatory threshold (VT) was significantly increased in both training groups (SIT group: pre—1.94 ± 0.45 L·min−1, post—2.23 ± 0.42 L·min−1; p < 0.005, UST group: pre—2.04 ± 0.40 L·min−1, post—2.33 ± 0.34 L·min−1, p < 0.005). These results indicate that UST may be an effective alternative to SIT in healthy individuals.

The need to understand what might constitute best practice in participatory methods for resource management is becoming ever more important as the requirement for a high level of participation becomes prescribed in the environmental directives of the EU and elsewhere. Since there are numerous potential stakeholders who may participate, various different goals of participation and many potential participatory methods designed to achieve them, there is a need for better understanding of how the methods can be practicably applied to particular stakeholders and for what purpose. As input into this process, this paper presents an overview of four natural resource management projects carried out using participatory modelling methods involving stakeholders in the co-design and social learning of management solutions. From these case studies, a description is elicited of the different types of participatory process structures adopted, as well as an analysis of the influences behind the selection of stakeholders and their level of involvement. Six influences in the design of such structures are identified and illustrated with examples: project goals, democratic participatory goals, existing power structures, stakeholder numbers, researchers' normative beliefs and the scale at which decisions need to be supported. These influences place limits on the freedom of practitioners to develop the type of processes they might otherwise intend. Classification of the process structures according to the level of involvement of stakeholders and their scale of action leads to a discussion about a particular problem of co-design processes: a scale of action mismatch. That is, some process structures, due to the influences mentioned above, end up not involving all the necessary decision makers in the co-design of management solutions. As a result, there has to be additional methods employed to ensure that the results of co-design, i.e. a set of management options, can be passed on to and adopted by excluded decision makers. The paper concludes by briefly looking at examples of possible methods, such as process extensions, e.g., consultation meetings and information campaigns, and the adoption of institutional safeguards.

Case studies examine the effectiveness of environmental programs to improve our waterways, soils and natural vegetation.

The sustainable management of the coastal lakes in NSW is under pressure from increasing urban development and tourism, intensification of agriculture, and the growing importance for the conservation of flora and fauna. An integrative approach is necessary to be able to manage for all these often conflicting interests. This paper presented a tool, called the CLAM (Coastal Lakes Assessment and Management) tool, which uses a Bayesian Decision Network to identify the likely impacts of management decision on social, economic and ecological variables within a catchment. Community consultation was an imperative component of the model development, and will also be pursued for model verification in the future. A CLAM tool for the Merimbula Lake was presented as a case study. The brief analysis of the model results given showed that active management of the Merimbula Lake catchment is likely to significantly improve the lake water quality. It also showed that urban development can proceed within the catchment without negatively impacting upon the lake water quality, if appropriate regulations are imposed and catchment management occurs. Various management options were shown to increase the local revenue, but not all of them did so while improving the lake's water quality. The CLAM tool is believed to be a useful tool and a dynamic approach, to assist catchment managers in making decisions. Ewing et al. (2000:456) comments that such tools are only to assist in decision making as they do "not substitute for the complex processes of judgement and the many political realities of planning". This is true, but at the same time tools such as CLAM, can show the impact of management decisions on social, economic and ecological values important to a community, and thus stand to highlight decisions made primarily for personal gain by those in charge, as has been the case in the past.

The sustainable management of the coastal lakes in NSW is under pressure from increasing urban development and tourism, intensification of agriculture, and the growing importance for the conservation of flora and fauna. An integrative approach is necessary to be able to manage for all these often conflicting interests. This paper presented a tool, called the CLAM (Coastal Lakes Assessment and Management) tool, which uses a Bayesian Decision Network to identify the likely impacts of management decision on social, economic and ecological variables within a catchment. Community consultation was an imperative component of the model development, and will also be pursued for model verification in the future. A CLAM tool for the Merimbula Lake was presented as a case study. The brief analysis of the model results given showed that active management of the Merimbula Lake catchment is likely to significantly improve the lake water quality. It also showed that urban development can proceed within the catchment without negatively impacting upon the lake water quality, if appropriate regulations are imposed and catchment management occurs. Various management options were shown to increase the local revenue, but not all of them did so while improving the lake's water quality. The CLAM tool is believed to be a useful tool and a dynamic approach, to assist catchment managers in making decisions. Ewing et al. (2000:456) comments that such tools are only to assist in decision making as they do "not substitute for the complex processes of judgement and the many political realities of planning". This is true, but at the same time tools such as CLAM, can show the impact of management decisions on social, economic and ecological values important to a community, and thus stand to highlight decisions made primarily for personal gain by those in charge, as has been the case in the past.