Use of the wound-inducible NtQPT2 promoter from Nicotiana tabacum for production of a plant-made vaccine

The wound-inducible quinolinate phosphoribosyl transferase promoter from Nicotiana tabacum (NtQPT2) was assessed for its capacity to produce B-subunit of the heat-labile toxin (LTB) from enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli in transgenic plant tissues. Comparisons were made with the widely used and constitutive Cauliflower Mosaic Virus 35S (CaMV35S) promoter. The NtQPT2 promoter produced somewhat lower average concentrations of LTB protein per unit weight of hairy root tissue but allowed better growth thereby producing similar or higher overall average yields of LTB per culture batch. Transgenic tobacco plants containing the NtQPT2-LTB construct contained LTB protein in roots but not leaves. Moreover, wounding NtQPT2-LTB transgenic plants, by removal of apices, resulted in an approximate 500% increase in LTB levels in roots when analysed several days later. CaMV35S-LTB transgenic plants contained LTB protein in leaves and roots but wounding made no difference to their LTB content.

Consumer response to unit pricing for mobile telephony

This project is a co-operative study between ACCAN and Deakin University. It focuses on Unit Pricing, the practice of displaying the price of goods or services based on a standard quantity, to allow a direct comparison between competitive offers. This study aimed at gauging whether the new unit pricing information for mobile phone contracts assists consumers in assessing and comparing the value provided across alternative contracts within and between suppliers. Some 24 in-depth interviews were conducted with consumers who had recently bought or renewed a mobile phone contract.
The research showed that most consumers could use unit pricing information and some found it useful. Where consumers’ plans had unlimited or infinite capacity, unit pricing information was not relevant. Many consumers preferred voice allowances to be expressed in minutes, rather than in dollar allowances. Data was the most problematic category, as consumers typically had only limited understanding of the amount of data that various applications used. Most did have a broad understanding of what total capacity in data they would need, typically expressed in gigabytes.
Consumers commonly sought simplicity in deciding on which plan they would purchase or renew. A key issue for consumers was not “going over”, that is not exceeding their call, text or data allowances. For that reason, they were prepared to choose a plan that commonly resulted in them not using their full allowances each month. Some consumers used Apps on their smartphones to monitor their usage. Not all consumers had experienced advisory messages about nearing the limits of their plan’s allowances.
The Report recommended that:

R1. Unit pricing should be maintained
R2. Where unit pricing is provided for call costs, these should be expressed in terms of a one-minute call.
R3 Unit pricing for data should be expressed in terms of gigabytes or part thereof.
R4 In advertising mobile phone plans and at point of sales, customers should be provided with three levels of information – 1) overall plan features, 2) unit pricing information and 3) a data calculator.
R5 Level 2 and 3 information should be provided in a standard format across the industry, enabling consumers to make ready comparisons between plans and between competitive offers from different providers.
R6. Continuing public education is needed.
R7. Warnings about going over should always include the date when the allowance period ends and tell consumers what the rate will be if they “go over” based on the Level 2 information.
R8. The Consumer Protection Code should be reviewed in the light of these findings and recommendations.

An issues paper: the roots/routes of Australian architecture: elements of an alternative architectural history

The dynamism and mobility of architects in their approach to architecturaldesign practice provides a context that emphasises that architecture, likeculture, is not static or rooted in place, but is intricately configured throughthe dual processes of locality and mobility – both physical and theoretical. Theproduction of architecture in Australia, as in other immigrant-rich societies,provides a case for reinforcing the theory that architectural mobility and travelare integral to the architecture of place.This issues paper sets out to re-examine the contribution of geo-culturalinfluences upon Australia’s architectural lineage and considers a diverse rangeof themes across an equally broad timeframe; British colonial transpositions; thedissemination of Modernism in Australia; the latent contribution of mid-twentiethcentury European émigré architects; and the secreted history of Australia’sAsian architecture. Common to all, however, is the notion of architecturaltranslation as a process of influences transmitted, transposed or adapted toother contexts. It uses Australia as the focus from which to consider how globalcriticism, ideas and theories have travelled and continue to travel transverselyacross time and place, from the late-eighteenth century well into the twenty-first.This paper investigates translations through narratives, processes, networks andtraces of architectural manifestations and begins to draw lines of influence.

Families' experiences of their interactions with staff in an Australian intensive care unit (ICU): a qualitative study

Nursing is characterised as a profession that provides holistic, person-centred care. Due to the condition of the critically ill, a family-centred care model is more applicable in this context. Furthermore, families are at risk of emotional and psychological distress, as a result of the admission of their relative to intensive care. The families' experiences of their interactions in intensive care have the potential to enhance or minimise this risk. This paper presents a subset of findings from a broader study exploring families of critically ill patients' experiences of their interactions with staff, their environment, the patient and other families, when their relative is admitted to an Australian intensive care unit. By developing an understanding of their experience, nurses are able to implement interventions to minimise the families' distress, while providing more holistic, person- and family-centred care.

Panel versus GARCH information in unit root testing with an application to financial markets

In a search for more powerful unit root tests, some researchers have recently proposed accounting for the information contained in the GARCH of the innovations. However, while promising, tests with GARCH are difficult to implement, which has made them quite uncommon in the empirical literature. A computationally attractive alternative is to account not for GARCH but the information contained in a panel of multiple time series. The purpose of the current note is to compare the relative power achievable from these two information sources. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.

Handover of patient information from the crisis assessment and treatment team to the inpatient psychiatric unit.

Handover, or the communication of patient information between clinicians, is a fundamental component of health care. Psychiatric settings are dynamic environments relying on timely and accurate communication to plan care and manage risk. Crisis assessment and treatment teams are the primary interface between community and mental health services in many Australian and international health services, facilitating access to assessment, treatment, and admission to hospital. No previous research has investigated the handover between crisis assessment and treatment teams and inpatient psychiatric units, despite the importance of handover to care planning. The aim of the present study was to identify the nature and types of information transferred during these handovers, and to explore how these guides initial care planning. An observational, exploratory study design was used. A 20-item handover observation tool was used to observe 19 occasions of handover. A prospective audit was undertaken on clinical documentation arising from the admission. Clinical information, including psychiatric history and mental state, were handed over consistently; however, information about consumer preferences was reported less consistently. The present study identified a lack of attention to consumer preferences at handover, despite the current focus on recovery-oriented models for mental health care, and the centrality of respecting consumer preferences within the recovery paradigm.

Energy consumption at the state level: the unit root null hypothesis from Australia

In this paper, our goal is to examine the unit root null hypothesis in energy consumption for Australian states and territory. We consider sectoral energy consumption for Australia and its six states and one territory using time series data for the period 1973-2007. This is the first study that does this. Generally, except for some cases in South Australia, we find strong support that shocks to energy consumption have a temporary effect on energy consumption in Australia. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A unit root model for trending time-series energy variables

In this paper, we propose a GARCH-based unit root test that is flexible enough to account for; (a) trending variables, (b) two endogenous structural breaks, and (c) heteroskedastic data series. Our proposed model is applied to a range of time-series, trending, and heteroskedastic energy variables. Our two main findings are: first, the proposed trend-based GARCH unit root model outperforms a GARCH model without trend; and, second, allowing for a time trend and two endogenous structural breaks are important in practice, for doing so allows us to reject the unit root null hypothesis.

Small-sample improved seasonal unit root tests for trending and breaking series

In this article three unit root tests that allow for a break in both the seasonal mean and linear trend of the data are proposed. The tests, which can be seen as small-sample corrected versions of already known asymptotic tests, are shown to perform very well in simulations, and much better than their asymptotic counterparts.