Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Ranking Habitat Patches By Contribution To Network Connectivity: Tradeoffs Between Processing Time And Spatial Realisation, B Cook, Marjetta L. Puotinen, Rittick Borah

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Biochemical Characteristics And Function Of A Fucosyltransferase Encoded By Ste7 In Ebosin Biosynthesis Of Streptomyces Sp. 139, Y Liu, Liping Bai, Jun-Jie Shan, Rong Jiang, Ren Zhang, Lian-Hong Guo, Chang Ming, Yang Zhang

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Dragon's Paradise Lost: Palaeobiogeography, Evolution And Extinction Of The Largest-Ever Terrestrial Lizards (Varanidae), Scott A. Hocknull, Michael J. Morwood, Rokus Awe, Gerrit D. Van Den Bergh, P Piper, I Kurniawan

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Background The largest living lizard species, Varanus komodoensis Ouwens 1912, is vulnerable to extinction, being restricted to a few isolated islands in eastern Indonesia, between Java and Australia, where it is the dominant terrestrial carnivore. Understanding how large-bodied varanids responded to past environmental change underpins long-term management of V. komodoensis populations. Methodology/Principal Findings We reconstruct the palaeobiogeography of Neogene giant varanids and identify a new (unnamed) species from the island of Timor. Our data reject the long-held perception that V. komodoensis became a giant because of insular evolution or as a specialist hunter of pygmy Stegodon. Phyletic giantism, coupled with …

Queer-Friendly Neighbourhoods: Interrogating Social Cohesion Across Sexual Difference In Two Australia Neighbourhoods, Andrew W. Gorman-Murray, Gordon R. Waitt

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Musical Work In A University Town: The Shifting Spaces And Practices Of Djs In Dunedin, Andrew Mcgregor, Christopher R. Gibson

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Increasing attention is being paid to how workers in the creative industries negotiate transitions from amateur to professional status and seek opportunities for work and spaces for expression that suit artistic desires. The settings have usually been large cities with populations that can support diverse and specialised audiences and subcultural scenes. In this paper, we discuss research where we participated in a music scene, and talked to dance music disc jockeys and venue owners in a small, regional university city - Dunedin. In Dunedin opportunities for musical work are comparatively plentiful but are constrained in a number of ways. Disc …

Ion-Molecule Reactions Of O,S-Dimethyl Methylphosphonothioate: Evidence For Intramolecular Sulfur Oxidation During Vx Perhydrolysis, Jilliarne Williams, Martin Paine, Stephen J. Blanksby, Michael L. Rogers, Andrew M. Mcanoy

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

The alkaline perhydrolysis of the nerve agent O-ethyl S-[2-(diisopropylamino)ethyl] methylphosphonothioate (VX) was investigated by studying the ion-molecule reactions of HOO- with O,S-dimethyl methylphosphonothioate in a modified linear ion-trap mass spectrometer. In addition to simple proton transfer, two other abundant product ions are observed at m/z 125 and 109 corresponding to the S-methyl methylphosphonothioate and methyl methylphosphonate anions, respectively. The structure of these product ions is demonstrated by a combination of collision-induced dissociation and isotope-labeling experiments that also provide evidence for their formation by nucleophilic reaction pathways, namely, (i) S(N)2 at carbon to yield the S-methyl methylphosphonothioate anion and (ii) nucleophilic …

Ion-Molecule Reactions Reveal Facile Radical Migration In Peptides, Stephen J. Blanksby, Benjamin N. Moore, Ryan R. Julian

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Ion-molecule reactions between molecular oxygen and peptide radicals in the gas phase demonstrate that radical migration occurs easily within large biomolecules without addition of collisional activation energy.

Prenylated Alkylbisphenols From Grevillea Whiteana, Stephen J. Blanksby, Hao Wang, Paul I. Forster, David N. Leach, Peter G. Waterman, Michael C. Thomas

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Eleven new bisresorcinols including four mixtures each of two isomers and one resorcinol/phloroglucinol derivative, together with five known resorcinols have been isolated from the ethyl acetate extract of sterns of Grevillea whiteana. The new Compounds were identified as 4-(3-hydroxy-3-methylbutyl)grebustol-B (10a), 4'-(3-hydroxy-3-methylbutyl)grebustol-B (10b), 4-(4-hydroxy-3-methylbutyl)grebustol-B (2a) and 4'-(4-hydroxy-3-methylbutyl) rebustol-B (2b), 2,2-dimethyldihydropyrano grebustol-B (11a) and iso-2,2-dimethyldihydropyranogrebustol-B (11b), 2,2-dimethyl-3 xi-hydroxydihydropyranogrebustol-B (7a) and iso-2,2-dimethyl-3 xi-hydroxydihydropyranogrebustol-B (7b), 15-(2-(4-hydroxy-3-methylbutyl)-resorcinol-5-yl)-1-(phloroglucinolyl )-9(Z)pentadecen-one (whiteanone) (4), 5,5'-(hexadecan-diyl)bisresorcinol (12) and 2-methyl-5,5'-(8(Z)hexadecen-1,16-diyl)bisresorcinol (9). This is the first record of pyranobisresorcinols in the genus and the first report of a phloroglucinol terminal Phenolic unit in any Grevillea species.

Planning At The Urban Periphery In Australia: Issues Relating To Private Residential Back And Front Yards, Andrew H. Kelly

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

This narrative focuses on three planning issues affecting the suburban residential periphery in Sydney, Australia: (i) amenity, (ii) biodiversity conservation and (iii) bushfire potential. All relate to private front and back yards, which provide key elements of the residential landscape. Embedded in the paper is the complexity of the planning system and the subsequent inconsistency between dealing with the three issues. Considerable attention is paid to local government and its changing legislative terrain. In particular, several local statutory planning instruments are investigated to illustrate this. The conclusion calls for further research while stressing more action is warranted within and outside …

Sepioloidea Magna Sp. Nov.: A New Bottletail Squid (Cephalopoda : Sepiadariidae) From Northern Australia, Amanda Reid

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Improved Performance Of Porphyrin-Based Dye Sensitised Solar Cells By Phosphinic Acid Surface Treatment, K Sunahara, Alessandra Allegrucci, S Mori, Naomi A. Lewcenko, Leone Spiccia, Attila J. Mozer, Lynn Dennany, Pawel W. Wagner, David L. Officer

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Chemical surface treatment of porphyrin-sensitised titania films using bis-(4-methoxyphenyl)phosphinic acid after dye adsorption, results in large improvements in DSSC efficiencies which originate primarily from higher short circuit currents. The result was attributed to a positive shift in the TiO2 quasi-Fermi level with simultaneous retardation of charge recombination. High device performances have been achieved even using simplified electrolyte matrices devoid of the common additives, LiI and t-butylpyridine.

Multiresonator-Based Chipless Rfid System For Low-Cost Item Tracking, Stevan Preradovic, Isaac Balbin, Nemai Karmakar, Gerhard F. Swiegers

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

A fully passive printable chipless RFID system is presented. The chipless tag uses the amplitude and phase of the spectral signature of a multiresonator circuit and provides I : 1 correspondence of data bits. The tag comprises of a microstrip spiral multiresonator and cross-polarized transmitting and receiving microstrip ultra-wideband disc loaded monopole antennas. The reader antenna is a log periodic dipole antenna with average 5.5-dBi gain. Firstly, a 6-bit chipless tag is designed to encode 000000 and 010101 IDs. Finally, a 35-bit chipless tag based on the same principle is presented. The tag has potentials for low-cost item tagging such …

Relative Importance Of Fuel Management, Ignition Management And Weather For Area Burned: Evidence From Five Landscape-Fire-Succession Models, Geoffrey J. Cary, Mike D. Flannigan, Robert E. Keane, Ross A. Bradstock, Ian D. Davies, James M. Lenihan, Chao Li, Kimberley A. Logan, Russell A. Parsons

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

The behaviour of five landscape fire models (CAFE, FIRESCAPE, LAMOS(HS), LANDSUM and SEM-LAND) was compared in a standardised modelling experiment. The importance of fuel management approach, fuel management effort, ignition management effort and weather in determining variation in area burned and number of edge pixels burned (a measure of potential impact on assets adjacent to fire-prone landscapes) was quantified for a standardised modelling landscape. Importance was measured as the proportion of variation in area or edge pixels burned explained by each factor and all interactions among them. Weather and ignition management were consistently more important for explaining variation in area …

Prediction Of The Probability Of Large Fires In The Sydney Region Of South-Eastern Australia Using Components Of Fire Weather., R A. Bradstock, J S. Cohn, A M. Gill, M Bedward, C Lucas

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

The probability of large-fire (>= 1000 ha) ignition days, in the Sydney region, was examined using historical records. Relative influences of the ambient and drought components of the Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI) on large fire ignition probability were explored using Bayesian logistic regression. The preferred models for two areas (Blue Mountains and Central Coast) were composed of the sum of FFDI (Drought Factor, DF = 1) (ambient component) and DF as predictors. Both drought and ambient weather positively affected the chance of large fire ignitions, with large fires more probable on the Central Coast than in the Blue …

Larval Settlement Preference Of A Native Bivalve: The Influence Of An Invasive Alga Versus Native Substrata, Paul E. Gribben, Jeffrey T. Wright, Wayne A. O'Connor, Peter Steinberg

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Recruitment patterns of marine invertebrates are strongly influenced by the habitat preference of larvae as larvae can choose to settle (or not) in response to positive or negative cues. High abundances of recruits of the native infaunal bivalve Anadara trapezia occur in the invasive alga Caulerpa taxifolia compared to native habitats. Using controlled laboratory experiments, A. trapezia larval habitat preference was investigated through exposure to available native (adult A. trapezia, Zostera capricorni and sediment from unvegetated areas) and invasive (C. taxifolia and sediments from C. taxifolia) substrata that co-occur in estuaries invaded by C. taxifolia in New South Wales, Australia. …

The Instrumental Period, Robert Bindschadler, Eberhard Fahrbach, Jim Fastook, Jaume Forcarda, Josep-Maria Gili, Nancy Bertler, D M. Bergstrom, Mauro Gugliemin, Julian Gutt, Hartmut Hellmer, F Hennion, Roberto Bargagli, Carlo Barbante, Karen Heywood, Dominic Hodgson, David Holland, Sungmin Hong, Angus Atkinson, Rob Arthern, Byron Adams, A H.L Huiskes, Steve Chown, Enrique Isla, Stan Jacobs, Anna Jones, David Bromwich, Claude Boutron, Josifino Comiso, Pete Convey, Alison Cook, Guido Di Prisco, James Bockheim, Mark Stevens, Colin Summerhayes, Phil Trathan, John A. Turner, Kees Van Der Veen, David Vaughan, Mike Meredith, Paul Mayewski, Gareth Marshall, Cinzia Verde, Andrew Lenton, Howard Roscoe, Sharon A. Robinson, Steve Rintoul, Hans-Otto Portner, Sergio Rossi, Ted Scambos, Jon Shanklin, Lloyd Peck, Nicholas Metzl, Andrew Monaghan, David Webb, Christian Wiencke, Covadonga Orejas, Philip Woodworth, Tony Worby, Roger Worland, Kevin K. Newsham, Alberto Naveira-Garabato, Takashi Yamanouchi, Victor Smetacek, Kevin Speer

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

The instrumental period began with the first voyages to the Southern Ocean during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries when scientists such as Edmund Halley made observations of quantities such as geomagnetism. During the early voyages information was collected on the meteorological conditions across the Southern Ocean, ocean conditions, the sea ice extent and the terrestrial and marine biology. The continent itself was discovered in 1820, although the collection of data was sporadic through the remainder of the Nineteenth Century and it was not possible to venture into the inhospitable interior of Antarctica. At the start of the Twentieth Century stations …

Book Reviews: Geographies Of Australian Heritages. Loving A Sunburnt Country? And Surface Collection, Lesley M. Head

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Hindgut Plasticity In Wallabies Fed Hay Either Unchopped Or Ground And Pelleted: Fiber Is Not The Only Factor, Adam J. Munn, Fiona Clissold, Esther Tarszisz, Kathleen Kimpton, Christopher R. Dickman, Ian D. Hume

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Phenotypic plasticity of the gastrointestinal tract is crucial for optimal food processing and nutrient balance in many vertebrate species. For mammalian herbivores, gut plasticity is typically correlated with the fiber content of forage; however, we show here that other factors such as ingesta particle size may effect profound phenotypic plasticity of the fermentative hind-gut in a medium-sized (10-kg body mass) marsupial herbivore, the red-necked wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus). When dietary fiber contents were comparable, red-necked wallabies that were fed a finely ground, pelleted hay for 60-72 d had hindguts that were some 28% heavier (empty wet mass) than those fed unchopped …

The Whole Rock Sm-Nd 'Age' For The 2825 Ma Ikkattoq Gneisses (Greenland) Is 800 Ma Too Young: Insights Into Archaean Ttg Petrogenesis, Clark R L Friend, Allen Phillip Nutman, Halfdan Baadsgaard, M John M Duke

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

The Ikkattoq gneisses of the Archaean gneiss complex in the Nuuk region, southern West Greenland, are the orthogneiss component within the amphibolite facies Tre Brodre terrane. They have mostly granodioritic compositions, with a small amount of quartz diorite. Sm-Nd isotopic data for a quartz diorite and five granodiorite Ikkattoq gneiss samples from within 5 km of the Ikkattoq (fjord) type locality yielded a regression with a slope equivalent to 2005 +/- 52 Ma (MSWD = 0.72). Regardless of the low MSWD, this cannot be the true age of the Ikkattoq gneisses, because all Ikkattoq gneisses yield U-Pb zircon dates of …

The Thioflavin T Fluorescence Assay For Amyloid Fibril Detection Can Be Biased By The Presence Of Exogenous Compounds, Sean A. Hudson, Heath Ecroyd, Tak W. Kee, John A. Carver

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Thioflavin T (ThT) dye fluorescence is used regularly to quantify the formation and inhibition of amyloid fibrils in the presence of anti-amyloidogenic compounds such as polyphenols. However, in this study, it was shown, using three polyphenolics (curcumin, quercetin and resveratrol), that ThT fluorescence should be used with caution in the presence of such exogenous compounds. The strong absorptive and fluorescent properties of quercetin and curcumin were found to significantly bias the ThT fluorescence readings in both in situ real-time ThT assays and single time-point dilution ThT-type assays. The presence of curcumin at concentrations as low as 0.01 and 1 uM …

Synthesis And Ph-Responsive Properties Of Pseudo-Peptide Containing Hydrophobic Amino Acid Grafts, Rongjun Chen, Mark E. Eccleston, Zhilian Yue, Nighel K. H Slater

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Pseudo-peptidic polymers have been synthesised by grafting l-valine (PV), l-leucine (PL) and l-phenylalanine (PP) onto the pendant carboxylic acid moieties of a pH-responsive polyamide, poly(l-lysine isophthalamide). The pH-responsive aqueous solution properties of PV-75, PL-75 and PP-75 with a stoichiometric degree of substitution of 75 mol% have been compared with those of the parent poly(l-lysine isophthalamide) using UV-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy. At low concentrations (≤0.1 mg mL-1), the grafted polymers displayed pH-dependent conformation. The pH at the onset of hydrophobic association (pHh) and the pH range over which association occurred varied significantly between the different amino acid grafts. The pHh values …

Long-Term Tropospheric Formaldehyde Concentrations Deduced From Ground-Based Fourier Transform Solar Infrared Measurements, N B. Jones, K Riedel, W Allan, S Wood, P I. Palmer, K Chance, J Notholt

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

We report a 13-year (1992–2005) dataset of total column measurements of formaldehyde (HCHO) over Lauder, New Zealand, inferred from solar infrared spectra measured using a high-resolution Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS). Ambient HCHO concentrations at this rural location are often close to levels typical of remote marine environments (<250 ppt), which are close to the detection limit using standard techniques. Consequently we develop a new method that successfully produces HCHO columns with sufficient sensitivity throughout the whole season. HCHO columns over Lauder have a strong seasonal cycle (±50%), with a mean column of 4.9×1015 molecules cm−2, peaking during summer months. A simple box model of CH4 oxidation reproduces the observed broad-scale seasonal cycle, but significantly underestimates the seasonal peak HCHO ground concentrations during summer. This suggests the existence of an additional significant source of HCHO, possibly isoprene that cannot be explained by oxidation of CH4 alone. The ground-based FTS column data compare well with collocated HCHO column measurements from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) satellite instrument during the operational period of GOME (1996–2001, r2=0.65, mean bias=10%, n=48).

Data Report: Clast Counts And Petrography Of Gravels From Site C0007, Iodp Expedition 316, Nankai Trough, Christopher L. Fergusson

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Gravel beds drilled during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 316 at Site C0007 in the eastern Nankai Trough, ~100km offshore from the Kii Peninsula of Honshu, southwest Japan, have been investigated using 26 samples from two horizons (Cores 316-C0007C/C-17H and 316-C0007D-12R). The gravel from Core 316-C0007c-17H is from a 1.7m thick layer, whereas the gravel from Core 316-C0007D-12R is from a layer 4.55m thick. The upper parts of both layers are normally graded. The gravel is clast-supported, polymictic, of granule to pebble size, moderately to poorly sorted, and with subrounded to angular fragments. Clast types are similar from both cores …

Stable Isotope Metabolic Labeling With A Novel 15n-Enriched Bacteria Diet For Improved Proteomic Analyses Of Mouse Models For Psychopathologies, Yinglong Zhang, Elisabeth T. Frank, B. Hambsch, C. W. Turck, M. Bunck, R. Landgraf, M. S. Kessler, G. Maccarrone, M. Filiou, Hermann Heumann, Stefan Reckow

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

The identification of differentially regulated proteins in animal models of psychiatric diseases is essential for a comprehensive analysis of associated psychopathological processes. Mass spectrometry is the most relevant method for analyzing differences in protein expression of tissue and body fluid proteomes. However, standardization of sample handling and sample-to-sample variability are problematic. Stable isotope metabolic labeling of a proteome represents the gold standard for quantitative mass spectrometry analysis. The simultaneous processing of a mixture of labeled and unlabeled samples allows a sensitive and accurate comparative analysis between the respective proteomes. Here, we describe a cost-effective feeding protocol based on a newly …

Aboriginal Settlement During The Lgm At Brockman, Pilbara Region, Western Australia, Michael Slack, Melanie Fillios, Richard L. Fullagar

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

This paper describes the results and implications of recent excavations on the Hamersley Iron Brockman 4 tenement, near Torn Price, Western Australia. Results concentrate on two rock shelters with Aboriginal occupation starting at least 32,000 years ago and extending throughout the Last Glacial period. Preliminary observations are proposed concerning the nature of Aboriginal foraging patterns as displayed in the flaked stone and faunal records for the Brockman region.

Desiccation Protects Antarctic Mosses From Ultraviolet-B Induced Dna Damage, Johanna Turnbull, Sharon A. Robinson, Simon J. Leslie

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Antarctic mosses live in a frozen desert, and are characterised by the ability to survive desiccation. They can tolerate multiple desiccation-rehydration events over the summer growing season. As a result of recent ozone depletion, such mosses may also be exposed to ultraviolet-B radiation while desiccated. The ultraviolet-B susceptibility of Antarctic moss species was examined in a laboratory experiment that tested whether desiccated or hydrated mosses accumulated more DNA damage under enhanced ultraviolet-B radiation. Accumulation of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers and pyrimidine (64) pyrimidone dimers was measured in moss samples collected from the field and then exposed to ultraviolet-B radiation in either …

Generalization Of Acid Properties, Brahim Medjahed, Mourad Ouzzani, Ahmed Elmagarmid

Cyber Center Publications

ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability) is a set of properties that guarantee the reliability of database transactions [2]. ACID properties were initially developed with traditional, business-oriented applications (e.g., banking) in mind. Hence, they do not fully support the functional and performance requirements of advanced database applications such as computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing, office automation, network management, multidatabases, and mobile databases. For instance, transactions in computer-aided design applications are generally of long duration and preserving the traditional ACID properties in such transactions would require locking resources for long periods of time. This has lead to the generalization of ACID properties …

Beyond K-Anonymity: A Decision Theoretic Framework For Assessing Privacy Risk, Guy Lebanon, Monica Scannapieco, Mohamed Fouad, Elisa Bertino

Cyber Center Publications

An important issue any organization or individual has to face when managing data containing sensitive information, is the risk that can be incurred when releasing such data. Even though data may be sanitized before being released, it is still possible for an adversary to reconstruct the original data using additional information thus resulting in privacy violations. To date, however, a systematic approach to quantify such risks is not available. In this paper we develop a framework, based on statistical decision theory, that assesses the relationship between the disclosed data and the resulting privacy risk. We model the problem of deciding …

Query Mesh: Multiroute, Rimma Nehme, Karen Works, Elke Rundensteiner, Elisa Bertino

Cyber Center Publications

We propose to demonstrate a practical alternative approach to the current state-of-the-art query processing techniques, called the “Query Mesh” (or QM, for short). The main idea of QM is to compute multiple routes (i.e., query plans)1, each designed for a particular subset of data with distinct statistical properties. Based on the execution routes and the data characteristics, a classifier model is induced and is used to partition new data tuples to assign the best routes for their processing. We propose to demonstrate the QM framework in the streaming context using our demo application, called the “Ubi-City”. We will illustrate the …

Protein-Protein Docking Using Region-Based 3d Zernike Descriptors., Vishwesh Venkatraman, Yifeng D. Yang, Lee Sael, Daisuke Kihara

Department of Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

Protein-protein interactions are a pivotal component of many biological processes and mediate a variety of functions. Knowing the tertiary structure of a protein complex is therefore essential for understanding the interaction mechanism. However, experimental techniques to solve the structure of the complex are often found to be difficult. To this end, computational protein-protein docking approaches can provide a useful alternative to address this issue. Prediction of docking conformations relies on methods that effectively capture shape features of the participating proteins while giving due consideration to conformational changes that may occur.

Results

We present a novel protein docking algorithm based …