Survival of Phytophthora cinnamomi and P. multivora in Lime-amended Bioclay® (LaBC®) and LaBC® plus organic material

Lime–amended BioClay® (LaBC®) is a high pH product developed as a soil amendment for use on Bassendean Sands of the Swan Coastal Plain. Composted mulch is used to clean equipment used in its production and lower the pH of the final product. If this composted mulch is contaminated with Phytophthora cinnamomi (the dieback fungus) this soil borne pathogen might be inadvertently spread to uninfested properties. In order to determine the likelihood of this occurring, pine plugs colonised by either P. cinnamomi or the similar pathogen P. multivora, were incubated in LaBC® or LaBC® + organic material for up to 21 days. P. cinnamomi survived for less no more than 6 days in both products, while P. multivora survived for no more than than 6 days in LaBC®, and for no more than than 14 days in LaBC® + organic material. This experiment shows that there is minimal risk of LaBC® or LaBC® + organic material being a source of these pathogens

Introduction, LTC volume 17

This collection of articles was prompted by our concern with the ways in which the treatment of strangers is understood socially, culturally, politically and legally. The actions of successive Australian governments seem deliberately to avoid any engagement with a notion of hospitality as an obligation to assist those in need, to accommodate the visitor or the alien. The arrival of strangers is instead viewed as hostile – an infringement of national sovereignty, rather than an appeal for assistance. The common social response is a kind of panic that is not justified by the number of applicants, which is tiny by comparison with the demands on nation states elsewhere. This seems a deadly irony in a country that was founded as a nation-state by immigrants – and perhaps something of the hysteria aroused by the arrival of supplicants is a displaced recognition among non-Indigenous Australians that they are us; if we admit these strangers, perhaps they will ‘settle’ this country as violently as our forerunners did, but this time we will be the targets. Whether or not that is the case, it seemed that the time is ripe for an examination of the notion of hospitality

Tricks or Trompe L\u27Oeil? An Examination Workplace Resistance in an Information Rich Managerial Environment

Management information generated by workflow information systems is often used for planning, costing, decision making and other management activities. By application of the principles of Grounded Theory, this paper summarises studies of acceptance of workflow systems and finds that user resistance is manifest in many forms. The paper also finds that previous divisions of this resistance are simplistic and fail to address the issue of data integrity. The paper attempts to add to the literature on user resistance to surveillance and to categorise the ways in which users work around systems resulting in information that is not a true reflection of actual activities. Thus management decisions are based upon an illusion of actuality and not on the reality of workplace activities. This leads to the usage of the Trompe L’Oeil, a decorative technique translating literally from French as ‘trick of the eye’ and used for example where a window with curtains and view is painted onto a wall to look like a real window and the observer perceives a window where no window exists

Optimal control of thermal damage to targetted regions in a biological material

Paper No. HT-FED2004-56426, pp. 733-736; 4 pagesASME 2004 Heat Transfer/Fluids Engineering Summer ConferenceVolume 4Conference Sponsors: Heat Transfer Division and Fluids Engineering DivisionISBN: 0-7918-4693-8 | eISBN: 0-7918-3740-8International audienceA numerical technique with potential applications in hyperthermia treatment planning is presented. The treatment is simulated using a 2D transient computational model of the Pennes bioheat equation within an optimization algorithm. The algorithm recovers the heating protocol which will lead to a desired damage field. The relationship between temperature, time and thermal damage is expressed as a first order rate process using the Arrhenius equation. The objective function of the control problem is based on this thermal damage model. The adjoint method in conjunction with the conjugate gradient algorithm is used to minimize the objective function. The results from a numerical simulation show good agreement between the optimal damage field and the damage field recovered by the algorithm. A comparison between the recovered damage field and the commonly used thermal dose is also made

Theory-based predictors of multiple clinician behaviors in the management of diabetes

Peer reviewedPostprin

Early surgery versus initial conservative treatment in patients with traumatic intracerebral haemorrhage [STITCH(Trauma)] : the first randomized trial

Acknowledgements This project was funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme (project number 07/37/16). The views and opinions expressed therein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the HTA programme, NIHR, NHS or the Department of Health.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Diabetes care provision in UK primary care practices

Background: Although most people with Type 2 diabetes receive their diabetes care in primary care, only a limited amount is known about the quality of diabetes care in this setting. We investigated the provision and receipt of diabetes care delivered in UK primary care. Methods: Postal surveys with all healthcare professionals and a random sample of 100 patients with Type 2 diabetes from 99 UK primary care practices. Results: 326/361 (90.3%) doctors, 163/186 (87.6%) nurses and 3591 patients (41.8%) returned a questionnaire. Clinicians reported giving advice about lifestyle behaviours (e.g. 88% would routinely advise about calorie restriction; 99.6% about increasing exercise) more often than patients reported having received it (43% and 42%) and correlations between clinician and patient report were low. Patients’ reported levels of confidence about managing their diabetes were moderately high; a median (range) of 21% (3% to 39%) of patients reporting being not confident about various areas of diabetes selfmanagement. Conclusions: Primary care practices have organisational structures in place and are, as judged by routine quality indicators, delivering high quality care. There remain evidence-practice gaps in the care provided and in the self confidence that patients have for key aspects of self management and further research is needed to address these issues. Future research should use robust designs and appropriately designed studies to investigate how best to improve this situation

Revisiting the missing protein-coding gene catalog of the domestic dog

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Among mammals for which there is a high sequence coverage, the whole genome assembly of the dog is unique in that it predicts a low number of protein-coding genes, ~19,000, compared to the over 20,000 reported for other mammalian species. Of particular interest are the more than 400 of genes annotated in primates and rodent genomes, but missing in dog.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using over 14,000 orthologous genes between human, chimpanzee, mouse rat and dog, we built multiple pairwise synteny maps to infer short orthologous intervals that were targeted for characterizing the canine missing genes. Based on gene prediction and a functionality test using the ratio of replacement to silent nucleotide substitution rates (<it>d</it>_N/<it>d</it>_S), we provide compelling structural and functional evidence for the identification of 232 new protein-coding genes in the canine genome and 69 gene losses, characterized as undetected gene or pseudogenes. Gene loss phyletic pattern analysis using ten species from chicken to human allowed us to characterize 28 canine-specific gene losses that have functional orthologs continuously from chicken or marsupials through human, and 10 genes that arose specifically in the evolutionary lineage leading to rodent and primates.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study demonstrates the central role of comparative genomics for refining gene catalogs and exploring the evolutionary history of gene repertoires, particularly as applied for the characterization of species-specific gene gains and losses.</p