An adipoinductive role of inflammation in adipose tissue engineering : key factors in the early development of engineered soft tissues

Tissue engineering and cell implantation therapies are gaining popularity because of their potential to repair and regenerate tissues and organs. To investigate the role of inflammatory cytokines in new tissue development in engineered tissues, we have characterized the nature and timing of cell populations forming new adipose tissue in a mouse tissue engineering chamber (TEC) and characterized the gene and protein expression of cytokines in the newly developing tissues. EGFP-labeled bone marrow transplant mice and MacGreen mice were implanted with TEC for periods ranging from 0.5 days to 6 weeks. Tissues were collected at various time points and assessed for cytokine expression through ELISA and mRNA analysis or labeled for specific cell populations in the TEC. Macrophage-derived factors, such as monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), appear to induce adipogenesis by recruiting macrophages and bone marrow-derived precursor cells to the TEC at early time points, with a second wave of nonbone marrow-derived progenitors. Gene expression analysis suggests that TNFα, LCN-2, and Interleukin 1β are important in early stages of neo-adipogenesis. Increasing platelet-derived growth factor and vascular endothelial cell growth factor expression at early time points correlates with preadipocyte proliferation and induction of angiogenesis. This study provides new information about key elements that are involved in early development of new adipose tissue.

Entrepreneurial network development as a sign of business emergence

This study aims to explain the entrepreneurial processes as developments of entrepreneurial networks. As a theoretical framework, this study adopts the theory of experimentally organized economy and competence blocs. As suggested by this theory, entrepreneurs select profitable innovations and commercialise them. Through logistic regressions on the subjective and objective dependent variables, we find that nascent firms’ various activities to network customers, innovators, investors, and employees are positively associated with the business emergence. This study identifies the roles of entrepreneurs and the other actors in the entrepreneurial processes.

New challenges for old laws? The development of e-health in Australia

Increasing role of electronic health care in Australia - possibilities of e-health in terms of provider-to-consumer initiatives and of business-to-business initiatives - challenges of e-health in the context of existing laws and recent reforms - assessment of the adequacy of existing laws to meet the challenges posed by e-health

Identification and characterization of flowering genes in kiwifruit : sequence conservation and role in kiwifruit flower development

Background Flower development in kiwifruit (Actinidia spp.) is initiated in the first growing season, when undifferentiated primordia are established in latent shoot buds. These primordia can differentiate into flowers in the second growing season, after the winter dormancy period and upon accumulation of adequate winter chilling. Kiwifruit is an important horticultural crop, yet little is known about the molecular regulation of flower development. Results To study kiwifruit flower development, nine MADS-box genes were identified and functionally characterized. Protein sequence alignment, phenotypes obtained upon overexpression in Arabidopsis and expression patterns suggest that the identified genes are required for floral meristem and floral organ specification. Their role during budbreak and flower development was studied. A spontaneous kiwifruit mutant was utilized to correlate the extended expression domains of these flowering genes with abnormal floral development. Conclusions This study provides a description of flower development in kiwifruit at the molecular level. It has identified markers for flower development, and candidates for manipulation of kiwifruit growth, phase change and time of flowering. The expression in normal and aberrant flowers provided a model for kiwifruit flower development.

ACE research vignette 034: Building a capability development framework through innovation

This series of research vignettes is aimed at sharing current and interesting research findings from our team of international Entrepreneurship researchers. In this vignette, Alireza Javanmardi Kashan and Kavoos Mohannak considers ‘How do firms develop competitive capabilities within product innovation projects?’

Development of a dose assessment tool for the auditing of radiotherapy treatment dosimetric quality

The reporting and auditing of patient dose is an important component of radiotherapy quality assurance. The manual extraction of dose-volume metrics is time consuming and undesirable when auditing the dosimetric quality of a large cohort of patient plans. A dose assessment application was written to overcome this, allowing the calculation of various dose-volume metrics for large numbers of plans exported from treatment planning systems. This application expanded on the DICOM-handling functionality of the MCDTK software suite. The software extracts dose values in the volume of interest by using a ray casting point-in-polygon algorithm, where the polygons have been defined by the contours in the RTSTRUCT file...

Genome-wide SNP detection, validation, and development of an 8K SNP array for apple

As high-throughput genetic marker screening systems are essential for a range of genetics studies and plant breeding applications, the International RosBREED SNP Consortium (IRSC) has utilized the Illumina Infinium® II system to develop a medium- to high-throughput SNP screening tool for genome-wide evaluation of allelic variation in apple (Malus×domestica) breeding germplasm. For genome-wide SNP discovery, 27 apple cultivars were chosen to represent worldwide breeding germplasm and re-sequenced at low coverage with the Illumina Genome Analyzer II. Following alignment of these sequences to the whole genome sequence of 'Golden Delicious', SNPs were identified using SoapSNP. A total of 2,113,120 SNPs were detected, corresponding to one SNP to every 288 bp of the genome. The Illumina GoldenGate® assay was then used to validate a subset of 144 SNPs with a range of characteristics, using a set of 160 apple accessions. This validation assay enabled fine-tuning of the final subset of SNPs for the Illumina Infinium® II system. The set of stringent filtering criteria developed allowed choice of a set of SNPs that not only exhibited an even distribution across the apple genome and a range of minor allele frequencies to ensure utility across germplasm, but also were located in putative exonic regions to maximize genotyping success rate. A total of 7867 apple SNPs was established for the IRSC apple 8K SNP array v1, of which 5554 were polymorphic after evaluation in segregating families and a germplasm collection. This publicly available genomics resource will provide an unprecedented resolution of SNP haplotypes, which will enable marker-locus-trait association discovery, description of the genetic architecture of quantitative traits, investigation of genetic variation (neutral and functional), and genomic selection in apple.

Learning and development opportunities as a tool for the retention of volunteers : a motivation perspective

The growing reliance on volunteers in Australia has heightened the need for non-profit organisations to retain these valuable resources. However, the current literature on volunteer retention is limited. One potential way volunteers can be retained is by providing learning and development opportunities (LDOs). This study investigates the relationship between volunteer perceptions of LDOs, their motivations for volunteering, and retention. Analyses revealed significant main effects for LDOs and volunteer motivations on retention and several interactive effects demonstrating that LDOs can have differential effects on retention depending on the reasons for volunteering.

Distinguishing between task and contextual performance for nurses : development of a job performance scale

Aim. This paper is a report of a development and validation of a new job performance scale based on an established job performance model. Background. Previous measures of nursing quality are atheoretical and fail to incorporate the complete range of behaviours performed. Thus, an up-to-date measure of job performance is required for assessing nursing quality. Methods. Test construction involved systematic generation of test items using focus groups, a literature review, and an expert review of test items. A pilot study was conducted to determine the multidimensional nature of the taxonomy and its psychometric properties. All data were collected in 2005. Findings. The final version of the nursing performance taxonomy included 41 behaviours across eight dimensions of job performance. Results from preliminary psychometric investigations suggest that the nursing performance scale has good internal consistency, good convergent validity and good criterion validity. Conclusion. The findings give preliminary support for a new job performance scale as a reliable and valid tool for assessing nursing quality. However, further research using a larger sample and nurses from a broader geographical region is required to cross-validate the measure. This scale may be used to guide hospital managers regarding the quality of nursing care within units and to guide future research in the area.

Measuring multidisciplinary team effectiveness in a ward-based healthcare setting : development of the Team Functioning Assessment Tool

Nontechnical skills relating to team functioning are vital to the effective delivery of patient care and safety. In this study, we develop a reliable behavioral marker tool for assessing nontechnical skills that are critical to the success of ward-based multidisciplinary healthcare teams. The Team Functioning Assessment Tool (TFAT) was developed and refined using a literature review, focus groups, card-sorting exercise, field observations, and final questionnaire evaluation and refinement process. Results demonstrated that Clinical Planning, Executive Tasks, and Team Relations are important facets of effective multidisciplinary healthcare team functioning. The TFAT was also shown to yield acceptable inter-rater agreement.

The design and development of music eScape: A new iPhone mood management music App

The physical, emotional, educational and social developmental challenges of adolescence can be associated with high levels of emotional vulnerability. Thus, the development of effective emotion-regulation strategies is crucial during this time period. Young people commonly use music to identify, express and regulate their emotions. Modern mobile technology provides an engaging, easily accessible means of assisting young people through music. A systematic contextual review identified 20 iPhone applications addressing emotions through music and two independent raters, using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS), evaluated the quality of the apps. Their characteristics, key features and overall quality will be presented. Three participatory design workshops (N=13, 6 males, 7 females; age 15-25) were conducted to explore young people’s use of music to enhance wellbeing. Young people were also asked to trial existing mood and music apps and to conceptualise their ultimate mood targeting music application. A thematic analysis of the participatory design workshops content identified the following music affect-regulation strategies: relationship building, modifying cognitions, modifying emotions, and immersing in emotions. The application of the key learnings from the mobile app review and participatory design workshops and the design and development of the music eScape app were presented and implications for future research was discussed.

Roles of the matrix metalloproteinases in mammary gland development and cancer

Tissue remodeling is a key process involved in normal development, wound healing, bone remodeling, and embryonic implantation, as well as pathological conditions such as tumor invasion and metastasis, and angiogenesis. The degradation of the extracellular matrix that is associated with those processes is mediated by a number of families of extracellular proteinases. These families include the serine proteinases, such as the plasminogen-urokinase plasminogen activator system and leukocyte elastases, the cysteine proteinases, like cathepsin D and L, and the zinc-dependent matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Accumulating evidence has highlighted the central role of MMP-driven extracellular matrix remodeling in mammary gland development and breast cancer.

Using Participatory Design (PD) as youth engagement strategy to inform design and development of evidence-based wellbeing e-tools

The paper presents a participatory design research framework as a primary method for structuring youth engagement, participation and contribution to the design, development and usability evaluation of three evidencebased e-tools for wellbeing, which include smart phone mobile apps as well as e-health websites. The three projects are part of a series of six e-tools part of Safe and Supportive program under Young and Well CRC. The participatory design method, developed by Zelenko (2012) for application in design of online health promoting technologies, was further piloted in partnership with Inspire USA for specific application within the CRC, deploying a combination of creative design workshops and speculative design activities in developing e-tool prototypes with young people. This paper presents the resulting participatory research framework as it was implemented across the e-tool projects to facilitate active youth participation in co-designing the e-tools and ensuring the final designs are relevant to young people and deliver health messages in engaging ways. The principles of Participatory Design (PD) that inform the new framework include a high degree of participant agency in creative decisionmaking and a commitment to the process of co-designing, with young people working alongside designers and developers. The paper will showcase how the PD framework was applied across three projects to increase young people’s contribution to final design outcome.