DON\u27T PANIC!: an unhurried critique of copyright and the potential for alternatives.

This study contributes to the field of critical copyright studies through an engagement with the legal and cultural history of copyright doctrine. This thesis considers the prominent philosophies employed to justify copyright and investigates the logic of the incentive argument, which holds that creativity will not occur unless regulatory systems of enforcement are in place. It explores the effects of trade liberalisation and the US Free Trade agenda on contemporary global, American and Australian copyright regimes. This inquiry maps the intersections of copyright law, politics, commerce and digital cultural activities, examining both the conflicts and sites of possible amity in regards to the rights of owners and users of copyright protected materials. This thesis employs three case studies to provide a critique of alternative and complimentary systems of copyright management, examining the potential for copyright licensing schemes to contribute to the expansion of knowledge, innovative behaviours and open content production in the digital environment

Partial Reconstruction of the Ergot Alkaloid Pathway by Heterologous Gene Expression in Aspergillus nidulans

Ergot alkaloids are pharmaceutically and agriculturally important secondary metabolites produced by several species of fungi. Ergot alkaloid pathways vary among different fungal lineages, but the pathway intermediate chanoclavine-I is evolutionarily conserved among ergot alkaloid producers. At least four genes, dmaW, easF, easE, and easC, are necessary for pathway steps prior to chanoclavine-I; however, the sufficiency of these genes for chanoclavine-I synthesis has not been established. A fragment of genomic DNA containing dmaW, easF, easE, and easC was amplified from the human-pathogenic, ergot alkaloid-producing fungus Aspergillus fumigatus and transformed into Aspergillus nidulans, a model fungus that does not contain any of the ergot alkaloid synthesis genes. HPLC and LC-MS analyses demonstrated that transformed A. nidulans strains produced chanoclavine-I and an earlier pathway intermediate. Aspergillus nidulans transformants containing dmaW, easF, and either easE or easC did not produce chanoclavine-I but did produce an early pathway intermediate and, in the case of the easC transformant, an additional ergot alkaloid-like compound. We conclude that dmaW, easF, easE, and easC are sufficient for the synthesis of chanoclavine-I in A. nidulans and expressing ergot alkaloid pathway genes in A. nidulans provides a novel approach to understanding the early steps in ergot alkaloid synthesis

3D immersive collection and teaching environments: the Yellow House project at UOW

This paper discusses the Yellow House VR project at the University of Wollongong. Innovative virtual reality technologies such as Oculus Rift are being utilised to recreate the 1970s Sydney artist community space known as the Yellow House, as both an historic replication and openly accessible, immersive teaching and learning environment for use and adaptation by teachers, students, researchers and the general community. The paper considers the role of the library in the enhanced presentation of digitised collections through new and evolving technologies that provide opportunities for knowledge enhancement and support the development of student e-portfolios

Pathways to Urban Equality through the Sustainable Development Goals: Modes of Extreme Poverty, Resilience, and Prosperity

There has been a tendency for debates around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to focus on particular Goals or Targets. What tends to get lost, however, is the bigger picture. In this paper we ask: to what extent and under what conditions do the SDGs offer a pathway to equality? Specifically, we focus on the potentials of the SDGs as a pathway to urban equality in the decade of delivery. We focus on the ways that three key interrelated development agendas, eradicating extreme poverty, promoting prosperity, and building resilience, are mobilised through the SDGs. Together these agendas reveal tensions and opportunities in the relationship between the SDGs and urban equality. In discussion, we reflect on the potentials of an urban equality lens to read the SDGs, and the conditions under which they might contribute to the realisation of fairer and more equal cities

Male-biased predation and its effect on paternity skew and life history in a population of common brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula)

Differences in predation risk may exert strong selective pressures on life history strategies of populations. We investigated the potential for predation to shape male mating strategies in an arboreal folivore, the common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula Kerr). We predicted that possums in a tropical population exposed to high natural levels of predation would grow faster and reproduce earlier compared to those in temperate populations with lower predation. We trapped a population of possums in eucalypt woodland in northern Australia each month to measure life history traits and used microsatellites to genotype all individuals and assign paternity to all offspring. We observed very high levels of male-biased predation, with almost 60% of marked male possums being eaten by pythons, presumably as a result of their greater mobility due to mate-searching. Male reproductive success was also highly skewed, with younger, larger males fathering significantly more offspring. This result contrasts with previous studies of temperate populations experiencing low levels of predation, where older males were larger and the most reproductively successful. Our results suggest that in populations exposed to high levels of predation, male possums invest in increased growth earlier in life, in order to maximise their mating potential. This strategy is feasible because predation limits competition from older males and means that delaying reproduction carries a risk of failing to reproduce at all. Our results show that life histories are variable traits that can match regional predation environments in mammal species with widespread distributions.This work was supported by the Australian Research Council http://www.arc.gov.au/ Grant number DP0449621 to CNJ, DP0449544 to WJF. JLD was supported by an Australian National University Graduate School Scholarship

catena-Poly[[[bis­(N,N-dimethyl­formamide)iron(II)]-{μ-2,2′-bis­(diphenyl­phosphino­yl)-N,N′-[(1R,2R)-cyclo­hexane-1,2-di­yl]dibenzamide}] bis­(perchlorate) N,N-dimethyl­formamide disolvate]

The title extended solid coordination compound, {[Fe(C44H40N2O4P2)(C3H7NO)2](ClO4)2·2C3H7NO}n, was crystallized un­ex­pectedly from the reaction mixture containing the Trost ligand (1R,2R)-(+)-1,2-diamino­cyclo­hexane-N,N′-bis­(2′-di­phenyl­phosphinobenzo­yl) and Fe(ClO4)2·6H2O in a 1:1 ratio in dimethyl­formamide (DMF) under reflux conditions. The polymeric complex is characterized by FeII metal centers that are coordinated by two oxidized Trost ligands, each coordinated in a bidentate fashion in a square plane, along with two DMF mol­ecules above and below the plane [average Fe—ODMF = 2.086 (4) Å], forming an overall pseudo-octa­hedral geometry. The Trost ligand binds adjacent FeII centers, each FeII being bound through the O atom of one of the phosphine oxides [average Fe—OPPh2 = 2.115 (4) Å] and the carbonyl O atom of the adjacent amide [average Fe—Oamide = 2.192 (3) Å]. Disorder is observed in the co-solvated solvent: there are two DMF mol­ecules per FeII centre, which were modeled as one DMF mol­ecule with complete occupancy and the other being modeled in two positions with equal occupancy. Disorder was also observed with one of the perchlorate anions, which was modeled in two positions with 0.75:0.25 occupancy

\u3cem\u3ePhylotree\u3c/em\u3e – a toolkit for computing experiments with distance-based methods for genome coevolution

We have developed software called Phylotree as a toolkit for running experiments to study gene cophylogenies for genome evolution using distance-based methods. In particular, the toolkit has been instrumental in conducting processing-heavy experiments with the new “difference of means” statistical method. Phylotree was used to run experiments using simulated data as well as biological sequences of well known host and parasite species, and is distributed with data and configuration files allowing these experiments to be reproduced

Independent evaluation of a simple clinical prediction rule to identify right ventricular dysfunction in patients with shortness of breath

BACKGROUND: Many patients have unexplained persistent dyspnea after negative computed tomographic pulmonary angiography (CTPA). We hypothesized that many of these patients have isolated right ventricular (RV) dysfunction from treatable causes. We previously derived a clinical decision rule (CDR) for predicting RV dysfunction consisting of persistent dyspnea and normal CTPA, finding that 53% of CDR-positive patients had isolated RV dysfunction. Our goal is to validate this previously derived CDR by measuring the prevalence of RV dysfunction and outcomes in dyspneic emergency department patients. METHODS: A secondary analysis of a prospective observational multicenter study that enrolled patients presenting with suspected PE was performed. We included patients with persistent dyspnea, a nonsignificant CTPA, and formal echo performed. Right ventricular dysfunction was defined as RV hypokinesis and/or dilation with or without moderate to severe tricuspid regurgitation. RESULTS: A total of 7940 patients were enrolled. Two thousand six hundred sixteen patients were analyzed after excluding patients without persistent dyspnea and those with a significant finding on CTPA. One hundred ninety eight patients had echocardiography performed as standard care. Of those, 19% (95% confidence interval [CI], 14%-25%) and 33% (95% CI, 25%-42%) exhibited RV dysfunction and isolated RV dysfunction, respectively. Patients with isolated RV dysfunction or overload were more likely than those without RV dysfunction to have a return visit to the emergency department within 45 days for the same complaint (39% vs 18%; 95% CI of the difference, 4%-38%). CONCLUSION: This simple clinical prediction rule predicted a 33% prevalence of isolated RV dysfunction or overload. Patients with isolated RV dysfunction had higher recidivism rates and a trend toward worse outcomes

Phylotree – a toolkit for computing experiments with distance-based methods for genome coevolution

We have developed software called Phylotree as a toolkit for running experiments to study gene cophylogenies for genome evolution using distance-based methods. In particular, the toolkit has been instrumental in conducting processing-heavy experiments with the new “difference of means” statistical method. Phylotree was used to run experiments using simulated data as well as biological sequences of well known host and parasite species, and is distributed with data and configuration files allowing these experiments to be reproduced

Automating Deployment of Several GBrowse Instances

Background As part of the fungal endophyte genomes project, we maintain genome browsers for several dozen strains of fungi from the Clavicipitaceae and related families. These genome browsers are based on the GBrowse software, with a large collection of in-house software for visualization, analysis, and searching of genome features. Although GBrowse supports serving multiple data sources, such as distinct genome assemblies, from a single GBrowse instance, there are advantages to maintaining separate instances for each genome. Besides permitting per-genome customizations of the software, page layout, and database schemas, our use of separate instances also allows us to maintain different security and password requirements for genomes in different stages of publication. Materials and methods We have developed a suite of software for deploying and maintaining a large collection of GBrowse instances. This software, a combination of Perl, shell libraries, and scripts, automates the process of deploying the software, databases, and configuration required to make a new customized genome browser available online; and furthermore automates loading each instance’s database with genome sequences, annotations, and other data. To maintain a mostly synchronized codebase while allowing distinct configuration, we record each instance’s software and configuration as a branch in a Subversion version control repository. This use of version control ensures that bug fixes and software improvements are easily applied to each relevant instance, without losing customizations. Results We describe the components of our genome browser instances, the design and implementation of our deployment software, and various challenges and practical considerations we have encountered while using this software to maintain genome browsers for nearly fifty organism strains and assembly versions