Life Sciences Commons^™

What Are Aflatoxins?, Hans Wohlmuth

Dr Hans Wohlmuth

Aflatoxins are toxic secondary metabolites wh ich are rarely produced by species of mou Ids belonging to the genus Aspergillus. These moulds grow on stored plant foods, in particular peanuts, wheat and corn. In tropical countries an estimated 25% or more of the food may be contaminated with aflatoxins (Raven et al 1992).

Herbal Medicines- An Ethnobotanical Survey, Hans Wohlmuth

Dr Hans Wohlmuth

No abstract provided.

أمراض الأطفال المزمنة, Suad Fahad Alferaih

Dr. Suad Fahad AlFuraih

No abstract provided.

Association Of Ubqln1 Mutation With Brown-Vialetto-Van Laere Syndrome But Not Typical Als, Paloma Gonzalez-Perez, Yubing Lu, Ru-Ju Chian, Peter Sapp, Rudolph Tanzi, Lars Bertram, Diane Mckenna-Yasek, Fen-Biao Gao, Robert Brown

Dr Robert Brown

Genetic variants in UBQLN1 gene have been linked to neurodegeneration and mutations in UBQLN2 have recently been identified as a rare cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). OBJECTIVE: To test if genetic variants in UBQLN1 are involved in ALS. METHODS: 102 and 94 unrelated patients with familial and sporadic forms of ALS were screened for UBQLN1 gene mutations. Single nucleotide variants were further screened in a larger set of sporadic ALS (SALS) patients and unrelated control subjects using high-throughput Taqman genotyping; variants were further assessed for novelty using the 1000Genomes and NHLBI databases. In vitro studies tested the effect of …

Dsarm/Sarm1 Is Required For Activation Of An Injury-Induced Axon Death Pathway, Jeannette Osterloh, Jing Yang, Timothy Rooney, A. Fox, Robert Adalbert, Eric Powell, Amy Sheehan, Michelle Avery, Rachel Hackett, Mary Logan, Jennifer Macdonald, Jennifer Ziegenfuss, Stefan Milde, Ying-Ju Hou, Carl Nathan, Aihao Ding, Robert Brown, Laura Comforti, Michael Coleman, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Stephan Zuchner, Marc Freeman

Dr Robert Brown

Axonal and synaptic degeneration is a hallmark of peripheral neuropathy, brain injury, and neurodegenerative disease. Axonal degeneration has been proposed to be mediated by an active autodestruction program, akin to apoptotic cell death; however, loss-of-function mutations capable of potently blocking axon self-destruction have not been described. Here, we show that loss of the Drosophila Toll receptor adaptor dSarm (sterile alpha/Armadillo/Toll-Interleukin receptor homology domain protein) cell-autonomously suppresses Wallerian degeneration for weeks after axotomy. Severed mouse Sarm1 null axons exhibit remarkable long-term survival both in vivo and in vitro, indicating that Sarm1 prodegenerative signaling is conserved in mammals. Our results provide direct …

Genetic Determinants Of Cerebral Edema In Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: A Pilot Study Of The Role Of Cacna1 And Aqp4 Gene Mutations, Raphael A. Carandang, Susanne Muehlschlegel, Wiley R. Hall, Cynthia Ouillette, Robert H. Brown Jr.

Dr Robert Brown

Cerebral edema is the one of the most significant predictors of poor outcome after traumatic brain injury. It is still unclear what the pathophysiological and cellular mechanisms and predictors of post-traumatic edema are. The exponential growth in genetic information has opened an avenue for investigation in traumatic brain injury and implicated specific genes in the pathophysiology of post-traumatic injury edema. Two examples are the Aquaporin-4 and CACNA1 genes, which respectively encode water and calcium channels. The Aquaporin-4 gene on chromosome 18q11.2-12.1 encodes the Aquaporin-4 protein (AQP4) water channel. AQP4 is one of the bidirectional high capacity water channels that is …

Targeted Mutation Of Mouse Skeletal Muscle Sodium Channel Produces Myotonia And Potassium-Sensitive Weakness, Lawrence Hayward, Joanna Kim, Ming-Yang Lee, Hongru Zhou, Ji Kim, Kumudini Misra, Mohammad Salajegheh, Fen-Fen Wu, Shinji Matsuda, Valerie Reid, Didier Cros, Eric Hoffman, Jean-Marc Renaud, Stephen Cannon, Robert Brown

Dr Robert Brown

Hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HyperKPP) produces myotonia and attacks of muscle weakness triggered by rest after exercise or by K+ ingestion. We introduced a missense substitution corresponding to a human familial HyperKPP mutation (Met1592Val) into the mouse gene encoding the skeletal muscle voltage-gated Na+ channel NaV1.4. Mice heterozygous for this mutation exhibited prominent myotonia at rest and muscle fiber-type switching to a more oxidative phenotype compared with controls. Isolated mutant extensor digitorum longus muscles were abnormally sensitive to the Na+/K+ pump inhibitor ouabain and exhibited age-dependent changes, including delayed relaxation and altered generation of tetanic force. Moreover, rapid and sustained weakness …

Decreased Metallation And Activity In Subsets Of Mutant Superoxide Dismutases Associated With Familial Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Lawrence Hayward, Jorge Rodriguez, Ji Kim, Ashutosh Tiwari, Joy Goto, Diane Cabelli, Joan Valentine, Robert Brown

Dr Robert Brown

Over 90 different mutations in the gene encoding copper/zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1) cause approximately 2% of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) cases by an unknown mechanism. We engineered 14 different human ALS-related SOD1 mutants and obtained high yields of biologically metallated proteins from an Sf21 insect cell expression system. Both the wild type and mutant "as isolated" SOD1 variants were deficient in copper and were heterogeneous by native gel electrophoresis. By contrast, although three mutant SOD1s with substitutions near the metal binding sites (H46R, G85R, and D124V) were severely deficient in both copper and zinc ions, zinc deficiency was not a …

Homologous Recombination Mediates Functional Recovery Of Dysferlin Deficiency Following Aav5 Gene Transfer, William E. Grose, K. Reed Clark, Danielle Griffin, Vinod Malik, Kimberly M. Shontz, Chrystal L. Montgomery, Sarah Lewis, Robert H. Brown Jr., Paul M. L. Janssen, Jerry R. Mendell, Louise R. Rodino-Klapac

Dr Robert Brown

The dysferlinopathies comprise a group of untreatable muscle disorders including limb girdle muscular dystrophy type 2B, Miyoshi myopathy, distal anterior compartment syndrome, and rigid spine syndrome. As with other forms of muscular dystrophy, adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene transfer is a particularly auspicious treatment strategy, however the size of the DYSF cDNA (6.5 kb) negates packaging into traditional AAV serotypes known to express well in muscle (i.e. rAAV1, 2, 6, 8, 9). Potential advantages of a full cDNA versus a mini-gene include: maintaining structural-functional protein domains, evading protein misfolding, and avoiding novel epitopes that could be immunogenic. AAV5 has demonstrated unique …

A Critical Examination Of Food Technology, Innovation And Teacher Education: A Technacy Genre Theory Perspective, Angela Turner

Dr Angela Turner

The broad goal of this thesis was to examine the extent to which Food Technology in secondary schooling enables a pathway into the study of Food Technology at a higher education level. The study was guided by Technacy Genre Theory as it was assessed as offering the most contemporary approach in the literature for examining forms of technological knowledge through measuring the relationship between Human, Tool and Material/Ingredients of technological practice. The research found that Food Technology teaching in many secondary schools was significantly different to the genre practiced by the vast majority of professional Food Technologists.

Biologically Active Dibenzofurans From Pilidiostigma Glabrum, An Endemic Australian Myrtaceae, Qing-Yao Shou, Linda Banbury, Dane Renshaw, Eleanore Lambley, Htwe Mon, Graham Macfarlane, Hans Griesser, Michael Heinrich, Hans Wohlmuth

Dr Hans Wohlmuth

In an effort to identify new anti-inflammatory and antibacterial agents with potential application in wound healing, five new dibenzofurans, 1,3,7,9-tetrahydroxy-2,8-dimethyl-4,6-di(2-methylbutanoyl)dibenzofuran (1), 1,3,7,9-tetrahydroxy-2,8-dimethyl-4-(2-methylbutanoyl)-6-(2-methylpropionyl)dibenzofuran (2), 1,3,7,9-tetrahydroxy-2,8-dimethyl-4,6-di(2-methylpropionyl)dibenzofuran (3), 1,3,7,9-tetrahydroxy-4,6-dimethyl-2-(2-methylbutanoyl)-8-(2-methylpropionyl)dibenzofuran (4), and 1,3,7,9-tetrahydroxy-4,6-dimethyl-2,8-di(2-methylpropionyl)dibenzofuran (5), were isolated from the leaves of Pilidiostigma glabrum together with one previously described dibenzofuran. Structure elucidation was achieved by way of spectroscopic measurements including 2D-NMR spectroscopy. Compounds with 2,8-acyl substitutions had potent antibacterial activity against several Gram-positive strains (MIC in the low micromolar range), while compounds with 4,6-acyl substitutions were less active. All compounds except 3 inhibited the synthesis of …

A New Phase Unwrapping Algorithm Based On Three Wavelength Phase Shift Profilometry Method, Limei Song, Xiaoxiao Dong, Jiangtao Xi, Yanguang Yu, Chaokui Yang

Dr Yanguang Yu

Phase Shift Profilometry (PSP) method is widely used in 3D shape measurement. The advantage of the PSP method is that it is less sensitive to the surface reflectivity variations and the object can be measured point by point. But if only a single wavelength λ₁ is used, the step height cannot be larger than λ₁/4. In order to measure step height object, Gray Code (GC) and Multi-Wavelength Phase Shift Profilometry (MWPSP) method are used. But the GC method cannot solve the problem of the objects with a variety of colors under different illumination. The shortcoming of MWPSP …

Differentially Expressed Genes In Populus Simonii×Populus Nigra In Response To Nacl Stress Using Cdna-Aflp, Lei Wang, Boru Zhou, Lili Wu, Baozhu Guo, Tingbo Jiang

Dr Lei Wang

Salinity is an important environmental factor limiting growth and productivity of plants, and affects almost every aspect of the plant physiology and biochemistry. The objective of this study was to apply cDNA-AFLP and to identify differentially expressed genes in response to NaCl stress vs. no-stress in Populus simonii × Populus nigra in order to develop genetic resources for genetic improvement. Selective amplification with 64 primer combinations allowed the visualization of 4407 transcript-derived fragments (TDFs), and 2027 were differentially expressed. Overall, 107 TDFs were re-sequenced successfully, and 86 unique sequences were identified in 10 functional categories based on their putative functions. …

Geant4 Physics Processes For Microdosimetry Simulation: Design Foundation And Implementation Of The First Set Of Models, S. Chauvie, Z. Francis, S. Guatelli, S. Incerti, B. Mascialino, P. Moretto, P. Nieminen, Maria Pia

Susanna Guatelli

New physical processes specific for microdosimetry simulation are under development in the Geant4 Low Energy Electromagnetic package. The first set of models implemented for this purpose cover the interactions of electrons, protons and light ions in liquid water; they address a physics domain relevant to the simulation of radiation effects in biological systems, where water represents an important component. The design developed for effectively handling particle interactions down to a low energy scale and the physics models implemented in the first public release of the software are described.

Becoming Differently Modern: Geographic Contributions To A Generative Climate Politics, Lesley M. Head, Christopher R. Gibson

Chris Gibson

Anthropogenic climate change is a quintessentially modern problem in its historical origins and discursive framing, but how well does modernist thinking provide us with the tools to solve the problems it created? On one hand even though anthropogenic climate change is argued to be a problem of human origins, solutions to which will require human actions and engagements, modernity separates people from climate change in a number of ways. On the other, while amodern or more-than-human concepts of multiple and relational agency are more consistent with the empirical evidence of humans being deeply embedded in earth surface processes, these approaches …

Engaging Creative Communities In An Industrial City Setting, Chris Gibson, Ben Gallan, Andrew Warren

Chris Gibson

Much has been said about how ‘creativity’ might infuse policymaking and planning – especially in the wake of popular bestsellers by Richard Florida and Charles Landry on ‘creative places’ and the ‘creative class’ (the latter a supposed demographic group associated with creative industries such as film, design and music, who are said to be the key to the economic fortunes of cities). Creativity, it is said, can be facilitated in particular urban environments, given the right preconditions such as ‘hip’ inner-city precincts, café culture and walkable dense clusters of design firms and retail and residential spaces. The common argument is …

Living Together But Apart: Material Geographies Of Everyday Sustainability In Extended Family Households, Natascha Klocker, Chris Gibson, Erin Borger

Chris Gibson

In the Industrialized West, ageing populations and cultural diversity-combined with rising property prices and extensive years spent in education-have been recognized as diverse factors driving increases in extended family living. At the same time, there is growing awareness that household size is inversely related to per capita resource consumption patterns, and that urgent problems of environmental sustainability are negotiated, on a day-to-day basis (and often unconsciously), at the household level. This paper explores the sustainability implications of everyday decisions to fashion, consume, and share resources around the home, through the lens of extended family households. Through interviews with extended family …

Factors Affecting Pharmacists Recommendation Of Complementary Medicines: A Qualitative Study Of Australian Pharmacists, Sarah Culverhouse, Hans Wohlmuth

Dr Hans Wohlmuth

Background

Complementary medicines (CMs) are widely used by the Australian public, and pharmacies are major suppliers of these medicines. The integration of CMs into pharmacy practice is well documented, but the behaviours of pharmacists in recommending CMs to customers are less well studied. This study reports on factors that influence whether or not pharmacists in Australia recommend CMs to their customers.

Methods

Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with twelve practicing pharmacists based in Brisbane, Australia. The qualitative data were analysed by thematic analysis.

Results

The primary driver of the recommendation of CMs was a desire to provide a health …

Trial By Fire: Natural Hazards, Mixed-Methods And Cultural Research, Christine Eriksen, Nicholas J. Gill, Ross A. Bradstock

Christine Eriksen

This paper considers the issues of research 'relevance' and 'use' to reflect upon a cultural geography research project on bushfire that did not begin with any specific aim of being useful to policy makers but which has garnered considerable and ongoing interest from a broad audience. It provides an example of how the integration of quantitative and qualitative research methods and data can enhance research into cultural aspects of natural hazards whilst simultaneously playing a key role in ensuring that the research results are of interest to a wide range of groups. Using a mixed-methods research approach was found to …

The Art Of Learning: Wildfire, Amenity Migration And Local Environmental Knowledge, Christine Eriksen, T Prior

Christine Eriksen

Communicating the need to prepare well in advance of the wildfire season is a strategic priority for wildfire management agencies worldwide. However, there is considerable evidence to suggest that although these agencies invest significant effort towards this objective in the lead up to each wildfire season, landholders in at-risk locations often remain under-prepared. One reason for the poor translation of risk information materials into actual preparation may be attributed to the diversity of people now inhabiting wildfire-prone locations in peri-urban landscapes. These people hold widely varying experiences, beliefs, attitudes and values relating to wildfire, which influence their understanding and interpretation …

The Two-Faced Nature Of Small Heat Shock Proteins: Amyloid Assembly And The Inhibition Of Fibril Formation. Relevance To Disease States, Heath W. Ecroyd, S Meehan, John A. Carver

Heath Ecroyd

The ability of small heat-shock proteins (sHsps) such as alphaB-crystallin to inhibit the amorphous (disordered) aggregation of varied target proteins in a chaperone-like manner has been well described. The mechanistic details of this action are not understood. Amyloid fibril formation is an alternative off-folding pathway that leads to highly ordered beta-sheet-containing aggregates. Amyloid fibril formation is associated with a broad range of protein conformational diseases such as Alzhiemer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's and sHsp expression is elevated in the protein deposits that are characteristic of these disease states. The ability of sHsps to prevent fibril formation has been less well characterised. …

Molecular Dynamics Analysis Of Apolipoprotein-D - Lipid Hydroperoxide Interactions: Mechanism For Selective Oxidation Of Met-93, Aaron J. Oakley, Surabhi Bhatia, Heath Ecroyd, Brett Garner

Heath Ecroyd

Background: Recent studies suggest reduction of radical-propagating fatty acid hydroperoxides to inert hydroxides by interaction with apolipoprotein-D (apoD) Met93 may represent an antioxidant function for apoD. The nature and structural consequences of this selective interaction are unknown. Methodology/Principal Findings: Herein we used molecular dynamics (MD) analysis to address these issues. Longtimescale simulations of apoD suggest lipid molecules are bound flexibly, with the molecules free to explore multiple conformations in a binding site at the entrance to the classical lipocalin ligand-binding pocket. Models of 5s- 12s- and 15s hydroperoxyeicosatetraenoic acids were created and the lipids found to wrap around Met93 thus …

Monotremes Provide A Key To Understanding The Evolutionary Significance Of Epididymal Sperm Maturation, Brett Nixon, Russell Jones, Jean-Louis Dacheux, Heath Ecroyd

Heath Ecroyd

"It has been widely accepted that mammalian spermatozoa are infertile when they leave the testes and require a period of maturation in both the epididymis and the female reproductive tract before acquiring the ability to fertilize an oocyte. However, the necessity for such a complex process of posttesticular sperm maturation appears to be unique to mammals because it is well established that these processes do not directly influence the fertilizing ability of the spermatozoa of birds, reptiles, and other lower vertebrates. Because of their key evolutionary position and form of reproduction, we contend that monotremes (platypus and echidna) provide a …

Binding Of The Molecular Chaperone Alphab-Crystallin To Abeta Amyloid Fibrils Inhibits Fibril Elongation, Sarah L. Shammas, Christopher A. Waudby, Shuyu Wang, Alexander K. Buell, Tuomas P. Knowles, Heath W. Ecroyd, Mark E. Welland, John A. Carver, Christopher M. Dobson, Sarah Meehan

Heath Ecroyd

The molecular chaperone αB-crystallin is a small heat-shock protein that is upregulated in response to a multitude of stress stimuli, and is found colocalized with Aβ amyloid fibrils in the extracellular plaques that are characteristic of Alzheimer's disease. We investigated whether this archetypical small heat-shock protein has the ability to interact with Aβ fibrils in vitro. We find that αB-crystallin binds to wild-type Aβ42 fibrils with micromolar affinity, and also binds to fibrils formed from the E22G Arctic mutation of Aβ42. Immunoelectron microscopy confirms that binding occurs along the entire length and ends of the fibrils. Investigations into the effect …

Nmr Spectroscopy Of 14-3-3zeta Reveals A Flexible C-Terminal Extension: Differentiation Of The Chaperone And Phosphoserine-Binding Activities Of 14-3-3zeta, H Fu, Danielle Williams, Heath Ecroyd, John Carver, Lixin Zhang, Huanqin Dai, Joanna Woodcock, K Goodwin

Heath Ecroyd

Intracellular 14-3-3 proteins bind to many proteins, via a specific phosphoserine motif, regulating diverse cellular tasks including cell signalling and disease progression. The 14-3-3 isoform is a molecular chaperone, preventing the stressinduced aggregation of target proteins in a manner comparable with that of the unrelated sHsps (small heat-shock proteins). 1H-NMR spectroscopy revealed the presence of a flexible and unstructured C-terminal extension, 12 amino acids in length, which protrudes from the domain core of 14-3-3 and is similar in structure and length to the C-terminal extension of mammalian sHsps. The extension stabilizes 14-3-3, but has no direct role in chaperone action. …

Enhanced Molecular Chaperone Activity Of The Small Heat-Shock Protein Alphab-Cystallin Following Covalent Immobilization Onto A Solid-Phase Support, V Bellotti, Heath Ecroyd, J Carver, H J Griesser, B Thierry, J G Shapter, S S Griesser, S Giorgetti, M R Nussio, J A Gerrard, J Garvey

Heath Ecroyd

The well-characterized small heat-shock protein, alphaB-crystallin, acts as a molecular chaperone by interacting with unfolding proteins to prevent their aggregation and precipitation. Structural perturbation (e.g., partial unfolding) enhances the in vitro chaperone activity of alphaB-crystallin. Proteins often undergo structural perturbations at the surface of a synthetic material, which may alter their biological activity. This study investigated the activity of alphaB-crystallin when covalently bound to a support surface; alphaB-crystallin was immobilized onto a range of solid material surfaces, and its characteristics and chaperone activity were assessed. Immobilization was achieved via a plasma-deposited thin polymeric interlayer containing aldehyde surface groups and reductive …

Nutrition Status Of Primary Care Patients With Depression And Anxiety, Adrienne K. Forsyth, Peter G. Williams, Frank P. Deane

Frank Deane

The objective of this study was to evaluate the nutrition status of people referred to a nutrition and physical activity program for the management of mental health in a general practice.

Predicting Dropout In The First 3 Months Of 12-Step Residential Drug And Alcohol Treatment In An Australian Sample, Frank P. Deane, David J. Wootton, Ching-I Hsu, Peter J. Kelly

Frank Deane

Objective: Premature termination from treatment is a major factor associated with poorer drug and alcohol treatment outcomes. The present study investigated client-related baseline predictors of dropout at 3 months from a faith-based 12-step residential drug treatment program. Method: Data were collected over a period of 14 months from eight residential drug and alcohol treatment programs run by The Australian Salvation Army. The final sample consisted of 618 participants, including 524 men (84.8%) and 94 women (15.2%). Predictor variables of interest were age, gender, primary drug of concern, criminal involvement, psychological distress, drug cravings, self-efficacy to abstain, spirituality, forgiveness of self …

Prevalence Of Smoking And Other Health Risk Factors In People Attending Residential Substance Abuse Treatment, Peter J. Kelly, Amanda L. Baker, Frank P. Deane, Frances Kay-Lambkin, Billie Bonevski, Jenna Tregarthen

Frank Deane

Introduction and Aims. People attending substance abuse treatment have an elevated risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer. Consequently, there have been increasing calls for substance abuse treatment services to address smoking.The current study examined smoking behaviours of people attending residential substance abuse treatment. Additionally, the study examined rates of other potentially modifiable health risk factors for the development of CVD and cancer. Design and Methods. A cross-sectional survey was completed by participants attending Australian Salvation Army residential substance abuse treatment services (n = 228). Rates of smoking, exercise, dietary fat intake, body mass index and depression were identified …

A Comparison Of Treatment Outcomes For Individuals With Substance Use Disorder Alone And Individuals With Probable Dual Diagnosis, Elizabeth K. Cridland, Frank P. Deane, Ching-I Hsu, Peter J. Kelly

Frank Deane

The co-occurrence of substance use and mental health problems, often referred to as dual diagnosis (DD), is increasingly recognised as commonplace within substance abuse treatment programs. Two-hundred and thirty-four individuals from 9 Australian Salvation Army drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs completed a 3-month post-discharge telephone follow-up. Using a cut-off score from the Psychiatric Subscale of the Addiction Severity Index (5th ed.), 66.7% were classified as likely to have DD and 33.3% as substance use disorder only (SUD). Both groups reported comparable and decreased substance use levels at follow-up, yet DD individuals perceived less improvement in substance use problems. Comparable improvements …