The phyllophorid sea cucumbers of southern Australia (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea: Dendrochirotida: Phyllophoridae)

A new monotypic Phyllophoridae (Phyllophorinae) genus Phyllostauros, with author O’Loughlin, is erected for Thyone vercoi Joshua and Creed. We raise Phyllophorella Heding and Panning (subgenus of Phyllophorus Grube) to generic rank. The holotype and three paratypes of Phyllophorus ventripes Joshua and Creed are conspecific with Thyone vercoi Joshua and Creed. We make Phyllophorus ventripes Joshua and Creed a subjective junior synonym of Thyone vercoi Joshua and Creed. One paratype of Phyllophorus ventripes Joshua and Creed is conspecific with Phyllophorus thyonoides H. L. Clark. We reject the synonymy of Thyone okeni Bell with Thyone venusta Selenka. Twelve new species of Phyllophoridae are described for southern Australia, with author O’Loughlin: Lipotrapeza eichleri, Lipotrapeza litusi,Massinium melanieae, Massinium vimsi, Massinium watsonae, Phyllophorella notialis, Thyone flindersi, Thyone joshuai, Thyone kerkosa, Thyone spenceri, Thyone tourvillei, Thyonidiella kungi. Phyllophoridae species reported previously for southern Australia are reviewed: Lipotrapeza ventripes (Joshua and Creed); Lipotrapeza vestiens (Joshua); Neothyonidium dearmatum (Dendy and Hindle); Phyrella thyonoides (H. L. Clark); Thyone nigra Joshua and Creed; Thyone okeni Bell; Thyone vercoi Joshua and Creed. Species Phyrella thyonoides (H. L. Clark) is re-assigned to genus Phyllophorella Heding and Panning. A key is provided for the southern Australian species of Phyllophoridae. We acknowledge the rejection for nomenclatorial purposes by the ICZN (Opinion 417) of the publication by Oken 1815, and hence the current invalid statusof genus Thyone Oken. A petition has been sent to the ICZN for re-validation of Thyone Oken and we retain the use of Thyone Oken provisionally. The petition includes a similar request for re-validation of Psolus Oken

The paracaudinid sea cucumbers of Australia and New Zealand (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea: Molpadida: Caudinidae)

The four Paracaudina Heding species reported in Australia are reviewed: Paracaudina australis (Semper); Paracaudina chilensis (Müller); Paracaudina luticola Hickman; Paracaudina tetrapora (H. L. Clark). The New Zealand species Paracaudina coriacea (Hutton) is raised out of synonymy with the Chilean species Paracaudina chilensis (Müller). Both Paracaudina chilensis (Müller) and Paracaudina coriacea (Hutton) occur in New Zealand. The synonymy of the Chinese and Japanese species Paracaudina ransonnetii (Marenzeller) with Paracaudina chilensis (Müller) is maintained. Five new Caudinidae species are erected for Australia, with authors O’Loughlin and Barmos: Paracaudina ambigua, Paracaudina bacillis, Paracaudina cuprea, Paracaudina keablei, Paracaudina tripoda. A key is provided for Paracaudina species in Australia and New Zealand

Boundary description of Planckian scattering in curved spacetimes

We show that for an eikonal limit of gravity in a space-time of any dimension with a non-vanishing cosmological constant, the Einstein -- Hilbert action reduces to a boundary action. This boundary action describes the interaction of shock-waves up to the point of evolution at which the forward light-cone of a collision meets the boundary of the space-time. The conclusions are quite general and in particular generalize the previous work of E. and H. Verlinde. The role of the off-diagonal Einstein action in removing the bulk part of the action is emphasised. We discuss the sense in which our result is a particular example of holography and also the relation of our solutions in $AdS$ to those of Horowitz and Itzhaki

Processing and Transmission of Information

Contains reports on three research projects

The importance of Travelling Stock Reserves for maintaining high-quality threatened temperate woodlands

Travelling Stock Reserves are thought to represent some of the highest-quality and least degraded remnants of threatened temperate woodland in south-eastern Australia. These public reserves have not had the same high levels of grazing pressure and other disturbances as woodland remnants on private land. Thus, Travelling Stock Reserves are expected to be important for the protection of biodiversity in heavily cleared and modified landscapes. We tested the hypothesis that land tenure had significant effects on the quality of woodlands by comparing vegetation structural attributes between Travelling Stock Reserves and remnant vegetation used for primary production purposes. Vegetation attributes were monitored in 155 permanent plots over five years in remnant temperate woodland sites in the Riverina bioregion of New South Wales. Overall, Travelling Stock Reserves supported higher native plant species richness and were characterized by higher ground cover of native shrubs and less cover of exotic plant species when compared to agricultural production areas. We found land tenure had significant effects on some vegetation attributes demonstrated to be important for threatened fauna. We attribute these results to Travelling Stock Reserves having a history of lower grazing pressure compared to remnants managed for agricultural production. Our study provides empirical evidence to support the high conservation value of Travelling Stock Reserves in formerly woodland-dominated, but now extensively cleared, agricultural landscapes

Holography for the Lorentz Group Racah Coefficients

A known realization of the Lorentz group Racah coefficients is given by an integral of a product of 6 ``propagators'' over 4 copies of the hyperbolic space. These are ``bulk-to-bulk'' propagators in that they are functions of two points in the hyperbolic space. It is known that the bulk-to-bulk propagator can be constructed out of two bulk-to-boundary ones. We point out that there is another way to obtain the same object. Namely, one can use two bulk-to-boundary and one boundary-to-boundary propagator. Starting from this construction and carrying out the bulk integrals we obtain a realization of the Racah coefficients that is ``holographic'' in the sense that it only involves boundary objects. This holographic realization admits a geometric interpretation in terms of an ``extended'' tetrahedron.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures; v2: minor changes; v3: "extended" tetrahedron interpretation adde

Drained cyclic capacity of plate anchors in dense sand:Experimental and theoretical observations

This paper provides experimental evidence that shows that the drained cyclic capacity of a plate anchor in dry dense sand may be higher than the equivalent monotonic capacity. The experimental data show that when cyclic loading is low relative to the monotonic capacity, increases in the eventual capacity are observed; when the magnitudes of the cyclic loads are closer to the monotonic capacity, no increases in capacity are observed. These responses are explained in the paper using an elasto-plastic macro-element model extended with expandable bounding and memory surfaces that address the increase in strength or stiffness caused by changes in soil density and fabric when the anchor is subject to cyclic loading in dense sand. </jats:p