In 2011, Guillera [‘A new Ramanujan-like series for $1/\pi ^2$ ’, Ramanujan J. 26 (2011), 369–374] introduced a remarkable rational ${}_{7}F_{6}( \frac {27}{64} )$ -series for ${1}/{\pi ^2}$ using the Wilf–Zeilberger (WZ) method, and Chu and Zhang later proved this evaluation using an acceleration method based on Dougall’s ${}_{5}F_{4}$ -sum. Another proof of Guillera’s ${}_{7}F_{6}( \frac {27}{64} )$ -series was given by Guillera in 2018, and this subsequent proof used a recursive argument involving Dougall’s sum together with the WZ method. Subsequently, Chen and Chu introduced a q-analogue of Guillera’s ${}_{7}F_{6}( \frac {27}{64} )$ -series. The many past research articles concerning Guillera’s ${}_{7}F_{6}( \frac {27}{64} )$ -series for ${1}/{\pi ^2}$ naturally lead to questions about similar results for other mathematical constants. We apply a WZ-based acceleration method to prove new rational ${}_{7}F_{6}( \frac {27}{64} )$ - and ${}_{6}F_{5}( \frac {27}{64} )$ -series for $\sqrt {2}$ .

About one in every four Australian employees is a casual. The casual share has doubled over the past decade and continues to expand. This paper catalogues the growth of casual employment and discusses the characteristics of casual jobs and of those in casual jobs. The key analytical issue discussed is whether casual employment is a transitional employment arrangement on the road towards permanent employment conditions. Alternatively, is it a trap which is associated with job insecurity, low earnings and spells outside of employment? Although the evidence is partial and circumstantial, casual employment is a bridge for some and a trap for others. In particular, for those who wish to beak out of unemployment, casual employment is unlikely to be a transitional point on the road to a permanent job. This finding has important implications for the design of labour market programs.

The global trend of urbanization coupled with an increasing awareness of the importance of food systems resilience, has led to an increasing interest in urban agriculture to sustainably feed the rapidly growing urban population and mitigate against food supply chain disruptions. While home and community gardens have been long studied, there has been relatively little empirical research focused specifically on commercial urban agriculture (CUA) operations. The purpose of this study was to characterize commercial urban farms, and to identify their primary barriers to business development and expansion, their perceptions of future opportunities, and their specific informational needs. Because CUA has received relatively less attention in previous empirical research, a qualitative approach was used for this needs assessment to collect rich, contextualized information to help differentiate the specific barriers, opportunities and needs of CUA operations as opposed to their rural counterparts. We conducted semi-structured interviews (n = 29) of CUA producers in Florida. These interviews revealed that CUA operations face many of the same barriers that are common to establishing and growing small farms, with additional barriers due to local government regulations and tensions associated with farming on land that is not traditionally used for agriculture. Despite these difficulties, CUA operators believe their urban location is a key benefit to their operation and they see a variety of opportunities for future business and market expansion.