Investigations on road noise level spatial variability within a specially designed acoustic balcony

An investigation into the spatial distribution of road traffic noise levels on a balcony is conducted. A balcony constructed to a special acoustic design due to its elevation above an 8 lane motorway is selected for detailed measurements. The as-constructed balcony design includes solid parapets, side walls, ceiling shields and highly absorptive material placed on the ceiling. Road traffic noise measurements are conducted spatially using a five channel acoustic analyzer, where four microphones are located at various positions within the balcony space and one microphone placed outside the parapet at a reference position. Spatial distributions in both vertical and horizontal planes are measured. A theoretical model and prediction configuration is presented that assesses the acoustic performance of the balcony under existing traffic flow conditions. The prediction model implements a combined direct path, specular reflection path and diffuse reflection path utilizing image source and radiosity techniques. Results obtained from the prediction model are presented and compared to the measurement results. The predictions are found to correlate well with measurements with some minor differences that are explained. It is determined that the prediction methodology is acceptable to assess a wider range of street and balcony configuration scenarios.

Substance use disorders

Substance use disorders involve alcohol and a range of other legal and illicit drugs, and are characterised by a preoccupation with or craving for the substance, a greater priority to substance use than other goals, and/or a difficulty controlling consumption. Use of the substance may continue despite negative impacts on other activities, roles, relationships, and physical and mental health. Increased physical tolerance to the substance and withdrawal symptoms may also occur. Broad impacts on social and cognitive functioning and on physical and mental health emerge with increasing problem severity. Diffuse cognitive impairment may persist for up to 12 months post-detoxification in alcohol dependence. Psychological comorbidity is common, particularly mood and anxiety disorders. A quarter of all Australians will have a substance use disorder in their lifetime. One in five will consume alcohol at a level that puts them at risk of harm from an alcohol-related disease or injury over their lifetime. Australians aged 18 to 29 years are at higher risk than other age groups.

Multiphase porous media model for heat and mass transfer during drying of agricultural products

Modelling of food processing is complex because it involves sophisticated material and transport phenomena. Most of the agricultural products such fruits and vegetables are hygroscopic porous media containing free water, bound water, gas and solid matrix. Considering all phase in modelling is still not developed. In this article, a comprehensive porous media model for drying has been developed considering bound water, free water separately, as well as water vapour and air. Free water transport was considered as diffusion, pressure driven and evaporation. Bound water assumed to be converted to free water due to concentration difference and also can diffuse. Binary diffusion between water vapour and air was considered. Since, the model is fundamental physics based it can be applied to any drying applications and other food processing where heat and mass transfer takes place in porous media with significant evaporation and other phase change.

In silico analyses reveal common cellular pathways affected by loss of heterozygosity (LOH) events in the lymphomagenesis of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL)

Background The analysis of cellular networks and pathways involved in oncogenesis has increased our knowledge about the pathogenic mechanisms that underlie tumour biology and has unmasked new molecular targets that may lead to the design of better anti-cancer therapies. Recently, using a high resolution loss of heterozygosity (LOH) analysis, we identified a number of potential tumour suppressor genes (TSGs) within common LOH regions across cases suffering from two of the most common forms of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), Follicular Lymphoma (FL) and Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL). From these studies LOH of the protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor type J (PTPRJ) gene was identified as a common event in the lymphomagenesis of these B-cell lymphomas. The present study aimed to determine the cellular pathways affected by the inactivation of these TSGs including PTPRJ in FL and DLBCL tumourigenesis. Results Pathway analytical approaches identified that candidate TSGs located within common LOH regions participate within cellular pathways, which may play a crucial role in FL and DLBCL lymphomagenesis (i.e., metabolic pathways). These analyses also identified genes within the interactome of PTPRJ (i.e. PTPN11 and B2M) that when inactivated in NHL may play an important role in tumourigenesis. We also detected genes that are differentially expressed in cases with and without LOH of PTPRJ, such as NFATC3 (nuclear factor of activated T-cells, cytoplasmic, calcineurin-dependent 3). Moreover, upregulation of the VEGF, MAPK and ERBB signalling pathways was also observed in NHL cases with LOH of PTPRJ, indicating that LOH-driving events causing inactivation of PTPRJ, apart from possibly inducing a constitutive activation of these pathways by reduction or abrogation of its dephosphorylation activity, may also induce upregulation of these pathways when inactivated. This finding implicates these pathways in the lymphomagenesis and progression of FL and DLBCL. Conclusions The evidence obtained in this research supports findings suggesting that FL and DLBCL share common pathogenic mechanisms. Also, it indicates that PTPRJ can play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of these B-cell tumours and suggests that activation of PTPRJ might be an interesting novel chemotherapeutic target for the treatment of these B-cell tumours.

Tools, building blocks, and rewards : traditional media organizations learn to engage with productive audiences

This paper explores how traditional media organizations (such as magazines, music, film, books, and newspapers) develop routines for coping with an increasingly productive audience. While previous studies have reported on how such organizations have been affected by digital technologies, this study makes a contribution to this literature by being one of the first to show how organizational routines for engaging with an increasingly productive audience actually emerge and diffuse between industries. The paper explores to what extent routines employed by two traditional media organizations have been brought in from other organizational settings, specifically from so-called ‘software platform operators’. Data on routines for engaging with productive audiences have been collected from two information-rich cases in the music and the magazine industries, and from eight high-profile software platform operators. The paper concludes that the routines employed by the two traditional media organizations and by the software platform operators are based on the same set of principles: Provide the audience with (a) tools that allow them to easily generate cultural content; (b) building blocks which facilitate their creative activities; and (c) recognition and rewards based on both rationality and emotion.

Combination chemotherapy for primary small intestinal lymphoma in the Middle East

Twelve patients with primary small intestinal lymphoma were followed prospectively for 3 years. Endoscopic abnormalities were diagnostic of lymphoma in all cases where the duodenum was involved (83%). In three cases (25%) the disease extended to the stomach. One patient (8%) had diffuse small cell cleaved and 11 (92%) diffuse large cell lymphoma stages I (8%), II (25%), III (58%) and IV (8%). Nine of them were unresectable and primarily treated with combination chemotherapy; 67% achieved complete remission, 22% partial response and 11% no response. Only one patient relapsed and achieved a second remission. All complete remission patients are currently alive and free of disease at a median follow-up of 36 months. Overall survival for all patients is 58%, and disease-free survival is 50%. No instance of chemotherapy-related bleeding or perforation was seen. Tetracycline was necessary for the treatment of IPSID-associated diarrhea and malabsorption in spite of cytotoxic chemotherapy.

Genetic factors in the pathogenesis of CPPD crystal deposition disease

Crystal deposition is a very complex process ruled by numerous factors. A small but important proportion of cases of chondrocalcinosis are monogenic, and many of the genes involved have been identified. These genetic findings strongly point to control of the level of extracellular inorganic pyrophosphate as the primary mechanism for their association with either calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate or hydroxyapatite deposition. However, effects on extracellular inorganic pyrophosphate levels do not explain the mechanism of association in all of these monogenic diseases. Further, there are likely to be several as yet unidentified genes that are important in this common condition. This review highlights what genetic studies have demonstrated about the processes involved in these diverse but related disorders.

Molecular and pathological insights into Chlamydia pecorum-associated sporadic bovine encephalomyelitis (SBE) in Western Australia

Background Despite its global recognition as a ruminant pathogen, cases of Chlamydia pecorum infection in Australian livestock are poorly documented. In this report, a C. pecorum specific Multi Locus Sequence Analysis scheme was used to characterise the C. pecorum strains implicated in two cases of sporadic bovine encephalomyelitis confirmed by necropsy, histopathology and immunohistochemistry. This report provides the first molecular evidence for the presence of mixed infections of C. pecorum strains in Australian cattle. Case presentation Affected animals were two markedly depressed, dehydrated and blind calves, 12 and 16 weeks old. The calves were euthanized and necropsied. In one calf, a severe fibrinous polyserositis was noted with excess joint fluid in all joints whereas in the other, no significant lesions were seen. No gross abnormalities were noted in the brain of either calf. Histopathological lesions seen in both calves included: multifocal, severe, subacute meningoencephalitis with vasculitis, fibrinocellular thrombosis and malacia; diffuse, mild, acute interstitial pneumonia; and diffuse, subacute epicarditis, severe in the calf with gross serositis. Immunohistochemical labelling of chlamydial antigen in brain, spleen and lung from the two affected calves and brain from two archived cases, localised the antigen to the cytoplasm of endothelium, mesothelium and macrophages. C. pecorum specific qPCR, showed dissemination of the pathogen to multiple organs. Phylogenetic comparisons with other C. pecorum bovine strains from Australia, Europe and the USA revealed the presence of two genetically distinct sequence types (ST). The predominant ST detected in the brain, heart, lung and liver of both calves was identical to the C. pecorum ST previously described in cases of SBE. A second ST detected in an ileal tissue sample from one of the calves, clustered with previously typed faecal bovine isolates. Conclusion This report provides the first data to suggest that identical C. pecorum STs may be associated with SBE in geographically separated countries and that these may be distinct from those found in the gastrointestinal tract. This report provides a platform for further investigations into SBE and for understanding the genetic relationships that exist between C. pecorum strains detected in association with other infectious diseases in livestock.

Introduction: Japan’s gradual transformation in corporate governance

Japan has recovered from a ‘lost decade’ of economic stagnation over the 1990s. Anyway, it has been a ‘found decade’ for civil and criminal justice law reform, especially in corporate and securities law. Yet, have liberalisation and globalisation in those fields led to major changes in the ‘law in action’? Does this represent ‘Americanisation’ of Japan’s corporate governance system, focusing on shareholders rather than other key stakeholders such as ‘main banks’, core employees, and partners within diffuse corporate groups (keiretsu)? This version of our introductory chapter explains how our forthcoming book argues for a more complex ‘gradual transformation’. Such shifts are also found in many other post-industrial economies, but Japan appears to give greater emphasis given to certain modes of achieving change. The book brings together contributions from academics and practitioners from Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. An early chapter introduces methodology for effective cross-country comparisons and for evaluating the burgeoning but divergent literature on Japanese corporate governance. The concluding chapter compares continuities and changes in Japan’s largest companies now and two decades ago. Other chapters cover ‘lifelong employment’, main banks, the untold story of closely-held companies, the limited uptake of the Committee-based governance form, and the procedural, substantive and FDI policy dimensions of takeovers law and practice.

What might GeoHumanities do? Possibilities, practices, publics, and politics

This article draws together seven practitioners and scholars from across the diffuse GeoHumanities community to reflect on the pasts and futures of the GeoHumanities. Far from trying to circle the intellectual wagons around orthodoxies of practice or intent, or to determine possibilities in advance, these contributions and the accompanying commentary seek to create connections across the diverse communities of knowledge and practice that constitute the GeoHumanities. Ahead of these six contributions a commentary situates these discussions within wider concerns with interdisciplinarity and identifies three common themes—possibilities practices, and publics—worthy of further discus- sion and reflection. The introduction concludes by identifying a fourth theme, politics, that coheres these three themes in productive and important ways.

Genetic and epigenetic variants in the MTHFR gene are not associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma

The methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene codes for the MTHFR enzyme which plays a key role in the pathway of folate and methionine metabolism. Polymorphisms of genes in this pathway affect its regulation and have been linked to lymphoma. In this study we examined whether we could detect an association between two common non-synonomous MTHFR polymorphisms, 677C>T (rs1801133) and 1298A>C (rs1801131), and susceptibility to non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in an Australian case-control cohort. We found no significant differences between genotype or allele frequencies for either polymorphisms between lymphoma cases and controls. We also explored whether epigenetic modification of MTHFR, specifically DNA methylation of a CpG island in the MTHFR promoter region, is associated with NHL using blood samples from patients. No difference in methylation levels was detected between the case and control samples suggesting that although hypermethylation of MTHFR has been reported in tumour tissues, particularly in the diffuse large B-cell lymphoma subtype of NHL, methylation of this MTHFR promoter CpG island is not a suitable epigenetic biomarker for NHL diagnosis or prognosis in peripheral blood samples. Further studies into epigenetic variants could focus on genes that are robustly associated with NHL susceptibility.