New Voices, New Visions

New Voices, New Visions brings together a collection of papers that engage with the ideas of nation, identity and place. The title New Voices, New Visions harks back to earlier scholarship that endeavoured to explore these issues. It therefore makes links between old and new stories of Australian identity, tracing the continuities, shifts and changes in how Australia is imagined. The collection is deliberately interdisciplinary, gathering work by historians, literary and film scholars, communication and cultural theorists, political scientists and sociologists. This mixed perspectives enables the reader to trace ideas, concepts and theories across a range of disciplines and understand the distinctive ways in which different disciplines engage with ideas of nation, space and Australian identity. The book is written in an engaging and accessible manner, making it an excellent text for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of Australian Studies. It will be especially useful for the growing number of students living outside Australia who engage with Australian literature and culture. The book provides a range of topics that introduces students to key issues and concepts. It also situates these ideas in historical context. New Voices, New Visions engages with key contemporary issues in everyday Australian life: environment and climate change, immigration, consumerism, travel and cities. It explores these various topics by considering case studies, both contemporary and historical. For example the issue of attitudes to Asia are analysed through art; the topic of national symbols through the case of the crocodile; approaches to immigration via a popular reality television programme.

Catchment-specific element signatures in estuarine crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) from the Alligator Rivers Region, northern Australia

The concentrations of Na, K, Ca, Mg, Ba, Sr, Fe, Al, Mn, Zn, Pb, Cu, Ni, Cr, Co, Se, U and Ti were determined in the osteoderms and/or flesh of estuarine crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) captured in three adjacent catchments within the Alligator Rivers Region (ARR) of northern Australia. Results from multivariate analysis of variance showed that when all metals were considered simultaneously, catchment effects were significant (P≤0.05). Despite considerable within-catchment variability, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) showed that differences in elemental signatures in the osteoderms and/or flesh of C. porosus amongst the catchments were sufficient to classify individuals accurately to their catchment of occurrence. Using cross-validation, the accuracy of classifying a crocodile to its catchment of occurrence was 76% for osteoderms and 60% for flesh. These data suggest that osteoderms provide better predictive accuracy than flesh for discriminating crocodiles amongst catchments. There was no advantage in combining the osteoderm and flesh results to increase the accuracy of classification (i.e. 67%). Based on the discriminant function coefficients for the osteoderm data, Ca, Co, Mg and U were the most important elements for discriminating amongst the three catchments. For flesh data, Ca, K, Mg, Na, Ni and Pb were the most important metals for discriminating amongst the catchments. Reasons for differences in the elemental signatures of crocodiles between catchments are generally not interpretable, due to limited data on surface water and sediment chemistry of the catchments or chemical composition of dietary items of C. porosus. From a wildlife management perspective, the provenance or source catchment(s) of 'problem' crocodiles captured at settlements or recreational areas along the ARR coastline may be established using catchment-specific elemental signatures. If the incidence of problem crocodiles can be reduced in settled or recreational areas by effective management at their source, then public safety concerns about these predators may be moderated, as well as the cost of their capture and removal. Copyright © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V.

Wolf Creek, rurality and the Australian gothic

As with Crocodile Dundee before it, the recent Australian film Wolf Creek promotes a specific and arguably urban-centric understanding of rural Australia. However, whilst the former film is couched in mythologized notions of the rural idyll, Wolf Creek is based firmly around the concept of rural horror. Wolf Creek is both a horror movie and a road movie, one which relies heavily upon landscape in order to tell its story. Here we argue that the film continues a tradition in the New Australian Cinema of depicting the outback and its inhabitants as something the country's mostly coastal population do not understand. Wolf Creek skilfully plays on popular conceptions of inland Australia as empty and harsh. But more than this, the film brings to the fore tensions in the rural idyll associated with the ownership and use of rural space. As an object of urban consumption, rural space may appear passive and familiar, but in the context of rural horror iconic aspects of the Australian landscape become a source of fear – a space of abjection.

Real-time PCR as a surveillance tool for the detection of Trichinella infection in muscle samples from wildlife

Trichinella nematodes are the causative agent of trichinellosis, a meat-borne zoonosis acquired by consuming undercooked, infected meat. Although most human infections are sourced from the domestic environment, the majority of Trichinella parasites circulate in the natural environment in carnivorous and scavenging wildlife. Surveillance using reliable and accurate diagnostic tools to detect Trichinella parasites in wildlife hosts is necessary to evaluate the prevalence and risk of transmission from wildlife to humans. Real-time PCR assays have previously been developed for the detection of European Trichinella species in commercial pork and wild fox muscle samples. We have expanded on the use of real-time PCR in Trichinella detection by developing an improved extraction method and SYBR green assay that detects all known Trichinella species in muscle samples from a greater variety of wildlife. We simulated low-level Trichinella infections in wild pig, fox, saltwater crocodile, wild cat and a native Australian marsupial using Trichinella pseudospiralis or Trichinella papuae ethanol-fixed larvae. Trichinella-specific primers targeted a conserved region of the small subunit of the ribosomal RNA and were tested for specificity against host and other parasite genomic DNAs. The analytical sensitivity of the assay was at least 100 fg using pure genomic T. pseudospiralis DNA serially diluted in water. The diagnostic sensitivity of the assay was evaluated by spiking log of each host muscle with T. pseudospiralis or T. papuae larvae at representative infections of 1.0, 0.5 and 0.1 larvae per gram, and shown to detect larvae at the lowest infection rate. A field sample evaluation on naturally infected muscle samples of wild pigs and Tasmanian devils showed complete agreement with the EU reference artificial digestion method (k-value = 1.00). Positive amplification of mouse tissue experimentally infected with T. spiralis indicated the assay could also be used on encapsulated species in situ. This real-time PCR assay offers an alternative highly specific and sensitive diagnostic method for use in Trichinella wildlife surveillance and could be adapted to wildlife hosts of any region. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Power analysis for detecting trends in juvenile spotted seatrout abundance in Florida Bay

The spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus) is considered a key species relative to the implementation of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). One of the goals of the CERP is to increase freshwater flows to Florida Bay. Increased freshwater flows can have potential positive and negative impacts on spotted seatrout populations. At low salinities, the planktonic eggs of spotted seatrout sink to the bottom and are not viable (Alshuth and Gilmore, 1994; Holt and Holt, 2002). On the other hand, increased freshwater flows can alleviate hypersaline conditions that could result in an expansion of the distribution of the early life stages of spotted seatrout (Thayer et al., 1999; Florida Department of Environmental Protection1). Thus it would be useful to develop a monitoring program that can detect changes in seatrout abundance on time scales short enough to be useful to resource managers. The NOAA Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research (NOAA) has made sporadic collections of juvenile seatrout using otter trawls since 1984 (see Powell et al, 2004). The results suggest that it might be useful to sample for seatrout in as many as eight different areas or basins (Figure 1): Bradley Key, Sandy Key, Johnson Key, Palm Key, Snake Bight, Central, Whipray and Crocodile Dragover. Unfortunately, logistical constraints are likely to limit the number of tows to about 40 per month over a period of six months each year. Inasmuch as few seatrout are caught in any given tow and the proportion of tows with zero seatrout is often high, it is important to determine how best to allocate this limited sampling effort among the various basins so that any trends in abundance may be detected with sufficient statistical confidence. (PDF contains 16 pages)

International Workshop for Management and Trade of Caiman yacare, Gainsville, FL, 3-5 October 2002

A workshop was held 3-5 October 2002 in Gainesville, Florida, USA to discuss management, conservation and trade in Caiman yacare. Twenty five official participants represented the four yacare range states (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay), Venezuela, USA, the meeting sponsors (US Fish and Wildlife Service, CITES Secretariat, Louisiana Fur and Alligator Council), TRAFFIC Sur America and Crocodile Specialist Group. A series of country reports detailing yacare management in the four range states were distributed in Spanish and English prior to the meeting and presentations on these and on general principles of crocodilian harvest, conservation and management provided the basis for the discussions. Three working groups considered: • Requirements and field techniques for field data collection. • Requirements and techniques for regulation of harvest. • Requirements and processes for regulation of trade and export. Written reports of working groups and a plenary drafting session were finalized during the meeting and distributed, with the country reports, to participants. The workshop drafted a framework for caiman management and regulation that could be used as a template and adapted for use in each range state. The meeting agreed to convene an ad-hoc working group of range state representatives to continue discussions on the harmonization of caiman management into the future.

Age, growth, and mortality of the Mayan cichlid (Cichlasoma urophthalmus) from the southeastern Everglades

Mayan cichlids (Cichlasoma urophthalmus) were collected monthly from March 1996 to October 1997 with hook-and-line gear at Taylor River, Florida, an area within the Crocodile Sanctuary of Everglades National Park, where human activities such as fishing are prohibited. Fish were aged by examining thin-sectioned otoliths, and past size-at-age information was generated by using back-calculation techniques. Marginal increment analysis showed that opaque growth zones were annuli deposited between January and May. The size of age-1 fish was estimated to be 33–66 mm standard length (mean=45.5 mm) and was supported by monthly length-frequency data of young-of-year fish collected with drop traps over a seven-year period. Mayan cichlids up to seven years old were observed. Male cichlids grew slower but achieved a larger size than females. Growth was asymptotic and was modeled by the von Bertalanffy growth equation Lt=263.6(1–exp[–0.166(t–0.001)]) for males (r2=0.82, n=581) and Lt=215.6 (1–exp[–0.197(t–0.058)]) for females (r2= 0.77, n=639). Separate estimates of total annual mortality were relatively consistent (0.44–0.60) and indicated moderate mortality at higher age classes, even in the absence of fishing mortality. Our data indicated that Mayan cichlids grow slower and live longer in Florida than previously reported from native Mexican habitats. Because the growth of Mayan cichlids in Florida periodically slowed and thus produced visible annuli, it may be possible to age introduced populations of other subtropical and tropical cichlids in a similar way.

Folk medicine and horticulture

The article discusses the uses of marine organisms in folk medicine and in horticulture in the Philippines. Commonly used marine organisms are the different varieties of seaweeds, sea urchin, sea cucumber, turtle, crocodile and fishes such as grouper and rabbitfish.

Notes on growth and feeding of Crocodilus niloticus

The Uganda Fisheries Department had for some time, kept Nile crocodiles in captivity, and had thus collected a considerable amount of data on growth and feeding rates. It had also devised marking and handling techniques, and a system of pens and enclosures to deal with crocodiles up to 3 m. long. The following account describes these techniques and results, which followed a study of a proposed commercial crocodile farm.

Sequencing three crocodilian genomes to illuminate the evolution of archosaurs and amniotes.

The International Crocodilian Genomes Working Group (ICGWG) will sequence and assemble the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) and Indian gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) genomes. The status of these projects and our planned analyses are described.

Three crocodilian genomes reveal ancestral patterns of evolution among archosaurs.

To provide context for the diversification of archosaurs--the group that includes crocodilians, dinosaurs, and birds--we generated draft genomes of three crocodilians: Alligator mississippiensis (the American alligator), Crocodylus porosus (the saltwater crocodile), and Gavialis gangeticus (the Indian gharial). We observed an exceptionally slow rate of genome evolution within crocodilians at all levels, including nucleotide substitutions, indels, transposable element content and movement, gene family evolution, and chromosomal synteny. When placed within the context of related taxa including birds and turtles, this suggests that the common ancestor of all of these taxa also exhibited slow genome evolution and that the comparatively rapid evolution is derived in birds. The data also provided the opportunity to analyze heterozygosity in crocodilians, which indicates a likely reduction in population size for all three taxa through the Pleistocene. Finally, these data combined with newly published bird genomes allowed us to reconstruct the partial genome of the common ancestor of archosaurs, thereby providing a tool to investigate the genetic starting material of crocodilians, birds, and dinosaurs.

Livre des Morts de Nésyménou. Egyptien 121

Fragment 3 :Col. 1 + vignette : chapitre 28 (formule pour empêcher qu'on ne retire son coeur au défunt). La vignette montre le coeur du défunt et une divinité assise sur une maison.Col. 2 + vignette : chapitre 30B (formule pour empêcher que s'oppose le coeur du défunt). La vignette représente un scarabée.Col. 3 + vignette : chapitre 31 (formule pour repousser un crocodile venu pour enlever la magie-hékaou du défunt).Fragment 1 : la vignette montre le défunt armé d'une pique, qui devait probablement transpercer un animal néfaste.Fragment 2 :Col. 1 + vignette : chapitre 32 (formule pour repousser un crocodile venu pour enlever la magie-hékaou d'un Bienheureux de son contrôle dans la nécropole). La vignette montre deux crocodiles qui devaient être transpercés par le défunt.Col. 2 + vignette : chapitre 33 (formule pour repousser un serpent). La vignette montre le défunt transperçant un insecte (on attendrait un serpent).Col. 3 + vignette : chapitre 37 (formule pour repousser les deux amies). La vignette montre le défunt transperçant un serpent enroulé.Col. 4 + vignette (très fragmentaires) : ?

Livre des Morts de Nésyménou. Egyptien 123

Fragment 3 :Col. 1 + vignette (très fragmentaires) : ?Col. 2 + vignette : chapitre 86 (formule pour prendre l'aspect d'une hirondelle). La vignette contient une hirondelle sur une butte.Col. 3 + vignette : chapitre 87 (formule pour prendre l'aspect d'un serpent-sata). La vignette montre un serpent à tête humaine. Col. 4 + vignette : chapitre 88 (formule pour faire une transformation en crocodile Sobek). La vignette montre une crocodile momiforme.Col. 5 + vignette : chapitre 89 (formule pour permettre que la ba atteigne son cadavre dans la nécropole). La vignette montre l'oiseau-ba volant au-dessus du cadavre allongé sur le lit funéraire.Col. 6 + vignette (fragmentaires) : chapitre 90 (?). La vignette montre le défunt debout les bras en avant.Fragment 2 :Col. 1 + vignette (fragmentaires) : ? Seul un morceau de la vignette est conservé où l'on voit une divinité debout.Col. 2 + vignette : chapitre 91 (formule pour ne pas retenir le ba du défunt dans la nécropole). La vignette montre le défunt debout devant son oiseau-ba.Col. 3 + vignette : chapitre 92 (formule pour ouvrir la tombe pour le ba et pour l'ombre du défunt pour sa sortie pendant le jour). La vignette représente le défunt devant une chapelle où l'on voit l'oiseau-ba.Col. 4 + vignette : chapitre 93 (formule pour ne pas permettre que le défunt ne traverse vers l'Orient dans la nécropole). La vignette représente une divinité assise sur une barque avec le signe de l'Orient.Col. 5 + vignette (voir cadre suivant) : début du chapitre 98 (formule pour aller chercher le bac dans le ciel). La vignette montre la proue de la barque.Fragment 1 (prend place au sein des fragments du cadre suivant Egyptien 122) :Col. 1 + vignette : chapitre 102 (formule pour descendre dans la barque). La vignette représente Rê assis sur sa barque.Col. 2 + vignette (fragmentaires) : ? La vignette laisse deviner une barque.

Roal Dalh y la literatura infantil y juvenil en la didáctica de las lenguas : una propuesta para la mejora de la competencia literaria en el aula.

Realizar una revisión de los métodos y enfoques metodológicos del área de lenguas extranjeras y de aquellos que utilizan obras literarias como material en el aula. Revisión de la historia de la literatura infantil y juvenil en lengua inglesa, particularmente la vida y obra de Roal Dahl. Estudiar las competencias que debe dominar el hablante de lengua inglesa y el valor de la competencia literaria. Experiencias didácticas desarrolladas en el aula de lenguas extranjeras con la obra de Roal Dahl en Educación Infantil, Educación Primaria, y Educación Secundaria Obligatoria. Aplicación didáctica (taller de lengua y literatura) de su libro The Enormous Crocodile con objetivos, contenidos, criterios de evaluación, distribución del espacio, tiempo, actividades y material, para cuarto de Educación Primaria.. La aplicación didáctica del libro se realizó durante el curso escolar 2005-2006, organizando sesiones en torno a los diferentes capítulos del libro y realizando actividades de escritura creativa en torno a cada uno de ellos. La experiencia didáctica se desarrolla en el CEIP de las Tejeras (Alcantarilla-Murcia), en cuarto curso de Primaria, con veinte alumnos (10 niños y 10 niñas, uno de ellos repetidor). Los instrumentos empleados son: un diario de aula, una prueba inicial y otra final relacionadas con la competencia literaria en lengua extranjera. Pruebas de evaluación continua en cada sesión (comprensión lectora y expresión escrita). Técnica: implementación didáctica de un taller de lectura y escritura en lengua inglesa y metodología de investigación-acción que reflexiona y analiza la experiencia didáctica llevada a cabo. . La obra literaria es un material auténtico que entra dentro del aula de lenguas extranjeras y que facilita la creación del contexto significativo necesario para todo aprendizaje y a la vez motiva al alumno ayudando a dar sentido a lo que aprende. Cuando un alumno/a piensa que la lengua que aprende no le sirve para nada, pierde su interés por ella. Si comprende que la lengua extranjera va a ser un recurso que le permita entender textos literarios, el sentido queda establecido desde el primer momento. Con la literatura infantil podemos favorecer el aprendizaje comunicativo de las lenguas extranjeras ya que con ella se produce un nivel de comunicación importante entre el texto y el lector o lectora. La obra de Roal Dahl ofrece una gran variedad de posibilidades que se pueden trabajar desde la Educación Infantil hasta la de adultos..

Molecular characterization of hemoglobin alpha-D chains from Geochelone carbonaria and Geochelone denticulata land turtles

In order to help elucidate the evolution of alpha-globins, the complete cDNA and amino acid sequences of Geochelone carbonaria and Geochelone denticulata land turtles alpha-D chains have been described. In G. carbonaria, the cDNA is 539 bp with ATG start codon located at position 46, TGA stop codon at position 469 and AATAAA polyadenylation signal at position 520. In G. denticulata, the cDNA is 536 bp with ATG start codon located at position 46, TGA stop codon at position 469 and AATAAA polyadenylation signal at position 517. Both cDNAs codify 141 amino acid residues, differing from each other in only four amino acid residues. When comparing with human Hb alpha-chain, alterations in important regions can be noted: alpha110 Ala-Gly, alpha114 Pro-Gly, alpha117 Phe-Tyr and alpha122 His-Gln. There is a high homology between the amino acids of these turtles when compared with chicken alpha-D chains, progressively decreasing when compared with human, crocodile, snake, frog and fish alpha-chains. Phylogenetic analysis of alpha-D chains shows that those of turtles are closer to those of birds than to snakes and lizards. (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.