An allergy and Novelists of the past, historians of the present

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.This thesis is comprised of a creative extract: Local History and Case Histories and an exegesis: Novelists of the Past, Historians of the Present. The creative extract is part of a much longer project, called an allergy, a multi-generic self-reflexive historiographical metafictional novel which explores ideas of history and fiction, memory and imagination, truth and identity across a number of genres, narratives, periods and voices. That history and fiction share many similarities is an idea well-established by both historians, critics and novelists, from Lionel Gossman and Hayden White to Richard Jenkins and E. L. Doctorow. The fiction–history debate has also stood at the heart of Australian literary history and Australian history itself, coming to a head during the ‘history’– and ‘culture wars’ declared by then-Prime Minister John Howard shortly after his election in 1996. These wars coincided with the so-called ‘memoir boom’ in which personal autobiographical narratives and first-person, present-tense fiction rose in popularity among a reading public hungry for ‘authentic’ stories, often by once-marginalised voices. Yet despite historian Mark McKenna calling for a dialogue between historians and novelists, the discussion seemed as vehement and vituperative as those surrounding the history– and culture wars. The creative extract offers my own parody of the memoir popular during the 1990s, and explores issues of race, authenticity, history, truth and identity, issues that were raised in cases like the controversy over Kate Grenville’s The Secret River, reaching back to the Koolmatrie and Demidenko affairs. I use these controversies as a springboard to examine in the exegesis that follows questions regarding issues fiction and fictional truth, imaginative empathy and creative freedom, appropriation and attribution, national and individual identity, especially in the context of Australia’s long and ignoble history of literary hoaxing. The exegesis examines the textual defences and broader contextual and moral criticisms in both controversies, analysing the rhetorical devices and narrative conventions common to fiction and history; it relates these problems and possibilities for negotiating them creatively and ethically to an allergy. The conceptual rationale for this thesis is embedded in the work in every possible way. My overall argument is not so much that history and fiction, truth and reality, memory and unreliability are now blurred — for this is an argument that has been made numerous times before — but that the act of retrieving truth, identity, authenticity or memory constitutes a re-imagining of the very elements it seeks to interrogate creatively and critically. The reader is ultimately positioned as an active creator of the text. The exegesis is followed by a short Appendix which contains a sample of a different section of an allergy by way of demonstrating this; while this section it is not offered for examination it showcases my deliberate merging of the boundaries of the scholarly and the creative

Effect of sports vision exercise on visual perception and reading performance in 7- to 10-year-old developmental dyslexic children

The presented study was aimed at identifying for the first time the influence of sports vision exercises on fundamental motor skills and cognitive skills of 7- to 10-year-old developmental dyslexic Persian children. A pretest - posttest quasi-experimental study was conducted. The statistical population of this study was 7- to 10-year-old dyslexic children referring to two centres of learning disorder in the city of Isfahan. Twenty two of these children were selected using available and purposive sampling from the statistical population and were randomly assigned into two groups of experimental and control. The former (experimental group) participated in sports vision exercise courses for 12 weeks (3 one hr sessions per week) and the latter (control group) continued their routine daily activities during the exercise. Before the beginning and at the end of the exercise, Gardner’s test of visual perception test - revised and Dehkhoda’s reading skills test was administered to both groups. The results showed that the sports vision exercises increases motor skills, visual perceptual skills and reading skills in developmental dyslexic children. Based on the results of the presented study it was concluded that sports vision exercises can be used for fundamental and cognitive skills of developmental dyslexic children

Interspecific hybridization between Cicer arietinum and C. pinnatifidum

An interspecific hybrid between Cicer arietinum cv. GL 769 and a wild species C. pinnatifidum was obtained after emasculation, pollination and application of growth regulators. Ovules were cultured and embryos were later dissected to obtain hybrid plants. These plants were albinos and morphologically resembled C. pinnatifidum. Shrivelled seeds were also obtained in 2% of the crosses, which on germination gave rise to albino plants. These plants did not survive beyond 20 days. The hybrid nature of these plants was confirmed by esterase isozyme studies. Hybrid shoots obtained from germinating embryos were cultured on modified ML-6 medium with BAP 2 mg/1, IAA 0.5 mg/1, where they turned green after 3–4 weeks. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies on leaf sections from green hybrid shoots showed an improvement in the chloroplast structure, with better organized grana

Graphene Photonics and Optoelectronics

The richness of optical and electronic properties of graphene attracts enormous interest. Graphene has high mobility and optical transparency, in addition to flexibility, robustness and environmental stability. So far, the main focus has been on fundamental physics and electronic devices. However, we believe its true potential to be in photonics and optoelectronics, where the combination of its unique optical and electronic properties can be fully exploited, even in the absence of a bandgap, and the linear dispersion of the Dirac electrons enables ultra-wide-band tunability. The rise of graphene in photonics and optoelectronics is shown by several recent results, ranging from solar cells and light emitting devices, to touch screens, photodetectors and ultrafast lasers. Here we review the state of the art in this emerging field.Comment: Review Nature Photonics, in pres

Antioxidant activities and phenolic contents of the methanol extracts of the stems of Acokanthera oppositifolia and Adenia gummifera

Abstract Background Acokanthera oppositifolia Lam (family: Apocynaceae) is a shrub or small tree with white latex, and the leaves of this plant are used in the form of a snuff to treat headaches and in infusions for abdominal pains and convulsions and septicaemia. Adenia gummifera Harv of the family Passifloraceae is a distinctive woody climber whose infusions are used as emetics and are said to help with some forms of depression. Lipid peroxidation has gained more importance today because of its involvement in pathogenesis of many diseases. Free radicals are the main agents in lipid peroxidation. Antioxidants thus play an important role of protecting the human body against damage by the free radicals. Plants containing phenolic compounds have been reported to possess strong antioxidant properties. Methods The antioxidant activities and phenolic contents of the methanol extracts of the stems of Acokanthera oppositifolia and Adenia gummifera were evaluated using in vitro standard procedures. Spectrophotometry was the basis for the determinations of total phenol, total flavonoids, flavonols, and proanthocyanidins. Tannins, quercetin and catechin equivalents were used for these parameters. The antioxidant activities of the stem extract of Acokanthera oppositifolia were determined by the 2,2'-azinobis-3- ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS), 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), and ferrous reducing antioxidant property (FRAP) methods. Results The results from this study showed that the antioxidant activities of the stem extract of Acokanthera oppositifolia as determined by the 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), and ferrous reducing antioxidant property (FRAP) methods, were higher than that of Adenia gummifera. The levels of total phenols and flavonols for A. oppositifolia were also higher. On the other hand, the stem extract of Adenia gummifera had higher level of total flavonoids and proanthocyanidins than that of Acokanthera oppositifolia. The 2, 2'-azinobis-3- ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) activities of the 2 plant extracts were similar and comparable to that of BHT. Conclusion Thus, the present results indicate clearly that the extracts of Acokanthera oppositifolia and Adenia gummifera possess antioxidant properties and could serve as free radical inhibitors or scavengers, acting possibly as primary antioxidants. This study has to some extent validated the medicinal potential of the stems of Acokanthera oppositifolia and Adenia gummifera.</p

Functionalisation of PLLA nanofiber scaffolds using a possible cooperative effect between collagen type I and BMP-2: impact on growth and osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells

Mesenchymal stem cell differentiation of osteoblasts is triggered by a series of signaling processes including integrin and bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), which therefore act in a cooperative manner. The aim of this study was to analyze whether these processes can be remodeled in an artificial poly-(l)-lactide acid (PLLA) based nanofiber scaffold. Matrices composed of PLLA-collagen type I or BMP-2 incorporated PLLA-collagen type I were seeded with human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) and cultivated over a period of 22 days, either under growth or osteoinductive conditions. During the course of culture, gene expression of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), osteocalcin (OC) and collagen I (COL-I) as well as Smad5 and focal adhesion kinase (FAK), two signal transduction molecules involved in BMP-2 or integrin signaling were analyzed. Furthermore, calcium and collagen I deposition, as well as cell densities and proliferation, were determined using fluorescence microscopy. The incorporation of BMP-2 into PLLA-collagen type I nanofibers resulted in a decrease in diameter as well as pore sizes of the scaffold. Mesenchymal stem cells showed better adherence and a reduced proliferation on BMP-containing scaffolds. This was accompanied by an increase in gene expression of ALP, OC and COL-I. Furthermore the presence of BMP-2 resulted in an upregulation of FAK, while collagen had an impact on the gene expression of Smad5. Therefore these different strategies can be combined in order to enhance the osteoblast differentiation of hMSC on PLLA based nanofiber scaffold. By doing this, different signal transduction pathways seem to be up regulated

Cytisus scoparius link - A natural antioxidant

BACKGROUND: Recent investigations have shown that the antioxidant properties of plants could be correlated with oxidative stress defense and different human diseases. In this respect flavonoids and other polyphenolic compounds have gained the greatest attention. The plant Cytisus scoparius contains the main constituent of flavone and flavonals. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the in vitro antioxidant activities of extract of aerial part of Cytisus scoparius. METHODS: The plant extract was tested for DPPH (1, 1-diphenyl, 2-picryl hydrazyl) radical scavenging, nitric oxide radical scavenging, superoxide anion radical scavenging, hydroxyl radical scavenging, antilipid peroxidation assay, reducing power and total phenol content. RESULTS: The extract exhibited scavenging potential with IC(50 )value of 1.5 μg/ml, 116.0 μg/ml and 4.7 μg/ml for DPPH, nitric oxide and superoxide anion radicals. The values were found to lesser than those of vitamin C, rutin, and curcumin, as standards. The extract showed 50% protection at the dose of 104.0 μg/ml in lipid peroxidation induced by Fe(2+)/ ascorbate system in rat liver microsomal preparation. There is decrease in hydroxyl radical generation with IC(50 )value of 27.0 μg/ml when compared with standard vitamin E. The reducing power of the extract depends on the amount of extract. A significant amount of polyphenols could be detected by the equivalent to 0.0589 μg of pyrocatechol from 1 mg of extract. CONCLUSION: The results obtained in the present study indicate that hydro alcoholic extract of aerial part of Cytisus scoparius is a potential source of natural antioxidants