The Wellbeing of International Students in the City of Sydney

The City of Sydney engaged UTS:IPPG to undertake explorative research into the wellbeing of international students in the City of Sydney Local Government Area (LGA). The central aim of this research is the investigation of how international students living and/or studying in the City area perceive their wellbeing and what does and does not contribute towards their wellbeing. A review of key literature identified the following key focus areas that contributed to the wellbeing of international students

Effectiveness of a social support intervention on infant feeding practices : randomised controlled trial

Background: To assess whether monthly home visits from trained volunteers could improve infant feeding practices at age 12 months, a randomised controlled trial was carried out in two disadvantaged inner city London boroughs. Methods: Women attending baby clinics with their infants (312) were randomised to receive monthly home visits from trained volunteers over a 9-month period (intervention group) or standard professional care only (control group). The primary outcome was vitamin C intakes from fruit. Secondary outcomes included selected macro and micro-nutrients, infant feeding habits, supine length and weight. Data were collected at baseline when infants were aged approximately 10 weeks, and subsequently when the child was 12 and 18 months old. Results: Two-hundred and twelve women (68%) completed the trial. At both follow-up points no significant differences were found between the groups for vitamin C intakes from fruit or other nutrients. At first follow-up, however, infants in the intervention group were significantly less likely to be given goats’ or soya milks, and were more likely to have three solid meals per day. At the second follow-up, intervention group children were significantly less likely to be still using a bottle. At both follow-up points, intervention group children also consumed significantly more specific fruit and vegetables. Conclusions: Home visits from trained volunteers had no significant effect on nutrient intakes but did promote some other recommended infant feeding practices

Collaborative library service delivery: A guide to regional library management models in NSW

The Centre for Local Government (CLG) at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) has been engaged by the State Library of New South Wales (State Library of NSW) to undertake research to explore and recommend regional management models for NSW public libraries

Access to shops: The views of low-income shoppers

Concern is mounting as the retail stranglehold upon access to food grows. Research on the implications of restructuring retailing and health inequality has failed to involve low-income consumers in this debate. This paper reports on an exercise conducted for the UK Government's, Social Exclusion Unit's Policy Action Team on Access to Shops. The survey provides a useful baseline of the views of low-income groups in England. The choices that people on low income can make were found to be dominated by certain factors such as income and, most importantly, transport. Consumers reported varying levels of satisfaction with retail provision. The findings suggest gaps between what people have, what they want and what the planning process does and does not offer them. Better policy and processes are needed to include and represent the interests of low-income groups

Effects of nematicides on nematode population densities and crop yield in a turnip-corn-pea cropping system

Nous avons évalué quatre systèmes de conduite de cultures lors d'une étude de 6 ans afin de lutter contre les nematodes dans un système annuel de production de navet-maïs-pois sur des parcelles de sable loameux Tifton naturellement infestées par les Meloidogyne spp. (environ 90 % de M. incognita et 10 % de M. hapla), les Pratylenchus spp. (environ 65 % de P. scribneri, 25 % de P. brachyurus et 10 % de P. zeae), ainsi que par les Paratrichodorus minor et Criconemella ornata. Le navet (Brassica campestris subsp. rapifera) a toléré de faibles quantités de tous les nematodes. Le maïs (Zea mays) 'Pioneer 3369A' a toléré de plus importantes quantités de tous les nematodes que le maïs 'Funks G-4507'. Les densités de population de juvéniles (J2) de Meloidogyne spp. ont été abaissées en deçà de 80 par 150 cm3 de sol par un mélange composé de 98 % de bromure de méthyle et 2 % de chloropicrine et par 20% de methyl isothiocyanate combiné à 80% d'hydrocarbones C3 chlorinés sur le navet et le maïs. Ces populations de nematodes ont augmenté rapidement chez le pois (Vigna unguiculata) 'Pinkeye purplehull' mais ce ne fut pas le cas chez le cultivar Worthmore. Les densités de populations des autres nematodes n'ont pas été affectées par le cultivar de pois ou par le nématicide, en l'occurrence l'ethoprop. Le fenamiphos a été plus efficace que l'ethoprop en abaissant les densités de nematodes. Les augmentations de rendement du système intensif de conduite des cultures se sont échelonnées de 4% à 52 % par rapport aux témoins non traités.Four management systems were evaluated in a six-year study to control nematodes in a turnip-corn-pea annual cropping System on plots of Tifton loamy sand naturally infested with Meloidogyne spp. (about 90 % M. incognita and 10% M. hapla), Pratylenchus spp. (about 65% P. scribneri, 25% P. brachyurus, and 10% P. zeae), Paratrichodorus minor and Criconemella ornata. Turnip (Brassica campestris subsp. rapifera) supported low numbers of all nematodes. 'Pioneer 3369A' corn (Zea mays) supported greater numbers of all nematodes than 'Funks G-4507'. Population densities of Meloidogyne spp. juveniles (J2) were suppressed below 80 per 150 cm3 of soil by 98 % methyl bromide + 2 % chloropicrin and 20 % methyl isothiocyanate + 80 % chlorinated C3 hydrocarbons on turnip and corn, and increased rapidly on 'Pinkeye purplehull', but not on a resistant cultivar, 'Worthmore' pea (Vigna unguiculata). Population densities of other nematodes were not affected by cultivar of pea or the nematicide, ethoprop. Fenamiphos was more effective than ethoprop in suppressing nematode population densities. Increases in crop yield in the intensive management system ranged from 4% to 52% over untreated controls

Cloud access to interoperable IVOA-compliant VOSpace storage

Handling, processing and archiving the huge amount of data produced by the new generation of experiments and instruments in Astronomy and Astrophysics are among the more exciting challenges to address in designing the future data management infrastructures and computing services. We investigated the feasibility of a data management and computation infrastructure, available world-wide, with the aim of merging the FAIR data management provided by IVOA standards with the efficiency and reliability of a cloud approach. Our work involved the Canadian Advanced Network for Astronomy Research (CANFAR) infrastructure and the European EGI federated cloud (EFC). We designed and deployed a pilot data management and computation infrastructure that provides IVOA-compliant VOSpace storage resources and wide access to interoperable federated clouds. In this paper, we detail the main user requirements covered, the technical choices and the implemented solutions and we describe the resulting Hybrid cloud Worldwide infrastructure, its benefits and limitation

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal

Disulphide Bridges of Phospholipase C of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Modulates Lipid Interaction and Dimer Stability

BACKGROUND: Phospholipase C (PLC) is an enzyme that plays pivotal role in a number of signaling cascades. These are active in the plasma membrane and triggers cellular responses by catalyzing the hydrolysis of membrane phospholipids and thereby generating the secondary messengers. Phosphatidylinositol-PLC (PI-PLC) specifically interacts with phosphoinositide and/or phosphoinositol and catalyzes specific cleavage of sn-3- phosphodiester bond. Several isoforms of PLC are known to form and function as dimer but very little is known about the molecular basis of the dimerization and its importance in the lipid interaction. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We herein report that, the disruption of disulphide bond of a novel PI-specific PLC of C. reinhardtii (CrPLC) can modulate its interaction affinity with a set of phospholipids and also the stability of its dimer. CrPLC was found to form a mixture of higher oligomeric states with monomer and dimer as major species. Dimer adduct of CrPLC disappeared in the presence of DTT, which suggested the involvement of disulphide bond(s) in CrPLC oligomerization. Dimer-monomer equilibrium studies with the isolated fractions of CrPLC monomer and dimer supported the involvement of covalent forces in the dimerization of CrPLC. A disulphide bridge was found to be responsible for the dimerization and Cys7 seems to be involved in the formation of the disulphide bond. This crucial disulphide bond also modulated the lipid affinity of CrPLC. Oligomers of CrPLC were also captured in in vivo condition. CrPLC was mainly found to be localized in the plasma membrane of the cell. The cell surface localization of CrPLC may have significant implication in the downstream regulatory function of CrPLC. SIGNIFICANCE: This study helps in establishing the role of CrPLC (or similar proteins) in the quaternary structure of the molecule its affinities during lipid interactions