A matter of conscience? The democratic significance of \u27conscience votes\u27 in legislating bioethics in Australia

In Australia, members of a political party are expected to vote as a block on the instructions of their party. Occasionally a ‘conscience vote’ (or ‘free vote’) is allowed, which releases parliamentarians from the obligation to maintain party discipline and permits them to vote according to their ‘conscience.’ In recent years Australia has had a number of conscience votes in federal Parliament, many of which have focused on bioethical issues (e.g., euthanasia, abortion, RU486, and embryonic/stem cell research and cloning). This paper examines the use of conscience votes in six key case studies in these contested areas of policy-making, with particular attention to their implications for promoting democratic values and the significance of women’s Parliamentary participation

Evaluating time-lapse borehole gravity for CO2 plume detection at SECARB Cranfield

Bureau of Economic Geolog

Systematic reviews: guidance relevant for studies of older people

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are increasingly common. This article aims to provide guidance for people conducting systematic reviews relevant to the healthcare of older people. An awareness of these issues will also help people reading systematic reviews to determine whether the results will influence their clinical practice. It is essential that systematic reviews are performed by a team which includes the required technical and clinical expertise. Those performing reviews for the first time should ensure they have appropriate training and support. They must be planned and performed in a transparent and methodologically robust way: guidelines are available. The protocol should be written—and if possible published—before starting the review. Geriatricians will be interested in a table of baseline characteristics, which will help to determine if the studied samples or populations are similar to their patients. Reviews of studies of older people should consider how they will manage issues such as different age cut-offs; non-specific presentations; multiple predictors and outcomes; potential biases and confounders. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses may provide evidence to improve older people's care, or determine where new evidence is required. Newer methodologies, such as meta-analyses of individual level data, network meta-analyses and umbrella reviews, and realist synthesis, may improve the reliability and clinical utility of systematic reviews

Newly qualified physical education teachers’ experiences of developing subject knowledge prior to, during and after a Postgraduate Certificate in Education course

Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) inspections of secondary Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) physical education courses in England between 1996 and 1998 (OFSTED, 1999) were critical of student teachers' subject knowledge. The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of subject knowledge and influences on the development of that subject knowledge in a sample of three newly qualified teachers (NQTs) who had completed a PGCE physical education course in England. The research comprised semi-structured interviews and analysis of documentation. Among these three NQTs there were some similarities, but more differences in terms of the development of subject knowledge as well as different influences on the development of subject knowledge. These results suggest that teacher educators may need to be flexible in how they approach and support the development of student teachers' subject knowledge. Results also suggest that teacher educators should work more closely with colleagues teaching sports-related undergraduate degree courses to support the development of subject knowledge for those students who wish to progress to a PGCE physical education course

Milk intake across adulthood and muscle strength decline from mid- to late life: the MRC National Survey of Health and Development

Milk is a source of several nutrients which may be beneficial for skeletal muscle. Evidence that links lower milk intake with declines in muscle strength from midlife to old age is lacking. We used data from the MRC NSHD to test sex-specific associations between milk consumption from age 36 to 60-64 years, low grip strength (GS) or probable sarcopenia, and GS decline from age 53 to 69 years. We included 1340 men and 1383 women with at least one measure of both milk intake and GS. Milk intake was recorded in 5-day food diaries (ages 36, 43, 53 and 60-64), and grand mean of total, reduced-fat and full-fat milk each categorised in thirds (T1 (lowest) to T3 (highest), g/day). GS was assessed at ages 53, 60-64, and 69, and probable sarcopenia classified at age 69. We employed logistic regression to examine the odds of probable sarcopenia, and multilevel models to investigate decline in GS in relation to milk intake thirds. Compared with T1, only T2 (58.7-145.2g/day) of reduced-fat milk was associated with lower odds of sex-specific low GS at age 69 (OR (95% CI): 0.59 (0.37, 0.94), p=0.03). In multilevel models, only T3 of total milk (≥237.5g/day) was associated with stronger GS in midlife in men (β (95% CI) = 1.82 (0.18, 3.45)kg, p=0.03) compared with T1 (≤152.0g/day), but not with GS decline over time. A higher milk intake across adulthood may promote muscle strength in midlife in men. Its role in muscle health in late life needs further examination

Production of small cysteine-rich effector proteins in Escherichia coli for structural and functional studies

Although the lifestyles and infection strategies of plant pathogens are diverse, a prevailing feature is the use of an arsenal of secreted proteins, known as effectors, which aid in microbial infection. In the case of eukaryotic filamentous pathogens, such as fungi and oomycetes, effector proteins are typically dissimilar, at the protein sequence level, to known protein families and functional domains. Consequently, we currently have a limited understanding of how fungal and oomycete effectors promote disease. Protein biochemistry and structural biology are two methods that can contribute greatly to the understanding of protein function. Both techniques are dependent on obtaining proteins that are pure and functional, and generally require the use of heterologous recombinant protein expression systems. Here, we present a general scheme and methodology for the production and characterization of small cysteine-rich (SCR) effectors utilizing Escherichia coli expression systems. Using this approach, we successfully produced cysteine-rich effectors derived from the biotrophic fungal pathogen Melampsora lini and the necrotrophic fungal pathogen Parastagonospora nodorum. Access to functional recombinant proteins facilitated crystallization and functional experiments. These results are discussed in the context of a general workflow that may serve as a template for others interested in understanding the function of SCR effector(s) from their plant pathogen(s) of interest.This research was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Projects DP120100685 and DP120103558. X.Z. was a recipient of an ANZ Trustee’s PhD Scholarship for Medical Research in Queensland. B.K. is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Research Fellow (1003325 and 1110971)

Moving beyond physical education subject knowledge to develop knowledgeable teachers of the subject

All knowledge is socially constructed, including physical education teachers’ knowledge of their subject. It is acquired from other people either formally and deliberately (e.g. by being taught) or informally and casually (e.g. by interacting with physical education teachers or playing in a sports team). The social aspects of learning appear to be particularly strong in physical education. This has implications for the development of knowledge for teaching, with trainee teachers focusing on the development of subject, and particularly content, knowledge. Focusing on subject knowledge reinforces a traditional view of physical education as it is, not as it might be to meet the needs of young people today. It is argued that attention needs to be given not only to the knowledge, skills and competencies that trainee teachers ought to develop but also to the social aspects of their learning and development and the context in which they learn. Attention also needs to be given to how the ability to think critically can be developed so that trainee teachers can become reflective practitioners able to challenge and, where appropriate, change the teaching of the subject. Only by doing this can the particularly strong socialisation which shapes the values and beliefs of physical education teachers begin to be challenged. However, as the process of developing knowledgeable teachers is ongoing it is also necessary to look beyond teacher training to continuing professional development

Moving beyond physical education subject knowledge to develop knowledgeable teachers of the subject

All knowledge is socially constructed, including physical education teachers’ knowledge of their subject. It is acquired from other people either formally and deliberately (e.g. by being taught) or informally and casually (e.g. by interacting with physical education teachers or playing in a sports team). The social aspects of learning appear to be particularly strong in physical education. This has implications for the development of knowledge for teaching, with trainee teachers focusing on the development of subject, and particularly content, knowledge. Focusing on subject knowledge reinforces a traditional view of physical education as it is, not as it might be to meet the needs of young people today. It is argued that attention needs to be given not only to the knowledge, skills and competencies that trainee teachers ought to develop but also to the social aspects of their learning and development and the context in which they learn. Attention also needs to be given to how the ability to think critically can be developed so that trainee teachers can become reflective practitioners able to challenge and, where appropriate, change the teaching of the subject. Only by doing this can the particularly strong socialisation which shapes the values and beliefs of physical education teachers begin to be challenged. However, as the process of developing knowledgeable teachers is ongoing it is also necessary to look beyond teacher training to continuing professional development

Assessing exposure in epidemiologic studies to disinfection by-products in drinking water: report from an international workshop.

The inability to accurately assess exposure has been one of the major shortcomings of epidemiologic studies of disinfection by-products (DBPs) in drinking water. A number of contributing factors include a) limited information on the identity, occurrence, toxicity, and pharmacokinetics of the many DBPs that can be formed from chlorine, chloramine, ozone, and chlorine dioxide disinfection; b) the complex chemical interrelationships between DBPs and other parameters within a municipal water distribution system; and c) difficulties obtaining accurate and reliable information on personal activity and water consumption patterns. In May 2000, an international workshop was held to bring together various disciplines to develop better approaches for measuring DBP exposure for epidemiologic studies. The workshop reached consensus about the clear need to involve relevant disciplines (e.g., chemists, engineers, toxicologists, biostatisticians and epidemiologists) as partners in developing epidemiologic studies of DBPs in drinking water. The workshop concluded that greater collaboration of epidemiologists with water utilities and regulators should be encouraged in order to make regulatory monitoring data more useful for epidemiologic studies. Similarly, exposure classification categories in epidemiologic studies should be chosen to make results useful for regulatory or policy decision making

Flavonoid profiling and transcriptome analysis reveals new gene–metabolite correlations in tubers of Solanum tuberosum L.

Anthocyanin content of potato tubers is a trait that is attracting increasing attention as the potential nutritional benefits of this class of compound become apparent. However, our understanding of potato tuber anthocyanin accumulation is not complete. The aim of this study was to use a potato microarray to investigate gene expression patterns associated with the accumulation of purple tuber anthocyanins. The advanced potato selections, CO97216-3P/PW and CO97227-2P/PW, developed by conventional breeding procedures, produced tubers with incomplete expression of tuber flesh pigmentation. This feature permits sampling pigmented and non-pigmented tissues from the same tubers, in essence, isolating the factors responsible for pigmentation from confounding genetic, environmental, and developmental effects. An examination of the transcriptome, coupled with metabolite data from purple pigmented sectors and from non-pigmented sectors of the same tuber, was undertaken to identify these genes whose expression correlated with elevated or altered polyphenol composition. Combined with a similar study using eight other conventional cultivars and advanced selections with different pigmentation, it was possible to produce a refined list of only 27 genes that were consistently differentially expressed in purple tuber tissues compared with white. Within this list are several new candidate genes that are likely to impact on tuber anthocyanin accumulation, including a gene encoding a novel single domain MYB transcription factor