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Children's multiplicative thinking as the recognition of equal group structures and the enumeration of the composite units was the subject of this research. In this paper, we provide an overview of the Multiplication and Division Investigations project. The results were obtained from a small sample of Australian children (n = 21) in their first year of school (mean age 5 years 6 months) who participated in a teaching experiment of five lessons taught by their classroom teacher. The tasks introduced children to the "equal groups" aspect of multiplication. A theoretical framework of constructivist learning, together with research literature underpinning early multiplicative thinking, tasks, and children's thinking, was used to design the research. Our findings indicate that young children could imagine equal group structures and, in doing so, recognise and enumerate composite units. As the children came to these tasks without any prior formal instruction, it seemed that they had intuitive understandings of equal group structures based on their life experiences. We argue that the implications for teaching include creating learning provocations that elicit children's early ideas of multiplication, visualisation, and abstraction. The research has also shown the importance of observing children, listening to their explanations of their thinking, and using insights provided by their drawings.

Mathematics educators and researchers have advocated for the use of manipulatives to teach mathematics for decades. The purpose of this article is to provide illustrative uses of a readily available manipulative rather than a complete list. From an Australian perspective, Pop-it fidget toys can be used across the mathematics curriculum. This paper documents how two different size squircle Pop-it toys can be used as a mathematical manipulative.

The importance of multiplicative thinking in supporting students' learning of key topics and success in further mathematics is widely and clearly stated in mathematics education literature. However, multiplicative thinking is not clearly stated in curriculum documents of many countries including Australia. In the "Australian Curriculum: Mathematics," it is implied throughout as multiplication and division with emphasis on recall of multiplication facts, factors, and multiples of a number, grouping into equal sets, and the use of mental solution strategies. In this theoretical paper, we discuss how this lack of an explicit framework for students' development of multiplicative thinking might be remedied by: (i) making curriculum and teaching to be explicit about multiplicative thinking from early primary school (F-3), and (ii) implementing three key teaching stages for developing multiplicative thinking in students throughout the middle primary (4-6) and junior secondary years (7-8).

Multiplication and division are complex constructs for young children to understand. In this article, the authors explore young children's ability to visualise and make groups of objects before they had formally been introduced to multiplication and division. The results provide some valuable insights into students' early understandings of multiplicative ideas.

In multifunctional rural regions, strong commercial incentives exist for agricultural landholders to convert their land from farming to residential, lifestyle, and tourist land uses. In Australia, those regions mainly comprise coastal, peri‐urban, and high‐amenity rural areas. The pace and pattern of land‐use conversion in these regions is shaped by the interaction of landholders with land‐use planning regulations, notably minimum lot size (MLS) controls. This paper examines that interface in a deep dive into the role of land‐use planning controls in shaping the future of farming in an area of rapid rural change, the Ballina‐Lismore region in northern New South Wales. We argue that although planning controls in the region are designed to protect land for agriculture by curbing pressures for suburbanisation, they have also inadvertently contributed to the proliferation of unplanned rural living. This proliferation has occurred because MLS controls have incentivised agricultural landholders to sidestep restrictions on subdivision by exploiting concessions and flexibility in some of the controls and have forced some nonagricultural buyers of rural land to acquire bigger holdings than they may have otherwise desired, hence "sterilising" these agricultural‐zoned landholdings from farming. We conclude that to better protect agriculture in multifunctional rural regions, land‐use planning needs to look beyond deterrence mechanisms, such as MLS restrictions, and towards planning incentives to promote farming on agricultural‐zoned land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Duboisia species, a group of plants native to Australia, have been historically valued for their pharmacological properties and have played a significant role in traditional medicine and pharmaceutical research. Persistent efforts are underway to enhance the efficacy of the active ingredient scopolamine, employing both conventional breeding methods and advanced biotechnology tools. The primary objective of this research was to establish a highly efficient method for isolating mesophyll protoplasts and facilitating their regeneration, thereby laying a robust foundation for the application of various advanced plant biotechnology tools in the pursuit of genetic enhancement. The mesophyll protoplast isolation process was developed for hybrid D. myoporoides × D. hopwoodii with careful optimisation of the following parameters: leaf strip size; incubation conditions; physical treatment; and enzyme concentration. The optimal parameters were combined in each individual step; the best enzyme concentration was determined to be 2% (w/v) cellulysin and 0.5% (w/v) macerase. Protoplast yield was found to be greatly affected by the enzyme concentrations. The isolated protoplasts were cultured at a density of 0.5 × 105 to best sustain the highest cell division (33.2%) and a microcalli induction frequency of 17.9%. After 40 days of culture in a modified KM8P medium at 25 °C in darkness, visible microcalli were transferred to a solidified Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with 1 mg L−1 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) for callus induction under a 16 h photoperiod. After 30 days of culture, compact organogenic calli were transferred into a solid MS medium with 6-benzylaminopurine (BA) alone or thidiazuron (TDZ) alone or in combination with BA or naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) for shoot regeneration. The maximum shoot regeneration frequency (63.3%) was observed in the medium with 1.5 mg L−1 TDZ alone. For the first time, a reliable protoplast isolation and regeneration system from mesophyll cells was established for Duboisia with high protoplast viability, successful microcalli formation, and intact plant regeneration. This innovation will significantly contribute towards the genetic enhancement of the Duboisia species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although genome sequences of lichenized fungi are increasingly becoming available, genome sequences of microalgae involved in the lichen symbiosis are still scarce. For lichenized eukaryotic algae, genome sequencing has focused mostly on Trebouxia and Asterochloris, with little genomic data available for Stichococcus-like algae, such as Diplosphaera. The genus Diplosphaera is a common component of biological soil crusts, and often occurs associated with lichens of the family Verrucariaceae. It is characterized by cylindrical to spherical cells containing a plate-like chloroplast, and more specifically by a vegetative cell division that leads to the formation of typical two- to four-celled clusters. Here, we present a draft genome sequence for the algal partner of an Australian lichen specimen of Endocarpon pusillum. The genome was sequenced with Pac Bio long read and Illumina short read technologies, and transcriptome data were generated to inform the structural annotations. This algal strain is here identified as Diplosphaera chodatii based on nuSSU and ITS data. Compared with closely related lichenized and non-lichenized algae, the genome of D. chodatii stands out for its large size (85.6 Mb) and gene content (21,261 protein-encoding regions), as well as its high rate of duplicated genes (60% of the BUSCO genes are duplicated). These results suggest that whole genome duplication or large-scale segmental duplications may have occurred in the evolutionary history of this algal species. Little genome data are available for lichenized algae. We generated the first genome for a lichenized Diplosphaera chodatii. Results suggest a possible whole genome duplication in this species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burkholderia pseudomallei is a causative agent of melioidosis that can infect humans and animals in endemic countries, specifically in Southeast Asia and tropical Australia. A fundamental component for the pathogenesis of Burkholderia pseudomallei is the capability of the bacterium to enter, survive, replicate, and cause disease in a host cell by inducing the host cell fusion. Cell fusion results in multinucleated-giant cell formation, thus enabling the dissemination of Burkholderia pseudomallei intracellularly. cGAS reacts to Burkholderia pseudomallei infection by activating the cGAS-STING pathway and subsequently limiting host's aberrant cell division and cellular replication by inducing autophagic cell death. In this review, we discuss the host-pathogen interactions between the type VI secretion system 5 (T6SS-5) of Burkholderia pseudomallei and human cGAS pathway in melioidosis infections. Since T6SS- 5 is a main virulent factor in Burkholderia pseudomallei and the cGAS pathway is vital for host immune response, elucidating their functions is important for better understanding the pathogenesis of Burkholderia pseudomallei. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given changed strategic circumstances, planning on a 10-year warning of a major conventional attack on Australia is no longer appropriate. Hence, 2nd Division, an Army Reserve formation, has evolved beyond maintaining an expansion base as a strategic reserve. Its role now is principally operational. It maintains foundation war-fighting skills; raises, trains and sustains a battle group to reinforce Army's full-time ready brigade; commands, controls and contributes force elements to domestic operations [disaster relief and security support]; and contributes force elements for the ongoing defence of the nation's maritime approaches. Reserve call-out powers are available, if needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]