Elections and the media

An examination of the reporting of general elections from the perspective of the Australian Press Council presented at the University of the South Pacific with an eye to the Fiji election in May 1999.&nbsp

I Halogenated derivatives of some polycycllc aromatic compounds II some polyfluorocycloalkene dimors

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Developing a Method for Measuring Working Out Loud

Enterprise social network software platforms (ESNs) are increasingly being deployed in firms across almost every industry as a means of fostering employee collaboration. Although benefits in increased productivity, innovation, and employee engagement are highly touted, there is a high failure rate of these deployments. This often occurs because (1) there is a misapplied focus on technology adoption rather than adoption of the employee behaviors that are ultimately required to obtain those benefits, and (2) it is unclear what those behaviors are and how to measure them. “Working Out Loud” is one possible framework for understanding and measuring the behaviors necessary to fulfill the promise that ESN vendors advertise. It is loosely described as doing work in a way that makes it visible to others, and is often associated with the use of social business tools. As these tools proliferate within organizations, the Working Out Loud concept is becoming increasingly popular as an organizational and individual goal and mantra among social software vendors, their customers, and leading pundits and consultants in this space. Many benefits have been associated with Working Out Loud; however the concept is still somewhat amorphous. No attempts have been made to quantify it and little research has been done on whether the benefits attributed to it really exist. The common industry definition of Working Out Loud identifies two separate behaviors: narrating one’s work in the form of blog posts, status updates, etc. (typically individual behavior), and performing work in a transparent and observable way through the use of an enterprise social platform (typically group or team behavior). This research hypothesizes that these two behaviors do exist and are related but distinct, and thus scales can be developed to measure each. A survey was given to employees of Lexmark International, Inc. (the author’s employer). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses performed on the data confirmed the hypothesis and resulted in scales for individual and group Working Out Loud that are designed to be minimallyintrusive so as to enable both researchers and practitioners to track an organization’s Working Out Loud behavior on an ongoing basis

Fused particle fabrication 3-D printing: Recycled materials’ optimization and mechanical properties

Fused particle fabrication (FPF) (or fused granular fabrication (FGF)) has potential for increasing recycled polymers in 3-D printing. Here, the open source Gigabot X is used to develop a new method to optimize FPF/FGF for recycled materials. Virgin polylactic acid (PLA) pellets and prints were analyzed and were then compared to four recycled polymers including the two most popular printing materials (PLA and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)) as well as the two most common waste plastics (polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene (PP)). The size characteristics of the various materials were quantified using digital image processing. Then, power and nozzle velocity matrices were used to optimize the print speed, and a print test was used to maximize the output for a two-temperature stage extruder for a given polymer feedstock. ASTM type 4 tensile tests were used to determine the mechanical properties of each plastic when they were printed with a particle drive extruder system and were compared with filament printing. The results showed that the Gigabot X can print materials 6.5× to 13× faster than conventional printers depending on the material, with no significant reduction in the mechanical properties. It was concluded that the Gigabot X and similar FPF/FGF printers can utilize a wide range of recycled polymer materials with minimal post processing

Evaluation of the Physical Activity and Public Health Course for Practitioners

From 1996–2013, a 6-day Physical Activity and Public Health Course for Practitioners has been offered yearly in the United States. An evaluation was conducted to assess the impact of the course on building public health capacity for physical activity and on shaping the physical activity and public health careers of fellows since taking the courses

Hydrologically driven ecosystem processes determine the distribution and persistence of ecosystem-specialist predators under climate change

Climate change has the capacity to alter physical and biological ecosystem processes, jeopardizing the survival of associated species. This is a particular concern in cool, wet northern peatlands that could experience warmer, drier conditions. Here we show that climate, ecosystem processes and food chains combine to influence the population performance of species in British blanket bogs. Our peatland process model accurately predicts water-table depth, which predicts abundance of craneflies (keystone invertebrates), which in turn predicts observed abundances and population persistence of three ecosystem-specialist bird species that feed on craneflies during the breeding season. Climate change projections suggest that falling water tables could cause 56–81% declines in cranefly abundance and, hence, 15–51% reductions in the abundances of these birds by 2051–2080. We conclude that physical (precipitation, temperature and topography), biophysical (evapotranspiration and desiccation of invertebrates) and ecological (food chains) processes combine to determine the distributions and survival of ecosystem-specialist predators

Potential grape-derived contributions to volatile ester concentrations in wine

Grape composition affects wine flavour and aroma not only through varietal compounds, but also by influencing the production of volatile compounds by yeast. C9 and C12 compounds that potentially influence ethyl ester synthesis during fermentation were studied using a model grape juice medium. It was shown that the addition of free fatty acids, their methyl esters or acyl-carnitine and acyl-amino acid conjugates can increase ethyl ester production in fermentations. The stimulation of ethyl ester production above that of the control was apparent when lower concentrations of the C9 compounds were added to the model musts compared to the C12 compounds. Four amino acids, which are involved in CoA biosynthesis, were also added to model grape juice medium in the absence of pantothenate to test their ability to influence ethyl and acetate ester production. β-Alanine was the only one shown to increase the production of ethyl esters, free fatty acids and acetate esters. The addition of 1 mg∙L-1 β-alanine was enough to stimulate production of these compounds and addition of up to 100 mg∙L-1 β-alanine had no greater effect. The endogenous concentrations of β-alanine in fifty Cabernet Sauvignon grape samples exceeded the 1 mg∙L-1 required for the stimulatory effect on ethyl and acetate ester production observed in this study.Paul K. Boss, Anthony D. Pearce, Yanjia Zhao, Emily L. Nicholson, Eric G. Dennis, and David W. Jeffer

A neomorphic cancer cell-specific role of MAGE-A4 in trans-lesion synthesis

Trans-lesion synthesis (TLS) is an important DNA-damage tolerance mechanism that permits ongoing DNA synthesis in cells harbouring damaged genomes. The E3 ubiquitin ligase RAD18 activates TLS by promoting recruitment of Y-family DNA polymerases to sites of DNA-damage-induced replication fork stalling. Here we identify the cancer/testes antigen melanoma antigen-A4 (MAGE-A4) as a tumour cell-specific RAD18-binding partner and an activator of TLS. MAGE-A4 depletion from MAGE-A4-expressing cancer cells destabilizes RAD18. Conversely, ectopic expression of MAGE-A4 (in cell lines lacking endogenous MAGE-A4) promotes RAD18 stability. DNA-damage-induced mono-ubiquitination of the RAD18 substrate PCNA is attenuated by MAGE-A4 silencing. MAGE-A4-depleted cells fail to resume DNA synthesis normally following ultraviolet irradiation and accumulate γH2AX, thereby recapitulating major hallmarks of TLS deficiency. Taken together, these results demonstrate a mechanism by which reprogramming of ubiquitin signalling in cancer cells can influence DNA damage tolerance and probably contribute to an altered genomic landscape

Tissue engineered constructs based on SPCL scaffolds cultured with goat marrow cells : functionality in femoral defects

This study aims to assess the in vivo performance of cell–scaffold constructs composed of goat marrow stromal cells (GBMCs) and SPCL (a blend of starch with polycaprolactone) fibre mesh scaffolds at different stages of development, using an autologous model. GBMCs from iliac crests were seeded onto SPCL scaffolds and in vitro cultured for 1 and 7 days in osteogenic medium. After 1 and 7 days, the constructs were characterized for proliferation and initial osteoblastic expression by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity. Scanning electron microscopy analysis was performed to investigate cellularmorphology and adhesion to SPCL scaffolds. Non-critical defects (diameter 6 mm, depth 3 mm) were drilled in the posterior femurs of four adult goats from which bone marrow and serum had been collected previously. Drill defects alone and defects filled with scaffolds without cells were used as controls. After implantation, intravital fluorescence markers, xylenol orange, calcein green and tetracycline, were injected subcutaneously after 2, 4 and 6 weeks, respectively, for bone formation and mineralization monitoring. Subsequently, samples were stained with L´evai–Laczk´o for bone formation and histomorphometric analysis. GBMCs adhered and proliferated on SPCL scaffolds and an initial differentiation into pre-osteoblasts was detected by an increasing level of ALP activity with the culture time. In vivo experiments indicated that bone neoformation occurred in all femoral defects. The results obtained provided important information about the performance of SPCL–GBMC constructs in an orthotopic goat model that enabled future studies to be designed to investigate in vivo the functionality of SPCL–GBMC constructs in more complex models, viz. critical sized defects, and to evaluate the influence of in vitro cultured autologous cells in the healing and bone regenerative process.Marcia T. Rodrigues acknowledges the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for her PhD scholarship (Grant No. SFRH/BD/30745/2006). This work was partially supported by the European Union-funded STREP Project HIPPOCRATES (Grant No. NMP3-CT-2003-505758) and was carried out under the scope of the European NoE EXPERTISSUES (Grant No. NMP3-CT-2004-500283)