A COMPARISON OF SELECTED RODENTICIDES FOR THE CONTROL OF THE COMMON VALLEY POCKET GOPHER (Thomomys bottae)

The common valley pocket gopher (Thomomys bottae) has become a serious agricultural pest in certain regions of the Lower Colorado River Basin. The mechanical burrow-builder is the most economical and effective method of controlling this pest although many growers and some researchers have reported less-than-satisfactory results when using this technique with currently available rodenticides. Six formulations of three toxicants including strychnine, zinc phosphide and diphacinone were applied with the burrow-builder to assess their efficacy. Results indicated that negligible control is achieved with 0.35 and 0.5% strychnine although these are the most commonly used formulations in Arizona. Diphacinone also produced negligible control. Zinc phosphide was clearly the most effective of the compounds tested with 45% control achieved. More work with this compound is warranted

Effective Teaching Practices for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students: A Review of the Literature

This paper presents a review of the literature pertaining to the teacher actions that influence Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander student learning outcomes. This review investigates two foci: the identification of teacher actions influencing learning outcomes for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students and the methodological approach to how the influence of teacher behaviours on student learning has been determined. The literature review identifies that published literature in the effective teaching area is predominantly in the ‘good ideas’ category; that is assertions are made by authors with no research-based evidence for supporting such claims, especially through quantitative research which seeks to test the influence of specific facets of quality teaching, especially those facets identified by Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students as the qualities of effective teachers. Where there is evidence supporting best practices, the evidence is primarily qualitative in nature. The review affirms the need for empirical evidence to “tease out facets of quality teaching that are salient to Aboriginal students; elucidate their perspectives of teacher quality; and test the influence of specific facets of quality teaching on academic outcomes and the consequences of the findings for developing interventions for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.” Craven, Bodkin-Andrews and Yeung\u27s (2007, p4

Quantum Bootstrap Aggregation

We set out a strategy for quantizing attribute bootstrap aggregation to enable variance-resilient quantum machine learning. To do so, we utilise the linear decomposability of decision boundary parameters in the Rebentrost et al. Support Vector Machine to guarantee that stochastic measurement of the output quantum state will give rise to an ensemble decision without destroying the superposition over projective feature subsets induced within the chosen SVM implementation. We achieve a linear performance advantage, O(d), in addition to the existing O(log(n)) advantages of quantization as applied to Support Vector Machines. The approach extends to any form of quantum learning giving rise to linear decision boundaries

The effectiveness of activity pacing interventions for people with chronic fatigue syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose: To investigate whether activity pacing interventions (alone or in conjunction with other evidence-based interventions) improve fatigue, physical function, psychological distress, depression, and anxiety in people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Materials and methods: Seven databases were searched until 13 August 2022 for randomised controlled trials that included activity pacing interventions for CFS and a validated measure of fatigue. Secondary outcomes were physical function, psychological distress, depression, and anxiety. Two reviewers independently screened studies by title, abstract and full text. Methodological quality was evaluated using the PEDro scale. Random-effects meta-analyses were performed in R. Results: 6390 articles were screened, with 14 included. Good overall study quality was supported by PEDro scale ratings. Activity pacing interventions were effective (Hedges’ g (95% CI)) at reducing fatigue (–0.52 (–0.73 to −0.32)), psychological distress (–0.37 (–0.51 to −0.24)) and depression (–0.29 (–0.49 to −0.09)) and improving physical function (mean difference 7.18 (3.17–11.18)) when compared to no treatment/usual care. The extent of improvement was greater for interventions that encouraged graded escalation of physical activities and cognitive activities. Conclusion: Activity pacing interventions are effective in reducing fatigue and psychological distress and improving physical function in CFS, particularly when people are encouraged to gradually increase activities. Registration: PROSPERO CRD42016036087. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION A key feature of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a prolonged post-exertional exacerbation of symptoms following physical activities or cognitive activities. Activity pacing is a common strategy often embedded in multi-component management programs for CFS. Activity pacing interventions are effective in reducing fatigue and psychological distress and improving physical function in CFS, particularly when patients are encouraged to gradually increase their activities. Healthcare professionals embedding activity pacing as part of treatment should work collaboratively with patients to ensure successful, individualised self-management strategies

An industry policy debate for the 1990s — what lessons from the USA?

During the 1980s, attempts to improve the export and import competing performance of local firms were continually frustrated by frequent changes in emphasis by policymakers in Canberra. It is argued that these changes resulted from the industry policy debate being conducted by the Treasury (and IAC) and the Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce (and the AMC). The roots of this debate can be traced to an earlier industry policy debate conducted in the United States. However, while the Australian debate remained within the realm of economic philosophy, its US counterpart has developed to incorporate the interests of domestic corporations, with a renewed emphasis on the importance of demand maintenance and protection as part of an export development strategy. It is argued that Australian policy in the 1990s should focus on measures to assist local firms to capture export demand, and that the best way of doing this is within an East- Asia/Pacific trading bloc