Repeated flood events and fossil forests at Curio Bay (Middle Jurassic), New Zealand

During the Middle Jurassic, the regional environment of Curio Bay, southeast South Island, New Zealand, was a fluvial plain marginal to volcanic uplands. Intermittent flashy, poorly-confined flood events buried successive conifer forests. With the termination of each flood, soils developed and vegetation was reestablished. In most cases, this developed into coniferous forest. In approximately 40 m of vertical section, 10 fossil forest horizons can be distinguished, highlighting a type of fluvial architecture which is poorly documented. Flood-basin material is minimal, but a short-Lived floodbasin lake is inferred to have developed within the interval of study. Paleocurrent indicators suggest enclosure of the basin on more than one side. Sedimentation style suggests a relatively dry (less than humid but not arid) climate with seasonal rainfall. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Herbicide contamination and the potential impact to seagrass meadows in Hervey Bay, Queensland, Australia

Low concentrations of herbicides (up to 70 ng 1(-1)), chiefly diuron (up to 50 ng 1 (-1)) were detected in surface waters associated with inter-tidal seagrass meadows of Zostera muelleri in Hervey Bay, south-cast Queensland, Australia. Diuron and atrazine (up to 1. 1 ng g(-1) dry weight of sediment) were detected in the sediments of these seagrass meadows. Concentration of the herbicides diuron, simazine and atrazine increased in surface waters associated with seagrass meadows during moderate river flow events indicating herbicides were washed from the catchment to the marine environment. Maximum herbicide concentration (sum of eight herbicides) in the Mary River during a moderate river flow event was 4260 ng 1(-1). No photosynthetic stress was detected in seagrass in this study during low river flow. However, with moderate river flow events, nearshore seagrasses are at risk of being exposed to concentrations of herbicides that are known to inhibit photosynthesis. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Focusing in on structural genomics: The University of Queensland structural biology pipeline

The flood of new genomic sequence information together with technological innovations in protein structure determination have led to worldwide structural genomics (SG) initiatives. The goals of SG initiatives are to accelerate the process of protein structure determination, to fill in protein fold space and to provide information about the function of uncharacterized proteins. In the long-term, these outcomes are likely to impact on medical biotechnology and drug discovery, leading to a better understanding of disease as well as the development of new therapeutics. Here we describe the high throughput pipeline established at the University of Queensland in Australia. In this focused pipeline, the targets for structure determination are proteins that are expressed in mouse macrophage cells and that are inferred to have a role in innate immunity. The aim is to characterize the molecular structure and the biochemical and cellular function of these targets by using a parallel processing pipeline. The pipeline is designed to work with tens to hundreds of target gene products and comprises target selection, cloning, expression, purification, crystallization and structure determination. The structures from this pipeline will provide insights into the function of previously uncharacterized macrophage proteins and could lead to the validation of new drug targets for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and arthritis. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Northern wing, General Purpose North 3, University of Queensland, St Lucia

As seen from Blair Road.

Northern wing, General Purpose North 3, University of Queensland, St Lucia

As seen from Balir Road.

West elevation, General Purpose North 3, University of Queensland, St Lucia

Formal elevation facing University of Queensland entrance roads.

Eastern edge, General Purpose North 3, University of Queensland, St Lucia

As seen from informal courtyard; Duhig Tower beyond.

West elevation, General Purpose North 3, University of Queensland, St Lucia

Formal elevation facing University of Queensland entrance roads.

West elevation, General Purpose North 3, University of Queensland, St Lucia

Formal elevation facing University of Queensland entrance roads.

West elevation, General Purpose North 3, University of Queensland, St Lucia

Formal elevation facing University of Queensland entrance roads.

Amphitheatre entry court, Collaborative Workshop, University of Queensland, St Lucia

Entry from landscaped amphitheatre area.

Gutter detail, Collaborative Workshop, University of Queensland, St Lucia

Open-ended folded sheet metal gutter.

Amphitheatre entry court, Collaborative Workshop, University of Queensland, St Lucia

Entry from landscaped amphitheatre area.

Communism and Public Opinion in Queensland, 1939-1951 : An Explanation of Queensland's Vote in the 1951 Anti-Communist Referendum

The starting point of this thesis was a desire to explain the rapid demise in the popularity which the Communist Party enjoyed in Queensland during the second world war. Wartime Queensland gave the Australian Communist Party its highest state vote and six years later Queensland again gave the Communist Party its highest state vote - this time however, to ban the Party. From this I was led into exploring the changing policies, beliefs and strategies of the Party, as well as the many sub-groups on its periphery, and the shifts in public response to these. In 1939 Townsville elected Australia's first Communist alderman. Five years later, Bowen elected not only Australia's first but also the British Empire's first, Communist state government member. Of the five electorates the Australian Communist Party contested in the 1944 Queensland State elections, in none did the Party's candidate receive less than twenty per-cent of the formal vote. Not only was the Party seemingly enjoying considerable popular support but this was occurring in a State which, but for the Depression years (May 1929 - June 1932) had elected a Labor State Government at every state election since 1915. In the September 1951 Constitution Alteration Referendum, 'Powers To Deal With Communists and Communism', Queensland regist¬ered the nation's highest "Yes" majority - 55.76% of the valid vote. Only two other states registered a majority in favour of the referendum's proposals, Western Australia and Tasmania. As this research was undertaken it became evident that while various trends exhibited at the time, anti-Communism, the work of the Industrial Groups, Labor opportunism, local area feelings, ideological shifts of the Party, tactics of Communist-led unions, etc., were present throughout the entire period, they were best seen when divided into three chronological phases of the Party's history and popularity. The first period covers the consolidation of the Party's post-Depression popularity during the war years as it benefited from the Soviet Union's colossal contribution to the Allied war efforts, and this support continued for some six months or so after the war. Throughout the period Communist strength within the trade union movement greatly increased as did total Party membership. The second period was marked by a rapid series of events starting in March 1946, with Winston Churchill's "Official Opening" of the Cold War by his sweeping attack on Communism and Russia, at Fulton. Several days later the first of a series of long and bitter strikes in Communist-led unions occurred, as the Party mobil¬ized for what it believed would be a series of attacks on the working class from a ruling class, defending a capitalist system on the verge of an economic collapse. It was a period when the Party believed this ruling class was using Labor reformism as a last desperate 'carrot' to get workers to accept their lot within a capitalist economic framework. Out of the Meat Strike emerged the Industrial Groups, who waged not only a determined war against Communist trade union leadership but also encouraged the A.W.U.-influenced State Labor apparatus to even greater anti-Communist antagonisms. The Communist Party's increasing militancy and Labor's resistance to it, ended finally in the collapse of the Chifley Labor government. Characteristically the third period opens with the Communist Party making an another about-face, desperately trying to form an alliance with the Labor Party and curbing its former adventurist industrial policy, as it prepared for Menzies' direct assault. The Communist Party's activities were greatly reduced, a function of both a declining member-ship and, furthermore, a membership reluctant to confront an increasingly hostile society. In examining the changing policies, beliefs and strategies of the Party and the shifts in public response to these, I have tried to distinguish between general trends occurring within Australia and the national party, and trends peculiar to Queensland and the Queensland branch of the Party, The Communist Party suffered a decline in support and membership right across Australia throughout this period as a result of the national policies of the Party, and the changing nature of world politics. There were particular features of this decline that were peculiar to Queensland. I have, however, singled out three features of particular importance throughout the period for a short but more specifically detailed analysis, than would be possible in a purely chronological study: i.e. the Party's structure, the Party's ideological subservience to Moscow, and the general effect upon it of the Cold War.