Biology Commons^™

Drought Legacy Interacts With Wildfire To Alter Soil Microbial Communities In A Mediterranean Climate-Type Forest, Anna J. M. Hopkins, Aaron J. Brace, Jess L. Bruce, J. Hyde, J. B. Fontaine, L. Walden, W. Veber, K. X. Ruthrof

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Mediterranean forest ecosystems will be increasingly affected by hotter drought and more frequent and severe wildfire events in the future. However, little is known about the longer-term responses of these forests to multiple disturbances and the forests' capacity to maintain ecosystem function. This is particularly so for below-ground organisms, which have received less attention than those above-ground, despite their essential contributions to forest function. We investigated rhizosphere microbial communities in a resprouting Eucalyptus marginata forest, southwestern Australia, that had experienced a severe wildfire four years previously, and a hotter drought eight years previously. Our aim was to understand how microbial …

Environmental Dna Metabarcoding Of Pan Trap Water To Monitor Arthropod-Plant Interactions, Joshua H. Kestel, David L. Field, Philip W. Bateman, Nicole E. White, Karen L. Bell, Paul Nevill

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Globally, the diversity of arthropods and the plants upon which they rely are under increasing pressure due to a combination of biotic and abiotic anthropogenic stressors. Unfortunately, conventional survey methods used to monitor ecosystems are often challenging to conduct on large scales. Pan traps are a commonly used pollinator survey method and environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding of pan trap water may offer a high-throughput alternative to aid in the detection of both arthropods and the plant resources they rely on. Here, we examined if eDNA metabarcoding can be used to identify arthropods and plant species from pan trap water, and …

Trends In Monitoring Of Australia’S Threatened Birds (1990–2020): Much Improved But Still Inadequate, Simon J. Verdon, Robert A. Davis, Ayesha Tulloch, Sarah M. Legge, David M. Watson, John C. Z. Woinarski, G. Barry Baker, Joris Driessen, Hayley M. Geyle, Hugh Possingham, Stephen T. Garnett

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Monitoring is vital to conservation, enabling conservation scientists to detect population declines, identify threats and measure the effectiveness of interventions. However, not all threatened taxa are monitored, monitoring quality is variable, and the various components of monitoring are likely to differ in their rates of improvement over time. We assessed the presence of monitoring and monitoring quality, using a range of metrics, for all Australia’s threatened bird taxa from 1990 to 2020 (four assessments spanning 30 years). We used our assessments to understand decadal trends in the number of taxa monitored; monitoring quality; and the groups that conduct monitoring. The …

Assessing Risks For Bovine And Zoonotic Tuberculosis Through Spatial Analysis And A Questionnaire Survey In Fiji – A Pilot Study, Jenny-Ann L. M. L. Toribio, Keresi Lomata, Sam Fullman, Aaron Jenkins, Elva Borja, Shumaila Arif, Jarrad Mckercher, David Blake, Anabel Garcia, Richard J. Whittington, Frank Underwood, Ben J. Marais

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Mycobacterium bovis causes tuberculosis in cattle and when transmitted to humans typically causes extra-pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB). Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) has a global distribution and is controlled in most countries to protect animal and public health. Recent studies revealed that bTB is established on dairy farms in Fiji where EPTB cases have been reported in people. The aims of this pilot investigation were to look for putative zoonotic TB (EPTB) cases in people and to evaluate practices that might contribute to the persistence and transmission of M. bovis between cattle and to humans. Existing data sets were shared between the Fiji …

Lead Exposure Of Mainland Australia's Top Avian Predator, Jordan O. Hampton, Michael T. Lohr, Aaron J. Specht, Damien Nzabanita, Jasmin Hufschmid, Lee Berger, Kate Mcginnis, Jane Melville, Emma Bennett, James M. Pay

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Lead (Pb) toxicity, through ingestion of lead ammunition in carcasses, is a threat to scavenging birds worldwide, but has received little attention in Australia. We analyzed lead exposure in the wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax), the largest raptor species found in mainland Australia and a facultative scavenger. Eagle carcasses were collected opportunistically throughout south-eastern mainland Australia between 1996 and 2022. Lead concentrations were measured in bone samples from 62 animals via portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF). Lead was detected (concentration > 1 ppm) in 84% (n = 52) of the bone samples. The mean lead concentration of birds in which lead was detected …

Establishing Effective Conservation Management Strategies For A Poorly Known Endangered Species: A Case Study Using Australia’S Night Parrot (Pezoporus Occidentalis), Nicholas P. Leseberg, Alex Kutt, Megan C. Evans, Tida Nou, Scott Spillias, Zoe Stone, Jessica C. Walsh, Stephen A. Murphy, Mike Bamford, Allan H. Burbidge, Kate Crossing, Robert A. Davis, Stephen T. Garnett, Rodney P. Kavanagh, Robert Murphy, John Read, Julian Reid, Stephen Van Leeuwen, Alexander W. T. Watson, James E. M. Watson, Martine Maron

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

An evidence-based approach to the conservation management of a species requires knowledge of that species’ status, distribution, ecology, and threats. Coupled with budgets for specific conservation strategies, this knowledge allows prioritisation of funding toward activities that maximise benefit for the species. However, many threatened species are poorly known, and determining which conservation strategies will achieve this is difficult. Such cases require approaches that allow decision-making under uncertainty. Here we used structured expert elicitation to estimate the likely benefit of potential management strategies for the Critically Endangered and, until recently, poorly known Night Parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis). Experts considered cat management the …

Safeguarding Sandalwood: A Review Of Current And Emerging Tools To Support Sustainable And Legal Forestry, Ellyse Bunney, Francesca A. Mcinerney, Eleanor Dormontt, Arif Malik, Nina Welti, David Wilkins, Malcolm Plant, Dhanushka S. Hettiarachchi, Darren Thomas, Ashley Dowell, Tresa Hamalton, Andrew J. Lowe

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Societal Impact Statement: Sandalwood and other high value tree species are under significant threat from illegal harvest. Illegal logging is an increasing problem contributing to deforestation, biodiversity loss, human rights abuses and funding transnational crime. Successful prosecution of illegal logging is hindered by a lack of methods to provide evidence of the origin of timber. New analytical techniques have been developed to trace timber back to its source. These methods, together with the establishment of sustainable sources of forest resources, can help protect vulnerable species by providing evidence to prosecute illegal harvest and ensure that commercially available forest products come …

Microscale Pollen Release And Dispersal Patterns In Flowering Grass Populations, Carl A. Frisk, Godfrey P. Apangu, Geoffrey M. Petch, Simon Creer, Mary Hanson, Beverley Adams-Groom, Carsten A. Skjøth

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Characterizing pollen release and dispersion processes is fundamental for knowledge advancement in ecological, agricultural and public health disciplines. Understanding pollen dispersion from grass communities is especially relevant due to their high species-specific allergenicity and heterogeneously distributed source areas. Here, we aimed to address questions concerning fine level heterogeneity in grass pollen release and dispersion processes, with a focus on characterizing the taxonomic composition of airborne grass pollen over the grass flowering season using eDNA and molecular ecology methods. High resolution grass pollen concentrations were compared between three microscale sites ( < 300 m apart) in a rural area in Worcestershire, UK. The grass pollen was modelled with local meteorology in a MANOVA (Multivariate ANOVA) approach to investigate factors relevant to pollen release and dispersion. Simultaneously, airborne pollen was sequenced using Illumina MySeq for metabarcoding, analysed against a reference database with all UK grasses using the R packages DADA2 and phyloseq to calculate Shannon's Diversity Index ( -diversity). The flowering phenology of a local Festuca rubra population was observed. We found that grass pollen concentrations varied on a microscale level, likely attributed to local topography and the dispersion distance of pollen from flowering grasses in local source areas. Six genera (Agrostis, Alopecurus, Arrhenatherum, Holcus, Lolium and Poa) dominated the pollen season, comprising on average 77 % of the relative abundance of grass species reads. Temperature, solar radiation, relative humidity, turbulence and wind speeds were found to be relevant for grass pollen release and dispersion processes. An isolated flowering Festuca rubra population contributed almost 40 % of the relative pollen abundance adjacent to the nearby sampler, but only contributed 1 % to samplers situated 300 m away. This suggests that most emitted grass pollen has limited dispersion distance and our results show substantial variation in airborne grass species composition over short geographical scales.

Edna Metabarcoding Of Avocado Flowers: ‘Hass’ It Got Potential To Survey Arthropods In Food Production Systems?, Joshua H. Kestel, Philip W. Bateman, David L. Field, Nicole E. White, Rose Lines, Paul Nevill

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In the face of global biodiversity declines, surveys of beneficial and antagonistic arthropod diversity as well as the ecological services that they provide are increasingly important in both natural and agro-ecosystems. Conventional survey methods used to monitor these communities often require extensive taxonomic expertise and are time-intensive, potentially limiting their application in industries such as agriculture, where arthropods often play a critical role in productivity (e.g. pollinators, pests and predators). Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding of a novel substrate, crop flowers, may offer an accurate and high throughput alternative to aid in the detection of these managed and unmanaged taxa. Here, …

Lipidomic Features Of Honey Bee And Colony Health During Limited Supplementary Feeding, Clara E. Castaños, Mary C. Boyce, Tiffane Bates, A. Harvey Millar, Gavin Flematti, Nathan G. Lawler, Julia Grassl

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Honey bee nutritional health depends on nectar and pollen, which provide the main source of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids to individual bees. During malnutrition, insect metabolism accesses fat body reserves. However, this process in bees and its repercussions at the colony level are poorly understood. Using untargeted lipidomics and gene expression analysis, we examined the effects of different feeding treatments (starvation, sugar feeding and sugar + pollen feeding) on bees and correlated them with colony health indicators. We found that nutritional stress led to an increase in unsaturated triacylglycerols and diacylglycerols, as well as a decrease in free fatty acids …

Comparison Of Protein Extraction Protocols And Allergen Mapping From Black Soldier Fly Hermetia Illucens, Utpal Bose, James A. Broadbent, Angéla Juhász, Shaymaviswanathan Karnaneedi, Elecia B. Johnston, Sally Stockwell, Keren Byrne, Vachiranee Limviphuvadh, Sebastian Maurer-Stroh, Andreas L. Lopata, Michelle L. Colgrave

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Exploration of important insect proteins — including allergens — and proteomes can be limited by protein extraction buffer selection and the complexity of the proteome. Herein, LC-MS/MS-based proteomics experiments were used to assess the protein extraction efficiencies for a suite of extraction buffers and the effect of ingredient processing on proteome and allergen detection. Discovery proteomics revealed that SDS-based buffer yields the maximum number of protein groups from three types of BSF samples. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that buffer composition and ingredient processing could influence allergen detection. Upon applying multi-level filtering criteria, 33 putative allergens were detected by comparing the detected …

Bioturbation By Echidna (Tachyglossus Aculeatus) In A Forest Habitat, South-Western Australia, Shannon J. Dundas, Lara Osborne, Anna J. M. Hopkins, Katinka X. Ruthrof, Patricia A. Fleming

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Bioturbation by digging animals is important for key forest ecosystem processes such as soil turnover, decomposition, nutrient cycling, water infiltration, seedling recruitment, and fungal dispersal. Despite their widespread geographic range, little is known about the role of the short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) in forest ecosystems. We measured the density and size of echidna diggings in the Northern Jarrah Forest, south-western Australia, to quantify the contribution echidna make to soil turnover. We recorded an overall density of 298 echidna diggings per hectare, 21 % of which were estimated to be less than 1 month old. The average size of digs was …

Environmentally Friendly Agent Against Fall Armyworm (Spodoptera Frugiperda): Antifeedant Potency Of Mentha Spicata Aqueous Extracts, Emmanuel Peprah-Yamoah, Ebenezer Afrifa-Yamoah, Hayford Ofori, Eric Adua

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The rising trends of insect resistance, coupled with escalating environmental pollution from synthetic pesticides, heighten the need for a more effective and, non-hazardous agents to control insect/pests. Different aqueous extracts of Mentha spicata were screened for their phytochemical constituents and their antifeedant activities against Spodoptera frugiperda. Screening of the different aqueous extracts of Mentha spicata obtained by cold maceration revealed the presence of phenolics and tannins. The concentration of phenols and tannins in the water, glycerine, and glycerine plus water (glycerine-water) extracts were significantly different (p < 0.05). Mentha spicata water extract had a greater antifeedant activity against Spodoptera frugiperda as compared to glycerine and glycerine-water (60 : 40, v/v) extracts at a concentration of 5g/100 mL. The estimated % antifeedant activity recorded were 97 as against 8.21 and 49.81, respectively. Aqueous neem seed water extracts gave an estimated % antifeedant activity of 93.07 and it served as a control. Saponins were absent in all extracts and only water extracts had alkaloids present. The simple, non-hazardous, and cost-saving extraction method demonstrated could be applied in both commercial and subsistent farming to counteract the damnable effects of Spodoptera frugiperda infestation.

Breeding And Feeding Habitat Selection By An Island Endemic Bird May Increase Its Vulnerability To Climate Change, Paul M. Radley, Eddie J. B. Van Etten, David Blake, Robert A. Davis

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Characterizing patterns of habitat use is an important first step for effective conservation planning. Species restricted to low-lying islands are at greatest risk from climate change-related sea level rise, and requirements for breeding and foraging habitat may determine their risk from tidal inundation. The endangered Micronesian Scrubfowl (Megapodius laperouse senex) is a model species for understanding these impacts. This species faces the cumulative challenges of tourist visitation, invasive species, and rising sea levels, yet little is understood about its habitat use in the Rock Islands Southern Lagoon Conservation Area (RISL) of Palau. We studied the habitat requirements of this mound-nesting …

Omicsvolcano: Software For Intuitive Visualization And Interactive Exploration Of High-Throughput Biological Data, Irina Kuznetsova, Artur Lugmayr, Oliver Rackham, Aleksandra Filipovska

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Advances in omics technologies have generated exponentially larger volumes of biological data; however, their analyses and interpretation are limited to computationally proficient scientists. We created OmicsVolcano, an interactive open-source software tool to enable visualization and exploration of high-throughput biological data, while highlighting features of interest using a volcano plot interface. In contrast to existing tools, our software and user-interface design allow it to be used without requiring any programming skills to generate high-quality and presentation-ready images.

Habitat Selection By Vulnerable Golden Bandicoots In The Arid Zone, Cheryl A. Lohr, Kristen Nilsson, Colleen Sims, Judy Dunlop, Michael T. Lohr

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

In 2010, vulnerable golden bandicoots (Isoodon auratus) were translocated from Barrow Island, Western Australia, to a mainland predator-free enclosure on the Matuwa Indigenous Protected Area. Golden bandicoots were once widespread throughout a variety of arid and semiarid habitats of central and northern Australia. Like many small-to-medium-sized marsupials, the species has severely declined since colonization and has been reduced to only four remnant natural populations. Between 2010 and 2020, the reintroduced population of golden bandicoots on Matuwa was monitored via capture–mark–recapture data collection, which was used in spatially explicit capture–recapture analysis to monitor their abundance over time. In 2014, we used …

Natural Habitat Of Bali Starling (Leucopsar Rothschildi) In Bali Barat National Park, Indonesia, Sutomo Sutomo, Eddie Van Etten

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The Indonesian tropical savannas and dry forests provide habitats to various endemic wildlife. Unfortunately, a few of these endemic species are now seriously threatened and are red listed in the conservation status of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Among these species, the Bali starling or Bali mynah Leucopsar rotschildi, locally known as Jalak Bali, is now mostly restricted to the Bali Barat National Park. Given the high extinction risk faced by such species, conservation programs require multidisciplinary approaches that would address both the biological attributes of the species itself and their habitat requirements. Regrettably, for many species, their …

Short Communication: Savanna-Forest Boundary On Mount Rinjani, Lombok Island, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, Sutomo, Eddie Van Etten, Rajif Iryadi

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021, Society for Indonesian Biodiversity. All rights reserved. Sutomo, van Etten E, Iryadi R. 2020. Short communication: Savanna-forest boundary on Mount Rinjani, Lombok Island, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 21: 726-731. Seasonally dry tropical forests tend to be bordered by or are mixed with savanna ecosystems. This research investigates the location and nature of forest-savanna boundary on Mt. Rinjani and hypothesizes on potential causes of such boundary formation. The field survey locations were based on MODIS burnt area data. We made 30 plots (50 x 50 m) established along transects to obtain vegetation and environment data across boundaries. For …

Factors Driving The Compositional Diversity Of Apis Mellifera Bee Venom From A Corymbia Calophylla (Marri) Ecosystem, Southwestern Australia, Daniela Scaccabarozzi, Kenneth Dods, Thao T. Le, Joel P. A. Gummer, Michele Lussu, Lynne Milne, Tristan Campbell, Ben Pan Wafujian, Colin Priddis

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Bee venom (BV) is the most valuable product harvested from honeybees ($30 - $300 USD per gram) but marginally produced in apiculture. Though widely studied and used in alternative medicine, recent efforts in BV research have focused on its therapeutic and cosmetic applications, for the treatment of degenerative and infectious diseases. The protein and peptide composition of BV is integral to its bioactivity, yet little research has investigated the ecological factors influencing the qualitative and quantitative variations in the BV composition. Bee venom from Apis mellifera ligustica (Apidae), collected over one flowering season of Corymbia calophylla (Myrtaceae; marri) was characterized …

Temporal Variation In The Genetic Composition Of An Endangered Marsupial Reflects Reintroduction History, Rujiporn Thavornkanlapachai, Harriet R. Mills, Kym Ottewell, J. Anthony Friend, W. Jason Kennington

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The loss of genetic variation and genetic divergence from source populations are common problems for reintroductions that use captive animals or a small number of founders to establish a new population. This study evaluated the genetic changes occurring in a captive and a reintroduced population of the dibbler (Parantechinus apicalis) that were established from multiple source populations over a twelve-year period, using 21 microsatellite loci. While the levels of genetic variation within the captive and reintroduced populations were relatively stable, and did not differ significantly from the source populations, their effective population size reduced 10–16-fold over the duration of this …

Breeding And Feeding Habitat Selection By An Island Endemic Bird May Increase Its Vulnerability To Climate Change [Dataset], Paul Radley, Eddie Van Etten, David Blake, Robert Davis

Research Datasets

Characterising patterns of habitat use is an important first step for effective conservation planning. Species restricted to low-lying islands are at greatest risk from climate change-related sea level rise, and requirements for breeding and foraging habitat may determine their risk from tidal inundation. The endangered Micronesian Scrubfowl (Megapodius laperouse senex) is a model species for understanding these impacts. This species faces the cumulative challenges of tourist visitation, invasive species, and rising sea levels, yet little is understood about its habitat use in the Rock Islands Southern Lagoon Conservation Area (RISL) of Palau. We studied the habitat requirements of …

A Genetic Investigation Of Anticoagulant Rodenticide Resistance In Mus Musculus Of Western Australia: Implications For Conservation And Biosecurity, Bridget Judith Maria Lucrezia Duncan

Theses : Honours

Human-wildlife interactions have developed since the agricultural revolution that occurred 10,000 years ago, and the expansion of commensal species’ geographical distribution led to conflicts that prompted humans to adopt a wide range of control methods for pest species (Horvitz, Wang, Wan, & Nathan, 2017; Riyahi et al., 2013; Saraswat, Sinha, & Radhakrishna, 2015). The order Rodentia is characterised by a high number of successful invaders, which humans have attempted to manage with the use of anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs) since the 1940s (Capizzi, Bertolino, & Mortelliti, 2014; Ruiz-Suárez et al., 2014). The rise and spread of a genetic mutation that infers …

Impacts Of Invasive Rats And Tourism On A Threatened Island Bird: The Palau Micronesian Scrubfowl, Paul M. Radley, Robert A. Davis, Tim S. Doherty

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Invasive predators have decimated island biodiversity worldwide. Rats (Rattus spp.) are perhaps the greatest conservation threat to island fauna. The ground nesting Palau Micronesian Scrubfowl Megapodius laperouse senex (Megapodiidae) inhabits many of the islands of Palau's Rock Island Southern Lagoon Conservation Area (RISL) in the western Pacific. These islands are also heavily visited by tourists and support populations of introduced rats, both of which may act as added stressors for the scrubfowl. Using passive chew-tag and call playback surveys on five tourist-visited and five tourist-free islands, we investigated if rats and tourists negatively affect scrubfowl, and if higher rat activity …

Morphological And Heartwood Variation Of Santalum Macgregorii In Papua New Guinea, T. Page, G. K. Jeffrey, P. Macdonell, D. Hettiarachchi, Mary C. Boyce, A. Lata, L. Oa, G. Rome

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Santalum macgregorii (sandalwood), which is endemic to the southern part of Papua New Guinea (PNG), has been heavily exploited for its fragrant heartwood and is classified as threatened across its natural range. Domestication and smallholder agroforestry offer the means to preserve remaining diversity. This study was undertaken to understand the extent of remaining natural variation to support the species’s conservation and domestication. We evaluated morphological, heartwood and essential oil characters in 126 S. macgregorii trees in five populations (districts) in PNG’s Central, Gulf and Western …

Modelling Mycorrhizal Fungi Dispersal By The Mycophagous Swamp Wallaby (Wallabia Bicolor) [Dataset], Melissa Danks, Natalie Simpson, Todd F. Elliot, C.E. Timothy Paine, Karl Vernes

Research Datasets

Despite the importance of mammal-fungal interactions, tools to estimate the mammal-assisted dispersal distances of fungi are lacking. Many mammals actively consume fungal fruiting bodies, the spores of which remain viable after passage through their digestive tract. Many of these fungi form symbiotic relationships with trees and provide an array of other key ecosystem functions. We present a flexible, general model to predict the distance a mycophagous mammal would disperse fungal spores. We modelled the probability of spore dispersal by combining animal movement data from GPS-telemetry with data on spore gut-retention time. We test this model using an exemplar generalist mycophagist, …

Human Impact Overrides Bioclimatic Drivers Of Red Fox Home Range Size Globally [Dataset], Michael Main, Robert Davis, David Blake, Harriet Mills, Tim Doherty

Research Datasets

Aim Identifying the variables that influence animal home range size is important for understanding the biological requirements of individuals and their social interactions. Given their often broad distributions, carnivores are model organisms for studying range-wide determinants of home range size. Here we test predictions about environmental determinants of home range size for one of the world’s most widely distributed carnivores, the red fox (Vulpes vulpes).

Location Global

Methods We compiled a database of 70 mean home range estimates from 62 studies and four continents, which we analysed according to site-based temperature, precipitation, environmental productivity and human influence …

Modeling Mycorrhizal Fungi Dispersal By The Mycophagous Swamp Wallaby (Wallabia Bicolor), Melissa Danks, Natalie Simpson, Todd F. Elliot, C.E. Timothy Paine, Karl Vernes

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

No abstract provided.

Hybrid Zone Barriers Comparative Data Set, David L. Field

Research Datasets

Many recent studies have addressed the mechanisms operating during the early stages of speciation, but surprisingly few studies have tested theoretical predictions on the evolution of strong reproductive isolation (RI). To help address this gap, we first undertook a quantitative review of the hybrid zone literature for flowering plants in relation to reproductive barriers. Then, using Populus as an exemplary model group, we analysed genome-wide variation for phylogenetic tree topologies in both early- and late-stage speciation taxa to determine how these patterns may be related to the genomic architecture of RI. Our plant literature survey revealed variation in barrier complexity …

Deriving Statistical Inference From The Application Of Artificial Neural Networks To Clinical Metabolomics Data, Kevin M. Mendez

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Metabolomics data are complex with a high degree of multicollinearity. As such, multivariate linear projection methods, such as partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) have become standard. Non-linear projections methods, typified by Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) may be more appropriate to model potential nonlinear latent covariance; however, they are not widely used due to difficulty in deriving statistical inference, and thus biological interpretation. Herein, we illustrate the utility of ANNs for clinical metabolomics using publicly available data sets and develop an open framework for deriving and visualising statistical inference from ANNs equivalent to standard PLS-DA methods.

Cross Faculty Collaboration In The Development Of An Integrated Mathematics And Science Initial Teacher Education Program, Sharon P. Fraser, Kim Beswick, Margaret Penson, Andrew Seen, Robert Whannell

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper describes a collaborative project involving mathematicians, scientists and educators at an Australian university where an innovative initial teacher education (ITE) degree in mathematics/science was developed. The theoretical frameworks of identity theory and academic brokerage and their use in understanding the challenges associated with the early stages of collaborative projects is described. Data from reflections and interviews of the participants after involvement in the project from one to three years are presented to illustrate these challenges. The paper concludes with a description of the importance of the academic broker in overcoming identity challenges and facilitating cultural change for academics …