Phenolic acids in Australian Melaleuca, Guioa, Lophostemon, Banksia and Helianthus honeys and their potential for floral authentication

Eight phenolic acids and two abscisic acid isomers in Australian honeys from five botanical species (Melaleuca, Guioa, Lophostemon, Banksia and Helianthus) have been analyzed in relation to their botanical origins. Total phenolic acids present in these honeys range from 2.13 mg/100 g sunflower (Helianthus annuus) honey to 12.11 mg/100 g tea tree (Melaleuca quinquenervia) honey, with amounts of individual acids being various. Tea tree honey shows a phenolic profile of gallic, ellagic, chlorogenic and coumaric acids, which is similar to the phenolic profile of an Australian Eucalyptus honey (bloodwood or Eucalyptus intermedia honey). The main difference between tea tree and bloodwood honeys is the contribution of chlorogenic acid to their total phenolic profiles. In Australian crow ash (Guioa semiglauca) honey, a characteristic phenolic profile mainly consisting of gallic acid and abscisic acid could be used as the floral marker. In brush box (Lophostemon conferta) honey, the phenolic profile, comprising mainly gallic acid and ellagic acid, could be used to differentiate this honey not only from the other Australian non-Eucalyptus honeys but also from a Eucalyptus honey (yellow box or Eucalyptus melliodora honey). However, this Eucalyptus honey could not be differentiated from brush box honey based only on their flavonoid profiles. Similarly, the phenolic profile of heath (Banksia ericifolia) honey, comprising mainly gallic acid, an unknown phenolic acid (Phl) and coumaric acid, could also be used to differentiate this honey from tea tree and bloodwood honeys, which have similar flavonoid profiles. Coumaric acid is a principal phenolic acid in Australian sunflower honey and it could thus be used together with gallic acid for the authentication. These results show that the HPLC analysis of phenolic acids and abscisic acids in Australian floral honeys Could assist the differentiation and authentication of the honeys. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sociality and the rate of molecular evolution

The molecular clock does not tick at a uniform rate in all taxa but maybe influenced by species characteristics. Eusocial species (those with reproductive division of labor) have been predicted to have faster rates of molecular evolution than their nonsocial relatives because of greatly reduced effective population size; if most individuals in a population are nonreproductive and only one or few queens produce all the offspring, then eusocial animals could have much lower effective population sizes than their solitary relatives, which should increase the rate of substitution of nearly neutral mutations. An earlier study reported faster rates in eusocial honeybees and vespid wasps but failed to correct for phylogenetic nonindependence or to distinguish between potential causes of rate variation. Because sociality has evolved independently in many different lineages, it is possible to conduct a more wide-ranging study to test the generality of the relationship. We have conducted a comparative analysis of 25 phylogenetically independent pairs of social lineages and their nonsocial relatives, including bees, wasps, ants, termites, shrimps, and mole rats, using a range of available DNA sequences (mitochondrial and nuclear DNA coding for proteins and RNAs, and nontranslated sequences). By including a wide range of social taxa, we were able to test whether there is a general influence of sociality on rates of molecular evolution and to test specific predictions of the hypothesis: (1) that social species have faster rates because they have reduced effective population sizes; (2) that mitochondrial genes would show a greater effect of sociality than nuclear genes; and (3) that rates of molecular evolution should be correlated with the degree of sociality. We find no consistent pattern in rates of molecular evolution between social and nonsocial lineages and no evidence that mitochondrial genes show faster rates in social taxa. However, we show that the most highly eusocial Hymenoptera do have faster rates than their nonsocial relatives. We also find that social parasites (that utilize the workers from related species to produce their own offspring) have faster rates than their social relatives, which is consistent with an effect of lower effective population size on rate of molecular evolution. Our results illustrate the importance of allowing for phylogenetic nonindependence when conducting investigations of determinants of variation in rate of molecular evolution.

Lessons learned . . . about curriculum: Five years on and half a world away

The knowledge, skills, and attitudes manifested in health and physical education school curricula are an arbitrary selection of that which is known and valued at a particular place and time. Bernstein's (2000) theories of the social construction of knowledge offer a way to better understand the relationship among the production, selection, and reproduction of curricular knowledge. This article overviews contemporary knowledge in the primary field (production) on which curriculum writers in the recontextualizing field might draw. It highlights tensions in the knowledge generated within the primary field and, using a case of the USXs National Standards for Physical Education (NASPE), demonstrates how particular discourses become privileged when translated into curriculum documents in the recontextualizing field

Characterization of the highly efficient sucrose isomerase from Pantoea dispersa UQ68J and cloning of the sucrose isomerase gene

Sucrose isomerase (SI) genes from Pantoea dispersa UQ68J, Klebsiella planticola UQ14S, and Erwinia rhapontici WAC2928 were cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The predicted products of the UQ14S and WAC2928 genes were similar to known SIs. The UQ68J SI differed substantially, and it showed the highest isomaltulose-producing efficiency in E. coli cells. The purified recombinant WAC2928 SI was unstable, whereas purified UQ68J and UQ14S SIs were very stable. UQ68J SI activity was optimal at pH 5 and 30 to 35 degrees C, and it produced a high ratio of isomaltulose to trehalulose (> 22:1) across its pH and temperature ranges for activity (pH 4 to 7 and 20 to 50 degrees C). In contrast, UQ14S SI showed optimal activity at pH 6 and 35 degrees C and produced a lower ratio of isomaltulose to trehalulose (< 8:1) across its pH and temperature ranges for activity. UQ68J SI had much higher catalytic efficiency; the K-m was 39.9 mM, the V-max was 638 U mg(-1), and the K-cat/K-m was 1.79 x 104 M-1 s(-1), compared to a K-m of 76.0 mM, a V-max. of 423 U mg(-1), and a K-cat/K-m of 0.62 x 104 M-1 s(-1) for UQ14S SI. UQ68J SI also showed no apparent reverse reaction producing glucose, fructose, or trehalulose from isomaltulose. These properties of the P. dispersa UQ68J enzyme are exceptional among purified SIs, and they indicate likely differences in the mechanism at the enzyme active site. They may favor the production of isomaltulose as an inhibitor of competing microbes in high-sucrose environments, and they are likely to be highly beneficial for industrial production of isomaltulose.

Asset Price Instability and Policy Responses: The Legacy of Liberalization

The problem of asset price bubbles, and more generally of instability in the financial system, has been a matter of concern since the 1980s but has only recently moved to the center of the macroeconomic policy debate. The main concern with bubbles arises when they burst, imposing losses on investors holding the bubble assets and potentially on the financial institutions that have extended credit to them. Asset price volatility is an inevitable consequence of financial market liberalization and, in extreme cases, generates asset price bubbles, the bursting of which can impose substantial economic and social costs. Policy responses within the existing liberalized financial system face daunting levels of uncertainty and risk. Given the pattern of increasing asset market volatility over recent decades and the policy issues highlighted in this paper, the future looks uncertain. Another significant cycle of asset price movements, especially in one of the major economies, could see a fundamental revision of thinking about the costs and benefits of liberalized financial systems.

Understanding service experience in non-profit performing arts: Implications for operations and service management

Recent research in the non-profit performing arts has shown that marketing efforts designed to increase revenue from ticket sales are not achieving the results required to sustain the performing arts. This paper applies operations management analytical techniques to the non-profit performing arts to increase understanding of operational issues and inform service management strategy. The paper takes a two-study idiographic approach. Implementing a modified version of service transaction analysis (STA), Study One describes a performing arts service from provider and customer perspectives, identifies service gaps and develops an elaborated service description incorporating both perspectives. In Study Two, building on the elaborated service description and extant research, in-depth interviews are conducted to gather thick descriptions of predictors of satisfaction, value and service quality as they relate to repurchase intention (RI). Technical, functional and critical factors required to improve organizational performance are identified. Implications for operational strategy, service design and service management theory for this context are discussed. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Cognitive fit between conceptual schemas and internal problem representations: The case of geospatio-temporal conceptual schema comprehension

Geospatio-temporal conceptual models provide a mechanism to explicitly represent geospatial and temporal aspects of applications. Such models, which focus on both what and when/where, need to be more expressive than conventional conceptual models (e.g., the ER model), which primarily focus on what is important for a given application. In this study, we view conceptual schema comprehension of geospatio-temporal data semantics in terms of matching the external problem representation (that is, the conceptual schema) to the problem-solving task (that is, syntactic and semantic comprehension tasks), an argument based on the theory of cognitive fit. Our theory suggests that an external problem representation that matches the problem solver's internal task representation will enhance performance, for example, in comprehending such schemas. To assess performance on geospatio-temporal schema comprehension tasks, we conducted a laboratory experiment using two semantically identical conceptual schemas, one of which mapped closely to the internal task representation while the other did not. As expected, we found that the geospatio-temporal conceptual schema that corresponded to the internal representation of the task enhanced the accuracy of schema comprehension; comprehension time was equivalent for both. Cognitive fit between the internal representation of the task and conceptual schemas with geospatio-temporal annotations was, therefore, manifested in accuracy of schema comprehension and not in time for problem solution. Our findings suggest that the annotated schemas facilitate understanding of data semantics represented on the schema.

Towards a profitable and sustainable future for grain growers: A professional development model for farm partners

Many Australian grain growers need to change their management approach to ensure their continued viability, but do not have the required knowledge and skills. Uptake of relevant education and training is poor, despite the positive correlation between learning, change and farm viability. As men are generally occupied with the operational aspects of the farm, much of the management role has been taken on by their partners, despite their lack of relevant formal qualifications. Professional development of farm partners therefore has the potential to improve the viability of grain growers. A model combining learning circles and action learning projects is proposed.

Effects of acetate and propionate on the performance of a photosynthetic biofilm reactor for sulfide removal

The effects of acetate and propionate on the performance of a recently proposed and characterized photosynthetic biological sulfide removal system have been investigated with a view to predicting this concept's suitability for removing sulfide from wastewater undergoing or having undergone anaerobic treatment. The concept relies on substratum-irradiated biofilms dominated by green sulfur bacteria (GSB), which are supplied with radiant energy in the band 720 - 780 nm. A model reactor was fed for 7 months with a synthetic wastewater free of volatile fatty acids (VFAs), after which time intermittent dosing of the wastewater with acetate or propionate was begun. Such dosing suppressed the areal net sulfide removal rate by similar to50%, and caused the principal net product of sulfide removal to switch from sulfate to elemental-S. Similarly suppressed values of this rate were observed when the wastewater was dosed continuously with acetate, and this rate was not significantly affected by changes in the concentration of ammonia-N in the feed. The main net product of sulfide removal was again elemental-S, which was scarcely released into the liquid, however. Sulfate reduction and sulfur reduction were observed when the light supply was interrupted and were inferred to be occurring within the irradiated biofilm. A preexisting conceptual model of the biofilm was augmented with both of these reductive processes, and this augmented model was shown to account for most of the observed effects of VFA dosing. The implications of these findings for the practicality of the technology are considered. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Comparison of beam theory and finite-element analysis with in vivo bone strain data from the alligator cranium

The mechanical behavior of the vertebrate skull is often modeled using free-body analysis of simple geometric structures and, more recently, finite-element (FE) analysis. In this study, we compare experimentally collected in vivo bone strain orientations and magnitudes from the cranium of the American alligator with those extrapolated from a beam model and extracted from an FE model. The strain magnitudes predicted from beam and FE skull models bear little similarity to relative and absolute strain magnitudes recorded during in vivo biting experiments. However, quantitative differences between principal strain orientations extracted from the FE skull model and recorded during the in vivo experiments were smaller, and both generally matched expectations from the beam model. The differences in strain magnitude between the data sets may be attributable to the level of resolution of the models, the material properties used in the FE model, and the loading conditions (i.e., external forces and constraints). This study indicates that FE models and modeling of skulls as simple engineering structures may give a preliminary idea of how these structures are loaded, but whenever possible, modeling results should be verified with either in vitro or preferably in vivo testing, especially if precise knowledge of strain magnitudes is desired. (c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

A First Order Predicate Logic Formulation of the 3D Reconstruction Problem and its Solution Space

This paper defines the 3D reconstruction problem as the process of reconstructing a 3D scene from numerous 2D visual images of that scene. It is well known that this problem is ill-posed, and numerous constraints and assumptions are used in 3D reconstruction algorithms in order to reduce the solution space. Unfortunately, most constraints only work in a certain range of situations and often constraints are built into the most fundamental methods (e.g. Area Based Matching assumes that all the pixels in the window belong to the same object). This paper presents a novel formulation of the 3D reconstruction problem, using a voxel framework and first order logic equations, which does not contain any additional constraints or assumptions. Solving this formulation for a set of input images gives all the possible solutions for that set, rather than picking a solution that is deemed most likely. Using this formulation, this paper studies the problem of uniqueness in 3D reconstruction and how the solution space changes for different configurations of input images. It is found that it is not possible to guarantee a unique solution, no matter how many images are taken of the scene, their orientation or even how much color variation is in the scene itself. Results of using the formulation to reconstruct a few small voxel spaces are also presented. They show that the number of solutions is extremely large for even very small voxel spaces (5 x 5 voxel space gives 10 to 10(7) solutions). This shows the need for constraints to reduce the solution space to a reasonable size. Finally, it is noted that because of the discrete nature of the formulation, the solution space size can be easily calculated, making the formulation a useful tool to numerically evaluate the usefulness of any constraints that are added.

Professional doctoral training in psychology: International comparison and commentary

The level of training required for the practice of professional psychology varies across countries, and usually evolves from a combination of input from local and national regulatory bodies, legislative requirements, academic institutions and relevant professional bodies. Here we explore the North American and Australian historical developments and future directions in levels of training required and aspired to for professional psychologists, along with a brief comparison to training for psychologists in Central and South America, Europe and Asia. The recent proliferation of professional doctorate degrees in Australian universities has added another layer to the suite of available qualifications for professional psychologists and to some degree reflects international trends in the profession. The important role of professional organisations in establishing the educational requirements for entry into professional practice is highlighted.