Developing a new business model for enabling research - the case of the ACPFG in Australia

Publisher's postprint archived as permitted by publisher.The way in which companies, research centres and educational institutions are organised and structured may provide a competitive advantage for commercialisation, in particular if companies are dependent on the deployment of complementary assets and capabilities by third parties. This paper presents the case of the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG), a private agricultural biotechnology (agbiotech) company specialising in early stage Research and Development (R&D) to produce superior adapted cereal varieties, tolerant to abiotic stress conditions such as drought, frost, salt, or mineral toxicity, all of which have a direct and negative impact on plant growth and crop productivity. The organisational structure of the company has been influenced and shaped by Government policy, shareholders expectations and trends in the agbiotech industrial organisation. It has proved attractive to potential alliance partners for collaborative R&D and commercialisation. We present the ACPFG as a new business model to fund basic research and facilitate technology transfer.Stephanie C. Agius, David Corkindale, Antonio G. Dottore, Michael Gilber

HOW DOES CONTINUITY OF CARE AFFECT QUALITY OF CARE IN PRIMARY HEALTHCARE?

Continuity of care is generally considered beneficial in primary healthcare, and in this paper the evidence for such assumptions is examined. Studies and reviews showed that continuity of care is able to decrease unnecessary hospitalisation, length of hospital stay and attendance at Accident and Emergency departments, as well as improve patient and doctor experience. It has also been found that the continuity of care provided to patients varies greatly depending on patient demographic, GP surgery policy and size. As the evidence suggests that continuity of care has such great health benefits for the patient, addressing the deficit in continuity that some patients receive would be an effective way to improve quality of care

Clinical interventions proposed by a pharmacist in the intensive care unit.

Patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) are at increased risk of adverse drug events due to underlying comorbidities, organ dysfunction and pharmacokinetic alterations in addition to being prescribed almost twice as many medications as patients in general hospital wards. The role of the pharmacist in this setting has developed considerably and includes working as a part of the multi-disciplinary team providing several clinical services. Locally, clinical pharmacy services were limited in ICU. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the interventions of a pharmacist in ICU by quantifying and categorising drug-related problems (DRPs) identified by, and determining the frequency and type of clinical interventions suggested by a pharmacist introduced in ICU. The study was carried out over eight weeks in ICU of an acute general hospital in Malta, during which the pharmacist reviewed medication charts of patients admitted to ICU over the study period and identified DRPs. DRPs and suggested pharmaceutical interventions (PIs) were discussed with ICU clinicians or nurses depending on type of PI, and the outcome was recorded. All data was recorded in a previously validated, adapted, and piloted data collection tool. Data was classified into type of DRP and PI, therapeutic class, and outcome relating to acceptance and implementation of PIs. During the study period, medication charts of 124 ICU patients were reviewed. The pharmacist identified 161 DRPs in 54 patients and suggested a PI for each DRP. The most frequently identified DRP categories were 'administration related' (29%), 'supratherapeutic dosage' (20%) and 'drug monitoring' (18%). The most common categories of suggested PIs were 'dose adjustment' (34%) and 'administration optimisation' (29%). Antimicrobials (46%) and medications acting on the central nervous system (17%) were the therapeutic classes most frequently involved in DRPs. The ICU clinical team accepted and implemented 95% of PIs suggested by the pharmacist. This research demonstrated the value of introduction of a pharmacist within ICU. The high rate of accepted PIs concerning a wide range of DRPs demonstrate that advanced collaboration between a pharmacist and the ICU team is possible. The proposed clinical interventions by the pharmacist reflect the contribution of the pharmacist to the reduction of DRPs in critically ill patients, thus, optimising treatment for these patients

Cows fed hydroponic fodder and conventional diet: effects on milk quality

The technology of green fodder production is especially important in arid and semiarid regions. Hydroponics improves on average the amount of crops in the same space, as traditional soil-based farming and can reduce water consumption compared to traditional farming methods. Limited research has been carried out on the use of hydroponic fodder and milk quality. A comparative study of traditional (Malta farm) and hydroponic fodder (Gozo farm) was conducted in Malta with 20 cows of the Holstein\u2013Friesian breed from two farms. Individual and bulk-tank milk samples were collected once a week for a period of 1 month in order to evaluate physical (pH, conductivity, density, freezing point) and chemical (fat, protein, ash, lactose, solid nonfat) parameters as well as mineral (Zn, Cu, Pb, Ba) content. Milk proximate and physical data were processed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) for repeated measures and an ANOVA procedure with farm and time as effects for minerals. The results indicated differences in fat content and pH, showing higher values (P < 0.05) in milk samples of cows fed with the hydroponic rather than the traditional fodder; a significant time effect (P < 0.001) was found in all qualitative analyses except for lactose and salts. Minerals were in the range as reported elsewhere; Cu and Pb content was significantly higher (P < 0.001) in the Gozo farm than the one in Malta, whereas Zn content showed higher values in Malta (P < 0.001) than Gozo. Although the proximate results were similar for both farms, except for the higher fat content for the Gozo farm, principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that milk quality for the Gozo farm was superior to that of the Malta farm. However, further studies are needed to determine the effects of different hydroponic fodder using a large herd size

Morphological and genetic barcoding study confirming the first Stegastes variabilis (Castelnau, 1855) report in the Mediterranean Sea

This paper presents morphometric and genetic barcoding analyses of the first record of the Cocoa Damselfish, Stegastes variabilis in the Mediterranean Sea. A single specimen was captured from Senglea waterfront, Malta (Central Mediterranean) on the 15th of September 2013. The species is non-indigenous in the Mediterranean, as it is native to the tropical Western Atlantic. Apart from undertaking identification through meristics and morphometric measurements of the specimen, genetic analyss of the 3410 bp mtDNA genes were carried out to confirm the species' identity. The latter was useful given that the genus Stegastes is known to be composed of morphologically very similar species, with variable colour patterns

An MPEG-7 scheme for semantic content modelling and filtering of digital video

Abstract Part 5 of the MPEG-7 standard specifies Multimedia Description Schemes (MDS); that is, the format multimedia content models should conform to in order to ensure interoperability across multiple platforms and applications. However, the standard does not specify how the content or the associated model may be filtered. This paper proposes an MPEG-7 scheme which can be deployed for digital video content modelling and filtering. The proposed scheme, COSMOS-7, produces rich and multi-faceted semantic content models and supports a content-based filtering approach that only analyses content relating directly to the preferred content requirements of the user. We present details of the scheme, front-end systems used for content modelling and filtering and experiences with a number of users

P 139 Serum dramatically enhances orientation and migration of cultured bovine corneal epithelial cells in an applied electric field (EF)

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