Parliament House Competition Model, Canberra

View of model for competition entry.

Slotted timber skin, Sunshine Beach House, Sunshine Coast

As seen from exterior.

There's a Woman in the House, A 1950's Journey

When Lyn Jordan married an engineer, and moved to the bush, she began writing as a freelance journalist. Like other young wives on construction sites, however, and despite having all modern conveniences, she finds herself immersed in child-rearing and domesticity. This entralling collection of writings, selected by her daughter, paints women's lives from the 1950s - an insider's view. Lyn Jordan discovers that being surrounded by young children in the bush, then the suburbs of Melbourne, leads to a different journey of the spirit.

Speciation and absolute bioavailability: risk assessment of arsenic-contaminated sites in a residential suburb in Canberra

Watson is a fully developed suburb of some 30 years in Canberra (the capital city of Australia), A plunge dip using arsenical pesticides for tick control was operated there between 1946 and 1960, Chemical investigations revealed that many soil samples obtained from the study area contained levels of arsenic exceeding the current health-based investigation levels of 100 mg kg(-1) set by the National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia, For the speciation study, nine composite samples of surface and sub-surface soils and a composite sample of rocks were selected. ICP-MS analysis showed that arsenic levels in these samples ranged from 32 to 1597 mg kg(-1), Chemical speciation of arsenic showed that the arsenite (trivalent) components were 0.32-56% in the soil and 44.8% in the rock composite samples. Using a rat model, the absolute bioavailability of these contaminated soils relative to As3+ or As5+ ranged from 1.02 to 9.87% and 0.26 to 2.98%, respectively, An attempt was made to develop a suitable leachate test as an index of bioavailability. However, the results indicated that there was no significant correlation between the bioavailability and leachates using neutral pH water or 1 M HCl. Our results indicate that speciation is highly significant for the interpretation of bioavailability and risk assessment data; the bioavailable fractions of arsenic in soils from Watson are small and therefore the health impact upon the environment and humans due to this element is limited.

Cross-reactive IgE antibody responses to tropomyosins from Ascaris lumbricoides and cockroach

Background: Evidence indicates that infection with Ascaris lumbricoides may promote development of allergy and asthma. Objective: To study the role of tropomyosin, a pan-allergen in invertebrates, in IgE responses to A lumbricoides. Methods: Recombinant A lumbricoides and Periplaneta americana tropomyosins were expressed in Pichia pastoris. Levels of IgE to tropomyosins from A lumbricoides and P americana were determined by chimeric ELISA in sera from 119 children living in a parasite-endemic area and 112 patients with cockroach allergy from the allergy clinics. Presence of tropomyosin in A lumbricoides larvae at L3 stage was evaluated by immunofluorescence using mAb IA6, directed against mite tropomyosin. Molecular modeling of P americana and A lumbricoides tropomyosins was performed by using the MODELLER program. Results: A lumbricoides tropomyosin showed 69% to 98% sequence identity to tropomyosins from other invertebrates. The predicted structure of A lumbricoides tropomyosin was similar to that of P americana tropomyosin and showed the characteristic coiled-coil structure. Strong correlation was found for IgE antibodies to tropomyosins from A lumbricoides and P americana in sera from children living in a parasite-endemic area and from patients with cockroach allergy. Larvae of A lumbricoides reacted strongly with mAb IA6. Conclusion: Tropomyosin induces IgE responses in A lumbricoides-infected children and in patients allergic to cockroach.