Acclimation of leaf respiration temperature responses across thermally contrasting biomes.

Short-term temperature response curves of leaf dark respiration (R-T) provide insights into a critical process that influences plant net carbon exchange. This includes how respiratory traits acclimate to sustained changes in the environment. Our study analysed 860 high-resolution R-T (10-70°C range) curves for: (a) 62 evergreen species measured in two contrasting seasons across several field sites/biomes; and (b) 21 species (subset of those sampled in the field) grown in glasshouses at 20°C : 15°C, 25°C : 20°C and 30°C : 25°C, day : night.

Animal industry and veterinary science in eastern New Guinea: World War II to Independence, 1975.

We have described the efforts of the Australian administration of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG) to establish a veterinary service and viable animal industries. These efforts began with planning before the end of World War II in 1945 and continued until independence in 1975. Whereas pre-war cattle had mostly been used to control grass on plantations, post-war, the objective was to use the country's extensive, unoccupied grasslands for cattle production.

Leaf trait variation is similar among genotypes of Eucalyptus camaldulensis from differing climates and arises in plastic responses to the seasons rather than water availability.

We used a widely distributed tree Eucalyptus camaldulensis subsp. camaldulensis to partition intraspecific variation in leaf functional traits to genotypic variation and phenotypic plasticity. We examined if genotypic variation is related to the climate of genotype provenance and whether phenotypic plasticity maintains performance in a changing environment.

Animal industry and veterinary science in eastern New Guinea 1: before World War II.

Until the latter part of the nineteenth century, there were no domestic animals other than pigs, dogs and poultry in the island of New Guinea. From 1889 onwards, occupying authorities, missionaries and settlers from Germany, the UK, Japan and Australia imported ruminants, pigs and horses. Some of these importations were from Asia.

Relationship between the likelihood of footrot elimination from a flock and the virulence of the strain of Dichelobacter nodosus present.

Objective: To assess ability to eliminate different strains of footrot in sheep using inspection and culling of affected sheep.

Methods: A flock of 1417 Polwarth sheep that had deliberately been infected with seven different strains of Dichelobacter nodosus and undergone different control measures prior to eradication, including zinc sulfate footbathing and vaccination, were subjected to visual foot inspection on a number of occasions. Sheep identified as infected or having any foot abnormalities were removed from the flock at each inspection.

Comparison of footbathing and vaccination to control ovine footrot in an experimentally infected flock.

Objective: Compare footbathing and vaccination for control of footrot during a transmission period in a sheep flock deliberately infected with multiple strains of Dichelobacter nodosus.

Methods: The strains included a known virulent strain, a benign strain and several intermediate strains. The resulting footrot was clinically intermediate.

The validity of optimal leaf traits modelled on environmental conditions.

The ratio of leaf intercellular to ambient CO (χ) is modulated by stomatal conductance (g ). These quantities link carbon (C) assimilation with transpiration, and along with photosynthetic capacities (V and J ) are required to model terrestrial C uptake. We use optimization criteria based on the growth environment to generate predicted values of photosynthetic and water-use efficiency traits and test these against a unique dataset.

Hydroacoustics as a tool to examine the effects of Marine Protected Areas and habitat type on marine fish communities.

Hydroacoustic technologies are widely used in fisheries research but few studies have used them to examine the effects of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). We evaluate the efficacy of hydroacoustics to examine the effects of closure to fishing and habitat type on fish populations in the Cabo Pulmo National Park (CPNP), Mexico, and compare these methods to Underwater Visual Censuses (UVC). Fish density, biomass and size were all significantly higher inside the CPNP (299%, 144% and 52% respectively) than outside in non-MPA control areas.

Plasticity of photosynthetic heat tolerance in plants adapted to thermally contrasting biomes.

In many biomes, plants are subject to heatwaves, potentially causing irreversible damage to the photosynthetic apparatus. Field surveys have documented global, temperature-dependent patterns in photosynthetic heat tolerance (P ); however, it remains unclear if these patterns reflect acclimation in P or inherent differences among species adapted to contrasting habitats. To address these unknowns, we quantified seasonal variations in T (high temperature where minimal chlorophyll-a fluorescence rises rapidly, reflecting disruption to photosystem II) in 62 species native to 6 sites from 5 thermally contrasting biomes across Australia.

Macromolecular rate theory (MMRT) provides a thermodynamics rationale to underpin the convergent temperature response in plant leaf respiration.

Temperature is a crucial factor in determining the rates of ecosystem processes, for example, leaf respiration (R) - the flux of plant respired CO from leaves to the atmosphere. Generally, R increases exponentially with temperature and formulations such as the Arrhenius equation are widely used in earth system models. However, experimental observations have shown a consequential and consistent departure from an exponential increase in R.

A multiband approach for accurate numerical simulation of frequency dependent ultrasonic wave propagation in the time domain.

Finite element (FE) simulations are popular for studying propagation and scattering of ultrasonic waves in nondestructive evaluation. For a large number of degrees of freedom, time domain FE simulations are much more efficient than the equivalent frequency domain solution. However, unlike frequency domain simulations, time domain simulations are often poor at representing the speed and the attenuation of waves if the material is strongly damping or highly dispersive.

Artificial infection of sheep with multiple strains of Dichelobacter nodosus to induce footrot.

Objectives: To establish multiple strains of Dichelobacter nodosus in two flocks of sheep and to assess the virulence of five of these strains.

Methods: In experiment 1, sheep were challenged with five D. nodosus strains, which varied in both virulence and serotype.

Ultrasonic attenuation and phase velocity of high-density polyethylene pipe material.

Knowledge of acoustic properties is crucial for ultrasonic or sonic imaging and signal detection in nondestructive evaluation (NDE), medical imaging, and seismology. Accurately and reliably obtaining these is particularly challenging for the NDE of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), such as is used in many water or gas pipes, because the properties vary greatly with frequency, temperature, direction and spatial location. Therefore the work reported here was undertaken in order to establish a basis for such a multiparameter description.

Thermal limits of leaf metabolism across biomes.

High-temperature tolerance in plants is important in a warming world, with extreme heat waves predicted to increase in frequency and duration, potentially leading to lethal heating of leaves. Global patterns of high-temperature tolerance are documented in animals, but generally not in plants, limiting our ability to assess risks associated with climate warming. To assess whether there are global patterns in high-temperature tolerance of leaf metabolism, we quantified T (high temperature where minimal chlorophyll a fluorescence rises rapidly and thus photosystem II is disrupted) and T (temperature where leaf respiration in darkness is maximal, beyond which respiratory function rapidly declines) in upper canopy leaves of 218 plant species spanning seven biomes.

Transforming Growth Factor Beta Gene Signatures are Spatially Enriched in Keloid Tissue Biopsies and Ex vivo-Cultured Keloid Fibroblasts.

The keloid lesion is recognised as a spatially heterogeneous mass both in cellular and acellular composition and biological activity. Here, we have utilised a bioinformatic approach to determine whether this spatial heterogeneity is also evident at the molecular level and to identify key upstream regulators of signalling pathways enriched in the lesion in a spatially-restricted manner. Differentially expressed genes (20% change, p < 0.

Convergence in the temperature response of leaf respiration across biomes and plant functional types.

Plant respiration constitutes a massive carbon flux to the atmosphere, and a major control on the evolution of the global carbon cycle. It therefore has the potential to modulate levels of climate change due to the human burning of fossil fuels. Neither current physiological nor terrestrial biosphere models adequately describe its short-term temperature response, and even minor differences in the shape of the response curve can significantly impact estimates of ecosystem carbon release and/or storage.

Global variability in leaf respiration in relation to climate, plant functional types and leaf traits.

Leaf dark respiration (Rdark ) is an important yet poorly quantified component of the global carbon cycle. Given this, we analyzed a new global database of Rdark and associated leaf traits. Data for 899 species were compiled from 100 sites (from the Arctic to the tropics).

High-resolution temperature responses of leaf respiration in snow gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora) reveal high-temperature limits to respiratory function.

We tested whether snow gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora) trees growing in thermally contrasting environments exhibit generalizable temperature (T) response functions of leaf respiration (R) and fluorescence (Fo). Measurements were made on pot-grown saplings and field-grown trees (growing between 1380 and 2110 m a.s.

Light-dependent maintenance of hydraulic function in mangrove branches: do xylary chloroplasts play a role in embolism repair?

• To clarify the role of branch photosynthesis in tree functioning, the presence and function of chloroplasts in branch xylem tissue were studied in a diverse range of mangrove species growing in Australia. • The presence of xylary chloroplasts was observed via chlorophyll fluorescence of transverse sections. Paired, attached branches were selected to study the effects of covering branches with aluminium foil on the gas exchange characteristics of leaves and the hydraulic conductivity of branches.

Culture of dissociated sensory neurons from dorsal root ganglia of postnatal and adult rats.

The development of new therapeutics for management of pain is likely to become much more mechanism based, and therefore, we need a more thorough understanding of the different pain development pathways. The afferent fibers of sensory neurons, with their cell bodies in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG), are thought to be key in pain mechanisms. DRG neurons can be prepared from embryonic, postnatal, or adult tissue.

Effect on time in quarantine of the choice of program for eradication of footrot from 196 sheep flocks in southern New South Wales.

Objective: To identify and compare programs for eradicating virulent footrot (VFR) chosen by owners of quarantined sheep flocks in southern New South Wales.

Method: Data from 196 sheep flocks in the Wagga Wagga and Young Rural Lands Protection Boards were used to determine the program chosen, the influence of flock size on the program chosen and the effects of the program chosen and the use of contractors on the time in quarantine.

Results: The most popular programs in flocks using a single program were: total destocking (61/173; 35.

Ototrauma induces sodium channel plasticity in auditory afferent neurons.

Exposure to intense sound can cause damage to the delicate sensory and neuronal components of the cochlea leading to hearing loss. Such damage often causes the dendrites of the spiral ganglion neurons (SGN), the neurons that provide the afferent innervation of the hair cells, to swell and degenerate thus damaging the synapse. In models of neuropathic pain, axotomy, another form of afferent nerve damage, is accompanied by altered voltage-gated sodium channel (VGSC) expression, leading to neuronal hyperactivity.