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Modelling the effects of water-point closure and fencing removal : A GIS approach

  • Authors: Graz, Patrick , Westbrooke, Martin , Florentine, Singarayer
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Environmental Management Vol. 104, no. (2012), p. 186-194
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  • Description: Artificial water-points in the form of troughs or ground tanks are used to augment natural water supplies within rangelands in many parts of the world. Access to such water-points leads to the development of a distinct ecological sub-system, the piosphere, where trampling and grazing impact modify the vegetation. This study aims to consolidate existing information in a GIS based model to investigate grazing patterns within the landscape. The model focuses on the closure of water-points and removal of fences on Nanya Station, New South Wales, Australia. We found that the manipulation of water-points and fences in one management intervention may change grazing activity in a way different to that which would be experienced if each had been modified separately. Such effects are further modified by the spatial distribution of the water-points and the underlying vegetation. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Modulation of TCR signalling components occurs prior to positive selection and lineage commitment in iNKT cells

  • Authors: Dinh, Xuyen , Stanley, Dragana , Smith, Letitia , Moreau, Morgane , Berzins, Stuart
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Scientific Reports Vol. 11, no. 1 (2021), p.
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  • Description: iNKT cells play a critical role in controlling the strength and character of adaptive and innate immune responses. Their unique functional characteristics are induced by a transcriptional program initiated by positive selection mediated by CD1d expressed by CD4+CD8+ (double positive, DP) thymocytes. Here, using a novel Vα14 TCR transgenic strain bearing greatly expanded numbers of CD24hiCD44loNKT cells, we examined transcriptional events in four immature thymic iNKT cell subsets. A transcriptional regulatory network approach identified transcriptional changes in proximal components of the TCR signalling cascade in DP NKT cells. Subsequently, positive and negative selection, and lineage commitment, occurred at the transition from DP NKT to CD4 NKT. Thus, this study introduces previously unrecognised steps in early NKT cell development, and separates the events associated with modulation of the T cell signalling cascade prior to changes associated with positive selection and lineage commitment. © 2021, The Author(s). **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Stuart Berzins” is provided in this record**

Molecular insights into genome-wide association studies of chronic kidney disease-defining traits

Molecular phylogeny of Burkholderia pseudomallei from a remote region of Papua New Guinea

  • Authors: Baker, Anthony , Pearson, Talima , Price, Erin , Dale, Julia , Keim, Paul , Hornstra, Heidie , Greenhill, Andrew , Padilla, Gabriel , Warner, Jeffrey
  • Date: 2011
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: PLoS ONE Vol. 6, no. 3 (2011), p.
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  • Description: Background: The island of New Guinea is located midway between the world's two major melioidosis endemic regions of Australia and Southeast Asia. Previous studies in Papua New Guinea have demonstrated autochthonous melioidosis in Balimo, Western province. In contrast to other regions of endemicity, isolates recovered from both environmental and clinical sources demonstrate narrow genetic diversity over large spatial and temporal scales. Methodology/Principal Findings: We employed molecular typing techniques to determine the phylogenetic relationships of these isolates to each other and to others worldwide to aid in understanding the origins of the Papua New Guinean isolates. Multi-locus sequence typing of the 39 isolates resolved three unique sequence types. Phylogenetic reconstruction and Structure analysis determined that all isolates were genetically closer to those from Australia than those from Southeast Asia. Gene cluster analysis however, identified a Yersinia-like fimbrial gene cluster predominantly found among Burkholderia pseudomallei derived from Southeast Asia. Higher resolution VNTR typing and phylogenetic reconstruction of the Balimo isolates resolved 24 genotypes with long branch lengths. These findings are congruent with long term persistence in the region and a high level of environmental stability. Conclusions/Significance: Given that anthropogenic influence has been hypothesized as a mechanism for the dispersal of B. pseudomallei, these findings correlate with limited movement of the indigenous people in the region. The palaeogeographical and anthropogenic history of Australasia and the results from this study indicate that New Guinea is an important region for the further study of B. pseudomallei origins and dissemination.

Monosulfidic black ooze accumulations in sediments of the Geographe Bay area, Western Australia

  • Authors: Ward, Nicholas , Bush, Richard , Burton, Edward , Appleyard, Steve , Wong, Stephen , Sullivan, Leigh , Cheeseman, Paul
  • Date: 2010
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Marine Pollution Bulletin Vol. 60, no. 11 (2010), p. 2130-2136
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  • Description: Mobilisation of sedimentary monosulfidic black ooze (MBO) may result in rapid deoxygenation and acidification of surface waters, and release of potentially toxic metals. This study examines the extent and nature of MBO accumulation in the Geographe Bay area, Western Australia. MBO accumulations were found to be widespread in benthic sediments of the Geographe Bay area with acid-volatile sulfide (AVS) contents as high as 320μmolg-1. The MBO materials often had unusually high dissolved sulfide (S-II) concentrations in their pore-waters (up to 610mgL-1) and elevated elemental sulfur (S0) contents (up to 51μmolg-1). Dissolved S-II is able to accumulate due to limited iron availability and S0 is largely its partial oxidation product. The availability of organic carbon and Fe limited MBO accumulation at many sites. A comparison of AVS and simultaneously extracted metal (SEM) concentrations has shown that metals are likely to be bound in sulfide complexes. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

Morally excused but socially excluded : denying agency through the defense of mental impairment

  • Authors: De Vel-Palumbo, Melissa , Ferguson, Rose , Schein, Chelsea , Chang, Melissa , Bastian, Brock
  • Date: 2022
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: PLoS ONE Vol. 17, no. 7 July (2022), p.
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  • Description: Defendants can deny they have agency, and thus responsibility, for a crime by using a defense of mental impairment. We argue that although this strategy may help defendants evade blame, it may carry longer-term social costs, as lay people's perceptions of a person's agency might determine some of the moral rights they grant them. Three randomized between-group experiments (N = 1601) used online vignettes to examine lay perceptions of a hypothetical defendant using a defense of mental impairment (versus a guilty plea). We find that using a defense of mental impairment significantly reduces responsibility, blame, and punitiveness relative to a guilty plea, and these judgments are mediated by perceptions of reduced moral agency. However, after serving their respective sentences, those using the defense are sometimes conferred fewer rights, as reduced agency corresponds to an increase in perceived dangerousness. Our findings were found to be robust across different types of mental impairment, offences/sentences, and using both manipulated and measured agency. The findings have implications for defendants claiming reduced agency through legal defenses, as well as for the broader study of moral rights and mind perception. © 2022 de Vel-Palumbo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Morally excused but socially excluded: Denying agency through the defense of mental impairment

  • Authors: de Vel-Palumbo, Melissa , Schein, Chelsea , Ferguson, Rose , Chang, Melissa , Bastian, Brock
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: PloS one Vol. 16, no. 6 (2021), p. e0252586-e0252586
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  • Description: Defendants can deny they have agency, and thus responsibility, for a crime by using a defense of mental impairment. We argue that although this strategy may help defendants evade blame, it may carry longer-term social costs, as lay people's perceptions of a person's agency might determine some of the moral rights they grant them. In this registered report protocol, we seek to expand upon preliminary findings from two pilot studies to examine how and why those using the defense of mental impairment are seen as less deserving of certain rights. The proposed study uses a hypothetical vignette design, varying the type of mental impairment, type of crime, and type of sentence. Our design for the registered study improves on various aspects of our pilot studies and aims to rigorously test the reliability and credibility of our model. The findings have implications for defendants claiming reduced agency through legal defenses, as well as for the broader study of moral rights and mind perception.

Multi-objective planning and operation of water supply systems subject to climate change

  • Authors: Perera, Bimalka , Sachindra, Dhanapala , Godoy, Walter , Barton, Andrew , Huang, Fuchun
  • Date: 2011
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal of Environmental, Earth Science and Engineering Vol. 5, no. 12 (2011), p. 174-182
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  • Description: Abstract—Many water supply systems in Australia are currently undergoing significant reconfiguration due to reductions in long term average rainfall and resulting low inflows to water supply reservoirs since the second half of the 20th century. When water supply systems undergo change, it is necessary to develop new operating rules, which should consider climate, because the climate change is likely to further reduce inflows. In addition, water resource systems are increasingly intended to be operated to meet complex and multiple objectives representing social, economic, environmental and sustainability criteria. This is further complicated by conflicting preferences on these objectives from diverse stakeholders. This paper describes a methodology to develop optimum operating rules for complex multi-reservoir systems undergoing significant change, considering all of the above issues. The methodology is demonstrated using the Grampians water supply system in northwest Victoria, Australia. Initial work conducted on the project is also presented in this paper.

Multiple-points fault signature's dynamics modeling for bearing defect frequencies

Multiproxy approach to track changes in the ecological condition of wetlands in the Gunbower Forest, a Ramsar site

  • Authors: Mall, Neeraj , Gell, Peter , Kattel, Giri , Gadd, Patricia , Zawadzki, Atun
  • Date: 2022
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Marine and Freshwater Research Vol. 73, no. 10 (2022), p. 1196-1211
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  • Description: Gunbower Forest is bordered by the Murray River and Gunbower Creek and hosts several floodplain wetlands listed under the Ramsar Convention. Sediment cores were retrieved from three wetlands to trace changes to their ecological state over time. The basal sediments of the wetlands date back to the beginning of river regulation in the 1930s, suggesting that only after then were they inundated sufficiently often to allow for net sediment accumulation. The diatoms preserved in the lower levels of all cores suggest clear, freshwater conditions prevailed during that period. Increased sediment and nutrient loads are inferred by increased epiphytic forms and nutrient indicators. Over recent decades the wetlands have transitioned to plankton dominance, reflecting greater connectivity to the river and distributary, and a reduced light environment. This pattern resembles to that recorded both upstream and downstream, suggesting a regional-scale change in the wetlands of the southern Murray-Darling Basin. © CSIRO 2022.

National income inequality predicts cultural variation in mouth to mouth kissing

  • Authors: Watkins, Christopher , Leongómez, Juan , Bovet, Jeanne , Żelaźniewicz, Agnieszka , Korbmacher, Max , Varella, Marco , Fernandez, Ana , Wagstaff, Danielle , Bolgan, Samuela
  • Date: 2019
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Scientific Reports Vol. 9, no. 1 (2019), p. 1-9
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  • Description: Romantic mouth-to-mouth kissing is culturally widespread, although not a human universal, and may play a functional role in assessing partner health and maintaining long-term pair bonds. Use and appreciation of kissing may therefore vary according to whether the environment places a premium on good health and partner investment. Here, we test for cultural variation (13 countries from six continents) in these behaviours/attitudes according to national health (historical pathogen prevalence) and both absolute (GDP) and relative wealth (GINI). Our data reveal that kissing is valued more in established relationships than it is valued during courtship. Also, consistent with the pair bonding hypothesis of the function of romantic kissing, relative poverty (income inequality) predicts frequency of kissing across romantic relationships. When aggregated, the predicted relationship between income inequality and kissing frequency (r = 0.67, BCa 95% CI[0.32,0.89]) was over five times the size of the null correlations between income inequality and frequency of hugging/cuddling and sex. As social complexity requires monitoring resource competition among large groups and predicts kissing prevalence in remote societies, this gesture may be important in the maintenance of long-term pair bonds in specific environments.

Neural network for solving convex quadratic bilevel programming problems

  • Authors: He, Xing , Li, Chuandong , Huang, Tingwen , Li, Chaojie
  • Date: 2014
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Neural Networks Vol. 51, no. May (2014), p. 17-25
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  • Description: In this paper, using the idea of successive approximation, we propose a neural network to solve convex quadratic bilevel programming problems (CQBPPs), which is modeled by a nonautonomous differential inclusion. Different from the existing neural network for CQBPP, the model has the least number of state variables and simple structure. Based on the theory of nonsmooth analysis, differential inclusions and Lyapunov-like method, the limit equilibrium points sequence of the proposed neural networks can approximately converge to an optimal solution of CQBPP under certain conditions. Finally, simulation results on two numerical examples and the portfolio selection problem show the effectiveness and performance of the proposed neural network. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

New approaches narrow global species estimates for beetles, insects, and terrestrial arthropods

  • Authors: Stork, Nigel , McBroom, James , Gely, Claire , Hamilton, Andrew
  • Date: 2015
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Vol. 112, no. 24 (2015), p. 7519-7523
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  • Description: It has been suggested that we do not know within an order of magnitude the number of all species on Earth [May RM (1988) Science 241(4872):1441-1449]. Roughly 1.5 million valid species of all organisms have been named and described [Costello MJ, Wilson S, Houlding B (2012) Syst Biol 61(5):871-883]. Given Kingdom Animalia numerically dominates this list and virtually all terrestrial vertebrates have been described, the question of how many terrestrial species exist is all but reduced to one of how many arthropod species there are. With beetles alone accounting for about 40% of all described arthropod species, the truly pertinent question is how many beetle species exist. Here we present four new and independent estimates of beetle species richness, which produce a mean estimate of 1.5 million beetle species. We argue that the surprisingly narrow range (0.9-2.1 million) of these four autonomous estimates - derived from host-specificity relationships, ratios with other taxa, plant:beetle ratios, and a completely novel body-size approach - represents a major advance in honing in on the richness of this most significant taxon, and is thus of considerable importance to the debate on how many species exist. Using analogous approaches, we also produce independent estimates for all insects, mean: 5.5 million species (range 2.6-7.8 million), and for terrestrial arthropods, mean: 6.8 million species (range 5.9-7.8 million), which suggest that estimates for the world's insects and their relatives are narrowing considerably. © 2015, National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

New diagonal bundle method for clustering problems in large data sets

  • Authors: Karmitsa, Napsu , Bagirov, Adil , Taheri, Sona
  • Date: 2017
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: European Journal of Operational Research Vol. 263, no. 2 (2017), p. 367-379
  • Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP140103213
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  • Description: Clustering is one of the most important tasks in data mining. Recent developments in computer hardware allow us to store in random access memory (RAM) and repeatedly read data sets with hundreds of thousands and even millions of data points. This makes it possible to use conventional clustering algorithms in such data sets. However, these algorithms may need prohibitively large computational time and fail to produce accurate solutions. Therefore, it is important to develop clustering algorithms which are accurate and can provide real time clustering in large data sets. This paper introduces one of them. Using nonsmooth optimization formulation of the clustering problem the objective function is represented as a difference of two convex (DC) functions. Then a new diagonal bundle algorithm that explicitly uses this structure is designed and combined with an incremental approach to solve this problem. The method is evaluated using real world data sets with both large number of attributes and large number of data points. The proposed method is compared with two other clustering algorithms using numerical results. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.

New Silverfish Taxa from Queensland (Zygentoma: Lepismatidae)

  • Authors: Smith, Graeme
  • Date: 2015
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Records of the Australian Museum Vol. 67, no. 3 (2015), p. 67-81
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  • Description: A new genus and species of the silverfish subfamily Ctenolepismatinae and the first endemic species of the Lepismatinae are described from Queensland. A single male specimen of Qantelsella louisae n.gen., n.sp., was collected from dry leaf litter in Bladensburg National Park near Winton. Xenolepisma monteithi n.sp. is known from one adult female and two juvenile specimens collected with ants (Crematogaster sp.) from the bark of a tree on the Cape York Peninsula. This genus is also known from southern Africa, India and Malaysia and the diagnosis of the genus is emended to include the morphological differences exhibited by the Australian species.

New subjectivities of work? : technologies and capitalism into the future

  • Authors: Smith, Naomi , Holtum, P.
  • Date: 2018
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Arena journal Vol. , no. 51/52 (2018), p. 153-176
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  • Description: Insecurity is no longer a condition that is specific to a set class of workers it has become a global issue. It can affect workers of any age, gender or ethnicity, across industrial or service sectors, and even our universities are no longer safe from casualisation, underemployment and outsourcing. To be sure, employment has always had elements of precariousness associated with it, particularly in the primary sectors. However, the steady intensification of capitalism around the world, and its intrusion into almost every facet of human endeavour, has meant that precarious work, as Arne Kalleberg writes, 'has become much more pervasive and generalized: [even] professional and managerial jobs are also precarious these days'. The telltale signs of precarity, such as insecurity, uncertainty and atomisation/individualisation, are frequently associated with the neoliberalisation of global societies. The twin mantras of flexibility and mobility across the economic market are further evidence of neoliberal principles, as an increasingly casualised work force allows employers the flexibility to shed and acquire labourers in accordance with the demands of capital rather than any humanitarian concern.

Nights at the airport

  • Authors: Mills, Alice
  • Date: 2009
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Nebula Vol. 6, no. 2 p. 174-176
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  • Description: A personal narrative is presented in which the author explains her experiences while waiting for a plane at the airport at night.
  • Description: 2003008013

Nitrogen fixation associated with sago (Metroxylon sagu) and some implications

  • Authors: Shipton, Warren , Baker, Anthony , Blaney, Barry , Horwood, Paul , Warner, Jeffrey , Pelowa, Daniel , Greenhill, Andrew
  • Date: 2011
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Letters in Applied Microbiology Vol. 52, no. 1 (2011), p. 56-61
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  • Description: Aims: To determine the presence and contribution of diazotrophic bacteria to nitrogen concentrations in edible starch derived from the sago palm (Metroxylon sagu).Methods and Results: Isolation of diazotrophic bacteria and analysis of nitrogen fixation were conducted on pith, root and sago starch samples. Acetylene reduction showed that five of ten starch samples were fixing nitrogen. Two presumptive nitrogen-fixing bacteria from starch fixed nitrogen in pure culture and five isolates were positive for the nif H gene. Nitrogen concentrations in 51 starch samples were low (37 samples <0.2 g kg-1; 14 ranging from 0.2 to 2.0 g kg-1).Conclusions: Nitrogen fixation occurs in sago starch, which undoubtedly plays a role in fermentation ecology. Nitrogen levels are considered too low to be of nutritional benefit and to protect against nutritional-associated illnesses.Significance and Impact of the Study: Sago starch does not add significantly to the protein calorie intake and may be associated with susceptibility to nutritional-associated illness.

Nonsmooth nonconvex optimization approach to clusterwise linear regression problems

  • Authors: Bagirov, Adil , Ugon, Julien , Mirzayeva, Hijran
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: European Journal of Operational Research Vol. 229, no. 1 (2013), p. 132-142
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  • Description: Clusterwise regression consists of finding a number of regression functions each approximating a subset of the data. In this paper, a new approach for solving the clusterwise linear regression problems is proposed based on a nonsmooth nonconvex formulation. We present an algorithm for minimizing this nonsmooth nonconvex function. This algorithm incrementally divides the whole data set into groups which can be easily approximated by one linear regression function. A special procedure is introduced to generate a good starting point for solving global optimization problems at each iteration of the incremental algorithm. Such an approach allows one to find global or near global solution to the problem when the data sets are sufficiently dense. The algorithm is compared with the multistart Späth algorithm on several publicly available data sets for regression analysis. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
  • Description: 2003011018

Not a pivot, but a pirouette : a panel presentation about the Arts Academy online in a time of pandemic