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

Intravenous Formulation of HET0016 Decreased Human Glioblastoma Growth and Iimplicated Survival Benefit in Rat Xenograft Models

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a hypervascular primary brain tumor with poor prognosis. HET0016 is a selective CYP450 inhibitor, which has been shown to inhibit angiogenesis and tumor growth. Therefore, to explore novel treatments, we have generated an improved intravenous (IV) formulation of HET0016 with HPssCD and tested in animal models of human and syngeneic GBM. Administration of a single IV dose resulted in 7-fold higher levels of HET0016 in plasma and 3.6-fold higher levels in tumor at 60 min than that in IP route. IV treatment with HPssCD-HET0016 decreased tumor growth, and altered vascular kinetics in early and late treatment groups (p \u3c 0.05). Similar growth inhibition was observed in syngeneic GL261 GBM (p \u3c 0.05). Survival studies using patient derived xenografts of GBM811, showed prolonged survival to 26 weeks in animals treated with focal radiation, in combination with HET0016 and TMZ (p \u3c 0.05). We observed reduced expression of markers of cell proliferation (Ki-67), decreased neovascularization (laminin and alphaSMA), in addition to inflammation and angiogenesis markers in the treatment group (p \u3c 0.05). Our results indicate that HPssCD-HET0016 is effective in inhibiting tumor growth through decreasing proliferation, and neovascularization. Furthermore, HPssCD-HET0016 significantly prolonged survival in PDX GBM811 model

A Case of severe MRSA sepsis

Introduction: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterium that has developed resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics and is more difficult to treat with standard types of antibiotics and thus more virulent. The epidemiology of MRSA may be changing, as the isolation of MRSA is no longer limited to hospitalized patients and can cause serious infections in otherwise healthy persons with no links to healthcare systems.Case report: An 11 year old school boy presented with right thigh swelling and fever for six days with a history of cough & haemoptysis. Initially he was managed as deep vein thrombosis with pulmonary embolism which was ruled out after further investigations. Large thigh abscess was drained and treated for severe sepsis at the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) for 21 days with six antibiotics. Subsequently he underwent drainage of pus from different parts of his all four limbs in eight times under general anaesthesia within two weeks. During this period his oxygen saturation continued to drop and was diagnosed to have disseminated sepsis due to community-acquired MRSA with necrotizing pneumonia and multiple soft tissue abscesses (pyomyositis). Features of sepsis gradually subsided only after 18 days and he was discharged after 35 days on oral antibiotics which continued for 42 days. Subsequent screening for immune-deficiency was negative.Discussion: MRSA should attract the attention of the medical community with high degree of suspicion, illustrating the urgency to develop better ways for early diagnosis and treatment with appropriate antibiotics as severe infections can be a great burden to health care system requiring expensive antibiotics and ICU care

Subsumption architecture for enabling strategic coordination of robot swarms in a gaming scenario

The field of swarm robotics breaks away from traditional research by maximizing the performance of a group - swarm - of limited robots instead of optimizing the intelligence of a single robot. Similar to current-generation strategy video games, the player controls groups of units - squads - instead of the individual participants. These individuals are rather unintelligent robots, capable of little more than navigating and using their weapons. However, clever control of the squads of autonomous robots by the game players can make for intense, strategic matches. The gaming framework presented in this article provides players with strategic coordination of robot squads. The developed swarm intelligence techniques break up complex squad commands into several commands for each robot using robot formations and path finding while avoiding obstacles. These algorithms are validated through a 'Capture the Flag' gaming scenario where a complex squad command is split up into several robot commands in a matter of milliseconds

THE VARIATION IN LEAr STRUCTURE O~ SEEDLINGS IN THE FAMILIES DIPTEROCARPACEAE, CLUSIACEAE, AND MYRTACEAE UNDER DIFFERENT LIGHT ENVIRONMENTS

Light has been characicriscd as the most important environmental factor that affect the leafstructure of tree seedlings in tropical rain forest in South and Southeast Asia. Many studieshave been carried out on leaf structure of early-successional and late-successional specic-,and also among the species within the same successional status. These studies have helpedin creating a clear understanding of ecological distribution in relation to each species. Thepresent study examined the leaf structure or six canopy tree species that are considered to berelatively shade tolerant in lowland rain forests in Sri Lanka.Seedlings of Dipteracarpus tevlcnticns, D. hispidus (Diptcrocarpaceae), Mesua f{'ITNI. M.nagassarium (Clusiaccac). Sy:rgillillfirnllll'/1 and S. rubicundum (Myrtaccac) were grown indifferent controlled environmental shelters that simulated a range of light environmentsfound in the ground storey of the rain forest. Two treatments exposed seedlings to differentduration of full sunlight. These simulated the groundstorey Photosynthetic Photon FluxDensity (PFD) that were comparable to the centres of about 200 m2 and 400 m2 canopyopenings. Three other shelters exposed seedlings to uniform diffuse light conditions thatsimulated amounts and qualities of radiation similar to that of the forest undcrstorey (PFD50. R:FR ratio 0.46: PPO 350. R:FR ratio 0.97; PFO XOO,R:FR ratio 1.05). A control lighttreatment proved full sun light quality (PPFD 200n, R:FR ratio 1.27) for the seedlinggrowth.The attributes measured were thickness of leaf blade. upper and lower epidermis. palisademesophyll and number of layers, and stomatal frequency. Results show that S\'~\'gil/lllspecies have highest in leaf blade, palisade cell thickness and stomatal frequency followedin order by MC.I'I.w>Dipterocarpus. This suggests that S\'~ygillill species are more lighttolerant but less in drought tolerance. The thickest upper and lower epidermis inDipterocarpus reveal that they are more efficient in water use. Svzygiun: and Dipteroiarpusexhibit rows in palisidac mcsophyll when exposed to full sun. These findings elucidatesome of the relationships between leaf anatomy and the species ecology across the foresttopography.

VALUE ADDITION TO BIODIVERSITY PRODUCTS FOR BIOPROSPECTING AND BENEFIT SHARING

Sri Lanka has been identified as a biodiversity hotspot in the world. This is because of her richdiversity at genes, species and ecosj stem levels and unprecedented rate of loss ofSuch biodiversity. Sharing of benefits and increase in the recognized value of resources havebeen considered as one of the most effective pathways to foster conservation and utilization ofbiodiversity. Bioprospecting is searching for new genes, species and lor products for utilization,which has been practiced for centuries in Sri Lanka and elsewhere. However, to reach theoptimum benefit of bioprospecting and benefit sharing, it is essential to understand the valueaddition processes to biodiversity products. Value addition is considered as a step taken toincrease the value of a raw product any time between the harvesting and sale of the finalproduct. Value added products not only offer a higher return, but also open new markets, createbrand recognition and add variety. Value addition to biodiversity products can be rewarding andbenefits accrue from matching under-utili sed resources with potential marketsThe objectives of this study were to explore different value addition pathways of biodiversityproducts and identify sharing of benefits in each value addition process using Exacumtrinervium (binara), Salacia reticulate (kotalahimbutu), Munronia pinnata (binkohomba),Santalum a/bum (suduhandun) and Coscinium fenestratum (venival gata). Information wascollected from personal communication (indigenous knowledge), literature survey and brainstorming discussions.Potential value addition pathways were identified for all species. Sharing of benefits occursthroughout the value addition processes, although magnitude of sharing between different stepsvaries with species. In majority of species higher level of benefits is received by middlemanwhere as inM pinnata, collectors share high level of benefits. Results of the study also revealedthat there are no benefits provided in return to the area of conservation, which is a key factor ofdetermining sustainability of conservation. Implications of understanding of value additionprocesses of biodiversity prospecting, requirements of establishment of national legislation onbiodiversity prospecting, value addition and benefit sharing, and development of procedures andinstitutional capacities to implement such legislation are also discussed in this paper