The 2014 Victorian State Election

Victoria is earning a reputation for producing surprising election results. According to political commentators and the opinion polls, the 1999 election was expected to return the Coalition Government and the 2010 election was expected to return the Labor Government, yet neither did. Even though the polls had long placed Labor ahead of the Coalition, the party’s election to office at the 2014 election was still regarded as a significant outcome. This was because of the removal of the Coalition Government after only one term in power, when history has shown us that governments in Victoria are often likely to consolidate their position at their first return to the ballot box. It had been more than half a century since Victoria experienced a single term government, in 1952-55, and it was a casualty of the split of the Australian Labor Party. It should be noted however, that the close numbers in the Legislative Assembly in the last Parliament — 44 Coalition, 43 Labor and one Independent, and the redistribution of the state’s electoral boundaries, meant that Labor required a notional uniform swing of only around 1 per cent to gain government. The election result was that Labor secured government by obtaining a total of 47 seats in the 88 seat Parliament with a swing of 3.6 per cent on a two-party preferred basis. This election is also historic for the election of two representatives of the Greens Party into the Legislative Assembly: the first time the party has won seats in the Lower House in Victoria. Also, notable, was the election of an Independent in what had been a very safe National Party seat (Shepparton). The make-up of the Legislative Council after the election was also significantly changed. Neither of the major parties won a majority in the Upper House, and the Greens and four other minor parties won ten seats between them. As stated earlier, this paper provides a description and analysis of the results the 2014 Victorian state election, set out in three main sections. Part A of the paper provides some context to the outcome of the election by examining the redistribution of Victoria’s state electoral boundaries, and key issues during the life of the 57th Parliament. Part B of the paper provides an overview of the election campaign, the leaders’ debate, preference deals, social media, key policies, and polls data in the lead up to, and during the campaign. This section also includes a brief overview of the minor parties. Part C of the paper examines the outcomes of the election in both houses and how the parties fared. It also contains a short section on women MPs, new and departing MPs, voter turnout, and the number of candidates contesting the election. Part C also provides statistical tables for each district and region and additional tables and information on relevant voter statistics

Application of yeast to study the tau and amyloid-β abnormalities of Alzheimer's disease

The major molecules associated with Alzheimer's disease, the phosphorylated protein tau and the 42 amino acid peptide, amyloid-β (Aβ), have recently been analyzed in yeast. These yeast studies have provided major new insights into the effects of tau and Aβ and, at the same time, offered new approaches to rapidly search for chemicals that may be involved in prevention of Alzheimer's disease. The following review summarizes the role of yeast and its contribution in Alzheimer's disease research, and highlights important studies that have been conducted in this model organism

Incorporating carbon footprints into seafood sustainability certification and eco-labels

© 2015 The Authors. The seafood industry has become increasingly interconnected at a global scale, with fish the most traded commodity worldwide. Travel to the farthest reaches of the oceans for capture is now common practice, and subsequent transport to market can require hundreds to thousands of miles of travel by sea and air. Refrigeration of seafood products is generally required at all stages of the journey from ocean to dinner plate, resulting in substantial energy expenditure. Energy input for aquaculture (including mariculture) products can also be high, namely due to the large amounts of feed required to support fish growth. As a result of these factors, the seafood industry has a substantial carbon footprint. Surprisingly, however, carbon footprints of seafood products are rarely integrated into assessments of their sustainability by eco-labels, sustainability certification, or consumer seafood sustainability guides. Suggestions are provided here for how carbon footprints could be incorporated within seafood sustainability schemes

Microbes at the extreme: mining with microbes

The use of microorganisms to recover precious and base metals from mineral ores and concentrates is called biomining, or biohydrometallurgical processing. Biomining occurs through the natural ability of certain microorganisms to catalyse reactions, leading to the solubilisation of metals from the minerals. This process is used today in commercial operations to recover copper, nickel, cobalt, zinc and uranium from complex ore

Restricting Prey Dispersal Can Overestimate the Importance of Predation in Trophic Cascades

Predators can affect prey populations and, via trophic cascades, predators can indirectly impact resource populations (2 trophic levels below the predator) through consumption of prey (density-mediated indirect effects; DMIEs) and by inducing predator-avoidance behavior in prey (trait-mediated indirect effects; TMIEs). Prey often employ multiple predator-avoidance behaviors, such as dispersal or reduced foraging activity, but estimates of TMIEs are usually on individual behaviors. We assessed direct and indirect predator effects in a mesocosm experiment using a marine food chain consisting of a predator (toadfish - Opsanus tau), prey (mud crab - Panopeus herbstii) and resource (ribbed mussel - Geukensia demissa). We measured dispersal and foraging activity of prey separately by manipulating both the presence and absence of the predator, and whether prey could or could not disperse into a predator-free area. Consumption of prey was 9 times greater when prey could not disperse, probably because mesocosm boundaries increased predator capture success. Although predator presence did not significantly affect the number of crabs that emigrated, the presence of a predator decreased resource consumption by prey, which resulted in fewer resources consumed for each prey that emigrated in the presence of a predator, and reduced the overall TMIE. When prey were unable to disperse, TMIEs on mussel survival were 3 times higher than the DMIEs. When prey were allowed to disperse, the TMIEs on resource survival increased to 11-times the DMIEs. We found that restricting the ability of prey to disperse, or focusing on only one predator-avoidance behavior, may be underestimating TMIEs. Our results indicate that the relative contribution of behavior and consumption in food chain dynamics will depend on which predator-avoidance behaviors are allowed to occur and measured. © 2013 Geraldi, Macreadie

Loss of 'Blue Carbon' from Coastal Salt Marshes Following Habitat Disturbance

Increased recognition of the global importance of salt marshes as 'blue carbon' (C) sinks has led to concern that salt marshes could release large amounts of stored C into the atmosphere (as CO2) if they continue undergoing disturbance, thereby accelerating climate change. Empirical evidence of C release following salt marsh habitat loss due to disturbance is rare, yet such information is essential for inclusion of salt marshes in greenhouse gas emission reduction and offset schemes. Here we investigated the stability of salt marsh (Spartina alterniflora) sediment C levels following seagrass (Thallasia testudinum) wrack accumulation; a form of disturbance common throughout the world that removes large areas of plant biomass in salt marshes. At our study site (St Joseph Bay, Florida, USA), we recorded 296 patches (7.5 ± 2.3 m2 mean area ± SE) of vegetation loss (aged 3-12 months) in a salt marsh meadow the size of a soccer field (7 275 m2). Within these disturbed patches, levels of organic C in the subsurface zone (1-5 cm depth) were ~30% lower than the surrounding undisturbed meadow. Subsequent analyses showed that the decline in subsurface C levels in disturbed patches was due to loss of below-ground plant (salt marsh) biomass, which otherwise forms the main component of the long-term 'refractory' C stock. We conclude that disturbance to salt marsh habitat due to wrack accumulation can cause significant release of below-ground C; which could shift salt marshes from C sinks to C sources, depending on the intensity and scale of disturbance. This mechanism of C release is likely to increase in the future due to sea level rise; which could increase wrack production due to increasing storminess, and will facilitate delivery of wrack into salt marsh zones due to higher and more frequent inundation. © 2013 Macreadie et al

Isolation of the Pneumocystis carinii dihydrofolate synthase gene and functional complementation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The Pneumocystis carinii gene encoding the enzyme dihydrofolate synthase (DHFS), which is involved in the essential biosynthesis of folates, was isolated from clones of the Pneumocystis genome project, and sequenced. The deduced P. carinii DHFS protein shares 38% and 35% identity with DHFS of Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, respectively. P. carinii DHFS expressed from a plasmid functionally complemented a S. cerevisiae mutant with no DHFS. Comparison of available DHFSs with highly similar folylpolyglutamate synthases allowed the identification of potential signatures responsible for the specificities of these two classes of enzymes. The results open the way to experimentally analyse the structure and function of P. carinii mono-functional enzyme DHFS, to investigate a possible role of DHFS in the resistance to antifolates of P. jirovecii, the species infecting specifically humans, and to develop a new class of antifolate

Finding chemopreventatives to reduce amyloid beta in yeast

[No abstract available

How can herbivores modify ecosystem service delivery in seagrass meadows?

Seagrasses provide important habitat that delivers ecosystem services such as the provision of food to a wide diversity of herbivores globally. In the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) we find the full size spectrum of herbivores; from small mesograzers such as amphipods, to macrograzers such as fish and large megagrazers such as turtles and dugongs. These herbivores can structurally alter seagrass beds in either positive or negative ways depending on their size, feeding preferences and methods and grazing intensity. These structural changes can subsequently interact with the delivery of other ecosystem services, or the benefits to humans, provided by the seagrass meadow. Multiple ecosystem services have the potential to interact with each other in non-linear relationships. Interactions between herbivory and the provision of other ecosystem services may be additive, synergistic or antagonistic. For example where seagrass growth is stimulated by mesograzers controlling epiphytic algal loads, or light cropping by fish or turtles there may be an additive or synergistic association with carbon sequestration, sediment stabilisation and habitat provision while heavy grazing by dugong may interact with these services in an antagonistic relationship, but have an additive or synergistic relationship with ecotourism. An understanding of these interactions will be important to ecosystem mangers seeking to maximise delivery of ecosystem services and will help them to understand what trade-offs need to be considered when managing for the conservation of megaherbivores. The GBR not only has one of the highest diversities of herbivores, but also highly diverse seagrass species which cover more than 35 000 km 2. This makes the GBR an ideal place to study seagrass herbivore interactions and their impact on ecosystem service provision across a range of seagrass species and community types. This presentation will outline the current knowledge about herbivore impacts on seagrass ecosystem service provision and provide a conceptual framework to illustrate how herbivory may interact with other ecosystem services. It will also identify how research from temperate seagrass beds may apply to a tropical setting and suggest how the current research gap can be addressed