Investigating question types used in conversation between school-aged deaf children and their peers.

Children learn about turn-taking and develop sensitivity to conversational partners. Anecdotal reports suggest that children who are D/HH may have difficulties with some pragmatic skills that lead to difficulties interacting with hearing children. This study investigated the conversational skills of children with hearing loss who use spoken language when communicating with their hearing peers. A comparison of the conversational skills of children who are D/HH conversing with hearing peers with the conversational skills of hearing dyads was conducted. Specifically, this paper will present results relating to how each dyad member asked questions including question types, question purpose, and the role of questions in conversation.

Expectations and perceptions of overseas students in a Post-graduate corporate accounting subject : a research note

This study examines the expectations and perceptions of overseas students undertaking the post-graduate corporate accounting subject taught at an Australian university. An understanding
of students’ perceptions and expectations in learning of the subject is important in assisting
accounting academics to enhance their teaching programmes, and to manage the diverse student
cohorts which are now a feature of university classrooms in Australia. The findings show that
overseas students expected the post-graduate corporate accounting subject to be challenging and
interesting. Moreover, they expressed a strong desire that the subject should emphasise the
practicalities of accounting.

Detection of brassinosteroids in pollen of Lolium perenne L. by immunocytochemistry

Bioactive brassinosteroids have been localized in developing and mature pollen of anhydrously fixed rye-grass (Lolium perenne) by immunocytochemistry using polyclonal antibodies to castasterone generated in rabbits. Tricellular pollen fixed by freeze-substitution was also labelled in the starch granules. Study of the developmental sequence of the pollen through the microsporocyte, microspore, bicellular and tricellular stages showed that the brassinosteroids were increasingly sequestered in starch granules as the amyloplasts matured, supporting the view that these are storage organelles for these potent plant growth promoters. In bicellular pollen, heavy labelling was seen in the zone within 0.5 μm of the starch granule, where stromal tissue remains. Thus, the stroma may be the site of synthesis of these compounds. During aqueous fixation, the brassinosteroids leached from the starch granules of tricellular pollen, indicating that they would be quickly available after imbibition to influence the physiology of germinating pollen. The results from high-performance liquid chromatography of dansylaminophenylboronates from partially purified extracts of freshly dehisced tricellular pollen of rye-grass showed 25-methylcastasterone may be a minor component, together with two unknown peaks. No specific binding of brassinolide to any soluble proteins extracted from tricellular rye-grass pollen was observed using the antibodies in gel electrophoresis or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays.

Declining woodland birds - Is our science making a difference?

Recent data from the Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature show that 1240 of the world’s estimated 10 027 species of birds (12.4%) are listed as threatened (Hoffmann et al. 2010). Globally, many more are ‘declining’ in conservation status. In Europe, much attention has been given to the marked decline in the abundance and distributional extent of farmland birds associated with the intensification of agricultural production (Fuller et al. 1995; Donald et al. 2001). Recent analyses suggest woodland species alsomaynowbe experiencing significant declines (e.g. Hewson et al. 2007). In the Americas, the declining status of neotropical migrants has motivated considerable research over the last 30 years (e.g. Terborgh 1989; Robinson and Wilcove 1994). In the tropics, narrowly endemic land birds have been identified as those species most at risk of decline globally in coming decades owing to projected changes in land-use (Jetz et al. 2007). Particular taxonomic groups also are experiencing marked declines. Migratory shorebirds, for example, which depend on key stop-over sites for refuelling during intercontinental migration, are particularly vulnerable to the degradation and destruction of these sites (Barter 2002; Rogers et al. 2010). Such widespread change among the world’s avifauna has profound implications for global biodiversity, ecosystem function and the provision of ecosystem services (Sekercioglu 2006).

Apoptosis goes on a chip : advances in the microfluidic analysis of programmed cell death

Recent years have brought enormous progress in cell-based lab-on-a-chip technologies, allowing dynamic studies of cell death with an unprecedented accuracy. As interest in the microfabricated technologies for cell-based bioassays is rapidly gaining momentum, we highlight the most promising technologies that provide a new outlook for the rapid assessment of programmed and accidental cell death and are applicable in drug discovery, high-content drug screening, and personalized clinical diagnostics.

Trapping and imaging of embryonic organisms using dielectrophoresis

Development of dielectrophoretic (DEP) arrays for real-time imaging of embryonic organisms is described. Microelectrode arrays were used for trapping both embryonated eggs and larval stages of Antarctic nematode Panagrolaimus davidi. Ellipsoid single-shell model was also applied to study the interactions between DEP fields and developing multicellular organisms. This work provides proof-of-concept application of chip-based technologies for the analysis of individual embryos trapped under DEP force.

Dynamic analysis of drug-induced cytotoxicity using chip-based dielectrophoretic cell immobilization technology

Quantification of programmed and accidental cell death provides useful end-points for the anticancer drug efficacy assessment. Cell death is, however, a stochastic process. Therefore, the opportunity to dynamically quantify individual cellular states is advantageous over the commonly employed static, end-point assays. In this work, we describe the development and application of a microfabricated, dielectrophoretic (DEP) cell immobilization platform for the realtime analysis of cancer drug-induced cytotoxicity. Microelectrode arrays were designed to generate weak electro-thermal vortices that support efficient drug mixing and rapid cell immobilization at the delta-shape regions of strong electric field formed between the opposite microelectrodes. We applied this technology to the dynamic analysis of hematopoietic tumor cells that represent a particular challenge for real-time imaging due to their dislodgement during image acquisition. The present study was designed to provide a comprehensive mechanistic rationale for accelerated cell-based assays on DEP chips using real-time labeling with cell permeability markers. In this context, we provide data on the complex behavior of viable vs dying cells in the DEP fields and probe the effects of DEP fields upon cell responses to anticancer drugs and overall bioassay performance. Results indicate that simple DEP cell immobilization technology can be readily applied for the dynamic analysis of investigational drugs in hematopoietic cancer cells. This ability is of particular importance in studying the outcome of patient derived cancer cells, when exposed to therapeutic drugs, as these cells are often rare and difficult to collect, purify and immobilize.

Interfacing cell-based assays in environmental scanning electron microscopy using dielectrophoresis

Development of the dielectrophoretic (DEP) live cell trapping technology and its interfacing with the environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) is described. DEP microelectrode arrays were fabricated on glass substrate using photolithography and lift-off. Chip-based arrays were applied for ESEM analysis of DEP-trapped human leukemic cells. This work provides proof-of-concept interfacing of the DEP cell retention and trapping technology with ESEM to provide a high-resolution analysis of individual nonadherent cells.

Investigation of GMP signalling systems in lower vertebrates

This research examined aspects of the cyclic GMP signalling system in fish and amphibians. It contributed new knowledge to our understanding of the role of the system in the development of zebrafish, a model fish species, and in control of the vasculature by the regulatory molecule, nitric oxide.

Context reinstatement effects in children’s cued recall of strongly and weakly associated word pairs

Typically, asking people to reinstate the context of events increases their recall of those events; however, research findings have been mixed with children. We tested whether the principle underlying context reinstatement applies to children as it does to adults. This underlying principle, encoding specificity, suggests that the greater the overlap between study context cues and retrieval context cues, the more information that people should recall. In the current experiment, four age groups (7-year-olds, 9-year-olds, 11-year-olds and adults) took part in an encoding specificity procedure. At study, participants saw cue– target word pairs in which the cue word was either a strong or a weak associate of the target word (e.g., ice–COLD; blow–COLD). During an immediate cued recall test, participants were presented with the same strong or weak cue words and new, extra-list cue words. Overall, children and adults recalled more targets when they were presented with the same cue words at study and test, regardless of whether the cues were strong or weak. This finding suggests that encoding specificity applies to children as well as adults. We discuss the implications of these results.