New graptolite faunas from the Llandovery, lower Silurian of the Graveyard Creek Subprovince, Broken River region, Queensland, Australia

A continuous biostratigraphic sequence has been established, possibly from as low as the sedgwickii Biozone but certainly throughout the Telychian Stage (?sedgwickii, turriculatus, ?crispus, griestoniensis and crenulata biozones). Thirty-three taxa have been recorded, including the new genus Wandograptus wandovalensis sp. nov., the new species Pseudostreptograptus queenslandensis and the new subspecies Dictyonema paululum australis and Stimulograptus sedwickii loydelli. A number of species have been recorded from Australia for the first time: Dictyonema cf. geniculatum Bulman, Petalolithus kurcki (Rickards), Pristiograptus initialis (Kirste), Monoclimacis directa Zalasciewicz, Monograptus aff. distans (Portlock), Monograptus sartorius Törnquist, and Torquigraptus pragensis (Bouček). Nine forms have been left under open nomenclature. The type section for the Poley Cow Formation yields a griestoniensis biozone fauna close to the top, and this level can be correlated with a griestoniensis Biozone fauna in the Broken River crossing section, again just below the top of the formation. Further north, griestoniensis Biozone faunas have also been recognized, beyond Diggers Creek, and in the Quinton Formation at Top Hut, enabling a reliable time plane throughout the region. At Top Hut, the highest graptolitic strata yield a crenulata Biozone fauna; and stratigraphically lower sequences, referable to the ?sedgwickii, turriculatus and ?crispus biozones, have been established on the Broken River section. It is likely that a full Telychian (Upper Llandovery) sequence occurs in the Poley Cow and Quinton formations enabling accurate correlation with other parts of the world.

Communicating with the community about grieving: A description and review of the foundations of a broken leg analogy of grieving

With loss permeating the lives of all people throughout the entire life span and its potential for serious long-term deleterious effects, providing effective care for those experiencing situations of loss would be an important element of any preventive community-based mental health promotion approach. The low use of mental health services by those confronted with loss, and the lack of such services in many areas, makes it imperative to enhance the competency of the broader community to provide appropriate care during times of loss. Contributory to such care is a sound knowledge of the literature concerning loss and grieving. The broken leg analogy of grief presented in this article integrates the traditional and emerging grief theories and empirical evidence into an analogy of grieving that can be easily communicated to the general community, is relevant to many losses. and vet upholds the differing positions concerning grieving held by various schools of psychiatric thought.

Mixed order parameters, accidental nodes and broken time reversal symmetry in organic superconductors: a group theoretical analysis

We present a group theoretical analysis of several classes of organic superconductor. We predict that highly frustrated organic superconductors, such as K-(ET)(2)Cu-2(CN)(3) (where ET is BEDT-TTF, bis(ethylenedithio) tetrathiafulvalene) and beta'-[Pd(dmit)(2)](2)X, undergo two superconducting phase transitions, the first from the normal state to a d-wave superconductor and the second to a d + id state. We show that the monoclinic distortion of K-(ET)(2)Cu(NCS)(2) means that the symmetry of its superconducting order parameter is different from that of orthorhombic-K-(ET)(2)Cu[N(CN)(2)] Br. We propose that beta'' and theta phase organic superconductors have d(xy) + s order parameters.

Using FCD Mapper Software and Landsat Images to Assess Forest Canopy Density in Landscapes in Australia and the Philippines

Using Landsat imagery, forest canopy density (FCD) estimated with the FCD Mapper®, was correlated with predominant height (PDH, measured as the average height of the tallest 50 trees per hectare) for 20 field plots measured in native forest at Noosa Heads, south-east Queensland, Australia. A corresponding image was used to calculate FCD in Leyte Island, the Philippines and was validated on the ground for accuracy. The FCD Mapper was produced for the International Tropical Timber Organisation and estimates FCD as an index of canopy density using reflectance characteristics of Landsat Enhanced Thematic (ETM) Mapper images. The FCD Mapper is a ‘semi-expert’ computer program which uses interactive screens to allow the operator to make decisions concerning the classification of land into bare soil, grass and forest. At Noosa, a positive strong nonlinear relationship (r2 = 0.86) was found between FCD and PDH for 15 field plots with variable PDH but complete canopy closure. An additional five field plots were measured in forest with a broken canopy and the software assessed these plots as having a much lower FCD than forest with canopy closure. FCD estimates for forest and agricultural land in the island of Leyte and subsequent field validation showed that at appropriate settings, the FCD Mapper differentiated between tropical rainforest and banana or coconut plantation. These findings suggest that in forests with a closed canopy this remote sensing technique has promise for forest inventory and productivity assessment. The findings also suggest that the software has promise for discriminating between native forest with a complete canopy and forest which has a broken canopy, such as coconut or banana plantation.

Cellular origin of chlorinated diketopiperazines in the dictyoceratid sponge Dysidea herbacea (Keller)

The tropical marine sponge Dysidea herbacea (Keller) contains the filamentous unicellular cyanobacterium Oscillatoria spongeliae (Schulze) Hauck as an endosymbiont, plus numerous bacteria, both intracellular and extracellular. Archaeocytes and choanocytes are the major sponge cell types present. Density gradient centrifugation of glutaraldehyde-fixed cells with Percoll as the support medium has been used to separate the cyanobacterial symbiont from the sponge cells on the basis of their differing densities. The protocol also has the advantage of separating broken from intact cells of O. spongeliae. The lighter cell preparations contain archaeocytes and choanocytes together with damaged cyanobacterial cells, whereas heavier cell preparations contain intact cyanobacterial cells, with less than 1% contamination by sponge cells. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis has revealed that the terpene spirodysin is concentrated in preparations containing archaeocytes and choanocytes, whereas nuclear magnetic resonance analysis of the symbiont cell preparations has shown that they usually contain the chlorinated diketopiperazines, dihydrodysamide C and didechlorodihydrodysamide C, which are the characteristic metabolites of the sponge/symbiont association. However, one symbiont preparation, partitioned by a second Percoll gradient, has been found to be devoid of chlorinated diketopiperazines. The capability to synthesize secondary metabolites may depend on the physiological state of the symbiont; alternatively, there may be two closely related cyanobacterial strains within the sponge tissue.

Incubation of eggs of the Australian broad-shelled turtle, Chelodina expansa (Testudinata : Chelidae), at different temperatures: effects on pattern of oxygen consumption and hatchling morphology

Incubation temperature influences embryonic development and the morphology of resultant hatchlings in many species of turtle but few studies have addressed its effect on oxygen consumption and total embryonic energy expenditure. Eggs of the Australian broad-shelled river turtle, Chelodina expansa, were incubated at constant temperatures of 24 degrees C and 28 degrees C to determine the effect of temperature on oxygen consumption, embryonic energy expenditure and hatchling morphology. All embryos at both incubation temperatures experienced a period of developmental diapause immediately after oviposition. Once this initial diapause was broken, embryos underwent a further period of developmental arrest when the embryo was still very small and had minimal oxygen consumption (

Reducing the harms caused by cannabis use: the policy debate in Australia

The debate about cannabis policy in Australia has revolved around the harms that cannabis causes to users and the community, on the one hand, and the harms that are caused by the prohibition of its use, on the other. This paper assesses evidence on: (1) the harms caused to users and the community by cannabis use (derived from the international scientific literature) and (2) the harms that arise from prohibition (as reflected in Australian research). The most probable harms caused by cannabis use include: an increased risk of motor vehicle accidents; respiratory disease; dependence; adverse effects on adolescent development; and the exacerbation of psychosis. The harms of the current prohibition on cannabis use policy are less tangible but probably include: the creation of a large blackmarket; disrespect for a widely broken law; harms to the reputation of the unlucky few cannabis users who are caught and prosecuted; lack of access to cannabis for medical uses; and an inefficient use of law enforcement resources. Cannabis policy unavoidably involves trade offs between competing values that should be made by the political process. Australian cannabis policy has converged on a solution which continues to prohibit cannabis but reduces the severity of penalties for cannabis use by either removing criminal penalties or diverting first time cannabis offenders into treatment and education. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

An electron microscopic study of nickel sulfide inclusions in toughened glass

It has been known since the early sixties that nickel sulfide inclusions cause spontaneous fracture of toughened (thermally tempered) glass, but despite the considerable amount of work done on this problem in the last four decades, failures still occur in the field with regularity. In this study we have classified (by viewing through a 60x optical microscope) inclusions into two groups, which are classic and atypical nickel sulfides. The classics look like the nickel sulfide inclusions found at the initiation-of-fracture of windows that have broken spontaneously. We have compared the structure and composition of the atypical inclusions with the structure and composition of the classics. All of the classic and atypical nickel sulfide inclusions studied in this work were found to have a composition in the range of Ni52S48 to Ni48S52. Inclusions on the nickel rich side of stoichiometric NiS were found to be two-phase assemblies, and inclusions on the sulphur rich side of NiS were single phase. It had been proposed that the atypicals were passive, and of a different composition to the classics. However, we found that the difference between passive and dangerous nickel sulfide inclusions was not a difference in composition but rather a difference in the type of material in the internal pore space. The passive's had carbon char in their internal pore space, whereas the pore space of dangerous inclusions contained Na2O. The presence of Na2O and carbon char with the inclusions indicates that the formation of the inclusions results from a reaction of a nickel-rich phase with sodium sulphate and carbon. (C) 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Oral disease in animals: The Australian perspective. Isolation and characterisation of black-pigmented bacteria from the oral cavity of marsupials

A wide range of animals suffer from periodontal disease. However, there is very little reported on disease and oral micro-biota of Australian animals. Therefore, the oral cavity of 90 marsupials was examined for oral health status. Plaque samples were collected from the subgingival margins using curettes; or swabs. Plaque samples were plated onto. non-selective trypticase soy agar plates, selective trypticase soy agar, non-selective and selective Wilkens Chalgrens, Agar. Plates were incubated in an anaerobic atmosphere and examined after 7-14 days for the presence of black-brown-pigmented colonies. A combination of morphological and biochemical tests were used (colonial morphology, pigmentation, aerobic growth, Gram reaction, fluorescence under long-wave UV light (360 nm), production of catalase, enzymatic activity with fluorogenic substrates and haemagglutination of sheep red cells) to identify these organisms. Black-pigmented bacteria were cultivated from the plaque of 32 animals including six eastern grey kangaroos, a musky rat kangaroo, a whiptail and a red-necked wallaby, 18 koalas, a bandicoot and five brushtail possums. No black-pigmented colonies were cultivated from squirrel or sugar gliders or quokkas or from marsupial mice. The majority of isolates were identified as Porphyromonas gingivalis-like species with the higher prevalence of isolation from the oral cavity of macropods (the kangaroos and wallabies). Oral diseases, such as gingivitis can be found in native Australian animals with older koalas having an increase in disease indicators and black-pigmented bacteria. Non-selective Wilkens Chalgren Agar was the medium of choice for the isolation of black-pigmented bacteria. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Control of nitrate recirculation flow in predenitrification systems

The control of the nitrate recirculation flow in a predenitrification system is addressed. An elementary mass balance analysis on the utilisation efficiency of the influent biodegradable COD (bCOD) for nitrate removal indicates that the control problem can be broken down into two parts: maintaining the anoxic zone anoxic (i.e. nitrate is present throughout the anoxic zone) and maximising the usage of influent soluble bCOD for denitrification. Simulation studies using the Simulation Benchmark developed in the European COST program show that both objectives can be achieved by maintaining the nitrate concentration at the outlet of the anoxic zone at around 2 mgN/L. This setpoint appears to be robust towards variations in the influent characteristics and sludge kinetics.

Application of the maximum entropy method to the (2 + 1)D four-fermion model

We investigate spectral functions extracted using the maximum entropy method from correlators measured in lattice simulations of the (2+1)-dimensional four-fermion model. This model is particularly interesting because it has both a chirally broken phase with a rich spectrum of mesonic bound states and a symmetric phase where there are only resonances. In the broken phase we study the elementary fermion, pion, sigma, and massive pseudoscalar meson; our results confirm the Goldstone nature of the π and permit an estimate of the meson binding energy. We have, however, seen no signal of σ→ππ decay as the chiral limit is approached. In the symmetric phase we observe a resonance of nonzero width in qualitative agreement with analytic expectations; in addition the ultraviolet behavior of the spectral functions is consistent with the large nonperturbative anomalous dimension for fermion composite operators expected in this model.

Production of mosquitoes in rainwater tanks and wells on Yorke Island, Torres Strait: Preliminary study

The Torres Strait in northernmost Queensland, Australia, is subject to periodic outbreaks of dengue. A large outbreak of dengue 2 in 1996-97 affected five islands, resulting in 200 confirmed cases. On most of the affected islands, rainwater tanks were a common breeding site for vector mosquitoes. Rainwater tanks, wells and household containers filled with water are the most common breeding sites for dengue mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti), the primary vector of dengue in Queensland. We report on surveys conducted in February 2002 to measure the productivity of rainwater tanks and wells on Yorke Is. (Torres Strait), the first time the productivity of rainwater tanks has been measured in Australia. Of 60 rainwater tanks sampled, 10 had broken screens. Using a sticky emergence trap, 179 adult mosquitoes were collected, consisting of 63 Aedes scutellaris and 116 Culex quinquefasciatus. One unscreened tank produced 177 (99%) of the adults. A plankton net was used to sample 16 wells; 12 positive wells yielded 111 immature (larvae and pupae) mosquitoes, consisting of 57% and 43% Ae. scutellaris and Cx. quinquefasciatus, respectively. The apparent displacement of Ae. aegypti by Ae. scutellaris is discussed. Measures to reduce the likelihood of future dengue outbreaks are recommended.