Barriers inhibiting the transition to sustainability within the Australian construction industry: An investigation of technical and social interactions

Research concedes that the building industry in Australia has fallen short of satisfying sustainability requirements. Currently, the responsibility for transitioning the building industry into one that is sustainable is laid largely at the feet of low-carbon governance instruments such as mandatory codes and sustainability rating tools. The behavior of groups, interactions of individual actors, relationship between actors' and group level behaviors that affect implementation of these instruments have, however, received only cursory attention. This study therefore seeks to move beyond the instruments debate and identify a broader range of factors inhibiting the transition to sustainability within the Australian building industry. It draws on focus group discussions held with 26 leading sustainability experts and practitioners from around the country. Whereas, earlier work on impediments to sustainability pre-identify potential causal factors, this study, with Sustainability Transition as the theoretical lens, allowing for new and as yet unidentified impediments to emerge. Indeed, while findings confirm a range of technical shortcomings hindering sustainability transition, the deeper barrier is shown to be the prevalence of a dysfunctional sustainability ecosystem where siloed vested interest groups exploit Australia's ineffective transition regimes for their own gain. The practical implication is that current efforts to refine rating tools and modify building practices – remedies identified in earlier research – will not be enough to effect meaningful transition, as long as end-users remain disenfranchised, confused and unpersuaded of the benefits of sustainable buildings

Human parvovirus B19 infection and hydrops fetalis in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Formalin-fixed paraffin embedded lung and liver tissue from 23 cases of non immune hydrops fetalis and five control cases, in which hydrops were due to syphilis (3) and genetic causes (2), were examined for the presence of human parvovirus B19 by DNA hybridisation. Using in situ hybridisation with a biotynilated probe one positive case was detected. Using 32P-labelled probes in a dot blot assay format, five further positives were obtained. These were all confirmed as positive by a nested polymerase chain reaction assay. Electron microscopy revealed virus in all these five positive cases. The six B19 DNA positive cases of hydrops fetalis were from 1974, 1980, 1982, 1987 and 1988, four of which occurred during the second half of the year, confirming the seasonality of the disease

Compensation of the effects of heterozygous protein inactivating mutations by changes in the expression of functional alleles in selected yeast strains.

Kompensacja w odpowiedzi na zmiany liczby kopii genów u Saccharomyces cerevisiae jest przedmiotem badań od wielu lat. Dotychczas dobrze zbadano reakcje drożdży na aneuploidie chromosomalne i delecje genów, ale brakuje badań na temat wpływu mutacji punktowych unieczynniających gen na zmiany poziomu mRNA. Uważa się, że niezależnie od rodzaju zmiany, większość badanych genów nie jest kompensowana, a haploinsuficjencja jest niezwykle rzadkim zjawiskiem u drożdży. Celem niniejszej pracy było sprawdzenie, czy knockdown jednej kopii genu spowoduje, że dojdzie do podwyższonej ekspresji tego genu (kompensacji), oraz dodatkowo opracowanie i przetestowanie metodologii badania kompensacji ekspresji genów przy użyciu metody real-time PCR. Badania przeprowadzono na sześciu genach eksperymentalnych: RPL15B, OPT2, MET7, NAT4, SIC1 i SLG1. W wybranych do eksperymentu szczepach drożdży (Peter i in., 2018) geny te miały (lub powinny mieć) heterozygotyczną mutację punktową zmieniającą ramkę odczytu, lub wstawiającą przedwczesny kodon stop. Efektem takiej mutacji było powstanie niefunkcjonalnego mRNA i białka. Do szczepów eksperymentalnych dobrano także szczepy kontrolne z niezmutowaną wersją danego genu.Hodowla badanych szczepów drożdży miała miejsce w stałych warunkach, po czym przeprowadzono izolację RNA i określono poziom transkryptów za pomocą reakcji odwrotnej transkrypcji i real-time PCR. Dodatkowo przeprowadzono sekwencjonowanie DNA badanych genów w celu potwierdzenia obecności opisanych w literaturze mutacji. Jego wynik pokazał, że dwa z sześciu wybranych genów nie posiadały wskazanej mutacji, więc geny te zostały wykluczone z dalszych badań. Ostateczne wyniki wskazały, że tylko jeden z badanych genów miał wyraźnie zwiększoną ekspresję i wykazywał kompensację, dla dwóch genów prawdopodobnie nie zaszła kompensacja, ale nie można jej wykluczyć, ponieważ mogło zajść zjawisko NMD (ang. nonsense mediated decay). Natomiast poziom ekspresji ostatniego z genów był na tyle niski, że można z całą pewnością wykluczyć zajście kompensacji.Compensation in response to changes in gene copy number in Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been examined for many years. So far, yeast responses to chromosomal aneuploidy and gene deletions have been well studied, but there is a lack of research on changes in mRNA levels caused by gene inactivating point mutations. It is believed that regardless of the type of change, most of the genes are not compensated, and haploinsufficiency is an extremely rare phenomenon in yeast. The aim of this study was to check whether the knockdown of one gene copy would result in increased expression of this gene (compensation), and additionally to develop and test the methodology for examining gene expression compensation using the real-time PCR method. The research was carried out on six experimental genes: RPL15B, OPT2, MET7, NAT4, SIC1 and SLG1. In the yeast strains selected for the experiment (Peter et al., 2018), these genes had (or should have) a heterozygous point mutation changing the reading frame or inserting a premature stop codon. As a result of this mutation, there has been formed a non-functional mRNA and protein. For each experimental strain, there was selected a control strain without any mutations in the given gene. The cell culture has been kept under constant conditions, then the RNA isolation was performed and the level of transcripts was determined by reverse transcription and real-time PCR. Additionally, DNA sequencing of the tested genes was performed to confirm the presence of mutations described in the literature. The results showed that two of the six selected genes did not have the desired mutation, so these genes were excluded from further study. The final results indicated that only one of the tested genes had an increased expression and showed compensation, for two genes presumably no compensation happened, but it cannot be excluded since nonsense mediated decay (NMD) could have occurred. The expression level of the last of the genes was low enough to exclude the possibility of compensation

Developmental and behavioral outcomes of uncomplicated monochorionic diamniotic twins born in the third trimester

Amy Sierakowski,1 Valsamma Eapen,2,3 Rudi Črnčec,2,3 John Smoleniec4,5 1University of New South Wales, 2School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, 3Academic Unit of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Ingham Institute, Liverpool Hospital, South Western Sydney Local Health District, 4Division of Women’s and Children’s Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 5Department of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Liverpool Hospital, Liverpool, NSW, Australia Background: Relatively little is known about the neurodevelopmental and behavioral outcomes of monochorionic diamniotic (MCDA) twin pregnancies where there are no antenatal complications peculiar to monochorionicity or prematurity.Methods: Twenty-two MCDA twins (44 children) with an average age of 4.3 years, and with no antenatal complications detected by 28 weeks of gestation, were recruited from a feto-maternal unit database. Parents completed a battery of neurodevelopmental and behavioral assessment questionnaires.Results: Eighteen children (41%) were identified as having developmental or behavioral concerns, predominantly of mild severity, which in turn were associated with a lower birth weight of medium effect size (Cohen’s d=0.59).Conclusion: MCDA twins delivered in the third trimester with no antenatal monochorionic complications in the first two trimesters appear to be at risk for subtle neurodevelopmental difficulties, associated with a lower birth weight. Ongoing developmental surveillance of these children during preschool-age is indicated for early identification and intervention. Keywords: monochorionic, diamniotic, twin, neurodevelopment, behavior, long-term outcom