Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

Like a star chart this volume orientates the reader to the key issues and debates in Pacific and Australasian biogeography, palaeoecology and human ecology. A feature of this collection is the diversity of approaches ranging from interpretation of the biogeographic significance of plant and animal distributional patterns, pollen analysis from peats and lake sediments to discern Quaternary climate change, explanation of the patterns of faunal extinction events, the interplay of fire on landscape evolution, and models of the environmental consequences of human settlement patterns. The diversity of approaches, geographic scope and academic rigor are a fitting tribute to the enormous contributions of Geoff Hope. As made apparent in this volume, Hope pioneered multidisciplinary understanding of the history and impacts of human cultures in the Australia- Pacific region, arguably the globe’s premier model systems for understanding the consequences of human colonization on ecological systems. The distinguished scholars who have contributed to this volume also demonstrate Hope’s enduring contribution as an inspirational research leader, collaborator and mentor. Terra Australis leave no doubt that history matters, not only for land management, but more importantly, in alerting settler and indigenous societies alike to their past ecological impacts and future environmental trajectories

Is genome downsizing associated with diversification in polyploid lineages of Veronica?

[EN] The study of genome size evolution in a phylogenetic context in related polyploid and diploid lineages can help us to understand the advantages and disadvantages of genome size changes and their effect on diversification. Here, we contribute 199 new DNA sequences and a nearly threefold increase in genome size estimates in polyploid and diploid Veronica (Plantaginaceae) (to 128 species, c. 30% of the genus) to provide a comprehensive baseline to explore the effect of genome size changes. We reconstructed internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and trnL-trnL-trnF phylogenetic trees and performed phylogenetic generalized least squares (PGLS), ancestral character state reconstruction, molecular dating and diversification analyses. Veronica 1C-values range from 0.26 to 3.19 pg. Life history is significantly correlated with 1C-value, whereas ploidy and chromosome number are strongly correlated with both 1C- and 1Cx-values. The estimated ancestral Veronica 1Cx-value is 0.65 pg, with significant genome downsizing in the polyploid Southern Hemisphere subgenus Pseudoveronica and two Northern Hemisphere subgenera, and significant genome upsizing in two diploid subgenera. These genomic downsizing events are accompanied by increased diversification rates, but a ‘core shift’ was only detected in the rate of subgenus Pseudoveronica. Polyploidy is important in the evolution of the genus, and a link between genome downsizing and polyploid diversification and species radiations is hypothesized

α-Synuclein Aggregation Inhibitory Prunolides and a Dibrominated β-Carboline Sulfamate from the Ascidian Synoicum prunum

Seven new polyaromatic bis-spiroketal-containing butenolides, the prunolides D–I (4–9) and cis-prunolide C (10), a new dibrominated β-carboline sulfamate named pityriacitrin C (11), alongside the known prunolides A–C (1–3) were isolated from the Australian colonial ascidian Synoicum prunum. The prunolides D–G (4–7) represent the first asymmetrically brominated prunolides, while cis-prunolide C (10) is the first reported with a cis-configuration about the prunolide’s bis-spiroketal core. The prunolides displayed binding activities with the Parkinson’s disease-implicated amyloid protein α-synuclein in a mass spectrometry binding assay, while the prunolides (1–5 and 10) were found to significantly inhibit the aggregation (>89.0%) of α-synuclein in a ThT amyloid dye assay. The prunolides A–C (1–3) were also tested for inhibition of pSyn aggregate formation in a primary embryonic mouse midbrain dopamine neuron model with prunolide B (2) displaying statistically significant inhibitory activity at 0.5 μM. The antiplasmodial and antibacterial activities of the isolates were also examined with prunolide C (3) displaying only weak activity against the 3D7 parasite strain of Plasmodium falciparum. Our findings reported herein suggest that the prunolides could provide a novel scaffold for the exploration of future therapeutics aimed at inhibiting amyloid protein aggregation and the treatment of numerous neurodegenerative diseases.Peer reviewe

Training evaluation: a case study of training Iranian health managers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Ministry of Health and Medical Education in the Islamic Republic of Iran has undertaken a reform of its health system, in which-lower level managers are given new roles and responsibilities in a decentralized system. To support these efforts, a United Kingdom-based university was contracted by the World Health Organization to design a series of courses for health managers and trainers. This process was also intended to develop the capacity of the National Public Health Management Centre in Tabriz, Iran, to enable it to organize relevant short courses in health management on a continuing basis. A total of seven short training courses were implemented, three in the United Kingdom and four in Tabriz, with 35 participants. A detailed evaluation of the courses was undertaken to guide future development of the training programmes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The Kirkpatrick framework for evaluation of training was used to measure participants' reactions, learning, application to the job, and to a lesser extent, organizational impact. Particular emphasis was put on application of learning to the participants' job. A structured questionnaire was administered to 23 participants, out of 35, between one and 13 months after they had attended the courses. Respondents, like the training course participants, were predominantly from provincial universities, with both health system and academic responsibilities. Interviews with key informants and ex-trainees provided supplemental information, especially on organizational impact.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Participants' preferred interactive methods for learning about health planning and management. They found the course content to be relevant, but with an overemphasis on theory compared to practical, locally-specific information. In terms of application of learning to their jobs, participants found specific information and skills to be most useful, such as health systems research and group work/problem solving. The least useful areas were those that dealt with training and leadership. Participants reported little difficulty in applying learning deemed "useful", and had applied it often. In general, a learning area was used less when it was found difficult to apply, with a few exceptions, such as problem-solving. Four fifths of respondents claimed they could perform their jobs better because of new skills and more in-depth understanding of health systems, and one third had been asked to train their colleagues, indicating a potential for impact on their organization. Interviews with key informants indicated that job performance of trainees had improved.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The health management training programmes in Iran, and the external university involved in capacity building, benefited from following basic principles of good training practice, which incorporated needs assessment, selection of participants and definition of appropriate learning outcomes, course content and methods, along with focused evaluation. Contracts for external assistance should include specific mention of capacity building, and allow for the collaborative development of courses and of evaluation plans, in order to build capacity of local partners throughout the training cycle. This would also help to develop training content that uses material from local health management situations to demonstrate key theories and develop locally required skills. Training evaluations should as a minimum assess participants' reactions and learning for every course. Communication of evaluation results should be designed to ensure that data informs training activities, as well as the health and human resources managers who are investing in the development of their staff.</p

Mid- to late Pliocene (3.3-2.6 Ma) global sea-level fluctuations recorded on a continental shelf transect, Whanganui Basin, New Zealand

We present a similar to 900 m-thick, mid- (3.3-3.0 Ma) to late Pliocene (3.0-2.6 Ma), shallow-marine, cyclical sedimentary succession from Whanganui Basin, New Zealand that identifies paleobathymetric changes, during a warmer-than-present interval of Earth history, relevant to future climate change. Our approach applies lithofacies, sequence stratigraphy and benthic foraminiferal analyses to two continuously-cored drillholes integrated with new and existing outcrop studies. We construct a depositional model of orbitally-paced, global sea-level changes on a wave-graded continental shelf. Unlike many previous studies, these shelf sediments were not eroded during sea-level lowstands and thus provide the potential to reconstruct the full amplitude of glacial-interglacial sea-level change. Paleobathymetric interpretations are underpinned by analysis of extant benthic foraminiferal census data and a statistical correlation with the distribution of modern taxa. In general, water depths derived from foraminiferal Modern Analogue Technique (MAT), are consistent with variability recorded by lithofacies. The inferred sea-level cycles co-vary with a qualitative climate record reconstructed from a census of extant pollen and spores, and a modern temperature relationship. A high -resolution age model is established using magnetostratigraphy constrained by biostratigraphy, and the dating and correlation of tephra. This integrated chronostratigraphy allows the recognition of 23 individual sedimentary cycles, that are correlated across the paleo-shelf and a possible "one-to-one" relationship is made to deep-ocean benthic oxygen isotope (delta O-18) records. In general water depth changes were paced by similar to 20 kyr duration between 3.3 and 3.0 Ma, after which cycle duration is similar to 40 kyr during the late Pliocene (3.0-2.6 Ma). This record provides a future opportunity to evaluate the amplitude and frequency of global, Pliocene glacioeustatic sea-level change, independent of the global benthic delta O-18 record. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserve

Tax Evasion, Tax Avoidance and Tax Planning in Australia: The participation in mass-marketed tax avoidance schemes in the Pilbara region of Western Australia in the 1990s

This paper will examine the development of mass-marketed tax avoidance schemes in Australia. It will consider changes in approach to tax avoidance from the ‘bottom of the harbour’ schemes of the 1960s and 1970s to the mass-marketed tax avoidance schemes of the 1990s. It will examine the changing structure of tax avoidance from individually crafted tax avoidance structures designed by accountants and lawyers used by high wealth individuals to mass produced structures targeted at highly paid, and therefore highly taxed, blue collar workers in Australia’s mining industry in the 1990s. In the latter half of the twentieth century ‘unacceptable’ tax planning went from highly expensive, individually ‘tailor made’ structures afforded and used only by the very wealthy, to inexpensive replicated structures marketed to skilled and unskilled tradespeople and labourers. By 1998 over 42 000 Australian taxpayers were engaged in tax avoidance schemes with the highest proportion focussed in the mining regions of Western Australia. In the remote and inhospitable mining community of Pannawonica, which has one of the highest paid workforces in Australia, the Australian Taxation Office identified that as many as one in five taxpayers were engaged in a mass-marketed tax avoidance scheme. The paper will identify the causes of these changes, including the advent of the computerised information technology which permitted ‘mass production’ of business structures designed to exploit business incentives in the Australian taxation system in the 1990s. It will also set these developments within the broader context of the tax compliance culture prevailing in Australia and overseas during this period

Autobiographical memory and well-being in aging: the central role of semantic self-images

Higher levels of well-being are associated with longer life expectancies and better physical health. Previous studies suggest that processes involving the self and autobiographical memory are related to well-being, yet these relationships are poorly understood. The present study tested 32 older and 32 younger adults using scales measuring well-being and the affective valence of two types of autobiographical memory: episodic autobiographical memories and semantic self-images. Results showed that valence of semantic self-images, but not episodic autobiographical memories, was highly correlated with well-being,particularly in older adults. In contrast, well-being in older adults was unrelated to performance across a range of standardised memory tasks. These results highlight the role of semantic self-images in well-being, and have implications for the development of therapeutic interventions for well-being in aging

Holocene dynamics of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds and possible links to CO2 outgassing

The Southern Hemisphere westerly winds (SHW) play an important role in regulating the capacity of the Southern Ocean carbon sink. They modulate upwelling of carbon-rich deep water and, with sea ice, determine the ocean surface area available for air–sea gas exchange. Some models indicate that the current strengthening and poleward shift of these winds will weaken the carbon sink. If correct, centennial- to millennial-scale reconstructions of the SHW intensity should be linked with past changes in atmospheric CO2, temperature and sea ice. Here we present a 12,300-year reconstruction of wind strength based on three independent proxies that track inputs of sea-salt aerosols and minerogenic particles accumulating in lake sediments on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island. Between about 12.1 thousand years ago (ka) and 11.2 ka, and since about 7 ka, the wind intensities were above their long-term mean and corresponded with increasing atmospheric CO2. Conversely, from about 11.2 to 7.2 ka, the wind intensities were below their long-term mean and corresponded with decreasing atmospheric CO2. These observations are consistent with model inferences of enhanced SHW contributing to the long-term outgassing of CO2 from the Southern Ocean

The last forests on Antarctica: Reconstructing flora and temperature from the Neogene Sirius Group, Transantarctic Mountains

Fossil-bearing deposits in the Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica indicate that, despite the cold nature of the continent’s climate, a tundra ecosystem grew during periods of ice sheet retreat in the mid to late Neogene (17–2.5 Ma), 480 km from the South Pole. To date, palaeotemperature reconstruction has been based only on biological ranges, thereby calling for a geochemical approach to understanding continental climate and environment. There is contradictory evidence in the fossil record as to whether this flora was mixed angiosperm-conifer vegetation, or whether by this point conifers had disappeared from the continent. In order to address these questions, we have analysed, for the first time in sediments of this age, plant and bacterial biomarkers in terrestrial sediments from the Transantarctic Mountains to reconstruct past temperature and vegetation during a period of East Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat. From tetraether lipids (MBT’/CBT palaeothermometer), we conclude that the mean continental summer temperature was ca. 5 °C, in agreement with previous reconstructions. This was warm enough to have allowed woody vegetation to survive and reproduce even during the austral winter. Biomarkers from vascular plants indicate a low diversity and spatially variable flora consisting of higher plants, moss and algal mats growing in microenvironments in a glacial outwash system. Abietane-type compounds were abundant in some samples, indicating that conifers, most likely Podocarpaceae, grew on the Antarctic continent well into the Neogene. This is supported by the palynological record, but not the macrofossil record for the continent, and has implications for the evolution of vegetation on Antarctica