Global and community-based sustainability: making it happen

David Arkell explores the emergence of a new project which concretely manifests the principles of sustainability. It shows how government, business and education can work together on global and community-based projects. Key to its success is the galvanisation of hearts and minds through reflective practice - emotional participation

Architecture as drawing: representational space architecturally transformed

This thesis project was motivated by the premise that a drawing could take on architectural meaning beyond its initial performance as a re-presentation of an architectural idea. Initially, there existed the goal to create a drawing that was architecture. In the creation of a process wherein the drawing is the research, however, there comes an understanding that a drawing may never be literal architecture; although, the means by which the drawing is created might be architectural, or at the very least, speak to ideals which are fundamental to the creation, to the process, of architecture itself

Drawing as Architecture: Representational Space Architecturally Transformed

This project was motivated by the premise that a drawing could take on architectural meaning beyond its initial performance as a re-presentation of an architectural idea; in other words, the motivation was to create a drawing that was architecture. When the drawing is the research, however, the conclusions found are necessarily different from the earliest goals pursued. There comes an understanding that a drawing may never be literal architecture; although, the means by which the drawing is created might be architectural or, at the very least, speak to ideals which are fundamental to the creation, to the process, of architecture

Vertical movement symmetry of the withers in horses with induced forelimb and hindlimb lameness at trot

Background The main criteria for lameness assessment in horses are head movement for forelimb lameness and pelvic movement for hindlimb lameness. However, compensatory head nod in horses with primary hindlimb lameness is a well‐known phenomenon. This compensatory head nod movement can be easily misinterpreted as a sign of primary ipsilateral forelimb lameness. Therefore, discriminating compensatory asymmetries from primary directly pain‐related movement asymmetries is a prerequisite for successful lameness assessment. Objectives To investigate the association between head, withers and pelvis movement asymmetry in horses with induced forelimb and hindlimb lameness. Study design Experimental study. Methods In 10 clinically sound Warmblood riding horses forelimb and hindlimb lameness were induced using a sole pressure model. The horses were then trotted on a treadmill. 3D optical motion capture was used to collect kinematic data from reflective markers attached to the poll, withers and tubera sacrale. The magnitude and side (left or right) of the following symmetry parameters, vertical difference in minimum position, maximum position and range‐up, were calculated for head, withers and pelvis. Mixed models were used to analyse data from induced forelimb and hindlimb lameness. Results For each mm increase in pelvic asymmetry in response to hindlimb lameness induction, withers movement asymmetry increased by 0.35‐0.55 mm; but towards the contralateral side. In induced forelimb lameness, for each mm increase in head movement asymmetry, withers movement asymmetry increased by 0.05‐0.10 mm, in agreement with the head movement asymmetry direction, both indicating lameness in the induced forelimb. Main limitations Results must be confirmed in clinically lame horses trotting overground. Conclusions The vertical asymmetry pattern of the withers discriminated a head nod associated with true forelimb lameness from the compensatory head movement asymmetry caused by primary hindlimb lameness. Measuring movement symmetry of the withers may thus aid in determining primary lameness location

High Resolution Melt Analysis (HRMA); a Viable Alternative to Agarose Gel Electrophoresis for Mouse Genotyping

Most mouse genetics laboratories maintain mouse strains that require genotyping in order to identify the genetically modified animals. The plethora of mutagenesis strategies and publicly available mouse alleles means that any one laboratory may maintain alleles with random or targeted insertions of orthologous or unrelated sequences as well as random or targeted deletions and point mutants. Many experiments require that different strains be cross bred conferring the need to genotype progeny at more than one locus. In contrast to the range of new technologies for mouse mutagenesis, genotyping methods have remained relatively static with alleles typically discriminated by agarose gel electrophoresis of PCR products. This requires a large amount of researcher time. Additionally it is susceptible to contamination of future genotyping experiments because it requires that tubes containing PCR products be opened for analysis. Progress has been made with the genotyping of mouse point mutants because a range of new high-throughput techniques have been developed for the detection of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms. Some of these techniques are suitable for genotyping point mutants but do not detect insertion or deletion alleles. Ideally, mouse genetics laboratories would use a single, high-throughput platform that enables closed-tube analysis to genotype the entire range of possible insertion and deletion alleles and point mutants. Here we show that High Resolution Melt Analysis meets these criteria, it is suitable for closed-tube genotyping of all allele types and current genotyping assays can be converted to this technology with little or no effort.This work was supported by NHMRC (http://www.nhmrc.gov.au) grants 366476 and 1003648 (to R.M.A.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Overlapping and distinct expression domains of Zic2 and Zic3 during mouse gastrulation

The Zic genes are the vertebrate homologues of the Drosophila Odd-paired gene. Mutations in two of these genes are associated with human congenital genetic disorders. Mutation of human and mouse Zic2 is associated with holoprosencephaly which is caused by a defect of ventral forebrain development and mutation of human and mouse Zic3 is associated with a X-linked heterotaxy syndrome that results from a failure of left-right axis formation. The embryological role of the Zic genes in these disorders is not well understood. Here we show that both of these genes are expressed prior to and throughout gastrulation. The genes show some broad similarities in their expression domains. Both genes however are also uniquely expressed in some tissues and these unique domains correlate with regions that potentially play a role in the aetiology of the respective genetic disorders. During primitive streak stages Zic2 is expressed transiently and uniquely in the node and the head process mesendoderm. The head process is known to be required for the establishment or maintenance of the ventral forebrain, which is the region disrupted in holoprosencephaly. Zic3 is not expressed in the node during primitive streak stages but is expressed in and around the node beginning from the head fold stages of development. This expression of Zic3 correlates well with the first steps in the establishment of the left-right axis. We also examined the expression of the closely related gene, Zic1, and did not detect any transcripts in gastrulation stage embryos