The regional economic impact of the 2009 New Zealand National Masters Hockey Tournament

This paper analyses the direct and subsequent flow-on expenditure resulting from the weeklong National Masters Hockey Tournament held in Hamilton, New Zealand in March 2009. During the tournament, information was collected on the expenditure from a sample of participating players and officials and from the host association, Waikato Hockey. The information was averaged over all participants and used in a regional economic model. The economic impact of the 2009 tournament was also compared to the outcome for the Hamilton tournament held previously in 2003. Total direct expenditure in the Waikato region from the 2009 tournament was approximately $2.5 million compared to$1.2 million in 2003. The 2009 expenditure led subsequently to an extra $1.13 million of value-added to the regional economy mainly in the hospitality and accommodation sectors

Microsphere based protease assays and high throughput screening of bacterial toxin proteases

Proteases, proteins which cleave peptide bonds in other proteins, are a large and varied group of proteins which regulate a variety of physiological processes. Methodologies to study proteases are often protease specific and often differ greatly from the roles proteases play in vivo. In vitro protease assays often use peptide based substrates, which do not take into account highly specific interactions distal from the proteolytic site of peptide cleavage on protease substrates. In the work described here we have developed a microsphere based protease assay, capable of using full length protease substrates, and have successfully measured proteolytic activity via loss of fluorescence as measured by flow cytometry. This assay is capable of being used in high throughput screening for small molecule inhibitors for proteases of medical relevance. Screening of chemical libraries against the Bacillus anthracis Lethal factor metalloprotease and the Clostridium botulinum Neurotoxin type A Light Chain metalloprotease has led to the discovery of small molecule inhibitors for both of these pathogenic proteases. The compound ebselen has been shown to inhibit Botulinum Neurotoxin type A Light Chain with an IC50 value in the low μM range. Additional small molecule inhibitors for Botulinum neurotoxin type A Light Chain as well as for anthrax lethal factor have also been discovered by this methodology. This work shows the potential for microsphere based protease assays in discovery of small molecule protease inhibitors and can be adapted to any protease/substrate system of interest in a multiplex setup. Additional work with these proteases has also led to the discovery of novel solution based kinetics models and shows promise to validate microsphere based protease kinetics using the same system

Predicting and preventing tuberculosis

Background. To end tuberculosis, a substantial expansion of active case-finding and tuberculosis preventive treatment is urgently needed. Furthermore, these biomedical interventions, which form the backbone of the global tuberculosis response, should be integrated with socioeconomic interventions to address the poverty-related risk factors principally driving tuberculosis incidence. This research aimed to inform the implementation and integration of these interventions for contacts of patients with tuberculosis. Methods. The research was divided into three phases, all of which were undertaken in Lima, Peru: i) FUNDAMENTALS. A cohort study characterising tuberculosis epidemiology and case-finding among adult contacts of patients with infectious tuberculosis. An individual-level risk score predicting tuberculosis was derived and validated in a separate cohort. ii) CRESIPT. The score was integrated within a community randomised trial of socioeconomic supported for tuberculosis-affected households (the CRESIPT study). The impact of this intervention on access to healthcare and long-term health outcomes of contacts was evaluated. iii) POST-CRESIPT. Experiences during the CRESIPT study informed the derivation of a household-level risk score predicting tuberculosis. This score was derived using data from one cohort and validated in a separate cohort. Results. The first phase demonstrated that: adult contacts of patients with TB have a high and prolonged risk of tuberculosis; active case-finding can make an important contribution to tuberculosis case-finding; and tuberculosis can be predicted using a simple individual-level score. The second phase demonstrated that integrating this score with socioeconomic support achieved large increases in the proportions of contacts who completed active case-finding and tuberculosis preventive treatment; and reduced the risk of tuberculosis by approximately 40%. The third phase demonstrated that tuberculosis can be predicted using a simple household-level score. Conclusions. The research presented in this thesis provides rigorous evidence to support a novel, transformative, and holistic approach to the management of contacts of patients with tuberculosis.Open Acces

Marshall University Music Department Presents the Jazz 12.1, Martin Saunders, Matthew Chaffins, Directors

https://mds.marshall.edu/music_perf/1540/thumbnail.jp

The Impact of Foreign Investment Restrictions on the Stock Returns of Oil Sands Companies

In December 2012, prompted by the proposed purchase of Nexen by the Chinese SOE CNOOC, the federal government announced revised guidelines for investments by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the oil sands. Declaring the sale marked “the end of a trend and not the beginning of a trend,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper explained how the government would approach such decisions in the future, including placing the onus on foreign investors to demonstrate how deals would be of net benefit to Canada, as well as granting the industry minister the discretion to accept or deny proposed deals. Accounting for five per cent of Canadian GDP, $28 billion in government revenue and three per cent of all jobs nationwide, the oil sands are an integral component of Canada’s economy. The sector has long relied on foreign capital to finance projects, meaning that any move to deter outside investment could have profound consequences for the development of this critical economic asset. In this paper, the authors examine the impact of this policy change by measuring the stock returns of firms operating in the oil sands. Employing an event study analysis, they find empirical evidence that the government’s policy change has resulted in the material destruction of shareholder wealth, particularly in the case of the smaller oil companies. What is more, given the composition of the global oil industry has changed to one where SOEs dominate both reserves and production, is this a policy Canada can afford in the long term?“When we say that Canada is open for business, we do not mean that Canada is for sale to foreign governments.” - Prime Minister Stephen Harper, December 7, 2012“…going forward, the [industry] minister will find the acquisition of control of a Canadian oil-sands business by a state-owned enterprise to be of net benefit, only in an exceptional circumstance.” - Prime Minister Stephen Harper, December 7, 2012“A year after the new Investment Canada Act rules were announced in December 2012, investment dollars from state-owned enterprises have essentially stopped flowing into the bitumen extraction business. Energy-directed foreign direct investment – of which SOEs play an important role – fell off a cliff in 2013, declining 92 per cent year-to-year from$27 billion to $2 billion. These are very worrisome statistics for a nation highly dependent on foreign investment to fund its capital-intensive resource industries.” - Sebation Gault, December 2, 2013 Published in Alberta Oil Magazin

Long-Term Dynamics of Small Bodies in the Solar System

As part of the NASA Planetary Geology and Geophysics program Prof. Norm Murray (CITA) and I have been conducting investigations of the long-term dynamics of small bodies in the outer solar system. This grant, and its predecessor NAG5-7761, supported travel for collaboration by the Investigators and also supports Murray during an annual one month visit to the CfA for further collaboration. In the course of this grant we made a number of advances in solar system dynamics. For example, we developed an analytic model for the origin and consequence of chaos associated with three-body resonances in the asteroid belt. This has been shown to be important for the delivery of near Earth objects. We later extended this model to three-body resonances among planets. We were able to show that the numerically identified chaos among the outer planets results from a three-body resonance involving Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. The resulting paper was awarded the 1999 Newcomb Cleveland award from the AAAS. This award singles out one paper published in Science each year for distinction. This grant has also supported, in part, my participate in other solar system dynamics projects. The results from those collaborations are also listed

Final Report: Tree Climbing Robot

The motivation for this project was to minimize the injury and fatality rate of loggers across the world due to inclement weather, structurally unsound tress, and bulky equipment used to trim trees by designing a robot with the ability to climb trees and trim branches. Due to budget and time constraints, the scope of the project was limited to autonomously climbing and descending a tree trunk while avoiding branches; however, the possibility of future modifications was considered in the design. Design criteria included maneuverability, reversibility, simplicity, vertical speed, the ability to climb a tree of fixed diameter, and the ability to carry extra weight. The final design was a “caterpillar”-style robot, and the major modular subsystems of the design included clamping, extension, rotation, and branch detection. The final design, construction, and testing of each of these subsystems is discussed, as well as the testing of the system as a whole. Ultimately, the design was deemed a success, with the exception of the failure of the rotation system

Second Data Release of the 6dF Galaxy Survey

The 6dF Galaxy Survey is measuring around 150000 redshifts and 15000 peculiar velocities from galaxies over the southern sky at |b|>10 degrees. When complete, it will be the largest survey of its kind by more than an order of magnitude. Here we describe the characteristics of the Second Incremental Data Release (DR2) and provide an update of the survey. This follows earlier data made public in December 2002 and March 2004. A total of 83014 sources now have their spectra, redshifts, near-infrared and optical photometry available online and searchable through an SQL database at http://www-wfau.roe.ac.uk/6dFGS/.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to PASA. High resolution versions of the figures can be obtained from http://www.aao.gov.au/local/www/6df/Publication