A generic approach to conceptualising economic development in Australian local government

Australian local government faces severe financial distress. Several solutions have been suggested to this problem. However, the potential of local economic development to strengthen local government sustainability has been neglected in the Australian context. Given both the immense diversity characteristic of Australian local government, as well as the complexities inherent in local economic development, mainstream theoretical approaches do not provide a satisfactory conceptual basis upon which to consider the potential contribution of local economic development to local government sustainability. This paper seeks to address this conceptual shortfall by presenting an approach to the complexities and paradoxes in local economic development in the Australian institutional context by developing an augmented and modified series of metaphors adapted from Bingham and Mier (1993)

Biodiverse Histoplasma Species Elicit Distinct Patterns of Pulmonary Inflammation following Sublethal Infection

Histoplasma is an endemic dimorphic fungus that can cause disease in healthy and immunocompromised individuals after the transition of inhaled spores into the facultative intracellular yeast form. There is substantial diversity among Histoplasma species, but it is not clear how this heterogeneity impacts the progression of pathology and cellular immune responses during acute respiratory infection, which represents the vast majority of histoplasmosis disease burden. After inoculating mice intranasally with a sublethal inoculum, we characterized the immune response to Histoplasma capsulatum (strain G186A) and Histoplasma ohiense (strain G217B) using comprehensive flow cytometric and single-cell analyses. Within 8 days after inoculation, H. ohiense induced a significantly higher infiltration of neutrophils and inflammatory monocytes into the lung compared to H. capsulatum. Microscopic analysis of infected lung tissue revealed that although the total number of fungi was similar within inflamed lung lesions, we observed different species-dependent intracellular yeast distribution patterns. Inoculation with gfp-expressing strains indicated that H. ohiense, but not H. capsulatum, was associated primarily with alveolar macrophages early after infection. Interestingly, we observed a significant reduction in the total number of alveolar macrophages 12 to 16 days after H. ohiense, but not H. capsulatum infection, despite similar intracellular growth dynamics within AMJ2-C11 alveolar macrophages in vitro. Together, our data suggest that H. ohiense, but not H. capsulatum, preferentially interacts with alveolar macrophages early after infection, which may lead to a different course of inflammation and resolution despite similar rates of fungal clearance. IMPORTANCE Acute pulmonary histoplasmosis in healthy individuals comprises most of the disease burden caused by the fungal pathogen Histoplasma. Fungal pneumonia is frequently delayed in diagnosis and treatment due to a prolonged period of quiescence early during infection. In this study, we used a murine respiratory model of histoplasmosis to investigate how different Histoplasma species modulate lung inflammation throughout the complete course of infection. We propose that a relatively low, sublethal inoculum is ideal to model acute pulmonary histoplasmosis in humans, primarily due to the quiescent stage of fungal growth that occurs in the lungs of mice prior to the initiation of inflammation. Our results reveal the unique course of lung immunity associated with divergent species of Histoplasma and imply that the progression of clinical disease is considerably more heterogeneous than previously recognized

The changing patterns of group politics in Britain

Two interpretations of ways in which group politics in Britain have presented challenges to democracy are reviewed: neo-corporatism or pluralistic stagnation and the rise of single issue interest groups. The disappearance of the first paradigm created a political space for the second to emerge. A three-phase model of group activity is developed: a phase centred around production interests, followed by the development of broadly based 'other regarding' groups, succeeded by fragmented, inner directed groups focusing on particular interests. Explanations of the decay of corporatism are reviewed. Single issue group activity has increased as party membership has declined and is facilitated by changes in traditional media and the development of the internet. Such groups can overload the policy-making process and frustrate depoliticisation. Debates about the constitution and governance have largely ignored these issues and there is need for a debate

Electrical Control of Two-Dimensional Neutral and Charged Excitons in a Monolayer Semiconductor

Monolayer group VI transition metal dichalcogenides have recently emerged as semiconducting alternatives to graphene in which the true two-dimensionality (2D) is expected to illuminate new semiconducting physics. Here we investigate excitons and trions (their singly charged counterparts) which have thus far been challenging to generate and control in the ultimate 2D limit. Utilizing high quality monolayer molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2), we report the unambiguous observation and electrostatic tunability of charging effects in positively charged (X+), neutral (Xo), and negatively charged (X-) excitons in field effect transistors via photoluminescence. The trion charging energy is large (30 meV), enhanced by strong confinement and heavy effective masses, while the linewidth is narrow (5 meV) at temperatures below 55 K. This is greater spectral contrast than in any known quasi-2D system. We also find the charging energies for X+ and X- to be nearly identical implying the same effective mass for electrons and holes.Comment: 11 pages main text with 4 figures + 7 pages supplemental material

Aircraft based four-channel thermal dissociation laser induced fluorescence instrument for simultaneous measurements of NO2, total peroxy nitrate, total alkyl nitrate, and HNO3

A four-channel thermal dissociation laser induced fluorescence (TD-LIF) instrument has been developed for simultaneous measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), total peroxy nitrate (∑PNs), total alkyl nitrate (∑ANs) and nitric acid (HNO3). NO2 is measured directly by LIF at 532 nm, whereas organic nitrates and nitric acid are thermally dissociated at distinct temperatures in the inlet to form NO2, which is then measured by LIF. The concentrations of each dissociated species are derived by the differences in measured NO2 relative to the reference colder inlet channel. The TD-LIF was adapted to fly on board the UK Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) BAe 146-301 atmospheric research aircraft in summer 2010, and to date has successfully flown in five field campaigns. This paper reports novel improvements in the TD-LIF instrumentations, including (1) the use of a single wavelength laser, which makes the system compact and relatively cheap; (2) the use of a single beam laser that allows easy alignment and optical stability against the vibrational aircraft environment; and (3) the optical assembly of four detection cells that allow simultaneous and fast (time resolution up to 0.1 s) measurements of NO2, ∑PNs, ∑ANs and HNO3. Laboratory-generated mixtures of PNs, ANs and HNO3 in zero air are converted into NO2 and used to fix the dissociation temperatures of each heated inlet to test the selectivity of the instrument and potential interferences due to recombination reactions of the dissociated products. The effectiveness of the TD-LIF was demonstrated during the RONOCO aircraft campaign (summer 2010). A chemiluminescence system that was measuring NO2 and a broadband cavity enhanced absorption spectrometer (BBCEAS) that was measuring one of the PNs (N2O5) were installed on the same aircraft during the campaign. The in-flight intercomparison of the new TD-LIF with the chemiluminescence system for NO2 measurements and the intercomparison between ∑PNs measured by the TD-LIF and N2O5 by the BBCEAS are used to assess the performance of the TD-LIF

Oral Transmission of Listeria Monocytogenes in Mice via Ingestion of Contaminated Food

L. monocytogenes are facultative intracellular bacterial pathogens that cause food borne infections in humans. Very little is known about the gastrointestinal phase of listeriosis due to the lack of a small animal model that closely mimics human disease. This paper describes a novel mouse model for oral transmission of L. monocytogenes. Using this model, mice fed L. monocytogenes-contaminated bread have a discrete phase of gastrointestinal infection, followed by varying degrees of systemic spread in susceptible (BALB/c/By/J) or resistant (C57BL/6) mouse strains. During the later stages of the infection, dissemination to the gall bladder and brain is observed. The food borne model of listeriosis is highly reproducible, does not require specialized skills, and can be used with a wide variety of bacterial isolates and laboratory mouse strains. As such, it is the ideal model to study both virulence strategies used by L. monocytogenes to promote intestinal colonization, as well as the host response to invasive food borne bacterial infection

Forty years studying British politics : the decline of Anglo-America

The still present belief some 40 years ago that British politics was both exceptional and superior has been replaced by more theoretically sophisticated analyses based on a wider and more rigorously deployed range of research techniques, although historical analysis appropriately remains important. The American influence on the study of British politics has declined, but the European Union dimension has not been fully integrated. The study of interest groups has been in some respects a fading paradigm, but important questions related to democratic health have still to be addressed. Public administration has been supplanted by public policy, but economic policy remains under-studied. A key challenge for the future is the study of the management of expectations