DRB2, DRB3 and DRB5 function in a non-canonical microRNA pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana

DOUBLE-STRANDED RNA BIN DIN G (DRB) proteins have been functionally characterized in viruses, prokaryotes and eukaryotes and are involved in all aspects of RNA biology. Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) encodes five closely related DRB proteins, DRB1 to DRB5. DRB1 and DRB4 are required by DICER-LIKE (DCL) proteins DCL1 and DCL4 to accurately and efficiently process structurally distinct double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) precursor substrates in the microRNA (miRNA) and trans-acting small-interfering RNA (tasiRNA) biogenesis pathways respectively. We recently reported that DRB2 is also involved in the biogenesis of specific miRNA subsets. Furthermore, the severity of the developmental phenotype displayed by the drb235 triple mutant plant, compared with those expressed by either drb2, drb3 and drb5 single mutants, or double mutant combinations thereof, indicates that DRB3 and DRB5 function in the same non-canonical miRNA pathway as DRB2. Through the use of our artificial miRNA (amiRNA) plant expression vector, pBlueGreen 2,3 we demonstrate here that unlike DRB2, DRB3 and DRB5 are not involved in the dsRNA processing stages of the miRNA biogenesis pathway, but are required to mediate RNA silencing of target genes of DRB2-associated miRNA s. © 2012 Landes Bioscience.

An evaluation of different features and learning models for anomalous event detection

The huge amount of CCTV footage available makes it very burdensome to process these videos manually through human operators. This has made automated processing of video footage through computer vision technologies necessary. During the past several years, there has been a large effort to detect abnormal activities through computer vision techniques. Typically, the problem is formulated as a novelty detection task where the system is trained on normal data and is required to detect events which do not fit the learned ‘normal’ model. There is no precise and exact definition for an abnormal activity; it is dependent on the context of the scene. Hence there is a requirement for different feature sets to detect different kinds of abnormal activities. In this work we evaluate the performance of different state of the art features to detect the presence of the abnormal objects in the scene. These include optical flow vectors to detect motion related anomalies, textures of optical flow and image textures to detect the presence of abnormal objects. These extracted features in different combinations are modeled using different state of the art models such as Gaussian mixture model(GMM) and Semi- 2D Hidden Markov model(HMM) to analyse the performances. Further we apply perspective normalization to the extracted features to compensate for perspective distortion due to the distance between the camera and objects of consideration. The proposed approach is evaluated using the publicly available UCSD datasets and we demonstrate improved performance compared to other state of the art methods.

Providing 'best practice' placements begins with mentoring skills : overview of the Program of Experience in the Palliative Approach (PEPA) quality improvement initiatives for mentors

Objectives PEPA is funded by the Department of Health and Ageing and aims to further improve the skill and confidence of the generalist workforce to work with people with palliative care needs. Recent quality improvement initiatives to promote transfer of learning into practice include appointment of a clinical educator, implementation of an online module for mentors and delivery of a mentoring workshop (collaborating with NSAP and PCC4U). This paper presents an overview of outcomes from these quality improvement initiatives. Methods PEPA host sites are selected based on their specialist palliative care level. Host site managers are surveyed six-monthly and participants are surveyed pre and three months post-placement to collect open and fixed response data on their experience of the program. Participants in the mentoring workshop (n=39) were asked to respond to a survey regarding the workshop outcomes. Results The percentage of placement participants who strongly agreed they ‘have the ability to implement the interventions required for people who have a life-limiting illness’ increased from 35% in 2011 (n=34) to 51% in 2012 (n=91) post-placement. Responses from mentor workshop participants indicated that 76% of respondents (n=25) agreed that they were able to identify principles for mentoring in the context of palliative care. In 2012, 61% of host site managers (n=54) strongly agreed that PEPA supports clinician working with people with a life-limiting illness. Conclusion Strategies to build the capabilities of palliative care professionals to mentor and support the learning experience of PEPA participants are critical to ongoing improvements of the program.

A critical analysis of business process management education and alignment with industry demand : an Australian perspective

Business Process Management (BPM) is accepted globally as an organizational approach to enhance productivity and drive cost efficiencies. Studies confirm a shortage of BPM skilled professionals with limited opportunities to develop the required BPM expertise. This study investigates this gap starting from a critical analysis of BPM courses offered by Australian universities and training institutions. These courses were analyzed and mapped against a leading BPM capability framework to determine how well current BPM education and training offerings in Australia address the core capabilities required by BPM professionals globally. To determine the BPM skill-sets sought by industry, online recruitment advertisements were collated, analyzed, and mapped against this BPM capability framework. The outcomes provide a detailed overview on the alignment of available BPM education/training and industry demand. These insights are useful for BPM professionals and their employers to build awareness of the BPM capabilities required for a BPM mature organization. Universities and other training institutions will benefit from these results by understanding where demand is, where the gaps are, and what other BPM education providers are supplying. This structured comparison method could continue to provide a common ground for future discussion across university-industry boundaries and continuous alignment of their respective practices.

Strategies for developing and delivering a parental physical activity intervention : answers to the what and how

Background Parents are at risk for physical inactivity; however, few studies have designed physical activity (PA) interventions specifically applied to individuals with young children. To ensure the effectiveness of interventions, it may be useful to first elicit the needs from the target population and incorporate salient strategies identified to the design and delivery of a resultant intervention. We aimed to explore strategies for what to include in and how to best deliver a program designed to increase parental PA. Methods Twelve parents (6 mothers, 6 fathers) of children younger than 5 years participated in focus group discussions exploring strategies for an intervention program designed to increase parental PA. Results A range of themes such as Focus on the Children and Flexible Life/Family Plans imbedded in strategies such as persuasion and information, problem-solving, skill building, and environmental approaches were identified. In addition, a range of strategies for how to best deliver a parental PA intervention evidenced in emerging themes such as Diverse and Brief and Individualized Approach was discussed. Conclusions Future research should continue to adopt a ground up, community-based approach to the development and implementation of interventions for this at-risk group to ensure sustained involvement in regular PA.

A methodology for estimating exposure-controlled crash risk using traffic Police crash data

Exposure control or case-control methodologies are common techniques for estimating crash risks, however they require either observational data on control cases or exogenous exposure data, such as vehicle-kilometres travelled. This study proposes an alternative methodology for estimating crash risk of road user groups, whilst controlling for exposure under a variety of roadway, traffic and environmental factors by using readily available police-reported crash data. In particular, the proposed method employs a combination of a log-linear model and quasi-induced exposure technique to identify significant interactions among a range of roadway, environmental and traffic conditions to estimate associated crash risks. The proposed methodology is illustrated using a set of police-reported crash data from January 2004 to June 2009 on roadways in Queensland, Australia. Exposure-controlled crash risks of motorcyclists—involved in multi-vehicle crashes at intersections—were estimated under various combinations of variables like posted speed limit, intersection control type, intersection configuration, and lighting condition. Results show that the crash risk of motorcycles at three-legged intersections is high if the posted speed limits along the approaches are greater than 60 km/h. The crash risk at three-legged intersections is also high when they are unsignalized. Dark lighting conditions appear to increase the crash risk of motorcycles at signalized intersections, but the problem of night time conspicuity of motorcyclists at intersections is lessened on approaches with lower speed limits. This study demonstrates that this combined methodology is a promising tool for gaining new insights into the crash risks of road user groups, and is transferrable to other road users.

An exploratory study of grief and health-related quality of life for caregivers of people with dementia

The aim of this qualitative study was to explore key positive and negative factors that impact on grief resolution and health outcomes of caregivers who were caring, or had cared, for a family member with dementia who had died. The study was a scoping study and involved face-to-face interviews with these family caregivers (N ¼ 13). Results indicated a complex interaction of issues (many unique to dementia caregiving) which in different combinations acted as protective or risk factors for caregiver outcomes. Interaction of individual characteristics, role appraisal, value of intrinsic and extrinsic resources, and experiences with health professionals during the caregiving period and around the death of their relative were shown to have the most influence on caregiver outcomes. Psychological resilience and satisfaction with caregiving were protective against negative outcomes while unresolved grief was a risk factor. These findings highlight the potential benefits of multicomponent, holistic dementia caregiver interventions.

Secure stream cipher initialisation processes

Stream ciphers are symmetric key cryptosystems that are used commonly to provide confidentiality for a wide range of applications; such as mobile phone, pay TV and Internet data transmissions. This research examines the features and properties of the initialisation processes of existing stream ciphers to identify flaws and weaknesses, then presents recommendations to improve the security of future cipher designs. This research investigates well-known stream ciphers: A5/1, Sfinks and the Common Scrambling Algorithm Stream Cipher (CSA-SC). This research focused on the security of the initialisation process. The recommendations given are based on both the results in the literature and the work in this thesis.

Transcutaneous immunization with a novel lipid-based adjuvant protects against Chlamydia genital and respiratory infections

Mucosal adjuvants are important to overcome the state of immune tolerance normally associated with mucosal delivery and to enhance adaptive immunity to often-weakly immunogenic subunit vaccine antigens. Unfortunately, adverse side effects of many experimental adjuvants limit the number of adjuvants approved for vaccination. Lipid C is a novel, non-toxic, lipid oral vaccine-delivery formulation, developed originally for oral delivery of the live Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine. In the present study, murine models of chlamydial respiratory and genital tract infections were used to determine whether transcutaneous immunization (TCI) with Lipid C-incorporated protein antigens could elicit protective immunity at the genital and respiratory mucosae. BALB/c mice were immunized transcutaneously with Lipid C containing the chlamydial major outer membrane protein (MOMP), with and without addition of cholera toxin and CpG-ODN 1826 (CT/CpG). Both vaccine combinations induced mixed cell-mediated and mucosal antibody immune responses. Immunization with Lipid C-incorporated MOMP (Lipid C/MOMP), either alone or with CT/CpG resulted in partial protection following live challenge with Chlamydia muridarum as evidenced by a significant reduction in recoverable Chlamydia from both the genital secretions and lung tissue. Protection induced by immunization with Lipid C/MOMP alone was not further enhanced by the addition of CT/CpG. These results highlight the potential of Lipid C as a novel mucosal adjuvant capable of targeting multiple mucosal surfaces following TCI. Protection at both the respiratory and genital mucosae was achieved without the requirement for potentially toxic adjuvants, suggesting that Lipid C may provide a safe effective mucosal adjuvant for human vaccination.

A therapeutic approach to assessing legal capacity in Australia

Australia lacks a satisfactory, national paradigm for assessing legal capacity in the context of testamentary, enduring power of attorney and advance care directive documents. Capacity assessments are currently conducted on an ad hoc basis by legal and/or medical professionals. The reliability of the assessment process is subject to the skill set and mutual understanding of the legal and/or medical professional conducting the assessment. There is a growth in the prevalence of diseases such as dementia. Such diseases impact upon cognition which increasingly necessitates collaboration between the legal and medical professions when assessing the effect of mentally disabling conditions upon legal capacity. Miscommunication and lack of understanding between legal and medical professionals involved could impede the development of a satisfactory paradigm. This article will discuss legal capacity assessment in Australia and how to strengthen the relationship between legal and medical professionals involved in capacity assessments. The development of a national paradigm would promote consistency and transparency of process, helping to improve the professional relationship and maximising the principles of autonomy, participation and dignity.

Too many cooks? Co-creating and co-teaching studio courses in the creative media context : a career-focussed approach

This Case Study relates to the creation and implementation of career‐focussed courses in Creative Media for film, television, animation, broadcast and web contexts. The paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of co‐teaching, and how different professional and academic backgrounds and disciplines can productively inform curriculum design and delivery in the academic/professional context. The authors, as co‐creators and co‐lecturers, have developed a number of courses which represent current working models for intermediate to advanced level academic/professional study, and attract students from across the creative disciplines; including theatre, media, visual arts and music. These courses are structured to develop in students a wide range of aesthetic and technical skills, as well as their ability to apply those skills professionally within and across the creative media industries. Issues regarding the balance between academic rigour, practical hands‐on skill development, assessment, logistics, resources, teamwork and other issues, are examined in the paper.

The art of mooting : mooting and the cognitive domain

Mooting is modeled principally on appellate advocacy. However, the skill set developed by participating in a moot program – being that necessary to persuade someone to your preferred position – is indispensible to anyone practising law. Developing effective mooting skills in students necessitates the engagement of coaches with an appropriate understanding of the theories underlying mooting and advocacy practice and their interconnection with each other. This article explains the relevance of the cognitive domain to mooting performance and places it in context with the psychomotor and affective domains.

Inelastic finite element analysis of composite beams on the basis of the plastic hinge approach

This paper emphasizes material nonlinear effects on composite beams with recourse to the plastic hinge method. Numerous combinations of steel and concrete sections form arbitrary composite sections. Secondly, the material properties of composite beams vary remarkably across its section from ductile steel to brittle concrete. Thirdly, concrete is weak in tension, so composite section changes are dependent on load distribution. To this end, the plastic zone approach is convenient for inelastic analysis of composite sections that can evaluate member resistance, including material nonlinearities, by routine numerical integration with respect to every fiber across the composite section. As a result, many researchers usually adopt the plastic zone approach for numerical inelastic analyses of composite structures. On the other hand, the plastic hinge method describes nonlinear material behaviour of an overall composite section integrally. Consequently, proper section properties for use in plastic hinge spring stiffness are required to represent the material behaviour across the arbitrary whole composite section. In view of numerical efficiency and convergence, the plastic hinge method is superior to the plastic zone method. Therefore, based on the plastic hinge approach, how to incorporate the material nonlinearities of the arbitrary composite section into the plastic hinge stiffness formulation becomes a prime objective of the present paper. The partial shear connection in this paper is by virtue of the effective flexural rigidity as AISC 1993 [American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC). Load and resistance factor design specifications. 2nd ed., Chicago; 1993]. Nonlinear behaviour of different kinds of composite beam is investigated in this paper, including two simply supported composite beams, a cantilever and a two span continuous composite beam.

Cytotoxicity of topical antimicrobial agents used in burn wounds in Australasia

BACKGROUND: Burn sepsis is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in patients with major burns. The use of topical antimicrobial agents has helped improve the survival of these patients. Silvazine (Sigma Pharmaceuticals, Melbourne, Australia) (1% silver sulphadiazine and 0.2% chlorhexidine digluconate) is used exclusively in Australasia, and there is no published study on its cytotoxicity. This study compared the relative cytotoxicity of Silvazine with 1% silver sulphadiazine (Flamazine (Smith & Nephew Healthcare, Hull, UK)) and a silver-based dressing (Acticoat (Smith & Nephew Healthcare, Hull, UK)). METHODS: Dressings were applied to the centre of culture plates that were then seeded with keratinocytes at an estimated 25% confluence. The plates were incubated for 72 h and culture medium and dressings then removed. Toluidine blue was added to stain the remaining keratinocytes. Following removal of the dye, the plates were photographed under standard conditions and these digital images were analysed using image analysis software. Data was analysed using Student's t-test. RESULTS: In the present study, Silvazine is the most cytotoxic agent. Seventy-two hour exposure to Silvazine in the present study results in almost no keratinocyte survival at all and a highly statistically significant reduction in cell survival relative to control, Acticoat and Flamazine (P<0.001, P<0.01, P<0.01, respectively). Flamazine is associated with a statistically significant reduction in cell numbers relative to control (P<0.05), but is much less cytotoxic than Silvazine (P<0.005). CONCLUSION: In this in-vitro study comparing Acticoat, Silvazine and Flamazine, Silvazine shows an increased cytotoxic effect, relative to control, Flamazine and Acticoat. An in-vivo study is required to determine whether this effect is carried into the clinical setting.

Comparison of three different dressings for partial thickness burns in children : study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: In the paediatric population, pain and distress associated with burn injuries during wound care procedures remain a constant challenge. Although silver dressings are the gold standard for burn care in Australasia, very few high-level trials have been conducted that compare silver dressings to determine which will provide the best level of care clinically. Therefore, for paediatric patients in particular, identifying silver dressings that are associated with lower levels of pain and rapid wound re-epithelialisation is imperative. This study will determine whether there is a difference in time to re-epithelialisation and pain and distress experienced during wound care procedures among Acticoat, Acticoat combined with Mepitel and Mepilex Ag dressings for acute, paediatric partial thickness burns. METHODS/DESIGN: Children aged 0 to 15 years with an acute partial thickness (superficial partial to deep partial thickness inclusive) burn injury and a burn total body surface area of combinations on the rate of wound re-epithelialisation and pain experienced during dressing procedures in acute, paediatric partial thickness burn injuries. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12613000105741.