What's On at UWA

Three correlational studies investigated implications associated with explicit-implicit sexual orientation ambivalence for information processing and psychological well-being in samples of straight and gay individuals.

Across the studies, 243 straight participants completed explicit and implicit measures of sexual orientation; in one of these studies, 48 gay participants completed the same measures. Within individual studies, participants also completed measures of self-esteem.

When considering the effects of ambivalence between self-reported and indirectly measured sexual orientation (SO), among straight participants explicit-implicit SO ambivalence was positively associated with time spent deliberating questions on sexual preferences; an effect moderated by the direction of ambivalence. In an attempt to explain this effect, in our third study, straight participants read ambivalence-relevant arguments that were either strong or weak in quality. In line with the effect found previously, the amount of explicit-implicit SO ambivalence positively related to post-message cognitive responses after reading strong but not weak arguments. This effect was also found to be moderated by the direction of ambivalence.

For gay participants, individual differences in explicit-implicit SO ambivalence tended to influence time deliberating sexuality. In addition, explicit-implicit ambivalence in sexual orientation attitudes among gay individuals, but not straight individuals, was related to self-esteem in addition to defensive self-esteem.

Our findings demonstrate the information processing consequences of explicit-implicit ambivalence in both straight and gay individuals when considering an attitude object that has considerable personal relevance. Furthermore, our results highlight that explicit-implicit ambivalence in sexual orientation attitudes may be an important antecedence of psychological well-being in gay-individuals.

The Seminar: Chris will present an overview from a biomedical and agricultural perspective of studies done in his lab on the growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor 1 and myostatin, which form part of a common axis (GH/IGF-1/Mstn) that regulates growth, maintenance and aging of the body. Knowing that IGF-1 stimulates, while myostatin inhibits growth, Chris and colleagues crossed Mstn-/- mice with a transgenic line in which IGF-1 is overexpressed in skeletal muscle to generate offspring differing in copy number for both genes. Mice that had no myostatin and additional IGF-1 were twice the size and had 3.5 times the amount of muscle mass to that of wild-type controls. In a second cohort, those with additional IGF-1 died at a younger age. While the causative factors mediating the actions of IGF-1 of aging remain unclear, the recent discovery that the deacetylase sirtuin 6 (Sirt6) and Klotho regulate aging in mammals was a breakthrough in the search for a mechanism. Chris will show that IGF-1 regulates the expression of Klotho and Sirt6 in skeletal muscle. Finally, Chris will present the discovery of a novel splice-variant of myostatin that stimulates myogenesis and that may have an additional role to play in the development of double-muscling in breeds like Belgian Blue cattle.

The Speaker: Chris is a growth physiologist at AgResearch Ruakura. He completed a PhD at Agresearch Invermay studying the seasonal growth of red deer, then completed two postdoctoral positions in the United States. The first at Auburn University (Alabama) addressed the mechanisms underlying how illness and disease reduces appetite and growth of sheep and cattle. The second at Michigan State University addressed the role of factors that regulate the growth axis in cattle. Chris is a senior scientist and, until recently, led the Growth and Lactation research team. His current research focuses on the role of growth hormone, IGF-1 and myostatin in regulating the post-natal growth of livestock, the development of marbling and the eating quality of meat. A further interest is in the regulation of antler growth. He is the current president of the NZ Society of Endocrinology.

The low molecular weight thiol antioxidant, reduced glutathione (GSH) is a multifunctional metabolite in plants. GSH is an important redox gatekeeper that maintains redox homeostasis. It also participates in oxidative signalling pathways that regulate gene expression and determine the outcome of plant responses to stress. GSH is synthesised in chloroplasts, from thence is transported to all the compartments of the cell including the nucleus. Mutants lacking the chloroplast GSH transporters have a low cytosolic GSH poor and have impaired responses to pathogens. Inhibition of glutathione synthesis leads to decreases the redox potential of the cytosol and the nuclei and to marked changes in gene expression. Low GSH availability leads to failure of the apical root meristem because of an arrest of the cell cycle at G1. GSH is recruited and sequestered in the nucleus early in the cell cycle by mechanisms that remain to be identified. Interestingly, mutants in candidates for GSH binding on the nuclear pore complex show very strong repression of photosynthesis, especially under high light. This talk will consider the functions of glutathione in cellular redox homeostasis and possible roles in signalling between the chloroplast and nucleus.

In February, iVEC will offer the following short courses on supercomputing topics:

Introduction to iVEC: 11:00am - 12:00 Tues 4th February

Introduction to Linux: 1:00 - 2:00pm Tues 4th February

Introduction to NeCTAR Cloud Computing: 3:00 - 4:00pm Tues 4th February

Introduction to Supercomputing: 10:00am - 4pm Wed 5th February

Developing with MPI and OpenMP: 10am - 4pm Thurs 6th February

Epic to Magnus Migration: 10am - 4pm Fri 7th February

Further details of the courses are available at http://ivec.org/services/training

Courses are delivered in a face to face classroom style. Attendees are encouraged to bring and work on their own laptops. Staff from the Supercomputing Team will be facilitating so you can meet and chat with them.

Courses are free of charge and open to all, however places are limited. Light refreshments and lunch will be provided on each day. Any queries, please contact Dr Valerie Maxville – [email protected]. Please complete the form to register for this training. Note that places are limited. If you are needing additional training before the end of the year, please contact Valerie to organise a small group session.

The AgLTAS project aims to develop a National Academic Standards Statement for agriculture – representing what a student in Agriculture and related disciplines should know, understand and be able to do on graduation.

You are invited to attend an upcoming workshop, led by Dr Tina Acuna from the University of Tasmania, to provide your valuable input on the Statement.

LATE RSVPs will be accepted (until the day prior to the workshop)

The aim of this course is to introduce you to basic statistics. It will cover descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations); data exploration; basic categorical data analysis; simple linear regression and basic analysis of variance (ANOVA). The statistical package SPSS will be used to illustrate the ideas demonstrated. The course will be held in a computer laboratory allowing participants to immediately apply the material covered through a series of practical examples.

The Seminar: Reprogramming adult somatic cells to different cell types has opened a whole new window of possibilities for cell therapy in degenerative diseases. In our lab we are designing strategies to create clinical grade myoblasts precursors to be used in clinical cell therapy and as disease models, following two different strategies: differentiating induced pluripotent stem cells or by direct transdifferentiation from adult somatic cells.

The Speaker: Dr. Belen Alvarez-Palomo is senior scientist at the group of Dr. Michael edel, at the Department of Physiological Science, at the Univerisity of Barcelona in Spain. Dr. Alvarez-Palomo got her PhD by the University of Barcelona in the year 2000 working on skeletal muscle turnover in cancer cachexia, and later she performed a postdoctoral stay in The Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, working on cell migration, and a second postdoc in Instituto Municipal de Investigacion Medica in Barcelona, working with the regulation of Mesenchymal to Epithelial transition.

UWA Health & Rehab Clinic - Running Club 13 week program working towards a 5 or 12km fun run (i.e. HBF Run for Reason - May 25th)

All levels welcome. Perfect for those returning from injury or running for the first time and needing a little extra feedback and coaching.

WHEN: Monday 3rd March - Friday 30th May

Running Sessions = Mon & Fri 6am. Plus "Fit-R" Strength & Mobility Sessions = Wed 6am & Thurs 6pm

WHERE: UWA Health & Rehabilitation Clinic - Parkway Entrance #4, Crawley Campus. Runs will take place around campus, along the river and into Kings Park.

COST: $12 per week (up to 4 sessions/week) for 13 weeks = $156

^Private health rebates may apply for Fit-R sessions

Adult & Over 50's Exercise Sessions combining 40min gym based strength and functional training, plus 40min swimming training (incl fitness and stroke technique).

12 WEEK SEMESTER 1 PROGRAM: Mon 3rd March - Saturday 31st May (Break 18th - 25th April)

SESSION BLOCKS: Adults [Tuesday 6pm-7.30pm &/OR Thursday 7am-8.30am] Over 50's [Monday 8am-9.30am &/OR Saturday 8.30am-10am]

COST: $18 per class = $216 for 12 week program (1 day/week) *20% discount off total price if attend 2 days ^ Private health rebate may apply for gym session

The Seminar: Basement membrane (BM) composition varies with both blood vessel and with tissue type. Of all BM components, the laminin family shows the greatest variability and represents the biological active component of BMs, interacting with a wide repertoire of integrin and non-integrin receptors to control functions such as vessel integrity and permeability. Microvessels of the central nervous system (CNS) have a unique composition of cellular and extracellular matrix layers that collectively constitute the blood-brain barrier. In addition to the endothelial cell monolayer and its underlying BM, cerebral microvessels are ensheathed by astrocyte endfeet and leptomeningeal cells, which contribute to a second BM, the so-called parenchymal BM as it delineates the border to the brain parenchyma. While considerable information is available on the cellular constitutents of the CNS microvessels and their contribution to the BBB, little is known about the BM layers. Our work has shown that endothelial and parenchymal BMs of CNS vessels are structurally and functionally distinct, and has highlighted their importance in the restricted permeability characteristic of the CNS microvessels. In particular, laminin isoforms are heterogeneously localized along the length of the endothelial BM of microvessels and play an important role in defining sites of high and low penetrability by infiltrating cells, such as extravasating leukocytes during inflammation1. In addition, endothelial laminins impact on endothelial stiffness and the ability of the vessels to detect and respond to shear. By contrast, ECM components of the parenchymal border confer tensile strength and as consequence penetration of this border requires focal matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and MMP-9 activity2. Data will be presented on the biochemical differences of BMs of CNS microvessels, and how vascular laminins and MMP-2 and MMP-9 act to control vascular integrity in the context of leukocyte extravasation1.

1. Wu, C., F. Ivars, P. Anderson, R. Hallmann, D. Vestweber, P. Nilsson, H. Robenek, K. Tryggvason, J. Song, E. Korpos, K. Loser, S. Beissert, E. Georges-Labouesse, & L.M. Sorokin. 2009. Nat Med. 15, 519-27 2. Agrawal, S., Anderson, P., Durbeej, M., van Rooijen, N., Ivars, F., Opdenakker, G., & Sorokin, L. M. 2006. J. Exp. Med. 203, 1007-1019

The Speaker: Lydia Sorokin obtained her PhD from the Physiology Department at the University of Western Australia in receptor-mediated endocytosis and carried out her first postdoctoral position at the Friedrich-Miescher laboratory of the Max-Planck Society in Tübingen, Germany, where she commenced her work on the extracellular matrix. She has spent the last 22 years in Germany and Sweden and is currently professor and director of Pathobiochemistry at the Westfälische Wilhelms University in Münster, Germany. Her interests are the biochemistry, ultrastructure and function of basement membranes, with an emphasis on vascular basement membranes and inflammation, and the role of the ECM in secondary lymphoid organs

Open to all, the Carbon Neutral Quiz Night 2014! presented by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition UWA, will be a night of fun, games, and a theme of sustainability to start the new semester. 7.30pm, Wednesday the 5th of March (Week 2) at Hackett Hall, UWA. All the proceeds will go to the trees planted to carbon offset the evening and to further the work the work of the campus club to spread awareness about climate change. This is a public, alcohol-free event.

The Speaker: Associate Professor Silvana Gaudieri completed her PhD in the area of immunogenetics at UWA and then undertook post-doctoral training at the National Institute of Genetics in Japan and Cambridge University in the UK before returning back to Perth in 2003. Her research focus has been on understanding host-viral interactions in Hepatitis C and HIV and how this relationship affects infection outcome and disease progression.

The Seminar: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a global health problem with an estimated 170 million people thought to be infected worldwide. The development of new small molecules that target specific HCV proteins has revolutionised the efficacy of HCV treatment. However, these drugs are unlikely to prevent re-infection, a common occurrence in high-risk HCV exposure populations, and are financially not viable in resource-poor countries. Hence, there is a continuing need for a protective HCV vaccine. The ability to develop a protective vaccine against HCV is bolstered by the existence of natural immunity in the population that is reliant upon an effective anti-HCV immune response. The research group has been studying the signature of an effective anti-HCV response in order to inform vaccine design and this talk will present a summary of our findings.

The ZEISS Xradia Versa family and ZEISS Xradia Ultra lab platforms offer a multi-lengthscale solution. State of the art X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning technology combined with highly specialized, proprietary X-ray optics deliver the highest performance lab-based 3D X-ray microscopes, providing a range of imaging modes from ~30 micron resolution all the way down to 50nm spatial resolution. The Xradia Versa uses patented X-ray detectors and a microscope turret of magnifying objective detectors for easy zooming. Scan mode from 30 micron resolution all the way down to 700 nm spatial resolution. The Xradia Ultra nanoscale X-ray microscope is the only commercially available X-ray microscope that utilizes synchrotron quality X-ray optics and provides true spatial resolution down to <50nm

ZEISS Xradia 520 Versa: The flagship product of the award-winning Xradia Versa family provides the most advanced and highest performing non-destructive, 3D imaging and analysis capabilities. Xradia 520 Versa extends the boundaries of non-destructive 3D imaging with advanced contrast tuning capabilities, extensive filtering options, and enhancements delivering greater accuracy and workflow. Xradia 520 Versa frees researchers to push the boundaries of lab-based imaging. With prominent facilities worldwide using non-destructive X-ray microscopy (XRM) to extend the use of valuable samples, the ZEISS Xradia Versa family proves a powerful component of a correlative microscopy solution. Xradia 520 Versa adds a host of innovations to ZEISS Xradia's industry-leading resolution, contrast and powerful advantages for conducting in situ studies under native or controlled conditions. The instrument delivers compositional contrast for better discernment between materials appearing nearly identical, faster time-to-results for time-sensitive applications, and superior ease-of-use for multi-user environments. Xradia Versa solutions are ideal for highly skilled users as well as busy imaging labs with diverse user needs and skillsets. Breakthrough applications for Xradia 520 Versa include compositional contrast in materials science, high aspect ratio tomography for semiconductor failure analysis and 4D studies of material evolution over time. Highlights include advanced contrast tuning capabilities, extensive filtering options, and faster time to results with higher throughput.

The Speaker: Professor Jane Pillow is a clinical academic neonatologist at the University of Western Australia. She is acknowledged internationally as an expert in the area of neonatal respiratory physiology and mechanical ventilation. She has a particular research interest in high-frequency ventilation, having completed her PhD thesis in 2000 on “Optimising High-Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation in Neonates”. Since completing her PhD with Distinction at ICHR, Prof Pillow’s research interests have expanded to focus on ways to minimise lung injury at the initiation of life and include high-frequency jet ventilation, variable ventilation, bubble CPAP, patient triggered ventilation and minimising lung injury during resuscitation. She has obtained over $11 million AUD in research funding, including grants from the NHMRC and the NIH, and is CIA on an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence. Her preclinical research uses the preterm lamb as a model of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome. She also runs a neonatal lung function laboratory, and is involved in follow-up functional studies of children born prematurely. In addition to her academic responsibilities, Prof Pillow is a Consultant Neonatologist at King Edward Memorial Hospital, where she contributes to the around the clock care of up to 100 babies, including up to 40 infants receiving mechanical ventilator support. Professor Pillow bases her academic activity at the UWA School of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology.

The Seminar: Preclinical basic science is challenged increasingly by funding bodies focused on translational research outcomes. Nonetheless, there is little question that the preclinical sciences are a fundamental component of new advances in health care. Animal models of disease offer valuable insights into disease mechanisms, and offer value also for preclinical screening of new and controversial treatment. Preterm infants are a highly vulnerable population, for whom long-term outcomes of clinical interventions have life-long implications. A clinically relevant postnatal animal model offers rapid evaluation of safety, efficacy and long-term outcomes of new and/or controversial therapies for preterm infants and enhances research capacity. The Preclinical Intensive Care Research Unit or PICRU, is an exciting new nationally collaborative facility for evaluation of long-term outcomes of emerging fetal and neonatal treatments. The PICRU will be based in the Large Animal Facility at UWA, operating 24 hours/day for 7 days a week during study periods. The resource intensive nature of the studies makes optimization of research outcomes an imperative. Extensive tissue sampling and opportunities for longitudinal physiological recordings offer possibilities for collaborative gain. The PICRU will be staffed by paid undergraduates, enhancing the teaching-research nexus, and offering early exposure to the research environment. Initial funded studies commencing in September 2014 will target the neurodevelopmental and cardiorespiratory outcomes of postnatal steroids and ventilation strategy in the developing preterm lamb, and how these outcomes are influenced by an antenatal inflammatory stimulus.

Six recent honours graduates (-5 from UWA-) in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management will present their research (15 min each) at the 'Young Professionals in Agriculture Forum', hosted by the Ag Institute Australia (WA Division)and DAFWA. Following the presentations, the Forum winners will be announced. For topics and student details see URL below.

This paper reports the results of a choice experiment to examine the features of marine offsets that the public finds acceptable. Offsets have become an established element of what is required if developments are to impose no net loss on the environment, once avoidance and mitigation activities have been undertaken. However, there are a number of means by which the same environmental outcome can be achieved. We explore the consequences for public acceptance of different designs of offsets relating to migratory shorebirds with respect to the proportion of direct and compensatory offsets, the geographical location at which the offset takes place, and the possibility of substituting species. Within the survey used we also develop a measure of the oil and gas industries Social License to Operate. We explore whether this measure has an impact on the probability of rejecting the development as a whole, as well as its impact on acceptability of attributes within the offset design. The paper concludes with implications for the further use of marine offsets.

Professor Michael Burton works in the area of environmental valuation, and is currently working on a project valuing marine biodiversity as part of the National Environmental Research Program Marine Biodiversity Hub.

Celebrate sustainability at UWA's premier environmental event. Pat a koala and dingo and, if you're game, hold a wedge-tailed eagle and python. View up-close UWA's bees (in a safe, sealed hive panel) and sample their honey. Create beautiful flower sculptures from upcycled materials. Learn about sustainable initiatives on campus and much more. Staff, students and their families welcome.

The Speaker: Professor Arun Dharmarajan obtained his PhD from the School of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology (then Department of Anatomy and Human Biology), University of Western Australia and carried out his postdoctoral position followed by faculty positions at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA. He spent the last 20 years in the School of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology and is currently professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences, Curtin University. His interests are Wnt signalling in particular a Wnt antagonist, Secreted Frizzled Related Protein-4 (sFRP4) and its role in apoptosis, cancer biology and more recently cancer stem cells.

The Seminar: Malignant tumors have a highly tumourigenic subpopulation, termed cancer stem cells (CSCs) that drive tumor formation and proliferation. CSCs, unlike the bulk of the cells within the tumour, are elusive to drug treatment. They are chemo- and radio-resistant and the central cause for tumour initiation and recurrence. These self-renewing cells are responsible for the flare-up of cancer and remission, long after treatment. The existence of CSCs has been confirmed in many tumour types including gliomas, breast, lung, prostate, head and neck, and colon cancers. Wnt/ß-catenin signalling plays a role in the proliferation of tumour cells and tumour progression and frizzled-4, a member of the Wnt signalling family, governs both stemness and invasiveness of glioma stem cells. In a recent study, we demonstrated that a naturally occurring Wnt antagonist, secreted frizzled-related protein 4 (sFRP4), chemosensitizes and inhibits glioma stem cell proliferation by reducing self-renewal and inducing differentiation. In a recent report, we examined the effect of sFRP4 in chemosensitizing the glioma cell line U138MG and glioma stem cells (GSCs) enriched from U138MG to chemotherapeutics. We found that sFRP4 alone, and in combination with either DOX or cisplatin, induced apoptosis and substantially decreased proliferation in a GSC-enriched population.

Asymptomatic infection has long been an omnipresent feature of a diversity of diseases in animals (including humans) and plants. This phenomenon has received relatively little attention amidst the contemporary cacophony focused on disease elimination and even eradication.

Malaria transmission between asymptomatic carriers poses a particularly vexing problem, and raises serious questions about the tractability of elimination targets. In the context of plant pathology, Huanglongbing (HLB), or citrus greening, a vector-transmitted bacterial infection of citrus trees has wreaked havoc on citrus crops in Asia and Latin America and is currently a major problem for the Florida and California citrus industries.

One of the most under-studied aspects of HLB is disease transmission during the several years from initiation of infection in a grove until symptoms actually become manifest. We discuss case examples of malaria transmission in the Brazilian Amazon region and asymptomatic HLB in Florida, introducing recent experimental results integrated with spatially explicit mathematical modeling to provide deeper understanding of the phenomenon of asymptomatic carriers and the mitigation strategies that they suggest.

We briefly indicate lessons from malaria and HLB that carry over to a broad range of infectious diseases in animals and plants. A vast array of open research problems is also part and parcel of our topic.

Brief Biography,

Burton Singer is Adjunct Professor in the Emerging Pathogens Institute and Department of Mathematics at University of Florida. From 1994 - July, 2009, he was Professor of Demography and Public Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. He was formerly chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and professor of economics and statistics at Yale University (1984 – 1993), and Professor of Statistics at Columbia University (1967 – 1984).

He has served as chair of the National Research Council Committee on National Statistics and as chair of the Steering Committee for Social and Economic Research in the World Health Organization Tropical Disease Research (TDR) program. He is currently on the Research Board of the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, focused on both short- and long-term consequences of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

He has centered his research in three principal areas: identification of social, biological, and environmental risks associated with vector-borne diseases in the tropics; integration of psychosocial and biological evidence to characterize pathways to alternative states of health; and health impact assessments associated with economic development projects.

His research program has included studies of: the impact of migration and urbanization on malaria transmission in the western Amazon region of Brazil and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; the biological correlates of well-being. and health consequences of gene- environment interactions focused on the social environment; and health impacts over time of large-scale development projects in the tropics, with particular emphasis on forcibly resettled communities.

He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1994), the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (2005) and was a Guggenheim fellow in 1981-1982. Ph.D. He received his PhD in Statistics from Stanford University in 1967.

Apologies for the short notice change.

PS* This seminar is free and open to the public & no RSVP required.

****All Welcome****