Plant profit maximisation improves predictions of European forest responses to drought

- Knowledge of how water stress impacts the carbon and water cycles is a key uncertainty in terrestrial biosphere models. - We tested a new profit maximisation model, where photosynthetic uptake of CO2 is optimally traded against plant hydraulic function, as an alternative to the empirical functions commonly used in models to regulate gas exchange during periods of water stress. We conducted a multi-site evaluation of this model at the ecosystem scale, before and during major droughts in Europe. Additionally, we asked whether the maximum hydraulic conductance in the soil-plant continuum

The ABC of peer mentoring – what secondary students have to say about cross-age peer mentoring in a regional Australian school

Cross-age peer mentoring is an educational model that builds on peer support and mentoring to assist young people to enhance social relationships, develop cognitive skills, and promote positive identity development. In this article, we outline the evaluation process of a cross-age peer-mentoring program implemented in an Australian secondary school. This program had a distinctive focus on blending cross-age peer mentoring, academic tutoring, and social support roles. We focus on the program's consumers – the voices of Year 7 students (mentees) and Year 10 students (mentors). Student perspectives were gathered using qualitative methods through repeated focus groups. Data were thematically analysed, and the findings show observed changes in social relationships, problem-solving skills, and engagement with literacy. We discuss the importance of this relationship for effective learning and examine the reported changes to engagement with relationship building. Implications for developing whole-of-school support and increasing wider participation are discussed

Universities and Success for Greater Parramatta and Olympic Peninsula

The Greater Parramatta and Olympic Peninsula (GPOP) region is experiencing tremendous growth through the commitment of governments and anchor institutions like Western Sydney University and the University of Sydney. However, sustained focus is necessary to achieve the true potential of GPOP. How large that opportunity is, and how soon it is realised, will be determined by the collaborative focus from governments, institutions, local industry and community leaders. For this reason, the time to invest in GPOP is now

Malta's EU accession, environmental sustainability and ENGO activism

A brief article illustrating the history of Enivronmental NGOs in Malta.peer-reviewe

Adherence and communication: Reports from a study of HIV general practice

Since 1995 the expression of HIV disease in Australia has changed considerably in the direction of chronic illness. The presence of effective but highly toxic treatments for HIV - with low tolerability, and requiring a high level of adherence - creates a difficult problematic for general practitioners who prescribe them. Not the least of these difficulties is how to begin to identify what is going on for the patient in order to engage with it for the purposes of enhancing adherence, and - more generally - health and wellbeing. These reports examine some of the ways in which practitioners are addressing this problematic, both by their own account (as described in Pills in Practice), and in terms of actual instances of exchange with patients (as shown in Compliance Supportive Communication). HIV general practice is unusual in the sense that its practitioners often share - or have some understanding of - the socially produced experience of stigma and shame that attends many of the practices relating to the conditions that are seen in practice. This creates unique forms of clinical practice, from which there is much to learn. We have used this opportunity to describe and evaluate some of the forms of practice and communication that have emerged in Sydney in this context. Through discussion and reflection, the various strengths of these different techniques might be drawn upon to promote better practice

Data from: Change in sex pheromone expression by nutritional shift in male cockroaches

Environmental conditions during sexual maturation impact sexual signal expression, but little is known about how individual histories of changing environmental conditions affect the intensity of male sexual advertisement. We investigated the effects of shifting dietary nutrient composition (protein vs. carbohydrates) in male Nauphoeta cinerea cockroaches on consumption, final lipid reserves, and sex pheromone levels subsequent to completing sexual maturation on a specific diet, at high and low concentration of dietary nutrients. Consumption, lipid reserves, and sex pheromone levels were highly affected by dietary nutrient composition with higher values on carbohydrate-biased diet, and males had significantly higher and lower levels of consumption, lipid reserves, and sex pheromones when shifted to a carbohydrate-biased and a protein-biased diet, respectively, compared with males maintained on either initial diet throughout the experiment. Males shifted to a carbohydrate-biased diet at high nutrient concentration fully recouped their sex pheromone levels, attaining levels that were not significantly lower than those in males maintained on carbohydrate-biased diet at high nutrient concentration throughout the experiment. Our study shows that male sexual display in N. cinerea is plastic and highly affected by present as well as previous dietary conditions. Signaling of adaptive quality through male sex pheromones can therefore vary dynamically within the early adult life of a male in response to the nutritional composition of food that is available to ingest. This contrasts morphological sexual traits in arthropods that are affected during development and are fixed at adulthood

Data from: Sexual selection and population divergence II. divergence in different sexual traits and signal modalities in field crickets (Teleogryllus oceanicus)

Wing morphometric data includes relative warps 1-3 plus mirror and harp surface areas. Data from validations run on a subset of samples are also included. "Unique identifier" cross-references each sample to the CHC analysis in [Pascoal et al. (2016) Sexual selection and population divergence I. The influence of socially flexible cuticular hydrocarbon expression in male field crickets (Teleogryllus oceanicus). Evolution 10:82-97.] "N/A" indicates the n = 13 samples excluded from morphometric analysis as described in the present manuscript

Global HI content from a stacking experiment

VizieR online Data Catalogue associated with article published in journal Astronomy & Astrophysics with title 'From star-forming galaxies to AGN: the global HI content from a stacking experiment.' (bibcode: 2015A&A...580A..43G

SRD Change: Showcasing graduate projects that provoke sustainable changes in design thinking and practice

Every year since 2004, the Society for Responsible Design (SRD) in Sydney has been exhibiting graduate design projects which address issues of environmental change and responsibility, social equity and community ideas. This insightful exhibition, initially launched as ChangeX and now known as SRD Change, showcases exemplary graduate projects that inspire, provoke, and challenge conventional expectations of the design industry and businesses recently attuned to corporate responsibility. Works are selected from a diverse range of design disciplines across Sydney’s leading tertiary institutions. Design is reclaimed here as a tool for satisfying genuine human needs in ways that are both practical and imaginative, posing a compelling alternative to the contemporary (mis)use of design as an elitist, profit-driven enterprise fuelling unsustainable levels of consumption.Confirming the importance of higher education as an integral element to enabling meaningful change, SRD Change celebrates the culmination of a collaborative process, uniting the wisdom and knowledge of design educators, the working expertise of design professionals and the new creative enthusiasm of final year design graduates, through projects that promote fresh ways in which society can be made more sustainably aware and responsible.This paper reviews the SRD Change process, documents the highs and lows of the exhibitions, the value it provides to participant graduate designers, and its contributions in furthering design education for sustainability