19683 research outputs found
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Four Poems by Chen Metak གཅན་མེ་སྟག
No full textA selection of Tibetan poetry by Chen Metak translated into English by Kunbzang and Ruth Gamble.</p
New and Emerging Grapevine Viruses in Australia and their Control Measures
No full textA thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Applied Systems Biology, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.This thesis was a recipient of the Nancy Millis Award for theses of exceptional merit.</p
Understanding the Substitute Decision-Making Process and Practice of New South Wales Public Guardians in the Context of Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
No full textA thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Living with Disability Research Centre, School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.This thesis was a recipient of the Nancy Millis Award for theses of exceptional merit.</p
An Investigation of Cognitive Compensation and the Nature of Disability in Autism During Early Development
No full textA thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.</p
Exploring Genetic Solutions to Minimise Enteric Methane Emissions via Feeding Behaviour Traits and Rumen Microbiome
No full textA thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Applied Systems Biology, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.This thesis was a recipient of the Nancy Millis Award for theses of exceptional merit.</p
Point of Care Testing for Equine Diseases
No full textA Thesis Submitted in Total Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.</p
Automated Systems Control for In-Vacuo Liquid Jet Sample Delivery
No full textA thesis submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.</p
Kinship care in the welfare system: The lived experience and the case for reform
No full textAcross the globe the customary practice of kinship care; family and friends caring for children unable to live with their parents, has become increasingly important as a government-sanctioned response to child protection concerns. This hybrid of public and private care (known in Australia as formal or statutory kinship care, and in the UK and USA as kinship foster care) has in many countries displaced non-related foster care as the preferred alternative care arrangement for children. With increasing use, this has proved problematic, with reports of unequal treatment, carer hardship, and worker confusion; especially concerning given the disadvantage of carers and their young kin. Research and policy development has been slow and restricted in its focus, with the views and experiences of stakeholders under-represented, leaving the practice field and service users inadequately supported. A recent study from Victoria, Australia aimed to bring forward the voices of stakeholders in scoping the operation of formal kinship care in 17 non-government kinship support programs. Taking a critical approach, the research drew on theoretical, empirical, and experiential evidence, and applied mixed methods, collaborative and participatory processes, and an ethical and ecological lens. Findings were based on a survey (n = 93), focus groups (n = 42), and interviews (n = 7), with carers, young careleavers, and workers, and data was analysed for themes and content. The research interrogated key elements of formal kinship care: its nature; the government’s engagement with carers; standards of care; the carer’s role and good care; the worker’s role and good practice. Findings highlight the complexity and distinctiveness of formal kinship care, not addressed in policy or practice, and resulting in worker confusion, unmet support needs, and compounded disadvantage for carers and their young kin. System elements identified as obstructing good care and practice include inadequate resourcing, paradigm conflict, confusion of imperatives, and misdirecting assumptions about family care. The study substantiates the pertinence of stakeholders’ views and experiences, and provides a basis and imperative for reform.</p
Empirical versus estimated accuracy of imputation: optimising filtering thresholds for sequence imputation
No full textBackground: Genotype imputation is a cost-effective method for obtaining sequence genotypes for downstream analyses such as genome-wide association studies (GWAS). However, low imputation accuracy can increase the risk of false positives, so it is important to pre-filter data or at least assess the potential limitations due to imputation accuracy. In this study, we benchmarked three different imputation programs (Beagle 5.2, Minimac4 and IMPUTE5) and compared the empirical accuracy of imputation with the software estimated accuracy of imputation (Rsqsoft). We also tested the accuracy of imputation in cattle for autosomal and X chromosomes, SNP and INDEL, when imputing from either low-density or high-density genotypes. Results: The accuracy of imputing sequence variants from real high-density genotypes was higher than from low-density genotypes. In our software benchmark, all programs performed well with only minor differences in accuracy. While there was a close relationship between empirical imputation accuracy and the imputation Rsqsoft, this differed considerably for Minimac4 compared to Beagle 5.2 and IMPUTE5. We found that the Rsqsoft threshold for removing poorly imputed variants must be customised according to the software and this should be accounted for when merging data from multiple studies, such as in meta-GWAS studies. We also found that imposing an Rsqsoft filter has a positive impact on genomic regions with poor imputation accuracy due to large segmental duplications that are susceptible to error-prone alignment. Overall, our results showed that on average the imputation accuracy for INDEL was approximately 6% lower than SNP for all software programs. Importantly, the imputation accuracy for the non-PAR (non-Pseudo-Autosomal Region) of the X chromosome was comparable to autosomal imputation accuracy, while for the PAR it was substantially lower, particularly when starting from low-density genotypes. Conclusions: This study provides an empirically derived approach to apply customised software-specific Rsqsoft thresholds for downstream analyses of imputed variants, such as needed for a meta-GWAS. The very poor empirical imputation accuracy for variants on the PAR when starting from low density genotypes demonstrates that this region should be imputed starting from a higher density of real genotypes.</p
Does AMPK bind glycogen in skeletal muscle or is the relationship correlative?
No full textSince its discovery over five decades ago, an emphasis on better understanding the structure and functional role of AMPK has been prevalent. In that time, the role of AMPK as a heterotrimeric enzyme that senses the energy state of various cell types has been established. Skeletal muscle is a dynamic, plastic tissue that adapts to both functional and metabolic demands of the human body, such as muscle contraction or exercise. With a deliberate focus on AMPK in skeletal muscle, this review places a physiological lens to the association of AMPK and glycogen that has been established biochemically. It discusses that, to date, no in vivo association of AMPK with glycogen has been shown and this is not altered with interventions, either by physiological or biochemical utilisation of glycogen in skeletal muscle. The reason for this is likely due to the persistent phosphorylation of Thr148 in the β-subunit of AMPK which prevents AMPK from binding to carbohydrate domains. This review presents the correlative data that suggests AMPK senses glycogen utilisation through a direct interaction with glycogen, the biochemical data showing that AMPK can bind carbohydrate in vitro, and highlights that in a physiological setting of rodent skeletal muscle, AMPK does not directly bind to glycogen.</p