Viral Hybrid Vectors for Somatic Integration - Are They the Better Solution?

The turbulent history of clinical trials in viral gene therapy has taught us important lessons about vector design and safety issues. Much effort was spent on analyzing genotoxicity after somatic integration of therapeutic DNA into the host genome. Based on these findings major improvements in vector design including the development of viral hybrid vectors for somatic integration have been achieved. This review provides a state-of-the-art overview of available hybrid vectors utilizing viruses for high transduction efficiencies in concert with various integration machineries for random and targeted integration patterns. It discusses advantages but also limitations of each vector system

Towards an Existential Pluralism: the Philosophy of Etienne Souriau

Various academics have, over the last five years, challenged practices of criticism in Australian cultural studies. Paul Carter, Ross Gibson and Stephen Muecke have all offered transgressive and dynamic practices, engaging with speculative and experimental ways of thinking. But how can such speculation be supported and contextualised in critical debate? Muecke in particular draws from a background of Continental philosophy in constructing his critical practice. He is influenced by the work of Bruno Latour and Etienne Souriau. The latter is a largely forgotten French philosopher, untranslated in English. He offers a theory of existential pluralism, suggesting the multiplicity of modes of existence and exploring the nature of relation between them. Developing an understanding of his philosophy can help contextualise Muecke’s work, and potentially contribute to this critical movement more generally

The Development and Integration of Community Engagement in Graduate Education

This study, framed by Kolb’s experiential learning theory, explored the intentions, perceptions, and understanding of graduate faculty and staff on community engagement. Questions have arisen as to whether students with advanced degrees are entering the job market with sought-after skills. In response, universities have continued to seek program improvements to enhance quality learning experiences to better prepare them for what follows after graduation. Within higher education, community engagement programs have been identified as an approach to respond to challenges as they have been shown to add substance, meaning, and value to students’ learning. An epistemological case study was conducted to better understand how graduate faculty and staff viewed the roles of graduate education and community engagement within their environments and how community engagement could be developed and integrated into graduate programs at a private faith-based University in south Texas. This approach also provided the opportunity to understand the “how” and “why” of a particular phenomenon that is both complex and contemporary in nature rather than historical. Domain and taxonomic analyses of interviews revealed five main topics: the purpose of graduate education; how practicums provide engagement opportunities; serving others; the role of reflection; and, barriers limiting further engagement practice. Findings indicated that engagement makes a difference in what students learn; however, topics that emerged from the data expressed complex perspectives as to how engagement should function within graduate education. Continued exploration on these topics is likely to yield benefits to students with corresponding and reciprocal benefits to the University and the communities it serves. The data revealed a willingness to support the inclusion of community engagement practices in graduate programs at a private faith-based University in south Texas. However, there was no clear indication to suggest how to overcome identified barriers that presently limit engagement practice to existing programs. Moving forward, it is likely that multiple approaches to engagement will need to be more fully examined. Advocates of greater engagement practice to achieve a fully engaged campus will likely need to address differences in how practices are structured but they may also find it helpful to assess those areas where there is common ground

Telling Spaces: Reading Randolph Stow’s Expatriation

Randolph Stow’s expatriate novels, Visitants (1979), The Girl Green as Elderflower (1980) and The Suburbs of Hell (1984) are often read as emerging from specific experiences in Stow’s expatriate life, beyond Australia—the two former as his ‘fever’ novels, informed by his work and illness in the Trobriand Islands and subsequent recovery in England; and the latter carrying the experience of an event from Stow’s Australian past into the setting of Harwich, England, where he lived from the early 1980s until his death in 2010. I have discussed elsewhere the overt connection in The Suburbs of Hell to Australia (Noske, ‘Chatter’), but it is also possible to read in the earlier texts connections with Stow’s life in Australia, particularly in his representation of landscape. Reading The Girl Green as Elderflower in this context opens interesting possibilities in understanding the spaces constructed within. This article will argue that Stow’s writing in the novel presents a complex transnationalism, one which challenges extant critical responses to Stow’s expatriation. It reads Stow’s place-making as embracing a fluidity that allows him to actively respond to postcolonialism as a global phenomenon and in doing so, examine Australian spaces through the lens of expatriation

‘You don’t know that country’: Mapping Space in Randolph Stow’s To the Islands

In 1959, while stationed in the Trobriand Islands as a Cadet Patrol Officer, Randolph Stow drew a mud-map in the back of his diary, coloured with red and green pastel. Titled ‘Forrest River Mission from Memory,’ it shows the layout of the Mission near Wyndham in the Kimberley, complete with rivers and tributaries, place names in two languages, a scale and a compass rose. This paper suggests that the drawing balances pride in precision of representation of the space with a sense of desire in remembering it across time and from a distance. This paper considers this act of mapping and compares it to the representations of space in Stow’s novel To the Islands (1958). It discusses the manoeuvres it highlights within Stow’s creative practice, and the tension it invokes in relation to his growing consciousness of his own settler-colonial subjectivity

The Breeding Seasons of Birds on Timor

The breeding seasons of land birds on Timor, the largest island of the Lesser Sundas (Nusa Tenggara) is hitherto undocumented. This preliminary report draws upon historic data from the early 20'h century and opportunistic observations made by the author on Timor during the 1990s, and compares these data with those available for other islands in the region (including Roti and Sumba), as well as western Indonesia and Papua. Evidence is presented that nesting occurs throughout the wet season (November to April), possibly peaking in November. This pattern contrasts strongly with that for western Flores (Verheijen 1964), where breeding is concentrated in the three months from April to June. Interpretation of these patterns must be cautious, however, given the hiatus of data from Timor for the period from late August to November, as well as the opportunistic or approximate nature of the data presented here. lt is hoped that this report stimulates a more comprehensive study of avian reproduction in the region

New Perspectives on the History of Colonialism and Sexuality

Das Routledge Companion to Sexuality and Colonialism, herausgegeben von Dagmar Herzog und Chelsea Schields, bietet eine breite Zusammenschau zur Geschichte und den Verflechtungen von Sexualität und Kolonialismus. Die Beiträge decken ein breites Spektrum ab, sowohl in Bezug auf die untersuchten Zeiten und Räume als auch in Bezug auf die methodischen Ansätze und die analysierten Quellen.The Routledge Companion to Sexuality and Colonialism, edited by Dagmar Herzog and Chelsea Schields, convinces with its various contributions about the history and the entanglements of sexuality and colonialism. The contributions cover a broad range, both in terms of the time and spaces investigated as well as in terms of the methodological approaches and the analyzed sources