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Aim: To describe the development of social function in children with cerebral palsy (CP) classified in all levels of the Communication Function Classification System (CFCS). Method: This prospective, longitudinal population‐based cohort study recruited children with CP born in Queensland, Australia. Social functioning was measured using the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) social function domain at 2 years, 2 years 6 months, 3 years, 4 years, and 5 years, and the PEDI Computer Adaptive Test (PEDI‐CAT) social/cognitive domain at 8 to 12 years. Results: Seventy‐four children provided 356 observations. PEDI‐CAT social/cognitive scaled scores at 8 to 12 years were (mean [SD] n) CFCS level I, 68.6 (2.7) 45; CFCS level II, 64.0 (3.4) 10; CFCS level III, 63.5 (3.7) 4; CFCS level IV, 56.8 (5.0) 9; CFCS level V, 47.2 (5.8) 6. Scores within expected range for age (not less than 2 SD below mean) at 8 to 12 years were achieved by 35 (78%) children in CFCS level I and four (14%) in CFCS levels II to V. Forty‐nine per cent of children scored at least two standard deviations below the population mean on a proxy measure of fluid intelligence. Intellectual impairment was associated with lower PEDI‐CAT social/cognitive scaled scores in univariable analysis (β = −8.3, 95% confidence interval − 10.91 to −5.63; p < 0.001) but had a smaller effect when modelled together with CFCS. Interpretation: Social function attained by 8 to 12 years of age was strongly related to level of communication function (CFCS). The small number of children classified in CFCS levels II to V necessitates caution when viewing these individual CFCS level trajectories. What this paper adds: There is a strong relation between social functioning and Communication Function Classification System (CFCS) levels.At 8 to 12 years, 35 out of 45 children in CFCS level I met social functioning age expectations.Twenty‐five out of 29 in CFCS levels II to V had social functioning below that expected for age.CFCS and age were more strongly associated with development of social functioning than Gross Motor Function Classification System or Manual Ability Classification System and age. What this paper adds: There is a strong relation between social functioning and Communication Function Classification System (CFCS) levels.At 8 to 12 years, 35 out of 45 children in CFCS level I met social functioning age expectations.Twenty‐five out of 29 in CFCS levels II to V had social functioning below that expected for age.CFCS and age were more strongly associated with development of social functioning than Gross Motor Function Classification System or Manual Ability Classification System and age. This original article is commented on by Eslinger on pages 596–597 of this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fibropapillomatosis (FP) is a tumor‐forming disease which affects all species of marine turtle, but predominantly the green turtle (Chelonia mydas). Expression of this disease is thought to be precipitated by poor environmental conditions and often linked to anthropogenically induced environmental changes. Although FP is a globally distributed disease, targeted studies on the spatial distribution of the disease in Australia are limited. Here, we present the first comprehensive report of FP prevalence in Queensland, Australia. A retrospective analysis of 25,645 capture records for 15 sites along the Queensland coast were used to determine FP prevalence and trends in foraging green turtles. Within this data set, 791 turtles (3.1%) with FP tumors were recorded. Our analysis showed that prevalence varies between sites and years, with juvenile turtles being the most frequently affected by the disease. We found that survey method has a significant influence on the apparent FP prevalence detected at each site. That is, surveys which were explicitly FP‐targeted detected higher numbers of individual turtles with FP, and therefore generated higher prevalence rates than comprehensive population surveys. We also report the first attempt at developing water quality indices (WQIs) to compare with FP prevalence data in foraging green turtles. The WQIs were built from metrics published in a range of peer‐reviewed papers, reports, and based on expert opinion. Despite utilizing an extensive data set, a relationship between FP prevalence and WQI rankings at each site could not be quantified. The analysis was confounded by a range of limitations, including data gaps, varying temporal scales and data capture methods in the FP prevalence, and water quality data sets. This study has significant implications for management as it highlights the benefits of designing and collecting centralized data that can be integrated and used across multiple projects or programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper describes advances made to aerial surveys of macropods in New South Wales and Queensland. Regular aerial surveys of macropods across large areas of Australia's arid and semi‐arid rangelands were established as a response to concerns for the species' conservation. They became integral to the harvest management of the four macropod species – Eastern Grey Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus), Western Grey Kangaroo (M. fuliginosus), Red Kangaroo (Osphranter rufus) and Common Wallaroo (O. robustus). Harvest quotas are set as a proportion of population size, requiring absolute estimates of abundance. Counts were made in strip transects from fixed‐wing aircraft, but required correction for animals that are missed. In New South Wales and Queensland, counts are now made using line transect sampling, providing survey‐specific correction. Helicopters are used in more rugged and timbered areas and where Common Wallaroo can be more frequently found and harvested. Mark‐recapture distance sampling is used in more open country that can be surveyed using fixed‐wing aircraft and improves the accuracy of density estimates by accounting for animals missed on the transect line. Macropod populations are likely to be surveyed in the future by airborne imagery and by drones, but the technology needs further development. Spatial models could usefully provide small‐scale density estimates and address non‐random sampling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The koala, Phascolarctos cinereus, is an iconic Australian wildlife species facing a rapid decline in South‐East Queensland (SEQLD). For conservation planning, the ability to estimate the size of koala populations is crucial. Systematic surveys are the most common approach to estimate koala populations but because of their cost they are often restricted to small geographic areas and are conducted infrequently. Public interest and participation in the collection of koala sighting data is increasing in popularity, but such data are generally not used for population estimation. We modeled monthly sightings of koalas reported by members of the public from 1997 to 2013 in SEQLD by developing a self‐exciting spatio‐temporal point process model. This allowed us to account for characteristics that are associated with koala presence (which vary over both space and time) while accounting for detection bias in the koala sighting process and addressing spatial clustering of observations. The density of koalas varied spatially due to the heterogeneous nature of koala habitat in SEQLD, with a mean density of 0.0019 koalas per km2 over the study period. The percentage of land areas with very low densities (0–0.0005 koalas per km2) remained similar throughout the study period representing, on average, 66% of the total study area. The approach described in this paper provides a useful starting point to allow greater use to be made of incidental koala sighting data. We propose that the model presented here could be used to combine systematic koala survey data (which is spatially restricted, but more precise) with koala sighting data (which is incidental and often biased by nature, but often collected over large geographical areas). Our approach could also be adopted for modeling the density of other wildlife species where data is collected in the same manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) Gamma Knife® Centre of Queensland (GKCoQ) began operations in October of 2015 as a sub‐specialty located within a larger radiation oncology service at PAH. It is uniquely positioned as the only Leksell Gamma Knife® (LGK) treatment unit available in the public hospital system in Australia, and the first and only service in Queensland. The GKCoQ treated the 1000th patient on 23 January 2019. LGK is a non‐invasive alternative to neurosurgery which uses radioactive cobalt sources to treat a variety of intracranial conditions ranging from tumours and metastases to functional disorders. It is a platform for stereotactic radiosurgery, a highly precise form of radiotherapy utilising very high doses to the target while maximally sparing surrounding normal brain. LGK enables patient planning and treatment to be done in one day as an outpatient procedure. This paper will outline our LGK service and provide insight into the expanded role that radiation therapists have within the multidisciplinary team required to deliver radiosurgery in a timely manner. The training programme and radiation licensing pathway that have been established for radiation therapists will also be described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Protecting native biodiversity is a difficult prospect in extremely modified landscapes, especially where high‐impact exotic species are widespread. Using new data and a review of the literature, this paper comments on the use of livestock grazing to manage the invasive and highly combustible pasture grass species, Buffel Grass (Cenchrus ciliaris) and thereby help conserve fire‐sensitive Brigalow (Acacia harpophylla) vegetation in reserves in Queensland, Australia. We cite evidence that shows that grazing is a potentially useful management tool in such cases and its use can be compatible with the protection of both fire‐sensitive vegetation and other native plant species within the understorey. However, there are limitations in implementing grazing within conservation reserves including the lack of a clear understanding of the influence of grazing on biodiversity and resource condition. Importantly, we highlight secondary invasion by the exotic grass Indian Couch (Bothriochloa pertusa) as a key emerging threat that may undermine the biodiversity benefits gained by grazing in reserves. Grazing can be a useful tool for conservation management in particular scenarios, but the associated risks demand accompanying monitoring and reporting of positive and negative impacts to ensure the fundamental aim of biodiversity protection is being achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the second part of a paper that explores a range of magico-religious experiences such as immaterial voices and visions, in terms of local cultural, moral and socio-political circumstances in an Aboriginal town in rural Queensland. This part of the paper explores the political and cultural symbolism and meaning of suicide. It charts the saliency of suicide amongst two groups of kin and cohorts and the social meaningfulness and problematic of the voices and visions in relation to suicide, to identity and family forms and to funerals and a heavily drinking lifestyle.I argue that voices and visions are used to reinterpret social experience and to establish meaning and that tragically suicide evokes connectivity rather than anomie and here cannot be understood merely as an individualistic act or evidence of individual pathology. Rather it is about transformation and crossing a threshold to join an enduring domain of Aboriginality. In this life world, where family is the highest social value and where a relational view of persons holds sway, the individualistic practice of psychiatric and other helping professions, is a considerable problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This two part paper considers the experience of a range of magico-religious experiences (such as visions and voices) and spirit beliefs in a rural Aboriginal town. The papers challenge the tendency of institutionalised psychiatry to medicalise the experiences and critiques the way in which its individualistic practice is intensified in the face of an incomprehensible Aboriginal 'other' to become part of the power imbalance that characterises the relationship between Indigenous and white domains. The work reveals the internal differentiation and politics of the Aboriginal domain, as the meanings of these experiences and actions are contested and negotiated by the residents and in so doing they decentre the concerns of the white domain and attempt to control their relationship with it. Thus the plausibility structure that sustains these multiple realities reflects both accommodation and resistance to the material and historical conditions imposed and enacted by mainstream society on the residents, and to current socio-political realities. I conclude that the residents' narratives chart the grounds of moral adjudication as the experiences were rarely conceptualised by local people as signs of individual pathology but as reflections of social reality. Psychiatric drug therapy and the behaviourist assumptions underlying its practice posit atomised individuals as the appropriate site of intervention as against the multiple realities revealed by the phenomenology of the experiences. The papers thus call into question Australian mainstream 'commonsense' that circulates about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people which justifies representations of them as sickly outcasts in Australian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an ethnographic exploration of the assertion of a 'Barkindji style' art: why this matters and to whom it matters. Focusing particularly on the Darling River area of Wilcannia and on the period from the 1980s to the present, the increasing interest in art-making by local Aboriginal people is considered. Through a dialogue with artists, artworks, and others, the work examines the changing form, design and content of art and the rote of art in defining ideas of Barkindji Aboriginal culture and tradition. Invocations by key cultural brokers to produce work that is seen to 'belong to us' is explored in terms of the cultural, political, and personal work that this involves; particularly as this intersects with ideas of artistic freedoms versus artistic direction by cultural brokers. The paper discusses the personal considerations and tensions that come to bear in the processes connected with production of art and its making. In so doing, this paper engages with, and extends, the work of Tacon et al. (2003), Cooper (1994), Kleinert (1994) and Morphy (2001) as this pertains to art 'styles' and material culture from what is widely referred to as south-eastern Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that women's everyday practice of sharing fish at Warraber Island (Torres Strait) can be understood as a form of moral transaction. Gift-fish are shown to be socially entangled', a fundamental mode of expressing kin relatedness as well as providing an indication of the current state of such relations. Fish distribution is portrayed locally as both an instance of generosity and of obligation, demonstrating a person's desire to engage in socially valued behaviour or correct their past failings. Importantly, I suggest that fish-giving (and receiving) has a distinctly generational character, carrying different emphases across one's life-span. The paper reflects on the tensions involved in strategic efforts by women to reconcile their limited capacity to meet expectations from a wide range of kin and neighbours, while affirming idealised visions of communally shared moral values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper explores the potential of a new method of reconstructing historical vegetation change in the Australian rangelands. Historical monitoring of rangeland vegetation has been so deficient that it is not possible to determine whether a long-term trend toward degradation has occurred (as is often assumed) or, indeed, if it is continuing to occur. Because long-term records are unavailable any attempt to monitor vegetation retrospectively must be based on proxy measures rather than direct observation. Where historical data are lacking an integration of palaeoecological, archaeological and ecological methods is required to reconstruct the past. Our research is based on a detailed analysis of sheep faeces deposited near a shearing shed in the semiarid rangelands of south-west Queensland between the late 1930s and the mid-1990s. The faeces in these deposits represent the diet of sheep in the days leading up to the property’s annual shearing and as such are a potentially useful index to changes in vegetation. Results indicate significant changes in the diet of sheep since the late 1940s. The potential of this method, and its limitations, are discussed. Long-term records are critical in understanding issues of sustainability in land management and it is intended that this paper will stimulate further research into historical vegetation change in rangelands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the spatial linkages between natural amenities and tourism employment spillovers under alternative neighbourhood structures. A main contribution is to contrast models where economic distance defines neighbouring regions with a model where the spatial structure is defined by geographical proximity. Significant spillovers are found not only between geographical neighbours, but also between economic neighbours with important implications for policy design. Internet, population, regional parks and state forests and World Heritage Areas are found to be important drivers of regional spillovers. This study uses data for Queensland, Australia, however the approach and conclusions can be extrapolated to similar economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the interactions of natural and anthropogenic variables at different spatial scales related to changes in mangrove distribution during a relatively wet period (1972-1990) and a dry period (1991-2004) in subtropical eastern Australia. Previous research has demonstrated that mangroves are encroaching into salt marsh. Mangrove spatial change in southeast Queensland is related generally to landscape variables especially during the relatively wet period. What has not been explored is the spatial scale of the influence under the two rainfall regimes (wet and dry) and that is the aim of this paper. Ten sites were examined at different levels of resolution including catchment, sub-catchment and two buffer zones (1000 and 500 m), under the period of relatively higher and lower rainfall. Land use was ascertained from Landsat satellite imagery using Maximum Likelihood Classification techniques. Partial least squares regression analysis was used to study the relationships between the predictor variables and the rate of change in the mangrove distribution. The research has found that the impact of land use/cover on the encroachment of mangrove into saltmarsh can vary and appears to be related to rainfall patterns, which in turn affect hydrological connectivity. A major finding of this research was that the changing spatial patterns of mangroves during the wet period was more a function of land use/cover pattern and population density at the sub-catchment level, whereas during drier periods it was more affected by the local effects of nearby land use/cover in buffer zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the determinants of species' distributions and abundances is a central theme in ecology. The development of statistical models to achieve this has a long history and the notion that the model should closely reflect underlying scientific understanding has encouraged ecologists to adopt complex statistical methods as they arise. In this paper we describe a Bayesian hierarchical model that reflects a conceptual ecological model of multi-scaled environmental determinants of riverine fish species' distributions and abundances. We illustrate this with distribution and abundance data of a small-bodied fish species, the Empire gudgeon Hypseleotris galii, in the Mary and Albert Rivers, Queensland, Australia. Specifically, the model sought to address; 1) the extent that landscape-scale abiotic variables can explain the species' distribution compared to local-scale variables, 2) how local-scale abiotic variables can explain species' abundances, and 3) how are these local-scale relationships mediated by landscape-scale variables. Overall, the model accounted for around 60% of variation in the distribution and abundance of H. galii. The findings show that the landscape-scale variables explain much of the distribution of the species; however, there was considerable improvement in estimating the species' distribution with the addition of local-scale variables. There were many strong relationships between abundance and local-scale abiotic variables; however, several of these relationships were mediated by some of the landscape-scale variables. The extent of spatial autocorrelation in the data was relatively low compared to the distances among sampling reaches. Our findings exemplify that Bayesian statistical modelling provides a robust framework for statistical modelling that reflects our ecological understanding. This allows ecologists to address a range of ecological questions with a single unified probability model rather than a series of disconnected analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the starting point that concepts of number can contain within them a representation of a society's overall cosmology, reinforcing and strengthening its reality in logical terms through practice (a process I call enumeration), this paper charts the meeting of two systems of enumeration. As such systems are constantly changing, we concentrate on a particular point in time and space: the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits (CAETS) in 1898. Here a nineteenth century anthropology obsessed with reinforcing its position as science through the mathematicalisation of its methods met a Melanesian enumerative system bound to materiality and pattern. The conflict between intentionally abstractive and intensely material enumerative systems generated perplexing results which throw their underlying cosmologies into greater relief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines invasion of grasslands on Cape York Peninsula, Australia, by Melaleuca viridiflora and other woody species, and the role of storm-burning (lighting fires after the first wet season rains) in their maintenance. Trends in disturbance features, fuel characteristics, ground layer composition, and woody plants dynamics under combinations of withholding fire and storm-burning over a 3-year period were measured on 19 plots in three landscape settings. Population dynamics of M. viridiflora are described in detail and 20-year population projections based on transition matrices under different fire regimes generated. Numerous M. viridiflora suckers occurred within the grass layer, increasing each year regardless of fire regime, and were rapidly recruited to the canopy in the absence of fire. Storm-burning had little impact on fuel, ground layer or woody plant composition, but maintained open vegetation structure by substantially reducing recruitment of M. viridiflora suckers to the sapling layer, and by reducing the above-grass-layer abundance of several other invasive woody species. Population projections indicated that withholding fire for 20 years could cause a sevenfold increase of M. viridiflora density on Ti-tree flats, and that annual to triennial storm-burning should be effective at maintaining a stable open vegetation structure. These findings argue against vegetation thickening being an inevitable consequence of climate change. We conclude that a fire regime that includes regular storm-burning can be effective for maintaining grasslands and grassy woodlands being invaded by M. viridiflora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the colonial encapsulation and post-colonial recognition of North Queensland's Aboriginal population have been achieved through legislative demarcation. This paper explores the way such demarcation has extended the influence of the state within local Aboriginal life-worlds, focusing on the State of Queensland's Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 and the Commonwealth's Native Title Act 1993. Drawing on ethnographic and historical material from Central Cape York Peninsula, and recent anthropological theorization of the state, I argue that anthropologists need to seriously consider Aboriginal claims about what Michel-Roiph Trouillot calls 'state effects'. But careful examination of these claims suggests that the state no longer simply imposes its projects on fundamentally distinct Aboriginal life-worlds. Not only is the state now deeply engaged within these life-worlds, it is also deeply interwoven into post-colonial Aboriginal subjectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The detection and mapping of canopy disturbance caused by natural events such as cyclones in tropical rainforests is important for monitoring and understanding rainforest dynamics and recovery. In February 1999 tropical cyclone Rona crossed the coastline of Far North Queensland, Australia, causing significant damage to the rainforest canopy in some areas. This paper examines the application of multitemporal canopy digital elevation models (DEMs) generated by a NASA-operated airborne radar mapping system called TOPSAR in 1996 and 2000, for detection of canopy disturbance caused by cyclone damage. Canopy damage was mapped here by identifying areas with a significant decrease in canopy height estimated from the difference of the 1996 and 2000 TOPSAR DEMs. Conventional aerial photographs, flown shortly after the cyclone (March 1999), were used to validate the resulting map of cyclone damaged rainforest canopy. The results showed that the DEM-derived canopy damage map performed reasonably well when comparing the spatial distribution and size of damaged areas, while taking into account the time difference between cyclone damage and the second radar acquisition. Some errors were encountered on the steeper slopes which were related to terrain distortions inherent in radar images of steep terrain. The height accuracy of the DEM was close to the depth of some of the gaps being mapped, which also contributed to errors. Even so, the results demonstrate there may be potential for weather-independent, regional-scale mapping of forest canopy change from imaging radar that is not always possible from traditional optical means of measuring canopy elevation, for example, airborne laser data and stereo aerial photography. This may be possible in relatively flat areas, provided the second radar acquisition occurs within months of the damaging event. Further algorithm refinement is required to improve its robustness and the range of topographies where this approach can provide reliable estimates of the extent of canopy disturbance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops an alternative interpretation of shell mound phenomena at Albatross Bay, near Weipa on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula. Past researchers have interpreted these distinct mounded middens as functional edifices, constructed to enable small family groups to camp closer to resources during the late wet season. Here I propose that the mounds at Weipa were associated with relatively large groups of people intensively exploiting the shell fish Anadara granosa. This argument is based on a range of factors, including the biological characteristics of Anadara, a species that makes up over 904570360f the composition of shell mounds, as well as archaeological and ethnographic evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a paper on contradictory images of the endangered dingo population which is feared as a wild animal and is also the target of fun and ridicule in tourist resort advertising. Description of fatal attack by dingoes in Fraser Island, Queensland; Emergence of the island as a major center for domestic and international tourism; Role of media in reinforcing the belief that dingoes are dangerous to people.

This article introduces the application of circular statistics to an analysis of ‘journey to work’ (JTW) data for the South East Queensland (SEQ) region in Australia. The JTW data include the total number of journeys between an origin (home) and destination zone (work) across SEQ. Using bespoke tools developed in a GIS environment the direction and frequency of each journey is first calculated. Using the outputs from this process, two descriptive measures – namely the circular mean and circular variance – are then computed and the results presented. Analysis of the mapped outputs shows strong JTW patterns that are readily detectable and visualised using a combination of GIS and circular statistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]