Structure analysis of biologically important prokaryotic glycopolymers

Of the many post-translational modifications organisms can undertake, glycosylation is the most prevalent and the most diverse. The research in this thesis focuses on the structural characterisation of glycosylation in two classes of glycopolymer (lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and glycoprotein) in two domains of life (bacteria and archaea). The common theme linking these subprojects is the development and application of high sensitivity analytical techniques, primarily mass spectrometry (MS), for studying prokaryotic glycosylation. Many prokaryotes produce glycan arrangements with extraordinary variety in composition and structure. A further challenge is posed by additional functionalities such as lipids whose characterisation is not always straightforward. Glycosylation in prokaryotes has a variety of different biological functions, including their important roles in the mediation of interactions between pathogens and hosts. Thus enhanced knowledge of bacterial glycosylation may be of therapeutic value, whilst a better understanding of archaeal protein glycosylation will provide further targets for industrial applications, as well as insight into this post- translational modification across evolution and protein processing under extreme conditions. The first sub-project focused on the S-layer glycoprotein of the halophilic archeaon Haloferax volcanii, which has been reported to be modified by both glycans and lipids. Glycoproteomic and associated MS technologies were employed to characterise the N- and O-linked glycosylation and to explore putative lipid modifications. Approximately 90% of the S-layer was mapped and N-glycans were identified at all the mapped consensus sites, decorated with a pentasaccharide consisting of two hexoses, two hexuronic acids and a methylated hexuronic acid. The O-glycans are homogeneously identified as a disaccharide consisting of galactose and glucose. Unexpectedly it was found that membrane-derived lipids were present in the S- layer samples despite extensive purification, calling into question the predicted presence of covalently linked lipid. The H. volcanii N-glycosylation is mediated by the products of the agl gene cluster and the functional characterisation of members of the agl gene cluster was investigated by MS analysis of agl-mutant strains of the S-layer. Burkholderia pseudomallei is the causative agent of melioidosis, a serious and often fatal disease in humans which is endemic in South-East Asia and other equatorial regions. Its LPS is vital for serum resistance and the O-antigen repeat structures are of interest as vaccine targets. B. pseudomallei is reported to produce several polysaccharides, amongst which the already characterised ‘typical’ O-antigen of K96243 represents 97% of the strains. The serologically distinct ‘atypical’ strain 576 produces a different LPS, whose characterisation is the subject of this research project. MS strategies coupled with various hydrolytic and chemical derivatisation methodologies were employed to define the composition and potential sequences of the O-antigen repeat unit. These MS strategies were complemented by a novel NMR technique involving embedding of the LPS into micelles. Taken together the MS and NMR data have revealed a highly unusual O-antigen structure for atypical LPS which is remarkably different from the typical O-antigen. The development of structural analysis tools in MS and NMR applicable to the illustrated types of glycosylation in these prokaryotes will give a more consistent approach to sugar characterisation and their modifications thus providing more informative results for pathogenicity and immunological studies as well as pathway comparisons.Open Acces

Gendered Harm and Structural Violence in the British Asylum System

Britain is often heralded as a country in which the rights and welfare of survivors of conflict and persecution are well embedded, and where the standard of living conditions for those seeking asylum is relatively high. Drawing on a decade of activism and research in the North West of England, this book contends that, on the contrary, conditions are often structurally violent. For survivors of gendered violence, harm inflicted throughout the process of seeking asylum can be intersectional and compound the impacts of previous experiences of violent continuums. The everyday threat of detention and deportation; poor housing and inadequate welfare access; and systemic cuts to domestic and sexual violence support all contribute to a temporal limbo which limits women’s personal autonomy and access to basic human rights. By reflecting on evidence from interviews, focus groups, activist participation and oral history, Gendered Harm and Structural Violence provides a unique insight into the everyday impacts of policy and practice that arguably result in the infliction of further gendered harms on survivors of violence and persecution

New Zealand Film Industry: Building Culture and Identity

Below Australia, as close to the bottom of the populated world as one can go, lies the small country of New Zealand, the true “land down-under.” New Zealand offers close to 103,500 square miles of picturesque and varied landscape, along with a population of less than 5 million, as of the 2016 census. Despite its isolated geography and small population, the country has made a large international presence, especially in the film industry. The development of the New Zealand film industry is unique, beginning soon after the birth of film itself but refraining from substantial growth until recent years. The passion and perseverance of the Kiwi filmmakers have pushed film in New Zealand past economic and social challenges to be regarded as nearly fundamental to growing and keeping the New Zealand identity

Prevention of ICU Delirium Through Implementation of a Sleep Promotion Bundle

Background: Intensive care unit (ICU) delirium is the prevalence of delirium in ICU patientswho do not have a history of drug/alcohol abuse, an admission for a mental status change, or anadmission to the ICU for less than 24 hours. Serious adverse outcomes have been linked to thepresence of ICU delirium resulting in overall longer hospital lengths of stay, longer duration ofmechanical ventilation, higher rates of mortality, and long-term neuropsychological deficits afterdischarge. At the site of this quality improvement project, the prevalence of ICU delirium was92.3% in a population determined to be high risk using the PRE-DELIRIC screening tool. Aim: The aim of this quality improvement project was to decrease the prevalence rate of ICUdelirium ICU through the implementation of a sleep-wake cycle bundle. Methods: The process began with screening new admissions within twenty-four hours ofadmission to determine whether intervention is needed. Intervention ended at their dischargefrom the unit, death, or the designation of “comfort measures only (CMO)” by the physician. The site of this quality improvement project was a surgical/trauma ICU in a large urban teachinghospital. ICU delirium prevalence rates were determined through a retrospective chart reviewover a period of thirty days. Using the PDSA framework, new admissions to the ICU werescreened using the PRE-DELIRIC model over a period of 30 days to determine their percent riskof developing delirium. Patients with a score of greater than 40% were enrolled in the projectand had a sleep promotion bundle initiated. These patients were followed throughout their ICUstay and presence of delirium was tracked. Compliance with the sleep promotion bundle wasalso tracked. Results: The 30 day rate of ICU delirium was reduced by 47.3% (p = 0.019).Conclusion: Limitations and implications of this quality improvement project will be discussed.Recommendations for practice will be made and the role of the Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL)will be addressed

Anthropology of the Crowd, Blog 3

Student blog posts from the Great VCU Bike Race Book

Walking the talk : an investigation of the pedagogical practices and discourses of an international broadcasting organisation : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in Adult Education, Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

Increasingly our knowledge of the world around us comes from the media, mediated by professional broadcasters. As the education and training of broadcasters has progressively become associated with educational institutions there has been more theorising about what broadcasters should know and how they should be educated, however the actual educational and training practices of broadcasting organisations remains under researched and under theorised. This research looks at the educational and training practices of an international broadcasting organisation and how they are sustained by the organisational ethos through a series of interviews with people directly involved in the organisation‟s training practices and an examination of a selection of the organisation‟s promotional and policy documents. From this comes a picture of an organisation committed to excellence and also a vision of broadcasting as an emancipatory activity. This commitment and vision is reflected in its inhouse training practices and also its media development work. The interviews with trainers, project managers, administrators and researchers reveal broadcasters who are pragmatic idealists and reflective practitioners and whose passion and commitment to the transformative powers of education and training are undeniable

Linear combinations of generators in multiplicatively invariant spaces

Multiplicatively invariant (MI) spaces are closed subspaces of $L^2(\Omega,\mathcal{H})$ that are invariant under multiplications of (some) functions in $L^{\infty}(\Omega)$. In this paper we work with MI spaces that are finitely generated. We prove that almost every linear combination of the generators of a finitely generated MI space produces a new set on generators for the same space and we give necessary and sufficient conditions on the linear combinations to preserve frame properties. We then apply what we prove for MI spaces to system of translates in the context of locally compact abelian groups and we obtain results that extend those previously proven for systems of integer translates in $L^2(\mathbb{R}^d)$.Comment: 13 pages. Minor changes have been made. To appear in Studia Mathematic

Welche Sprache ist sie anyway?: Borrowed anyway/anyhow in Texas German

A common phenomenon when languages are in contact is for one language to borrow words or phrases from another and incorporate them into the native vocabulary. Texas German, which has been in contact with English for over 100 years, shows extensive borrowing of English words. In addition to content word borrowing, lexical items such as nouns and verbs, Texas German shows examples of borrowings of discourse markers (DMs), which serve functional rather than lexical purposes. One of the most common English DM borrowings is anyway and it variant form anyhow. In this thesis I analyze the extent to which borrowed anyway/anyhow exhibit the same semantic and pragmatic functions as in English.Germanic Studie