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BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT MATTERS | January 16,  2015

 

Dear all,

I hope you have overcome the shock of being back at work and are taking it relatively easy!

cheerio

Mariella

General News and Announcements

Department Meeting – Tuesday Jan 20th, 2015, 1-2pm

Let’s kick off the year with what will hopefully be a trim and effective meeting. Agenda is below. Please email me if you want to add anything.

  • 2014 wrap up
  • 2015 budget
  • 2015 plans and priorities
  • Head of Department turn over
  • How can we more efficient and effective meetings
  • 2015 practicalities – meetings with me
  • Teaching prac info from Rekha

Supplementary HDR conference

The supplementary HDR conference will be held on Thursday 12th and Friday 13th February (likely from 9-4pm) in E3B117 & E3B118. The presenters at this supplementary conference are those HDR students who were unable to present at the December 2014 HDR conference (and their candidature started before September 2014). Everyone (regardless of position within the department) is encouraged to come show their support and learn about current research in the Department of Biological Sciences.


New Free-Cycle Nook

We’ve updated the back corner of the E8 tea room as the new Free-Cycle Nook. All the old books have gone. It’s now a space where you can exchange interesting and useful things that need new homes. Any item placed there (except the plants) is free to whoever wants it. It doesn’t need to be a book, it could be anything that you don’t want anymore that could be useful to someone else.

But it’s not a rubbish spot, so nothing broken or useless, thanks.

Happy exchanging!

Free-cycle_Nook


Couples living in long distance relationship wanted for documentary

If Science is keeping you apart, this crew wants to interview you:

It’s a mini documentary film on the subject of long distance relationships, and we are looking for couples who spend a lot of their time apart due to work commitments. Ideally one or both of the partners will be working somewhere remote and culturally different from the other. Our director, Glen Milner, is especially interested in Maquarie Island as a location and so we would be interested in finding out about people working there, but perhaps you have other contacts in other remote study centres too?

Sally McCleery

Freelance Casting Researcher

www.indy8.com

+44 (0)7867 944218


BIOL341 Poster display in E8 tea room Monday Jan 19, 9.30 to approx 1pm

Due to conference style poster presentation (tea and bikkies) and lab renovations in E8C the BIOL341 poster session will be held in the E8 tea room in two sessions monday morning. 

Please do not let this stop you from grabbing a cup of tea. Perhaps you might like to also look at the diversity of parasites that will be showcased in student posters. 


Media Training

Our media training for scientists course is a one-day practical workshop for anyone who needs or wants to communicate complex and technical ideas via the media. 

The course runs from 8.30 am to 5 pm. It costs $800 per person plus GST, which includes lunch and morning and afternoon teas.

For further information or to book places contact Margie on margie@scienceinpublic.com.au or (03) 9398 1416, or visit www.scienceinpublic.com.au/training

Sydney

  • Wed 22 April 2015
  • Tue 7 July 2015

MQ social sport

If there are any keen sports-people out there, registrations for MQ social sport open in February with competitions running during semester. If you’re interested in playing some sport (perhaps an outlet for stress management?), either as a team or an individual, then let’s get an MQ Biology team happening!! Let me know what sport/day/time you would be interested in and I can help manage it and get it started (lara.ainley@students.mq.edu.au). There is a small cost involved, but well worth it to play sport over the semester, AND, the more people, the less the cost!

https://www.mq.edu.au/on_campus/sport_and_recreation/sport_programs/social_sport/


Accommodation needed

Accommodation needed for new PhD student: Arnaud Badiane is starting his PhD with Martin Whiting and is looking for accommodation from 24 January onwards. Please contact Arnaud arnaud.badiane@gmail.com or Martin if you can help.


Use of Twitter by scholars

Interesting link from Dan Falster:

Priem, Jason; Costello, Kaitlin; Dzuba, Tyler (2012): Prevalence and use of Twitter among scholars. figshare. http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.104629


Casual technical teaching position – MQ

If you are interested in applying for a casual positions to work as Teaching Technical staff, please contact Rekha (rekha.joshi@mq.edu.au) via email by 30th January 2015.  Please provide CV and your mobile number’.   Rekha is currently compiling a list of potential skills and interest in working as technical staff within her team


Technician job opening at Western Australian Museum

This molecular technician job has just opened at WAM. Its a long term position, potential to end Dec 2018.

http://search.jobs.wa.gov.au/page.php?pageID=160&windowUID=0&AdvertID=170784

The advert will cease on 30 January 2015 at 4.00pm WST.



New Publications

Signal design and courtship presentation coincide for highly biased delivery of an iridescent butterfly mating signal

White, T. E., J. Zeil, and D. J. Kemp. 2015. Signal design and courtship presentation coincide for highly biased delivery of an iridescent butterfly mating signal. Evolution 69:14-25. | Find with Google Scholar »

Interactions between seasonality and oceanic forcing drive the phytoplankton variability in the tropical-temperate transition zone (~30°S) of Eastern Australia

Armbrecht, L. H., Schaeffer, A., Roughan, M., Armand, L. K., 2015. Interactions between seasonality and oceanic forcing drive the phytoplankton variability in the tropical-temperate transition zone (~30°S) of Eastern Australia. Journal of Marine Systems 144, 92-106. | Find with Google Scholar »

Local Ecological Knowledge and Scientific Data Reveal Overexploitation by Multigear Artisanal Fisheries in the Southwestern Atlantic

Bender, M. G., G. R. Machado, P. J. D. Silva, S. R. Floeter, C. Monteiro-Netto, O. J. Luiz, and C. E. L. Ferreira. 2014. Local Ecological Knowledge and Scientific Data Reveal Overexploitation by Multigear Artisanal Fisheries in the Southwestern Atlantic. PLoS ONE 9. | Find with Google Scholar »

Supervised accelerometry analysis can identify prey capture by penguins at sea

Carroll, G., D. Slip, I. Jonsen, and R. Harcourt. 2014. Supervised accelerometry analysis can identify prey capture by penguins at sea. Journal of Experimental Biology 217:4295-4302. | Find with Google Scholar »

Small-scale spatial structuring of interstitial invertebrates on three embayed beaches, Sydney, Australia

Cooke, B. C., I. D. Goodwin, and M. J. Bishop. 2014. Small-scale spatial structuring of interstitial invertebrates on three embayed beaches, Sydney, Australia. Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science 150:92-101. | Find with Google Scholar »

Simulation of tree-ring widths with a model for primary production, carbon allocation, and growth

Li, G., S. P. Harrison, I. C. Prentice, and D. Falster. 2014. Simulation of tree-ring widths with a model for primary production, carbon allocation, and growth. Biogeosciences 11:6711-6724. | Find with Google Scholar »

Demographic history and niche conservatism of tropical rainforest trees separated along an altitudinal gradient of a biogeographic barrier

Mellick, R., P. D. Wilson, and M. Rossetto. 2014. Demographic history and niche conservatism of tropical rainforest trees separated along an altitudinal gradient of a biogeographic barrier. Australian Journal of Botany 62:438-450. | Find with Google Scholar »

Does probability of occurrence relate to population dynamics?

Thuiller, W., T. Munkemuller, K. H. Schiffers, D. Georges, S. Dullinger, V. M. Eckhart, T. C. Edwards, D. Gravel, G. Kunstler, C. Merow, K. Moore, C. Piedallu, S. Vissault, N. E. Zimmermann, D. Zurell, and F. M. Schurr. 2014. Does probability of occurrence relate to population dynamics? Ecography 37:1155-1166. | Find with Google Scholar »

The influence of depth-to-groundwater on structure and productivity of Eucalyptus woodlands

Zolfaghar, S., R. Villalobos-Vega, J. Cleverly, M. Zeppel, R. Rumman, and D. Eamus. 2014. The influence of depth-to-groundwater on structure and productivity of Eucalyptus woodlands. Australian Journal of Botany 62:428-437. | Find with Google Scholar »

Sexual deception in a cannibalistic mating system? Testing the Femme Fatale hypothesis

Barry, K. L. 2015. Sexual deception in a cannibalistic mating system? Testing the Femme Fatale hypothesis. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences 282. | Find with Google Scholar »

Multiple origins of subsociality in crab spiders (Thomisidae)

Ruch, J., T. Riehl, L. J. May-Collado, and I. Agnarsson. 2015. Multiple origins of subsociality in crab spiders (Thomisidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 82:330-340. | Find with Google Scholar »

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