Elk Habitat Use on Degraded Rangeland

We monitored winter range use of elk (Cervus elaphus) in the Northern Sapphire Mountains of the Bitterroot Valley, Montana over the winters of 2011-2012 and 2012- 2013. The goal of the project was to acquire baseline data on elk habitat use and grazing preference on a 3845 ha former cattle ranch. The property includes 2130 ha of rangeland with altered plant communities due to intensive grazing, exotic forage grass seeding, and herbicide applications. Of these 2130 ha, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) dominates 32 percent, seeded exotic forage grasses dominate 20 percent, and perennial invaders dominate 6.8 percent. Pristine or less-degraded plant communities dominated by native grasses cover 681 ha and irrigated agricultural crops cover 71 ha. An average of around 300 elk spend most of the winter on or near the study site, and the highest number was 426, recorded in November 2011. We collected data through observation, scat density surveys, diet analysis, and forage availability estimates through biomass collection. Areas with high elk use are grouped by the dominant vegetation, slope, and aspect. Elk spent the most time feeding in lower elevation benchland and native bunchgrass communities, loafing on ridges and open areas typically with degraded to severely degraded vegetative communities, and traveling across exotic forage grasses and through draws with variable vegetation. Elk pellet cluster density was highest in lower elevation grassland and foothills and irrigated agricultural fields. This baseline data will allow us to assess elk response to restoration efforts that seek to replace many weed-dominated communities with diverse native vegetation

Assessing by design—constructing a marking guide

NEED Improving assessment is a key aim of the Australian Council of Deans of Science (ACDS). In 2023, it funded workshops to help improve assessment across the sciences, where science educators across Australia worked with assessment experts from the Australian Council of Educational Research and discipline leaders to learn how to write, review and undertake psychometric analysis of assessment items. Effective marking guides (rubrics) are an essential part of aligning assessment to learning outcomes, showing the performance expectations of an assessment, and demonstrating the objectivity of the assessment’s marking. Designing and developing marking guides (rubrics) is both an art and a skill. There is literature, but there is no replacement for experience and for adopting a design approach to constructing excellent marking guides. It is worth spending time on the design and writing of a marking guide as it will likely improve marking both through improved feedback to students, discrimination of performance, reliability and through increasing marking efficiency. WHAT WE WILL DO In this session we will work through three stages to develop skills at constructing marking guides: We will work together to identify the key determinants of a good marking guide. This discussion will be supported by consideration of the literature and of our collective experience. We will apply those determinants to working collaboratively to develop and refine a marking guide as a group. We will work in small groups to refine marking guides brought to the workshop by participants. WHO SHOULD ATTEND All are welcome to join us for this workshop. It follows on from the assessment workshops sponsored by the ACDS in 2023 and attended by over thirty academics around Australia. WHAT TO BRING We encourage participants to bring a marking guide that they would like to improve

Aggregates of bacteriophage 0305φ8-36 seed future growth

Lytic bacteriophage 0305φ8-36 forms visually observed aggregates during plaque formation. Aggregates intrinsically lower propagation potential. In the present study, the following observations indicate that lost propagation potential is regained with time: (1) Aggregates sometimes concentrate at the edge of clear plaques. (2) A semi-clear ring sometimes forms beyond the plaques. (3) Formation of a ring is completely correlated with the presence of aggregates at the same angular displacement along the plaque edge. To explain this aggregate-derived lowering/raising of propagation potential, the following hypothesis is presented: Aggregation/dissociation of bacteriophage of 0305φ8-36 is a selected phenomenon that evolved to maintain high host finding rate in a trade-off with maintaining high rate of bacteriophage progeny production. This hypothesis explains ringed plaque morphology observed for other bacteriophages and predicts that aggregates will undergo time-dependent change in structure as propagation potential increases. In support, fluorescence microscopy reveals time-dependent change in the distance between resolution-limited particles in aggregates

The Role of Narcissistic Hypocrisy in the Development of Accounting Estimates

In an experiment including experienced managers, we investigate how supervisor and subordinate narcissism influence a supervisor’s review of a subordinate’s accounting estimate. While narcissistic supervisors express greater liking for narcissistic subordinates (narcissistic tolerance), they nonetheless reject and revise the accounting estimates of narcissistic subordinates to a greater extent than they reject estimates of non‐narcissistic subordinates (narcissistic hypocrisy), even when doing so inhibits the supervisor’s ability to reach a profit target. Our findings contribute to extant research in accounting and psychology. We demonstrate that narcissistic hypocrisy extends beyond the evaluation of others and alters narcissists’ willingness to rely on other narcissists in a meaningful financial reporting decision. We also find that narcissistic hypocrisy is robust across age, gender, and supervisory experience.RÉSUMÉLe rôle de l’hypocrisie narcissique dans l’élaboration d’estimations comptablesLes auteurs mènent auprès de gestionnaires chevronnés une expérience visant à déterminer en quoi le narcissisme des supérieurs et des subalternes influe sur l’examen auquel les supérieurs soumettent les estimations comptables des subalternes. Bien que les supérieurs narcissiques semblent apprécier davantage les subalternes narcissiques (tolérance narcissique), ils rejettent et révisent néanmoins les estimations des subalternes narcissiques plus souvent qu’ils ne rejettent les estimations des subalternes non narcissiques (hypocrisie narcissique), même lorsque cette décision nuit à leur capacité d’atteindre un objectif de profit. Les résultats de l’étude viennent enrichir les recherches existantes en comptabilité et en psychologie. Les auteurs démontrent que l’hypocrisie narcissique s’étend au‐delà de l’évaluation d’autrui et modifie la mesure dans laquelle les narcissiques sont disposés à s’appuyer sur d’autres narcissiques dans une décision importante en matière d’information financière. Ils observent également que leurs conclusions quant à l’hypocrisie narcissique persistent quels que soient l’-ge, le sexe et l’expérience de supervision.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155911/1/care12552-sup-0001-SupInfo.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155911/2/care12552.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155911/3/care12552_am.pd

Perennial Cereals: A Novel Source of Feed for Grazing Livestock

Initial deployment of perennial cereal crops will likely be as a dual-purpose crop producing forage for livestock as well as grain. This study evaluated the biomass and grain production of 4 wheat × wheatgrass derivative experimental lines under 4 simulated grazing regimes; nil defoliation (D0), defoliate once (D1), defoliate twice (D2) and defoliate twice followed by a simulated hay cut (D3), and compared performance to a winter wheat, cv. EGA Wedgetail, and the perennial grass Thinopyrum intermedium. Increasing defoliation intensity significantly (P \u3c 0.001) lengthened the time to flowering for all lines. All experimental lines produced less biomass in the first year than EGA Wedgetail but more than Th. intermedium in the first spring. Grain yield from Wedgetail was significantly higher (P \u3c 0.001) than all other lines except in the D3 treatment. As defoliation intensity increased, the comparative difference in grain yield between Wedgetail and the experimental entries decreased, with experimental lines OK 7211542 and 11955 exceeding the grain yield of EGA Wedgetail in the D3 treatment. Cumulative biomass production of the experimental lines exceeded that of Wedgetail (P = 0.005), though the distribution of production, across seasons differed markedly. This paper discusses the opportunities perennial cereals may offer as a novel forage source in a mixed-farming context

Adapting and validating diabetes simulation models across settings: Accounting for mortality differences using administrative data

Abstract Aims. To develop age and sex-specific risk equations for predicting mortality following major complications of diabetes, using a large linked administrative dataset from Western Australia (WA) and to incorporate these into an existing diabetes simulation model.. Methods: The study uses linked hospital and mortality records on 13,884 patients following a major diabetes-related complication with a mean (SD) duration of 2.62 (2.25) years. Risk equations for predicting mortality were derived and integrated into the UKPDS Outcomes Model. Estimates of life expectancy and incremental QALYs gained as a result of two theoretical therapies (a reduction of HbA1c of 1%, and reduction of systolic blood pressure of 10mmHg) were determined using the original and adapted models. Results: The two versions of the model generated differences in life expectancy following specific events; however there was little impact of using alternative mortality equations on incremental QALYs gained as a result of reducing HbA1c or systolic blood pressure, or on outcomes of life expectancy for a cohort initially free of complications. Conclusions: Mortality following complications varies across diabetic populations and can impact on estimates of life expectancy, but appears to have less impact on incremental benefits of interventions that are commonly used in pharmoeconomic analyses.National Health and Medical Resaerch Council; Diabetes Australia Research Trus

Understanding the Impact of Technology: Learner and School Level Factors

The first part of this report focuses on the factors impacting on learner performance in national tests at primary and secondary level. This was the central research question of this research. The second section focuses on teacher and learner perceptions of their own responses to learning and the learning environment. This was centred on, but not confined to, their school. The institutional structures record the level of development of the schools sampled here and investigate the use of two key technologies – interactive whiteboards and learning platform