Support for Festival of India in Australia 2016
26 July 2016
The Turnbull Coalition Government has announced $250,000 to support the Confluence: Festival of India in Australia 2016.
Launched today, the festival is the most significant showcase of India’s arts and culture to be staged in Australia. Held from August to November 2016, the festival will bring an exciting and diverse program of the finest classical and contemporary performing and visual arts from India to audiences across six Australian cities. The festival will also include a number of community activities and collaborations with local artists.
This cultural celebration will extend and deepen the longstanding relationship between Australia and India by giving Australian audiences the opportunity to experience a program including exhibitions, theatre, dance and music.
The Festival of India in Australia was announced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 and is a key deliverable of the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Arts and Culture between the Government of the Republic of India and the Australian Government.
The festival follows the Australian Government’s ‘Oz Fest’, a major cultural festival in India that ran from October 2012 to February 2013.
The Australian Government has committed $200,000 to the festival through the Department of Communications and the Arts and a further $50,000 from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Australia India Council.
For more information on the August to November, 2016 program visit: http://confluencefoi.com/
First discovery from ‘New Riversleigh’ – a new extinct carnivorous marsupial
26 July, 2016 - Deborah Smith: UNSW
A new species of extinct flesh-eating marsupial that terrorised Australia’s drying forests about 5 million years ago has been identified from a fossil discovered in remote north-western Queensland.
The hypercarnivore, which is thought to have weighed about 20 to 25 kilograms, is a distant and much bigger cousin of Australia’s largest living, flesh-eating marsupial, the Tasmanian Devil, which weighs in at about 10 kilogram.
Named Whollydooleya tomnpatrichorum, it is the first creature to be formally identified from a range of strange new animals whose remains have been found in a recently discovered fossil site in Queensland dubbed ‘New Riversleigh’.
A description of the new marsupial, based on its fossil molar tooth, is published in the Memoirs of Museum Victoria.
“W. tomnpatrichorum had very powerful teeth capable of killing and slicing up the largest animals of its day,” says study lead author UNSW Professor Mike Archer.
tereophotographs of a lower molar of the new hypercarnivorous marsupialWhollydooleya tomnpatrichorum, the first of a range of unique animals found in Whollydooley Site rocks. Photo: Suzanne Hand
The late Miocene period between about 12 and 5 million years ago, when Australia began to dry out and the megafauna began to evolve, is one of the most mysterious and least well-understood periods in the continent’s past. Fossils of land animals from this period are extremely rare, because of the increasing aridity.
“Fortunately, in 2012, we discovered a whole new fossil field that lies beyond the internationally famous Riversleigh World Heritage Area fossil deposits in north-western Queensland,” says Professor Archer.
“This exciting new area – New Riversleigh – was detected by remote sensing using satellite data.”
With the help of ARC funding and a grant from the National Geographic Society, Professor Archer and his colleagues began to systematically explore New Riversleigh in 2013.
The new species’ highly distinctive molar was one of the first fossil teeth obtained from a particularly fossil-rich site in the area which was discovered by team member Phil Creaser and named Whollydooley Hill in honour of his partner and Riversleigh volunteer Genevieve Dooley.
“New Riversleigh is producing the remains of a bevy of strange new small to medium-sized creatures, with Whollydooleya tomnpatrichorum, the first one to be described,” says Professor Archer.
UNSW students Georgia Soares and Naomi Machin in Whollydooley Quarry. Photo: Mike Archer
“These new discoveries are starting to fill in a large hole in our understanding about how Australia’s land animals transformed from being small denizens of its ancient wet forests to huge survivors on the second most arid continent on Earth.”
Team member UNSW Professor Suzanne Hand says medium to large-sized Australian Late Miocene animals have previously been known from fossil deposits in the Northern Territory, such as at Alcoota.
“But those deposits give almost no information about the small to medium-sized mammals that existed at the same time, which generally provide more clues about the nature of prehistoric environments and climates,” Professor Hand says.
Team member and UNSW postdoctoral researcher in palaeontology, Dr Karen Black, adds: “The small to medium-size mammals from the New Riversleigh deposits will reveal a great deal about how Australia’s inland environments and animals changed between 12 and 5 million years ago – a critical time when increasing dryness ultimately led to the Ice Ages of the Pleistocene.”
The Whollydooley Site deposit provides other exciting clues about how the environment was changing. For example, it contains the first signs of wind-blown sand grains, which are absent from the older Riversleigh World Heritage deposits.
And the teeth of the other animals in this deposit are unusual for Riversleigh, because they are more worn down. This suggests that the foods animals were eating in the late Miocene were perhaps tougher, more drought-resistant plants, and there was more abrasive dust in the environment.
“Although Whollydooleya terrorized the drying forests around 5 million years ago, its own days were numbered,” says Archer.
“While it was at least distantly related to living and recently living carnivorous marsupials such as Devils, Thylacines and Quolls, it appears to have represented a distinctive subgroup of hypercarnivores that did not survive into the modern world.
“Climate change can be a merciless eliminator of the mightiest of mammals,” he says.
Height rankings revealed: Dutch men and Latvian women tallest in world
July 26, 2016
Dutch men and Latvian women are the tallest on the planet, according to the largest ever study of height around the world.
The research, led by scientists from Imperial College London and using data from most countries in the world, tracked height among young adult men and women between 1914 and 2014.
Among the findings, published in the journal eLife, the research revealed South Korean women and Iranian men have shown the biggest increases in height over the past 100 years. Iranian men have increased by an average of 16.5cm, and South Korean women by 20.2cm.
The height of men and women in the UK has increased by around 11cm over the past century. By comparison, the height of men and women in the USA has increased by 6cm and 5cm, while the height of Chinese men and women has increased by around 11cm and 10cm.
The research also revealed once-tall USA had declined from third tallest men and fourth tallest women in the world in 1914 to 37th and 42nd place respectively in 2014. Overall, the top ten tallest nations in 2014 for men and women were dominated by European countries, and featured no English-speaking nation. UK women improved from 57th to 38th place over a century, while men had improved slightly from 36th to 31st place.
The researchers also found that some countries have stopped growing over the past 30 to 40 years, despite showing initial increases in the beginning of the century of study. The USA was one of the first high-income countries to plateau, and other countries that have seen similar patterns include the UK, Finland, and Japan. By contrast, Spain and Italy and many countries in Latin America and East Asia are still increasing in height.
Furthermore, some countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East have even seen a decline in average height over the past 30 to 40 years.
How tall we grow is strongly influenced by nutrition and environmental factors, although an individual's genetic factors may also play a role. Children and adolescents who are better nourished and live in better environments tend to be taller, and height may even be influenced by a mother's health and nutrition during pregnancy. It has lifelong consequences for health and even education and earnings. Some research suggests people who are taller tend to live longer, gain a better education and even earn more. However, being tall may carry some health risks, as studies have linked height to a greater risk of certain cancers including ovarian and prostate.
Professor Majid Ezzati from the School of Public Health at Imperial who led the research said: "This study gives us a picture of the health of nations over the past century, and reveals the average height of some nations may even be shrinking while others continue to grow taller. This confirms we urgently need to address children and adolescents' environment and nutrition on a global scale, and ensure we're giving the world's children the best possible start in life."
He added: "Our study also shows the English-speaking world, especially the USA, is falling behind other high-income nations in Europe and Asia Pacific. Together with the poor performance of these countries in terms of obesity, this emphasises the need for more effective policies towards healthy nutrition throughout life."
Mary De Silva, Head of Population, Environment and Health at the Wellcome Trust, who co-funded the study, said: "This is a unique analysis that shows the real power of combining a hundred years of population data sources that span the globe. The most striking finding is that despite the huge increases in height seen in some countries, there is still a considerable gap between the shortest and tallest countries. More research is needed to understand the reasons for this gap and to help devise ways of reducing the disparities in health that still persist globally."
The research team, which included almost 800 scientists and was in collaboration with the World Health Organization, used data from a wide range of sources, including military conscription data, health and nutrition population surveys, and epidemiological studies. They used these to generate height information for 18-year- olds in 1914 (who were born in 1896) through to 18-year- olds in 2014 (who were born in 1996).
Among the findings the team found that:
• Dutch men are the tallest on the planet, with an average height of 182.5cm. Latvian women are the tallest on the planet, with an average height of 170cm.
• The top four tallest countries for men are the Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia and Latvia. The top four tallest countries for women are Latvia, the Netherlands, Estonia and the Czech Republic.
• Men from East Timor were the smallest in the world in 2014, with an average height of 160cm. Women from Guatemala were the smallest in 2014 with an average height of 149cm.
• The difference between the tallest and shortest countries in the world in 2014 was about 23cm for men -- an increase of 4cm on the height gap in 1914. The height difference between the world's tallest and shortest countries for women has remained the same across the century, at about 20cm.
• The height difference between men and women has on average remained largely unchanged over 100 years -- the average height gap was about 11cmin 1914 and 12cmin 2014.
• The average height of young men and women has decreased by as much as 5cm in the last 40 years in some countries in Sub-Saharan Africa such as Sierra Leone, Uganda and Rwanda.
• Australian men in 2014 were the only non-European nationality in the top 25 tallest in the world.
• In East Asia, South Korean and Chinese men and women are now taller than their Japanese counterparts.
• Adult height plateaued in South Asian countries like Bangladesh and India at around 5-10 cm shorter than in East Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea.
The smallest adult men in 1914 were found in Laos, where the average male height was 153cm, a similar height to a well-nourished 12-year- old boy living today. In 1914 the smallest women were found in Guatemala, where the average female height was 140cm, a similar height to a well-nourished 10-year- old girl.
NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC). A century of trends in adult human height. eLife, 2016 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.13410
The Delta Aquarid And Perseid Meteor Showers – Get Up Early And Then...Look Up!
Every year, the Delta Aquarid meteor showers are visible during the last days in July and early August. The best viewing hours will be before dawn. Rug up, step outside, allow your eyes to adjust to the light, or lack of it, and look up. Most meteor shower watchers advise laying flat on a blanket or getting comfy in a lawn chair.
The Delta Aquarid shower officially began mid-July: Nominal peak July 28 or 29. If you watch the Perseids in August, you’ll see Delta Aquarids then, too.
Late July, 2016 – around July 28 or 29 – presents the nominal peak of the Delta Aquarid meteor shower, but this occurs steadily from about July 12 to August 24 each year. The new moon in early August 2016 means a waxing gibbous moon in the optimum predawn hours of late July, and dark skies throughout most of the night all through the first week of August 2016.
This NASA graphic shows the location of the Perseid Meteor Shower radiant in the night sky during 2013 peak on Aug. 12 and 13.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
This shower overlaps with the more famous Perseid meteor shower, which in early August is rising to its peak (this year on the mornings of August 11, 12 and 13 but from August 9th). Those who observe the Perseids are likely to see some Delta Aquarid meteors flying on the same nights.
If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, your Delta Aquarids will be radiating from nearly overhead. Your Perseids will be shooting up from somewhere along your northern horizon.
2016 is said to be a particularly rich year for meteors, if you have a dark sky, you might even see Perseid meteors cross paths with Delta Aquarid meteors! It can be an awesome display. May even be worth heading to Australia’s first Dark Sky Park for that August weekend of the 13th.
See Issue 271: Warrumbungle First Dark Sky Park In Australia
The comet producing the Perseid meteor shower is called Swift-Tuttle discovered by astronomers in 1862, according to Space.Com. And although the comet does not pose a risk towards the Earth, it is said to be a big as the one that impacted the Earth millions of years ago that killed the dinosaurs.
Information retrieved from http://earthsky.org/
The Delta Aquariids are best viewed in the pre-dawn hours, away from the glow of city lights. Southern Hemisphere viewers usually get a better show because the radiant is higher in the sky during the peak season. Since the radiant is above the southern horizon for Northern Hemisphere viewers, meteors will primarily fan out in all compass points, east, north and west. Few meteors will be seen heading southward, unless they are fairly short and near the radiant.
Southern Delta Aquariids. (2014, July 27). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Southern_Delta_Aquariids&oldid=618720841
NB: The word gibbous comes from a root word that means hump-backed. A gibbous moon can also be a waning gibbous, in the week between full moon and last quarter moon.
Perseid Meteor Shower In 2015
Students Invited To Chat ‘Live’ With Antarctic Expeditioners
25th July 2016- from Australia’s Antarctic Division
Are you curious about what it is like living on the highest, driest, windiest and coldest continent on earth?
School students are invited to chat with expeditioners during live video conferences from Australia’s Antarctic research stations – Casey and Davis.
Antarctic station leaders and expeditioners will talk to classes about their daily lives, invite students to take part in a learning activity and answer questions.
Expeditioners use Hagglunds to travel around Antarctica (Photo: Todor Iolovski)
Each session is open to a maximum of 15 classes, and will last for 45 minutes.
Each class will be invited to ask a question about life in Antarctica. Previous discussions have included topics such as what is for dinner, where expeditioners sleep, how long the sun disappears for in winter, what causes an aurora australis, and how a ship travels through sea ice.
Classes will also be invited to take part in an activity in preparation for their videoconference. They will then be asked to talk about their activity with the expeditioners in Antarctica. Details of the preparatory activity will be emailed to teachers when they have registered.
Teachers are encouraged to include the video conference as part of a broader lesson plan regarding Antarctica. Earlier this year, the Australian Antarctic Division released new national curriculum aligned learning units for grades 3 to 8, which are available on the education website Classroom Antarctica.
Schools video conferences will take place on:
Wednesday, 24 August (Davis research station)
Wednesday, 14 September (Casey research station)
Wednesday, 12 October (Casey research station)
More information
Davis research station leader Alison Dean, who has spent eight winters in Antarctica, will take part in the video conferences. (Photo: Alison Dean)
Jason Ahrens is the station leader at Casey research station. He's also spent time at Davis and Macquarie Island research stations. (Photo: Barry Balkin)
Bright Minds In Good Hands
28 JUL 2016- by UNSW MEDIA
Pittwater’s Selena Griffith, UNSW Engineering’s new Scientia Experience Manager, is helping students build entrepreneurial skills and a love of hands-on learning.
UNSW Engineering Scientia Experience Manager Selena Griffith. Photo: Grant Turner/Mediakoo
As far as student compliments go, it would be hard to think of a better one than this: “Come to my graduation because your courses have had the greatest impact on my career decisions.”
The request extended to Selena Griffith, UNSW Engineering’s new Scientia Experience Manager, came from a student she had worked with in the Enactus program, a global student-led organisation that uses entrepreneurial action to transform lives. UNSW has one of the largest Enactus teams in Australia.
“I was proud to have been asked,” she says, of the invitation.
Empowering students to realise their potential is a passion for Griffith, who came to Engineering from UNSW Art & Design, to develop and implement initiatives to enhance the student experience.
“This is a very exciting time because we are effectively redesigning and redefining what teaching means at a university level,” she says.
“There is a renewed focus on the student experience and the University is considering a promotion track that allows academics to be acknowledged for, and concentrate on, their teaching.”
The role has brought Griffith full circle – she originally studied at UNSW’s Kensington campus as an undergraduate in the first intake of the Industrial Design program.
Griffith says that degree was groundbreaking because it combined elements from a number of disciplines, including design, commerce and engineering, when most programs were very discipline specific.
“It inspired us to be lifelong learners because we understood the value of connecting disciplines.”
This formative experience, combined with a background working in design for big brands such as Quiksilver and establishing her own start-up businesses, has inspired her approach to teaching.
“I believe every student coming through university needs to have some kind of real project experience – a cross-disciplinary collaborative learning opportunity that will inspire them in their future careers,” she says.
Griffith has long been occupied by the quest to solve broader, more complex problems as part of teams of individuals with diverse interests and experience.
While working at Art & Design (from 2005 to 2016) she developed a course called Nexus, where students worked on industry-based projects or created their own, working with chosen collaborators.
“Students would come up with really amazing ideas but not have the skill sets to make them happen so the course allowed them over 12 weeks to experiment, take risks, be innovative and be assessed not on the outcome, but on the way they reflected on their management of the project.
“If it failed, that was a true experience of reality, and a useful lesson they were not penalised for,” Griffith says.
And it was the desire to create experiential learning that impelled Griffith to devise the ‘Island Innovation Lab’ course that gathers students from across UNSW to learn as a team and from each other.
“Instead of just working on theoretical case studies, I thought, why can’t we be the case study using our intellectual and practical skills?” she explains.
The courses involved replacing the classroom at Kensington with the Asia Pacific Islands of Vanuatu, Singapore, Kiribati and Palau. The initiative was supported through scholarships from the Federal Government’s New Colombo Plan.
“Instead of just reading a paper about the challenges of climate change and its effects on the region, we were sitting in the sand with the people of Kiribati, talking about the lack of water and changed weather patterns, actually experiencing those effects at the same time,” Griffith recalls.
The innovation labs encourage students to use the knowledge they have learned in their courses, but also be informed by their research, peers and shared on-the-ground experience to develop solutions to the challenges at hand.
This leadership and mentorship of students in the development of social enterprise was recently recognised at the Enactus National Championships where Griffith was awarded ‘Most Outstanding Faculty Adviser’.
“I was very honoured. The students said they valued my approach to developing their leadership skills and finding opportunities for them to connect with industry.”
She says helping students form start-ups and “make things” encourages them to become inventors and creators, to solve complex challenges and to build connections.
Sydney’s winter festival Vivid was a good example. “We put a call out for students and ended up with two projects. Both were put in very prominent locations and received a huge amount of media.
Selena Griffith (L) with the Vivid student team.
“It was a really great experience for the students – helping build their confidence and communication skills, as well as practical skills and internship opportunities. And it has led to deeper insights into how we could scale that experience for larger class teaching scenarios.”
In her new role, Griffith intends to make sure all engineering students are engaged in hands-on projects that develop innovation and entrepreneurial skills.
She also hopes to inspire students to participate in extra-curricular student-led enterprises such as Vivid, UNSW’s solar car racing team, Sunswift, and the Robocup robot soccer team, or in clubs such as Create or Enactus.
In many ways it’s a return to the age-old practice of learning through getting your hands ‘dirty’.
“We need to go back to our roots, to find the essence of the University motto Scientia Manu et Mente: ‘knowledge from hands and minds’.”
Accessible lifts for Sydney Harbour Bridge
25th July 2016: NSW Government
More Sydneysiders and visitors from around the world will be able to access the Sydney Harbour Bridge with new lifts to be installed to make the scenic walk across Australia’s most recognisable landmark accessible.
Lifts will be installed at Kirribilli and The Rocks so that people with prams, the elderly or those in a wheelchair can access the Sydney Harbour Bridge walkway.
Currently there are 61 steps on Broughton Street at Kirribilli and 64 steps at Cumberland Street in The Rocks to access the walkway.
Minister for Disability Services John Ajaka said community consultation and detailed planning work will continue to ensure the heritage value of the bridge is preserved during the upgrade.
"Everyone, including people with disability, should be able to enjoy everything NSW has to offer. This project is a game-changer for people with disability and their families,” Mr Ajaka said.
Roads and Maritime Services has carried out extensive work to investigate preferred locations for the lift access, taking into account the heritage value, accessibility standards, visual impacts and integration with the existing structure.
Consultation, detailed design and environmental assessment is expected to take around 12 months, with construction to start soon after, pending planning and heritage approvals.
Ensuring Australians get most from community pharmacy
27 July 2016 – Media Release: The Hon. Sussan Ley MP, Minister for Health and Aged Care, Minister for Sport
The Australian Government is ensuring Australians get the best experience possible from community pharmacy and wants to hear from the entire pharmaceutical supply chain – including consumers – on how to deliver it.
The independent Panel for the Review of Pharmacy Remuneration and Regulation today released their Discussion Paper, with formal consultations and submissions to take place over the next two months.
Minister for Health Sussan Ley said the Review was looking at everything from important community obligations performed by pharmacists regarding the handling and dispensing of prescription medicines through to regulation and their expanding role in providing patient primary care, such as blood pressure checks and routine vaccinations.
“The Turnbull Government is committed to an integrated health system that ensures strong co-ordination between a patient’s healthcare team, as evidenced by our landmark Health Care Homes and My Health Record reforms,” Ms Ley said.
“As a regional member of parliament, I know first-hand that pharmacists are taking a greater role in a patient’s overall healthcare everyday – it’s no longer just about prescription medicines.
“This Government has made a strong commitment to recognising the important role pharmacists play through our Sixth Community Pharmacy Agreement and this review is aimed at ensuring the next agreement continues to meet the future needs of Australians.
“I thank the independent review panel for their hard work so far in developing this discussion paper and look forward to the thought-provoking submissions it will no doubt generate to inform the next steps of the process.”
The Review of Pharmacy Remuneration and Regulation was a key part of the Sixth Community Pharmacy Agreement signed between the Turnbull Government and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia last year.
During July, August and September 2016, the Panel will undertake a national public consultation process. This will be extensive and will include public forums in each state and territory (including metro and regional centres), briefings at industry conferences and a public interactive live broadcast.
The Panel is keen to hear the thoughts and perspectives of all interested parties. All submissions to the Discussion Paper received before the closing date of 23 September 2016 will be reviewed and considered by the Panel.
The Discussion Paper and details on how to respond are available on the Review’s webpage: www.health.gov.au/pharmacyreview
Two short online surveys, specifically targeted at consumers and pharmacists, will also be offered in addition to written responses to the Discussion Paper during the consultation period.
Smell test may predict early stages of Alzheimer’s disease
July 26, 2016
Researchers from Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), New York State Psychiatric Institute, and NewYork-Presbyterian reported that an odor identification test may prove useful in predicting cognitive decline and detecting early-stage Alzheimer's disease.
Their two studies, presented at the Alzheimer's Association's International Conference in Toronto, Canada, suggest that the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) may offer a practical, low-cost alternative to other tests.
In one study, researchers administered UPSIT to 397 older adults (average age of 80 years) without dementia from a multiethnic population in northern Manhattan. Each of the participants also had an MRI scan to measure the thickness of the entorhinal cortex -- the first area of the brain to be affected by Alzheimer's disease.
Four years later, 50 participants (12.6 percent) had developed dementia, and nearly 20 percent had signs of cognitive decline.
The researchers found that low UPSIT scores, but not entorhinal cortical thickness, were significantly associated with dementia and Alzheimer's disease. (Low UPSIT scores indicate decreased ability to correctly identify odors.)
Low UPSIT scores, but not entorhinal cortical thickness, also predicted cognitive decline, although entorhinal cortical thickness was significantly associated with UPSIT score in those who transitioned to dementia.
"Our research showed that odor identification impairment, and to a lesser degree, entorhinal cortical thickness, were predictors of the transition to dementia," said Seonjoo Lee, PhD, assistant professor of clinical biostatistics (in Psychiatry) at CUMC and presenting author. "These findings support odor identification as an early predictor, and suggest that impairment in odor identification may precede thinning in the entorhinal cortex in the early clinical stage of Alzheimer's disease."
In another study, researchers from CUMC evaluated the usefulness of UPSIT and tests that measure the amount of amyloid in the brain (in higher amounts, the protein forms plaques in the brains of those with Alzheimer's disease) in predicting memory decline.
The researchers administered UPSIT and performed either beta amyloid PET scanning or analysis of cerebrospinal fluid in 84 older adults (median age of 71 years). Of these, 58 participants had mild cognitive impairment. The researchers followed the participants for at least six months.
At follow-up, 67 percent of the participants had signs of memory decline. Testing positive for amyloid with either method, but not UPSIT score, predicted cognitive decline. However, participants with a score of less than 35 were more than three times as likely to have memory decline as those with higher UPSIT scores.
"Our research suggests that both UPSIT score and amyloid status predict memory decline," said William Kreisl, MD, the Boris and Rose Katz Assistant Professor of Neurology (in the Taub Institute) at CUMC and a neurologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia. "Younger age, higher education, and shorter follow-up may explain why UPSIT did not predict decline as strongly in this study as in previous studies. Although more research is needed, odor identification testing, which is much less expensive and easier to administer than PET imaging or lumbar puncture, may prove to be a useful tool in helping physicians counsel patients who are concerned about their risk of memory loss."
Current methods are only capable of clinically detecting Alzheimer's disease in the later stages of its development, when significant brain damage has already occurred. Brain imaging with PET may show the buildup of amyloid plaques in the brain years before symptoms appear, although this method is expensive. Beta amyloid can also be detected in cerebrospinal fluid through a lumbar puncture, and brain PET imaging of abnormal tau protein is rapidly advancing through research.
"Our study adds to the growing body of evidence demonstrating the potential value of odor identification testing in the detection of early-stage Alzheimer's disease," said D.P. Devanand, MD, professor of psychiatry (in Neurology and in the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center) at CUMC and senior author of both studies.
"Using other biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease to detect the disease at an earlier stage -- which have the potential to be lower-cost and non-invasive -- could lead to dramatic improvements in early detection and management of the disease," commented Heather Snyder, PhD, director of medical and scientific operations at the Alzheimer's Association, in a statement.
The above is reprinted from materials provided by Columbia University Medical Center.
First Southern Right Whale Spotted Off Sydney
Media release: 25 July 2016
The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has welcomed the arrival of southern right whales off the NSW coast again this year after one was spotted entering Botany Bay today just off the coast of Sydney.
NPWS Wildlife Management Officer Geoff Ross said it's great to see southern right whales in NSW waters again and it is a timely reminder that we share our harbours, bays and oceans with these majestic animals.
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"Every year we are seeing more southern right and humpback whales pass the NSW coast as their populations recover and they are regularly sheltering in our estuaries, harbours and major waterways, even busy Sydney Harbour," Mr Ross said.
"The recent sightings of the southern right is very exciting as it means that the species is slowly returning to their traditional places in NSW bays and inlets. These sheltered bays and inlets were traditional calving areas for right whales and we are seeing them return home after whaling pushed them to the brink of extinction.
"With infrastructure, people and large numbers of commercial and recreational vessels making the formerly quiet bays and inlets of the NSW coast now very busy, we need remind people to give these whales space and share the water. Southern rights love the shallow water, are hard to see and they travel slowly making them more vulnerable to vessel strike and entanglement.
"For the safety of the whales and the boating community, Masters should ensure their vessels stay 100m from a whale or 300m when a calf is present or the vessel is a jet ski.
"If you're swimming, diving or just enjoying the water on your own or with friends and you spot a whale, then you must stay at least 30m from the whale in any direction.
"While the humpback whale population is recovering strongly, with an estimated 24,000 individuals in the wild, sightings of the southern right whales close to shore is significant as their numbers are still very low especially in NSW waters where aerial surveys over the past four years have counted only 17 right whales."
"We can individually identify right whales by the shape and pattern of their callosities (hard growths on their head) so NPWS is working with university researchers to obtain photographs of the whales using remotely piloted aircraft or UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles).
"These photos will then be added to the Australasian Right Whales Photo Identification Catalogue (ARWPIC) providing wildlife managers with important information," Mr Ross said.
For more information on whales visit the NPWS Wild about Whales website and download the App to record your sightings. Alternatively visitwww.orrca.org.au
Whale Facts
• For all vessels, a distance of between 100m and 300m is established as the 'caution zone'. In this zone, vessels must travel at a constant slow speed and leave a negligible wake. It's also important to assess the direction that the whales are travelling in, and then plan the best course of action.
• These animals can be unpredictable in their behaviour so NPWS remind other UAV users to maintain aircraft approach distances. If you're flying a UAV or a plane, or helicopter and you spot a whale, then you must be at a height no lower than 300 metres; within a horizontal radius of 300m for aircraft, and for helicopters, gyrocopters and UAVs, the distance increases to 500m.
• If you see a stranded, entangled or sick whale in distress, please report it immediately to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service or ORRCA.
• The southern right whale is a baleen whale and one of three species classified as right whales. This species is easily distinguished from others because of their broad back without a dorsal fin, wide pectoral fins, a long arching mouth that begins above the eye and small rough patches of skin (or callosities) on its large head. Its two separate blow holes produce a distinguishing V-shaped blow.
• Land-based whaling in Australia initially concentrated on southern right whales. They get their name because they were the 'right' whale to catch: they were slow-swimming, floated when dead, and provided large amounts of valuable products - particularly oil for illumination and lubrication.
• Commercial whaling began in Australia in 1820, taking around 75% of the southern right whale population between 1835 and 1845, when the industry collapsed. It took another 90 years before they were officially protected.
• An estimated 12,000 southern right whales are spread throughout the southern hemisphere, compared to an original population before whaling of more than 100,000. However, their numbers are growing at around 7% each year.
Southern Right Whale (Eubalaena australis) Courtesy Photo Gregory "Slobirdr" Smith -
Renewable Energy Map Of NSW
27th July 2016: NSW Government
In a state first, NSW will have a renewal energy map to help drive investment in new renewable projects across Australia.
The NSW Renewable Energy Resource Map provides renewable energy project developers with free access to geospatial data and information on the state’s renewable energy resources and highlights more than 201 sites across NSW.
Minister for Industry, Resources and Energy, Anthony Roberts said the project will allow greater investment opportunities for the renewable energy sector in NSW.
“By identifying and promoting our renewable energy resource base, we are giving investors, contractors, market researchers, planners and academics the information they need to scope out opportunities to invest in our state,” Mr Roberts said.
The GreenPower Connect initiative, aimed at meeting the needs of large energy purchasers, will also launch across the state.
GreenPower Connect supports investment in new largescale renewable energy projects by allowing large purchasers of renewable energy to directly link with new cost effective projects.
Decade of conservation work to protect threatened species
27 July 2016A decade of conservation work is set to start at 79 sites across the state to protect the Swift Parrot, Giant Dragon Fly, Blue Mountains Water Skink, Bell’s Turtle and eight woodland bird species including the Scarlet Robin, Environment Minister Mark Speakman announced today.
The Australian National University and the Central Tablelands, Northern Tablelands and South East Local Land Services will share $3.7 million in grant funding to undertake conservation projects that span 10 years.
Mr Speakman said the NSW Government’s Saving Our Species Partnership Grants Program aimed to help stop the decline of biodiversity and protect the state’s threatened species into the future.
“These Environmental Trust projects are important to help protect and stabilise local populations under threat,” Mr Speakman said.
“The grants program gets the best bang for the taxpayer’s buck because it brings researchers, the community, land management experts and the government together to protect the state’s most vulnerable species.”
Including this second round of projects the NSW Government has invested almost $10 million in this program through its Environmental Trust. This is on top of the NSW Government’s five year $100 million Saving our Species commitment to continue to safeguard the state’s threatened species.
More information: Saving Our Species Partnership Grants Program.
Photo: scarlet robin petroica-booda, courtesy NSW OEH
Polar Ice Reveals New Secrets Of Earth's Climate
July 26, 2016: CSIRO
A team of scientists have used air bubbles in polar ice from pre-industrial times to measure the sensitivity of the Earth's land biosphere to changes in temperature.
The paper published today in Nature Geoscience has verified and quantified the relationship for the first time and shown how it impacts the cycles of carbon between land, ocean and the atmosphere.
About half of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by human activities since 1850 has been taken out of the atmosphere by the land biosphere and the ocean.Image: Air bubbles trapped in ice have been used to quantify the relationship between carbon and temperature.
How these sinks will behave in the future has been a significant source of uncertainty in climate projections.
The paper led by Dr Mauro Rubino of CSIRO and the Seconda Universita di Napoli has revealed that the Earth's land biosphere takes up less carbon in a warmer climate.
"Until now it has only been assumed that as the Earth's surface warms the ability of land-based plants to store carbon is reduced," paper co-author and CSIRO senior scientist Dr David Etheridge said.
"In this study we were able to quantify the relationship. Reduced storage of carbon by the biosphere leads to higher atmospheric CO2.
"This increases the Earth's surface temperature, which leads to even less carbon stored by the biosphere, causing a positive feedback," Dr Etheridge said.
The research team measured air trapped in ice core samples from the Australian Antarctic Program's unique Law Dome site where past atmospheric composition is preserved in fine detail, together with ice cores from the British Antarctic Survey.
"The very high detail preserved in Law Dome ice cores has been a key to unlocking this information," Dr Mark Curran, co-author from the Australian Antarctic Division said.
The study focused on CO2 changes preserved in ice before, during, and after a naturally-cool period known as the Little Ice Age (1500 to 1750 AD).
This period is well suited to focus specifically on the relationship between CO2 and temperature because it occurred just before the growth of industry and agriculture affected CO2 concentrations and the deposition of pollutants and nutrients.
"Changes in the carbon-13 isotope ratio, which is a signature of carbon from land plants, show that the CO2 changes during the Little Ice Age originated from the land biosphere," Dr Etheridge said.
Previously published measurements of another natural ice-based tracer of the carbon cycle, a gas called carbonyl sulfide (COS), were used to rule out the possibility that early land-use changes could have contributed to the CO2 change seen through the study period.
This confirmed that the CO2 changes can be related to variations in land surface temperature, which are known from paleoclimate proxies such as tree rings.
The study shows that for every degree celsius of global temperature rise, the equivalent of 20 parts per million less CO2 is stored by the land biosphere.
"How plants and soils respond to warming is one of the big unknowns in climate projections so it's great for modellers to have some independent numbers to compare against rather than just comparing models with each other," paper co-author Dr Peter Rayner from the University of Melbourne said.
Dr Etheridge explains that this result is relevant to coming decades, because it shows how the biosphere responds to temperature changes that are comparable in magnitude and duration to the likely future warming.
Previous ecosystem carbon cycle and climate studies have had limited geographical extent and duration.
"This finding, and feedback quantification, will need to be taken into account for models of the Earth system to project future climates under various scenarios of human greenhouse gas emissions, such as the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator (ACCESS)," Dr Etheridge said.
The paper is a result of a collaboration between CSIRO, the Seconda Universita di Napoli, University of Melbourne, British Antarctic Survey, University of East Anglia, Australian Antarctic Division, University of Tasmania and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation(ANSTO).
Pictures and vision of ice core drilling in Antarctica available courtesy of the Australian Antarctic Division.
Katandra Sanctuary
Katandra is a sanctuary for flora and fauna where the wildflowers are their most colourful during spring but all year round there are opportunities for bird watching. The sanctuary covers 12 hectares and is situated on the Ingleside/Warriewood escarpment. Choose to follow a short walk of about 1km or the longer 2km track through rainforest remnants with creeks and fern-fringed pools. Visit: www.katandra.org
SUNDAY MORNING BIRDWATCHING with PNHA
Would you like to know more about our local birds and explore our bushland reserves? Then join us on one of our bird walks:
21 August, Chiltern Track, Ingleside (birds and wildflowers)
25 September, Irrawong Reserve, North Narrabeen
27 November, Warriewood Wetlands
Most walks start at 7.30 or 8am and last a couple of hours. Bring binoculars and morning tea for afterwards if you like. Contactpnhabirdwatching@gmail.com for details of each walk.
Warnings of imminent extinction crisis for largest wild animal species
July 27, 2016
Indian water buffalo (Bubalus arnee) in Kaziranga National Park, India, is an endangered bovid with a global population estimated at fewer than 4,000 individuals in the wild. Credit: Varun R. Goswami, WCS India Program
A team of conservation biologists is calling for a worldwide strategy to prevent the unthinkable: the extinction of the world's largest mammal species.
In a public declaration published in today's edition of the journalBioScience, a group of more than 40 conservation scientists and other experts are calling for a coordinated global plan to prevent the world's "megafauna" from sliding into oblivion.
Among the threats cited by the group as drivers of this mass extinction are illegal hunting, deforestation and habitat loss, the expansion of agriculture and livestock into wildlife areas, and the growth of human populations.
"The more I look at the trends facing the world's largest terrestrial mammals, the more concerned I am we could lose these animals just as science is discovering how important they are to ecosystems and to the services they provide for people," said Dr. William Ripple, professor of ecology at Oregon State University and lead author of the study.
Ripple worked with other authors on the study to examine population trends of many species, including many of the most well-known, charismatic species such as elephants, rhinos, gorillas, and big cats that are now threatened with extinction.
Approximately 59 percent of the world's biggest mammalian carnivore species -- including the tiger -- and 60 percent of the largest herbivores are now listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species as threatened with extinction.
"Perhaps the biggest threat for many species is direct hunting driven by a demand for meat, pets, and body parts for traditional medicines and ornaments," Dr. Elizabeth Bennett, WCS's Vice President of Species Conservation and a co-author on the study. "Only a massive commitment from the international community will stop this rampant destruction of so many animal populations."
All of these large species play critical roles in their ecosystems. Species at risk include elephants, that provide a suite of vital ecosystem services as ecological engineers, dispersing seeds and nutrients across vast areas.
"The loss of elephants in the forests of Central Africa is increasingly damaging the function of the region's most important ecosystems," said WCS Conservation Scientist Dr. Fiona Maisels, one of the study's co-authors. "We're only beginning to understand how vital these keystone species are to the health of rainforests and other species that inhabit them."
Human-wildlife conflict is a serious concurrent threat for many species. "With simultaneous loss of wildlife habitat and expansion of human populations and agriculture, negative interactions between people and wildlife are bound to rise," said WCS India Scientist Dr. Varun R. Goswami, also a co-author on the study. "For wide-ranging megafauna like elephants and tigers, we need landscape-scale conservation strategies, taking into account the increasing interface between wildlife and people."
Some megafauna face the threat of obscurity. The loss of elephants worldwide to poachers in pursuit of ivory is well-known and is the focus of extensive efforts to shut down this trade, but the study authors point out that many species are at risk from many similar threats but are so poorly known that effective conservation efforts to save them are difficult.
The paper includes a 13-part declaration that highlights the need to acknowledge the threatened status of many large mammals and the vital ecological roles they play. The declaration also cites the importance of integrating the efforts of scientists and funding agencies in developing countries where many species occur; the need for a new global framework to conserve megafauna; and the moral obligation of saving the world's biggest mammal species.
William J. Ripple et al. Saving the World's Terrestrial Megafauna. BioScience, 2016 DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biw092
Frog reproduction in created ponds may be affected by disease and food availability
July 27, 2016
Food availability and disease in created habitats may affect the reproductive output of reintroduced frogs, according to a study published July 27, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Kaya Klop-Toker from the University of Newcastle, Australia, and colleagues.
Attempts to mitigate the impact of land development often involve the reintroduction of species and creation of habitats. However, previous research has found that captive-bred animal populations, when released into a created environment, may not breed successfully. To investigate which factors potentially contribute to breeding failure within a created habitat, the authors of the present study monitored a released population of endangered green and golden bell frogs, Litoria aurea, within created ponds on Kooragang Island in the New South Wales region of Australia and compared them to populations in natural breeding ponds as well as natural ponds where breeding did not occur.
The authors discovered that the created habitat had lower diversity in vegetation and invertebrate species than the natural ponds, which may have resulted in fewer nutritional resources available to the frogs for breeding. Also, compared to the wild populations, a greater proportion of frogs in the created habitat were carrying the chytrid fungus, a pathogen previously shown to reduce reproductive functioning in male L. aurea.
While their study was limited to one area in Australia, the authors suggest recommendations to improve likelihood of success when reintroducing frogs into created habitats, including planting a diversity of plant species to attract invertebrates and following recommendations to reduce disease within the frog population.
Photo: This is an endangered green and golden bell frog, Litoria aurea.
Credit: Evan Pickett; CCAL
Kaya Klop-Toker, Jose Valdez, Michelle Stockwell, Loren Fardell, Simon Clulow, John Clulow, Michael Mahony. We Made Your Bed, Why Won’t You Lie in It? Food Availability and Disease May Affect Reproductive Output of Reintroduced Frogs. PLOS ONE, 2016; 11 (7): e0159143 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159143