In Plant Activation: An inducible, hyperexpression platform for recombinant protein production in plants

In this study, we describe a novel protein production platform that provides both activation and amplification of transgene expression in planta. The In Plant Activation (INPACT) system is based on the replication machinery of tobacco yellow dwarf mastrevirus (TYDV) and is essentially transient gene expression from a stably transformed plant, thus combining the advantages of both means of expression. The INPACT cassette is uniquely arranged such that the gene of interest is split and only reconstituted in the presence of the TYDV-encoded Rep/RepA proteins. Rep/RepA expression is placed under the control of the AlcA:AlcR gene switch, which is responsive to trace levels of ethanol. Transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv Samsun) plants containing an INPACT cassette encoding the b-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter had negligible background expression but accumulated very high GUS levels (up to 10% total soluble protein) throughout the plant, within 3 d of a 1% ethanol application. The GUS reporter was replaced with a gene encoding a lethal ribonuclease, barnase, demonstrating that the INPACT system provides exquisite control of transgene expression and can be adapted to potentially toxic or inhibitory compounds. The INPACT gene expression platform is scalable, not host-limited, and has been used to express both a therapeutic and an industrial protein.

Information organisation behaviours within everyday life : an exploration using the diary method

This paper presents the results from a study of information behaviours (IB), with specific focus on information- organisation-related behaviours conducted as part of a larger daily diary study with 40 participants. The findings indicate that organisation of information in everyday life is problematic due to various factors, specifically temporal and spatial ones, i.e., the passage of time, along with the difference in the physical environment between when the information was organised and when the information is retrieved. These have implications for information organisation schemas, and point toward the need for a context-sensitive model of information organisation that reflects the relation between information objects, information representation, and information users.

Constitutive production of IL-13 promotes early-life Chlamydia respiratory infection and allergic airway disease

Deleterious responses to pathogens during infancy may contribute to infection and associated asthma. Chlamydia respiratory infections in early life are common causes of pneumonia and lead to reduced lung function and asthma. We investigated the role of interleukin-13 (IL-13) in promoting early-life Chlamydia respiratory infection, infection-induced airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), and severe allergic airway disease (AAD). Infected infant Il13−/− mice had reduced infection, inflammation, and mucus-secreting cell hyperplasia. Surprisingly, infection of wild-type (WT) mice did not increase IL-13 production but reduced IL-13Rα2 decoy receptor levels compared with sham-inoculated controls. Infection of WT but not Il13−/− mice induced persistent AHR. Infection and associated pathology were restored in infected Il13−/− mice by reconstitution with IL-13. Stat6−/− mice were also largely protected. Neutralization of IL-13 during infection prevented subsequent infection-induced severe AAD. Thus, early-life Chlamydia respiratory infection reduces IL-13Rα2 production, which may enhance the effects of constitutive IL-13 and promote more severe infection, persistent AHR, and AAD.

Motion capture and the future of virtual production

Motion capture continues to be adopted across a range of creative fields including, animation, games, visual effects, dance, live theatre and the visual arts. This panel will discuss and showcase the use of motion capture across these creative fields and consider the future of virtual production in the creative industries.

Beyond normal competencies : understanding organisation designs to develop and sustain IT-related capabilities

It is apparent that IT resources are important for organisations. It is also clear that organisations unique competencies, their IT-related capabilities, leverage the IT resources uniquely to create and sustain competitive advantage. However, IT resources are dynamic, and evolve at an exponential rate. This means that organisations will need to sustain their competencies to leverage opportunities offered by new IT resources. Research on ways to sustain IT-related capabilities is limited and a deeper understanding of this situation is important. Amongst other factors, a possible reason for this lack of progress in this area could be due to the lack of validated measurement items of the theoretical constructs to conduct such studies. We suggest an environment in which organisations could build new and sustain their existing IT-related capabilities. We then report on the development of valid and reliable measures for this environment. The validated measures would be useful in extending our understanding on how firms could sustain their IT-related capabilities. This effort will provide a deeper understanding of how firms can secure sustainable IT-related business value from their acquired IT resources.

From production to purpose : using design led innovation to Build Strategic Potential in a Family-Owned SME

There is an evident need to develop the strategic capabilities of companies from within, to ensure competitive competence in a time where strategy is a necessity. This paper is based on the first 4 months of a longitudinal embedded case study of a family-owned Australian small to medium enterprise, in their journey towards design integration. The first author was embedded as a ‘Design Innovation Catalyst’ to collaborate on overcoming early barriers of strategic development, using design led innovation. Action research methodology, semi-structured interviews with seven out of eight employees and a reflective journal revealed the absence of a shared vision, conflicting drivers and a focus on operational efficiency rather than strategy. Through the Catalyst’s facilitation, a company vision, general awareness, practice and knowledge in strategic development have emerged as the first steps to generating strategic design competence within the firm.

Bi-2223 precursor billets for pit wire production

High temperature superconductor precursor billets (feed rods) have been developed for loading into silver tubes. The billets are loaded prior to rolling or drawing operations in PIT wire manufacture. Investigations have shown that wires and tapes prepared from feed rod loaded tubes show enhanced uniformity of electrical transport properties when compared with conventional powder packing, especially in wires drawn to long lengths. Analysis on production feed rods have shown carbon content to be as low as 110 ppm. © 1999 IEEE.

Production of metal oxide nanoparticles

Particles having at least regions of at least one metal oxide having nano-sized grains are produced by providing particles of a material having an initial, nonequiaxed particle shape, prepg. a mixt. of these particles and at last one metal oxide precursor, and treating the mixt. such that the precursor reacts with the particles. The process can be a co-pptn. process, sol-gel synthesis, micro-emulsion method, surfactant-based process, or a process that uses polymers. Complex metal oxide nanoparticles are produced by (a) prepg. a soln. contg. metal cations, (b) mixing the soln. with a surfactant to form micelles within the soln., and (c) heating the micellar liq. to form metal oxide and to remove the surfactant. The formed metal oxide particles have essentially the same morphol. (particle size and shape) as the initial morphol. of the material particles provided. [on SciFinder(R)]

Production of fine-grained particles

A method of producing particles having nano-sized grains comprises the steps of: (a) prepg. a soln. contg. one or more metal cations; (b) mixing the soln. from step (a) with one or more surfactants to form a surfactant/liq. mixt. and (c) heating the mixt. from step (b) above to form the particles. [on SciFinder(R)]

The role of the cultural intermediary within professional participatory communication : lessons from ABC Pool

As media institutions are encouraged to explore new production methodologies in the current economic crisis, they align with Schumpeter’s creative destruction provocation by exhibiting user-led political, organisation and socio-technical innovations. This paper highlights the significance of the cultural intermediary within the innovative, co-creative production arrangements for cultural artefacts by media professionals in institutional online communities. An institutional online community is defined as one that is housed, resourced and governed by commercial or non- commercial institutions and is not independently facilitated. Web 2.0 technologies have mobilised collaborative peer production activities for online content creation and professional media institutions face challenges in engaging participatory audiences in practices that are beneficial for all concerned stakeholders. The interests of those stakeholders often do not align, highlighting the need for an intermediary role that understands and translates the norms, rhetoric tropes and day-to-day activities between the individuals engaging in participatory communication activities for successful negotiation within the production process. This paper specifically explores the participatory relationship between the public service broadcaster (PSB), the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and one of its online communities, ABC Pool (www.abc.net.au/pool). ABC Pool is an online platform developed and resourced by the ABC to encourage co-creation between audience members engaging in the production of user-generated content (UGC) and the professional producers housed within the ABC Radio Division. This empirical research emerges from a three-year research project where I employed an ethnographic action research methodology and was embedded at the ABC as the community manager of ABC Pool. In participatory communication environments, users favour meritocratic heterarchical governance over traditional institutional hierarchical systems (Malaby 2009). A reputation environment based on meritocracy requires an intermediary to identify the stakeholders, understand their interests and communicate effectively between them to negotiate successful production outcomes (Bruns 2008; Banks 2009). The community manager generally occupies this role, however it has emerged that other institutional production environments also employ an intermediary role under alternative monikers(Hutchinson 2012). A useful umbrella term to encompass the myriad of roles within this space is the cultural intermediary. The ABC has experimented with three institutional online community governance models that engage in cultural intermediation in differing decentralised capacities. The first and most closed is a single point of contact model where one cultural intermediary controls all of the communication of the participatory project. The second is a model of multiple cultural intermediaries engaging in communication between the institutional online community stakeholders simultaneously. The third is most open yet problematic as it promotes and empowers community participants to the level of cultural intermediaries. This paper uses the ABC Pool case study to highlight the differing levels of openness within cultural intermediation during the co-creative production process of a cultural artifact.

Method for the production of porous complex metal oxides using a porogen

A method of producing porous complex oxides includes the steps of providing a mixt. of (a) precursor elements suitable to produce the complex oxide, or (b) one or more precursor elements suitable to produce particles of the complex oxide and one or more metal oxide particles; and (c) a particulate carbon-contg. pore-forming material selected to provide pore sizes in the range of 7-250 nm, and treating the mixt. to (i) form the porous complex oxide in which two or more of the precursor elements from (a) above or one or more of the precursor elements and one or more of the metals in the metal oxide particles from (b) above are incorporated into a phase of the complex metal oxide and the complex metal oxide has grain sizes in the range of 1-150 nm, and (ii) removing the pore-forming material under conditions such that the porous structure and compn. of the complex oxide is substantially preserved. The method may be used to produce nonrefractory metal oxides as well. The mixt. further includes a surfactant, or a polymer. [on SciFinder(R)]

Production of porous metal oxides

Porous complex oxides are produced by reacting metal oxide precursors in the presence of a pore-forming material to provide pore sizes in the range of 7-250 nm, followed by removal of the pore-forming material under conditions preserving the structure and compn. of the formed oxides. The pore-forming material are carbon black particles having a particle size of 10-100 nm. The carbon particles are removed from the formed oxide by heating at 100-300°. A surfactant can be added to the reaction mixt. [on SciFinder(R)]

Production of fine-grained particles

A method of producing particles having nano-sized grains comprises the steps of: (a) prepg. a soln. contg. one or more metal cations; (b) mixing the soln. from step (a) with one or more surfactants to form a surfactant/liq. mixt. and (c) heating the mixt. from step (b) above to form the particles. [on SciFinder(R)]

Production of metal oxide particles with nano-sized grains

A method for producing metal oxide particles having nano-sized grains is disclosed. A solution of metal cations is mixed with surfactant under conditions such that surfactant micelles are formed. This mixture is then heated to form the metal oxide particles; this heating step removing the surfactant, forming the metal oxide and creating the pore structure of the particles. The pore structures are disordered. This method is particularly advantageous for production of complex (multi-component) metal oxides in which the different atomic species are homogeneously dispersed.

Continuous production of Bi-2212 thick film on silver tape

Bi-2212 thick film on silver tapes are seen as a simple and low cost alternative to high temperature superconducting wires produced by the Powder In Thbe (PIT) technique, particularly in react and wind applications. A rig for the continuous production of Bi-2212 tapes for use in react and wind component manufacture has been developed and commissioned. The rig consists of several sections, each fully automatic, for task specific duties in the production of HTS tape. The major sections are: tape coating, sintering and annealing. High temperature superconducting tapes with engineering critical current densities of 10 kA/cm2 (77 K, self field), and lengths of up to 100 m have been produced using the rig. Properties of the finished tape are discussed and results are presented for current density versus bend radius and applied strain. Depending on tape content and thickness, irreversible strain tirrm varies between 0.04 and 0.1 %. Cyclic bending tests when applied strain does not exceed Eirrm showed negligible reduction in J c along the length of the tape.