Brisbane songs

Vocal composition for Collusion ensemble (soprano, clarinet, violin, cello, piano). Three poems are collected and set in Brisbane Songs. Les Murray’s Nocturne starts the set in a reflective mood. The poem is an ode-like enumeration of iconic features of Brisbane, centring on the river, and dwelling on the major impact of World War Two on the city, touching evocatively on many other aspects of Brisbane’s identity in the process. The inescapable river is strongly present in Streets of Brisbane by Kevin Hart, represented in the music by a series of widely-spaced, static chords that overtake the texture at several points. The third poem, Leaving West End, by Bronwyn Lea, takes quite a different turn, focusing on two frozen moments of observation. Set at an inner-suburban bus stop, the first observation is of a young, typically Brisbanian couple intense in their embrace of the present moment; it is interrupted by the recounting of an experience of heroin-accompanied eroticism

Jump for solo bass clarinet

Jump was commissioned by Dutch bass clarinet virtuoso Henri Bok. The work weaves a contrapuntal structure from a single line by means of extensive registral partitioning through the particular agility of the bass clarinet with large interval leaps. In addition, the technique of "tonal stratification" is employed, in which functional linear harmony is vertically stratified. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its principal arts funding and advisory body

String Quartet

The work was begun when the composer was studying composition in California with Terry Riley, well known as the Kronos Quartet's key composer. This quartet reflects contrasting experiences of Riley's Sierra Nevada home and the seedy Tenderloin district of San Francisco. Formally, the quartet is often discontinuous and lacks easy claims of certainty, opening and closing with an unresolved 4th. Informed throughout by a principle of gradual disclosure, shadowing the alap approach of Carnatic and Hindustani music, the harmonic content coheres through tonal stratification, in which linear harmonic functions are partitioned vertically and sustained as a window into timelessness. The work was commissioned by Sydney-based Elektra Quartet. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its principal arts funding and advisory body

Improved tunneling magnetoresistance at low temperature in manganite junctions grown by molecular beam epitaxy

We report resistance versus magnetic field measurements for a La0.65Sr0.35MnO3/SrTiO3/La0.65Sr0.35MnO3 tunnel junction grown by molecular-beam epitaxy, that show a large field window of extremely high tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) at low temperature. Scanning the in-plane applied field orientation through 360^/circ, the TMR shows 4-fold symmetry, i.e. biaxial anisotropy, aligned with the crystalline axes but not the junction geometrical long axis. The TMR reaches ~ 1900% at 4K, corresponding to an interfacial spin polarization of > 95% assuming identical interfaces. These results show that uniaxial anisotropy is not necessary for large TMR, and lay the groundwork for future improvements in TMR in manganite junctions.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures; accepted in Applied Physics Letter

Changes in Ground Beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) Species Assemblages after Removal of Red Pine (Pinus resinosa) Overstory on Dry Sand Prairie Sites in Michigan

Ground beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) species assemblages were studied at sites on the Huron-Manistee National Forests in Newaygo County, Michigan. The goal was to monitor changes in carabid diversity on areas where mature red pine (Pinus resinosa Sol. ex Aiton) was removed during the 1996-1997 winter and compare with carabid diversity at nearby natural dry sand prairie sites, natural oak-pine barrens, and uncut red pine stands. The red pine had been planted on dry sand prairie sites during 1940-1950. Sampling with pitfall traps occurred during May-August in both 1996 and 1997, but only July-August in 1999. Overall, 16,259 carabid specimens were collected, representing 92 species of which one was a new state record for Michigan: Dicaelus furvus furvus Dejean. Of the 92 species, 27 were collected in the uncut red pine stands, 41 in the natural dry sand prairie sites, 28 in the natural oak-pine barrens, and 77 in the clearcut areas. Of all 41 species collected in the dry sand prairie sites, 27 (66%) of these were collected in the clearcut sites in 1997, 30 (73%) in 1999, and 34 (81%) for both years combined. Carabid abundance peaked in June in the red pine and oak-pine sites, compared with August for the clearcut sites. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination indicated considerable overlap in the carabid composition for the red pine and oak-pine collections, but more distinct assemblages for the dry sand prairie and clearcut sites. Of the 92 species, 41 (45%) were significant indicator species for a particular habitat

Inactivation of cloned Na channels expressed in Xenopus oocytes

This study investigates the inactivation properties of Na channels expressed in Xenopus oocytes from two rat IIA Na channel cDNA clones differing by a single amino acid residue. Although the two cDNAs encode Na channels with substantially different activation properties (Auld, V. J., A. L. Goldin, D. S. Krafte, J. Marshall, J. M. Dunn, W. A. Catterall, H. A. Lester, N. Davidson, and R. J. Dunn. 1988. Neuron. 1:449-461), their inactivation properties resemble each other strongly but differ markedly from channels induced by poly(A+) rat brain RNA. Rat IIA currents inactivate more slowly, recover from inactivation more slowly, and display a steady-state voltage dependence that is shifted to more positive potentials. The macroscopic inactivation process for poly(A+) Na channels is defined by a single exponential time course; that for rat IIA channels displays two exponential components. At the single-channel level these differences in inactivation occur because rat IIA channels reopen several times during a depolarizing pulse; poly(A+) channels do not. Repetitive stimulation (greater than 1 Hz) produces a marked decrement in the rat IIA peak current and changes the waveform of the currents. When low molecular weight RNA is coinjected with rat IIA RNA, these inactivation properties are restored to those that characterize poly(A+) channels. Slow inactivation is similar for rat IIA and poly(A+) channels, however. The data suggest that activation and inactivation involve at least partially distinct regions of the channel protein

Plant Communities of Southeastern Iowa

Twenty-four localities, or general habitat types, in southeastern Iowa and their associated plant communities are identified

Mechanistic insights into the role of microRNAs in cancer: influence of nutrient crosstalk

A plethora of studies have described the disruption of key cellular regulatory mechanisms involving non-coding RNAs, specifically microRNAs (miRNA) from the let-7 family, the miR-17 family, miR-21, miR-143, and the miR-200 family, which contribute to aberrant signaling and tumor formation. Certain environmental factors, such as bioactive dietary agents, e.g., folate, curcumin, polyunsaturated fatty acids, are also thought to impact the progression and severity of cancer. In terms of the chemoprotective mechanisms of action, these bioactive dietary agents appear to act, in part, by modulating tissue levels of miR-16, miR-17 family, miR-26b, miR-106b, and miR-200 family miRNAs and their target genes. However, the mechanisms of nutrient action are not yet fully understood. Therefore, additional characterization of the putative underlying mechanisms is needed to further our understanding of the biology, early diagnosis, prevention, and the treatment of cancer. For the purpose of elucidating the epigenetic landscape of cancer, this review will summarize the key findings from recent studies detailing the effect of bioactive dietary agents on miRNA regulation in cancer