Think of the children! The decline of the big day out and mega-festivals

What does the future look like for music festivals in Australia? This article examines the decline of the large festivals that have grown to dominate the scene in Australia in the last twenty years, and the rise of small, specialized festivals that offer a boutique experience.

Recuperació i integració : del Riu Huasco a la ciutat de Vallenar, Xile. 'Recuperación e integración : del Rio Huasco a la ciudad de Vallenar, Chile'.

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Structure, histochemistry and ultrastructure of the male reproductive accessory glands in the neotropical flat-faced fruit-eating bat Artibeus planirostris (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae)

Chiroptera, the second largest mammalian order, presents different reproductive strategies and unique reproductive features. However, there are few reports regarding male reproductive accessory glands (RAGs) in Chiroptera. Thus, the aim of the present study was to characterise the RAGs of the exclusively neotropical bat Artibeus planirostris (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) macroscopically, microscopically and ultrastructurally. The RAGs were composed of a prostatic complex with two regions (ventral and dorsal) and paraurethral and bulbourethral glands, but no seminal vesicles. The ventral region had an undefined epithelium, with secretory and basal cells, and its secretions were periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) positive. The dorsal region received both deferens ducts, had a columnar pseudostratified epithelium with secretory and basal cells. There were two types of secretions from the dorsal region: one that was basophilic and another that was mixed PAS positive and PAS negative. The paraurethral glands were dispersed in the connective tissue of the urethra, whereas the bulbourethral glands were located in the penile root. Histological and ultrastructural data confirmed the prostatic nature of the ventral and dorsal regions and the holocrine nature of the ventral region, with the latter finding never having been described previously for the prostate gland. Our findings demonstrate the wide discrepancy of RAGs between A. planirostris and other mammals in terms of their composition, structure and morphology. © CSIRO 2013.

The ribosome as novel target for stress-induced small regulatory RNAs

Small non-protein-coding RNA (ncRNA) molecules represent major contributors to regulatory networks in controlling gene expression in a highly efficient manner. All of the recently discovered regulatory ncRNAs that act on translation (e.g. microRNAs, siRNAs or antisense RNAs) target the mRNA rather than the ribosome. To address the question, whether small ncRNA regulators exist that are capable of modulating the rate of protein production by directly interacting with the ribosome, we have analyzed the small ncRNA interactomes of ribosomes Deep-sequencing and subsequent bioinformatic analyses revealed thousands of putative ribosome-associated ncRNAs in various model organisms (1,2). For a subset of these ncRNA candidates we have gathered experimental evidence that they associate with ribosomes in a stress-dependent manner and are capable of regulating gene expression by fine-tuning the rate of protein biosynthesis (3,4). Many of the investigated ribosome-bound small ncRNA appear to be processing products from larger functional RNAs, such as tRNAs (2,3) or mRNAs (3). Post-transcriptional cleavage of RNA molecules to generate smaller fragments is a widespread mechanism that enlarges the structural and functional complexity of cellular RNomes. Our data reveal the ribosome as a target for small regulatory ncRNAs and demonstrate the existence of a yet unknown mechanism of translation regulation. Ribosome-associated ncRNAs (rancRNAs) are found in all domains of life and represent a prevalent but so far largely unexplored class of regulatory molecules (5). Future work on the small ncRNA interactomes of ribosomes in a variety of model systems will allow deeper insight into the conservation and functional repertoire of this emerging class of regulatory ncRNA molecules.

Synthesis, characterization, and electrical conduction of 10 mol% Dy2O3 doped CeO2 ceramics

Well-densified 10 mol% Dy2O3-doped CeO2 (20DDC) ceramics with average grain sizes of similar to 0.12-1.5 mu m were fabricated by pressureless sintering at 950-1550 degrees C using a reactive powder thermally decomposed from a carbonate precursor, which was synthesized via a carbonate coprecipitation method employing nitrates as the starting salts and ammonium carbonate as the precipitant. Electrical conductivity of the ceramics, measured by the dc three-point impedance method, shows a V-shape curve against the average grain size. The sample with the smallest grain size of 0.12 mu m exhibits a high conductivity of similar to 10(-1.74) S/cm at the measurement temperature of 700 degrees C, which is about the same conduction level of the micro-grained 10 mol% Sm2O3- or Gd2O3-doped CeO2, two leading electrolyte materials. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.