Review short: Rachael Briggs’s Free Logic

 Review of Rachael Briggs' poetry collection, Free Logic, UQP, 2013.

Jane Montgomery Griffiths’ Theatrical Poetics

An interview with Jane Montgomery Griffiths regarding her theatrical adaptation of Dorothy Porter’s verse novel Wild Surmise (2002).

Review short : Todd Turner’s Woodsmoke

Review of Todd Turner's poetry collection, Woodsmoke, Black Pepper Publishing, 2014

Walking through land and memory

A review of Saskia Beudel's A Country in Mind: Memoir with Landscape, UWAP Publishing 2013

Pseudoscience in the science curriculum

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Learning from the MOOCs model

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Non-formal education: Scouting, schooling and teacher training

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Food insecurity in Australia: Implications for general practitioners

Background In Australia, it would appear that food is abundant. For a proportion of people, however, accessing enough food to eat can be a daily or weekly struggle.
Objectives This article provides a summary about the prevalence, causes and consequences of food insecurity that affects vulnerable populations in Australia, and discusses the implications for general practitioners (GPs).
Discussion It is estimated that 4% of Australians cannot access sufficient, safe and nutritious food. Food insecurity can be both a precursor to, and a by-product of, chronic disease and poverty. Patients who are food insecure may skip meals, eat cheap food and experience stress. They may show incredible resilience and skills in managing and masking this issue. Identifying this vulnerable population is of high importance to GPs as it has an impact on the work-up and care of such individuals. Effective links between welfare and health services are required to address patients’ material, financial and environmental barriers to food security

Unbearable pressures on paradise? : Tourism and heritage management in Luang Prabang, a world heritage site

This article critically appraises and evaluates tourism strategies and heritage management in Luang Prabang, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, a Unesco-designated ‘world heritage’ city. Luang Prabang is widely regarded as one of the most significant heritage cities in Southeast Asia. The city is renowned for its Buddhist and royal culture and also its historic vernacular Lao, French, and Lao-French architecture. The city earned world heritage status in 1995, but since that time the boom in in-bound Asian tourism has put pressures on Luang Prabang’s authenticity and, for some, called into question the validity of its world heritage status. This article examines these substantial and wide-ranging pressures and argues that the growth in tourism and the treatment of Luang Prabang’s heritage are symptoms of broader regional processes of political and economic change, including the expansion of Chinese and Korean investments and the growth of intra-regional tourism. The authors argue that it is unreasonable to expect traditional heritage management mechanisims, including the world heritage listing, to be able to cope with the pressures on sites like Luang Prabang. The very least that is required, the authors contend, is an expanded understanding of the context in which heritage places sit, and the authors make a case that the cultural landscapes approach, combined with explicit concerns for intangible heritage and poverty alleviation, must be at the core of any strategy for long-term protection of the city’s cultural values.

Novel B-site ordered double perovskite Ba2Bi0.1Sc0.2Co1.7O6-x for highly efficient oxygen reduction reaction

Double perovskite Ba₂Bi_0.1Sc_0.2Co_1.7O_6-x (BBSC) demonstrates low polarization resistance between 600 and 750 °C due to the high oxygen reduction rate of BBSC as reflected by its large D_V and k values, which are derived from the face centered cubic structure and high cobalt content.

Cross-strand disulfides in the non-hydrogen bonding site of antiparallel β-sheet (aCSDns): poised for biological switching

Forbidden disulfides are stressed disulfides found in recognisable protein contexts previously defined as structurally forbidden. The torsional strain of forbidden disulfides is typically higher than for structural disulfides, but not so high as to render them immediately susceptible to reduction under physionormal conditions. The meta-stability of forbidden disulfides makes them likely candidates as redox switches. Here we mined the Protein Data Bank for examples of the most common forbidden disulfide, the aCSDn. This is a canonical motif in which disulfide-bonded cysteine residues are positioned directly opposite each other on adjacent anti-parallel β-strands such that the backbone hydrogen bonded moieties are directed away from each other. We grouped these aCSDns into homologous clusters and performed an extensive physicochemical and informatic analysis of the examples found. We estimated their torsional energies using quantum chemical calculations and studied differences between the preferred conformations of the computational model and disulfides found in solved protein structures to understand the interaction between the forces imposed by the disulfide linkage and typical constraints of the surrounding β-sheet. In particular, we assessed the twisting, shearing and buckling of aCSDn-containing β-sheets, as well as the structural and energetic relaxation when hydrogen bonds in the motif are broken. We show the strong preference of aCSDns for the right-handed staple conformation likely arises from its compatibility with the twist, shear and Cα separation of canonical β-sheet. The disulfide can be accommodated with minimal distortion of the sheet, with almost all the strain present as torsional strain within the disulfide itself. For each aCSDn cluster, we summarise the structural and strain data, taxonomic conservation and any evidence of redox activity. aCSDns are known substrates of thioredoxin-like enzymes. This, together with their meta-stability, means they are ideally suited to biological switching roles and are likely to play important roles in the molecular pathways of oxidative stress.

Using steric bulk for selective recognition; blocking the binding site to differentiate guests

Selectivity is demonstrated in a supramolecular host:guest system using a receptor with a non-linear binding site. For the "open" receptor 1 strong binding for both flexible and rigid guests was observed. Receptor 2, with a "blocked" binding site, also bound flexible guests effectively but its affinity for rigid guests was 50 fold lower.

Buxton silver gum reserve: using geographic information systems to investigate historic change in site integrity

Eucalyptus crenulata is a rare species known from only two populations. The Buxton Silver Gum Reserve was set aside in 1978 for the conservation of the species, but this objective may be compromised by changes in the integrity of the landscape immediately surrounding the Reserve. A time sequence of aerial photos and Geographic Information Systems technology has been used to identify patterns of landscape change, and aid in determining appropriate management strategies to minimize negative impacts caused by landscape fragmentation and habitat exposure