The Search for Virtue and the Role of Anti-Corruption Agencies : A Queensland Case Study

This paper deals with the ambiguous role played by one "heavy regulatory regime" and the complex relationships developed between this anti-corruption agency, the various governments in power after its creation and (only incidentally) with the modernisation of the police service in Queensland. The story of the modernisation of the Queensland police service is a remarkable one, involving as it does the disgrace and imprisonment of Police Commissioner Terry Lewis and - on unrelated corruption charges - several Ministers. This was linked to the disgrace of a Premier of one government linked to both events, whose party subsequently plunged to electoral defeat in 1989 after thirty years in office. More recently (February, 2001), Queensland has seen the resignation of a Deputy Premier and several Ministers of the opposing party after admitting electoral rorting associated with fraud and perjury. Apparently paradoxically, the party then went immediately to an election where it won a victory of unprecedented proportions. The common feature has been the impact of a judicial enquiry between 1987 and 1989 and the activities generated by the supervisory body created by that enquiry, the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC). This paper is in two parts: the first deals with the political context and administrative changes over the past decade; and the second focuses specifically on the operation of the Criminal Justice Commission within that context and its role in promoting modernisation of the police force

Threshold concepts: Impacts on teaching and learning at tertiary level

This project explored teaching and learning of hard-to-learn threshold concepts in first-year English, an electrical engineering course, leadership courses, and in doctoral writing. The project was envisioned to produce disciplinary case studies that lecturers could use to reflect on and refine their curriculum and pedagogy, thereby contributing to discussion about the relationship between theory and methodology in higher education research (Shay, Ashwin, & Case, 2009). A team of seven academics investigated lecturers’ awareness and emergent knowledge of threshold concepts and associated pedagogies and how such pedagogies can afford opportunities for learning. As part of this examination the lecturers also explored the role of threshold concept theory in designing curricula and sought to find the commonalities in threshold concepts and their teaching and learning across the four disciplines. The research highlights new ways of teaching threshold concepts to help students learn concepts that are fundamental to the disciplines they are studying and expand their educational experiences. Given that much of the international research in this field focuses on the identification of threshold concepts and debates their characteristics (Barradell, 2013; Flanagan, 2014; Knight, Callaghan, Baldock, & Meyer, 2013), our exploration of what happens when lecturers use threshold concept theory to re-envision their curriculum and teaching helps to address a gap within the field. By addressing an important theoretical and practical approach the project makes a considerable contribution to teaching and learning at the tertiary level in general and to each discipline in particular

National Register Testing of Nine Archeological Sites at Waco Lake, McLennan County, Texas

From October 2000 to February 2001, personnel from Prewitt and Associates, Inc., conducted National Register of Historic Places eligibility testing of nine sites located at Waco Lake in McLennan County, Texas. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District, sponsored the project as a result of the proposed plan to raise the conservation pool level of the lake by 7 ft to 462 ft above mean sea level. Waco Lake is located in central McLennan County, Texas, on the west side of the City of Waco (Figure 1). It is on the Bosque River, with the dam lying ca. 6.6 km upstream from where the Bosque flows into the Brazos River. Two arms extend west and south from the main body of the lake following the North Bosque and South Bosque Rivers. Two major tributaries, Hog Creek and the Middle Bosque River, enter the southern arm from the west. No major streams feed the lake from the east. The original dam was completed in 1929, and at an elevation of 430 ft, the lake covered ca. 2,700 acres. In 1965, a new dam was finished and the level raised to 455 ft, with the new conservation pool covering ca. 7,300 acres

Distribution of calling blue, fin, and humpback whales in the North Pacific

May also be cited as: WHOI-00-12The seasonal distribution of calling ble whales (Balaenoptera musculus), fin whales (B. physalus), and singing humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) has been analyzed from acoustic data recorded by the U.S. Navy Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) and other hydrophone arrays in the North Pacific. The data from ten arrays were selected as representative of four Regions along the continental margins, labeled Northwest (NW), NorthCentral (NC), Northeast (NE), and Southeast (SE). The call data indicate that there is a substantial population of blue whales scattered over the North Pacific and concentrated during the Fall season in the NW and NC Regions. Blue whale calls are recorded in all seasons, particularly in these NW and NC Regions. Fin whales are found in groups but also in relatively large numbers in all Regions, with most calling in the Winter season and in the NC Region, while calling is absent in most Regions during Summer. Fin whale calling includes "F" calls from individuals heard in all seasons and "J" calls from too many whales to separate, particularly prominent in the winter reproductive season. Humpback singing is recorded most in the both the NC and SE Regions between the 1996-1997 and 1998-2000 periods.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research under Contract No. N00014-96-1-1130 CNO-N45 Environmental Program and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (DCA87-00/H-0026) with funds from the Department of Defense Legacy Reseource Management Program

Maternal plasma DHA levels increase prior to 29 days post-LH surge in women undergoing frozen embryo transfer: a prospective, observational study of human pregnancy

Context: Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is an important fatty acid required for neurological development but its importance during early fetal neurological organogenesis is unknown. Objective: To assess plasma fatty acid changes in early pregnancy in women undergoing natural cycle-frozen embryo transfer as a means of achieving accurately-timed periconceptual sampling. Design: Women undergoing frozen embryo transfer were recruited and serial fasting blood samples were taken pre-luteinising hormone (LH) surge, and at days 18, 29 and 45 post-LH surge and fatty acids were analysed using gas chromatography. Setting: Assisted Conception Unit, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Scotland Main outcome measures: Plasma fatty acid concentrations, influence of twin pregnancies on DHA plasma concentration. Results: In pregnant women, there was a rapid, early increase in the maternal rate of change of plasma DHA concentration observed by 29 days post-LH surge (mean±SD, from 0.1±1.3 to 1.6±2.9 nmol DHA per mL plasma per day). This early pressure to increase plasma DHA concentration was further emphasised in twin pregnancies where the increase in DHA concentration over 45 days was two-fold higher than in singleton pregnancies (mean±SD increase, 74±39 nmol/mL versus 36±40 nmol/mL). An index of delta-6 desaturase activity increased 30% and positively correlated with the rate of change of DHA concentration between day 18 and 29-post LH surge (R-squared adjusted = 41%, P=0.0002). DHA was the only fatty acid with a continual accelerated increase in plasma concentration and a positive incremental area under the curve (mean±SD, 632±911 nmol/mL x day) over the first 45 days of gestation. Conclusions: An increase in maternal plasma DHA concentration is initiated in human pregnancy prior to neural tube closure which occurs at 28 days' gestation

Proteomic Analysis of a Noninvasive Human Model of Acute Inflammation and Its Resolution: The Twenty-one Day Gingivitis Model

The 21-day experimental gingivitis model, an established noninvasive model of inflammation in response to increasing bacterial accumulation in humans, is designed to enable the study of both the induction and resolution of inflammation. Here, we have analyzed gingival crevicular fluid, an oral fluid comprising a serum transudate and tissue exudates, by LC−MS/MS using Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry and iTRAQ isobaric mass tags, to establish meta-proteomic profiles of inflammation-induced changes in proteins in healthy young volunteers. Across the course of experimentally induced gingivitis, we identified 16 bacterial and 186 human proteins. Although abundances of the bacterial proteins identified did not vary temporally, Fusobacterium outer membrane proteins were detected. Fusobacterium species have previously been associated with periodontal health or disease. The human proteins identified spanned a wide range of compartments (both extracellular and intracellular) and functions, including serum proteins, proteins displaying antibacterial properties, and proteins with functions associated with cellular transcription, DNA binding, the cytoskeleton, cell adhesion, and cilia. PolySNAP3 clustering software was used in a multilayered analytical approach. Clusters of proteins that associated with changes to the clinical parameters included neuronal and synapse associated proteins

Association of the functional ovarian reserve with serum metabolomic profiling by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy:A cross sectional study of ~400 women

Background: Women with diminished ovarian reserve are known to have increased cardiovascular risk, whether there is a continuous association between the ovarian reserve biomarkers; anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), antral follicle count (AFC) and cardio-metabolic risk factors are unknown. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 398 women intending to undergo IVF with pre-treatment early follicular AMH and AFC measurements. Serum lipids, lipoprotein subclasses and low-molecular-weight metabolites were quantified by NMR spectroscopy (155 metabolic measures). Associations were analysed using multivariable regression. Results: Participants were mean 35.5 (SD 4.43) years old and had a median AMH of 16 pmol/l (IQR 8.8, 28.0 pmol/l) and a median AFC of 12 (IQR 7.16). AMH showed positive associations with HDL, omega-6 and polyunsaturated fatty acids and the amino acids isoleucine, leucine and tyrosine, with effects ranging from 0.11 (95%CI 0.004 to 0.21) for total lipids in small HDL to 0.16 (0.06 to 0.26) for isoleucine, for a mean difference of one SD of metabolite per one SD increment in AMH, and negatively with acetate: − 0.31(− 0.22, − 0.004) SD per 1 SD AMH. AFC was positively associated with alanine, glutamine and glycine. Results were consistent, though less precisely estimated, when restricted to those women who were preparing for treatment because of their partner’s infertility. Conclusions: In women intending to have IVF, AMH and AFC were not associated with traditional lipid measured but were associated with a number of novel cardiovascular risk factors. Prospective studies will be required for replication, determination of causality and confirmation that ovarian reserve is impacting on metabolism rather than variation in metabolism is influencing ovarian reserve

Antifreeze protein mimetic metallohelices with potent ice recrystallization inhibition activity

Antifreeze proteins are produced by extremophile species to control ice formation and growth, and they have potential applications in many fields. There are few examples of synthetic materials which can reproduce their potent ice recrystallization inhibition property. We report that self-assembled enantiomerically pure, amphipathic metallohelicies inhibited ice growth at just 20 μM. Structure-property relationships and calculations support the hypothesis that amphipathicity is the key motif for activity. This opens up a new field of metallo-organic antifreeze protein mimetics and provides insight into the origins of ice-growth inhibition

P4‐564: Short‐Term Outcomes Of A Randomized Controlled Trial Of Amyloid Pet Results Disclosure In Mild Cognitive Impairment

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152786/1/alzjjalz201908111.pd