SEE YOU AT THE TORBANLEA PICNIC RACES @ QUEENSLAND

HI,

It’s that time again! Thought I should give you as much notice as possible…

Planning for the annual Torbanlea Picnic Races on Saturday October 16 is well underway. This year, like 2009, Wide Bay Rural Weekly is a major media partner, and will feature the event over a 3 week series, maximizing promotion, especially to encourage bus bookings, camp site bookings, and all those people who prepare for Fashion of the Field.

The biggest advantage of featuring the event in Wide Bay Rural Weekly, apart from the hugely discounted rates on offer, is the insertion of Wide Bay Rural Weekly into Bundaberg’s NewsMail, Fraser Coast Chronicle and Gympie Times, which provides virtually triple the coverage.

This year the event is likely to be bigger than ever, bus bookings already, campsites and stalls booked already, folk from as far as New Zealand enquiring, and now even Corporate Marquee bookings available for groups 10, 20, 40 and more.

We invite you to consider participation, promote your message and support Torbanlea’s biggest fundraiser of the year. I look forward to opportunity to discuss this with you, and will follow up with a phone call in the next few days.

Should you have any query please feel free to contact me at your earliest opportunity.

1. Bus bookings with Wide Bay Transit and G & D Ross Bus Charters
2. Campsite bookings
3. Entries for Fashion of the Field
4. Team entries for the Team Tug of War event
5. Riders and horses nominating for events
6. The newest addition…..corporate tables and marquee bookings…groups of 10, 20 , 40, 50 or more can prebook to have a set place ready for their group, in the shade of a marquee, with table and chairs and includes the gate entry….for just $25 per head…and it’s all set up and cleaned up for you….

For event details folk can email torbanleapicnicraces@live.com.au and for participation in the promotion, and program, supporting this major fundraiser email edith.rutherford@apnnewspapers.com.au

We look forward to your bookings and seeing everyone on the day…

Cheers for now,

Edith Rutherford

APN NEWS & MEDIA

SPECIAL PROJECTS

Mobile: 0409 609 971

Email:edith.rutherford@apnnewspapers.com.au

PO Box 100 Childers 4660

Received & published by Henry Sapiecha

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BOATING MARINAS IN AUSTRALIA

How Flies Set Their Cruising Altitude

Science (Aug. 20, 2010) — Insects in flight must somehow calculate and control their height above the ground, and researchers reporting online on August 19 in Current Biology, have new insight into how fruit flies do it. The answer is simpler than expected.

“Flying at a horizontal edge formed by local features — the top of a bush or a tree, say — could be a good way to lead into the perch,” said Michael Dickinson of the California Institute of Technology. “This is a good mechanism for landing at the tops of things as flies do — something you can confirm with a glass of wine.”

Researchers had earlier suggested that insects might control their cruising altitude by maintaining a fixed value of what’s known as optic flow beneath them as they fly. To understand what this means, imagine how fast the ground moves beneath you when you are taking off in an airplane and how that motion of things beneath you slows as you make your way up into the air.

“There are simple means by which an insect could know whether it is falling or rising,” Dickinson said, “but by measuring the optic flow beneath it, an insect could choose to fly at a specific altitude.” The strategy has been shown to work on a tiny model helicopter, but it turns out the fruit flies don’t use it, or at least not under the conditions tested.

The researchers figured this out thanks to a sophisticated “gizmo” built by Andrew Straw, also of Caltech, that allowed them to track the movements of free-flying fruit flies using multiple digital cameras as they moved through a 3D virtual-reality space in which the researchers had complete control over what the insects saw. The researchers could even cancel out the effects of the flies’ own movement on what they saw as they flew through space, allowing them to put the optic ground flow theory to the test in a rigorous way.

“All of us set out thinking that the ground flow model was probably right,” Straw said. “We thought we would end up quickly verifying that it worked, but when we found it didn’t apply, we began to think about other mechanisms.”

So the researchers tried something else, presenting the flies with a simple horizontal edge while they flew. It turned out the flies used that visual reference point to select their altitude. Experiments that pitted the edge tracking and optic flow models against each other confirmed that the insects didn’t care how fast the ground moved beneath them.

The results also provide confirmation of two other strategies that flies use to keep themselves stable and avoid collisions. If they see the world around them “moving” — for instance, if they are pushed down by a gust of wind — they will alter their flight to compensate. If the world beneath them appears to rapidly expand, as it would if they were hurtling toward the ground, they veer up to avoid crashing. Both of these mechanisms help maintain stability, but they don’t set a specific altitude, the researchers said.

It’s possible that other insects use different flight strategies. Even fruit flies might use different methods for flight control depending on the circumstances, the researchers said. For instance, edge tracking might be what they depend on to explore a local environment. When migrating across a desert, they might do something else entirely.

There is still plenty of exploring left to do. “We have identified one specific set of reflexes, but we still don’t understand the neural mechanisms responsible,” Straw said.

The findings might have practical applications, he added. For example, they could come in handy for working out the ideal rules of operation for flying robots.

The researchers include Andrew D. Straw, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA; Serin Lee, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA; and Michael H. Dickinson, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.

The Buzz on Fruit Flies: New Role in the Search for Addiction Treatments (Dec. 21, 2009) — Fruit flies may seem like unlikely heroes in the battle against drug abuse, but new research suggests that these insects — already used to study dozens of human disease — could claim that role. …  > read more

Natural Pest Control: Tiny Pest-Eating Insect Fights Fruit Flies (Dec. 14, 2007) — Farmers and vineyard owners have a new weapon in their pest management arsenal. A commonly used parasitoid, or parasitic insect that kills its host, has proven to be quite effective in the control of …  > read more

Pesky Fruit Flies Learn From Experienced Females (Sep. 28, 2009) — A common nuisance, the fruit fly, is capable of intricate social learning much like that used by humans, according to new …  > read more

Drought Drives Decade-Long

Decline in Plant Growth

Science (Aug. 21, 2010) — Global plant productivity that once was on the rise with warming temperatures and a lengthened growing season is now on the decline because of regional drought, according to a new study of NASA satellite data.

Plant productivity is a measure of the rate of the photosynthesis process that green plants use to convert solar energy, carbon dioxide and water to sugar, oxygen and eventually plant tissue. Compared with a 6 percent increase in plant productivity during the 1980s and 1990s, the decline observed over the last decade is only 1 percent. The shift, however, could impact food security, biofuels and the global carbon cycle.

Researchers Maosheng Zhao and Steven Running of the University of Montana in Missoula discovered the global shift from an analysis of NASA satellite data. The discovery comes from an analysis of plant productivity data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Terra satellite, combined with other growing season climate data, including temperature, solar radiation and water.

“We see this as a bit of a surprise, and potentially significant on a policy level because previous interpretations suggested global warming might actually help plant growth around the world,” Running said.

Previous research found land plant productivity was on the rise. A 2003 paper in the journal Science led by scientist Ramakrishna Nemani, now a researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., showed the 6 percent increase in global terrestrial plant productivity between 1982 and 1999. The increase was traced to nearly two decades of temperature, solar radiation and water availability conditions, influenced by climate change, that were favorable for plant growth.

Setting out to update that analysis, Zhao and Running expected to see similar results as global average temperatures continued to climb. Instead, they found the negative impact of regional drought overwhelmed the positive influence of a longer growing season, driving down global plant productivity between 2000 and 2009. The team published its findings August 19 in Science.

“This is a pretty serious warning that warmer temperatures are not going to endlessly improve plant growth,” Running said.

Zhao and Running’s analysis showed that since 2000, high-latitude Northern Hemisphere ecosystems have continued to benefit from warmer temperatures and a longer growing season. But that effect was offset by warming-associated drought that limited growth in the Southern Hemisphere, resulting in a net global loss of land productivity.

“This past decade’s net decline in terrestrial productivity illustrates that a complex interplay between temperature, rainfall, cloudiness, and carbon dioxide, probably in combination with other factors such as nutrients and land management, will determine future patterns and trends in productivity,” said Diane Wickland, program manager of the Terrestrial Ecology research program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Researchers want to continue monitoring these trends in the future because plant productivity is linked to shifting levels of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and stresses on plant growth that could challenge food production.

“Even if the declining trend of the past decade does not continue, managing forests and crop lands for multiple benefits to include food production, biofuel harvest, and carbon storage may become exceedingly challenging in light of the possible impacts of such decadal-scale changes,” Wickland said.

Brain Gene Expression Changes

When Honey Bees

Go the Distance

Science (Aug. 20, 2010) — Tricking honey bees into thinking they have traveled long distance to find food alters gene expression in their brains, researchers report this month. Their study, in the journal Genes, Brain and Behavior, is the first to identify distance-responsive genes.

Foraging honey bees make unique research animals in part because they communicate in a language humans can decode, said University of Illinois entomology and neuroscience professor Gene Robinson, who led the study. After a successful hunt, a forager performs a highly stylized “dance” that tells her peers what direction to go to find the food, how good it is and how far away it is. The bee does a “round dance” if the food is close to home, while a “waggle dance” indicates it is farther away.

The new study used an established method for altering a honey bee’s perception of distance as she flew through a tunnel to gather food. Vertical stripes or a busy pattern on the tunnel walls can trick a bee into thinking she is traveling a greater distance, while horizontal stripes or a sparse pattern indicate a shorter distance — even though the tunnels are the exact same length. At the end of the flight, a researcher watches the honey bee dance to find out how far she thinks she flew.

“This is a great example of what you can learn if you are able to manipulate an animal to be able to tell you what it’s thinking,” Robinson said.

Using microarray analysis, which tracks the activity of thousands of genes at once, the researchers compared gene expression in the brains of bees that thought they had traveled shorter or longer distances. The team focused on two brain regions: the optic lobes, which process visual information; and the mushroom bodies, which integrate sensory information and have been implicated in learning and memory.

Some bees (labeled S-S bees) traveled the “short” distance repeatedly to get to the food, while others (the S-L bees) trained on the “short” distance and then were switched to the “long” distance tunnel. Brain gene expression differed between the groups. A total of 29 annotated genes (for which sequence, location in the genome and function are known) were “differentially regulated between the S-L and S-S bees, either in the optic lobes, mushroom bodies, or both,” the researchers wrote.

Surprisingly, the patterns of gene expression (which genes were turned up, down, on or off in response to the experience) were similar in both brain regions, Robinson said, suggesting that similar molecular pathways are involved in responding to distance information in different parts of the brain. The fact that gene activity changes in the mushroom bodies may indicate that some of the information is encoded in memory, he said, “which makes sense because bees need to remember their flight distance long enough to communicate it to hive-mates by dance language.”

This study adds a new dimension to the ongoing exploration of the socially responsive genome, Robinson said. The genome is not a static blueprint for life, as was once believed, he said. “Instead we see how responsive the genome is to environmental stimuli and especially socially relevant stimuli. Here is another piece of the world that the genome is responding to that we didn’t know about before.”

This study was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Illinois Sociogenomics Initiative.

Mapping out Pathways

to Better Soybeans

Science (Aug. 20, 2010) — Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are a step closer to unlocking genetic clues that may lead to packing more protein and oil into soybeans, a move that would boost their value and help U.S. growers compete in international markets.

ARS researchers Carroll P. Vance, Yung-Tsi Bolon and Randy C. Shoemaker have narrowed down where genes that determine protein and oil content are likely to be found along the soybean genome. Vance and Bolon work in the ARS Plant Science Research Unit in St. Paul, Minn. and Shoemaker works in the ARS Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research Unit in Ames, Iowa. The team also included Bindu Joseph, a post doctoral researcher who worked with Shoemaker and is now at the University of California-Davis.

More than half of the estimated $27 billion U.S. soybean crop is exported each year. But there is increasing competition for international markets, and low protein and oil content often deflate prices paid to U.S. growers, particularly in the Midwest.

The researchers used two different approaches to compare the genomes of two nearly identical inbred lines of soybeans that varied in seed protein and oil content, examining patterns in how thousands of genes are expressed, and sequencing 3 billion base pairs of soybean RNA.

By comparing the results, the researchers drew up a genetic map that identifies key molecular markers along a region of the soybean genome known as Linkage Group I. The widely studied region makes up less than 1 percent of the plant’s overall genome, but includes 13 “candidate genes” that are likely to play a role in determining oil and protein levels, and a series of associated molecular markers, according to the scientists.

Breeders will be able to use the markers as signposts to enable the development of new soybean lines with higher protein and oil levels. The effort also uncovered evidence showing that protein levels are determined early in the seed’s development.

The report, published online in the journal BMC Plant Biology, also is accompanied by vast amounts of sequencing data that scientists can access to study genes related to other desirable traits, such as drought tolerance and pest resistance.

Avian Influenza Virus

May Persist on Feathers

Fallen from Domestic Ducks

ScienceDaily (Aug. 22, 2010) — Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (H5N1) may persist on feathers fallen from the bodies of infected domestic ducks and contribute to environmental contamination. Researchers from the National Institute of Animal Health, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan report their findings in the August 2010 issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Since the emergence of Asian avian influenza virus in 1997, it has spread to Europe, the Middle East and Africa causing significant mortality and economic loss in the poultry industry. Although the virus is mainly found in waterfowl and transmitted through fecal contamination in water, humans as well as other mammalian species have contracted the virus through close contact with infected birds.

A prior study showed that H5N1 could replicate in the skin cells of feathers and further suggested that those that drop off the body could potentially contaminate the environment. Here, researchers evaluated the environmental risk posed by contaminated feathers by inoculating domestic ducks with H5N1, collecting feathers, feces and drinking water three days following, and then storing them at 39 degrees and 68 degrees Fahrenheit for 360 days. Results showed that H5N1 persisted the longest in feathers at both temperatures.

“These results indicate that feathers detached from domestic ducks infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (H5N1) can be a source of environmental contamination and may function as fomites with high viral loads in the environment,” say the researchers.

Electrifying Findings:

New Ways of Boosting Healthful

Antioxidant Levels in Potatoes

Science (Aug. 22, 2010) — Here’s a scientific discovery fit to give Mr. Potato Head static cling and flyaway hair (if that vintage plastic toy had hair). Scientists have reported discovery of two simple, inexpensive ways of boosting the amounts of healthful antioxidant substances in potatoes. One involves giving spuds an electric shock. The other involves zapping them with ultrasound, high frequency sound waves.

Those new insights into improving the nutritional content of one of the Western world’s favorite side dishes were reported August 22 at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), being held in Boston Massachusetts, U.S.

“We found that treating the potatoes with ultrasound or electricity for 5-30 minutes increased the amounts of antioxidants — including phenols and chlorogenic acid — by as much as 50 percent,” said Kazunori Hironaka, Ph.D., who headed the research. “Antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables are considered to be of nutritional importance in the prevention of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, various cancers, diabetes, and neurological diseases.”

Hironaka, who is with Obihiro University in Hokkaido, Japan, indicated that the process could have widespread commercial application, due to growing consumer interest in so-called “functional foods.” Those are products like berries, nuts, chocolate, soy, and wine that may have health benefits beyond traditional nutrition. Such foods may promote overall good health, for instance, or reduce the risk of specific diseases. Hironaka estimated that sales of such products in the United States alone now approach $20 billion annually.

“We knew from research done in the past that drought, bruising, and other stresses could stimulate the accumulation of beneficial phenolic compounds in fresh produce,” Hironaka explained. “We found that there hasn’t been any research on the healthful effects of using mechanical processes to stress vegetables. So we decided in this study to evaluate effect of ultrasound and electric treatments on polyphenols and other antioxidants in potatoes.”

The ultrasound treatment consisted of immersing whole potatoes in water and subjecting them to ultrasound for 5 or 10 minutes. For the electrical treatment, the scientists immersed potatoes in a salt solution for 10 seconds and subsequently treated the spuds with a small electrical charge for 10, 20, and 30 minutes. The study team then measured antioxidant activity and the phenolic content and concluded that the stresses increased the amount of these compounds. The 5 minutes of ultrasound, for instance, increased polyphenol levels by 1.2 times and other antioxidants by about 1.6 times.

Armed raid over raw milk

USA Feds consider livestock drug ban

At long last the feds could start taking my advice — but someone in Washington must be a Dose reader.