A comparison of the gas phase acidities of phospholipid headgroups: Experimental and computational studies

Proton-bound dimers consisting of two glycerophospholipids with different headgroups were prepared using negative ion electrospray ionization and dissociated in a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. Analysis of the tandem mass spectra of the dimers using the kinetic method provides, for the first time, an order of acidity for the phospholipid classes in the gas phase of PE < PA << PG < PS < PI. Hybrid density functional calculations on model phospholipids were used to predict the absolute deprotonation enthalpies of the phospholipid classes from isodesmic proton transfer reactions with phosphoric acid. The computational data largely support the experimental acidity trend, with the exception of the relative acidity ranking of the two most acidic phospholipid species. Possible causes of the discrepancy between experiment and theory are discussed and the experimental trend is recommended. The sequence of gas phase acidities for the phospholipid headgroups is found to (1) have little correlation with the relative ionization efficiencies of the phospholipid classes observed in the negative ion electrospray process, and (2) correlate well with fragmentation trends observed upon collisional activation of phospholipid \[M - H](-) anions. (c) 2005 American Society for Mass Spectrometry.

End-of-life care in the intensive care unit : a systematic review of qualitative studies investigating the experiences and perceptions of the patient's family

Review question/objective The review objective is to synthesise the best available evidence on experiences and perceptions of family members of intensive care unit patients on the adequacy of end-of-life care, where life-support modalities have been withheld or withdrawn. Inclusion criteria Types of participants This review will consider studies that report on the experiences and perceptions of patients’ families on EOLC in the ICU, where life-support modalities have been withheld or withdrawn. The family is defined as “those who are closest to the patient... the family may include the biological family, family by acquisition, and the family of choice and friends”. Phenomena of interest The phenomena of interest for this review are the patients’ families experiences, perceptions or views on the adequacy of EOLC delivered in the ICU, where life-support modalities were withheld or withdrawn. These experiences may refer to the following views on domains of care considered important at the end-of-life in the ICU, which have been described already in the existing literature: timely, consistent, and compassionate communication, clinician availability, clinical decision making based on patients’ preferences, goals and values, physical care implemented to maintain patient comfort, holistic interdisciplinary care and bereavement care for families of patients who died.

Whole-genome sequencing reveals untapped genetic potential in Africa’s indigenous cereal crop sorghum

Sorghum is a food and feed cereal crop adapted to heat and drought and a staple for 500 million of the world’s poorest people. Its small diploid genome and phenotypic diversity make it an ideal C4 grass model as a complement to C3 rice. Here we present high coverage (16–45 × ) resequenced genomes of 44 sorghum lines representing the primary gene pool and spanning dimensions of geographic origin, end-use and taxonomic group. We also report the first resequenced genome of S. propinquum, identifying 8 M high-quality SNPs, 1.9 M indels and specific gene loss and gain events in S. bicolor. We observe strong racial structure and a complex domestication history involving at least two distinct domestication events. These assembled genomes enable the leveraging of existing cereal functional genomics data against the novel diversity available in sorghum, providing an unmatched resource for the genetic improvement of sorghum and other grass species.

Rethinking the effects paradigm in porn studies

It has been an assumption of most anti-pornography discourse that porn damages women (and children) in a variety of ways. In Porno? Chic!, the author interrogated this assumption by examining the correlation between the incidence of sexual violence and other indicators of misogyny, and the availability and accessibility of pornography within a number of societies. This article develops that work with a specific focus on the regulatory environment as it relates to pornography and sexual representation. Does a liberal regulatory regime in sexual culture correlate with a relatively advanced state of sexual politics in a given country? Conversely, does an illiberal regime, where pornography and other forms of sexual culture are banned or severely restricted, correlate with relatively strong patriarchal structures? A comparative cross-country analysis seeks to explain the correlations identified, and to assess the extent to which the availability of porn can be viewed as a causal or a consequential characteristic of those societies where feminism has achieved significant advances.

Cungellela by William ‘Dura Danje’ Leisha and Shem ‘Curan Danje’ Leisha

Research background: Cungelela is an intercultural music project undertaken in collaboration with William ‘Dura Danje’ Leisha and Shem ‘Curan Danje’ Leisha. The project contributes to cultural maintenance for Australian First Nations peoples, and is informed by prior work in this area by scholars including Peter Dunbar-Hall, Chris Gibson and Karl Neuenfeldt. These existing studies have discussed the complexities of intercultural collaboration, and the types of cultural politics that are involved when Indigenous and non-Indigenous musicians and scholars work together on projects of cultural significance. Critical race theory has also informed the creative work, as a means of interpreting the implicit and explicit discourses of race that arise through intercultural creative practice. The project asked the research question, in what ways can collaborative music making contribute to intercultural understanding and support cultural maintenance for Australian First Nations people affected by the Stolen Generations? Research contribution: This project has identified that collaborative production of recorded popular music can produce shared affective, embodied and transformative forms of knowledge about the impact of the Stolen Generations on Australian First Nations peoples. Research significance: The compact disc was presented by Aunty Anne Leisha as part of an invited presentation at the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium in New Mexico, 2013. The work also formed part of a refereed conference presentation at the 2013 conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music held at the University of Oviedo, Gijon, Spain.

Ananyi (Going) by Tjupi Band

Research background: Ananyi (Going) is an intercultural music project with lyrics sung in Luritja and English, undertaken in collaboration with the Tjupi Band and producer Jeffrey McLaughlin. The project contributes to cultural maintenance for Australian First Nations peoples, and is informed by prior work in this area by scholars including Peter Dunbar-Hall, Chris Gibson and Karl Neuenfeldt. These existing studies have discussed the complexities of intercultural collaboration, and the types of cultural politics that are involved when Indigenous and non-Indigenous musicians and scholars work together on projects of cultural significance. Critical race theory has also informed the creative work, as a means of interpreting the implicit and explicit discourses of race that arise through intercultural creative practice. The project asked the research question, how can collaborative music making contribute to intercultural understanding and the maintenance of Australian First Nations languages and cultures? Research contribution: The project has identified that recorded popular music is important in the maintenance of Luritja language and culture, and that intercultural collaboration in the areas of digital sound production and distribution can assist with cultural maintenance in both local and national contexts. Research significance: The compact disc was released on the CAAMA Music label, and supported through competitive grants from the Australian Government’s Contemporary Music Touring Grant and the Arnhem Land Progress Association (ALPA). The research context of the work is detailed in Brydie-Leigh Bartleet and Gavin Carfoot 2013. "Desert harmony: Stories of collaboration between Indigenous musicians and university students." International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives 12 (1): 180-196.

Circle Stories

Research background: Circle Stories was a live performance curated by Brydie-Leigh Bartleet, Naomi Sunderland, Gavin Carfoot and the Winanjjikari Music Centre as part of the Desert Harmony Festival 2013. The performance was the culmination of five years of research into intercultural performing arts practice, undertaken in partnership with Barkly Regional Arts. This work has built on existing scholarly work in community service learning by Marilynne Boyle-Baise, approaches to intercultural music making with Australian First Peoples by Karl Neuenfeldt, and studies of Indigenous popular music by Peter Dunbar-Hall and Chris Gibson. The performance followed the popular songwriters’ circle approach, in which Aboriginal musicians and elders presented their songs along with tertiary music students, as part of a broader dialogue with each other and the audience. Each performance provided an opportunity to highlight the importance of music in the development of intercultural knowledge and understanding. The project asked the research question, how can collaborative music performance foster mutual learning, intercultural knowledge and reconciliation? Research contribution: The project development and performance of Circle Stories identified that mutual learning and intercultural knowledge can result most effectively through long-term and meaningful relationships underpinning collaborative creative practice. Research significance: Following a general call for proposals, the performance was peer reviewed and selected for inclusion in the Desert Harmony Festival program. The research context of the work is detailed in Brydie-Leigh Bartleet and Gavin Carfoot 2013. "Desert harmony: Stories of collaboration between Indigenous musicians and university students." International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives 12 (1): 180-196.

Does improving school level attendance lead to improved school level achievement? An empirical study of indigenous educational policy in Australia

Current federal government policy initiatives in Aboriginal education and social welfare reform are based on assumptions about the relationship between increased attendance and increased student performance on standardized tests. There are empirical assumptions underlying these policy interventions and their accompanying public debates. Our aim here is to empirically explore the relationships between patterns of student attendance and patterns of student achievement in schools with significant cohorts of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students at the school level. Based on an analysis of the publicly available data reported on the ‘MySchool’ website, we find that reforms and policies around attendance have not and are unlikely to generate patterns of improved achievement. Questions about the rationale and rhetoric of government policy focused at the school level as opposed to the need to focus on pedagogy and curriculum are discussed.

A Cyber-Physical System Simulator for risk-free transport studies

The article introduces a novel platform for conducting controlled and risk-free driving and traveling behavior studies, called Cyber-Physical System Simulator (CPSS). The key features of CPSS are: (1) simulation of multiuser immersive driving in a threedimensional (3D) virtual environment; (2) integration of traffic and communication simulators with human driving based on dedicated middleware; and (3) accessibility of multiuser driving simulator on popular software and hardware platforms. This combination of features allows us to easily collect large-scale data on interesting phenomena regarding the interaction between multiple user drivers, which is not possible with current single-user driving simulators. The core original contribution of this article is threefold: (1) we introduce a multiuser driving simulator based on DiVE, our original massively multiuser networked 3D virtual environment; (2) we introduce OpenV2X, a middleware for simulating vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure communication; and (3) we present two experiments based on our CPSS platform. The first experiment investigates the “rubbernecking” phenomenon, where a platoon of four user drivers experiences an accident in the oncoming direction of traffic. Second, we report on a pilot study about the effectiveness of a Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems advisory system.

Modelling NPO-government relations : Australian case studies

Non-profit organizations (NPOs) are major providers of services in many fields of endeavour, and often receive financial support from government. This article investigates different forms of government/nonprofit funding relationships, with the viewpoint being mainly, though not exclusively, from the perspective of the non-profit agencies. While there are a number of existing typologies of government/NPO relations, these are dated and in need of further empirical analysis and testing. The article advances an empirically derived extension to current models of government/NPO relations. A future research agenda is outlined based on the constructs that underpin typologies, rather than discrete categorization of relationships.

An evaluation of the culture performance of two Macrobrachium species in Vanuatu: the exotic M. rosenbergii and the indigenous M. lar

Fisheries and aquaculture are important for food security, income generation and are critical to long term sustainability of many countries. Freshwater prawns have been harvested in the streams and creeks in Vanuatu, however due to over-exploitation catches have declined in recent years. To satisfy high demand for this product, Vanuatu government intends to establish economically viable small-scale aquaculture industries. The current project showed that wild Macrobrachium lar in Vanuatu constitute a single population for management purposes and that M. rosenbergii grows much faster than M. lar in simple pond grow-out systems, hence is a better species for culture in Vanuatu.

The ‘Indigenous Australian’ theme in the Australian Curriculum English : necessary or not?

On Friday 10 January 2014 Education Minister Christopher Pyne formally announced a review of the inaugural Australian curriculum. In his three and half minute televised justification, Pyne (2014) identified a number of criticisms of the national curriculum document, including the ‘necessity to have themes’ of ‘Australia’s place in Asia, Indigenous Australia and sustainability’. It is the second of these themes that we consider as ALEA’s Hot Topic for March 2014. We respond to Pyne’s momentary musing of the necessity of the ‘Indigenous Australian’ theme in the Australian Curriculum with a particular focus on the discipline of English. In the nomenclature of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority’s Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2013), we are of course referring to the ‘cross curriculum priority’ of ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures’.