Australia

The most important development in constitutional reform in Australia in 2020 was the continued evolution of proposals for an Indigenous advisory body called a ‘First Nations Voice’. Despite progress, there remains disagreement over basic design questions, including whether such a body should be entrenched in the national Constitution. This report examines the current status of the Voice proposal and other ideas for constitutional reform, and reflects on why constitutional amendment in Australia continues to be so difficult

Villedieu-sur-Indre – Les Chétifs Prés, Grand-Saint-Bonnet

Le diagnostic de 8 ha réalisé sur la commune de Villedieu-sur-Indre, au lieu-dit le Grand-Saint-Bonnet a permis la découverte de deux occupations protohistoriques en milieu humide dans la vallée de l’Indre. Les occupations sont datées du ve s. av. J.-C. pour la première et de la deuxième moitié du iie-début du ier s. av. J.-C. pour la seconde. Leur organisation est bien structurée dans l’espace, les deux occupations ne se superposant pas. Le contexte archéologique environnant est très dense e..

Montoire-sur-le-Loir – Carrière les Pièces de la Touche (tranche 4)

Le diagnostic réalisé au lieu-dit la Touche à Montoire-sur-le-Loir (parcelles ZD 30, 31 et 32) sur une superficie d’un peu plus de 3 ha a livré des témoins d’occupations anciennes de fond de vallée. Ces vestiges sont localisés dans les formations argileuses colmatant d’anciens paléochenaux, à peine perceptibles dans le paysage au moment des implantations humaines. Une première phase d’occupation a été identifiée au sommet d’une argile à auréoles d’oxydo-réduction (dite « orange ») à environ 0..

Prevalence of QoI resistance and mtDNA diversity in the Irish Zymoseptoria tritici population

peer-reviewedThe emergence and spread of Quinone outside Inhibitor (QoI) fungicide resistance in the Irish Zymoseptoria tritici population in the early 2000s had immediate impacts on the efficacy of the entire group of fungicides for the control of septoria tritici blotch. As a result, a dramatic reduction in the quantities applied to winter wheat occurred in the following seasons. Even in the absence of these fungicides, the frequency of the resistance allele, G143A in the pathogens mtDNA has remained exceptionally high (>97%), and as such, it can be anticipated that continued poor efficacy of current QoI fungicides will be observed. Amongst the isolates with G143A, differences in sensitivity to the QoI pyraclostrobin were observed in vitro. The addition of the alternative oxidase (AOX) inhibitor salicylhydroxamic acid increased sensitivity in these isolates, suggesting some continued impairment of respiration by the QoI fungicides, albeit weak. Interestingly, amongst those tested, the strains from a site with a high frequency of inserts in the MFS1 transporter gene known to enhance QoI efflux did not exhibit this increase in sensitivity. A total of 19 mtDNA haplotypes were detected amongst the 2017 strain collection. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the suggestion of a common ancestry of all the haplotypes, even though three of the haplotypes contained at least one sensitive strain

Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine, Saint-Épain – Autoroute A10 (tronçon 7), viaduc du Courtineau

L’opération de diagnostic a porté sur le tronçon 7 du projet d’élargissement de l’autoroute A10 au niveau du viaduc de la vallée de Courtineau sur les communes de Saint-Épain et de Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine en Indre-et-Loire. L’emprise incluait les bords de plateaux encadrant la vallée de Courtineau (secteurs Est 1, Est 2 et Ouest) ainsi que le fond de vallée. Une falaise calcaire fortement impactée par les activités anthropiques (carrière et habitat troglodyte) borde au nord l’étroite vallée ..

Montoire-sur-le-Loir – Carrière les Pièces de la Touche (tranche 5)

L’opération de diagnostic de 4,2 ha réalisée dans le cadre du projet d’extension de la carrière de la Touche à Montoire-sur-le-Loir (Loir-et-Cher) a confirmé la présence d’une nappe discontinue de vestiges principalement lithiques néolithiques ainsi que trois concentrations peu denses de silex non taillés chauffés, probables reliquats de structures de combustion circulaires, dans la continuité du site identifié dans la parcelle contigüe diagnostiquée en 2016. Le degré d’altération des vestige..

Distribution and incidence of viruses in Irish seed potato crops

peer-reviewedVirus diseases are of key importance in potato production and in particular for the production of disease-free potato seed. However, there is little known about the frequency and distribution of potato virus diseases in Ireland. Despite a large number of samples being tested each year, the data has never been collated either within or across years. Information from all known potato virus testing carried out in the years 2006–2012 by the Department of Agriculture Food and Marine was collated to give an indication of the distribution and incidence of potato virus in Ireland. It was found that there was significant variation between regions, varieties, years and seed classes. A definition of daily weather data suitable for aphid flight was developed, which accounted for a significant proportion of the variation in virus incidence between years. This use of weather data to predict virus risk could be developed to form the basis of an integrated pest management approach for aphid control in Irish potato crops