Simultaneous kinetic spectrometric determination of three flavonoid antioxidants in fruit with the aid of chemometrics

A simple, inexpensive and sensitive kinetic spectrophotometric method was developed for the simultaneous determination of three anti-carcinogenic flavonoids: catechin, quercetin and naringenin, in fruit samples. A yellow chelate product was produced in the presence neocuproine and Cu(I) – a reduction product of the reaction between the flavonoids with Cu(II), and this enabled the quantitative measurements with UV–vis spectrophotometry. The overlapping spectra obtained, were resolved with chemometrics calibration models, and the best performing method was the fast independent component analysis (fast-ICA/PCR (Principal component regression)); the limits of detection were 0.075, 0.057 and 0.063 mg L−1 for catechin, quercetin and naringenin, respectively. The novel method was found to outperform significantly the common HPLC procedure.

Fear memory reactivation after extinction activates plasticity in the lateral amygdala

Little is known about the neuronal changes that occur within the lateral amygdala (LA) following fear extinction. In fear extinction, the repeated presentation of a conditioned stimulus (CS), in the absence of a previously paired aversive unconditioned stimulus (US), reduces fear elicited by the CS. Fear extinction is an active learning process that leads to the formation of a consolidated extinction memory, however it is fragile and prone to spontaneous recovery and renewal under environmental changes such as context. Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying fear extinction is of great clinical relevance, as psychological treatments of several anxiety disorders rely largely on extinction-based procedures and relapse is major clinical problem. This study investigated plasticity in the LA following fear memory reactivation in rats with and without extinction training. Phosphorylated MAPK (p44/42 ERK/MAPK), a protein kinase required in the amygdala for fear learning and its extinction, was used as a marker for neuronal plasticity. Rats (N = 11) underwent a Pavlovian auditory fear conditioning and extinction paradigm, and later received a single conditioned stimulus presentation to reactivate the fear memory. Results showed more pMAPK+ expressing neurons in the LA following extinction-reactivation compared to control rats, with the largest number of pMAPK+ neurons counted in the ventral LA, especially including the ventro-lateral subdivision (LAvl). These findings indicate that LA subdivision specific plasticity occurs to the conditioned fear memory in the LAvl following extinction-reactivation. These findings provide important insight into the organisation of fear memories in the LA, and pave the way for future research in the memory mechanisms of fear extinction and its pathophysiology.

Memory of past random wave conditions in submarine groundwater discharge

Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is an integral part of the hydrological cycle and represents an important aspect of land-ocean interactions. We used a numerical model to simulate flow and salt transport in a nearshore groundwater aquifer under varying wave conditions based on yearlong random wave data sets, including storm surge events. The results showed significant flow asymmetry with rapid response of influxes and retarded response of effluxes across the seabed to the irregular wave conditions. While a storm surge immediately intensified seawater influx to the aquifer, the subsequent return of intruded seawater to the sea, as part of an increased SGD, was gradual. Using functional data analysis, we revealed and quantified retarded, cumulative effects of past wave conditions on SGD including the fresh groundwater and recirculating seawater discharge components. The retardation was characterized well by a gamma distribution function regardless of wave conditions. The relationships between discharge rates and wave parameters were quantifiable by a regression model in a functional form independent of the actual irregular wave conditions. This statistical model provides a useful method for analyzing and predicting SGD from nearshore unconfined aquifers affected by random waves

Soliciting additional concerns in the primary care consultation and the utility of a brief communication intervention to aid solicitation: A qualitative study

Objective To investigate the perspectives of general practitioners (GPs) on the practice of soliciting additional concerns (ACs) and the acceptability and utility of two brief interventions (prompts) designed to aid the solicitation. Methods Eighteen GPs participating in a feasibility randomised controlled trial were interviewed. Interviews were semi-structured and audio-recorded. Data were analysed using a Framework Approach. Results Participants perceived eliciting ACs as important for: reducing the need for multiple visits, identifying serious illness early, and increasing patient and GP satisfaction. GPs found the prompts easy to use and some continued their use after the study had ended to aid time management. Others noted similarities between the intervention and their usual practice. Nevertheless, soliciting ACs in every consultation was not unanimously supported. Conclusion The prompts were acceptable to GPs within a trial context, but there was disagreement as to whether ACs should be solicited routinely. Some GPs considered the intervention to aid their prioritisation efficiency within consultations. Practice implications Some GPs will find prompts which encourage ACs to be solicited early in the consultation enable them to better organise priorities and manage time-limited consultations more effectively.

Raloxifene for improving attention and memory in schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia can affect people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviour, and it can be as if your brain was playing tricks on you.

BIFF to BAPFF: considering 'festival memory' in the face of innovation and change

As an art form, film has arguably always functioned as a stronghold for memory. Memories unfold in the stories told on screen, and remain preserved in the experiences of the audience viewing the film, at a particular time and place. The environment of a film festival further alters the viewing experience and its relationship to memory. The Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) was founded in 1992. After considerable disruption due to economic and socio-political changes, it took place for the last time in 2013. The change in BIFF’s leadership and programming agenda significantly impacted the festival’s image and its position on the wider festival circuit. Through an examination of cinema and memory) it will be argued that film festivals operate as (temporary) sites of memory, through the programming and screening of films, engagement with local audiences, and promotion of film culture. This specific and unique ‘festival memory’ inextricably links to the audience and the venue, and is curated by the festival programmers and staff, who carry a wealth of knowledge (not necessarily recorded), of past festivals, successes, and failures. The people involved, the festival staff and audience, act as caretakers of this ‘festival memory.’ This essay will therefore examine how the BIFF and its home, the Regent Theatre, have functioned as crucial ‘sites of memory’ for film and film culture in Brisbane, Australia.

Farewelling the regent: Considering 'festival memory' in the face of innovation and change

The rapid expansion of the international film festival circuit has included the loss of smaller, but well established festivals, often due to the perceived need for constant innovation and change. The Brisbane International Film Festival was founded in 1992. After considerable disruption to the festival’s leadership, programme and location due to economic and socio-political changes, it was held for the last time in 2013. Nafus and Anderson cite the term ‘lieux de memoire’, meaning ‘sites of memory’, as a place of “remembrance that exist(s) in a social world that constantly seeks to get ahead of itself, to “innovate” (Nafus and Anderson in Cefkin 2009, 141). The concept of ‘festival memory’ has not yet been explored in any depth, but such significant shifts in festivals such as BIFF are arguably sites where festival histories and identities, and film knowledge itself, can be irretrievably lost.

Catalyst-free plasma enhanced growth of graphene from sustainable sources

Details of a fast and sustainable bottom-up process to grow large area high quality graphene films without the aid of any catalyst are reported in this paper. We used Melaleuca alternifolia, a volatile natural extract from tea tree plant as the precursor. The as-fabricated graphene films yielded a stable contact angle of 135°, indicating their potential application in very high hydrophobic coatings. The electronic devices formed by sandwiching pentacene between graphene and aluminum films demonstrated memristive behavior, and hence, these graphene films could find use in nonvolatile memory devices also.

ssSNPer: identifying statistically similar SNPs to aid interpretation of genetic association studies

ssSNPer is a novel user-friendly web interface that provides easy determination of the number and location of untested HapMap SNPs, in the region surrounding a tested HapMap SNP, which are statistically similar and would thus produce comparable and perhaps more significant association results. Identification of ssSNPs can have crucial implications for the interpretation of the initial association results and the design of follow-up studies. AVAILABILITY: http://fraser.qimr.edu.au/general/daleN/ssSNPer/

Evoking poetics of memory through performing site: Naik Naik, a Malaysian Australian collaboration in the world heritage setting of Melaka

Memory, time and metaphor are central triggers for artists in exploring and shaping their creative work. This paper examines the place of artists as ‘memory-keepers’, and ‘memory-makers’, in particular through engagement with the time-based art of site-specific performance. Naik Naik (Ascent) was a multi-site performance project in the historic setting of Melaka, Malaysia, and is partially recaptured through the presence and voices of its collaborating artists. Distilled from moments recalled, this paper seeks to uncover the poetics of memory to emerge from the project; one steeped in metaphor rather than narrative. It elicits some of the complex and interdependent layers of experience revealed by the artists in Naik Naik; cultural, ancestral, historical, personal, instinctual and embodied memories connected to sound, smell, touch, sensation and light, in a spatiotemporal context for which site is the catalyst. The liminal nature of memory at the heart of Naik Naik, provides a shared experience of past and present and future, performatively interwoven.

Altruism, Trade Policy, and the Optimality of Foreign Aid

There are many studies in the literature that deal with the welfare effects of income transfers between nations in a general equilibrium setting. An important impetus for this extensive literature was the demonstration of the transfer paradox; that the donor country could actually gain from a transfer of income to another, and that the recipient could lose as a result of the gift. The reason for this paradoxical result is that the transfer gives rise to a terms-of-trade effect that may be especially beneficial to the donor and detrimental to the recipient. Subsequently, many papers have established conditions under which this paradox will or will not occur. Early work by Samuelson (1954) was followed by demonstrations of paradoxes by Gale (1974), Ohyama (1974), Brecher and Bhagwati (1982) and Bhagwati, Brecher and Hatta 1983, 1985, and Dixit (1983)) among others.1 More recently, many studies have examined whether or not foreign aid — tied and untied — can be welfare improving for both the donor and the recipient (see, for example, Turunen-Red and Woodland (1988), Kemp and Wong (1993), Schweinberger (1990), Hatzipanayotou and Michael (1995), Lahiri and Raimondos-Moller 1995, 1997, Djajić, Lahiri and Raimondos-Møller 1996a, 1996b, and Lahiri, Raimondos-Møller, Wong and Woodland 1997.2

Competition for aid and trade policy

This paper considers the optimal allocation of a given amount of foreign aid between two recipient countries. It is shown that, given consumer preferences, a country following a more restrictive trade policy would receive a smaller share of the aid if the donor country maximises its own welfare in allocating aid. If, on the other hand, the donor country allocates aid in order to maximize the sum of the welfare of the two recipient countries, the result is just the opposite. Finally, we analyze the situation where the recipient countries compete with each other for the given amount of aid. It is shown that this competition tends to lower the level of optimal tariffs in the recipient countries.

Donor strategy under the fungibility of foreign aid

We develop a political–economic model of aid fungibility: a part of aid is diverted away from its intended target by lobby groups. The size of this diversion – the degree of aid fungibility – is determined endogenously by the recipient government. The donor can affect the equilibrium degree of fungibility by choosing both the size of aid and the timing of its decision. We derive a condition under which the donor's reaction to fungibility is to reduce the amount of aid. Under this condition, if the donor acts as a follower, both the donor and the target group are better off.

Food aid and food production: A theoretical analysis

It has been claimed that food aid leads to permanent dependency as it depresses domestic food prices and thus farmers find it profitable to take land out of food production and into more lucrative activities. This paper develops two alternative scenarios under which the hypothesis about the damaging effect of food aid may not be true. Under the first scenario, it is argued that food production in developing countries is often low due to unfavourable trade policies and if food aid is tied to the removal of bias against the agricultural sector, food aid will not have any disincentive effect on food production. The second exercise argues that the revenue raised by the recipient government by selling aid could be used for R and D in agricultural production.