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The tomato potato psyllid, Bactericera cockerelli Šulc, originating from North and Central America, poses a serious threat to Solanaceae crops in Australia. This study investigates the potential of the Australian native and commercially available green lacewing, Mallada signatus Schneider, as a biological control agent for B. cockerelli. The effect of feeding on B. cockerelli on the development rate and survival, of M. signatus were evaluated. Further, a greenhouse cage study was conducted to determine the optimal density of M. signatus larvae needed to effectively control an established B. cockerelli population. In our study, the third instar larvae of M. signatus consumed over 75 B. cockerelli nymphs in 24 h. Following the introduction of M. signatus larvae to caged tomato plants, eight M. signatus larvae per caged tomato plant decreased B. cockerelli population by 64% at the end of the sampling. These results indicated M. signatus, particularly at the larval stage, is an effective biological control option for B. cockerelli, especially in greenhouse tomato cultivation. This research offers valuable insights for the Australian horticultural industry, presenting a viable, eco‐friendly alternative to traditional, chemical pesticide‐reliant pest management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is limited in-depth theorisation of positive coming-out experiences within families of origin. This is especially true for diasporic South Asian communities living in majority Anglophone contexts. The article draws on a study of 15 gay men of South Asian descent, in Australia, to analyse how coming out can lead to positive developments in family relations, even if they exist alongside negativity about one's sexuality. Coming out can introduce greater intimacy into family attachments, which at times turns family members into friends, and intimacy and friendship might serve as a reason for coming out in the first place. These processes strengthen familial ties, and data illustrates that concepts such as intimacy, friendship, and suffusion, can be used to conceptualise positive outcomes. We recommend further exploration of such stories in diasporic South Asian communities, to challenge the negativity often associated with this group in relation to their same-sex-attracted kin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pride events in majority-White contexts reflect social structures and power relations which privilege individuals from that group. The normative Whiteness that shapes these societies influence the dominance of Whiteness in queer spaces and Pride events which take place in them. This paper focused on queer people of colour (QPoC), in Australia, to understand how their intersectional identities shape perceptions of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Drawing on intersectionality as a framework, the study analysed interviews with 12 individuals. Results indicate participants feel a disjuncture between their queer identities and ethnicities and that queer spaces in Australia are premised on a normative Whiteness. While Mardi Gras is a meaningful and positive experience for respondents, the findings suggest the event perpetuates a narrow understanding of what it means to be queer by centring a White subjectivity and stereotypical queer representations. Findings suggest greater inclusivity can be achieved by 'inviting in' QPoC, meaningfully supporting more diverse expressions of 'queerness', including QPoC in all stages of the event, and being sensitive to the diverse needs of different groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Families of choice is an important framework used to think about non-heterosexual people's attachments. This means the family of origin has received limited attention when theorising their relationships. This group has often been considered in relation to coming out, which centralises the importance of sexuality for understanding kinship ties. This paper extends the limited, but growing scholarship on non-heterosexual people, and their families of origin. It does this by drawing on a larger project on the lives of gay men of South Asian descent, in Australia. Results demonstrate that attachment through blood, shared history, emotions, and obligations, firmly embed gay South Asian men in their families of origin, even when there is disapproval of their sexuality. More broadly, the study resists framing the respondents and findings in culturally essentialist terms, premised on an 'East' versus 'West' binary. It argues that by resisting such orientalism we can see similarities pertaining to families of origin across different contexts, and in doing so, produce queer scholarship able to speak across divides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy demand in Australia is increasing with the industrialization and rapid economic growth. This study analyzed the relationships among the economic growth, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), trade openness, urbanization, and energy usage in Australia based on the data from World Development Indicators (WDI) from 1972 to 2021. The results indicated that there is a cointegration among economic growth, FDI, trade openness, urbanization, and energy usage, which was traced through the autoregressive-distributed lag (ARDL). The Zivot-Andrews unit root test reveals that energy usage, economic growth, FDI, urbanization, and trade openness show significant structural breaks in 1993, 1996, 1982, 2008, and 1994, respectively. The ARDL model shows that economic growth has a positive and significant effect on energy usage in the long-run (0.814) and short-run (0.809). Moreover, the results also show that FDI (0.028) and trade openness (0.043) have positive impacts on energy usage in the long-run. However, urbanization shows a negative and significant influence on energy usage in the long-run (=0.965). Then, the research demonstrates a unidirectional causation between energy usage and trade openness, with energy usage significantly causing trade openness. The current study endorses energy consumption policies and investment strategies for a paradigm shifting from a reliance on fossil fuels as the primary energy source to renewable energy sources. These findings have profound implications for sustainable energy usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Medical imaging features along the entire healthcare continuum and is known for its fast-paced technological evolution which enables it to keep up with the demands of the healthcare system to provide safe, quality services. The overall efficacy and efficiency of the system depends on practitioners' clinical competence, achieved through professional education and continuous professional development. Recent studies have revealed concerns regarding newly graduated healthcare professionals' preparedness and readiness to handle actual practice.Methods: We conducted qualitative face-to-face and telephonic interviews with a convenient and purposive sample of 23 participants consisting of recently graduated radiographers (n=14), radiography students (n=5) and supervising radiographers (n=4) in Australia. Verbatim transcriptions were analyzed inductively to identify themes pertaining to perspectives and experiences of the work readiness of novice radiographers.Results: The findings of our study suggest that the workplace immersion and transitioning of recently graduated radiographers into their professional roles requires a process of experiential learning and honing of knowledge and skills if they are to function efficiently and independently in a team-oriented workplace. Radiographic services are spread across various levels of care and are an integral part of the organizational structure of a healthcare system. Maladaptive transitions to the workplace may be the result of low self-confidence, a lack of support, uncertainty in inter-collegial interactions, or unrealistic performance expectations. The overarching themes of communication and interaction emerged clearly as recently graduated radiographers navigated the four roles of coordinator, collaborator, mediator, and advocate.Conclusion: The application of radiographic skills is embedded in a workplace culture of communication and safety. Transitioning to independent practice takes place in a complex, multifaceted environment and is accompanied by internal and external expectations. Because each workplace has a unique context, system and culture, no novice radiographic professional can ever be fully prepared through pre-service training and workplace induction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental damage has been of much concern, particularly in coastal areas and the oceans, given climate change and the drastic effects of pollution and extreme climate events. Our present-day analytical capabilities, along with advancements in information acquisition techniques such as remote sensing, can be utilised for the management and study of coral reef ecosystems. In this paper, we present Reef-Insight, an unsupervised machine learning framework that features advanced clustering methods and remote sensing for reef habitat mapping. Our framework compares different clustering methods for reef habitat mapping using remote sensing data. We evaluate four major clustering approaches based on qualitative and visual assessments which include k-means, hierarchical clustering, Gaussian mixture model, and density-based clustering. We utilise remote sensing data featuring the One Tree Island reef in Australia's Southern Great Barrier Reef. Our results indicate that clustering methods using remote sensing data can well identify benthic and geomorphic clusters in reefs when compared with other studies. Our results indicate that Reef-Insight can generate detailed reef habitat maps outlining distinct reef habitats and has the potential to enable further insights for reef restoration projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of resistance to antiviral drugs increasingly used to treat SARS-CoV-2 infections has been recognised as a significant threat to COVID-19 control. In addition, some SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern appear to be intrinsically resistant to several classes of these antiviral agents. Therefore, there is a critical need for rapid recognition of clinically relevant polymorphisms in SARS-CoV-2 genomes associated with significant reduction of drug activity in virus neutralisation experiments. Here we present SABRes, a bioinformatic tool, which leverages on expanding public datasets of SARS-CoV-2 genomes and allows detection of drug resistance mutations in consensus genomes as well as in viral subpopulations. We have applied SABRes to detect resistance-conferring mutations in 25,197 genomes generated over the course of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Australia and identified 299 genomes containing resistance conferring mutations to the five antiviral therapeutics that retain effectiveness against currently circulating strains of SARS-CoV-2 – Sotrovimab, Bebtelovimab, Remdesivir, Nirmatrelvir and Molnupiravir. These genomes accounted for a 1.18% prevalence of resistant isolates discovered by SABRes, including 80 genomes with resistance conferring mutations found in viral subpopulations. Timely recognition of these mutations within subpopulations is critical as these mutations can provide an advantage under selective pressure and presents an important step forward in our ability to monitor SARS-CoV-2 drug resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]