Zebrafish SPI-1 marks a site of myeloid development independent of primitive erythropoiesis: implications for axial patterning.

The mammalian transcription factor SPI-1 (synonyms: SPI1, PU.1, or Sfpi1) plays a critical role in myeloid development. To examine early myeloid commitment in the zebrafish embryo, we isolated a gene from zebrafish that is a SPI-1 orthologue on the basis of homology and phylogenetic considerations. The zebrafish spi1 (pu1) gene was first expressed at 12 h postfertilization in rostral lateral plate mesoderm (LPM), anatomically isolated from erythroid development in caudal lateral plate mesoderm. Fate-mapping traced rostral LPM cells from the region of initial spi1 expression to a myeloid fate. spi1 expression was lost in the bloodless mutant cloche, but rostral spi1 expression and myeloid development were preserved in the mutant spadetail, despite its complete erythropoietic failure. This dissociation of myeloid and erythroid development was further explored in studies of embryos overexpressing BMP-4, or chordin, in bmp-deficient swirl and snailhouse mutants, and chordin-deficient chordino mutants. These studies demonstrate that, in zebrafish, spi1 marks a rostral population of LPM cells committed to a myeloid fate anatomically separated from and developmentally independent of erythroid commitment in the caudal LPM. Such complete anatomical and developmental dissociation of two hematopoietic lineages adds an interesting complexity to the understanding of vertebrate hematopoietic development and presents significant implications for the mechanisms regulating axial patterning.

Chronic heart failure programs : does more equal less? (BENCH study)

The national multi-centre study (49 programs, 1158 patients) developed a quality score (HF-IS) and the national benchmarks for heart programs. The higher a program scored on the HF-IS the greater the reduction in hospital admissions and mortality. This score has the potential to change national nursing practice and improve health outcomes of patients.

The recognition and protection of well-known trade marks in Indonesia

Legal context The recognition and protection of well-known marks in Indonesia has improved over the last few years for a variety of reasons.

Key points First, the Asian Crisis resulted in the creation of a Commercial Court, which is a clear improvement over the previously responsible District Courts. Secondly, the increasingly frequent publication of court decisions has improved transparency and consistency of those decisions. Well-known marks are now clearly protected against use for similar goods/services. Protection is extended to dissimilar goods/services by applying Article 16(3) TRIPS directly or by arguing that registration occurred in bad faith. Nevertheless, decisions thus far concern almost exclusively revocation and invalidity of registrations. Civil remedies such as damages and interim injunctions are hardly used, because the outdated civil procedural law has not familiarised judges with such legal instruments. Clearing the register of infringing registrations is another matter of concern. Cancellation for non-use for three consecutive years can be difficult, because the plaintiff is required to provide evidence of the last use in the production of the goods/services rather than in the course of trade more generally.

Practical significance While it has become much easier to protect well-known marks in Indonesia, much work remains to be done regarding the procedural framework of civil infringement proceedings and regarding the clearing of the register.

An approach to assign individual marks from a team mark : the case of Australian grading system at universities

This study uses a new approach to assign individual marks from a team mark using individual contributions to a teamwork product. A team member’s contribution to a teamwork product, in the form of an individual weighting factor, is calculated using team members’ co‐assessment. A comparison of the proposed approach with existing methods has been discussed with the help of a typical teamwork example. The approach has been refined to make it applicable for the Australian grading system at universities. It has been implemented in a large undergraduate engineering course to observe its effectiveness in practice. The results show that the method encourages teamwork, penalises below‐average contributions and rewards above‐average contributions. An analysis of a students’ perception survey shows that students prefer the approach over alternative approaches.

Advances in infection and immunity : from bench to bedside

Following the successful inaugural Lorne Infection and Immunity Conference in 2011, scientists have gathered again on 15–17 February 2012 for a second round of this multidisciplinary international meeting. Sessions covered a range of different topics, including innate and adaptive immune responses to infection, host–pathogen interactions, systems biology, as well as clinical and translational research. Here we summarize some of the main concepts discussed at the meeting and the progress on the development of new therapeutic approaches for the control of infectious diseases.

A review of mathematical equations to assign individual marks from a team mark

BACKGROUND : Team-based learning is an integral part of engineering education today. Development of team skills is now a part of the curriculum at universities as employers demand these skills on graduates. Higher education institutions enforce academic staff to teach, practise and assess team skills, and at the same time, they ask academic staff to supply individual marks and/or grades. Allocating individual marks from a team mark is a very complex and sensitive task that may adversely affect both individual and team performance. A number of both qualitative and quantitative methods are available to address this issue. Quantitative mathematical methods are favoured over qualitative subjective methods as they are more straightforward to explain to the students and they may help minimise conflicts between assessors and students. PURPOSE : This study presents a review of commonly used mathematical equations to allocate individual marks from a team mark. Quantitative analytical equations are favoured over qualitative subjective methods because they are more straightforward to explain to the students and if explained to the students in advance, they may help minimise conflicts between assessors and students. Some of these analytical equations focus primarily on the assessment of the quality of teamwork product (product assessment) while the others put greater emphasis on the assessment of teamwork performance (process assessment). The remaining equations try to strike a balance between product assessment and process assessment. The primary purpose of this study is to discuss the qualitative aspects of quantitative equations. DESIGN/METHOD : This study simulates a set of scenarios of team marks and individual contributions that collectively cover all possible teamwork assessment environments. The available analytical equations are then applied to each case to examine their relative merits with respect to a set of evaluation criteria with exhaustive graphical plots. RESULTS : Although each analytical equations discussed and analysed in this study has its own merits for a particular application scenario, the recent methods such as knee formula in SPARKPLUS and cap formula, are relatively better in terms of a number of evaluation criteria such as fairness, teamwork attitude, balance between process and product assessments etc. In addition to having all favourable properties of knee formula, cap formula explicitly considers the quality of teamwork (i.e., team mark) while allocating individual marks. Cap formula may, however, be difficult to explain to the students due to relatively complex mathematical equations involved. CONCLUSIONS : Not all existing analytical equations that allocate individual marks from a team mark have similar characteristics. Recent methods, knee formula and cap formula, are advantageous in terms of a number of evaluation criteria and are recommended to apply in practice. However, it is important to examine these equations with respect to enhancing students’ learning achievements rather than the students and academic staff’s preferences.

The natural death of the Supreme Judicial Commission of Bangladesh and the consequent patronage appointments to the Bench: advocating the establishment of an Independent Judicial Commission

In order to strengthen the constitutional process of appointment of judges in Superior Courts, Bangladesh established a Supreme Judicial Commission in 2008 by promulgating an Ordinance. This Ordinance was neither promulgated in pursuance of any provisions of the Constitution nor by introducing any amendment to the provisions of the Constitution. The recommendations of the Commission were not given binding force on the executive. The power of the executive to accept or reject the candidates recommended by the Supreme Judicial Commission at his pleasure defeated the very objective of establishing the Commission for appointing the most competent and suitable persons as judges of the superior courts in Bangladesh. However, following the general elections held on 29 December 2008, the newly elected Government of Bangladesh Awami League dispensed with the Supreme Judicial Commission by not placing the Supreme Judicial Commission Ordinance before the parliament for its approval. This resulted in restoring the previous system of appointing judges on the satisfaction of the executive, which has resulted in patronage appointments. Thus, the establishment of an independent judicial commission in Bangladesh is an imperative necessity for strengthening the independence and impartiality of the judiciary.

Well-known trade marks, foreign investment and local industry : a comparison of China and Indonesia

Strengthened protection for well-known trade marks in accordance with the TRIPS Agreement is an important issue for developing countries, which has led to trade pressures from industrialised nations in the past. ‘Trade mark squatting’, referring to the registration in bad faith of foreign well-known marks in order to sell them back to their original owners, is a much discussed phenomenon in this context. This article outlines the history and development of well-known trade marks and the applicable law in China and Indonesia. It looks not just at foreign and international brands subjected to ‘trade mark squatting’, but also at how local enterprises are using the system. Rather remarkably in view of the countries’ turbulent histories, local well-known marks have a long history and are well respected for their range of products. They are not normally affected by the ‘trade mark squatting’ phenomenon and are rarely the subject of disputes. Enhanced protection under the TRIPS Agreement is especially relevant for international brands and the article shows the approaches in the two countries. In China, government incentives assist the proliferation of nationally well-known and locally ‘famous’ marks. In Indonesia, lack of implementing legislation has left the matter of recognition to the discretion of the courts.

The effect of continuous repetition training and intra-set rest training on bench press strength and power

Lawton et al compare the effects of continuous repetition and intra-set rest training on maximal strength and power output of the upper body. Results show that bench press training involving 4 sets of 6 continuous repetitions elicited a greater improvement in bench press strength than 8 sets of 3 repetitions at the same percentage load of their 6 repetition maximum.