Factors Affecting The Efficiency Of Fox (Vulpes Vulpes) Baiting Practices On The Central Tablelands Of New South Wales

The European red fox (Vulpes vulpes L.) is a well known predator of native species and domestic stock, and is recognised as one of Australia’s most devastating vertebrate pests. Current fox management relies heavily on poisoning using baits impregnated with sodium monofluoroacetate (1080). This reliance on 1080 is likely to continue given the lack of viable alternatives for controlling foxes, so that, in the meanwhile, it is important to improve the efficiency of the current techniques. Factors affecting the susceptibility of individual foxes to bait include their ability to locate it, as well as the bait’s palatability and toxicity. The economic costs associated with using different bait types, the pattern and density of their distribution will also affect the efficiency of control programs. It is essential to examine and refine all such issues to ensure efficient use of the 1080 baiting technique. This thesis focuses generally on problems associated with management of the fox in eastern Australia. More specifically, I investigate the factors affecting the efficiency of fox baiting practices on the central tablelands of New South Wales. The study was conducted largely on agricultural lands near the town of Molong (33010’ 37”S, 148087’15”E) on the central tablelands of New South Wales. This area was chosen as it is broadly representative, in terms of land use, of a large region of eastern Australia. The highly modified, predominantly agricultural landscapes near Molong are well suited to foxes, and conflict with the predominantly pastoral community means that fox management is widely undertaken. I determined the persistence of 1080 in two commonly used bait types, Foxoff® and chicken wingettes, under different climatic and rainfall conditions. The rate of 1080 degradation did not change significantly between the central tablelands and the relatively hotter and drier western slopes. Foxoff® baits remained lethal for longer than wingettes under all conditions, although their rate of degradation generally increased with increasing rainfall. I confirmed the presence of defluorinating micro-organisms in thesoils of eastern Australia for the first time, and suggest that, following removal from the bait, 1080 would not persist in the environment for long. Bait should be attractive and highly palatable to ensure that the target species will find and consume it upon discovery. Caching, where discovered food is removed but not immediately consumed, may potentially reduce the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of baiting campaigns. I quantified the caching of chicken wingette, day-old chick and Foxoff® baits by inserting transmitters into bait material and assessing whether it was eaten or cached following removal. The intensity of caching did not change significantly between seasons. Type of bait had the largest influence on caching intensity, with a greater percentage of non-toxic Foxoff® baits (66.9%) being cached than either wingettes (5.7%) or day-old chicks (4.5%). The percentage of toxic (1080) baits cached was even greater, suggesting that 1080 bait may be less palatable, and detectable to foxes. I also investigated the use of conditioned taste aversion to reduce multiple bait uptake by foxes. Levamisole, an illness-inducing chemical, was added to bait and the fate of removed bait was again monitored via radio-telemetry. Following consumption of a levamisole-treated bait, foxes avoided eating treated baits but consumed untreated baits. I concluded that a reduction in bait consumption was achieved through learned aversion to levamisole rather than via conditioned taste aversion to baits. Adding levamisole to baits, especially non-toxic bait such as rabies vaccines, could potentially be used to reduce bait monopolisation by individual foxes. Fox density and den site preferences were assessed by investigating the distribution and density of fox natal dens on one property (9.6 km2) over three consecutive years. A total of 9 natal dens were located in 2000 and 2001, declining to 6 in 2002. No preference was shown for den sites on the basis of habitat, slope or aspect, but more dens were located under, or adjacent to cover. Assuming that each natal den represents a breeding pair and that the population sex ratio did not differ from parity (1:1), the site contained a prebreeding density of 1.9 foxes/km2 in 2000 and 2001, and 1.25 foxes/km2 in 2002. Given that the mean number of cubs is 4.0, the post-breeding density was estimated at 5.6 and 3.75 foxes/km2 in 2000/2001 and 2002, respectively. The results demonstrated that high densities of foxes occur on agricultural lands. The success and likely accuracy of the technique to monitor fox density suggests that it may be used to calibrate more efficient abundance estimates that will be essential for the strategic management of foxes in future. Pest animal management strategies are traditionally assessed for their effectiveness, with less consideration being given to the efficiency or cost of achieving the desired effect. I used cost-effectiveness analyses to compare between different baiting strategies based on the longevity, palatability and handling/replacement costs associated with each bait type. The results indicated that, when measured on a total cost-per-bait-consumed basis, wingettes and day-old chicks were the most cost-effective baits for campaigns of up to 4 weeks duration. This demonstrates the importance of including the longevity, and particularly the palatability of bait, when assessing cost-effectiveness. However, it is recognised that other factors, including the consistency of dosage and uptake by nontarget species, may be equally or more important in deciding the appropriate baiting strategy. The spatial and temporal application of fox baiting in the region overseen by the Molong Rural Lands Protection Board was examined between January 1998 and December 2002 as a case study to evaluate the apparent effectiveness of cooperative management practices. Most landholders (78.8%) did not bait for foxes during this period. Based on known dispersal distances, the effect of fox immigration into baited areas was determined. The results indicated that no areas baited for foxes were separated by a sufficient buffer distance (>9.58 km) from unbaited areas to be protected from fox immigration. This suggests that, at current levels of coordination, the effectiveness of most baiting operations in eastern Australia is compromised over the long term by fox immigration. However, it is recognised that short-term reductions in fox density may sometimes be all that are required to reduce predation to acceptable levels, especially for seasonally-susceptible prey. Ultimately, the cost-effectiveness of control should be evaluated in terms of the response of the prey rather than that of the predator. This study has highlighted deficiencies in current ‘best-practice’ baiting techniques. Specific recommendations for current baiting practices, in addition to future research, are also given. In brief, these include minimising free-feed baiting, increasing the minimum distance between bait stations, and, where possible, presenting the most palatable bait. Continued research into conditioned taste aversion, aerial baiting, and techniques to reduce caching are recommended as potential techniques to improve the efficiency of baiting practices

Low temperature adaption of wheat post head-emergence in northern Australia

OBJECTIVE: More than 50% of patients with cancer experience pain. Patient empowerment has been highlighted as central to success in pain management. Up to now, no clear model for this patient group exists, yet several strategies to empower patients have been used in clinical practice. This review examines how empowerment or related concepts have been described in relation to pain management in patients with cancer. With the help of a conceptual model, recommendations for clinical practice are provided. METHODS: An integrative review was conducted, using the databases PubMed, CINAHL and PsycINFO. We evaluated papers discussing empowerment or related concepts in relation to pain management in patients with cancer. We analyzed the term 'empowerment' semantically. RESULTS: From a total of 5984 identified papers, 34 were included for analysis. Empowerment has been described with the concepts self-efficacy, active patient participation, increasing abilities, and control of life. Most papers focus on pain treatment induced by the professional caregiver or on the active involvement of the patient, and not on the combination of both. The following elements of empowerment could be discriminated: role of the patient, role of the professional, resources, self-efficacy, active coping, and shared decision making. CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of these findings, we propose a conceptual model to empower patients in controlling cancer pain. We recommend focusing on pain treatment given by the professional, on the active involvement of the patient, and on the interaction of both. Our model might also be useful for other patient groups or specific contexts, especially in symptom management. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

No difference in effects of ‘PACE steps to success’ palliative care program for nursing home residents with and without dementia : a pre-planned subgroup analysis of the seven-country PACE trial

Background: 'PACE Steps to Success' is a multicomponent training program aiming to integrate generalist and non-disease-specific palliative care in nursing homes. This program did not improve residents' comfort in the last week of life, but it appeared to improve quality of care and dying in their last month of life. Because this program included only three dementia-specific elements, its effects might differ depending on the presence or stage of dementia. We aimed to investigate whether the program effects differ between residents with advanced, non-advanced, and no dementia. Methods: Pre-planned subgroup analysis of the PACE cluster-randomized controlled trial in 78 nursing homes in seven European countries. Participants included residents who died in the previous 4 months. The nursing home staff or general practitioner assessed the presence of dementia; severity was determined using two highly-discriminatory staff-reported instruments. Using after-death questionnaires, staff assessed comfort in the last week of life (Comfort Assessment in Dying-End-of-Life in Dementia-scale; primary outcome) and quality of care and dying in the last month of life (Quality of Dying in Long-Term Care scale; secondary outcome). Results: At baseline, we included 177 residents with advanced dementia, 126 with non-advanced dementia and 156 without dementia. Post-intervention, respectively in the control and the intervention group, we included 136 and 104 residents with advanced dementia, 167 and 110 with non-advanced dementia and 157 and 137 without dementia. We found no subgroup differences on comfort in the last week of life, comparing advanced versus without dementia (baseline-adjusted mean sub-group difference 2.1; p-value = 0.177), non-advanced versus without dementia (2.7; p = 0.092), and advanced versus non-advanced dementia (- 0.6; p = 0.698); or on quality of care and dying in the last month of life, comparing advanced and without dementia (- 0.6; p = 0.741), non-advanced and without dementia (- 1.5; p = 0.428), and advanced and non-advanced dementia (0.9; p = 0.632). Conclusions: The lack of subgroup difference suggests that while the program did not improve comfort in dying residents with or without dementia, it appeared to equally improve quality of care and dying in the last month of life for residents with dementia (regardless of the stage) and those without dementia. A generalist and non-disease-specific palliative care program, such as PACE Steps to Success, is a useful starting point for future palliative care improvement in nursing homes, but to effectively improve residents' comfort, this program needs further development

Deconfining Phase Transition as a Matrix Model of Renormalized Polyakov Loops

We discuss how to extract renormalized from bare Polyakov loops in SU(N) lattice gauge theories at nonzero temperature in four spacetime dimensions. Single loops in an irreducible representation are multiplicatively renormalized without mixing, through a renormalization constant which depends upon both representation and temperature. The values of renormalized loops in the four lowest representations of SU(3) were measured numerically on small, coarse lattices. We find that in magnitude, condensates for the sextet and octet loops are approximately the square of the triplet loop. This agrees with a large $N$ expansion, where factorization implies that the expectation values of loops in adjoint and higher representations are just powers of fundamental and anti-fundamental loops. For three colors, numerically the corrections to the large $N$ relations are greatest for the sextet loop, $\leq 25$; these represent corrections of $\sim 1/N$ for N=3. The values of the renormalized triplet loop can be described by an SU(3) matrix model, with an effective action dominated by the triplet loop. In several ways, the deconfining phase transition for N=3 appears to be like that in the $N=\infty$ matrix model of Gross and Witten.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures; v2, 27 pages, 12 figures, extended discussion for clarity, results unchange

All-sky search for long-duration gravitational wave transients with initial LIGO

We present the results of a search for long-duration gravitational wave transients in two sets of data collected by the LIGO Hanford and LIGO Livingston detectors between November 5, 2005 and September 30, 2007, and July 7, 2009 and October 20, 2010, with a total observational time of 283.0 days and 132.9 days, respectively. The search targets gravitational wave transients of duration 10-500 s in a frequency band of 40-1000 Hz, with minimal assumptions about the signal waveform, polarization, source direction, or time of occurrence. All candidate triggers were consistent with the expected background; as a result we set 90% confidence upper limits on the rate of long-duration gravitational wave transients for different types of gravitational wave signals. For signals from black hole accretion disk instabilities, we set upper limits on the source rate density between 3.4×10-5 and 9.4×10-4 Mpc-3 yr-1 at 90% confidence. These are the first results from an all-sky search for unmodeled long-duration transient gravitational waves. © 2016 American Physical Society

All-sky search for long-duration gravitational wave transients with initial LIGO

We present the results of a search for long-duration gravitational wave transients in two sets of data collected by the LIGO Hanford and LIGO Livingston detectors between November 5, 2005 and September 30, 2007, and July 7, 2009 and October 20, 2010, with a total observational time of 283.0 days and 132.9 days, respectively. The search targets gravitational wave transients of duration 10-500 s in a frequency band of 40-1000 Hz, with minimal assumptions about the signal waveform, polarization, source direction, or time of occurrence. All candidate triggers were consistent with the expected background; as a result we set 90% confidence upper limits on the rate of long-duration gravitational wave transients for different types of gravitational wave signals. For signals from black hole accretion disk instabilities, we set upper limits on the source rate density between 3.4×10-5 and 9.4×10-4 Mpc-3 yr-1 at 90% confidence. These are the first results from an all-sky search for unmodeled long-duration transient gravitational waves. © 2016 American Physical Society

THE RATE OF BINARY BLACK HOLE MERGERS INFERRED FROM ADVANCED LIGO OBSERVATIONS SURROUNDING GW150914

A transient gravitational-wave signal, GW150914, was identi fi ed in the twin Advanced LIGO detectors on 2015 September 2015 at 09:50:45 UTC. To asse ss the implications of this discovery, the detectors remained in operation with unchanged con fi gurations over a period of 39 days around the time of t he signal. At the detection statistic threshold corresponding to that observed for GW150914, our search of the 16 days of simultaneous two-detector observational data is estimated to have a false-alarm rate ( FAR ) of < ́ -- 4.9 10 yr 61 , yielding a p -value for GW150914 of < ́ - 210 7 . Parameter estimation follo w-up on this trigger identi fi es its source as a binary black hole ( BBH ) merger with component masses ( )( ) = - + - + mm M ,36,29 12 4 5 4 4 at redshift = - + z 0.09 0.04 0.03 ( median and 90% credible range ) . Here, we report on the constraints these observations place on the rate of BBH coalescences. Considering only GW150914, assuming that all BBHs in the universe have the same masses and spins as this event, imposing a search FAR threshold of 1 per 100 years, and assuming that the BBH merger rate is constant in the comoving frame, we infer a 90% credible range of merger rates between – -- 2 53 Gpc yr 31 ( comoving frame ) . Incorporating all search triggers that pass a much lower threshold while accounting for the uncerta inty in the astrophysical origin of each trigger, we estimate a higher rate, ranging from – -- 13 600 Gpc yr 31 depending on assumptions about the BBH mass distribution. All together, our various rate estimat es fall in the conservative range – -- 2 600 Gpc yr 31

How do GPs identify a need for palliative care in their patients? An interview study

Contains fulltext : 118548.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: Little is known about how GPs determine whether and when patients need palliative care. Little research has been done regarding the assumption underpinning Lynn and Adamson's model that palliative care may start early in the course of the disease. This study was conducted to explore how GPs identify a need for palliative care in patients. METHODS: A qualitative interview study was performed among 20 GPs in the Netherlands. RESULTS: GPs reported that a combination of several signals, often subtle and not explicit, made them identify a need for palliative care: signals from patients (increasing care dependency and not recuperating after intercurrent diseases) and signals from relatives or reports from medical specialists. GPs reported differences in how they identified a need for palliative care in cancer patients versus those with other diseases. In cancer patients, the need for palliative care was often relatively clear because of a relatively strict demarcation between the curative and palliative phase. However, in patients with e.g. COPD or in the very old, GPs' awareness of palliative care needs often arises gradually, relatively late in the disease trajectory.GPs consider the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness as a key point in the disease trajectory. However, this does not automatically mean that a patient needs palliative care at that point. CONCLUSIONS: GPs recognize a need for palliative care on the basis of various signals. They do not support the idea underlying Lynn and Adamson's model that palliative care always starts early in the course of the disease

What tools are available to identify patients with palliative care needs in primary care: a systematic literature review and survey of European practice

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The burden of non-acute dying on society: dying of cancer and chronic disease in the European Union

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