The severity of chorioamnionitis in pregnant sheep is associated with in vivo variation of the surface-exposed multiple-banded antigen/gene of ureaplasma parvum

Ureaplasma species are the bacteria most frequently isolated from human amniotic fluid in asymptomatic pregnancies and placental infections. Ureaplasma parvum serovars 3 and 6 are the most prevalent serovars isolated from men and women. We hypothesized that the effects on the fetus and chorioamnion of chronic ureaplasma infection in amniotic fluid are dependent on the serovar, dose, and variation of the ureaplasma multiple banded antigen (MBA) and mba gene. We injected high- or low dose U. parvum serovar 3, serovar 6, or vehicle intra-amniotically into pregnant ewes at 55 days of gestation (term = 150 days) and examined the chorioamnion, amniotic fluid, and fetal lung tissue of animals delivered by cesarean section at 125 days of gestation. Variation of the multiple banded antigen/mba generated by serovar 3 and serovar 6 ureaplasmas in vivo were compared by PCR assay and Western blot. Ureaplasma inoculums demonstrated only one (serovar 3) or two (serovar 6) MBA variants in vitro, but numerous antigenic variants were generated in vivo: serovar 6 passage 1 amniotic fluid cultures contained more MBA size variants than serovar 3 (P = 0.005),and ureaplasma titers were inversely related to the number of variants (P = 0.025). The severity of chorioamnionitis varied between animals. Low numbers of mba size variants (five or fewer) within amniotic fluid were associated with severe inflammation, whereas the chorioamnion from animals with nine or more mba variants showed little or no inflammation. These differences in chorioamnion inflammation may explain why not all women with in utero Ureaplasma spp. experience adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Maternal administration of erythromycin fails to eradicate intrauterine ureaplasma infection in an ovine model

Erythromycin is the standard antibiotic used for treatment of Ureaplasma species during 3 pregnancy; however, maternally administered erythromycin may be ineffective at eliminating 4 intra-amniotic ureaplasma infections. We asked if erythromycin would eradicate intra-amniotic 5 ureaplasma infections in pregnant sheep. At 50 days of gestation (d, term=150d) pregnant ewes 6 received intra-amniotic injections of erythromycin-sensitive U. parvum serovar 3 (n=16) or 10B 7 medium (n=16). At 100d, amniocentesis was performed; five fetal losses (ureaplasma group: 8 n=4; 10B group: n=1) had occurred by this time. Remaining ewes were allocated into treatment 9 subgroups: medium only (M, n=7); medium and erythromycin (M/E, n=8); ureaplasma only (Up, 10 n=6) or ureaplasma and erythromycin (Up/E, n=6). Erythromycin was administered intra11 muscularly (500 mg), eight-hourly for four days (100d-104d). Amniotic fluid samples were 12 collected at 105d. At 125d preterm fetuses were surgically delivered and specimens were 13 collected for culture and histology. Erythromycin was quantified in amniotic fluid by liquid 14 chromatography-mass spectrometry. Ureaplasmas were isolated from the amniotic fluid, 15 chorioamnion and fetal lung of animals from the Up and Up/E groups, however, the numbers of 16 U. parvum recovered were not different between these groups. Inflammation in the 17 chorioamnion, cord and fetal lung was increased in ureaplasma-exposed animals compared to 18 controls, but was not different between the Up and Up/E groups. Erythromycin was detected in 19 amniotic fluid samples, although concentrations were low (<10-76 ng/mL). This study 20 demonstrates that maternally administered erythromycin does not eradicate chronic, intra- amniotic ureaplasma infections or improve fetal outcomes in an ovine model, potentially due to 22 the poor placental passage of erythromycin.

An introduction to the constraints-led approach to learning in outdoor education

Participation in outdoor education is underpinned by a learner's ability to acquire skills in activities such as canoeing, bushwalking and skiing and consequently the outdoor leader is often required to facilitate skill acquisition and motor learning. As such, outdoor leaders might benefit from an appropriate and tested model on how the learner acquires skills in order to design appropriate learning contexts. This paper introduces an approach to skill acquisition based on ecological psychology and dynamical systems theory called the constraints-led approach to skills acquisition. We propose that this student-centred approach is an ideal perspective for the outdoor leader to design effective learning settings. Furthermore, this open style of facilitation is also congruent with learning models that focus on other concepts such as teamwork and leadership.

Expected values for pedometer-determined physical activity in older populations

The purpose of this review is to update expected values for pedometer-determined physical activity in free-living healthy older populations. A search of the literature published since 2001 began with a keyword (pedometer, "step counter," "step activity monitor" or "accelerometer AND steps/day") search of PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), SportDiscus, and PsychInfo. An iterative process was then undertaken to abstract and verify studies of pedometer-determined physical activity (captured in terms of steps taken; distance only was not accepted) in free-living adult populations described as ≥ 50 years of age (studies that included samples which spanned this threshold were not included unless they provided at least some appropriately age-stratified data) and not specifically recruited based on any chronic disease or disability. We identified 28 studies representing at least 1,343 males and 3,098 females ranging in age from 50–94 years. Eighteen (or 64%) of the studies clearly identified using a Yamax pedometer model. Monitoring frames ranged from 3 days to 1 year; the modal length of time was 7 days (17 studies, or 61%). Mean pedometer-determined physical activity ranged from 2,015 steps/day to 8,938 steps/day. In those studies reporting such data, consistent patterns emerged: males generally took more steps/day than similarly aged females, steps/day decreased across study-specific age groupings, and BMI-defined normal weight individuals took more steps/day than overweight/obese older adults. The range of 2,000–9,000 steps/day likely reflects the true variability of physical activity behaviors in older populations. More explicit patterns, for example sex- and age-specific relationships, remain to be informed by future research endeavors.

Assurance of learning : the role of work integrated learning and industry partners

In the partnering with students and industry it is important for universities to recognize and value the nature of knowledge and learning that emanates from work integrated learning experiences is different to formal university based learning. Learning is not a by-product of work rather learning is fundamental to engaging in work practice. Work integrated learning experiences provide unique opportunities for students to integrate theory and practice through the solving of real world problems. This paper reports findings to date of a project that sought to identify key issues and practices faced by academics, industry partners and students engaged in the provision and experience of work integrated learning within an undergraduate creative industries program at a major metropolitan university. In this paper, those findings are focused on some of the particular qualities and issues related to the assessment of learning at and through the work integrated experience. The findings suggest that the assessment strategies needed to better value the knowledges and practices of the Creative Industries. The paper also makes recommendations about how industry partners might best contribute to the assessment of students’ developing capabilities and to continuous reflection on courses and the assurance of learning agenda.

Waist circumference cut-off values for the prediction of cardiovascular risk factors clustering in Chinese school-aged children : a cross-sectional study

Background: Waist circumference has been identified as a valuable predictor of cardiovascular risk in children. The development of waist circumference percentiles and cut-offs for various ethnic groups are necessary because of differences in body composition. The purpose of this study was to develop waist circumference percentiles for Chinese children and to explore optimal waist circumference cut-off values for predicting cardiovascular risk factors clustering in this population.----- ----- Methods: Height, weight, and waist circumference were measured in 5529 children (2830 boys and 2699 girls) aged 6-12 years randomly selected from southern and northern China. Blood pressure, fasting triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and glucose were obtained in a subsample (n = 1845). Smoothed percentile curves were produced using the LMS method. Receiver-operating characteristic analysis was used to derive the optimal age- and gender-specific waist circumference thresholds for predicting the clustering of cardiovascular risk factors.----- ----- Results: Gender-specific waist circumference percentiles were constructed. The waist circumference thresholds were at the 90th and 84th percentiles for Chinese boys and girls respectively, with sensitivity and specificity ranging from 67% to 83%. The odds ratio of a clustering of cardiovascular risk factors among boys and girls with a higher value than cut-off points was 10.349 (95% confidence interval 4.466 to 23.979) and 8.084 (95% confidence interval 3.147 to 20.767) compared with their counterparts.----- ----- Conclusions: Percentile curves for waist circumference of Chinese children are provided. The cut-off point for waist circumference to predict cardiovascular risk factors clustering is at the 90th and 84th percentiles for Chinese boys and girls, respectively.

Crown copyright

Copyright protects much of the creative, cultural, educational, scientific and informational material generated by federal, State/Territory and local governments and their constituent departments and agencies. Governments at all levels develop, manage and distribute a vast array of materials in the form of documents, reports, websites, datasets and databases on CD or DVD and files that can be downloaded from a website. Under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), with few exceptions government copyright is treated the same as copyright owned by non-government parties insofar as the range of protected materials and the exclusive proprietary rights attaching to them are concerned. However, the rationale for recognizing copyright in public sector materials and vesting ownership of copyright in governments is fundamentally different to the main rationales underpinning copyright generally. The central justification for recognizing Crown copyright is to ensure that government documents and materials created for public administrative purposes are disseminated in an accurate and reliable form. Consequently, the exclusive rights held by governments as copyright owners must be exercised in a manner consistent with the rationale for conferring copyright ownership on them. Since Crown copyright exists primarily to ensure that documents and materials produced for use in the conduct of government are circulated in an accurate and reliable form, governments should exercise their exclusive rights to ensure that their copyright materials are made available for access and reuse, in accordance with any laws and policies relating to access to public sector materials. While copyright law vests copyright owners with extensive bundles of exclusive rights which can be exercised to prevent others making use of the copyright material, in the case of Crown copyright materials these rights should rarely be asserted by government to deviate from the general rule that Crown copyright materials will be available for “full and free reproduction” by the community at large.

Researching for social justice: Contextual, conceptual and methodological challenges

Reforming schooling to enable engagement and success for those typically marginalised and failed by schools is a necessary task for educational researchers and activists concerned with injustice. However, it is a difficult pursuit, with a long history of failed attempts. This paper outlines the rationale of an Australian partnership research project, Redesigning Pedagogies in the North (RPiN), which took on such an effort in public secondary schooling contexts that, in current times, are beset with 'crisis' conditions and constrained by policy rationales that make it difficult to pursue issues of justice. Within the project, university investigators and teachers collaborated in action research that drew on a range of conceptual resources for redesigning curriculum and pedagogies, including: funds of knowledge, vernacular or local literacies; place-based education; the 'productive pedagogies' and the 'unofficial curriculum' of popular culture and out-of-school learning settings. In bringing these resources together with the aim of interrupting the reproduction of inequality, the project developed a methodo-logic which builds on Bourdieuian insights.

A material model for flexural crack simulation in reinforced concrete elements using ABAQUS

This paper presents a material model to simulate load induced cracking in Reinforced Concrete (RC) elements in ABAQUS finite element package. Two numerical material models are used and combined to simulate complete stress-strain behaviour of concrete under compression and tension including damage properties. Both numerical techniques used in the present material model are capable of developing the stress-strain curves including strain softening regimes only using ultimate compressive strength of concrete, which is easily and practically obtainable for many of the existing RC structures or those to be built. Therefore, the method proposed in this paper is valuable in assessing existing RC structures in the absence of more detailed test results. The numerical models are slightly modified from the original versions to be comparable with the damaged plasticity model used in ABAQUS. The model is validated using different experiment results for RC beam elements presented in the literature. The results indicate a good agreement with load vs. displacement curve and observed crack patterns.

Out of time: The moral temporality of sex, crime and taboo

This paper discusses the relationship between law and morality. Morality does not necessarily coincide with the law, but it contributes to it. An act may be legal but nevertheless considered to be immoral in a particular society. For example, the use of pornography may be considered by many to be immoral. Nevertheless, the sale and distribution of non-violent, non-child related, sexually explicit material is legal (or regulated) in many jurisdictions. Many laws are informed by, and even created by, morality. This paper examines the historical influence of morality on the law and on society in general. It aims to develop a theoretical framework for examining legal moralism and the social construction of morality and crime as well as the relationship between sex, desire and taboo. Here, we refer to the moral temporality of sex and taboo, which examines the way in which moral judgments about sex and what is considered taboo change over time, and the kinds of justifications that are employed in support of changing moralities. It unpacks the way in which abstract and highly tenuous concepts such as ‘‘desire’’, ‘‘art’’ and ‘‘entertainment’’ may be ‘‘out of time’’ with morality, and how morality shapes laws over time, fabricating justifications from within socially constructed communities of practice. This theoretical framework maps the way in which these concepts have become temporally dominated by heteronormative structures such as the family, marriage, reproduction, and longevity. It is argued that the logic of these structures is inexorably tied to the heterosexual life-path, charting individual lives and relationships through explicit phases of childhood, adolescence and adulthood that, in the twenty-first century, delimit the boundaries of taboo surrounding sex more than any other time in history.

Development and pilot test of a peer-support based Cardiac-Diabetes Self-Management program : a study protocol

Background: People with cardiac disease and type 2 diabetes have higher hospital readmission rates (22%)compared to those without diabetes (6%). Self-management is an effective approach to achieve better health outcomes; however there is a lack of specifically designed programs for patients with these dual conditions. This project aims to extend the development and pilot test of a Cardiac-Diabetes Self-Management Program incorporating user-friendly technologies and the preparation of lay personnel to provide follow-up support. Methods/Design: A randomised controlled trial will be used to explore the feasibility and acceptability of the Cardiac-Diabetes Self-Management Program incorporating DVD case studies and trained peers to provide follow-up support by telephone and text-messaging. A total of 30 cardiac patients with type 2 diabetes will be randomised, either to the usual care group, or to the intervention group. Participants in the intervention group will received the Cardiac-Diabetes Self-Management Program in addition to their usual care. The intervention consists of three faceto- face sessions as well as telephone and text-messaging follow up. The face-to-face sessions will be provided by a trained Research Nurse, commencing in the Coronary Care Unit, and continuing after discharge by trained peers. Peers will follow up patients for up to one month after discharge using text messages and telephone support. Data collection will be conducted at baseline (Time 1) and at one month (Time 2). The primary outcomes include self-efficacy, self-care behaviour and knowledge, measured by well established reliable tools. Discussion: This paper presents the study protocol of a randomised controlled trial to pilot evaluates a Cardiac- Diabetes Self-Management program, and the feasibility of incorporating peers in the follow-ups. Results of this study will provide directions for using such mode in delivering a self-management program for patients with both cardiac condition and diabetes. Furthermore, it will provide valuable information of refinement of the intervention program.

The bondage of an imposed visual discourse : understanding the built environment's influence on the 'oldest-old' aged care residents' sense of peace

This study investigates the influence of the built environment upon residents' sense of familiarity, concept of self and thus, their facilitation of place through the theory of "The Bondage of Imposed Visual Discourse". Simone de Beauvoir's theory "The Bondage of Feminine Elegance" provides the conceptual understanding of the visual discourse between the physicality of clothing and the wearer's personal identity. This fashion theory is transposed to explore the influence of the built environment's physicality upon aged care residents' personal identity. This paper presents findings from a study of professionals' opinions in reference to the built environment of permanent residential aged care for the 'oldest-old' of Australia. The researcher conducted qualitative interviews with four participants: an architect, occupational therapist, nursing home facility manager and an aged care lobbyist in the South-East Queensland. This study is structured towards proposing "place-focused" qualitative design principles to encourage residents' sense of place through the built environment. These proposed principles are addressed with reference to existing Standards and Principles outlined by the Australian Government.

On the empirical eigenvalue distribution of slotted amplify-and-forward relaying protocol model

In this paper we consider the case of large cooperative communication systems where terminals use the protocol known as slotted amplify-and-forward protocol to aid the source in its transmission. Using the perturbation expansion methods of resolvents and large deviation techniques we obtain an expression for the Stieltjes transform of the asymptotic eigenvalue distribution of a sample covariance random matrix of the type HH† where H is the channel matrix of the transmission model for the transmission protocol we consider. We prove that the resulting expression is similar to the Stieltjes transform in its quadratic equation form for the Marcenko-Pastur distribution.

Porous zirconia scaffold modified with mesoporous bioglass coating

Porous yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) has been regarded as a potential candidate for bone substitute as its high mechanical strength. However, porous YSZ bodies are biologically inert to bone tissue. It is therefore necessary to introduce bioactive coatings onto the walls of the porous structures to enhance the bioactivity. In this study, the porous zirconia scaffolds were prepared by infiltration of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) scaffolds with 3 mol% yttria stabilized zirconia slurry. After sintering, a method of sol-gel dip coating was involved to make coating layer of mesoporous bioglass (MBGs). The porous zirconia without the coating had high porosities of 60.1% to 63.8%, and most macropores were interconnected with pore sizes of 0.5-0.8mm. The porous zirconia had compressive strengths of 9.07-9.90MPa. Moreover, the average coating thickness was about 7μm. There is no significant change of compressive strength for the porous zirconia with mesoporous biogalss coating. The bone marrow stromal cell (BMSC) proliferation test showed both uncoated and coated zirconia scaffolds have good biocompatibility. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs and the compositional analysis graphs demonstrated that after testing in the simulated body fluid (SBF) for 7 days, the apatite formation occurred on the coating surface. Thus, porous zirconia-based ceramics were modified with bioactive coating of mesoporous bioglass for potential biomedical applications.

Preliminary characterisation of the surface of cartilage following exposure to saturated and unsaturated synthetic lipids

Articular cartilage is covered by a microscopic structure known as surface amorphous layer. This surface structure is often the first victim of attack during cartilage degeneration, thereby resulting in a gross impairment in cartilage function such as lubrication and load bearing. We hypothesize that incubation of degraded cartilage in solutions of different species of synthetic surface active phospholipids (saturated and unsaturated species) can remodel this lost surface structure. To test this hypothesis, the structural configuration of the surface of articular cartilage was studied and characterised with the lipid filled surface amorphous layer intact using the AFM. The results were then compared with those obtained following a systematic removal (delipidization) and replacement (relipidization) of this layer. Our results show that the unsaturated surfactant partially restored the lost surface amorphous layer while the saturated surfactant specie settled on the surface due to its poor solubility in aqueous solution.