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Introduction of pests and diseases through trade is one of the main socio‐ecological challenges worldwide. Although Binomial sampling inspection at the border can reduce pest entry risk, it is common for consignments to fail inspection, wasting resources for both exporter and importer. Outsourcing the inspection to the exporting country could reduce the cost of inspection for both parties. However, there is then a need to assess the quality of the offshore inspection. In this paper, we develop an inverse method combining past inspection data on the pathway, an onshore inspection sample, and the Beta‐Binomial model to infer the sample size of the offshore inspection. We illustrate the method on two case studies: the importation of live plants through germplasm into Australia and the importation of pelleted seeds in New Zealand. In these case studies, we found that detecting four to five infested units in a single onshore inspection was typically sufficient to significantly doubt the presence of a compliant offshore inspection. We also ran a simulation experiment to quantify the statistical power to reject or accept the presence of compliant offshore inspection in practice: In highly infested pathways, we could detect the absence of offshore inspections after inspecting five consignments onshore. Less infested pathways required inspecting 20 to 60 consignments onshore. Our study demonstrates that Binomial sampling onshore can be used to assess the quality of offshore inspections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within tribe Gnaphalieae (Asteraceae), the Australasian clade is one of the four major clades. In Australia, the Gnaphalieae account for 488 species or approximately half of the native Asteraceae, encompassing wide ecological and morphological diversity including shrubs, everlasting paper daisies, cudweeds, alpine cushion plants, and ephemeral herbs in the arid zone. The evolution of the Australasian clade is still poorly understood. The most detailed previous infratribal classification of Gnaphalieae has recently been revised, resulting in the recognition of two subtribes, with all Australian species placed in subtribe Gnaphaliinae. The most comprehensive previous phylogeny of Australian Gnaphalieae used high‐copy ribosomal and chloroplast markers but showed limited resolution and branch support. We used conserved ortholog set data produced with sequence capture and 53 chloroplast genes to infer nuclear and chloroplast likelihood phylogenies for Australian Gnaphalieae, generating data for at least one species each from 80 of the 86 native genera. Four major clades were resolved: the Euchiton clade of cudweed‐like and alpine perennial species; the shrubby Cassinia clade; the predominantly perennial and eastern Australian Waitzia clade; and the predominantly ephemeral and western Australian to Eremaean Angianthus clade. The Cassinia, Waitzia, and Angianthus clades are largely congruent with "groups" in a previous morphological analysis and classification of Gnaphalieae. Analysis of ancestral ranges implied the temperate Southeast of Australia as the most likely area of origin for the Australian Gnaphalieae as a whole and for three of the four major clades. The Angianthus clade was implied to be ancestrally Eremaean, with a major secondary radiation originating in southwestern Australia. Our broadly sampled phylogeny provides a framework to inform sampling and design of future studies to test the circumscription of genera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mazaceae, a recently proposed family in the Lamiales, contains three genera; Mazus, Lancea and Dodartia, yet the systematic position and the circumscription of the family have not been fully confirmed. This paper reports on an expanded analysis of the family that included most species of all three genera using five chloroplast DNA regions (matK, psbA‐trnH intergenic spacer, rbcL, rps16, trnL‐F intergenic spacer) and ITS of nrDNA to determine the phylogenetic placement of Mazaceae as well as the intrageneric relationships within the relatively large genus Mazus. The results support the recognition of the three genera (Mazus, Lancea, Dodartia), confirm the well‐supported monophyly of Mazaceae and show Lancea and Dodartia to be clustered together and sister to Mazus. The phylogenetic relationships within the Lamiales is highly congruent with previous molecular studies, with Mazaceae sister to a clade comprising Orobanchaceae, Phrymaceae and Paulowniaceae. Together they are sister to the rest of the families in the order. In Mazus, two major lineages were recognized, corresponding to the distribution ranges in Australia and Asia. Previous sectional treatments of Mazus are discussed in light of our molecular phylogenetic results. This study confirms the systematic position of Mazaceae within the Lamiales. The intrageneric relationships revealed in Mazus will provide evidence for further taxonomic studies of the genus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argonauts (informally known as "paper nautiluses") are a family of pelagic octopuses. Here, we report a stranding on 4 March 2022 of 18 I A argo i shells and one argonaut specimen with an associated shell (NMV F305014) across a 10-km stretch of beach near Gabo Island, Victoria. [Extracted from the article]

The article presents a bibliography related to immigration and assimilation in Australia. Some of the books listed are "Immigration, Australia's Problems and Prospects," by W.D. Borrie; "The Peopling of Australia," by F.W. Eggleston and P.D. Phillips; "Non-Britishers in Australia," 2nd ed., by J. Lyng; "The Scandinavians in Australia, New Zealand and the Western Pacific," by J. Lyng. Some of the papers listed are "Australia and the Refugees," by M. Berger, published in the September 1941 issue of the journal "The Australian Quarterly"; "The Problem of Refugee Immigration," by R. Limberg, published in the journal "The Australian Quarterly"; "The Assimilation of Refugee Immigrants in Australia," by H.B.M. Murphy, published in the March 1952 issue of the journal "Population Studies"; "Immigration and Foreign Policy in Australia and Canada," by David Corbett, published in the Spring 1958 issue of the journal "The Economic Record"; "The Administration of Asian Immigration Into Australia: A Comparative Study," by O.E. Phillips, published in the December 1956 issue of the journal "The Australian Quarterly."

In this paper three orientations were distinguished: monism, interactionism, and pluralism, but the last was held by only a few of the subjects. Interactionism, which advocates that immigrants and host group should tolerate each other and should gradually converge as a result of interaction, was more often preferred to monism, which advocates complete assimilation as quickly as possible. Monism among Australians was higher for males than for females and was associated with unfriendly attitudes towards immigrants. Among immigrants, monism was associated with being more highly assimilated and with being intolerant of ambiguity. The evidence suggests that monism is more likely to be a result of assimilation than a cause of it. A study was also made of the mutual perceptions of' the orientation of Australians, of British, and of non-British immigrants. These perceptions and misperceptions reflect the attitudes of the subjects towards these groups, per ceived interactionism being a sign of a favourable attitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 2008, the Australian Government established the National Preventative Health Taskforce to develop a National Preventative Health Strategy by June 2009. The Strategy will provide a blueprint for tackling the burden of chronic disease currently caused by obesity, tobacco and excessive consumption of alcohol. The Taskforce has produced a discussion paper, Australia: the healthiest country by 2020. It presents a wide range of options, some of them contentious, to achieve this ambitious target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at the International Riversymposium and Environmental Flow Conference in Brisbane, Australia on September 3 to 6, 2007 is presented. It was attended by more than 800 delegates from 57 countries to discuss the challenges of protecting the world's rivers. It also featured more than 150 presentations that explores the ongoing degradation of rivers and the socioeconomic effects to the livelihood of people who depended on rivers.

The article presents information on two court cases against planned dredging and dumping in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP), Queensland. Papers were lodged by Mackay Conservation Group (MGG) against Australian Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt for violating his obligations by allowing expansion of the Abbot Point in the UNESCO World Heritage-listed site in December 2013.

The article focuses on the issue concerning the rise in plastic bag use in Australia. The issue is noted to stem from a confidential report to the Australian government, that leaked to the media in March 2008, which found that the use of plastic bags in the country rose to 40% or to 4.84 billion bags in 2007. As the environmental sector is blaming the increase in plastic bag use to the retail sector, retailers recommend a voluntary phase-out of plastic bags and argue that consumers are the one responsible for their disposal. In the meantime, the government promised a gradual phase-out of non-reusable bags to start by the end of 2008.

The paper presents the development and evaluation of methods that estimate recharge and discharge, water flow, and salt fluxes in rivers.The methods in combination provide an inferential framework to predict dryland salinity and the selection orthe appropriate management scenarios. Hydrogeomorphic Analysis of Regional Spatial Data (HARSD) was used for delineating hydrogeologically homogenous units, and to translate limited hydrological data into hydraulic head surfaces and ultimately a steady state flow net representing rechargedischarge relationships. A complex, physically based water, energy, and carbon model (WAVES) was developed and tested to provide recharge estimates required for the flow net simulations. Remote sensing imagery and analysis techniques involving airborne, advanced very high resolutioii reflectance (AVHRR) and LANDSAT-Thematic Mapper (TM) data were used to inferthe temporal and spatial patterns of leaf area index (LAI) and land-cover type. The techniques were applied in 22 subcatchments in the Loddon and Campaspe and for the two major catchments. Modeled recharge was consistent with local estimates based on inverse methods and withsubcatchment-scale estimates based on stream salt loads under a steady-state assumption. The calibrated flow nets for each of the subcatchment have been used to test the sensitivity of this system to changes in recharge resulting from land use change. It is shown, for example, that the Upper Campaspe subcatchment would require the reforestation of key recharge areas totaling 45% of the subcatchment to reduce salt loads from approximately 25 000 Mg yr-1 down to 18 000Mg yr-1 under steady state assumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]