Integrated genomic characterization of endometrial carcinoma

We performed an integrated genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic characterization of 373 endometrial carcinomas using array- and sequencing-based technologies. Uterine serous tumours and ∼25% of high-grade endometrioid tumours had extensive copy number alterations, few DNA methylation changes, low oestrogen receptor/progesterone receptor levels, and frequent TP53 mutations. Most endometrioid tumours had few copy number alterations or TP53 mutations, but frequent mutations in PTEN, CTNNB1, PIK3CA, ARID1A and KRAS and novel mutations in the SWI/SNF chromatin remodelling complex gene ARID5B. A subset of endometrioid tumours that we identified had a markedly increased transversion mutation frequency and newly identified hotspot mutations in POLE. Our results classified endometrial cancers into four categories: POLE ultramutated, microsatellite instability hypermutated, copy-number low, and copy-number high. Uterine serous carcinomas share genomic features with ovarian serous and basal-like breast carcinomas. We demonstrated that the genomic features of endometrial carcinomas permit a reclassification that may affect post-surgical adjuvant treatment for women with aggressive tumours.

Modelling the flow of cane constituents through the milling process of a raw sugar factory

This thesis reports on an investigation to develop an advanced and comprehensive milling process model of the raw sugar factory. Although the new model can be applied to both, the four-roller and six-roller milling units, it is primarily developed for the six-roller mills which are widely used in the Australian sugar industry. The approach taken was to gain an understanding of the previous milling process simulation model "MILSIM" developed at the University of Queensland nearly four decades ago. Although the MILSIM model was widely adopted in the Australian sugar industry for simulating the milling process it did have some incorrect assumptions. The study aimed to eliminate all the incorrect assumptions of the previous model and develop an advanced model that represents the milling process correctly and tracks the flow of other cane components in the milling process which have not been considered in the previous models. The development of the milling process model was done is three stages. Firstly, an enhanced milling unit extraction model (MILEX) was developed to access the mill performance parameters and predict the extraction performance of the milling process. New definitions for the milling performance parameters were developed and a complete milling train along with the juice screen was modelled. The MILEX model was validated with factory data and the variation in the mill performance parameters was observed and studied. Some case studies were undertaken to study the effect of fibre in juice streams, juice in cush return and imbibition% fibre on extraction performance of the milling process. It was concluded from the study that the empirical relations developed for the mill performance parameters in the MILSIM model were not applicable to the new model. New empirical relations have to be developed before the model is applied with confidence. Secondly, a soluble and insoluble solids model was developed using modelling theory and experimental data to track the flow of sucrose (pol), reducing sugars (glucose and fructose), soluble ash, true fibre and mud solids entering the milling train through the cane supply and their distribution in juice and bagasse streams.. The soluble impurities and mud solids in cane affect the performance of the milling train and further processing of juice and bagasse. New mill performance parameters were developed in the model to track the flow of cane components. The developed model is the first of its kind and provides some additional insight regarding the flow of soluble and insoluble cane components and the factors affecting their distribution in juice and bagasse. The model proved to be a good extension to the MILEX model to study the overall performance of the milling train. Thirdly, the developed models were incorporated in a proprietary software package "SysCAD’ for advanced operational efficiency and for availability in the ‘whole of factory’ model. The MILEX model was developed in SysCAD software to represent a single milling unit. Eventually the entire milling train and the juice screen were developed in SysCAD using series of different controllers and features of the software. The models developed in SysCAD can be run from macro enabled excel file and reports can be generated in excel sheets. The flexibility of the software, ease of use and other advantages are described broadly in the relevant chapter. The MILEX model is developed in static mode and dynamic mode. The application of the dynamic mode of the model is still under progress.

Design of an experimental apparatus to analyse bagasse behaviour in a chute

Pressure feeder chutes are pieces of equipment used in sugar cane crushing to increase the amount of cane that can be put through a mill. The continuous pressure feeder was developed with the objective to provide a constant feed of bagasse under pressure to the mouth of the crushing mills. The pressure feeder chute is used in a sugarcane milling unit to transfer bagasse from one set of crushing rolls to a second set of crushing rolls. There have been many pressure feeder chute failures in the past. The pressure feeder chute is quite vulnerable and if the bagasse throughput is blocked at the mill rollers, the pressure build-up in the chute can be enormous, which can ultimately result in failure. The result is substantial damage to the rollers, mill and chute construction, and downtimes of up to 48 hours can be experienced. Part of the problem is that the bagasse behaviour in the pressure feeder chute is not understood well. If the pressure feeder chute behaviour was understood, then the chute geometry design could be modified in order to minimise risk of failure. There are possible avenues for changing pressure feeder chute design and operations with a view to producing more reliable pressure feeder chutes in the future. There have been previous attempts to conduct experimental work to determine the causes of pressure feeder chute failures. There are certain guidelines available, however pressure feeder chute failures continue. Pressure feeder chute behaviour still remains poorly understood. This thesis contains the work carried out between April 14th 2009 and October 10th 2012 that focuses on the design of an experimental apparatus to measure forces and visually observe bagasse behaviour in an attempt to understand bagasse behaviour in pressure feeder chutes and minimise the risk of failure.

“If I were a community leader”: knowing the world by changing it

Education Queensland teachers Gael Wilson and Tracey Herslet, and the principal of Waterford West State School, Di Carter, were proud as they watched the screening of their year five students’ movies at the national Building Child Friendly Communities Conference, held in Logan, Queensland in November 2011.

The architecture of children’s use of language and tools when problem solving collaboratively with robotics

This paper demonstrates, following Vygotsky, that language and tool use has a critical role in the collaborative problem-solving behaviour of school-age children. It reports original ethnographic classroom research examining the convergence of speech and practical activity in children’s collaborative problem solving with robotics programming tasks. The researchers analysed children’s interactions during a series of problem solving experiments in which Lego Mindstorms toolsets were used by teachers to create robotics design challenges among 24 students in a Year 4 Australian classroom (students aged 8.5–9.5 years). The design challenges were incrementally difficult, beginning with basic programming of straight line movement, and progressing to more complex challenges involving programming of the robots to raise Lego figures from conduit pipes using robots as pulleys with string and recycled materials. Data collection involved micro-genetic analysis of students’ speech interactions with tools, peers, and other experts, teacher interviews, and student focus group data. Coding the repeated patterns in the transcripts, the authors outline the structure of the children’s social speech in joint problem solving, demonstrating the patterns of speech and interaction that play an important role in the socialisation of the school-age child’s practical intellect.

Reshaping children’s knowledge through film making: What to film, how to film and why

How can teachers reinvigorate content area knowledge and representation through filmmaking? We give examples of what to film, how to film, and why, drawing on our visual ethnographic research with Year 5 students in a working class suburb of Logan, Queensland. The unit developed content knowledge of Indigenous places and practices through sensitising activities in nature. Valuing students’ funds of knowledge, we interpreted local places through epistemologies of different cultures. Through filmmaking workshops by a digital artist, students filmed community members in a local shopping mall about their perceptions of health and happiness in local places. Students were positioned as future community leaders, presenting their films at a national conference. To conclude, we map the dominant and marginalised, local and specialised, and print and visual forms of knowledge that were interwoven, reshaped, and shared through multimodal design.

“Freer than we Feel” : Applying the Critical Dimension of Consciousness to Children’s Multimodal Encoding

Reports of children and teachers taking transformative social action in schools are becoming rare. This session illustrates how teachers, while feeling the weight of accountability testing in schools, are active agents who can re-imagine literacy pedagogy to change elements of their community. It reports the critical dimensions of a movie-making unit with Year 5 students within a school reform project. The students filmed interviews with people in the local shops to gather lay-knowledge and experiences of the community. The short documentaries challenged stereotypes about what it is like to live in Logan, and critically identified potential improvements to public spaces in the local community. A student panel presented these multimodal texts at a national conference of social activists and community leaders. The report does not valorize or privilege local or lay knowledge over dominant knowledge, but argues that prescribed curriculum should not hinder the capacity for critical consciousness.

Multimodality, media, and access to multiliteracies

In many English-speaking countries bilingual and multilingual speakers of English are integrated into mainstream classrooms, where the teacher is expected to help them “catch up” with speakers of the dominant language. In this presentation, I argue that we teach in culturally and linguistically diverse societies that are increasingly interconnected through a broadened range of multimodal and digital textual practices. Intuitively, one might expect that multimodal approaches are more equitable than exclusively print-based approaches because learners can draw from a broader range of semiotic resources. Yet the potentials of using multiple modes and new digital media to provide greater access to multiliteracies cannot be assumed. I draw on a case study of a multilingual language learner, Paweni, a Thai immigrant, describing how she and her peers negotiated cultural and linguistic difference. These encounters occur during multiliteracies lessons involving both print and digital texts. I theorise a “dialectic of access” to explain the reciprocal interaction between the agency of learners, modes, and media. I apply Giddens’ structuration theory to take into account the social structures – domination, signification, and legitimation – that played an important role in this dialectic of access.

CUOL – "See You Online" : teaching strategies for digital literacy practices in the English curriculum

Literacy educator Kathy Mills, observes that creating multimodal and digital texts is an essential part of the national English curriculum in Australia. Here, she presents five practical and engaging ways to transform conventional writing tasks in a digital world.

Yarning circles in the literacy classroom

This article explains how the speaking and listening practice of yarning circles can be used in the literacy classroom. The article opens with an account of a live enactment of yarning circles with elementary students in a mainstream classroom in Australia. It explains the purpose and origin of yarning circles in Indigenous communities, and provides steps for establishing and implementing the practice in classrooms.

Book Review [White Bound: Nationalists, Antiracists, and the Shared Meanings of Race, by MW Hughey]

Dr Kathy A. Mills provides a critical synthesis and review of the new book by Matthew W. Hughey entitle: White Bound: Nationalists, Antiractists, and the Shared Meanings of Race, published by Standford University Press in 2012. A sample of Dr Mills' review reads: "The author positions race squarely at the center to challenge the shared assumptions of white supremacist logic on both sides of the debate. The clever thesis blurs the boundaries between “good whites” and “bad whites”, rendering the white reader intellectually stimulated, but existentially unchanged – White Bound – as the author ponders: “Perhaps we have met the enemy, and he [it] is us” (p.193)...The unanswered question that remains is: How do we resist the various “shades” of white supremacy to pursue counter-hegemonic practices?"

The kineikonic mode : a multimodal analysis of students’ claymation movies

Globalised communication in society today is characterised by multimodal forms of meaning making in the context of increased cultural and linguistic diversity. This research paper responds to these imperatives, applying Halliday's (1978, 1994) categories of systemic functional linguistics - representational or ideational, interactive or interpersonal, and compositional or textual meanings. Following the work of Kress (2000), van Leeuwen (Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996), and Jewitt (2006), multimodal semiotic analysis is applied to claymation movies that were collaboratively designed by Year 6 students. The significance of this analysis is the metalanguage for textual work in the kineikonic mode - moving images.

Socio-Spatial Approaches To Literacy Studies: Rethinking the Social Constitution and Politics of Space

Literacy studies have begun to examine the spatial dimension of literacy practices in a way that foregrounds space, and that considers space as constitutive to human relations and practices. This chapter provides an introduction to spatial literacy research, providing a guide to key theorists, themes, and studies that have shaped historical and new developments in spatial approaches to literacy practice and pedagogy. It begins by reconceptualising socio-spatial approaches to literacy research and defines terms. Intersections with related social theories are examined, with an emphasis on critical approaches and the politics of space. It clarifies the relationship between socio-spatial and socio-cultural paradigms, revisiting the spatial in seminal socio-cultural research. It covers new ground,including networks, flows, and deterritorialisation of literacy practice. The chapter concludes with challenges and recommendations for future language research and educational practice.

Multiliteracies and a new metalanguage for the moving image

Globalised communication in society today is characterised by multimodal forms of meaning making in a context of increased cultural and linguistic diversity, calling for the teaching of multiliteracies. This transformation requires the development of a new metalanguage or language of description for the burgeoning and hybridised variety of text forms associated with information and multimedia technologies. To continue to teach to a narrow band of print-based genres, grammars, and skills is to ignore the reality of textual practices outside of schools. This paper draws from classroom research in a multiliteracies classroom to provide a multimodal analysis of a claymation movie. The significance of the paper is the synthesis of a multimodal metalanguage for teachers and students to describe the features of work in the kineikonic (moving image) mode.

“Yarning” as a method for community-based health research with indigenous women : the indigenous women's wellness research program

This project explores yarning as a methodology for understanding health and wellness from an indigenous woman's perspective. Previous research exploring indigenous Australian women's perspectives have used traditional Western methodologies and have often been felt by the women themselves to be inappropriate and ineffective in gathering information and promoting discussion. This research arose from the indigenous women themselves, and resulted in the exploration of using yarning as a methodology. Yarning is a conversational process that involves the sharing of stories and the development of knowledge. It prioritizes indigenous ways of communicating, in that it is culturally prescribed, cooperative, and respectful. The authors identify different types of yarning that are relevant throughout their research, and explain two types of yarning—family yarning and cross-cultural yarning—which have not been previously identified in research literature. This project found that yarning as a research method is appropriate for community-based health research with indigenous Australian women. This may be an important finding for health professionals and researchers to consider when working and researching with indigenous women from other countries.