Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) microbiome is not affected by colon microbiota in healthy goats

This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCI) co-financed with FEDER funds [AGL2017-86757 to LA, AGL2017-86938-R to DRY]. Other contributions were SAF2015-65327-R to JA and SAF2015-73549-JIN to HR. LA is a Ramón y Cajal fellow [RYC-2013-13666] from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. APC is a recipient of a fellowship from the University of the Basque Country. We thank the MCI for the Severo Ochoa Excellence accreditation (SEV-2016-0644) and the Basque Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade (Etortek and Elkartek programs

An exploratory study on consumer travel agency information sources: an Australian regional analysis

[Abstract]: The research reported in this paper explores why regional consumers choose to book their travel arrangements with travel agencies. Consumers can now access on-line bookings for airlines, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing tours and other related products so why do they still go to travel agencies for reservations? This paper identifies the information sources consumers used when selecting a travel agency. The research design involves two stages. The first stage has been completed and was a series of in-depth interviews with 10 users of regional travel agencies and three experienced travel agency consultants. The second stage will be a mail-out survey to travel agencies in the Darling Downs area of Queensland, Australia. Despite its locality, the region is a significant consumer of travel with approximately eight retail travel agencies in the city of Toowoomba alone. The in-depth interviews highlighted the need to de-emphasize three particular information sources considered for inclusion in the survey for stage two. They were, travel guidebooks, travel or automotive clubs and local travel offices which were deleted from the intended survey and replaced with television lifestyle programs as an information source worthy of investigation

Tourism curriculum in the University Sector: Does it meet future requirements? Evidence from Australia

In the contemporary competitive and globally connected marketplace, factors that guaranteed business success in the past may be of limited relevance in the future. Within the paradigms of today’s business, many successful operators continually introduce new products and services to maintain their market leadership position. Whilst firms in the tourism industry seek to maintain competitive position through policy planning, strategic marketing, budgeting and R&D, tourism education providers occupy a key position by seeking to enhance the skill levels of management and employees, both present and future. This paper reviews some Australian tourism and hospitality education programmes and course curriculum and briefly compares them with some trends in other English-speaking countries. The research explores tourism industry demand, trainees’ expectations and additionally identifies gaps and opportunities for the future curriculum content. The findings may, therefore, assist tourism programme providers with a broader perspective with which to shape future tourism courses

miRanalyzer: an update on the detection and analysis of microRNAs in high-throughput sequencing experiments

We present a new version of miRanalyzer, a web server and stand-alone tool for the detection of known and prediction of new microRNAs in high-throughput sequencing experiments. The new version has been notably improved regarding speed, scope and available features. Alignments are now based on the ultrafast short-read aligner Bowtie (granting also colour space support, allowing mismatches and improving speed) and 31 genomes, including 6 plant genomes, can now be analysed (previous version contained only 7). Differences between plant and animal microRNAs have been taken into account for the prediction models and differential expression of both, known and predicted microRNAs, between two conditions can be calculated. Additionally, consensus sequences of predicted mature and precursor microRNAs can be obtained from multiple samples, which increases the reliability of the predicted microRNAs. Finally, a stand-alone version of the miRanalyzer that is based on a local and easily customized database is also available; this allows the user to have more control on certain parameters as well as to use specific data such as unpublished assemblies or other libraries that are not available in the web server. miRanalyzer is available at http://bioinfo2.ugr.es/miRanalyzer/miRanalyzer.php.The Ministry of Innovation and Science of the Spanish Government (BIO2010-20219 to M.H.); the Junta de Andalucia (P07FQM3163 to M.H.); the ‘Juan de la Cierva’ fellowship (to M.H.); the Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade of the Government of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (Etortek Research Programs 2009/20011 to A.M.A.); from the Innovation Technology Department of the Bizkaia County (to A.M.A.). Funding for open access charge: Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade of the Government of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (Etortek Research Programs 2009/2011 to A.M.A.)

ICT Use and Productivity: A Synthesis from Studies of Australian Firms

The increased use of information and communications technology (ICT) has helped to raise Australia’s productivity growth, according to a new Commission study. It has enabled firms to innovate in what they do and how they do it. ICT Use and Productivity: A Synthesis from Studies of Australian Firms concludes that the stronger growth in the use of ICT in the second half of the 1990s added up to 1/2 a percentage point in the acceleration in annual labour productivity growth, principally as firms used additional ICT in place of additional labour.ABS; Australian Bureau of Statistics; Business; DITR Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources; ICTs; Information and Communication Technologies; OECD; Productivity;

Beyond Equal: From Same but Different to the Doctrine of Substantial Equivalence

A same-but-different dichotomy has recently been encapsulated within the ill-defined concept of “substantial equivalence”. By invoking this concept the genetically modified organism (GMO) industry has escaped the rigors of safety testing that might otherwise apply. The curious concept of “substantial equivalence” grants a presumption of safety to GMO food. This presumption has yet to be earned, and has been used to constrain labelling of both GMO and non-GMO food. It is an idea that well serves corporatism. It enables the claim of difference to secure patent protection, while upholding the contrary claim of sameness to avoid labelling and safety scrutiny. It offers the best of both worlds for corporate food entrepreneurs, and delivers the worst of both worlds to consumers. The term “substantial equivalence” has established its currency within the GMO discourse. As the opportunities for patenting food technologies expand, the GMO recruitment of this concept will likely be a dress rehearsal for the developing debates on the labelling and testing of other techno-foods - including nano-foods and clone-foods

Finding and filling the gaps in the Australian governments\u27 innovation and entrepreneurship support spectra

A national innovation system is concerned with the full process of converting new knowledge into commercially viable results. Governments are policy-active in trying to create productive national innovation systems. This paper reviews ways of thinking about entrepreneurship as the commercialisation component of Australia&rsquo;s innovation system. The paper explores the impact and relevance of selected existing Australian Commonwealth, and to a lesser extent State government, programs for the commercialisation channels so identified, using four frameworks for the analysis: financial, management/start-up, innovation and entrepreneurial. The analysis indicates program initiatives covering the later development and commercialization phases, but serious gaps in the support available for the entrepreneurship phase involving the act of new entry. This gap is covered by research provider business development people and to a limited extent by incubator and State government initiatives. A critical issue has been and is access to smaller amounts of seed finance. The critical human component is the education of public servants and politicians about the nature and operation of entrepreneurship.<br /

The Crossroad of Ion Channels and Calmodulin in Disease

Calmodulin (CaM) is the principal Ca2+ sensor in eukaryotic cells, orchestrating the activity of hundreds of proteins. Disease causing mutations at any of the three genes that encode identical CaM proteins lead to major cardiac dysfunction, revealing the importance in the regulation of excitability. In turn, some mutations at the CaM binding site of ion channels cause similar diseases. Here we provide a summary of the two sides of the partnership between CaM and ion channels, describing the diversity of consequences of mutations at the complementary CaM binding domains.The Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade of the Government of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (Elkartek 2017 bG17 kk-2017/000843M50.17.EK.C6) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (BFU2015-66910 and RTI2018-097839) provided financial support for this work. E.N. is supported by a predoctoral grant of the Basque Government

How Many Jobs Were Lost With the Collapse of Ansett?

The objective of this paper is to determine the adverse impact of the collapse of Ansett on employment using the latest Australian input-output table. The indirect contribution of the collapse of Ansett to the creation of unemployment in various industries is quantified by adopting the “shut-down of industry” approach. Ansett operated within the air and space transport industry which possesses strong backward and forward linkages. It is found that due to sectoral multiplier and flow-on effects each job lost in such an important sector leads to a loss of approximately 3 extra jobs in the economy as a whole. The empirical results are broadly consistent with previous studies. Overall, the Ansett collapse brought about an indirect loss of 54880 jobs in 105 sectors of the Australian economy. Losses were particularly marked in the following industries which were the fastest growing industries in terms of employment during the 1985-2000 period: Retail trade; Business services; Education; Health services; Accommodation, cafes and restaurants.

Etransactions in the Australian supply chain setting

Many sectors of the Australian economy have, in recent years, undertaken an analysis of their supply chain structures. Each sector has determined the underlying technologies to be recommended for use on the basis of past practice in that sector and, in some cases, international practice in the sector. In this article, the authors examine the current role of e-transactions within the context of Australian supply chains. Our analysis indicates that there is a bifurcation of technical choices along the demarcations of XML and EDI business solutions. For instance, while Mining and Finance have gone the XML route, Wholesale and Retail Trade, along with Transport and Storage have chosen EDI. Moreover, the Health sector appears to be leaning towards keeping both options open to its organizations. We argue that two factors will need to be considered which will be affected greatly by this parting of the ways on the technology issue. One is the concept of ‘design for supply chain’ which involves demand generation through joint development of new products and the flow of material across different supply chain entities. The second is the impact of the growth of global trade within international economic blocs. A natural conclusion is that Australian industry must support a merging of EDI and XML standards