Digital Commons Network^™

Chemical Constituents Of Walsura Pinnata Hassk / Mahfuzah Yusoff, Mahfuzah Yusoff

Student Works (2010-2019)

The chromatographic separation of the n-hexane extract from the stem bark of Walsura pinnata Hassk (Meliaceae) which was collected at Kuala Lipis, Pahang, led to the isolation of nine chemical constituents. Their structures were characterized to be ledol (115), oplopanone (116), betulonic acid (117), oleanonic acid (118), 3-oxoolean-11-en- 13β(28)-olide (119), 12α-hydroxy-3-oxooleanano-28,13-lactone (120), 3-oxoursolic acid (121), 3-ketours-11-en-13β(28)-olide (122), 3β-hydroxy-5-glutinen-28-oic acid (123). The structural elucidation of these compounds was determined by spectroscopic data interpretation. Betulonic acid (117) and 3β-hydroxy-5-glutinen-28-oic acid (123) were found to be cytotoxic against a series of human cancer cell lines with an IC50 = 19 μM, 18 μM …

Synthesis, Characterization And Fluorescence Studies Of Copper Complexes Of Selected Pyrazine And Quinoxaline Derivatives / Wan Ainna Mardhiah Wan Saffiee, Wan Ainna Mardhiah Wan Saffiee

Student Works (2010-2019)

No abstract provided.

Expanding Protective Order Coverage., Kellie K. Player

St. Mary's Law Journal

The Texas legislature should eliminate the relationship requirement for a protective order. Although the Texas legislature passed the Kristy Appleby Act, which expanded the definition of dating violence, some victims of domestic violence may still be unable to qualify for a protective order. Specifically, some third-party individuals in a love triangle may not be eligible to receive a protective order. In Texas, a potential or current victim of domestic abuse needs to demonstrate a relationship with the perpetrator. Despite the broadened definition of relationship, some potential victims may still be unable to meet this burden. If the person cannot, they …

Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering Of Methyl Chloride At The Chlorine K Edge, L. El Khoury, Loic Journel, Renaud Guillemin, Stephane Carniato, Wayne C. Stolte, T. Marin, Dennis W. Lindle, Marc Simon

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Research

We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of isolated CH3Cl molecules using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS). The high-resolution spectra allow extraction of information about nuclear dynamics in the core-excited molecule. Polarization-resolved RIXS spectra exhibit linear dichroism in the spin-orbit intensities, a result interpreted as due to chemical environment and singlet-triplet exchange in the molecular core levels. From analysis of the polarization-resolved data, Cl 2px, y and 2pz electronic populations can be determined.

Thomson-Resonant Interference Effects In Elastic X-Ray Scattering Near The Cl K Edge Of Hcl, Stephane Carniato, P. Selles, Loic Journel, Renaud Guillemin, Wayne C. Stolte, L. El Khoury, T. Marin, Faris Gel'mukhanov, Dennis W. Lindle, Marc Simon

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Research

We experimentally observed interference effects in elastic x-ray scattering from gas-phase HCl in the vicinity of the Cl K edge. Comparison to theory identifies these effects as interference effects between non-resonant elastic Thomson scattering and resonant Raman scattering. The results indicate the non-resonant Thomson and resonant Raman contributions are of comparable strength. The measurements also exhibit strong polarization dependence, allowing an easy identification of the resonant and non-resonant contributions.

The Judicial Assault On The Clean Water Act, Mark Squillace

Publications

No abstract provided.

Planetarian Identity Formation And The Relocalization Of Environmental Law, Sarah Krakoff

Publications

Local food, local work, local energy production--all are hallmarks of a resurgence of localism throughout contemporary environmental thought and action. The renaissance of localism might be seen as a retreat from the world's global environmental problems. This Article maintains, however, that some forms of localism are actually expressions, appropriate ones, of a planetary environmental consciousness. This Article's centerpiece is an in-depth evaluation of local climate action initiatives, including interviews with participants, as well as other data and observations about their ethics, attitudes, behaviors, and motivations. The values and identities being forged in these initiatives form the basis for timely conceptions …

A "Neo-Feminist" Assessment Of Rape And Domestic Violence Law Reform, Aya Gruber

Publications

No abstract provided.

Statins In Unconventional Secretion Of Insulin-Degrading Enzyme And Degradation Of The Amyloid-Β Peptide, K Glebov, J Walter

Peninsula Medical School

Population-based studies demonstrated that statins might decrease the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Statins inhibit the 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme-A reductase and thereby de novo synthesis of cholesterol. Cell culture and animal studies indicated that cholesterol affects the proteolytic processing of the amyloid precursor protein and the generation of amyloid-β (Aβ). Recently, we have demonstrated that statins can also stimulate the degradation of Aβ. The statin-induced clearance of Aβ could be attributed to increased release of the insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) via an exosome-related unconventional secretory pathway. Interestingly, this statin-induced secretion of exosome-associated IDE was independent of cellular cholesterol concentrations, but rather caused …

Development Of High-Yielding Sweetgum Plantation Systems For Bioenergy Production In The Southeastern United States, Donald J. Kaczmarek, Brian C. Wachelka, Jeff Wright, Victor C. Steel, Doug P. Aubrey, David R. Coyle, Mark D. Coleman

Biology: Faculty Presentations

No abstract provided.

On The Evolutionary Co-Adaptation Of Morphology And Distributed Neural Controllers In Adaptive Agents, Mariagiovanna Mazzapioda

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

The attempt to evolve complete embodied and situated artificial creatures in which both morphological and control characteristics are adapted during the evolutionary process has been and still represents a long term goal key for the artificial life and the evolutionary robotics community. Loosely inspired by ancient biological organisms which are not provided with a central nervous system and by simple organisms such as stick insects, this thesis proposes a new genotype encoding which allows development and evolution of mor- phology and neural controller in artificial agents provided with a distributed neural network. In order to understand if this kind of …

Evolution Of Grasping Behaviour In Anthropomorphic Robotic Arms With Embodied Neural Controllers, Gianluca Massera

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

The works reported in this thesis focus upon synthesising neural controllers for anthropomorphic robots that are able to manipulate objects through an automatic design process based on artificial evolution. The use of Evolutionary Robotics makes it possible to reduce the characteristics and parameters specified by the designer to a minimum, and the robot’s skills evolve as it interacts with the environment. The primary objective of these experiments is to investigate whether neural controllers that are regulating the state of the motors on the basis of the current and previously experienced sensors (i.e. without relying on an inverse model) can enable …

The International Effort: Building The Bridge For Translational Medicine: Report Of The 1st International Conference Of Translational Medicine (Ictm), Xiaoming Chen, Roland Andersson, William Cs Cho, David Christiani, Richard Coico, Jeffery Drazen, Markus Ege, Thomas Fehniger, Hongwei Gao, Kunlin Jin, Michael N. Liebman, Elena Lopez, Giuseppe Marraro, Gyorgy Marko-Varga, Francesco M. Marincola, Laurentiu M. Popescu, Claudio Spada, Aamir Shahzad, Ena Wang, Wei Wang, Xiangdong Wang, Yong-Xiao Wang, Jinglin Xia, Jia Qu

Research outputs 2012

Background : Supported by the International Society for Translational Medicine (ISTM), Wenzhou Medical College and the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, the International Conference on Translational Medicine (ICTM) was held on October 22–23, 2011 in Wenzhou, China. Nearly 800 registrants attended the meeting, primarily representing institutes and hospitals in Europe, The United States of America, And Asia, and China. The meeting was chaired and organized by Dr. Xiangdong Wang, Xiaoming Chen, Richard Coico, Jeffrey M. Drazen, Richard Horton, Francesco M. Marincola, Laurentiu M. Popescu, Jia Qu and Aamir Shahzad.

Findings : The meeting focused on the communication of …

Inhibition Of Protein Translocation At The Endoplasmic Reticulum Promotes Activation Of The Unfolded Protein Response, Craig Mckibbin, Alina Mares, Michela Piacenti, Helen Williams, Peristera Roboti, Marjo Puumalainen, Anna Callan, Karolina Lesiak-Mieczkowska, Stig Linder, Hanna Harant, Stephen High, Sabine Flitsch, Roger Whitehead, Eileithyia Swanton

Research outputs 2012

Selective small-molecule inhibitors represent powerful tools for the dissection of complex biological processes. ESI (eeyarestatin I) is a novel modulator of ER (endoplasmic reticulum) function. In the present study, we show that in addition to acutely inhibiting ERAD (ER-associated degradation), ESI causes production of mislocalized polypeptides that are ubiquitinated and degraded. Unexpectedly, our results suggest that these non-translocated polypeptides promote activation of the UPR (unfolded protein response), and indeed we can recapitulate UPR activation with an alternative and quite distinct inhibitor of ER translocation. These results suggest that the accumulation of non-translocated proteins in the cytosol may represent a novel …

Narrative Environmental Ethics, Nature Writing, And Ecological Science As Tradition: Towards A Sponsoring Ground Of Concern, John Ryan

Research outputs 2012

Over the last 30 years, environmental philosophers and ecological researchers have turned their attention to the possibilities of narratives: the stories people tell about their lives in conjunction with the human and non-human agents they live with. An interest in narrative environmental ethics reflects a re-evaluation of canonical ecophilosophical texts. Works such as Paul W. Taylor’s Respect for Nature suggest an essentialist view of environmental ethics in which predetermined principles are imposed on places and situations. On the other hand, Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac combines first-person prose with science-based explanations of the “biotic pyramid” towards the development of …

On The Effectiveness Of Intrusions Into Zigbee-Based Wireless Sensor Networks, Michael Johnstone, Jeremy Jarvis

Research outputs 2012

Wireless Sensor Networks are becoming popular as a means of collecting data by military organisations, public utilities, motor vehicle manufacturers and security firms. Unfortunately, the devices on such networks are often insecure by default, which creates problems in terms of the confidentiality and integrity of data transmitted across such networks. This paper discusses attacks that were successful on a simple network consisting of nodes using the ZigBee protocol stack and proposes defences to thwart these attacks, thus leading to increased user confidence in the ability of organisations to provide secure and effective services. The outcomes were that it was possible …

A Review Of Bennelongia De Deckker & Mckenzie, 1981(Crustacea, Ostracoda) Species From Eastern Australia With The Description Of Three New Species, Rylan Shearn, Annette Koenders, Stuart Halse, Isa Schoen, Koen Martens

Research outputs 2012

Australia is predicted to have a high number of currently undescribed ostracod taxa. The genus Bennelongia De Deckker & McKenzie, 1981 (Crustacea, Ostracoda) occurs in Australia and New Zealand, and has recently shown potential for high speciosity, after the description of nine new species from Western Australia. Here, we focus on Bennelongia from eastern Australia, with the objectives of exploring likely habitats for undiscovered species, genetically characterising published morphological species and scanning classical species for cryptic diversity. Two traditional (morphological) species are confirmed to be valid using molecular evidence (B. harpago De Deckker & McKenzie, 1981 and B. pinpi De …

Genome Sequence Of Strain Himb624, A Cultured Representative From The Om43 Clade Of Marine Betaproteobacteria, Megan Huggett, Darren Hayakawa, Michael Rappe

Research outputs 2012

Strain HIMB624 is a planktonic marine bacterium within the family Methylophilaceae of the class Betaproteobacteria isolated from coastal seawater of Oahu, Hawaii. This strain is of interest because it is one of few known isolates from an abundant clade of Betaproteobacteria found in cultivation-independent studies of coastal seawater and freshwater environments around the globe, known as OM43. Here we describe some preliminary features of the organism, draft genome sequence and annotation, and comparative genomic analysis with one other sequenced member of this clade (strain HTCC2181). The 1,333,209 bp genome of strain HIMB624 is arranged in a single scaffold containing four …

Which To Become? Encountering Fungi In Australian Poetry, John Ryan

Research outputs 2012

As a largely unexplored group of organisms, fungi are ecologically complex members of the Australian biota. Fungi represent non-human alterity and interstitiality-neither animal not plant, beautiful yet evanescent, slimy and lethal, and eliding scientific categorisations. Donna Haraway's notion of "companion species" and Anna Tsing's "arts of inclusion" remind us that sensory entanglements are intrinsic to human-fungi relations. Drawing conceptually from Haraway and Tsing, this paper will examine examples of poetry from John Shaw Neilson, Jan Owen, Douglas Stewart, Geoffrey Dutton, Caroline Caddy, Michael Dransfield, Philip Hodgins, Jaime Grant and John Kinsella that represent sensory involvements with fungi based in smell, …

Low-Cost Educational Optical Coherence Tomography System For Thickness Measurmentstomography System For Thickness Measurments, Joshua Barr, Paul V. Jansz, Steven Hinckley, Graham Wild

Research outputs 2012

We have developed an inexpensive rudimentary low coherence interferometer that can be used to measure sample thickness in the micron to mm range, and for exploring educational aspects of interferometry and optical coherence tomography.

Low Coherence Interferometry Modelling Using Combined Broadband Gaussian Light Sources, Paul Jansz, Graham Wild, Steven Richardson, Steven Hinckley

Research outputs 2012

Using a Low Coherence Interferometry (LCI) model, a comparison of broadband single-Gaussian and multi-Gaussian light sources has been undertaken. For single-Gaussian sources, the axial resolution improved with source bandwidth, confirming the coherence length relation that resolution for single Gaussian sources improves with increasing spectral bandwidth. However, narrow bandwidth light sources resulted in interferograms with overlapping strata peaks and the loss of individual strata information. For multiple-Gaussian sources with the same bandwidth, spectral side lobes increased, reducing A-scan reliability to show accurate layer information without eliminating the side lobes. The simulations show the conditions needed for resolution of strata information for …

Streamlining And Core Genome Conservation Among Highly Divergent Members Of The Sar11 Clade, Jana Grote, Cameron Thrash, Megan Huggett, Zachary Landry, Paul Carini, Stephen Giovannoni, Michael Rappe

Research outputs 2012

SAR11 is an ancient and diverse clade of heterotrophic bacteria that are abundant throughout the world’s oceans, where they play a major role in the ocean carbon cycle. Correlations between the phylogenetic branching order and spatiotemporal patterns in cell distributions from planktonic ocean environments indicate that SAR11 has evolved into perhaps a dozen or more specialized ecotypes that span evolutionary distances equivalent to a bacterial order. We isolated and sequenced genomes from diverse SAR11 cultures that represent three major lineages and encompass the full breadth of the clade. The new data expand observations about genome evolution and gene content that …

Chronic Low Back Pain Is Associated With Reduced Vertebral Bone Mineral Measures In Community-Dwelling Adults, Andrew Briggs, Leon Straker, Angus Burnett, John Wark

Research outputs 2012

Background: Chronic low back pain (CLBP) experienced in middle-age may have important implications for vertebral bone health, although this issue has not been investigated as a primary aim previously. This study investigated the associations between CLBP and dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA)-derived vertebral bone mineral measures acquired from postero-anterior and lateral-projections, among community-dwelling, middle-aged adults. Methods. Twenty-nine adults with CLBP (11 male, 18 female) and 42 adults with no history of LBP in the preceding year (17 male, 25 female) were evaluated. Self-reported demographic and clinical data were collected via questionnaires. Areal bone mineral density (aBMD) was measured in the …

Evaluating The Psychometric Properties Of The Attitudes Towards Depression And Its Treatments Scale In An Australian Sample, Fadia Isaac, Kenneth Greenwood, Mirella Di Benedetto

Research outputs 2012

Background: Individuals’ attitudes towards depression and its treatments may influence their likelihood of seeking professional help and adherence to treatment when depressed. Objective measures, such as the Attitudes Towards Depression and its Treatments scale (ATDT), have been developed to assess such attitudes. The aims of this research were to test the reliability and validity of ATDT on an Australian sample who were not depressed during the study or who had previously been depressed, to explore the attitudes of the Australian public towards depression, and to compare these attitudes to those of a Canadian sample of people with depression. Methods: A …

Passive Flora? Reconsidering Nature's Agency Through Human-Plant Studies (Hps), John Ryan

Research outputs 2012

Plants have been—and, for reasons of human sustenance and creative inspiration, will continue to be—centrally important to societies globally. Yet, plants—including herbs, shrubs, and trees—are commonly characterized in Western thought as passive, sessile, and silent automatons lacking a brain, as accessories or backdrops to human affairs. Paradoxically, the qualities considered absent in plants are those employed by biologists to argue for intelligence in animals. Yet an emerging body of research in the sciences and humanities challenges animal-centred biases in determining consciousness, intelligence, volition, and complex communication capacities amongst living beings. In light of recent theoretical developments in our understandings of …

Olfactory Discrimination Predicts Cognitive Decline Amongst Community-Dwelling Older Adults, Hamid Sohrabi, Kristyn Bates, Michael Weinborn, Anb Johnston, A Bahramian, Kevin Taddei, Simon Laws, Mark Rodrigues, Michael Morici, Matthew Howard, Georgia Martins, A Mackay-Sim, Se Gandy, Ralph Martins

Research outputs 2012

The presence of olfactory dysfunction in individuals at higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease has significant diagnostic and screening implications for preventive and ameliorative drug trials. Olfactory threshold, discrimination and identification can be reliably recorded in the early stages of neurodegenerative diseases. The current study has examined the ability of various olfactory functions in predicting cognitive decline in a community-dwelling sample. A group of 308 participants, aged 46–86 years old, were recruited for this study. After 3 years of follow-up, participants were divided into cognitively declined and non-declined groups based on their performance on a neuropsychological battery. Assessment of olfactory functions …

Adherence To A Mediterranean Diet And Alzheimer's Disease Risk In An Australian Population, Samantha Gardener, Y Gu, Stephanie Rainey-Smith, J B Keogh, P M Clifton, S L Mathieson, Kevin Taddei, Alinda Mondal, Vanessa Ward, N Scarmeas, M Barnes, K Ellis, R Head, C 0 Masters, D Ames, S 0 Macaulay, C 0 Rowe, C Szoeke, Ralph Martins

Research outputs 2012

The Mediterranean diet (MeDi), due to its correlation with a low morbidity and mortality for many chronic diseases, has been widely recognised as a healthy eating model. We aimed to investigate, in a cross-sectional study, the association between adherence to a MeDi and risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in a large, elderly, Australian cohort. Subjects in the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Study of Ageing cohort (723 healthy controls (HC), 98 MCI and 149 AD participants) completed the Cancer Council of Victoria Food Frequency Questionnaire. Adherence to the MeDi (0- to 9-point scale with higher …

Fabry-Perot-Based Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensors, Feng Xiao, Guangyuan Li, Kamal Alameh, Anshi Xu

Research outputs 2012

A new sensing approach based on the use of an optical Fabry-Pérot (FP) cavity in conjunction with surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is proposed and theoretically investigated. The impact of the SPR on the intensity and phase response of the proposed sensor structure is evaluated using a modified FP model that takes into account the SPR effect. Compared to the conventional optical-phase-detection-based Kretschmann configuration, the proposed sensing approach requires only the measurement of the output power spectrum over a narrow wavelength span of several nanometers to evaluate the phase responses of the sensor, making it more attractive for practical high-sensitivity sensing …

Visual Saliency Based On Fast Nonparametric Multidimensional Entropy Estimation, A. C. Ngo, G. Qiu, G. Underwood, Li-Minn Ang, K. P. Seng

Research outputs 2012

Bottom-up visual saliency can be computed through information theoretic models but existing methods face significant computational challenges. Whilst nonparametric methods suffer from the curse of dimensionality problem and are computationally expensive, parametric approaches have the difficulty of determining the shape parameters of the distribution models. This paper makes two contributions to information theoretic based visual saliency models. First, we formulate visual saliency as center surround conditional entropy which gives a direct and intuitive interpretation of the center surround mechanism under the information theoretic framework. Second, and more importantly, we introduce a fast nonparametric multidimensional entropy estimation solution to make information …

Development And Promotion In Translational Medicine: Perspectives From 2012 Sino-American Symposium On Clinical And Translational Medicine, Mengjia Qian, Duojiao Wu, Ena Wang, Francesco Marincola, Wei Wang, William Rhodes, Michael Liebman, Chunxue Bai, Ching-Wan Lam, Gyorgy Marko-Varga, Thomas Fehniger, Roland Andersson, Xiangdong Wang

Research outputs 2012

Background Clinical translational medicine (CTM) is an emerging area comprising multidisciplinary research from basic science to medical applications and entails a close collaboration among hospital, academia and industry. Findings This Session focused discussing on new models for project development and promotion in translational medicine. The conference stimulated the scientific and commercial communication of project development between academies and companies, shared the advanced knowledge and expertise of clinical applications, and created the environment for collaborations. Conclusions Although strategic collaborations between corporate and academic institutions have resulted in a state of resurgence in the market, new cooperation models still need time to …