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Comment on Investigation of Possible Herb-Drug Interactions for the Treatment of Cardiovascular Diseases
No full textKnowledge representation and data sharing to unlock crop variation for nutritional food security
No full textManaging risk for organised sport in the natural environment : a case study of the development of the \u3cem\u3eSurf Hazard Rating\u3c/em\u3e model
Get PDFThe risk of serious injury or death to sports participants involving the surf zone is notionally rare. However, any convening organisation that conducts activities in potentially extreme natural environments is expected to undertake risk management practices which prioritise participant safety.
This empirical study documents the development of the Surf Hazard Rating as a quantitative hazard assessment model to assist surf risk decision makers in real time, and to assuage the concerns of other stakeholders, including the loved ones of participants, regulators, corporate sponsors, and public donors. Model validity is confirmed using multivariate statistical techniques using a sample size of n=2118
Drivers of recovery and reassembly of coral reef communities
No full textUnderstanding processes that drive community recovery are needed to predict ecosystem trajectories and manage for impacts under increasing global threats. Yet, the quantification of community recovery in coral reefs has been challenging owing to a paucity of long-term ecological data and high frequency of disturbances. Here we investigate community re-assembly and the bio-physical drivers that determine the capacity of coral reefs to recover following the 1998 bleaching event, using long-term monitoring data across four habitats in Palau. Our study documents that the time needed for coral reefs to recover from bleaching disturbance to coral-dominated state in disturbance-free regimes is at least 9-12 years. Importantly, we show that reefs in two habitats achieve relative stability to a climax community state within that time frame. We then investigated the direct and indirect effects of drivers on the rate of recovery of four dominant coral groups using a structural equation modelling approach. While the rates of recovery differed among coral groups, we found that larval connectivity and juvenile coral density were prominent drivers of recovery for fast growing Acropora but not for the other three groups. Competitive algae and parrotfish had negative and positive effects on coral recovery in general, whereas wave exposure had variable effects related to coral morphology. Overall, the time needed for community re-assembly is habitat specific and drivers of recovery are taxa specific, considerations that require incorporation into planning for ecosystem management under climate change
Seed glucosinolate yield is maximized by higher rates of sulfur nutrition than required for seed yield in condiment mustard (Brassica juncea L.)
No full textBrassica crops require high amounts of inorganic sulfur (S) for optimum yield, and are characterized by the synthesis of S-rich glucosinolates (GSL). Although it is well established that seed and GSL yield can be increased by S fertilizer, the detailed relationship between S supply as primary source and the harvestable sinks of seed GSL and storage proteins is poorly understood. We tested the hypothesis that Brassica juncea mustard seed acts as a secondary S sink, and so require a higher rate of S to achieve maximum seed GSL compared to rates required to attain maximum seed biomass. Our experimental strategy involved comparing responses to available S for seed biomass, GSL, and protein. This was carried out in a protected environment using sand culture for a high-GSL condiment-type homozygous B. juncea genotype. A low-GSL canola-type was used as a control, in order to establish a base-line of response. Significantly more S was required to achieve maximum seed GSL than was required to achieve maximum seed mass. Total seed protein content was not significantly affected by increased S. The high-GSL line appeared to have an efficient mechanism of S supply to the secondary S sink, given the observed increase in seed S with increased S availability. From a practical point of view, increases in seed GSL with S availability suggests that S fertilizer rates should be optimized for maximum seed GSL yield, rather that optimizing for seed yield, as occurs for most other crops
Analysis of Australian Research Council grants awarded for social work projects 2008–2017
No full textThe quantity and quality of social work research is central to creating knowledge for the profession and maintaining social work’s presence and status in universities. This study examines Australian Research Council grants awarded for social work projects for the 10-year period 2008–2107. It investigates the quantum of grants and the topics addressed, and compares social work to related social sciences. The field of social work was awarded 84 research grants over the 10-year period, a total of $23 million and an average of 8.4 grants per year. However, this did not match the grant successes of the two comparator fields of criminology and social policy and administration. Having a clear picture of research achievements, including grants, is necessary to enable the discipline to plot a strategic way forward, addressing gaps and deficits, and building on strengths
Punching above their weight: large release of greenhouse gases from small agricultural dams
No full textFreshwater ecosystems play a major role in global carbon cycling through the breakdown of organic material and release of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) emissions from lakes, wetlands, reservoirs and small natural ponds have been well studied, however, the GHG emissions of highly abundant, small‐scale (\u3c0.01 km2) agricultural dams (small stream and run‐off impoundments) are still unknown. Here, we measured the diffusive CO2 and CH4 flux of 77 small agricultural dams within south‐east Australia. The GHG emissions from these waterbodies, which are currently unaccounted for in GHG inventories, amounted to 11.12 ± 2.59 g CO2‐equivalent m2/day, a value 3.43 times higher than temperate reservoir emissions. Upscaling these results to the entire state of Victoria, Australia, resulted in a farm dam CO2‐equivalent/day emission rate of 4,853 tons, 3.1 times higher than state‐wide reservoir emissions in spite of farm dams covering only 0.94 times the comparative area. We also show that CO2 and CH4 emission rates were both significantly positively correlated with dissolved nitrate concentrations, and significantly higher in livestock rearing farm dams when compared to cropping farm dams. The results from this study demonstrate that small agricultural farm dams can be a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, thereby justifying their inclusion in global carbon budgets
Intersectionality and Indigenous peoples in Australia: experiences with engagement in native title and mining
No full textExploring the genetic diversity within traditional Philippine pigmented rice
No full textBackground: The wild ancestors of domesticated rice had red seed, white rice being the result of a mutation in the rice domestication gene Rc. Many pigmented rice landraces are still grown by ethnic communities for their nutritional and cultural value. This study assesses the genetic diversity in a collection of pigmented rice accessions from the Philippines.Results: We undertook an analysis of the genetic and colour variation in a collection of 696 pigmented rice accessions held at PhilRice in the Philippines. The collection was reduced to 589 genotypes after removal of accessions with limited passport data or with low SNP marker call rates. Removal of duplicate genotypes resulted in a final, core collection of 307 accessions, representing all administrative districts of the Philippines, and composed predominately of japonica and indica sub-species. No genetic structure was observed in the core collection based on geographic origin. A pairwise comparison of accessions by region indicating that both local and long-distance exchange of rice accessions had occurred. The majority of the genetic variation was within regions (82.38%), rather than between regions (10.23%), with the remaining variation being within rice accession variance (7.39%). The most genetically diverse rice accessions originated from the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) in the far north of the Philippines, and in the regions of Davao and Caraga in the southeast. A comparison with pigmented rice accessions from the neighbouring countries Taiwan, Laos, China and India revealed a close relationship between accessions from Taiwan, supporting the hypothesis of southward diffusion of Austronesians from Taiwan to the Philippine. The 14-bp deletion within the gene Rc, known to result in loss of red pigmentation, was found in 30 accessions that still had coloured pericarps. Multi-spectral phenotyping was used to measure seed geometric and colour-appearance traits in 197 accessions from the core collection. The purple and variable purple rice accessions had the lowest values for the seed colour parameters - lightness (L*), intensity, saturation, a* (green - red; redness) and b* (blue - yellow; yellowness).Conclusion: These pigmented rice accessions represent a diverse genetic resource of value for further study and nutritional improvement of commercial rice varieties
Embodiment in high-altitude mountaineering: sensing and working with the weather
No full textIn order to address sociological concerns with embodiment and learning, in this article we explore the ‘weathering’ body in a currently under-researched physical-cultural domain. Weather experiences, too, are under-explored in sociology, and here we examine in depth the lived experience of weather and, more specifically, ‘weather work’ and ‘weather learning’ in one of the most extreme and corporeally challenging environments on earth: high-altitude mountains. Drawing on a theoretical framework of phenomenological sociology, and an interview-based research project with 19 international, high-altitude mountaineers, we investigate weather as lived and experienced both corporeally and cognitively. We are particularly interested in conceptualizing and theorizing the ways in which embodied beings relate to the environment through different aspects of their being. The novel concepts of ‘weather work’ and ‘weather learning’, we argue, provide salient examples of the mind-body-world nexus at work, as an embodied practice and mode of thinking, strongly contoured by the physical culture of high-altitude mountaineering