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There appears to be an irresolvable disagreement between “progressives” and “conservatives” regarding the ultimate aims of education. This paper argues that the dispute is irresolvable as it currently stands because the traditional progressive/conservative dichotomies are false and based on distorted half-truths. The current impasse is due to the fact that educationalists and philosophers alike have hitherto misunderstood the fundamental purpose of educational activities. The central claim of this paper is that a biological perspective on education allows one to see past the traditional dichotomies and affords a coherent rationale for a set of curricular priorities by providing the framework necessary to draw principled distinctions between education, training, indoctrination, and enculturation, all without having to draw on contentious politico-ideological commitments.

Climate change is impacting the oceans around Australia with significant warming of ocean temperatures, observed on both the east and west coasts. The response of wild fisheries and aquaculture sectors to climate change is an area of active investigation; however, the species and environment have received most attention. Supply chains are representations of the range of activities involved from the point of conception of a product, through different production phases, to final consumption. To guide performance improvements that might lead to increased growth, supply chains were examined using life cycle assessment (LCA). Standard economic theory predicts that as supply falls, prices will increase. Growth and profitability of seafood sectors can be enhanced if shocks to the production system are reduced. Economic analyses showed the influence of market factors on the price and profit adaptation options for selected sectors.

With projected climatic changes it is expected that refugees and other forced migrants will increasingly spend protracted amounts of time in transit countries or will resettle in locations that experience ecological vulnerability. A submission to the Queensland Floods Commission Inquiry 2011 by MDA reported that the floods displaced about 70 refugee client families and that 30 families had ongoing complex needs at the time of the submission. The findings reported in this chapter are derived from a follow-up of a cohort of men from refugee backgrounds who participated in the 2008–10 SettleMEN project. The chapter provides an insight into the experiences of refugee migrants who experience environmental disaster in a site of settlement

Early on Christmas morning 1974, tropical cyclone Tracy devastated the city of Darwin leaving only 6 per cent of the city’s housing habitable and instigating the evacuation of 75 per cent of its population. The systematic failure of so much of Darwin’s building stock led to a humanitarian disaster that proved the impetus for an upheaval of building regulatory and construction practices throughout Australia. Indeed, some of the most enduring legacies of Tracy have been the engineering and regulatory steps taken to ensure the extent of damage would not be repeated. This chapter explores these steps and highlights lessons that have led to a national building framework and practice at the fore of wind-resistant design internationally.

This volume presents eighteen case studies of natural disasters from Australia, Europe, North America and developing countries. By comparing the impacts, it seeks to identify what moves people to adapt, which adaptive activities succeed and which fail, and the underlying reasons, and the factors that determine when adaptation is required and when simply bearing the impact may be the more appropriate response. Much has been written about the theory of adaptation, and high-level, especially international, policy responses to climate change. This book aims to inform actual adaptation practice - what works, what does not, and why. It explores some of the lessons we can learn from past disasters and the adaptation that takes place after the event in preparation for the next. This volume will be especially useful for researchers and decision makers in policy and government concerned with climate change adaptation, emergency management, disaster risk reduction, environmental policy and planning.

Philosophical Enquiry, informed by excellent research to explore the metaphysical core of essentialism, has enabled educational benefits to secondary school children through improved social mobility and supporting the development intellectually enquiring minds. These impacts can be demonstrated through Dr Mark Cain and Dr Stephen Boulter’s use of Philosophical Enquiry within two secondary schools; leading to positive outcomes for students, supported by testimony of their teachers, and influencing educational practices and learning through the inclusion of philosophical enquiry within the curriculum.

Most plant species have a range of traits that deter herbivores. However, understanding of how different defences are related to one another is surprisingly weak. Many authors argue that defence traits trade off against one another, while others argue that they form coordinated defence syndromes. We collected a dataset of unprecedented taxonomic and geographic scope (261 species spanning 80 families, from 75 sites across the globe) to investigate relationships among four chemical and six physical defences. Five of the 45 pairwise correlations between defence traits were significant and three of these were tradeoffs. The relationship between species' overall chemical and physical defence levels was marginally nonsignificant (P = 0.08), and remained nonsignificant after accounting for phylogeny, growth form and abundance. Neither categorical principal component analysis (PCA) nor hierarchical cluster analysis supported the idea that species displayed defence syndromes. Our results do not support arguments for tradeoffs or for coordinated defence syndromes. Rather, plants display a range of combinations of defence traits. We suggest this lack of consistent defence syndromes may be adaptive, resulting from selective pressure to deploy a different combination of defences to coexisting species., CODEN: NEPHA

Most plant species have a range of traits that deter herbivores. However, understanding of how different defences are related to one another is surprisingly weak. Many authors argue that defence traits trade off against one another, while others argue that they form coordinated defence syndromes. We collected a dataset of unprecedented taxonomic and geographic scope (261 species spanning 80 families, from 75 sites across the globe) to investigate relationships among four chemical and six physical defences. Five of the 45 pairwise correlations between defence traits were significant and three of these were tradeoffs. The relationship between species’ overall chemical and physical defence levels was marginally nonsignificant (P = 0.08), and remained nonsignificant after accounting for phylogeny, growth form and abundance. Neither categorical principal component analysis (PCA) nor hierarchical cluster analysis supported the idea that species displayed defence syndromes. Our results do not support arguments for tradeoffs or for coordinated defence syndromes. Rather, plants display a range of combinations of defence traits. We suggest this lack of consistent defence syndromes may be adaptive, resulting from selective pressure to deploy a different combination of defences to coexisting species.

It has long been believed that plant species from the tropics have higher levels of traits associated with resistance to herbivores than do species from higher latitudes. A meta-analysis recently showed that the published literature does not support this theory. However, the idea has never been tested using data gathered with consistent methods from a wide range of latitudes. • We quantified the relationship between latitude and a broad range of chemical and physical traits across 301 species from 75 sites world-wide. • Six putative resistance traits, including tannins, the concentration of lipids (an indicator of oils, waxes and resins), and leaf toughness were greater in high-latitude species. Six traits, including cyanide production and the presence of spines, were unrelated to latitude. Only ash content (an indicator of inorganic substances such as calcium oxalates and phytoliths) and the properties of species with delayed greening were higher in the tropics. • Our results do not support the hypothesis that tropical plants have higher levels of resistance traits than do plants from higher latitudes. If anything, plants have higher resistance toward the poles. The greater resistance traits of high-latitude species might be explained by the greater cost of losing a given amount of leaf tissue in low-productivity environments. © 2011 New Phytologist Trust.

It has long been believed that plant species from the tropics have higher levels of traits associated with resistance to herbivores than do species from higher latitudes. A meta-analysis recently showed that the published literature does not support this theory. However, the idea has never been tested using data gathered with consistent methods from a wide range of latitudes. We quantified the relationship between latitude and a broad range of chemical and physical traits across 301 species from 75 sites world-wide. Six putative resistance traits, including tannins, the concentration of lipids (an indicator of oils, waxes and resins), and leaf toughness were greater in high-latitude species. Six traits, including cyanide production and the presence of spines, were unrelated to latitude. Only ash content (an indicator of inorganic substances such as calcium oxalates and phytoliths) and the properties of species with delayed greening were higher in the tropics. Our results do not support the hypothesis that tropical plants have higher levels of resistance traits than do plants from higher latitudes. If anything, plants have higher resistance toward the poles. The greater resistance traits of high-latitude species might be explained by the greater cost of losing a given amount of leaf tissue in low-productivity environments.

Many surveys around the world have examined the altitudinal or seasonal variation of invertebrate biodiversity but few have concentrated on the fly fauna because of difficulties with the amount of material and identification. We examined family-level assemblages of flies collected in Malaise traps from rainforest at Lamington National Park, south-east Queensland across altitude and seasons. We found significant effects of both season and altitude on the overall abundance of other Diptera (without lower Diptera), with a significant interaction effect so that abundances in summer were much higher than those in winter, but only at mid to high altitudes. We also found significant effects of both season and altitude on the family richness of other Diptera, and again the interaction of these factors was significant. A clear seasonal influence was noted at mid to high elevations with a progressive decline in the number of fly families captured from summer to Spring to winter together with a decline with increasing altitude, at least in Spring and winter. Within each altitude, all seasonal fly assemblages were significantly different, with the exception of those from summer and autumn at 500 m a.s.l. However, the altitudinal responses of fly assemblages were less strong and not consistent between seasons. Six families were most strongly correlated with these patterns; Asilidae, Chloropidae, Dolichopodidae, Empididae, Muscidae and Phoridae. Asilidae, Dolichopodidae and Empididae declined in abundance with increasing altitude. Only Chloropidae and Muscidae appeared to increase in abundance with altitude, at least between 700 and 1100 m but only in summer. Dolichopodids and muscids progressively declined in abundance as the sampling period became cooler, while asilids were captured throughout the transect in summer, were collected from only the two lowest elevations in Spring, and were completely absent in winter. All families had a limited presence at higher altitudes during