Latest news with #Barbero
Perth Now
01-07-2025
- Perth Now
Child, 2, found alone on busy roadside
A childcare centre near a major Australian city has been fined $45,000 for failing to adequately supervise a child who wandered away from an excursion group in a nature reserve in September last year. Aspire Early Education in Perth found itself in hot water after a 'spontaneous excursion' launched by two employees of the childcare centre resulted in the momentary loss of the child, aged 2. Findings from an investigation by the Western Australia Department of Communities found the child had been left unsupervised and the service provider failed to ensure 'every reasonable precaution was taken' to protect a child in their care from any hazard likely to cause injury. The child wandered away, but was luckily approached by concerned members of the public. Supplied Credit: Supplied A judgment from the State Administrative Tribunal found the employees took a group of 13 children across the road to the Smirk Road Reserve. A lead educator claimed she conducted headcounts every five minutes, despite having no means of recording those numbers. Towards the end of the excursion, three children were collected by their parents but the educator realised the child was missing following another headcount, leading to a frantic search. The educators saw the child 'at least 60m away on the south side of the reserve … the child was being held by a member of the public,' the judgment states. 'Before then, the driver of a Transperth bus had spotted the child standing very close to the edge of Sixty-Eight Rd, which has a speed limit of 70km/hr. 'He slowed down and pulled into a nearby bus stop.' The owners of the childcare centre were ordered to pay $45,000. iStock Credit: Supplied 'At the same time, another motorist following the bus also pulled over and walked over to the child, picked her up and walked her towards a grassed area. An educator then came running from about 50m away.' 'At her age and unsupervised in bushland situated close to traffic, the child was at risk from harm and from hazards including traffic hazards, likely to cause injury.' Angelo Barbero, executive director of Regulation and Quality at the WA Department of Communities, said poor supervision within the education and care sector was 'a significant concern'. 'A momentary lapse of supervision can significantly increase the risk of harm to children,' Mr Barbero said. 'Approved providers must ensure that appropriate risk assessments are in place to ensure the safety of children when on excursions that appropriate practices are in place at all times to keep children safe and to avoid being penalised.' On top of the fine, Aspire will be forced to pay $2000 to pay the Department's legal costs.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Plants produce more nectar when they ‘hear' bees buzzing, scientists find
Plants can 'hear' bees buzzing and serve up more nectar when they are nearby, scientists have found. The research suggests that plants are a more active partner than previously thought in their symbiotic relationship with pollinators. The behaviour could be a survival strategy that favours giving nectar and sugar to bees over so-called nectar robbers that do not offer plants any reproductive benefits. 'There is growing evidence that both insects and plants can sense and produce, or transmit, vibro-acoustic signals,' said Prof Francesca Barbero, a zoologist at the University of Turin, who led the research. The findings add to the 'truly astonishing' multitude of ways that plants can perceive their surroundings, including the presence of beneficial and harmful insects, temperature, drought and wind, Barbero added. In future, the team suggested, buzzing noises could be used on farms as an environmentally friendly way of enhancing the pollination of crops. The scientists are not yet sure how the plants might be listening in. They could rely on mechanoreceptors, cells that respond to mechanical stimulation such as touch, pressure or vibrations. 'Plants do not have a brain, but they can sense the environment and respond accordingly,' said Barbero. After observing that bees and competing insects have distinct vibrational signals that are used in mating and other forms of communication, Barbero and her collaborators set out to investigate whether plants detected these signals. They played recordings near snapdragons of the buzzing sounds produced by snail-shell bees (Rhodanthidium sticticum), which are efficient snapdragon pollinators, comparing the plants' response to sounds produced by a non-pollinating wasp and ambient sounds. The researchers found that in response to the snail-shell bee noises, the snapdragons increased the volume of nectar and its sugar content and showed altered expression in genes that govern sugar transport and nectar production. This could be an evolutionary adaptation to coax the pollinators into spending more time at the flowers. 'The ability to discriminate approaching pollinators based on their distinctive vibro-acoustic signals could be an adaptive strategy for plants,' said Barbero. While it is clear that buzzing sounds can trigger nectar production, the scientists are now looking into whether sounds from plants are being used actively to draw in suitable pollinators. They are also testing whether the plant responses enhanced the attraction for all flower visitors – including nectar robbers – or only the best pollinators. 'Our hypothesis is that the changes in nectar we observed after treating the plants with the sounds of the best pollinators specifically increase the attraction of this particular species (Rhodanthidium sticticum),' said Barbero. 'However, to confirm this, we need to conduct choice tests to assess how different nectar concentrations attract various species. 'If this response from insects is confirmed, sounds could be used to treat economically relevant plants and crops, and increase their pollinators' attraction,' she said. The findings were presented on Wednesday at the joint 188th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and 25th International Congress on Acoustics in New Orleans.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Plants can hear tiny wing flaps of pollinators
Our planet runs on pollinators. Without bees, moths, weevils, and more zooming around and spreading plants' reproductive cells, plants and important crops would not grow. Without plants we would not breathe or eat. When these crucial pollinating species visit flowers and other plants, they produce a number of characteristic sounds, such as wing flapping when hovering, landing, and taking off. Depending on the size of the pollinator, these sounds are extremely small, especially compared to the other vibrations and acoustics of insect life. In new research presented today at the 188th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and 25th International Congress on Acoustics, it appears that plants can respond to the tiny wingbeats of insects. 'Plant-pollinator coevolution has been studied primarily by assessing the production and perception of visual and olfactory cues, even though there is growing evidence that both insects and plants can sense and produce, or transmit, vibroacoustic signals,' said Francesca Barbero, a professor of zoology at the University of Turin in Italy. A team of entomologists, sound engineers, and plant physiologists played recordings of the buzzing sounds made by the tiny Rhodanthidium sticticum bee near some growing flowers called snapdragons (from the genus Antirrhinum). The bees in this genus are known to be efficient snapdragon pollinators. The team then monitored the flowers' reactions. The sound of the bees appears to trigger the snapdragons to increase their sugar and nectar volume. The noise can even change how the genes that control both sugar transport and nectar production behave. According to the team, this response could be a survival and co-evolution strategy, especially if the snapdragons can influence the time that pollinators spend on their flowers. 'The ability to discriminate approaching pollinators based on their distinctive vibroacoustic signals could be an adaptive strategy for plants,' said Barbero. What is less clear is whether the plant acoustics can influence the insect's behavior. For example, can sounds made by plants draw in a suitable pollinator. [ Related: ] 'If this response from insects is confirmed, sounds could be used to treat economically relevant plants and crops, and increase their pollinators' attraction,' said Barbero. The team is currently analyzing snapdragon response to other pollinators to try and learn more. 'The multitude of ways plants can perceive both biotic factors — such as beneficial and harmful insects, other neighboring plants — and abiotic cues, like temperature, drought, and wind in their surroundings, is truly astonishing,' Barbero said. The data in this research has not been peer reviewed yet or published in any scientific journal. The project, 'Good Vibes: How do plants recognise and respond to pollinator vibroacoustic signals?' is funded by the Human Frontier Science Program and is a collaborative effort between the University of Turin, I²SysBio in Valencia, and the Centre for Audio, Acoustics and Vibration at the University of Technology Sydney.
