Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People: Final Report

National review into Indigenous higher education issue

CENP-A Is Dispensable for Mitotic Centromere Function after Initial Centromere/Kinetochore Assembly

Human centromeres are defined by chromatin containing the histone H3 variant CENP-A assembled onto repetitive alphoid DNA sequences. By inducing rapid, complete degradation of endogenous CENP-A, we now demonstrate that once the first steps of centromere assembly have been completed in G1/S, continued CENP-A binding is not required for maintaining kinetochore attachment to centromeres or for centromere function in the next mitosis. Degradation of CENP-A prior to kinetochore assembly is found to block deposition of CENP-C and CENP-N, but not CENP-T, thereby producing defective kinetochores and failure of chromosome segregation. Without the continuing presence of CENP-A, CENP-B binding to alphoid DNA sequences becomes essential to preserve anchoring of CENP-C and the kinetochore to each centromere. Thus, there is a reciprocal interdependency of CENP-A chromatin and the underlying repetitive centromere DNA sequences bound by CENP-B in the maintenance of human chromosome segregation

Foci of Schistosomiasis mekongi, Northern Cambodia: II. Distribution of infection and morbidity.

In the province of Kracheh, in Northern Cambodia, a baseline epidemiological survey on Schistosoma mekongi was conducted along the Mekong River between December 1994 and April 1995. The results of household surveys of highly affected villages of the East and the West bank of the river and of school surveys in 20 primary schools are presented. In household surveys 1396 people were examined. An overall prevalence of infection of 49.3% was detected by a single stool examination with the Kato-Katz technique. The overall intensity of infection was 118.2 eggs per gram of stool (epg). There was no difference between the population of the east and west shore of the Mekong for prevalence (P = 0.3) or intensity (P = 0.9) of infection. Severe morbidity was very frequent. Hepatomegaly of the left lobe was detected in 48.7% of the population. Splenomegaly was seen in 26.8% of the study participants. Visible diverted circulation was found in 7.2% of the population, and ascites in 0.1%. Significantly more hepatomegaly (P = 0.001), splenomegaly (P = 0. 001) and patients with diverted circulation (P = 0.001) were present on the west bank of the Mekong. The age group of 10-14 years was most affected. The prevalence of infection in this group was 71.8% and 71.9% in the population of the West and East of the Mekong, respectively. The intensity of infection was 172.4 and 194.2 epg on the West and the East bank, respectively. In the peak age group hepatomegaly reached a prevalence of 88.1% on the west and 82.8% on the east bank. In the 20 schools 2391 children aged 6-16 years were examined. The overall prevalence of infection was 40.0%, ranging from 7.7% to 72.9% per school. The overalls mean intensity of infection was 110.1 epg (range by school: 26.7-187.5 epg). Both prevalence (P = 0.001) and intensity of infection (P = 0.001) were significantly higher in schools on the east side of the Mekong. Hepatomegaly (55.2%), splenomegaly (23.6%), diverted circulation (4. 1%), ascites (0.5%), reported blood (26.7%) and mucus (24.3%) were very frequent. Hepatomegaly (P = 0.001), splenomegaly (P = 0.001), diverted circulation (P = 0.001) and blood in stool (P = 0.001) were significantly more frequent in schools of the east side of the Mekong. Boys suffered more frequently from splenomegaly (P = 0.05), ascites (P = 0.05) and bloody stools (P = 0.004) than girls. No difference in sex was found for the prevalence and intensity of infection and prevalence of hepatomegaly. On the school level prevalence and intensity of infection were highly associated (r = 0. 93, P = 0.0001). The intensity of infection was significantly associated only with the prevalence of hepatomegaly (r = 0.44, P = 0. 05) and blood in stool (r = 0.40, P = 0.02). This comprehensive epidemiological study documents for the first time the public health importance of schistosomiasis mekongi in the Province of Kracheh, Northern Cambodia and points at key epidemiological features of this schistosome species, in particular the high level of morbidity associated with infection

Coastal risk assessment framework guidance document

The Resilience-Increasing Strategies for Coasts – Toolkit (RISC-KIT) FP7 EU project (2013-2017) aims to produce a set of three innovative and EU-coherent open-source and open-access methods, tools and management approaches (the RISC-KIT) in support of coastal managers, decision-makers and policy makers to reduce risk and increase resilience to low-frequency, high impact hydro-meteorological events. The Coastal Risk Assessment Framework (CRAF) is the first element of the risk assessment suite applied at a regional scale and permits a comprehensive and systematic approach to undertaking risk assessment at a variety of levels of detail. In particular, the approach reveals potential hotspots along the coasts. Hotspots are defined in the Toolkit as specific locations where high-resolution modelling and risk assessment are required to assess the coastal risk and to design and compare disaster risk reduction measures. As such, hotspots, or groups of hotspots, should be indicative of those areas where risk is highest. To do so the CRAF consists of a 2-phase approach, Phase 1 is a coastal-index approach to identifying potential hotspots, whereas Phase 2 utilises a suite of more complex modelling processes to rank these hotpots. The coastal INtegrated DisRuption Assessment model (INDRA) has specifically been developed as an open-source and open-access model for this purpose. This document provides guidance to CRAF users on both approaches, as well as explanations on the proposed methodologies. The CRAF is a prototype and will be trialled on the RISC-KIT case studies (WP5). Limitations in its application, the potential for a full application and the needs for further development will be discussed in Deliverable 5.1

Fluctuation-Facilitated Charge Migration along DNA

We propose a model Hamiltonian for charge transfer along the DNA double helix with temperature driven fluctuations in the base pair positions acting as the rate limiting factor for charge transfer between neighboring base pairs. We compare the predictions of the model with the recent work of J.K. Barton and A.H. Zewail (Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci.USA, {\bf 96}, 6014 (1999)) on the unusual two-stage charge transfer of DNA.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Expanding the scope of leaf symbiosis: Caballeronia endophytes in Empogona and Tricalysia (Coffeeae, Rubiaceae)

Leaf symbiosis is a remarkable phenomenon observed in Rubiaceae host plants, where they interact with bacterial endophytes residing within their leaves. Although approximately 650 species from 8 genera across 4 tribes exhibit this symbiosis, its fiill extent within Rubiaceae remains unknown. Our primary objective is to investígate the potential presence of leaf endophytes in the African plant genera Empogona and Tricalysia and, if confirmed, determine their identity. To accomplish this, we extracted total DNA from the leaves of four Coffeeae tribe species {Empogona congesta, Tricalysia hensii, T. lasiodelphys, and T. semidecidua) and sequenced it. Subsequently, we filtered out bacterial reads. Through phylogenetic analysis o f the endophytes, we were able to ascertain their identity and establish their relationship with known symbiotic organisms. Notably, all four species harboured non-nodulated leaf endophytes, specifically identified as Caballeronia. Although these endophytes are distinct from one another, they are related to other nodulated and non-nodulated endophytes. Interestingly, we did not observe any discemible phylogenetic or geographic pattems among the endophytes or their host plants. Our findings demónstrate the presence of Caballeronia endophytes in the leaves o f Empogona and Tricalysia, two genera previously not associated with leaf symbiosis. This interaction is likely to have a broader distribution, and further discoveries are inevitable in the future

Design of the Spitzer Space Telescope Heritage Archive

It is predicted that Spitzer Space Telescope’s cryogen will run out in April 2009, and the final reprocessing for the cryogenic mission is scheduled to end in April 2011, at which time the Spitzer archive will be transferred to the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA) for long-term curation. The Spitzer Science Center (SSC) and IRSA are collaborating to design and deploy the Spitzer Heritage Archive (SHA), which will supersede the current Spitzer archive. It will initially contain the raw and final reprocessed cryogenic science products, and will eventually incorporate the final products from the Warm mission. The SHA will be accompanied by tools deemed necessary to extract the full science content of the archive and by comprehensive documentation

Radiative Models of Sagittarius A* and M87 from Relativistic MHD Simulations

Ongoing millimeter VLBI observations with the Event Horizon Telescope allow unprecedented study of the innermost portion of black hole accretion flows. Interpreting the observations requires relativistic, time-dependent physical modeling. We discuss the comparison of radiative transfer calculations from general relativistic MHD simulations of Sagittarius A* and M87 with current and future mm-VLBI observations. This comparison allows estimates of the viewing geometry and physical conditions of the Sgr A* accretion flow. The viewing geometry for M87 is already constrained from observations of its large-scale jet, but, unlike Sgr A*, there is no consensus for its millimeter emission geometry or electron population. Despite this uncertainty, as long as the emission region is compact, robust predictions for the size of its jet launching region can be made. For both sources, the black hole shadow may be detected with future observations including ALMA and/or the LMT, which would constitute the first direct evidence for a black hole event horizon.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, submitted to the proceedings of AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparse