Testing the behaviour of Australian brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) to candidate semiochemicals from conspecifics’ urine

<p>The Australian brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) is a prolific introduced mammalian pest. Current pest control methods involve traps and poisons, but are proving to be ineffective long term solutions. As semiochemical lures are thought to be more attractive than food-based lures at low densities, researchers are attempting to utilize semiochemicals for kill traps. The objectives of this thesis were to create a testing protocol for use in a research colony of possums and use that protocol to test the attractiveness of semiochemicals found in possum urine that had been positively associated with possum attraction and interest in urine.. I hypothesised that there would be an observer effect present in the colony due to the nature of the colony husbandry protocols. There was no statistically significant observer effect present in the colony for eating, interaction, sitting, grooming or enclosure use (front or back). However, there was a trend (across the colony) that sitting and grooming increased in the presence of an observer. From these results, I designed an active presentation protocol for testing semiochemicals. I predicted that the most attractive compounds would belong to the acids and alcohol chemical groups. Overall there was no statistically significant difference between the semiochemicals. However, when taken individually there was clear evidence that five of the semiochemicals (belonging to the ketone, alcohol and phenol chemical groups) were more attractive than their control and the standard lure. It has been shown in this thesis that the attractiveness of semiochemicals can be tested in a small research colony. However, limits on colony size greatly reduce statistical power. For future studies, I would recommend increasing the sample size or instead developing field-based bioassays capable of being repeated across a greater number of sites, populations and therefore, individual possums.</p>

Testing the behaviour of Australian brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) to candidate semiochemicals from conspecifics’ urine

<p>The Australian brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) is a prolific introduced mammalian pest. Current pest control methods involve traps and poisons, but are proving to be ineffective long term solutions. As semiochemical lures are thought to be more attractive than food-based lures at low densities, researchers are attempting to utilize semiochemicals for kill traps. The objectives of this thesis were to create a testing protocol for use in a research colony of possums and use that protocol to test the attractiveness of semiochemicals found in possum urine that had been positively associated with possum attraction and interest in urine.. I hypothesised that there would be an observer effect present in the colony due to the nature of the colony husbandry protocols. There was no statistically significant observer effect present in the colony for eating, interaction, sitting, grooming or enclosure use (front or back). However, there was a trend (across the colony) that sitting and grooming increased in the presence of an observer. From these results, I designed an active presentation protocol for testing semiochemicals. I predicted that the most attractive compounds would belong to the acids and alcohol chemical groups. Overall there was no statistically significant difference between the semiochemicals. However, when taken individually there was clear evidence that five of the semiochemicals (belonging to the ketone, alcohol and phenol chemical groups) were more attractive than their control and the standard lure. It has been shown in this thesis that the attractiveness of semiochemicals can be tested in a small research colony. However, limits on colony size greatly reduce statistical power. For future studies, I would recommend increasing the sample size or instead developing field-based bioassays capable of being repeated across a greater number of sites, populations and therefore, individual possums.</p>

Statistical capacity and corrupt bureaucracies

In many developing countries, economic statistics (such as the growth rate of GDP) are imprecise, making it difficult to evaluate economic reforms and learn “what works”. Improving economic statistics has thus become a priority of international organizations. In this paper, we isolate an insidious mechanism—a type of observer effect—by which a push for better statistics can make matters worse. Precise statistics require the collection of data from a large number of firms. If firms suspect that detailed information, when spreading through the bureaucracy, is misused to collect bribes, they have weaker incentives to invest. As a result, the effects of reforms are muted, making it even harder to discover “what works”. To suppress this mechanism, efforts to improve economic statistics should be comprehensive and also include institutional aspects.

Possible Effect of Human-Experimenter on Homeopathic-Like Aqueous Preparations

Homeopathy is one of the applications in structured water influencing human health. The objective is to search for the physical basis of homeopathy. This methodology includes a study of absorption in the far IR spectral range, absorption and refraction in THz diapason, dynamic light scattering in the UV–near IR spectral range for the blinded samples of homeopathic-like preparations (HLP) of several parent substances and hidden/apparent controls, and statistical analysis on the significance of distinctions in spectral data between ensembles of HLP of each parent substance and ensembles of hidden/apparent controls. The analysis of nine independent blind studies of aqueous HLP of several parent substances gave statistically significant spectral differences in some preparations with an apparent control (25 comparisons of 35) and a hidden control (11 comparisons of 40). The revealed dominance in the occurrence frequency of differences in any HLP with an apparent control can be treated as involving most of these changes to the samples by the spectral measuring process. This allows interpreting the main mechanism of manifestation of the spectral changes found as the “observer effect”. The therapeutic effect of HLP may be assumed as a combination of the “observer effect” from the physician side and a “placebo effect” from the patient side.

The Observer Effect: The Artistic Image as a Metaphor for Scientific Interpretations of the Natural World

In this article, the author presents some of her artworks in which she created artistic images and interpretations of time, space and light that define human life on Earth. In her multimedia installations of the last 10 years, her interest in the scientific study of the universe has been interwoven with her experience as the daughter of an astronomer. The author and her husband collaborate to express their thoughts on science and philosophy through a combination of art and engineering solutions and technologies.