Reinventing D'Jillong : current regeneration initiatives challenging the identity and place of Geelong

Australian regional city regeneration in Australia is increasingly becoming an important topic as they attempt to position themselves mid-way between larger discourses about capital cities and peri-urban landscapes. Historically these cities, like Newcastle, Wollongong and Geelong, have been marginalised in infrastructure and planning support systems, yet subject to erratic Commonwealth and State funded initiatives that have divested major specific-purpose complexes into their cities. Such has been as a consequence of of 'decentralisation' and 'regionalisation' political platforms, but also to address employment and voting needs. As an example, Geelong embraced contemporary industrialism, particularly automotive, and built on its port and wool export capacities. Politics, intransigence and lack of economic investment compounded the failure to create quality urban fabric and enable innovative planning. With this legacy, this regional city finds itself at the cusp of heavy industry disintegration, education and health sectorial growth, population increases aided by regional escapism, and a lethargic city centre. In attempting to redress these trends, Geelong is consciously attempting to re-image itself, regenerate key sections of its urban fabric, but also manage the regional escapism (sea change / tree change) phenomena. This paper critiques the larger context, and then uses three examples - "Vision 2" in the city centre, the Mega Port proposal, Fyansford Green and the Moolap salt marsh - as foils to reflect whether these initiatives are and can assist the facilitation of city structural change, economic renewal and enhanced urban design and place-making outcomes.

Wet-Spun Biodegradable Fibers on Conducting Platforms: Novel Architectures for Muscle Regeneration

Novel biosynthetic platforms supporting ex vivo growth of partially differentiated muscle cells in an aligned linear orientation that is consistent with the structural requirements of muscle tissue are described. These platforms consist of biodegradable polymer fibers spatially aligned on a conducting polymer substrate. Long multinucleated myotubes are formed from differentiation of adherent myoblasts, which align longitudinally to the fiber axis to form linear cell-seeded biosynthetic fiber constructs. The biodegradable polymer fibers bearing undifferentiated myoblasts can be detached from the substrate following culture. The ability to remove the muscle cell-seeded polymer fibers when required provides the means to use the biodegradable fibers as linear muscle-seeded scaffold components suitable for in vivo implantation into muscle. These fibers are shown to promote differentiation of muscle cells in a highly organized linear unbranched format in vitro and thereby potentially facilitate more stable integration into recipient tissue, providing structural support and mechanical protection for the donor cells. In addition, the conducting substrate on which the fibers are placed provides the potential to develop electrical stimulation paradigms for optimizing the ex vivo growth and synchronization of muscle cells on the biodegradable fibers prior to implantation into diseased or damaged muscle tissue.

Increased Biomass, Seed Yield and Stress Tolerance Is Conferred in Arabidopsis by a Novel Enzyme from the Resurrection Grass Sporobolus stapfianus That Glycosylates the Strigolactone Analogue GR24

Isolation of gene transcripts from desiccated leaf tissues of the resurrection grass, Sporobolus stapfianus, resulted in the identification of a gene, SDG8i, encoding a Group 1 glycosyltransferase (UGT). Here, we examine the effects of introducing this gene, under control of the CaMV35S promoter, into the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Results show that Arabidopsis plants constitutively over-expressing SDG8i exhibit enhanced growth, reduced senescence, cold tolerance and a substantial improvement in protoplasmic drought tolerance. We hypothesise that expression of SDG8i in Arabidopsis negatively affects the bioactivity of metabolite/s that mediate/s environmentally-induced repression of cell division and expansion, both during normal development and in response to stress. The phenotype of transgenic plants over-expressing SDG8i suggests modulation in activities of both growth- and stress-related hormones. Plants overexpressing the UGT show evidence of elevated auxin levels, with the enzyme acting downstream of ABA to reduce drought-induced senescence. Analysis of the in vitro activity of the UGT recombinant protein product demonstrates that SDG8i can glycosylate the synthetic strigolactone analogue GR24, evoking a link with strigolactone-related processes in vivo. The large improvements observed in survival of transgenic Arabidopsis plants under cold-, salt- and drought-stress, as well as the substantial increases in growth rate and seed yield under non-stress conditions, indicates that overexpression of SDG8i in crop plants may provide a novel means of increasing plant productivity.

A study of seed viability following consumption by birds

This project aimed to quantify the potential for wild birds to spread genetically modified seeds from their area of planting to adjacent areas, through ingestion and transport in the gut (endozoochorous transmission). We addressed this by assessing whether seed viability was affected by passage through the avian gut. We sought to address this question by testing the effects of ingestion of a number of key agricultural crops by three common wild bird pest species.

Identification of MicroRNAs linked to regulators of muscle protein synthesis and regeneration in young and old skeletal muscle

Over the course of ageing there is a natural and progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass. The onset and progression of age-related muscle wasting is associated with an attenuated activation of Akt-mTOR signalling and muscle protein synthesis in response to anabolic stimuli such as resistance exercise. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are novel and important post-transcriptional regulators of numerous cellular processes. The role of miRNAs in the regulation of muscle protein synthesis following resistance exercise is poorly understood. This study investigated the changes in skeletal muscle miRNA expression following an acute bout of resistance exercise in young and old subjects with a focus on the miRNA species predicted to target Akt-mTOR signalling.

Lipidomic analysis of Arabidopsis seed genetically engineered to contain DHA

Metabolic engineering of omega-3 long-chain (≥C20) polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω3 LC-PUFA) in oilseeds has been one of the key targets in recent years. By expressing a transgenic pathway for enhancing the synthesis of the ω3 LC-PUFA docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) from endogenous α-linolenic acid (ALA), we obtained the production of fish oil-like proportions of DHA in Arabidopsis seed oil. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was used to characterize the triacylglycerol (TAG), diacylglycerol (DAG) and phospholipid (PL) lipid classes in the transgenic and wild type Arabidopsis seeds at both developing and mature stages. The analysis identified the appearance of several abundant DHA-containing phosphatidylcholine (PC), DAG and TAG molecular species in mature seeds. The relative abundances of PL, DAG, and TAG species showed a preferred combination of LC-PUFA with ALA in the transgenic seeds, where LC-PUFA were esterified in positions usually occupied by 20:1ω9. Trace amounts of di-DHA PC and tri-DHA TAG were identified and confirmed by high resolution MS/MS. Studying the lipidome in transgenic seeds provided insights into where DHA accumulated and combined with other fatty acids of neutral and phospholipids from the developing and mature seeds. © 2014 Zhou, Callahan, Shrestha, Liu, Petrie and Singh.

Nerve guidance conduits from aligned nanofibers: improvement of nerve regeneration through longitudinal nanogrooves on a fiber surface

A novel fibrous conduit consisting of well-aligned nanofibers with longitudinal nanogrooves on the fiber surface was prepared by electrospinning and was subjected to an in vivo nerve regeneration study on rats using a sciatic nerve injury model. For comparison, a fibrous conduit having a similar fiber alignment structure without surface groove and an autograft were also conducted in the same test. The electrophysiological, walking track, gastrocnemius muscle, triple-immunofluorescence, and immunohistological analyses indicated that grooved fibers effectively improved sciatic nerve regeneration. This is mainly attributed to the highly ordered secondary structure formed by surface grooves and an increase in the specific surface area. Fibrous conduits made of longitudinally aligned nanofibers with longitudinal nanogrooves on the fiber surface may offer a new nerve guidance conduit for peripheral nerve repair and regeneration.