Identification of 23 new prostate cancer susceptibility loci using the iCOGS custom genotyping

Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in males in developed countries. To identify common prostate cancer susceptibility alleles, we genotyped 211,155 SNPs on a custom Illumina array (iCOGS) in blood DNA from 25,074 prostate cancer cases and 24,272 controls from the international PRACTICAL Consortium. Twenty-three new prostate cancer susceptibility loci were identified at genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10−8). More than 70 prostate cancer susceptibility loci, explaining ~30% of the familial risk for this disease, have now been identified. On the basis of combined risks conferred by the new and previously known risk loci, the top 1% of the risk distribution has a 4.7-fold higher risk than the average of the population being profiled. These results will facilitate population risk stratification for clinical studies.

High-resolution imaging of ordered mixed-layer clays

HRTEM has been used to examine illite/smectite from the Mancos shale, rectorite from Garland County, Arkansas; illite from Silver Hill, Montana; Na-smectite from Crook County, Wyoming; corrensite from Packwood, Washington; and diagenetic chlorite from the Tuscaloosa formation. Thin specimens were prepared by ion milling, ultra-microtome sectioning and/or grain dispersal on a porous carbon substrate. Some smectite-bearing clays were also examined after intercalation with dodecylamine hydrochloride (DH). Intercalation of smectite with DH proved to be a reliable method of HRTEM imaging of expanded smectite, d(001) 16 A which could then be distinguished from unexpanded illite, d(001) 10 A. Lattice fringes of basal spacings of DH-intercalated rectorite and illite/smectite showed 26 A periodicity. These data support XRD studies which suggest that these samples are ordered, interstratified varieties of illite and smectite. The ion-thinned, unexpanded corrensite sample showed discrete crystallites containing 10 A and 14 A basal spacings corresponding with collapsed smectite and chlorite, respectively. Regions containing disordered layers of chlorite and smectite were also noted. Crystallites containing regular alternations of smectite and chlorite were not common. These HRTEM observations of corrensite did not corroborate XRD data. Particle sizes parallel to the c axis ranged widely for each sample studied, and many particles showed basal dimensions equivalent to > five layers. -J.M.H.

Identifying key enablers to improve business performance in Taiwanese electronic manufacturing companies

Purpose – Integrated supplier management (ISM), new product development (NPD) and knowledge sharing (KS) practices are three primary business activities utilised to enhance manufacturers' business performance (BP). The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the relationships between these three business activities (i.e. ISM, NPD, KS) and BP in a Taiwanese electronics manufacturing context. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey is first administered to a sample of electronic manufacturing companies operating in Taiwan to elicit the opinions of technical and managerial professionals regarding business activities and BP within their companies. A total of 170 respondents from 83 companies respond to the survey. Factor, correlation and path analysis are undertaken on this quantitative data set to derive the key factors which leverage business outcomes in these companies. Following empirical analysis, six semi-structured interviews are undertaken with manufacturing executives to provide qualitative insights into the underlying reasons why certain business activity factors are the strongest predictors of BP. Findings – The investigation shows that the ISM, NPD and KS constructs all play an important role in the success of company operations and creating business outcomes. Specifically, the key factors within these constructs which influenced BP are: supplier evaluation and selection; design simplification and modular design; information technology infrastructure and systems and open communication. Accordingly, sufficient financial and human resources should be allocated to these important activities to derive accelerated rates of improved BP. These findings are supported by the qualitative interviews with manufacturing executives. Originality/value – The paper depicts the pathways to improved manufacturing BP, through targeting efforts into the above-mentioned factors within the ISM, NPD and KS constructs. Based on the empirical path model, and the specific insights derived from the explanatory interviews with manufacturing executives, the paper also provides a number of practical implications for manufacturing companies seeking to enhance their BP through improved operational activities.

Identity theft, computers and behavioral biometrics

The increase of online services, such as eBanks, WebMails, in which users are verified by a username and password, is increasingly exploited by Identity Theft procedures. Identity Theft is a fraud, in which someone pretends to be someone else is order to steal money or get other benefits. To overcome the problem of Identity Theft an additional security layer is required. Within the last decades the option of verifying users based on their keystroke dynamics was proposed during login verification. Thus, the imposter has to be able to type in a similar way to the real user in addition to having the username and password. However, verifying users upon login is not enough, since a logged station/mobile is vulnerable for imposters when the user leaves her machine. Thus, verifying users continuously based on their activities is required. Within the last decade there is a growing interest and use of biometrics tools, however, these are often costly and require additional hardware. Behavioral biometrics, in which users are verified, based on their keyboard and mouse activities, present potentially a good solution. In this paper we discuss the problem of Identity Theft and propose behavioral biometrics as a solution. We survey existing studies and list the challenges and propose solutions.

Developing a framework for work integrated research higher degree studies in an Australian engineering context

The umbrella of Australian research higher degree (RHD) offerings has broadened from the traditional MPhil/PhD programmes to include a range of professional masters and doctoral degrees. This article reports on the experiences of three PhD students, engaged in an informally managed industry partnered research programme, described in this article as the work integrated research higher degree (WIRHD). Their learning process shares the attributes from both the traditional PhD programme and professional doctorates. However, because of the blended nature of the learning contexts, candidates engaged in the WIRHD programme must address a wider range of issues than those following the traditional RHD pathway. An exploratory case study approach was adopted with the view to develop an integrative framework to explain the various contexts that influence the learning experience of WIRHD candidates, as well as a structured approach to guide this contemporary form of industry partnered WIRHD process.

Vibrational spectroscopy of the borate mineral kotoite Mg3(BO3)2

Vibrational spectroscopy has been used to assess the structure of kotoite a borate mineral of magnesium which is isostructural with jimboite. The mineral is orthorhombic with point group: 2/m 2/m 2/m. The mineral has the potential as a new memory insulator material. The mineral has been characterised by a combination of Raman and infrared spectroscopy. The Raman spectrum is dominated by a very intense band at 835 cm−1, assigned to the symmetric stretching mode of tetrahedral boron. Raman bands at 919, 985 and 1015 cm−1 are attributed to the antisymmetric stretching modes of tetrahedral boron. Kotoite is strictly an hydrous borate mineral. An intense Raman band observed at 3559 cm−1 is attributed to the stretching vibration of hydroxyl units, more likely to be associated with the borate mineral hydroxyborate. The lack of observation of water bending modes proves the absence of water in the kotoite structure.

The effects of portal website attitude and e-services on branding of e-stores

Purpose –Increasingly the company websites, along with the intermediary websites such as portal sites have become an integral component of the firms brand strategy. This study emphasises the importance of website service elements within portal sites and the impact on e-retailer brand attitudes and brand identity in an ever more competitive digital market-space. Design/methodology/approach– The research employs structural equation modeling technique to capture the relationship among website attitude, e-service quality, brand attitude and brand identity. Findings–The results from the study indicate consumer attitude perceptions toward portal website and e-service elements combine to increase brand attitude and also brand identity for e-retailers. Originality/value –Although there has been a plethora of studies evaluating corporate websites and branding interactions there is limited comprehension of the impact of intermediary portal sites. Moreover, the literature is limited in validating the link between e-services with brand attitude and brand identity within a portal website context. This study develops a framework that highlights the important influence of e-services within portal websites and the impact on the firm’s brand.

Beyond designing : roles of the designer in complex design projects

Human computer interaction and interaction design have recognised the need for participatory methods of co-design to contribute to designing human-centred interfaces, systems and services. Design thinking has recently developed as a set of strategies for human-centred co-design in product innovation, management and organisational transformation. Both developments place the designer in a new mediator role, requiring new skills than previously evident. This paper presents preliminary findings from a PhD case study of strategy and innovation consultancy Second Road to discuss these emerging roles of design lead, facilitator, teacher and director in action.

Plant structure and systematics research at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane

This article provides a general overview of some of the plant research being conducted by a number of researchers at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Brisbane. Details about student projects and research facilities have been limited to those of relevance to plant structure and systematics. Academics, technicians and research students involved in plant research are in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, mainly in the School of Earth, Environment and Biological Sciences (EEBS), with a few exceptions. Our offices and laboratories are housed in a number of different buildings at the Gardens Point campus (e.g., P, Q, R, S, M Blocks) and we have strong collaborative links with Queensland Herbarium (BRI) and Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens.

Metabolic urinary profiling of alcohol hepatotoxicity and intervention effects of Yin Chen Hao Tang in rats using ultra-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometry

This paper was designed to study metabonomic characters of the hepatotoxicity induced by alcohol and the intervention effects of Yin Chen Hao Tang (YCHT), a classic traditional Chinese medicine formula for treatment of jaundice and liver disorders in China. Urinary samples from control, alcohol- and YCHT-treated rats were analyzed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC/ESI-QTOF-MS) in positive ionization mode. The total ion chromatograms obtained from the control, alcohol- and YCHT-treated rats were easily distinguishable using a multivariate statistical analysis method such as the principal components analysis (PCA). The greatest difference in metabolic profiling was observed from alcohol-treated rats compared with the control and YCHT-treated rats. The positive ions m/z 664.3126 (9.00 min) was elevated in urine of alcohol-treated rats, whereas, ions m/z 155.3547 (10.96 min) and 708.2932 (9.01 min) were at a lower concentration compared with that in urine of control rats, however, these ions did not indicate a statistical difference between control rats and YCHT-treated rats. The ion m/z 664.3126 was found to correspond to ceramide (d18:1/25:0), providing further support for an involvement of the sphingomyelin signaling pathway in alcohol hepatotoxicity and the intervention effects of YCHT.

I’m friends with Louie the Fly, not Mortein : Conceptualising the new brand relationships on social media

Spokes-characters are ‘...animated beings or objects, created to promote a product, service or idea’ (Phillips 1996, p.155). They were first used in the late 1800s when they emerged as registered trademarks, but the use of spokes-characters for marketing communications has since grown, owing to their ability to remind consumers about a product, transfer positive associations to a brand, and give a corporate company a more ‘personal’ face (Callcott and Lee 1995). One example is the Michelin Man, who has served as spokes-character for Michelin tyres since 1898, after starting out in print advertising. Spokes-characters have become important brand representatives, no longer seen as simply entertaining cartoons featured in television and magazine advertisements. Corporations have now extended their use to interactive, social media platforms, where a consumer can be ‘friends’ with a spokes-character via Facebook, read their comments on the latest iPhone release through Twitter, and watch their family histories being documented on YouTube (see Figure 1). The interactions that consumers once had with two-dimensional spokes-characters have undergone significant transformation in the digital space. With spokes-character Facebook pages achieving significant numbers of ‘likes’ and interactions with consumers, one question concerns whether this strategy is creating characters that are more engaging than the brands they represent, and what impact this has on brand outcomes.

The efficiency of corpus-based distributional models for literature-based discovery on large data sets

This paper evaluates the efficiency of a number of popular corpus-based distributional models in performing discovery on very large document sets, including online collections. Literature-based discovery is the process of identifying previously unknown connections from text, often published literature, that could lead to the development of new techniques or technologies. Literature-based discovery has attracted growing research interest ever since Swanson's serendipitous discovery of the therapeutic effects of fish oil on Raynaud's disease in 1986. The successful application of distributional models in automating the identification of indirect associations underpinning literature-based discovery has been heavily demonstrated in the medical domain. However, we wish to investigate the computational complexity of distributional models for literature-based discovery on much larger document collections, as they may provide computationally tractable solutions to tasks including, predicting future disruptive innovations. In this paper we perform a computational complexity analysis on four successful corpus-based distributional models to evaluate their fit for such tasks. Our results indicate that corpus-based distributional models that store their representations in fixed dimensions provide superior efficiency on literature-based discovery tasks.

Monitoring cuprous ion transport by scanning electrochemical microscopy during the course of copper electrodeposition

Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM), in the substrate generation–tip collection (SG-TC) mode, has been used to detect the cuprous ion intermediate formed during the course of electrodeposition of Cu metal from aqueous solution. Addition of chloride is confirmed to strongly stabilize the ion in aqueous solution and enhance the rate of Cu electrodeposition. This SECM method in the SG-TC mode offers an alternative to the rotating ring disk electrode (RRDE) technique for in situ studies on the effect of plating bath additives in metal electrodeposition. An attractive feature of the SECM relative to the RRDE method is that it allows qualitative aspects of the electrodeposition process to be studied in close proximity to the substrate in a simple and direct fashion using an inexpensive probe, and without the need for forced convection.