Please take out your phones : on the spot solicitation of student feedback in class

The use of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets in classrooms has been met with mixed sentiments. Some instructors and teachers see them as a distraction and regularly ban their usage. Others who see their potential to enhance learning have started to explore ways to integrate them into their teaching in an attempt to improve student engagement. In this paper we report on a pilot study that forms part of a university-wide project reconceptualising its approach to the student evaluation of learning and teaching. In a progressive decision to embrace mobile technology, the university decided to trial a smart phone app designed for students to check-in to class and leave feedback on the spot. Our preliminary findings from trialling the app indicate that the application establishes a more immediate feedback loop between students and teachers. However, the app’s impact depends on how feedback is shared with students and how the teaching team responds.

Sustainable transport infrastructure : perspectives for sustainable urban and transport development

Many economic, social and environmental sustainability problems associated with typical urban transportation systems have revealed the importance of three domains of action: vehicle, infrastructure and user. These domains need to be carefully reconsidered in search of a sustainable urban development path. Although intelligent transportation systems have contributed substantially to enhancing efficiency, safety and comfort of travel, questions related to users’ behaviors and preferences, which stimulate considerable environmental effects, still needed to be further examined. In this chapter, options for smart urban transportation infrastructure development and the technological means for achieving broader goals of sustainable communities and urban development are explored.

The platform of spoof videos : The case of Tudou.com

This paper analyses the enabling and constraining role of platforms in the development of online video-spoofing culture in China. Using Tudou.com, one of China’s most popular video-sharing sites, as a case study, the paper discusses how video-sharing sites facilitate and curtail the self, and how they negotiate and balance among users, clients and the state, teasing out the complex politics of platforms in China. Particular reference is made to three “star users”, Jiaoshou, Hu Ge and Corndog, who gained fame for themselves via the popularity of their spoof videos on this platform.

Passenger transmission and productiveness of transit lines with high loads

Deterministic transit capacity analysis applies to planning, design and operational management of urban transit systems. The Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual (1) and Vuchic (2, 3) enable transit performance to be quantified and assessed using transit capacity and productive capacity. This paper further defines important productive performance measures of an individual transit service and transit line. Transit work (p-km) captures the transit task performed over distance. Passenger transmission (p-km/h) captures the passenger task delivered by service at speed. Transit productiveness (p-km/h) captures transit work performed over time. These measures are useful to operators in understanding their services’ or systems’ capabilities and passenger quality of service. This paper accounts for variability in utilized demand by passengers along a line and high passenger load conditions where passenger pass-up delay occurs. A hypothetical case study of an individual bus service’s operation demonstrates the usefulness of passenger transmission in comparing existing and growth scenarios. A hypothetical case study of a bus line’s operation during a peak hour window demonstrates the theory’s usefulness in examining the contribution of individual services to line productive performance. Scenarios may be assessed using this theory to benchmark or compare lines and segments, conditions, or consider improvements.

Two dicot-infecting mastreviruses (family Geminiviridae) occur in Pakistan

Most mastreviruses (family Geminiviridae) infect monocotyledonous hosts and are transmitted by leafhopper vectors. Only two mastrevirus species, Tobacco yellow dwarf virus from Australia and Bean yellow dwarf virus (BeYDV) from South Africa, have been identified whose members infect dicotyledonous plants. We have identified two distinct mastreviruses in chickpea stunt disease (CSD)-affected chickpea originating from Pakistan. The first is an isolate of BeYDV, previously only known to occur in South Africa. The second is a member of a new species with the BeYDV isolates as its closest relatives. A PCR-based diagnostic test was developed to differentiate these two virus species. Our results show that BeYDV plays no role in the etiology of CSD in Pakistan, while the second virus occurs widely in chickpea across Pakistan. A genomic clone of the new virus was infectious to chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and induced symptoms typical of CSD. We propose the use of the name Chickpea chlorotic dwarf Pakistan virus for the new species. The significance of these findings with respect to our understanding of the evolution, origin and geographic spread of dicot-infecting mastreviruses is discussed. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.

Human papillomavirus vaccines in plants

Human papillomaviruses are the etiological agents of cervical cancer, one of the two most prevalent cancers in women in developing countries. Currently available prophylactic vaccines are based on the L1 major capsid protein, which forms virus-like particles when expressed in yeast and insect cell lines. Despite their recognized efficacy, there are significant shortcomings: the vaccines are expensive, include only two oncogenic virus types, are delivered via intramuscular injection and require a cold chain. Plant expression systems may provide ways of overcoming some of these problems, in particular the expense. In this article, we report recent promising advances in the production of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines against human papillomavirus by expression of the relevant antigens in plants, and discuss future prospects for the use of such vaccines. © 2010 Expert Reviews Ltd.

An investigation into the use of human papillomavirus type 16 virus-like particles as a delivery vector system for foreign proteins: N- and C-terminal fusion of GFP to the L1 and L2 capsid proteins

Development of vaccine strategies against human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer, is a priority. We investigated the use of virus-like particles (VLPs) of the most prevalent type, HPV-16, as carriers of foreign proteins. Green fluorescent protein (GFP) was fused to the N or C terminus of both L1 and L2, with L2 chimeras being co-expressed with native L1. Purified chimaeric VLPs were comparable in size (∼55 nm) to native HPV VLPs. Conformation-specific monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) bound to the VLPs, thereby indicating that they possibly retain their antigenicity. In addition, all of the VLPs encapsidated DNA in the range of 6-8 kb. © 2007 Springer-Verlag.

A new African streak virus species from Nigeria

The African streak viruses (AfSVs) are a diverse group of mastrevirus species (family Geminiviridae) that infect a wide variety of annual and perennial grass species across the African continent and its nearby Indian Ocean islands. Six AfSV species (of which maize streak virus is the best known) have been described. Here we report the full genome sequences of eight isolates of a seventh AfSV species: Urochloa streak virus (USV), sampled from various locations in Nigeria. Despite there being good evidence of recombination in many other AfSV species, we found no convincing evidence that any of the USV sequences were either inter- or intra-species recombinants. The USV isolates, all of which appear to be variants of the same strain (their genome sequences are all more than 98% identical), share less than 69% nucleotide sequence identity with other currently described AfSV species. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.

Calculation of volume from crank angle using reconfigurable hardware

Fast calculation of quantities such as in-cylinder volume and indicated power is important in internal combustion engine research. Multiple channels of data including crank angle and pressure were collected for this purpose using a fully instrumented diesel engine research facility. Currently, existing methods use software to post-process the data, first calculating volume from crank angle, then calculating the indicated work and indicated power from the area enclosed by the pressure-volume indicator diagram. Instead, this work investigates the feasibility of achieving real-time calculation of volume and power via hardware implementation on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Alternative hardware implementations were investigated using lookup tables, Taylor series methods or the CORDIC (CoOrdinate Rotation DIgital Computer) algorithm to compute the trigonometric operations in the crank angle to volume calculation, and the CORDIC algorithm was found to use the least amount of resources. Simulation of the hardware based implementation showed that the error in the volume and indicated power is less than 0.1%.

The nurse researcher : an added dimension to qualitative research methodology

Nurse researchers are increasingly adopting qualitative methodologies for research practice and theory development. These approaches to research are, in many cases, more appropriate for the field of nursing inquiry than the previously dominant techno-rational methods. However, there remains the issue of adapting methodologies developed in other academic disciplines to the nursing research context. This paper draws upon my own experience with interpretive research to raise questions about the issue of nursing research within a social science research framework. The paper argues that by integrating the characteristics of nursing practice with the characteristics of research practice, the researcher can develop a 'nursing lens', an approach to qualitative research that brings an added dimension to social science methodologies in the nursing research context. Attention is drawn to the unique nature of the nurse-patient relationship, and the ways in which this aspect of nursing practice can enhance nursing research. Examples are given from interview transcripts to support this position.

What’s in a name : Is there a right to terminate a contract for purchase of a unit if the name changes?

The significance of the proposed name of a building to buyers of units off the plan has received recent attention in Queensland and the ACT with differing results. In Gough v South Sky Investments Pty Ltd the Queensland Court of Appeal concluded that the name of the building was not an essential term of the contract and rejected a claim by a number of buyers to terminate their contracts because of the change of name from Oracle to Peppers. In contrast, Rares J in the Federal Court decision of Madison Constructions Pty Ltd v Empire Building Group (ACT) Pty Ltd considered that the name of the building in a proposed development could potentially form the basis of misleading conduct about the association of the seller with a particular development corporation.

Selective cleavage of human sex hormone-binding globulin by kallikrein-related peptidases and effects on androgen action in LNCaP prostate cancer cells

Stimulation of the androgen receptor via bioavailable androgens, including testosterone and testosterone metabolites, is a key driver of prostate development and the early stages of prostate cancer. Androgens are hydrophobic and as such require carrier proteins, including sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), to enable efficient distribution from sites of biosynthesis to target tissues. The similarly hydrophobic corticosteroids also require a carrier protein whose affinity for steroid is modulated by proteolysis. However, proteolytic mechanisms regulating the SHBG/androgen complex have not been reported. Here, we show that the cancer-associated serine proteases, kallikrein-related peptidase (KLK)4 and KLK14, bind strongly to SHBG in glutathione S-transferase interaction analyses. Further, we demonstrate that active KLK4 and KLK14 cleave human SHBG at unique sites and in an androgen-dependent manner. KLK4 separated androgen-free SHBG into its two laminin G-like (LG) domains that were subsequently proteolytically stable even after prolonged digestion, whereas a catalytically equivalent amount of KLK14 reduced SHBG to small peptide fragments over the same period. Conversely, proteolysis of 5α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT)-bound SHBG was similar for both KLKs and left the steroid binding LG4 domain intact. Characterization of this proteolysis fragment by [(3)H]-labeled DHT binding assays revealed that it retained identical affinity for androgen compared with full-length SHBG (dissociation constant = 1.92 nM). Consistent with this, both full-length SHBG and SHBG-LG4 significantly increased DHT-mediated transcriptional activity of the androgen receptor compared with DHT delivered without carrier protein. Collectively, these data provide the first evidence that SHBG is a target for proteolysis and demonstrate that a stable fragment derived from proteolysis of steroid-bound SHBG retains binding function in vitro.

Long terminal repeats act as androgen-responsive enhancers for the PSA-Kallikrein locus

The androgen receptor (AR) signaling pathway is a common therapeutic target for prostate cancer, because it is critical for the survival of both hormone-responsive and castrate-resistant tumor cells. Most of the detailed understanding that we have of AR transcriptional activation has been gained by studying classical target genes. For more than two decades, Kallikrein 3 (KLK3) (prostate-specific antigen) has been used as a prototypical AR target gene, because it is highly androgen responsive in prostate cancer cells. Three regions upstream of the KLK3 gene, including the distal enhancer, are known to contain consensus androgen-responsive elements required for AR-mediated transcriptional activation. Here, we show that KLK3 is one of a specific cluster of androgen-regulated genes at the centromeric end of the kallikrein locus with enhancers that evolved from the long terminal repeat (LTR) (LTR40a) of an endogenous retrovirus. Ligand-dependent recruitment of the AR to individual LTR-derived enhancers results in concurrent up-regulation of endogenous KLK2, KLK3, and KLKP1 expression in LNCaP prostate cancer cells. At the molecular level, a kallikrein-specific duplication within the LTR is required for maximal androgen responsiveness. Therefore, KLK3 represents a subset of target genes regulated by repetitive elements but is not typical of the whole spectrum of androgen-responsive transcripts. These data provide a novel and more detailed understanding of AR transcriptional activation and emphasize the importance of repetitive elements as functional regulatory units