Benchmarking international road policing in low to middle-income countries

Globally, road fatalities claim 1.3 million lives annually with an additional 20 to 50 million people seriously injured. Over 90% of these deaths occur in low to middle-income countries where road policing and traffic law enforcement strategies and education have generally been given low priority by governments and policing authorities. The United Nations, ‘Decade of Action’ 2011 aims to reduce this trauma by 50% by 2020, with an integrated strategy including impacting upon road user behaviours. This thesis examines the challenges facing road policing and law enforcement internationally and demonstrates that road safety in low to middle-income countries is under-resourced and poorly funded with an inability to provide strategic interventions for road trauma reduction. There is no audit, benchmark or road safety index to guide development. A critical gap is identified when comparing these countries to good practice road policing organisations. The research draws together the themes identified in the literature, interviews with ten road safety experts, a survey of 216 practitioners from ten countries and participant observation by the author in low to middle-income countries over six years to provide the policy framework for a universal benchmarking and assessment solution to assist those countries in their law enforcement programs. This research by project has drawn together a concept similar to that developed in the vehicle classification ‘New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) and the ‘International Road Assessment Program’ (iRAP). It has classified and benchmarked road policing and traffic law enforcement to identify index ratings of good practice. These are presented in the companion ‘International Road Policing Assessment Program’ (IRPAP), designed for use in improving police performance. It is highly relevant to policing in low to middle-income countries, and has a particular focus on those aspects or programs that can provide sustainable results. The manual serves as a ‘toolkit’ for traffic law enforcement and road safety professionals in that it can be used to evaluate discrete areas or whole-of-country performance, and it clearly sets out the steps required to work towards good practice in this field. The themes identified for benchmarking performance are; the quality of data and analysis for evidence-based policing, the community relationship, the road policing support infrastructure, the professionalism of the traffic police and the operational capability. These defined assessable elements within the manual are banded together into ‘star-rating’ categories with upgrade pathways to higher ratings. This provides a practical and innovative self-assessment structure to measure road policing standards against good practice with graduated pathways to enable continuous improvement, particularly in low to middle-income countries

MSAT boom joint testing and load absorber design

Through a series of component and system-level tests, the torque margin for the MSAT booms is being determined. The verification process has yielded a number of results and lessons that can be applied to many other types of deployable spacecraft mechanisms. The MSAT load absorber has proven to be an effective way to provide high energy dissipation using crushable honeycomb. Using two stages of crushable honeycomb and a fusible link, a complex crush load profile has been designed and implemented. The design features of the load absorber lend themselves to use in other spacecraft applications

BJC News

Vol.1, No.1 - September 27, 1956. First issue of the Boone Junior College News.https://openspace.dmacc.edu/banner_news/1010/thumbnail.jp

Analysis of the complete genome sequence of Cucumber mosaic virus strain K

The complete genome sequence of Cucumber mosaic virus strain K was determined by deep RNA sequencing. The tripartite genome consists of a 3,382-nucleotide (nt) RNA1, a 3,050-nt RNA2, and a 2,218-nt RNA3 segment. Phylogenetic analysis placed RNA1 and RNA2 in subgroup IB. However, RNA3 grouped with subgroup IA isolates, indicating a likely recombination event. © 2018 Moyle et al

Sundry Papers I

Since its creation two years ago, the Center for International Education has devoted most of its energy to building a viable entity and to starting new programs. This collection of papers represents an attempt to begin to consolidate and analyze our efforts and includes some of the first results of the Center\u27s programs and adaptations of new approaches to problems in international education. The papers reflect the diversity of topics and techniques which characterizes the Center. They are reproduced for the purpose of communicating with others interested in the field, rather than representing traditional academic-style research efforts. We hope the availability of this publication will give incentive to other Center members immersed in innovative programs to share their results. The five papers also reflect the Center\u27s three major thrusts: cross-cultural training, the teaching of non-western studies in US schools, and education for national development. Hartwell and Blackman explore one aspect of cross-cultural training in their work in microteaching with teachers in Navaho schools. Grant and Shuey tout two methods of making non-western studies more effective, by using foreign students and by employing film as a tool for understanding other cultures. Higginson and Hoxeng, both of whom are interested in out-of-school education, examine training schemes now being used in the Caribbean and in Mexico. DR

Epidemic spread of smut fungi (Quambalaria) by sexual reproduction in a native pathosystem

Quambalaria are fungal pathogens of Corymbia, Eucalyptus and related genera of Myrtaceae. They are smut fungi (Ustilaginomycota) described from structures that resemble conidia and conidiophores. Whether these spore forms have asexual or sexual roles in life cycles of Quambalaria is unknown. An epidemic of Q. pitereka destroyed plantations of Corymbia in New South Wales and Queensland (Australia) in 2008. We sampled 177 individuals from three plantations of C. variegata and used AFLPs to test hypotheses that the epidemic was spread by asexual reproduction and dominated by a single genotype. There was high genotypic diversity across ≥600 AFLP loci in the pathogen populations at each plantation, and evidence of sexual reproduction based on neighbour-net analyses and rejection of linkage disequilibrium. The populations were not structured by host or location. Our data did not support a hypothesis of asexual reproduction but instead that Q. pitereka spreads exclusively by sexual reproduction, similar to life cycles of other smut fungi. Epidemics were exacerbated by monocultures of Corymbia established from seed collected from a single provenance. This study showcases an example of an endemic pathogen, Q. pitereka, with a strictly outbreeding life cycle that has caused epidemics when susceptible hosts were planted in large monoculture plantations

Both Constitutive and Infection‐Responsive Secondary Metabolites Linked to Resistance against Austropuccinia psidii (Myrtle Rust) in Melaleuca quinquenervia

Austropuccinia psidii is a fungal plant pathogen that infects species within the Myrtaceae, causing the disease myrtle rust. Myrtle rust is causing declines in populations within natural and managed ecosystems and is expected to result in species extinctions. Despite this, variation in response to A. psidii exist within some species, from complete susceptibility to resistance that prevents or limits infection by the pathogen. Untargeted metabolomics using Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography with Ion Mobility followed by analysis using MetaboAnalyst 3.0, was used to ex-plore the chemical defence profiles of resistant, hypersensitive and susceptible phenotypes within Melaleuca quinquenervia during the early stages of A. psidii infection. We were able to identify three separate pools of secondary metabolites: (i) metabolites classified structurally as flavonoids that were naturally higher in the leaves of resistant individuals prior to infection, (ii) organoheterocyclic and carbohydrate‐related metabolites that varied with the level of host resistance post‐infection, and (iii) metabolites from the terpenoid pathways that were responsive to disease progression re-gardless of resistance phenotype suggesting that these play a minimal role in disease resistance during the early stages of colonization of this species. Based on the classes of these secondary me-tabolites, our results provide an improved understanding of key pathways that could be linked more generally to rust resistance with particular application within Melaleuca. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Chromium sequencing: The doors open for genomics of obligate plant pathogens

It is challenging to sequence and assemble genomes of obligate plant pathogens and microorganisms because of limited amounts of DNA, comparatively large genomes and high numbers of repeat regions. We sequenced the 1.2 gigabase genome of an obligate rust fungus, Austropuccinia psidii, the cause of rust on Myrtaceae, with a Chromium 10X library. This technology has mostly been applied for single-cell sequencing in immunological studies of mammals. We compared scaffolds of a genome assembled from the Chromium library with one assembled from combined paired-end and mate-pair libraries, sequenced with Illumina HiSeq. Chromium 10X provided a superior assembly, in terms of number of scaffolds, N50 and number of genes recovered. It required less DNA than other methods and was sequenced and assembled at a lower cost. Chromium sequencing could provide a solution to sequence and assemble genomes of obligate plant pathogens where the amount of available DNA is a limiting factor. © 2018 Future Science. All rights reserved

Sexual reproduction is the null hypothesis for life cycles of rust fungi

Sexual reproduction, mutation, and reassortment of nuclei increase genotypic diversity in rust fungi. Sexual reproduction is inherent to rust fungi, coupled with their coevolved plant hosts in native pathosystems. Rust fungi are hypothesised to exchange nuclei by somatic hybridisation with an outcome of increased genotypic diversity, independent of sexual reproduction. We provide criteria to demonstrate whether somatic exchange has occurred, including knowledge of parental haplotypes and rejection of fertilisation in normal rust life cycles

Fungal Genomics Challenges the Dogma of Name-Based Biosecurity

Microorganisms have inadvertently been spread via the global movement and trade of their substrates, such as animals, plants, and soil. This intercontinental exchange in the current era of globalisation has given rise to significant increases in the distribution of known pests and pathogens. Importantly, it has also resulted in many novel, emerging, infectious diseases. Biosecurity and quarantine, which aim to prevent the establishment of foreign or harmful organisms in a non-native area, are under significant pressure due to the massive increases in travel and trade. Traditionally, quarantine regulations have been implemented based on pathogens that already cause significant disease problems on congener hosts in other parts of the world (e.g., Q-bank, available at http://www.q-bank.eu). Well-known pathogens are described, named, and studied to determine their disease cycle, epidemiology, and impact. Their importance is assessed based on their risk of infection, establishment, and economic or environmental consequences. This then shapes phytosanitary practices.The Tree Protection Co-operative Programme (TPCP), THRIP initiative of the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Science and Technology (DST)/ National Research Foundation (NRF), and Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology (CTHB).http://www.plospathogens.orgam2016Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)GeneticsMicrobiology and Plant PathologyPlant Scienc