A new dimension of sister city relationships in the 21st century : a pilot study in Australia

Sister City agreements have historically provided a goodwill platform for countries 10 undertake activities for the enhancement of peaceful and cooperative relations. They have also become instruments for cities 10 develop their own form of internationalization and to provide for specific activities of cullural,
educational or other similar cooperative exchanges between cities generally in different nations. Sisler City Relationships are broadly-based, officially approved, long-IeI'm partnership between two communities in two countries. Using on-line questionnaires distributed through the membership of Australian Sisler City Association (ASCA), this pilot study confirmed that the existing relationships are mainly focused on cultural exchange, education and council exchange. An overwhelming majority of the local governments, however, are ready for the
extension of the Sister City Relationship by developing business and economic related activities. in fact the pilot study confirms this research is timely and necessaty especially in developing policy guidelines and operation
frameworks.

Pulse-lavage brushing followed by hydrogen peroxide-gauze packing for bone-bed preparation in cemented total hip arthroplasty : a bovine model

To compare the effectiveness of pulse-lavage brushing followed by hydrogen peroxide-gauze packing with either technique alone or normal-saline irrigation in bone-bed preparation for cemented total hip arthroplasty. 44 fresh-frozen ox femoral canals were prepared for cemented total hip arthroplasty using 4 techniques: normal-saline irrigation, pulse-lavage brushing, hydrogen peroxide-soaked gauze packing, and a combination of the latter 2 techniques. The maximum tensile pull-out force required to separate the prosthesis from the femoral canal was measured as an indicator of the strength of the cement-bone interface. The mean pull-out force to separate the prosthesis from the femoral canal was significantly higher in specimens prepared with pulse-lavage brushing followed by hydrogen peroxide-soaked gauze packing or pulse-lavage brushing alone than those prepared with normal-saline irrigation or hydrogen peroxide-soaked gauze packing alone 300(p<0.001). Pulse-lavage brushing is more effective at cleansing the femoral canal and increasing mechanical strength at the cement-bone interface than preparation with normal-saline irrigation or hydrogen peroxide-soaked gauze packing.

Peak modeling approach to accurate assignment of first-dimension retention times in comprehensive two-dimensional chromatography

Modeling of first-dimension retention of peaks based on modulation phase and period allows reliable prediction of the modulated peak distributions generated in the comprehensive two-dimensional chromatography experiment. By application of the inverse process, it is also possible to use the profile of the modulated peaks (their heights or areas) to predict the shape and parameters of the original input chromatographic band (retention time, standard deviation, area) for the primary column dimension. This allows an accurate derivation of the firstdimension retention time (RSD 0.02%) which is equal to that for the non-modulated experiment, rather than relying upon the retention time of the major modulated peak generated by the modulation process (RSD 0.16%). The latter metric can produce a retention time that differs by at least the modulation period employed in the experiment, which displays a discontinuity in the retention time vs modulation phase plot at the point of the 180° out-ofphase modulation. In contrast, the new procedure proposed here gives a result that is essentially independent of modulation phase and period. This permits an accurate value to be assigned to the first-dimension retention. The proposed metric accounts for the time on the seconddimension, the phase of the distribution, and the holdup time that the sampled solute is retained in the modulating interface. The approach may also be based on the largest three modulated peaks, rather than all modulated peaks. This simplifies the task of assigning the retention time with little loss of precision in band standard deviation or retention time, provided that these peaks are not all overloaded in the first or second dimension.

Mechanisms for multimodality : taking fiction to another dimension

We present methods for automatically constructing representations of fiction books in a range of modalities: audibly, graphically and as 3D virtual environments. The correspondence between the sequential ordering of events against the order of events presented in the text is used to correctly resolve the dynamic interactions for each representation. Synthesised audio created from the fiction text is used to calibrate the base time-line against which the other forms of media are correctly aligned. The audio stream is based on speech synthesis using the text of the book, and is enhanced using distinct voices for the different characters in a book. Sound effects are included automatically. The graphical representation represents the text (as subtitles), identifies active characters and provides visual feedback of the content of the story. Dynamic virtual environments conform to the constraints implied by the story, and are used as a source of further visual content. These representations are all aligned to a common time-line, and combined using sequencing facilities to provide a multimodal version of the original text.

Large versus small wood in streams : the effect of wood dimension on macroinvertebrate communities

Conventionally, most research and restoration involving in-stream wood focuses on large wood (>0.1 m diameter), excluding any smaller pieces. However, this may neglect a major component of in-stream habitat, as small wood can constitute the majority of pieces, particularly in small streams. The ecological benefit of large wood is well established, but corresponding benefits associated with small wood (0.05-0.1 m diameter) have not been demonstrated. To test the effect of wood dimension on macroinvertebrate community composition, we compared the fauna occupying large wood habitats with that occupying small wood at eight streams in south-eastern Australia. The relationships between wood dimensions and its macroinvertebrate fauna were complex. Community composition did not vary with wood dimension, and no significant correlations were found between other macroinvertebrate attributes (including family richness and evenness) and wood dimension, including diameter. However, analysis of covariance suggested that large wood supported a greater diversity and abundance of macroinvertebrates, indicating that the method of analysis could influence the result. Adjustment for differences in sample dimension using rarefaction determined that these findings were likely to be a result of the surface area and volumes sampled varying with the dimension of the wood. Per unit surface area, and per unit volume, small wood supported a similar number of families to large wood. Thus we conclude that, relative to the available surface area, small and large wood can be equivalent in their contribution to the available habitat in a stream. Therefore, the potential value of small wood as a habitat resource warrants its explicit consideration for inclusion in ecological and rehabilitation studies.

Phenylalanine-544 plays a key role in substrate and inhibitor binding by providing a hydrophobic packing point at the active site of insulin-regulated aminopeptidase

Inhibitors of insulin-regulated aminopeptidase (IRAP) improve memory and are being developed as a novel treatment for memory loss. In this study, the binding of a class of these inhibitors to human IRAP was investigated using molecular docking and site-directed mutagenesis. Four benzopyran-based IRAP inhibitors with different affinities were docked into a homology model of the catalytic site of IRAP. Two 4-pyridinyl derivatives orient with the benzopyran oxygen interacting with the Zn2+ ion and a direct parallel ring-stack interaction between the benzopyran rings and Phe544. In contrast, the two 4-quinolinyl derivatives orient in a different manner, interacting with the Zn2+ ion via the quinoline nitrogen, and Phe544 contributes an edge-face hydrophobic stacking point with the benzopyran moiety. Mutagenic replacement of Phe544 with alanine, isoleucine, or valine resulted in either complete loss of catalytic activity or altered hydrolysis velocity that was substrate-dependent. Phe544 is also important for inhibitor binding, because these mutations altered the Ki in some cases, and docking of the inhibitors into the corresponding Phe544 mutant models revealed how the interaction might be disturbed. These findings demonstrate a key role of Phe544 in the binding of the benzopyran IRAP inhibitors and for optimal positioning of enzyme substrates during catalysis.

A fast kernel dimension reduction algorithm with applications to face recognition

This paper presents a novel dimensionality reduction algorithm for kernel based classification. In the feature space, the proposed algorithm maximizes the ratio of the squared between-class distance and the sum of the within-class variances of the training samples for a given reduced dimension. This algorithm has lower complexity than the recently reported kernel dimension reduction(KDR) for supervised learning. We conducted several simulations with large training datasets, which demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has similar performance or is marginally better compared with KDR whilst having the advantage of computational efficiency. Further, we applied the proposed dimension reduction algorithm to face recognition in which the number of training samples is very small. This proposed face recognition approach based on the new algorithm outperforms the eigenface approach based on the principle component analysis (PCA), when the training data is complete, that is, representative of the whole dataset.