Adsorbents for the sequestration of the Pimelea toxin, simplexin

Pimelea poisoning affects cattle grazing arid rangelands of Australia, has no known remedy and significant outbreaks can cost the industry $50 million per annum. Poisoning is attributable to consumption of native Pimelea plants containing the toxin simplexin. Charcoal, bentonite and other adsorbents are currently used by the livestock industry to mitigate the effects of mycotoxins. The efficacy of such adsorbents to mitigate Pimelea poisoning warrants investigation. Through a series of in vitro experiments, different adsorbents were evaluated for their effectiveness to bind simplexin using a simple single concentration, dispersive adsorbent rapid screening method. Initial experiments were conducted in a rumen fluid based medium, with increasing quantities of each adsorbent: sodium bentonite (Trufeed®, Sibelco Australia), biochar (Nutralick®Australia) and Elitox® (Impextraco, Belgium). Data showed the unbound concentration of simplexin decreased with increasing quantities of each adsorbent tested. Sodium bentonite performed best, removing ~95% simplexin at 12 mg/mL. A second experiment using a single amount of adsorbent included two additional adsorbents: calcium bentonite (Bentonite Resources, Australia) and a synthetic adsorbent (Waters, USA). The concentration of simplexin remaining in the solution after 1 h, the amount able to be desorbed off the adsorbent-toxin matrix with replacement fresh fluid, and the amount remaining bound to the adsorbent were measured. All samples containing an adsorbent were statistically different compared to the blank (p < 0.05), indicating some binding activity. Future work will explore the binding mechanisms and behaviour of the toxin-adsorbent complex in the lower gastrointestinal tract

A Twitter narrative of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia

Social media platforms contain abundant data that can provide comprehensive knowledge of historical and real-time events. During crisis events, the use of social media peaks, as people discuss what they have seen, heard, or felt. Previous studies confirm the usefulness of such socially generated discussions for the public, first responders, and decision-makers to gain a better understanding of events as they unfold at the ground level. This study performs an extensive analysis of COVID-19-related Twitter discussions generated in Australia between January 2020, and October 2022. We explore the Australian Twitterverse by employing state-of-the-art approaches from both supervised and unsupervised domains to perform network analysis, topic modeling, sentiment analysis, and causality analysis. As the presented results provide a comprehensive understanding of the Australian Twitterverse during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study aims to explore the discussion dynamics to aid the development of future automated information systems for epidemic/pandemic management.Comment: Accepted to ISCRAM 202

North Queensland's Chinese family landscape: 1860-1920

This thesis outlines the Chinese Family Landscape, which developed across North Queensland in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. It specifically focuses on women and the role that women and family played in the Chinese Diaspora, and the contribution they made to longevity and renewal of settlements such as Chinatowns, precincts and String Communities. This thesis is set within the framework of the historical pattern of settlement across the colony of Queensland, with a focus on North Queensland. It is firmly embedded in the broader global Chinese Diaspora, and confirms the importance of established links between destination countries and the ancestral village, China. By statistically and geographically mapping the presence of women as wives, lovers and friends of Chinese men across North Queensland, new understandings and interpretations of Queensland's Chinese experience have emerged. This indicates that a gender integrated approach to Chinese settlement patterns is important as a means to understand urban and social development of colonial Chinese settlements. A female presence in the Chinese settlement experience led to generational renewal of Chinatown's, and establishment of an Australian born, intergenerational Chinese presence within the Australian community. The politics of the private sphere, highlighted by a female approach to domestic affairs emerged through the application of "soft economics", which played out from an increase in male status due to the presence of a wife, to the strategic formation of companies via the marriage of Australian born sons and daughters. The presence of women in the community enabled the network of translocal and transnational kinship and family linkages to establish and grow but more importantly, enabled a Chinese presence to take root and prosper in a foreign land. The river of money and ideas, which flowed back to the village in China, from families moving between the two worlds, impacted on those who remained in the ancestral village in ways which are only just beginning to be understood in Queensland. Woman's participation in community formation, renewal and longevity emerges as an essential element in the North Queensland Chinese settlement experience and challenges the long held popular narrative of a single male gold-seeking sojourner, who was confined to the Palmer River Goldfields. A holistic approach to a gender integrated narrative should be included in future investigations with North Queensland's Chinese Family Landscape providing a starting point for this process

Indigenous governance bibliography

AIATSIS has compiled this bibliography on Indigenous governance as part of its Indigenous Governance Building: Mapping current and future research and practical resource needs project. It is to be read in conjunction with an AIATSIS bibliography on free, prior and informed consent, engagement and consultation, and other bibliographies relating to various aspects of Indigenous governance which have been included in the following pages and are also available via the project webpage linked above. The term ‘governance’ is wide reaching and it has not been possible to cover all Indigenous governance related topics comprehensively. Within the context of this project governance is broadly defined as a cultural construct where the principles and standards of what constitutes ‘good’, ‘good enough’, ‘strong’, ‘legitimate’, ‘ineffective’, ‘corrupt’ or ‘bad’ governance are informed by culturally-based values, traditions and ideologies; and vary significantly between different societies. There is no end-point goal of ‘perfect’ governance that will eventually be achieved in the future. Rather, governance is adaptive according to context and circumstances. This means it may swing between effectiveness and dysfunction. It is to be found as much in people’s daily self-determined practices, processes and relationships, as it is in visible structures and formal institutions