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

Gut Dysbiosis Promotes M2 Macrophage Polarization and Allergic Airway Inflammation via Fungi-Induced PGE2

SummaryAlthough imbalances in gut microbiota composition, or “dysbiosis,” are associated with many diseases, the effects of gut dysbiosis on host systemic physiology are less well characterized. We report that gut dysbiosis induced by antibiotic (Abx) treatment promotes allergic airway inflammation by shifting macrophage polarization in the lung toward the alternatively activated M2 phenotype. Adoptive transfer of alveolar macrophages derived from Abx-treated mice was sufficient to increase allergic airway inflammation. Abx treatment resulted in the overgrowth of a commensal fungal Candida species in the gut and increased plasma concentrations of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), which induced M2 macrophage polarization in the lung. Suppression of PGE2 synthesis by the cyclooxygenase inhibitors aspirin and celecoxib suppressed M2 macrophage polarization and decreased allergic airway inflammatory cell infiltration in Abx-treated mice. Thus, Abx treatment can cause overgrowth of particular fungal species in the gut and promote M2 macrophage activation at distant sites to influence systemic responses including allergic inflammation

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

Evaluation of total n, p, k and organic matter contents of soil amended with paddy husk charcoal coated urea and comparison of the yield of paddy.

Rice production in Sri Lanka has increased considerably during the last three decades as a result of cultivation of high yielding varieties, increase in the area of cultivation under irrigation and heavy use of plant nutrients. Most of the high yielding varieties which are extensively grown throughout the country require recommended levels of fertilizers in order to obtain their potential yields. Therefore, effective and efficient way of fertilizer application is important. Coated fertilizers are widely used to improve the efficiency of fertilizer application. However, the conventional coated fertilizers such as sulphur coated urea and urea super granules are not popular among the rice farmers in Sri Lanka owing to high cost of the coated fertilizers. One of the most sustainable solutions is application of paddy husk charcoal as a coating material to N fertilizer so as to gradually release nitrogenous compounds and making them available for plants. Objectives of this study were to evaluate total N, P K and organic matter of soil amended with paddy husk charcoal coated urea and to compare the yield of paddy production. A field experiment was carried out at Kalugamuwa farmer field in Yala 2010 and Maha 2010/2011. The field was divided into three blocks of equal size (30 m x 5 m) and each block was further subdivided into four plots (5 m x 5 m) and treatments were arranged in randomized complete block design. Treatments were application of (1) chemical fertilizer only, (2) urea coated charcoal only (1/3 of recommended urea) (3) chemical fertilizer and paddy straw compost (compost obtained from anaerobic digestion of paddy straw) and (4) paddy straw compost and urea coated charcoal only. The highest mean grain yield of 12.59kg/plot was obtained with the application of chemical fertilizer followed by charcoal coated urea with compost, chemical fertilizer and charcoal coated urea only for Yala season. Paddy husk charcoal coated urea can potentially be used as a slow releasing nitrogen fertilizer which reduces leaching losses of urea. In addition, coating is less costly and helps reducing the fertilizer cost (70% of urea cost) and contribute to mitigate atmospheric pollution as well as pollution of water bodies

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