The efficacy of partnership evaluation and its impact on alliance transformation : a case study 12 months post evaluation

Partnerships involving higher education, governments, and industry have been recognised as important vehicles for engaging community, leveraging knowledge, and sharing potential resources. The critical need for these partnerships in rural and regional locations has been of particular note. Partnership evaluation can serve a critical function of informing continuous improvement and may therefore assist the evaluated agencies to work towards responsive transformational change. The ability for a partnership to adapt and change may aid in their sustainability. Despite the potentially important role of partnership evaluation, the development of tools that measure partnership are at an early stage. Partnership evaluation is rarely reflected upon in the published literature. Moreover, benefits and reflections of the efficacy of evaluations 12 months post analysis is rare in the published literature. Therefore, a brief review of partnership approaches and measurement tools are presented. The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon the efficacy of an evaluation conducted 12 months previously of a partnership between Deakin University, the Department of Health and Department of Human Services (Barwon South West Region), known as the Deakin/DH/DHS Strategic Alliance. This case study reviews several tools/metrics utilised. The efficacy of the evaluation tools is discussed. Those metrics, underlying the tools which contributed to positive change in partnerships are discussed.<br /

Employers\u27 perspectives on work-integrated learning in project-based workplaces

The property and construction industry is uniquely impacted by project-based work environments; this creates special challenges for collaborative education. This research is based on investigating the attitudes of employer&rsquo;s towards the use of formally assessed internships. The study comprised two stages; firstly a series of pilot interviews were undertaken with employers to test a number known issues. Secondly, the results from the interviews were used to refine a set of questions that were put to a large focus group of employers who were invited from across the property and construction sector. The results showed that many organisations expressed considerable goodwill towards collaborative education with universities. However, the challenges caused by project-based work environments restricted their ability to provide comprehensive learning opportunities. This research focuses on the distinctive issues associated with work-integrated learning in the property and construction industry<br /

The two cytochrome c species, DC3 and DC4, are not required for caspase activation and apoptosis in Drosophila cells

In Drosophila, activation of the apical caspase DRONC requires the apoptotic protease-activating factor homologue, DARK. However, unlike caspase activation in mammals, DRONC activation is not accompanied by the release of cytochrome c from mitochondria. Drosophila encodes two cytochrome c proteins, Cytc-p (DC4) the predominantly expressed species, and Cytc-d (DC3), which is implicated in caspase activation during spermatogenesis. Here, we report that silencing expression of either or both DC3 and DC4 had no effect on apoptosis or activation of DRONC and DRICE in Drosophila cells. We find that loss of function mutations in dc3 and dc4, do not affect caspase activation during Drosophila development and that ectopic expression of DC3 or DC4 in Drosophila cells does not induce caspase activation. In cell-free studies, recombinant DC3 or DC4 failed to activate caspases in Drosophila cell lysates, but remarkably induced caspase activation in extracts from human cells. Overall, our results argue that DARK-mediated DRONC activation occurs independently of cytochrome c

dLKR/SDH regulates hormone-mediated histone arginine methylation and transcription of cell death genes

The sequential modifications of histones form the basis of the histone code that translates into either gene activation or repression. Nuclear receptors recruit a cohort of histone-modifying enzymes in response to ligand binding and regulate proliferation, differentiation, and cell death. In Drosophila melanogaster, the steroid hormone ecdysone binds its heterodimeric receptor ecdysone receptor/ultraspiracle to spatiotemporally regulate the transcription of several genes. In this study, we identify a novel cofactor, Drosophila lysine ketoglutarate reductase (dLKR)/saccharopine dehydrogenase (SDH), that is involved in ecdysone-mediated transcription. dLKR/SDH binds histones H3 and H4 and suppresses ecdysone-mediated transcription of cell death genes by inhibiting histone H3R17me2 mediated by the Drosophila arginine methyl transferase CARMER. Our data suggest that the dynamic recruitment of dLKR/SDH to ecdysone-regulated gene promoters controls the timing of hormone-induced gene expression. In the absence of dLKR/SDH, histone methylation occurs prematurely, resulting in enhanced gene activation. Consistent with these observations, the loss of dLKR/SDH in Drosophila enhances hormone-regulated gene expression, affecting the developmental timing of gene activation

Screening of the COL8A2 gene in an Australian family with early-onset Fuchs’ endothelial corneal dystrophy

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