Partial Closure Of Fairfax Lookouts Due To Cliff Cracks At North Head
NARRABEEN LAGOON STATE PARK EXPANSION
INGLESIDE CHASE RESERVE BIOBANKING APPLICATION
Aussie Backyard Bird Count 2016
Have Your Say On The Springvale Mine Water Treatment Project
Invincible Coal Mine - Southern Extension Modification
Longest Record Of Continuous Carbon Flux Data Is Now Publicly Available
September 27, 2016
This diagram of the fast carbon cycle shows the movement of carbon between land, atmosphere, and oceans. Yellow numbers are natural fluxes, and red are human contributions in gigatons of carbon per year. White numbers indicate stored carbon. Credit: NASAearthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/CarbonCycle
Around the world -- from tundra to tropical forests, and a variety of ecosystems in between -- environmental researchers have set up micrometeorological towers to monitor carbon, water, and energy fluxes, which are measurements of how carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapor and energy (heat) circulate between the soil, plants and atmosphere. Most of these sites have been continuously collecting data, some for nearly 25 years, monitoring ecosystem-level changes through periods of extreme droughts and rising global temperatures. Each of these sites contributes to a regional network -- i.e. the European Network (Euroflux) or the Americas Network (AmeriFlux) -- and the regional networks together comprise a global network called FLUXNET.
Recognizing that a plethora of scientific insights could be gleaned from this information, over 450 sites worldwide are sharing their observation data with the FLUXNET database. The project's most recent data release -- FLUXNET2015 -- includes some of the longest continuous records of ecosystem data ever taken. The information has undergone extensive quality checks and controls (QA/QC) and is now publicly available online:http://fluxnet.fluxdata.org/data/fluxnet2015-dataset/
Computer scientists at the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) contributed to the development of the FLUXNET database and website, as well as the software tools that automatically perform QA/QC and fill gaps in field observations. They also helped build tools that allow researchers to easily upload, download and share datasets, as well as track how and where each site's data will be used. Much of this work was done in collaboration with colleagues at the Max Planck Institute of Biogeochemistry and the Universities of California-Berkeley (UC Berkeley), Virginia (UVA) and Tuscia, Italy.
The AmeriFlux Management Project -- which is funded by the DOE and led by Berkeley Lab, the European Ecosystems Fluxes Database and FLUXNET project -- worked with several regional networks to process and harmonize all of the information in the FLUXNET2015 release.
According to Dennis Baldocchi, UC Berkeley Professor and FLUXNET Principal Investigator, this data is allowing researchers to ask questions about long-term trends in climate and ecosystem health that would have previously been impossible to investigate. The data could also be used to help a variety of people, from meteorologists to farmers, make better-informed decisions.
"We know that the concentration of CO2 changes in an ecosystem over time, and now we can look at how these changes affect the photosynthesis or water usage of an entire forest or desert," he says. "We can also look at the affects of extreme weather events -- like hot and cold spells -- on an ecosystem."
FLUXNET: A Collaboration Decades in the MakingAccording to Baldocchi, an international flux collaboration began in 1995 when a handful of scientists who were just starting to collect year-round observations of the CO2 exchange between the ground and atmosphere met in La Thuile, Italy to discuss the best methods for collecting and recording data. Shortly after that meeting, the DOE created the AmeriFlux program and began funding a handful of researchers to measure CO2 exchange in a number of ecosystems around North America. Meanwhile, European counterparts were launching similar studies of ecosystems across Europe, and NASA launched the Aqua Satellite to understand Earth's water-cycle and Terra Satellite to explore connections between Earth's atmosphere, land, snow and ice, ocean and energy balance.
Concurrently, NASA also funded the FLUXNET collaboration to blend data from the regional networks to validate their satellite data. In 1999, the official FLUXNET group met again at the Marconi Conference Center in Marshall, California to work on harmonizing their datasets. This included coming up with common names, units and time-steps in their field data descriptions, which was crucial for multi-site analysis. The researchers also developed a process for filling gaps in the field data.
"When you are observing in nature it's inevitable that you will have gaps in your data because a raindrop or bug messes with a sensor, or a sensor may malfunction. We use statistical models to fill those gaps of information," says Baldocchi.
Once the initial NASA funding expired in the late 1990s, international researchers who saw a benefit in keeping the FLUXNET collaboration going sustained it through a patchwork of funds from agencies in Canada, Europe and the U.S., as well as "in-kind" support from research groups, universities and foundations. In fact, this is how Berkeley Lab's involvement in building software tools for FLUXNET began.
"It's a big deal that we are able to get hundreds of scientists to come together, trust each other, share and exchange data and work toward a common goal," says Baldocchi. "In the early days, this was a small group and everyone knew each other so we were able to meet in a place like Italy and form a personal relationship. As the community grows, software tools that track where and how each site's data is being used are invaluable to form trust."
Berkeley Lab Joins the FLUXNET Software CollaborationBerkeley Lab computer scientists officially joined the FLUXNET collaboration in 2006, when CRD's Deb Agarwal offered to use funds from her Microsoft Research Grant to help the collaboration build a website, queryable database and a workflow for requesting and sharing site data. With limited funds, the initial versions of the FLUXNET website and database were extremely utilitarian.
"In the beginning, many researchers were nervous to share their data publicly because they risked losing credit if someone used their data without acknowledging them, or published a paper on their data before they could," says Agarwal.
"So we focused on tools that would give the site managers an incentive to comfortably share their data. In the beginning, we focused on enabling data policy compliant use of the data.""By 2006 we were getting to the point of big data, and the computer scientists essentially provided the site managers with some guidance and 'adult supervision' by convincing us that the FLUXNET website should serve as our central point of data exchange," says Baldocchi. "Before this, a lot of scientists were just emailing data files back and forth to each other. There was no version control or vetting of the files, so we would have no idea what version was the most recent, what had been analyzed, or how it was different from the original dataset. We got all of this with the new website and database."
Once the Microsoft grant ran out, Agarwal and the Berkeley Lab team were able to maintain the FLUXNET site with limited funds from Baldocchi and DOE. At the same time, European collaborators who did have funding worked on updating the FLUXNET data standards and building tools for quantifying uncertainty in the field data, which will be especially useful for climate models. Eventually, as Berkeley Lab received funding to build tools for the AmeriFlux project, Agarwal and Gilberto Pastorello were able to work with the European collaborators on metadata standards, as well as building pipelines for QA/QC, gap filling and uncertainty quantification. Both groups leveraged this work to update tools for the global FLUXNET collaboration.
"The data in the recent release is dramatically better than previous releases," says Agarwal. "Our team re-standardized the data completely and our European collaborators completely revamped the uncertainty quantification. We created a high bar for QA/QC and ran every single site year of data through this pipeline, we manually inspected the things that weren't automated and sent data that didn't pass muster back to the sites to fix. With these new standards, we have established a baseline of quality that guarantees the sites are comparable. "
According to Gilberto Pastorello, a Berkeley Lab Computer Scientist and FLUXNET contributor, the uncertainty estimates for FLUXNET data are especially valuable for climate modelers who want to validate their simulations with FLUXNET data.
"We've adopted a model where we take the most recent and well accepted developments in the flux community and incorporate them into our pipeline, which can be quite challenging because we are having to rework some of the codes to ensure that they will run in a production environment. It's a lot of work to get the code ready to run in a very uncertain set of conditions and not misbehave," says Pastorello. "Ultimately we want to get this pipeline to a point where we can run it consistently here at Berkeley Lab and in Europe, as well as share it with the community so that anyone who wants to run it can use it."Pastorello is also currently working with European collaborators to implement a partitioning tool into the pipeline, which will break down CO2 flux data into respiration and photosynthesis.
"It was incredibly important to me to keep this project going. This data isn't something that you can re-create, you can't start collecting this information from scratch again," says Baldocchi. "Today's FLUXNET has exceeded my hopes and aspirations, our datasets contain some of the oldest flux measurements in Europe and North America, and now we have contributors from Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific."
"People work very hard to collect field data, so their data is very valuable to them. To share it openly, the way they are doing, seems counterintuitive to their efforts, but after seeing how their data is being used to do regional and global studies more and more of these researchers want to share their data and are asking us why their data isn't in the latest FLUXNET release yet," says Pastorello. "It is extremely rewarding to see our tools help these individuals realize the advantages of FLUXNET."
Materials provided by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Nature Conservancy Writing Prize 2017
September 27, 2016
This diagram of the fast carbon cycle shows the movement of carbon between land, atmosphere, and oceans. Yellow numbers are natural fluxes, and red are human contributions in gigatons of carbon per year. White numbers indicate stored carbon. Credit: NASAearthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/CarbonCycle
Around the world -- from tundra to tropical forests, and a variety of ecosystems in between -- environmental researchers have set up micrometeorological towers to monitor carbon, water, and energy fluxes, which are measurements of how carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapor and energy (heat) circulate between the soil, plants and atmosphere. Most of these sites have been continuously collecting data, some for nearly 25 years, monitoring ecosystem-level changes through periods of extreme droughts and rising global temperatures. Each of these sites contributes to a regional network -- i.e. the European Network (Euroflux) or the Americas Network (AmeriFlux) -- and the regional networks together comprise a global network called FLUXNET.
Recognizing that a plethora of scientific insights could be gleaned from this information, over 450 sites worldwide are sharing their observation data with the FLUXNET database. The project's most recent data release -- FLUXNET2015 -- includes some of the longest continuous records of ecosystem data ever taken. The information has undergone extensive quality checks and controls (QA/QC) and is now publicly available online:http://fluxnet.fluxdata.org/data/fluxnet2015-dataset/
Computer scientists at the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) contributed to the development of the FLUXNET database and website, as well as the software tools that automatically perform QA/QC and fill gaps in field observations. They also helped build tools that allow researchers to easily upload, download and share datasets, as well as track how and where each site's data will be used. Much of this work was done in collaboration with colleagues at the Max Planck Institute of Biogeochemistry and the Universities of California-Berkeley (UC Berkeley), Virginia (UVA) and Tuscia, Italy.
The AmeriFlux Management Project -- which is funded by the DOE and led by Berkeley Lab, the European Ecosystems Fluxes Database and FLUXNET project -- worked with several regional networks to process and harmonize all of the information in the FLUXNET2015 release.
According to Dennis Baldocchi, UC Berkeley Professor and FLUXNET Principal Investigator, this data is allowing researchers to ask questions about long-term trends in climate and ecosystem health that would have previously been impossible to investigate. The data could also be used to help a variety of people, from meteorologists to farmers, make better-informed decisions.
"We know that the concentration of CO2 changes in an ecosystem over time, and now we can look at how these changes affect the photosynthesis or water usage of an entire forest or desert," he says. "We can also look at the affects of extreme weather events -- like hot and cold spells -- on an ecosystem."
FLUXNET: A Collaboration Decades in the Making
According to Baldocchi, an international flux collaboration began in 1995 when a handful of scientists who were just starting to collect year-round observations of the CO2 exchange between the ground and atmosphere met in La Thuile, Italy to discuss the best methods for collecting and recording data. Shortly after that meeting, the DOE created the AmeriFlux program and began funding a handful of researchers to measure CO2 exchange in a number of ecosystems around North America. Meanwhile, European counterparts were launching similar studies of ecosystems across Europe, and NASA launched the Aqua Satellite to understand Earth's water-cycle and Terra Satellite to explore connections between Earth's atmosphere, land, snow and ice, ocean and energy balance.
Concurrently, NASA also funded the FLUXNET collaboration to blend data from the regional networks to validate their satellite data. In 1999, the official FLUXNET group met again at the Marconi Conference Center in Marshall, California to work on harmonizing their datasets. This included coming up with common names, units and time-steps in their field data descriptions, which was crucial for multi-site analysis. The researchers also developed a process for filling gaps in the field data.
"When you are observing in nature it's inevitable that you will have gaps in your data because a raindrop or bug messes with a sensor, or a sensor may malfunction. We use statistical models to fill those gaps of information," says Baldocchi.
Once the initial NASA funding expired in the late 1990s, international researchers who saw a benefit in keeping the FLUXNET collaboration going sustained it through a patchwork of funds from agencies in Canada, Europe and the U.S., as well as "in-kind" support from research groups, universities and foundations. In fact, this is how Berkeley Lab's involvement in building software tools for FLUXNET began.
"It's a big deal that we are able to get hundreds of scientists to come together, trust each other, share and exchange data and work toward a common goal," says Baldocchi. "In the early days, this was a small group and everyone knew each other so we were able to meet in a place like Italy and form a personal relationship. As the community grows, software tools that track where and how each site's data is being used are invaluable to form trust."
Berkeley Lab Joins the FLUXNET Software Collaboration
Berkeley Lab computer scientists officially joined the FLUXNET collaboration in 2006, when CRD's Deb Agarwal offered to use funds from her Microsoft Research Grant to help the collaboration build a website, queryable database and a workflow for requesting and sharing site data. With limited funds, the initial versions of the FLUXNET website and database were extremely utilitarian.
"In the beginning, many researchers were nervous to share their data publicly because they risked losing credit if someone used their data without acknowledging them, or published a paper on their data before they could," says Agarwal.
"So we focused on tools that would give the site managers an incentive to comfortably share their data. In the beginning, we focused on enabling data policy compliant use of the data."
"By 2006 we were getting to the point of big data, and the computer scientists essentially provided the site managers with some guidance and 'adult supervision' by convincing us that the FLUXNET website should serve as our central point of data exchange," says Baldocchi. "Before this, a lot of scientists were just emailing data files back and forth to each other. There was no version control or vetting of the files, so we would have no idea what version was the most recent, what had been analyzed, or how it was different from the original dataset. We got all of this with the new website and database."
Once the Microsoft grant ran out, Agarwal and the Berkeley Lab team were able to maintain the FLUXNET site with limited funds from Baldocchi and DOE. At the same time, European collaborators who did have funding worked on updating the FLUXNET data standards and building tools for quantifying uncertainty in the field data, which will be especially useful for climate models. Eventually, as Berkeley Lab received funding to build tools for the AmeriFlux project, Agarwal and Gilberto Pastorello were able to work with the European collaborators on metadata standards, as well as building pipelines for QA/QC, gap filling and uncertainty quantification. Both groups leveraged this work to update tools for the global FLUXNET collaboration.
"The data in the recent release is dramatically better than previous releases," says Agarwal. "Our team re-standardized the data completely and our European collaborators completely revamped the uncertainty quantification. We created a high bar for QA/QC and ran every single site year of data through this pipeline, we manually inspected the things that weren't automated and sent data that didn't pass muster back to the sites to fix. With these new standards, we have established a baseline of quality that guarantees the sites are comparable. "
According to Gilberto Pastorello, a Berkeley Lab Computer Scientist and FLUXNET contributor, the uncertainty estimates for FLUXNET data are especially valuable for climate modelers who want to validate their simulations with FLUXNET data.
"We've adopted a model where we take the most recent and well accepted developments in the flux community and incorporate them into our pipeline, which can be quite challenging because we are having to rework some of the codes to ensure that they will run in a production environment. It's a lot of work to get the code ready to run in a very uncertain set of conditions and not misbehave," says Pastorello. "Ultimately we want to get this pipeline to a point where we can run it consistently here at Berkeley Lab and in Europe, as well as share it with the community so that anyone who wants to run it can use it."
Pastorello is also currently working with European collaborators to implement a partitioning tool into the pipeline, which will break down CO2 flux data into respiration and photosynthesis.
"It was incredibly important to me to keep this project going. This data isn't something that you can re-create, you can't start collecting this information from scratch again," says Baldocchi. "Today's FLUXNET has exceeded my hopes and aspirations, our datasets contain some of the oldest flux measurements in Europe and North America, and now we have contributors from Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific."
"People work very hard to collect field data, so their data is very valuable to them. To share it openly, the way they are doing, seems counterintuitive to their efforts, but after seeing how their data is being used to do regional and global studies more and more of these researchers want to share their data and are asking us why their data isn't in the latest FLUXNET release yet," says Pastorello. "It is extremely rewarding to see our tools help these individuals realize the advantages of FLUXNET."
Materials provided by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Nature Conservancy Writing Prize 2017
NOPSEMA Requests Further Information From BP For STROMLO-1 And WHINHAM-1 Drilling Environment Plan
Wilderness Horse Riding
Have Your Say On The Rocky Hill Coal Project Application
How Wetlands And Agriculture Could Be Causing A Global Rise In Methane
Have Your Say On A Mixed Use Development At Barangaroo South
29.09.2016: Departmental Media Release - Department of Planning and Environment
Three separate proposals by Lend Lease Pty Ltd for residential buildings at 51A Hickson Road, Barangaroo will be on exhibition from today for community consultation.
The Department of Planning and Environment is keen to hear the community’s views on the proposals, which seek to construct three residential buildings of 72, 60 and 29 storeys.
These will provide 775 new apartments, of which 39 apartments will be for key worker housing in the 29 storey building.
Each of the buildings will provide retail space and will include underground car spaces, storage and rubbish facilities.
A spokesperson for the Department of Planning and Environment said the local community always has an opportunity to share their views.
“Community consultation is an integral part of the planning process and the applicant will have to respond to the feedback we receive,” the spokesperson said.
“This feedback is taken into consideration as part of the assessment.
“It’s easy to participate by going online and we encourage everyone to take a look and have their say.”
To make a submission or view the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), visit www.majorprojects.planning.nsw.gov.au.
Barangaroo South
Residential Building R4A EIS Exhibition
Barangaroo South
Residential Building R4B EIS Exhibition
Barangaroo South
Submissions can be made from Thursday 29 September until Monday 14 November 2016.
Written submissions can also be made to:
Department of Planning and Environment
Attn: Director – Key Sites Assessments
GPO Box 39
Sydney NSW 2001
The application and EIS are also available to view in person at:
Department of Planning and Environment:
Information Centre, 23-33 Bridge Street, Sydney, until 30 September 2016
Information Centre, 320 Pitt Street, Sydney, from 4 October 2016
City of Sydney Council: Town Hall House, Level 2, 456 Kent Street, Sydney.
Australia's Innovation Legacy Soars With ‘Black Box’ Flight Recorder Inventor Honoured
MEDIA RELEASE: 28 September 2016 - The Hon Darren Chester MP, Minister for Infrastructure and Transport
One of Australia's greatest scientists, Dr David Warren AO, has been posthumously awarded the prestigious Edward Warner Award for the invention of the black box flight recorder.
The award was announced at the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) 39th Assembly, a specialised United Nations agency established in 1944 with responsibility for civil aviation.
Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester welcomed the award today and credited Dr Warren's invention with delivering one of the greatest single innovations to improve aviation safety across the globe.
“This award highlights Australia's long history of innovation and invention, with the black box flight recorder among the most recognised and used technologies throughout the world,” Mr Chester said.
“Being able to capture cockpit information offers valuable lessons in preventing future accidents and improving safety for passengers.
“Worldwide, every crash investigation agency relies upon the evidence they retrieve from Dr Warren's black box to find solutions to aviation mysteries such as tragic loss of Air France 477.
“The success of the black box in aviation has also seen the system adopted by the rail and maritime industries.
“I am delighted that such a prominent body, representing more than 190 nations, has seen fit to recognise Dr Warren through this award. It certainly reflects how important the black box has been to aviation safety, and most importantly, to saving people's lives.”
The Award was named in honour of the first President of the International Civil Aviation Organization, Dr Edward Warner, and is presented at each Assembly on behalf of all member states.
The Assembly occurs every three years and sets the organisation's worldwide policy over the next triennium. The 39th Assembly will occur between 27 September and 7 October at ICAO's headquarters in Montreal, Canada.
Seniors Sick Of Cold-Calling Charity Collectors, Survey Shows
29 September, 2016: by National Seniors
National Seniors and consumer group CHOICE are calling for an end to unwanted phone calls asking for money.
Latest CHOICE research shows that 89 per cent of people received at least one unsolicited call in a six-month period.
Around 25 per cent of people said they received unwanted calls from charities on a weekly basis and nearly five per cent said they received such calls every day or several times a day.
“We are hearing from our members that the calls are making them anxious and they are reluctant to answer the phone,” said National Seniors Chief Executive Officer Dagmar Parsons.
National Seniors collected stories from older Australians affected by unwanted calls from charities, and found that people were:
avoiding answering their phones;
considering disconnecting their landlines; and
moving in with elderly relatives in order to protect them from unwanted and aggressive unsolicited phone calls seeking donations.
“Calls asking for money are intrusive and put vulnerable members of society at risk when they are hounded week in and week out,” says CHOICE Head of Media Tom Godfrey.
“Unfortunately consumers can’t use the Do Not Call Register to opt out of all nuisance calls, with for-profit companies’ call centres exploiting the charity exception to hound people.
“Clearly the law needs to change to allow people to opt-out of all unsolicited calls that involve financial transactions,” Godfrey said.
CLICK HERE to sign petition.
Art Of Ageing Exhibition
October 21 – October 23
Oct 21 at 9 AM to Oct 23 at 3 PM
Sydney Town Hall - Lower Exhibition Halls
Cnr George and Druitt Streets, Sydney.
Art of Ageing exhibition – challenge your perceptions, discover the full picture
Ageing well isn't just about eating better and exercising more. And many perceptions about older people are just plain old.
Like the rest of the western world, NSW is ageing.
As part of the renewal of the NSW Ageing Strategy, photographer Louise Hawson (www.52suburbs.com.au) has been documenting the lives of older people.
These photographs and stories are being exhibited to celebrate the launch of the Strategy.
Come along and discover the full picture. How do you feel about growing older?
C'mon Aussie: Your Diet's A Shocker
26 September 2016: CSIRO
Australia's largest ever diet survey has confirmed that the vast majority of Aussies eating habits are below par.
The 2016 CSIRO Healthy Diet Score report (PDF: (60.76kb) , released today, canvassed the dietary habits of more than 86,500 adults across the country over a 12 month period.
An early snapshot of the survey results released in August 2015 awarded the nation's diet a score of 61 on a 100-point scale.
With almost 47,000 additional surveys completed since then that figure now stands at just 59 out of 100, confirming that Australian diets are worse than first thought.
"We have an image of being fit and healthy, but with a collective diet score of 59/100 that image could be very different unless we act now," CSIRO Research Director and co-author of the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet, Professor Manny Noakes said.
According to the 2016 Healthy Diet Score, 80 per cent of respondents received an individual score below 70, which is a benchmark figure.
"If we can raise our collective score by just over 10 points, we help Australia mitigate against the growing rates of obesity and lifestyle diseases such as heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and a third of all cancers, Professor Noakes said.
"All people need to do is halve the bad and double the good. In other words, halve the amount of discretionary food you eat and double your vegetable intake."
People across Australia, in all occupations and age groups were invited to participate in the online survey between May 2015 and June 2016.
CSIRO researchers have used this information to create a detailed picture of the country's eating habits.
The closest we get to meeting Australian Dietary Guidelines is the fruit food group where 49 per cent of respondents meet the recommended intake.That means one in two of us still have room to improve.
But of greater concern is dietary performance in regard to discretionary, or junk foods.
Just 1 per cent of Australians are abstaining from junk food, while more than one third admitted to eating more than the recommended maximum allowance.
"We find that there is often a tendency to under-report on certain types of food, so in all likelihood that figure is even higher," Professor Noakes said.
The report showed that women have better nutritional levels than men (60 v 56/100).
Construction workers were among those with the poorest diets, while public servants, real estate agents and health industry workers reported some of the healthiest eating patterns.
The 2016 CSIRO Healthy Diet Score also tracked food avoidance in diets for the first time, and found that approximately one in three Australian adults are avoiding one or more foods such as gluten, dairy or meat.
To get involved CSIRO is asking people to undertake The Healthy Diet Score – a free online assessment which evaluates diet quality and identifies individual areas of improvement, as well as providing a personal diet score out of 100.
"It is never too late to eat better and increase your score, and the nation's," Professor Noakes said.
"We encourage people to also take the test regularly to ensure they are improving their eating behaviour and overall health and wellbeing."
For more information, or to take the free CSIRO Healthy Diet Score, please visit www.csirodietscore.com
How Cancer’s 'Invisibility Cloak' Works
September 26, 2016: The University of British Columbia (UBC)
UBC researchers have discovered how cancer cells become invisible to the body's immune system, a crucial step that allows tumours to metastasize and spread throughout the body.
"The immune system is efficient at identifying and halting the emergence and spread of primary tumours but when metastatic tumours appear, the immune system is no longer able to recognize the cancer cells and stop them," said Wilfred Jefferies, senior author of the study working in the Michael Smith Laboratories and a professor of Medical Genetics and Microbiology and Immunology at UBC.
"We discovered a new mechanism that explains how metastatic tumours can outsmart the immune system and we have begun to reverse this process so tumours are revealed to the immune system once again."
Cancer cells genetically change and evolve over time. Researchers discovered that as they evolve, they may lose the ability to create a protein known as interleukein-33, or IL-33. When IL-33 disappears in the tumour, the body's immune system has no way of recognizing the cancer cells and they can begin to spread, or metastasize.
The researchers found that the loss of IL-33 occurs in epithelial carcinomas, meaning cancers that begin in tissues that line the surfaces of organs. These cancers include prostate, kidney breast, lung, uterine, cervical, pancreatic, skin and many others.
Working in collaboration with researchers at the Vancouver Prostate Centre, and studying several hundred patients, they found that patients with prostate or renal (kidney) cancers whose tumours have lost IL-33, had more rapid recurrence of their cancer over a five-year period. They will now begin studying whether testing for IL-33 is an effective way to monitor the progression of certain cancers.
"IL-33 could be among the first immune biomarkers for prostate cancer and, in the near future, we are planning to examine this in a larger sample size of patients," said Iryna Saranchova, a PhD student in the department of microbiology and immunology and first author on the study.
Researchers have long tried to use the body's own immune system to fight cancer but only in the last few years have they identified treatments that show potential.
In this study Saranchova, Jefferies and their colleagues at the Michael Smith Laboratories, found that putting IL-33 back into metastatic cancers helped revive the immune system's ability to recognize tumours. Further research will examine whether this could be an effective cancer treatment in humans.
This study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
This research was funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.
Background
This research was completed with co-authors: Jeff Han, Hui Huang, Franz Fenninger, Kyung Bok Choi, Lonna Munro and Cheryl Pfeifer at the Michael Smith Laboratories, the Centre for Blood Research, the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, and the departments of medical genetics, zoology and microbiology and immunology at UBC; as well as Alexander Wyatt, Ladan Fazli and Martin Gleave at the Vancouver Prostate Centre, a research hub hosted by UBC and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute; and Ian Welch in UBC Animal Care Services.
How does IL-33 work?
Cancer cells genetically change and evolve. As the cells evolve, they lose the ability to create a protein known as interleukein-33 (IL-33). This protein influences another protein complex, known as the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), that act as beacons to help identify whether a given cell is a good cell or a bad cell. With these proteins working, primary tumour cells put warning flags on the outside of the cell so that immune cells recognize it and destroy it. When interleukin-33 disappears in the tumour, the flag-displaying pathway falls apart and body's immune system has no way of recognizing the cancer cells and they can begin to spread, or metastasize.
Iryna Saranchova, Jeffrey Han, Hui Huang, Franz Fenninger, Kyung Bok Choi, Lonna Munro, Cheryl Pfeifer, Ian Welch, Alexander W. Wyatt, Ladan Fazli, Martin E. Gleave, Wilfred A. Jefferies. Discovery of a Metastatic Immune Escape Mechanism Initiated by the Loss of Expression of the Tumour Biomarker Interleukin-33. Scientific Reports, 2016; 6: 30555 DOI: 10.1038/srep30555
Quantum Computing A Step Closer To Reality
September 27, 2016: Australian National University
Dr Geoff Campbell and Mr Jesse Everett. Credit: Stuart Hay, ANU
Physicists at The Australian National University (ANU) have brought quantum computing a step closer to reality by stopping light in a new experiment.
Lead researcher Jesse Everett said controlling the movement of light was critical to developing future quantum computers, which could solve problems too complex for today's most advanced computers.
"Optical quantum computing is still a long way off, but our successful experiment to stop light gets us further along the road," said Mr Everett from the Research School of Physics and Engineering (RSPE) and ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at ANU.
He said quantum computers based on light -- photons -- could connect easily with communication technology such as optic fibres and had potential applications in fields such as medicine, defence, telecommunications and financial services.
The research team's experiment -- which created a light trap by shining infrared lasers into ultra-cold atomic vapour -- was inspired by Mr Everett's discovery of the potential to stop light in a computer simulation.
"It's clear that the light is trapped, there are photons circulating around the atoms," Mr Everett said.
"The atoms absorbed some of the trapped light, but a substantial proportion of the photons were frozen inside the atomic cloud."
Mr Everett likened the team's experiment at ANU to a scene from Star Wars: The Force Awakens when the character Kylo Ren used the Force to stop a laser blast mid-air.
"It's pretty amazing to look at a sci-fi movie and say we actually did something that's a bit like that," he said.
Associate Professor Ben Buchler, who leads the ANU research team, said the light-trap experiment demonstrated incredible control of a very complex system.
"Our method allows us to manipulate the interaction of light and atoms with great precision," said Associate Professor Buchler from RSPE and ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at ANU.
Co-researcher Dr Geoff Campbell from ANU said photons mostly passed by each other at the speed of light without any interactions, while atoms interacted with each other readily.
"Corralling a crowd of photons in a cloud of ultra-cold atoms creates more opportunities for them to interact," said Dr Campbell from RSPE and ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at ANU.
"We're working towards a single photon changing the phase of a second photon. We could use that process to make a quantum logic gate, the building block of a quantum computer," Dr Campbell said.
The research was supported by funding from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, which involves ANU, University of New South Wales, University of Melbourne, University of Queensland, Griffith University, University of Sydney, Australian Defence Force Academy, along with 12 international university and industry partners.
The results from the experiment are published in Nature Physics.
J. L. Everett, G. T. Campbell, Y.-W. Cho, P. Vernaz-Gris, D.B. Higginbottom, O. Pinel, N. P. Robins, P. K. Lam, B. C. Buchler. Dynamical observations of self-stabilizing stationary light. Nature Physics, 2016; DOI:10.1038/nphys3901
Privacy Commissioners Reveal The Hidden Risks Of The Internet Of Things
Friday, 23 September 2016
A global sweep of Internet of Things products has revealed that 71 per cent of devices and services used by Australians did not provide a privacy policy and notices to adequately explain how personal information is collected, used and dis closed.
The results have been released by the Australian Privacy Commissioner, and fellow international regulators, through the Global Privacy Enforcement Network (GPEN).
Internet of Things technology is built into all kinds of services like movie streaming, fitness trackers, home appliances and children’s toys. But the seamless nature of how these devices collect, store and share user information means that customers are not always fully aware of the privacy risks.
Accordingly, the 26 privacy enforcement authorities that make up GPEN examined the privacy policies of over 300 businesses around the world, including 45 used by Australian consumers every day.
The Australian report found that:
• 71 per cent failed to properly explain how information was stored
• 69 per cent did not adequately explain how customers could delete their information off the device
• 38 per cent failed to include easily identifiable contact details if customers had privacy concerns
• 91 per cent did not advise customers to customise their privacy settings.
Australian Privacy Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim, found that the Australian businesses assessed as part of the sweep generally lacked clear information for customers about how their personal information was being managed — with more than half failing to adequately explain how personal information was collected, used and disclosed.
‘The Internet of Things allows for some great products and entertainment, but many of us have adopted this technology into our everyday lives without considering how much of our personal information is being captured or what happens to that information.
‘Remember, for an Internet of Things device to work for you it needs to know about you, so you should know what information is being collected and where it is going.
‘I encourage all Australians to look for privacy policies before you decide to use a device, and ensure you are comfortable with what information is being collected and how it is being managed.’
The Commissioner said that the majority of the businesses reviewed in the sweep could benefit from better explaining their information handling practices to customers.
The Commissioner’s office is working with businesses and start-ups to help them better understand their privacy obligations, and creating a range of educational materials on developing and implementing best privacy practices.
‘This year’s GPEN sweep has reinforced how important it is for businesses, particularly start-ups, to implement a ‘privacy-by-design’ approach, where strong privacy frameworks and communications are implemented from the beginning.
‘Strong privacy protections and clear explanations for how personal information is managed helps build consumer trust. It also avoids the costly exercise of building these privacy frameworks later on, most often after something has already gone wrong.’
For further information, please visit www.oaic.gov.au or follow @OAICgov.
Baby Kookaburras In Our Backyard
Every year around this time we begin to see all the baby birds the birds living in our trees have hatched from their nests. We have a pair of lorikeets, magpies, Australian ravens, two Bush-turkeys that haven't brought their babies to show us yet, so they must still be nesting, and these two lovely fledgling kookaburras.
They are sitting in one of the gum trees, we have lots of spotted gums, watching for mum and dad to come back with dinner!
The Bush Turkeys that visit as a pair
Did you take part in Bird Count last year?
This year, the Aussie Backyard Bird Count will be back, bigger and better than ever. With more than a million birds counted last year, how many will we see in 2016? It’s all happening during Bird Week, 17–23 October. Let’s make every bird count!
Discover the Aussie Backyard Bird Count app!
A 'how to' guide for using the Aussie Backyard Bird Count app.
We just sat on our verandah this week and took some of the birds that visit our yard to inspire you - clearly we'll be adding these to this year's Aussie Bird Count!
If you'd like some more inspiration visit Issue 234, 2015: Australia's First Bird Counts - A 115 Year Legacy
Australia Post Encourages Students To Learn About Endangered Wildlife
26th September 2016
Australia Post is calling young Australians to get on board Stamp Collecting Month this October to learn more about some of the world's most endangered animals through the endangered wildlife stamp issue.
Encouraging children to learn more about animal conservation, the Endangered Wildlife stamp issue features four native and three exotic endangered animals currently part of local zoo or Government conservation programs.
With Australia losing nearly 30 mammal species in the last 200 years, Taronga Zoo Executive Director, Cameron Kerr said the country has one of the highest extinction rates in the world.
"Fortunately, organisations like Taronga Zoo are working to help species like the Southern Corroboree Frog that are in serious trouble. Through joint breeding programs, we're already releasing these critically endangered amphibians to Kosciusko National Park. With less than 50 of these animals left in the wild our timing is crucial.
"The impressive stamp representing this striking frog helps commemorate Taronga Zoo's centenary, but also creates awareness for their plight in the wild and we are proud to have it featured for Stamp Collecting Month," said Mr Kerr.
"This year's Stamp Collecting Month is a great opportunity for students, teachers and parents to explore and delve deeper into some of our endangered species, the causes of endangerment and extinction and what we can do to help protect them," he said.
With the issue's focus on animals at risk of extinction, Australia Post Philatelic Manager, Michael Zsolt, said, "We are pleased to recognise the efforts being made to conserve endangered species and to get behind such an important cause".
The stamps feature the Snow Leopard, Asian Elephant, Western Lowland Gorilla, Western Swamp Tortoise, Orange-bellied Parrot, Northern Quoll and the Southern Corroboree Frog.
$1 Endangered Wildlife, Asian Elephant stamp.
50c Endangered Wildlife, Northern Quoll stamp.
Stamp Collecting Month is also supported by a dedicated online education resource for teachers, parents and students. The website includes information and facts on each animal featured, as well as lesson ideas and activities, stamp images and much more.
For more information on Stamp Collecting Month and this year's Endangered Wildlife issue, including educational activities, visit the website:www.auspost.com.au/scm.
The Endangered Wildlife stamps and associated products are available from 20 September 2016 at participating Post Offices, via mail order on 1800 331 794 and online at www.auspost.com.au/stamps while stocks last.
Taronga ‘Stands Up For The Wild’ With 100 Year Birthday Parade
School children celebrate 100 years of Taronga Zoo - photo by Rick Stevens
A parade of giant animal light sculptures will make their way down Macquarie Street, Saturday 15 October, Taronga Zoo announced today,marking100 years since the Zoo officially opened in Mosman in 1916.
Starting at Hyde Park at 8pm, the amazing light sculptures will be escorted by a cast of school children who will dance, sing and light up the streets for the wild to the Sydney Opera House, where a live performance will take place.
The giant animal light sculptures represent Taronga’s ten year commitment to the conservation and preservation of 10 Centenary Species, iconic and beloved animals which include the Asian Elephant, Platypus, and Sumatran Tiger.
The fabulous light parade will recreate the historic moment 100 years ago, when Jessie the elephant made her way from the original Zoological site in Moore Park, through the CBD, down Macquarie Street to a spot on the foreshore directly where the Harbour Bridge and Opera House would rise years later. Jessie boarded a barge, to be transported across the harbour as did hippos, primates, reptiles, and many other animal species Taronga still cares for today.
Taronga is encouraging Australians to ‘Stand Up #FortheWild’ by coming along to cheer the parade or by donating to its Centenary Commitment to turn around the plight of these 10 critical species.
Creative Director, Ignatius Jones, said: “This will be the most amazing parade that Sydney has seen in a 100 years! An absolute carnival of lights, dancing and music!”
“A great night out for friends and families, the Taronga Birthday Parade will spread the word that we need to stand up for these amazing animals and help Taronga ensure their future.”
Taronga Zoo’s CEO, Cameron Kerr said: “We’re inviting everyone in Sydney to ‘Stand Up for the Wild’ by coming along to what will be an amazing spectacle and help support the work being done for these 10 vital species.”
“We’re asking Australians not just in Sydney but across the country help us raise $1 million dollars to kick-start a lifetime conservation commitment.”
The parade is the exciting culmination for Taronga’s Centenary program, presented by long-term supporter ANZ, which has also included Vivid Sydney at Taronga, EID at Taronga, inviting guests to come in for $1 on their birthday, creating a stunning collection of past and present Taronga memories at #IGrewupWithTaronga, hosting an amazing birthday party on the 7 October Centenary anniversary and the commencing of amazing field-work to conserve the 10 Centenary species.
Donate $10 to help Taronga save 10 endangered species from extinction. Visit: tarongaparade.org
What: Taronga Birthday Parade
Cost: FREE
When: Saturday 15 October 2016 at 8pm
Where:Starting from Hyde Park North and continuing along Macquarie Street to the Sydney Opera House grand finale performance
