BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT MATTERS | October 2, 2015

General News and Announcements

Hazard Reduction Burn in the Ecology Reserve

Lane Cove National Park are planning to do a hazard reduction burn in the Ecology Reserve, weather permitting, over the next few weeks. If you are planning any activities in the reserve during that time, please contact:

Matt Springall
Acting Ranger I Valleys Area
Metropolitan North East Region
NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service
Ph: 8448 0403 I Mob: 0419 753 785
matthew.springall@environment.nsw.gov.au

End of Year Financial Deadlines

Below are spending cut off dates to record in your calendars. Keeping your spending within these dates will help the admin team out immensely.

You need to:
Submit all purchases/orders/stationery orders/store orders by;
FRIDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2015 5PM

Spend University money/appoint new casual and fixed term staff up by;
FRIDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2015 5pm

Submit your last timesheet for 2015 and enjoy your last coffee from E8A Tearoom coffee machine;
WEDNESDAY 16 DECEMBER 2015 (time to be advised)

We understand that things may come up after these dates, but we can not guarantee that your requests will be met due to our extreme workload during this busy time. A scheduled closed door policy will likely be utilised closer to the end of year and we’ll keep you up to date about that.

Just FYI spending University money means:

• Invoices that need to be paid
• Claims forms for reimbursements/per diems/advances
• Concur reports and Corporate credit card spending
• Travel: airfare, motor vehicle expenses, car hire, accommodation, etc
• Sundry Debtors (Invoices we generate)
• Journals
• Petty Cash
• Catering
• Shipments/Courier services

If you anticipate any problems or have any questions please let Anne Marie know (the sooner the better) and the admin team will do all we can to help.

Only You Can Prevent Fashion Crimes

Future students have reported 10 Macquarie branded t-shirts missing from Open Day. If you have one lying around, can you please return them to the box provided in the E8B mail room.

Questions That Matter

The results are in: 8 out 13 biologists prefer their apples in the form of Applestrudel!

The ARC DECRA 2017 Expressions of Interest Are Now Open

The Expression of Interest form is attached here and can be also found on the Research Office website at DECRA, together with other DECRA related resources. The deadline for EoIs is Wednesday 25 November 2015 at research.preaward@mq.edu.au . All EoIs will be registered by the University Research Office and distributed to relevant Faculties for assessment and approval.

Also attached here is the Faculty of Science and Engineering flyer for attracting ECRs to MQ for the DECRA scheme. The aim of this flyer is to increase the number of external, high-quality DECRA applicants. Please forward this flyer to researchers in your respective departments for distribution to their external (Australian and International) contacts. We suggest that researchers could target specific ECRs in their discipline, contact collaborators or research groups in a similar field of study, society email lists and conference information notice boards.

The flyer does not include specific details of the MQ support package so please communicate this with ECRs who enquire. The flyer directs potential candidates to contact us (Faculty Research Office) for more information.

The Department recently launched a Facebook page. Like us here: www.facebook.com/BiologicalSciencesMQ

Eco-Stats ’15: Technological advances between Ecology and Statistics

When: 8-10 December 2015
Where: University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Abstract submissions close soon!  (October 9th )

Ecologists and statisticians have much to gain from working together, and this conference is designed to provide precisely such an opportunity. This conference is a follow-up to the 2013 meeting*, and has been designed as a collaborative forum for researchers with interests in ecology, statistics, or both. Formal proceedings will start on December 8^th with “Skills-Building Day”, a series of computer-based tutorials run across topics spanning the interests of conference speakers.

Then world leaders from ecology and statistics have been paired up to present their own perspectives on six topical issues (analysis of metagenomics data in ecology, occupancy modelling with imperfect detection, analysing counts along stream networks, modern capture-recapture, estimating biodiversity turnover, and modelling strategic behaviour during animal combat), and round-table discussions will workshop opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration on these topics.  Also featured will be a contributed poster session where participants can turn the topic of conversation to their own research.  Invited speakers include:

• Daniel Falster (Macquarie)
• Otso Ovaskainen (University Helsinki)
• Douglas Yu (University of East Anglia)
• Darryl Mackenzie (Proteus Wildlife Research Consulting)
• Melodie McGeoch (Monash University)
• Jay ver Hoef (NOAA Alaska)
• Cang Hui (Stellenbosch)

Further details at http://www.eco-stats.unsw.edu.au/ecostats15.html

Registration now open – early bird deadline closes 23rd October

Learning and Teaching Seminar

What	“‘Time on Task’ in Collaborative Learning – Influence of Learning Goal Motivation and Group Composition
Speaker	Professor Jens Siemon, University of Hamburg
When	10-11am Wednesday 7th of October
Where	E6A116
Who	Anyone interested in collaborative learning, games based learning, motivation of learners, video analysis, quantitative and mixed methods
Title	“‘Time on Task’ in Collaborative Learning – Influence of Learning Goal Motivation and Group Composition
Abstract	Professor Siemon’s will speak about a current study he is undertaking with Antonia Scholkmann and Kay-Dennis entitled ‘Time on Task’ in Collaborative Learning – Influence of Learning Goal Motivation and Group Composition. This research focuses on the connection between (a) a student’s individual learning goal motivation and (b) the learning partner’s learning goal motivation and the effective learning time spent on a specific task in a collaborative learning arrangement. Data video observations of 56 students was used from three classes in the field of business education. All students worked on an assigned computer assisted game-based learning task in dyads for approximately eight hours. Subjects were videotaped for the whole time with three different cameras; additionally, each student wore a personalized audiotape recorder (Knigge, Duarte, Nordstrand, Siemon, & Stolp, 2013). All video material was analyzed in a time-sampling procedure using ten second intervals by trained raters using a coding scheme of learning time being on topic’ vs. ‚off topic’. Learning goal motivation was surveyed with the SELLMO-scales (Spinath, Stiensmeier-Pelster, Schöne, & Dickhäuser, 2002). Data analysis is currently done using hierarchical regression analyses. First results confirm the hypothesis that both learning partners’ goal motivations add to the explained variance when it comes to time spent on the learning task, which is considered the dependent variable in the model.
Bio	Professor Jens Siemon is the Head of the Vocational Education and Lifelong Learning Department at the University of Hamburg. His research spans the areas of video-based research in learning and instruction, game-based learning, language in vocational education, and vocational education in a knowledge-based society. For more information about Professor Siemon’s work see http://jens-siemon.de/

Next Week’s Lunchtime Seminar

New Fire and Restoration Network

Following the success of the 2015 Bushfire Conference many participants told us they were interested to be involved in a network to continue the Fire and Restoration conversations to build their knowledge and develop more skills in this area. As a result of this interest NCC is establishing a community of practice around the theme of Fire and Restoration. We anticipate the networking, discussions and information sharing will primarily occur online, and be supplemented by occasional workshops, offline support and mentoring opportunities. Options for the most suitable platform are currently being researched.

We’d really like to hear your suggestions and ideas – what you’d like from being involved, the kind of topics and issues you’d like to see covered and the contribution you think you could make to the network. Please complete the short survey here by Wednesday 14th October 2015.

We look forward to hearing from you. Michelle Rose (NCC Bushfire Program Coordinator)

Welcome to Dr. Davina Poulis

Dr. Poulis will be a visiting associate working with Elizabeth Madin on coral reef fish communities. Davina’s research explores the role and relative importance of ‘priority effects’ in coral reef fish community dynamics. Many coral reef fish communities are replenished by young-of-the-year arriving in ‘pulses’ during the summer months. These new individuals must rapidly integrate into established assemblages in order to survive. However the effects that prior residents have on those arriving later (known as ‘priority effects’), can have a major influence on the establishment, persistence and survival of entering individuals. The characteristics and experiences of individuals will influence who is competitively dominant, and the immediate interactions between those who arrive early and late will determine competitive hierarchies. Davina seeks to understand the mechanisms by which priority effects contribute to the regulation of fish communities, in light of the many other key processes at play.

Seeking Employment

My name is Azadeh Fallahbaghery (Azi) and I am looking for paid work within the department. I am currently working in the Wright Lab on a fixed-term, part time contract (Senior Research Officer) on a project on eucalyptus proteomics. I have a PhD in Biophysics, but I have a lot of lab experience, and would be comfortable working in a number of different laboratory settings. In particular, I have excellent skills in proteomics (protein extraction, digestion and data analysis) having worked with CSIRO in Brisbane as part of the Agriculture Flagship on this topic as well as within CBMS. It would be highly appreciated if you let me know if any opportunities come up in your lab.

azadeh.fallahbaghery@mq.edu.au
azadehfalahbaghery@gmail.com
Contact Number: 0469276943

Post-doc in Bonn

Bernhard Huber his advertising a 1.5 year postdoctoral position at the Museum Koenig in Bonn, Germany working on the molecular genetics of pholcid spiders. Please see the attached pdf here for details and/or contact Bernhard on B.Huber@zfmk.de.  

Plant of the Week: Pyrrosia rupestris – the Rock Felt Fern – a climbing fern with a dark secret

Bonus Plant of the Week: Geraldton Wax – Chamaelaucium uncinatum

But Wait There’s More…ANOTHER Bonus Plant of the Week: Native Rice Flower  – Ozothamnus diosmifolius 

Student Research Awards

Research Committee Will Arrange Internal Grant Review on As-Needs Basis

Limited Funding Available for Open-Access Publications to be Billed by the End of the Year

Welcome to a New PhD Student

Isabel Damas Moreira
Supervised by Martin Whiting
Working on the sociality and cognition in Podarcis wall lizards from the Mediterranean Basin.
Make her feel welcome if you see her around.

New Publications

In the Media

Recent Completions