The year 1970-a "modest" beginning for monetary aggregates

Monetary policy - United States

Flow cytometric phenotyping of diverse human cancer cell lines for immunological biomarkers expression

The tumour microenvironment contains a variety of distinct factors that inhibit the immune system and can cause drug resistance. Some of these factors include the expression of cell surface markers which interact directly with immune cells. Cancer cells express programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and reduce the expression of major-histocompatibility complex class I, death-receptors 4/5 and Fas, limiting immune-mediated cancer cell killing. Targeting these immune markers alone or in combination could potentially increase cancer cell death and improve drug efficacy. Utilising flow cytometric analysis on breast, prostate and colorectal cancer cell lines, we have found differential expression of these markers depending on the cancer type. These findings provide a platform for future work that will entail siRNA knockdown of PD-L1 to determine the tumour-intrinsic role of this ligand, in addition to combination therapies in 2D and 3D cell culture

Gravity waves and non-Gaussian features from particle production in a sector gravitationally coupled to the inflaton

We study the possibility that particle production during inflation could source observable gravity waves on scales relevant for Cosmic Microwave Background experiments. A crucial constraint on such scenarios arises because particle production can also source inflaton perturbations, and might ruin the usual predictions for a nearly scale invariant spectrum of nearly Gaussian curvature fluctuations. To minimize this effect, we consider two models of particle production in a sector that is only gravitationally coupled to the inflaton. For a single instantaneous burst of massive particle production, we find that localized features in the scalar spectrum and bispectrum might be observable, but gravitational wave signatures are unlikely to be detectable (due to the suppressed quadrupole moment of non-relativistic quanta) without invoking some additional effects. We also consider a model with a rolling pseudoscalar that leads to a continuous production of relativistic gauge field fluctuations during inflation. Here we find that gravitational waves from particle production can actually exceed the usual inflationary vacuum fluctuations in a regime where non-Gaussianity is consistent with observational limits. In this model observable B-mode polarization can be obtained for any choice of inflaton potential, and the amplitude of the signal is not necessarily correlated with the scale of inflation

Supporting first year students at UQ: Addressing plagiarism and peer mentoring

The School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management at The University of Queensland has introduced two key initiatives that have improved the learning outcomes of first year students. The ‘Academic Integrity: referencing and avoiding plagiarism’ online tutorial is a sophisticated learning tool that has reduced plagiarism and improved understanding of referencing, collusion and the consequences of academic misconduct. Technically the tutorial has an interesting interface design and is easy to navigate. Pedagogically the design incorporates relevant contexts which help learners to construct new knowledge from existing knowledge. It demonstrates new information and students learn by applying the new knowledge. It is self-paced and incorporates equity and diversity issues. Our three year evaluation program has indicated a significant decline in the incidence of plagiarism and enhanced understanding of good academic practices among our first year students. The tutorial has gained international recognition as an innovative computer-based learning tool. Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) have been in place for six years and involve student leaders in hands-on peer mentoring of students in all of our large first year classes. PASS aims to build core academic skills and facilitate social learning and interaction and also to provide a network of support for students new to the university system. It has resulted in enhanced learning outcomes, with a strong correlation between PASS attendance and improved grades and retention rates. Student feedback indicated that the most effective facilitation approaches included worksheets, discussion, games and quizzes. Students also highlighted the important role that PASS played in easing their social transition into university life. PASS sessions provided a relaxed opportunity for students to meet and develop informal networks. External evaluation of PASS has led to the program gaining both institutional and national recognition

Social media, social capital and adolescents living in state care: A multi-perspective and multimethod qualitative study

Social media are used daily by billions to communicate. Adolescents living in state care are no different, yet the potential implications of their social media use are. Despite the global use of social media and evidence highlighting their role in social capital cultivation, how adolescents living in state care make use of social media remains unknown with discussions tending to focus exclusively on risk. Using data from a four-year Digital Life Story work (DLSW) research programme, this paper explores adolescents’ and social care professional’s (n=45) perspectives on the everyday use of social media by adolescents living in state care. Using an ethnographic multimethod approach, extracts of conversations from the four English residential homes engaged in the DLSW programme were thematically analysed. Three major themes emerged; contacts as currency, promoting and protecting the self and transitions. Analysis illustrate how adolescents living in state care use social media as active digital agents and the need to reframe this usage to enable benefits to be enacted. The paper concludes that urgent research is needed to enable practitioners and policy makers to show a deeper appreciation of the potentials of social media enabling a more balanced approach to succeed in practice

An overview of the IEA greenhouse gas R&D programme regional geologic storage capacity studies

AbstractMapping of CO2 geological storage resources provides an important element in the planning of widespread CO2 capture and storage (CCS) deployment. Recent high-level studies by the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEAGHG) have estimated realistic global capacity available in depleted oil and depleted gas fields to be 130 and 65 Gt, respectively, based on mass balance considerations from hydrocarbon reserve information. However, comparable estimates for deep saline formation (DSF) storage require an analytical approach that considers the fraction of pore space in storage formations that could be occupied by injected CO2. Many regional mapping initiatives have shown that potential DSF storage capacities are typically at least an order of magnitude higher than in depleted fields.Computationally similar methodologies to estimate DSF storage resources have been developed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF); in both, a storage coefficient, E (or efficiency factor), is used to derive resource estimates. The E coefficient takes account of various geological and technical factors that could restrict the amount of pore space available for storage but does not take into account economic, regulatory, and source-sink matching considerations.IEAGHG and DOE commissioned a study in 2008 by the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC), to improve the accuracy of storage coefficients for DSF. As there was insufficient real-world CO2 injection data to derive a representative range for E, geological input parameters were derived from global hydrocarbon reservoir data as a proxy for DSF. Modeling allowed derivation of probabilistic ranges of storage coefficients at both site-specific and formation levels for clastic, carbonate, and dolomite lithologies. The overall mean value of E for all lithologies was calculated as 2.6% at the formation level. A key assumption made in the study was that DSF will predominantly act as “open” systems, whereby pressure and displaced formation fluids can be safely dissipated through the wider storage formation and adjacent strata

Generation of a restriction minus enteropathogenic Escherichia coli E2348/69 strain that is efficiently transformed with large, low copy plasmids

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many microbes possess restriction-modification systems that protect them from parasitic DNA molecules. Unfortunately, the presence of a restriction-modification system in a given microbe also hampers genetic analysis. Although plasmids can be successfully conjugated into the enteropathogenic <it>Escherichia coli </it>strain E2348/69 and optimized protocols for competent cell preparation have been developed, we found that a large, low copy (~15) bioluminescent reporter plasmid, pJW15, that we modified for use in EPEC, was exceedingly difficult to transform into E2348/69. We reasoned that a restriction-modification system could be responsible for the low transformation efficiency of E2348/69 and sought to identify and inactivate the responsible gene(s), with the goal of creating an easily transformable strain of EPEC that could complement existing protocols for genetic manipulation of this important pathogen.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using bioinformatics, we identified genes in the unfinished enteropathogenic <it>Escherichia coli </it>(EPEC) strain E2348/69 genome whose predicted products bear homology to the HsdM methyltransferases, HsdS specificity subunits, and HsdR restriction endonucleases of type I restriction-modification systems. We constructed a strain carrying a deletion of the conserved enzymatic domain of the EPEC HsdR homologue, NH4, and showed that its transformation efficiency was up to four orders of magnitude higher than that of the parent strain. Further, the modification capacity of NH4 remained intact, since plasmids that were normally recalcitrant to transformation into E2348/69 could be transformed upon passage through NH4. NH4 was unaffected in virulence factor production, since bundle forming pilus (BFP) subunits and type III secreted (T3S) proteins were present at equivalent levels to those seen in E2348/69. Further, NH4 was indistinguishable from E2348/69 in tissue culture infection model assays of localized adherence and T3S.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We have shown that EPEC strain E2348/69 utilizes a type I restriction-modification system to limit entry of new DNA. This restriction-modification system does not appear to be involved in virulence determinant expression or infection phenotypes. The <it>hsdR </it>mutant strain should prove useful in genetic analysis of the important diarrheal pathogen EPEC.</p