Overlapping murmurs

Overlapping Murmurs is an ambient sound installation presented as part of the 'INDELIBLE' exhibition at Waikato Museum. Overlapping Murmurs is a collaboration between Jeremy Mayall, Kent Macpherson, Haco, Horomona Horo, Reuben Bradley, and Megan Rogerson-Berry. It is designed to provide an overall accompaniment to the show, whilst also being a deconstruction and re-working of elements from the Where We Overlap recording sessions

Imipramine blue sensitively and selectively targets FLT3-ITD positive acute myeloid leukemia cells.

Aberrant cytokine signaling initiated from mutant receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) provides critical growth and survival signals in high risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Inhibitors to FLT3 have already been tested in clinical trials, however, drug resistance limits clinical efficacy. Mutant receptor tyrosine kinases are mislocalized in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of AML and play an important role in the non-canonical activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (STAT5). Here, we have tested a potent new drug called imipramine blue (IB), which is a chimeric molecule with a dual mechanism of action. At 200-300 nM concentrations, IB is a potent inhibitor of STAT5 through liberation of endogenous phosphatase activity following NADPH oxidase (NOX) inhibition. However, at 75-150 nM concentrations, IB was highly effective at killing mutant FLT3-driven AML cells through a similar mechanism as thapsigargin (TG), involving increased cytosolic calcium. IB also potently inhibited survival of primary human FLT3/ITD+ AML cells compared to FLT3/ITDneg cells and spared normal umbilical cord blood cells. Therefore, IB functions through a mechanism involving vulnerability to dysregulated calcium metabolism and the combination of fusing a lipophilic amine to a NOX inhibiting dye shows promise for further pre-clinical development for targeting high risk AML

Whiskey (Band in a bubble)

Whiskey (song) Collaborative Composition - Music and Lyrics. BAND IN A BUBBLE is a real time observational workshop, where a group of musicians from around New Zealand gather together for the first time at Wintec in Hamilton to compose, record and perform a new collection of songs. Inspired by a project that involved Australian band REGURGITATOR in Melbourne in 2004, this project is the brainchild of Wintec Music Department Lecturer, Kent Macpherson. The initial idea from was conceptually inspired by biospheres, and a desire to explore the juxtaposition between the insular artistic recording process, and the extroverted performer. To look through this process at how that might impact the creative mindset. BAND IN A BUBBLE at SPARK festival involves a number of performers from around New Zealand including: Kent Macpherson, David Sidwell, John Egenes, Reuben Bradley, Jeremy Mayall, Megan Berry, Nick Braae and Brooke Baker, as the core performers. This collaboration will be the first for this ensemble, so this experience will also include a realtime exploration of how to approach a creative collaboration from the beginning. The WIntec wharenui has been carefully selected as the venue for this project for a number of reasons. Most notably, the building has many windows which provide a certain ‘transparency’ to the actual process. The wharenui is also very central to the Wintec campus, both in a physical and spiritual sense. Most involved are also educators, as well as musicians, so the inclusion of this workshop as part of the SPARK festival will ideally facilitate an educational experience for the students and wider community. The intention is to build an environment that is a creatively fulfilling one for the people directly involved

Band in a bubble: Putting out fires

Putting Out Fires (song) Collaborative Composition - Music and Lyrics. BAND IN A BUBBLE is a real time observational workshop, where a group of musicians from around New Zealand gather together for the first time at Wintec in Hamilton to compose, record and perform a new collection of songs. Inspired by a project that involved Australian band REGURGITATOR in Melbourne in 2004, this project is the brainchild of Wintec Music Department Lecturer, Kent Macpherson. The initial idea from was conceptually inspired by biospheres, and a desire to explore the juxtaposition between the insular artistic recording process, and the extroverted performer. To look through this process at how that might impact the creative mindset. BAND IN A BUBBLE at SPARK festival involves a number of performers from around New Zealand including: Kent Macpherson, David Sidwell, John Egenes, Reuben Bradley, Jeremy Mayall, Megan Berry, Nick Braae and Brooke Baker, as the core performers. This collaboration will be the first for this ensemble, so this experience will also include a realtime exploration of how to approach a creative collaboration from the beginning. The WIntec wharenui has been carefully selected as the venue for this project for a number of reasons. Most notably, the building has many windows which provide a certain ‘transparency’ to the actual process. The wharenui is also very central to the Wintec campus, both in a physical and spiritual sense. Most involved are also educators, as well as musicians, so the inclusion of this workshop as part of the SPARK festival will ideally facilitate an educational experience for the students and wider community. The intention is to build an environment that is a creatively fulfilling one for the people directly involved

Band in a bubble: I've been around

I've Been Around (song) Collaborative Composition - Music and Lyrics. BAND IN A BUBBLE is a real time observational workshop, where a group of musicians from around New Zealand gather together for the first time at Wintec in Hamilton to compose, record and perform a new collection of songs. Inspired by a project that involved Australian band REGURGITATOR in Melbourne in 2004, this project is the brainchild of Wintec Music Department Lecturer, Kent Macpherson. The initial idea from was conceptually inspired by biospheres, and a desire to explore the juxtaposition between the insular artistic recording process, and the extroverted performer. To look through this process at how that might impact the creative mindset. BAND IN A BUBBLE at SPARK festival involves a number of performers from around New Zealand including: Kent Macpherson, David Sidwell, John Egenes, Reuben Bradley, Jeremy Mayall, Megan Berry, Nick Braae and Brooke Baker, as the core performers. This collaboration will be the first for this ensemble, so this experience will also include a realtime exploration of how to approach a creative collaboration from the beginning. The WIntec wharenui has been carefully selected as the venue for this project for a number of reasons. Most notably, the building has many windows which provide a certain ‘transparency’ to the actual process. The wharenui is also very central to the Wintec campus, both in a physical and spiritual sense. Most involved are also educators, as well as musicians, so the inclusion of this workshop as part of the SPARK festival will ideally facilitate an educational experience for the students and wider community. The intention is to build an environment that is a creatively fulfilling one for the people directly involved

A proposed prognostic 7-day survival formula for patients with terminal cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The ability to identify patients for hospice care results in better end-of-life care. To develop a validated prognostic scale for 7-day survival prediction, a prospective observational cohort study was made of patients with terminal cancer.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Patient data gathered within 24 hours of hospital admission included demographics, clinical signs and symptoms and their severity, laboratory test results, and subsequent survival data. Of 727 patients enrolled, data from 374 (training group) was used to develop a prognostic tool, with the other 353 serving as the validation group.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Five predictors identified by multivariate logistic regression analysis included patient's cognitive status, edema, ECOG performance status, BUN and respiratory rate. A formula of the predictor model based on those five predictors was constructed. When probability was >0.2, death within 7 days was predicted in the training group and validation group, with sensitivity of 80.9% and 71.0%, specificity of 65.9% and 57.7%, positive predictive value of 42.6% and 26.8%, and negative predictive value (NPV) of 91.7% and 90.1%, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This predictor model showed a relatively high sensitivity and NPV for predicting 7-day survival among terminal cancer patients, and could increase patient satisfaction by improving end-of-life care.</p

Characterization of an Orphan Diterpenoid Biosynthetic Operon from Salinispora arenicola

While more commonly associated with plants than microbes, diterpenoid natural products have been reported to have profound effects in marine microbe–microbe interactions. Intriguingly, the genome of the marine bacterium Salinispora arenicola CNS-205 contains a putative diterpenoid biosynthetic operon, terp1. Here recombinant expression studies are reported, indicating that this three-gene operon leads to the production of isopimara-8,15-dien-19-ol (4). Although 4 is not observed in pure cultures of S. arenicola, it is plausible that the terp1 operon is only expressed under certain physiologically relevant conditions such as in the presence of other marine organisms

PANDORA-seq expands the repertoire of regulatory small RNAs by overcoming RNA modifications

Although high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) has greatly advanced small non-coding RNA (sncRNA) discovery, the currently widely used complementary DNA library construction protocol generates biased sequencing results. This is partially due to RNA modifications that interfere with adapter ligation and reverse transcription processes, which prevent the detection of sncRNAs bearing these modifications. Here, we present PANDORA-seq (panoramic RNA display by overcoming RNA modification aborted sequencing), employing a combinatorial enzymatic treatment to remove key RNA modifications that block adapter ligation and reverse transcription. PANDORA-seq identified abundant modified sncRNAs—mostly transfer RNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) and ribosomal RNA-derived small RNAs (rsRNAs)—that were previously undetected, exhibiting tissue-specific expression across mouse brain, liver, spleen and sperm, as well as cell-specific expression across embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and HeLa cells. Using PANDORA-seq, we revealed unprecedented landscapes of microRNA, tsRNA and rsRNA dynamics during the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells. Importantly, tsRNAs and rsRNAs that are downregulated during somatic cell reprogramming impact cellular translation in ESCs, suggesting a role in lineage differentiation

Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review

In a meta-analysis, Julianne Holt-Lunstad and colleagues find that individuals' social relationships have as much influence on mortality risk as other well-established risk factors for mortality, such as smoking