Archive for February, 2009

Fifteen senior high-school students from Armidale, Tamworth, Gunnedah and Warialda spoke at the University of New England this week about their recent experience as participants in a program that provides an insight into science-based career options in local agricultural industries.

The event, on Monday 9 February, was the climax of the national Primary Industry Centre for Science Education (PICSE) program in this region for 2008/09. The PICSE program, designed to address a decline in the number of skilled young people entering agricultural science courses and careers, has its NSW hub at UNE.

During the “Student Reporting Back Session” on Monday, the students spoke about their experiences to an audience comprising industry partners, UNE officials and participants, teachers, and parents. The Chancellor of UNE, Richard Torbay, who is Speaker of the NSW Legislative Assembly and Member for Northern Tablelands, opened the session after welcoming the guests. Dr David Russell from the University of Tasmania, who established the PICSE program in 1999, spoke about plans for the expansion of the program, praising of the organisers of – and the participants in – its UNE-based component.

Susanna Greig, who – together with UNE’s Associate Professor Robin Jessop – manages the NSW PICSE program, said that the students, chosen through an application and interview process, had each received a PICSE Industry Placement Scholarship. She explained that the scholarship had enabled them to attend a five-day “Science to Industry Camp” in early January, when they had visited industry sites and agricultural research laboratories in Armidale, Tamworth, Walcha and Glen Innes to learn about the science supporting primary industries. “Then, between the 12^th and the 23^rd of January, each student completed a five-day industry placement, working in primary industries or with agricultural research scientists,” she continued.

In reporting back, the students spoke about what they had learnt during their visits to local primary industries, the inspiration provided by their industry-placement mentors, and the camaraderie they had experienced within the student group. The program helped many of them to plan career pathways. “I recommend that all those interested in science careers in industry should apply for a PICSE scholarship,” one of the students concluded.

The Vice-Chancellor of UNE, Professor Alan Pettigrew, the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Professor Margaret Sedgley, and the Head of the School of Environmental and Rural Science, Professor Iain Young, participated in Monday’s event.

Ms Greig said that the NSW hub of PICSE had been established at UNE in 2007, and had successfully conducted its inaugural program in 2007/08. “Following that initial success, the program has been expanded to include more schools and industries throughout the region,” she said.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Susanna Greig (right) and one of the students - Georgie Robertson - displayed here expands to include the Hon. Richard Torbay MP, Speaker of the NSW Legislative Assembly, Member for Northern Tablelands, and Chancellor of UNE.

Leading researchers and policy makers in oral health have confirmed that living in a rural area is one of the two greatest risk factors – along with economic disadvantage – for poor oral health in Australia.

Attending a national Rural Oral Health Symposium at Shepparton in Victoria late last year, they drafted a declaration (the “Shepparton Declaration on Improving Oral Health for Rural Australians”) that calls on governments to increase the number of oral health professionals in rural and regional areas.

The Declaration also urges governments to increase support for universities to provide dental students with rural experience and training.

One of the speakers at the Shepparton symposium, Professor Victor Minichiello, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Faculty of The Professions at the University of New England, said that a recent proposal by UNE to recruit and retain dentists in rural communities was “something that deserves attention by both State and Federal governments”.

Professor Minichiello, an advocate for rural health, presented statistics revealing that there were 55 dentists per 100,000 people in metropolitan NSW while only 17 dentists per 100,000 people in rural and regional NSW. These average figures mean that there is one dentist per 1,818 people in the cities while only one dentist per 5,588 people in country areas.

“New and collaborative modes of networked practice among professionals are required,” Professor Minichiello said. “These include better use of communication technologies, new methods of education, and the development of a critical mass of academic teaching staff closely engaged with rural professionals.”

The convener of the symposium, Associate Professor Rodrigo Mariño from the University of Melbourne, said that many delegates had been deeply concerned about growing disadvantages in oral health in rural and regional areas and the unmet needs of these communities, and had called for new approaches to address the grave oral health disparities between rural and metropolitan Australia.

He said government support was urgently needed for initiatives such as allowing dental therapists to practise some dental procedures, expanding fluoridation into more rural areas, and encouraging dental graduates to practise in rural and regional areas.

The 120 delegates to the symposium, held on the Shepparton campus of the University of Melbourne, heard that hospital admissions of children for preventable dental conditions were, in some rural communities, nearly seven times more than in some metropolitan areas. The Declaration calls on governments to address the urgent need to improve access to dental services for Indigenous communities, and implement long-term funding for programs in those communities. It also urges governments to include oral health as an intrinsic part of overall health reform strategies.

A copy of the Shepparton Declaration can be obtained at: http://www.crcoralhealthscience.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=337&Itemid=383

For more information, contact Professor Victor Minichiello on 02 67 73 3862 or 0400 421 352, or Associate Professor Rodrigo Mariño on 03 9341 1558.

An event at the University of New England this week celebrated the contribution of the University and members of its staff to the vital work of emergency services in the community.

About 50 UNE staff members are volunteers with either the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) or the State Emergency Service (SES), and the University allows them leave to respond to emergencies. The University also makes provision for student members of the services who may, for example, have missed an assignment deadline because of assisting during an emergency.

Many of those employees attended a “thank you” morning tea in “Booloominbah” on Tuesday 3 February, when Michael Eburn, SES volunteer and Senior Lecturer in Law, and Liz Ferris, Captain of Devil’s Pinch Rural Fire Brigade and Senior Business Analyst at UNE, Presented the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, with certificates of appreciation recognising the University’s support.

In response, Professor Pettigrew (pictured here) thanked the volunteers for their “very personal” contribution to the community of which UNE is a part. “I really appreciate what you do,” he said.

The University employs more RFS and SES volunteers than any other single employer in the area. “UNE has been very supportive of our volunteers, and we truly appreciate it,” said Inspector Ivan Perkins, Acting Manager of the New England Zone of the RFS. Joining Inspector Perkins at the morning tea was Elaine Towner, Armidale-Dumaresq Rescue Officer for the SES – and a UNE graduate.

Daryl Broadley, the Acting Local Controller of the SES, said that the support of the University for both staff and student volunteers was “vital”, and had “proved invaluable during recent events such as the 2006 hail storm, and when members are called out for Road Crash Rescue”.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Professor Pettigrew (holding one of the certificates) displayed here expands to show him with Liz Ferris and Michael Eburn (foreground) and others at the “thank you” morning tea.

Research by UNE scientists into mechanisms used by small mammals to help them survive cold winters is making the news in a snow-bound Northern Hemisphere.

A report on research by UNE’s Gerhard Körtner and Fritz Geiser appeared last month in naturenews, an online publication of the leading scientific journal Nature.

The report refers to a forthcoming article (Körtner G., Geiser F., 2009: “The key to winter survival: daily torpor in a small arid zone marsupial”, Naturwissenschaften, in press) on the winter behaviour of desert-dwelling stripe-faced dunnarts (pictured here).

Professor Geiser and his team, working in UNE’s Centre for Behavioural and Physiological Ecology, have developed an international reputation for their studies of hibernation and torpor (a state between sleep and hibernation) in Australian mammals and birds. They have found that some Australian mammals can lower their body temperature to near 0 degrees Centigrade and reduce their metabolic rate to 1 per cent of that in active individuals.

By entering a state of torpor, animals and birds are able to conserve energy and water, significantly improving their chances of survival. About half of all terrestrial Australian mammals and an unknown number of birds use hibernation (multi-day torpor) and daily torpor in this way, Professor Geiser says.

In this latest study Dr Körtner, a Postdoctoral Fellow at UNE, observed the winter behaviour of stripe-faced dunnarts in Astrebla Downs National Park in Queensland using lightweight body-temperature monitors. The researchers found that the dunnarts entered torpor almost every night, and that the length and depth of the torpor period was dependent on air temperature.

Having studied torpor use in Australian animals for many years, Professor Geiser says it is used in a diverse range of environments. “It appears, for example, that the success of the many small carnivorous marsupials in the Australian arid zone, which even employ torpor during reproduction and development, is at least to some extent due to their extensive use of this physiological strategy,” he said.

“The rare mountain pygmy possum persists in the Australian Alps largely because of its ability to hibernate. And employment of torpor in winter allows birds to remain resident for the entire year without the need for risky migration and re-establishment of home ranges.

“Moreover, recent evidence suggests that the use of torpor, and the resulting reduction in energy requirements, can contribute to predator avoidance because less time is required for foraging. Avoidance of predators in turn increases lifespan, and results in selection of long-lived individuals and species.”

To enhance knowledge about torpor use in Australian mammals and birds, Professor Geiser and his colleagues have been awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant of $250,000 for a project titled “Cool mammals: responding to thermal and energetic challenges in the Australian tropics”.