The (Non)Effects of Lethal Population Control on the Diet of Australian Dingoes

Top-predators contribute to ecosystem resilience, yet individuals or populations are often subject to lethal control to protect livestock, managed game or humans from predation. Such management actions sometimes attract concern that lethal control might affect top-predator function in ways ultimately detrimental to biodiversity conservation. The primary function of a predator is predation, which is often investigated by assessing their diet. We therefore use data on prey remains found in 4,298 Australian dingo scats systematically collected from three arid sites over a four year period to experimentally assess the effects of repeated broad-scale poison-baiting programs on dingo diet. Indices of dingo dietary diversity and similarity were either identical or near-identical in baited and adjacent unbaited treatment areas in each case, demonstrating no control-induced change to dingo diets. Associated studies on dingoes'' movement behaviour and interactions with sympatric mesopredators were similarly unaffected by poison-baiting. These results indicate that mid-sized top-predators with flexible and generalist diets (such as dingoes) may be resilient to ongoing and moderate levels of population control without substantial alteration of their diets and other related aspects of their ecological function.     

Prevention of Mental Disorder—The Role of the General Practitioner

As prevention in psychiatry really refers to early detection and consequent prevention of complications and chronicity, the general practitioner is the most important person in the medical community in preventing mental disorders. As more postgraduate courses in psychiatry become available to practicing family physicians, the majority of patients with psychiatric disorders will be effectively managed by the general medical practitioner.The family physician is already doing this, although not as well as he could. In some instances, he may be unaware of the extent to which the disease with which he deals is psychic disease. As the number of community health centers increases, family physicians will play a vital role in their function. With the necessary knowledge to detect psychic disturbance and to treat emotional disorders effectively, the family physician will prevent many of the instances of progression to chronic psychiatric illness with which we are now plagued. The psychiatrist of the future will act as consultant, treating only patients with the more complicated mental disorders.     

An alternative explanation for phase transitions observed in quick frozen calcium cardiolipin solution

It is demonstrated that the phase changes reported for a quick frozen calcium cardiolipin solution containing CaCl₂ are virtually identical to those seen in pure CaCl₂. This introduces uncertainty as to whether the data in fact reflect the behavior of cardiolipin or of the associated CaCl₂.