Food Preferences of the Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula)

The common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) has been reported to eat vegetation, fruit, invertebrates, and occasionally fungi, eggs and meat. The relative preference between food types found in the wild, however, has not been investigated systematically in a controlled laboratory study. This research investigated captive possums’ food choice using two different methods of preference assessment. The first experiment involved a single stimulus assessment of possums’ (n = 20) consumption of individually presented food items. More than 75% of possums consumed berries, locusts and mushrooms but fewer than 50% of possums consumed fivefinger, raw chicken and eggs. The second experiment that used a paired stimulus assessment to establish relative preference for those foods revealed that no single food was preferred by all possums. Overall locusts were the most preferred food, followed in order of preference by berries, egg, mushrooms, chicken and foliage. The single stimulus preference assessment confirmed the palatability of foods. The paired stimulus assessment provided a rank order of food preferences

The FIFO experience: A Gladstone case study

The aim of this article is to explore the historic and contemporary use of nonresident workers (NRWs) in the Gladstone region, how this has contributed to the region’s development, and the economic and social impacts of the use of Fly-in Fly-out (FIFO) employment practices. Gladstone, in Central Queensland, is at the front and centre of Australia’s evolving economic growth with some $45 billion of investment being delivered in the region. Recently, the construction of three coal seam gas and liquefied natural gas (CSG and LNG) projects on Curtis Island in Gladstone harbour has placed enormous pressure on the region in terms of unprecedented labour and housing demands. It has seen the extensive use of FIFO and Drive-in Drive-out (DIDO) workers. An exploratory qualitative approach framed by key concepts in the literature on resource dependence and socio-economic well-being and, in particular, the fly-over effects of utilising large-scale FIFO labour practices is used in this study. A case study research design has been utilised involving archival and documentary analysis, and a series of qualitative semi-structured interviews with community stakeholders. Recent research into the socio-economic impacts on regional resource-dependent regions across Australia points to a shift away from the ‘resource curse’ hypothesis (Lawrie et al. 2011, Tonts et al. 2012). We argue that the Gladstone story is unique and is differentiated from the atypical story of the company-built inland mining town, due to a number of contextual variables. Key issues from multiple perspectives are identified and recommendations for future research are made

An examination of the performance of a natural truncation point and acceptance rule for a curtailed Wald sequential sampling plan with Bernoulli parameters

This paper examines the performance of a proposed truncation and acceptance rule for the Wald Sequential Probability Ratio test for Bernoulli parameters, and the rule's influence on errors of the first and second kind as well as the average number of items sampled for inspection. The proposed truncation and acceptance rule suggests that there exists a natural truncation point for every sequential probability ratio test such that the desired error probabilities are not exceeded or that one of the true errors is smaller than desired and the other will exceeded by an insignificant amount. A computer program is used to simulate the sampling process and provide estimates of the true values of a plan's Operating Characteristic curve, its average sample number, as well as the probability of implementing the truncation and acceptance rule. Results suggest that truncation and rejection of a lot at the natural truncation point will maintain a plan's desired Operating Characteristic curve. The cases examined also suggest that any modification to the natural truncation point truncation and acceptance rule may cause an unacceptable deviation from the desired Operating Characteristic curve. Finally, a linear equation was developed which provides an estimate of the upper limit on the probability of implementing a truncartion and acceptance rule, and that is most cases, this upper limit is less than 0.15.http://archive.org/details/examinationofper00lewiLieutenant, United States Coast GuardApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Energy ‘access’ for sustainable development: Enabling modern energy practices in rural communities

Modern energy services are a foundation for sustainable development. As recently acknowledged by the multilaterally supported UNDP’s ‘energy access for all’ objective, it is a missing cog for the socio-economic, empowerment, livelihood enhancement and sustainability of more than 2 billion people in developing and less developed countries. Efforts to provide modern energy services, however, face pervasive challenges reflective of wider development efforts, establishing the imperative for greater understanding of their underlying dimensions as a basis for enhancing sustainable development pathways. The thesis pursues this through ethnographic studies of innovative and contrasting energy access pathways in remote areas of Nepal. These were supported by preliminary site visits, semi-structured interviews, participant observation and observant participation with a range of key development actors, led by a reflexive, multi-sited research approach. The research reveals that the challenges and opportunities of effective energy access and sustainable development are embedded in under-recognised social routines and contexts that subsume essential dimensions of daily life. These are dynamic, multi-actor and interconnected through routinised codes, performances and institutions for which social emotions, meanings and relations are integral. Interventions, technologies and impacts interdepend on these mundane interactions and structures, signifying the vital role of social agency and conventions in everyday life. ‘Access’ is a constant (re)negotiation of these within a socio-technical context. The findings demonstrate the value of integrating these dimensions into development approaches through being attentive to, and co-produced by, the plurality of actors, settings and routines. A practice theory informed approach supported the analysis to signify further distinctive policy, research and pathway implications. The thesis thus demonstrates the potential of a social practice approach for enabling a more sensitive and effective framework for enabling energy access for sustainable development

Sustaining Kyoto Arts and Heritage: Digital Platform

Kyoto is losing its culture and heritage to natural disasters and the modernization of the city. The goal of this project was to help Kyoto VR, an immersive media company seeking to digitally preserve Kyoto’s culture, discover sources of possible funding opportunities. To do this we created a list of the most appropriate sponsors, funders, and investors for Kyoto VR. We also created a compact guide containing the best practices for grant proposal writing. Lastly, we created media for Kyoto VR to further expand their brand

Metabolomic-based biomarker discovery for non-invasive lung cancer screening:A case study

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer (LC) is one of the leading lethal cancers worldwide, with an estimated 18.4% of all cancer deaths being attributed to the disease. Despite developments in cancer diagnosis and treatment over the previous thirty years, LC has seen little to no improvement in the overall five year survival rate after initial diagnosis. METHODS: In this paper, we extended a recent study which profiled the metabolites in sputum from patients with lung cancer and age-matched volunteers smoking controls using flow infusion electrospray ion mass spectrometry. We selected key metabolites for distinguishing between different classes of lung cancer, and employed artificial neural networks and leave-one-out cross-validation to evaluate the predictive power of the identified biomarkers. RESULTS: The neural network model showed excellent performance in classification between lung cancer and control groups with the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.99. The sensitivity and specificity of for detecting cancer from controls were 96% and 94% respectively. Furthermore, we have identified six putative metabolites that were able to discriminate between sputum samples derived from patients suffering small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer. These metabolites achieved excellent cross validation performance with a sensitivity of 80% and specificity of 100% for predicting SCLC. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that sputum metabolic profiling may have potential for screening of lung cancer and lung cancer recurrence, and may greatly improve effectiveness of clinical intervention

Illusions of gunk

The possibility of gunk has been used to argue against mereological nihilism. This paper explores two responses on the part of the microphysical mereological nihilist: (1) the contingency defence, which maintains that nihilism is true of the actual world; but that at other worlds, composition occurs; (2) the impossibility defence, which maintains that nihilism is necessary true, and so gunk worlds are impossible. The former is argued to be ultimately unstable; the latter faces the explanatorily burden of explaining the illusion that gunk is possible. It is argued that we can discharge this burden by focussing on the contingency of the microphysicalist aspect of microphysical mereological nihilism. The upshot is that gunk-based arguments against microphysical mereological nihilism can be resisted