What's On at UWA

Dr Jerome Coudert, from the Lions Eye Institute, will give a talk on "Revisiting the role of the MCMV-encoded m157 protein in NK cell anti-viral response" in the Microbiology & Immunology Discipline Seminar room, Friday, 04 November 2011 at 9:00am. The Ly49H activating NK cell receptor in C57BL/6 (B6) mice plays a key role in early resistance to murine CMV (MCMV) infection through specific recognition of the MCMV-encoded MHC class I-like molecule m157 expressed on infected cells. The m157 gene is highly sequence variable among MCMV isolates, with many m157 variants unable to bind Ly49HB6. We sought to define if m157 variability alters the spectrum of interactions with other Ly49 molecules and if this modifies NK cell response and host susceptibility to MCMV. We have identified in the MCMV G1F strain, novel m157/Ly49 interactions involving Ly49C inhibitory NK cell receptors from B6 and BALB/c mouse background. Using an MCMV recombinant virus in which m157K181 was replaced with m157G1F, which interacts with both Ly49HB6 and Ly49CB6, we showed that the m157G1F/Ly49C interactions cause no apparent attenuating effect on viral clearance in B6 mice. However, when looking at the level of individual NK cells, m157 that can bind both inhibitory and activation receptors triggers a lesser NK cell activation. Thus, these data indicate that m157 variants that are able to interact with inhibitory Ly49 receptors in addition to activating receptors that are co-expressed on a same NK cell, can interfere with early NK cell responses. We will discuss how MCMV m157 variability differentially affects the antiviral NK cell response depending on the genetic background of the host, the MHC haplotype and the NK cell repertoire.

The Australian Genomics and Clinical Outcomes of Glioma has organsied a 3km walk through King's Park at part of the International Brain Tumour Alliance's Walk Around the World for Brain Tumours.

The walk starts and finishes at the Saw Avenue picnic area, there will be afternoon tea provided after the walk.

WHERE: Saw Avenue Picnic Area

WHEN: 3pm 4th November 2011

All miles walked will be donated to the IBTA to help them reach their World Walk target of circumnavigating the earth.

Please email [email protected] to register and for more information

Bertrand Russell has suggested that learning begins with inarticulate certainty and moves towards articulate doubt. Creative endeavour requires doubt, and failure: studios and workshops open spaces for it, practitioners accept it as an ever-present possibility, a state to embrace, or as the foundation of a set of aesthetic practices … just as, in the best sense, education is predicated upon the acceptance of failure; of getting it wrong for the right reasons.

In creative work, failure might be seen as an opportunity, a strategy, a moment of crisis and a generative act. Creative research, then, can be regarded as a space, which deals with and allows accidents, embarrassment and failure. This seminar will seek to explore notions of failure and even of insignificance within a framework of research, both practice-led and overtly conventional. It will ask whether Beckett’s exhortation to ‘fail better’ is our mantra of success, or whether it merely excuses or conceals the inadequacies of our own work.

The seminar is based around the belief that its presenter will not be the only person in the room who feels at times like a pseudo-researcher ... whose research outcomes are rarely, if ever, quite cogent enough, never quite heavy enough to stir the water or to still debate.

John Freeman joined Performance at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia from Brunel University London, where he was Reader in Theatre. The editor of Performance Practice and author of Tracing the Footprints: Documenting the Process of Performance (2003) New Performance/New Writing (2007) and Blood, Sweat & Theory: Research through Practice in Performance (2010), his fifth book, The Greatest Shows on Earth: World Theatre from Peter Brook to the Sydney Olympics (ed.) is published in November 2011. A lecture tour of North American universities is planned to coincide with the book's official US launch in 2012. Blood, Sweat & Theory remains the top-selling UK title in the field of practice-led research in performance. Freeman has written extensively on theatre, art, pedagogy and research for numerous international journals, newspapers, magazines, books, government and funding agencies, galleries, festivals and consultancy panels. His most recent article, Creative Angels and Exegetical Demons: artistic research, creative production and thesis, is published in Higher Education Review in December 2011.

He has presented papers and performances at conferences, festivals and theatre venues worldwide and has undertaken residencies in New York, Helsinki, Sarajevo, Casablanca, Minsk, Malta, Bavaria and Belgrade. His latest play, Handsome Dogs, received staged readings in Europe before being performed at Curtin's amphitheatre at the end of November. The play has been invited to festivals in Amsterdam, Romania and Germany.

Professor Smith is the Vice-President (Research) at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Founding Dean of the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Singapore.

Professor Smith’s address will focus on the changing face of health care and the need for improved integration between health researchers (universities and institutes), the provision of health services and the community.

Professor Smith was the Principal of the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London and the Chief Executive of Imperial College Healthcare National Health Service Trust since its inception, the largest such trust in the United Kingdom. He championed the establishment of an Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) at Imperial College London. A gynaecologist by training, Professor Smith has published over 225 papers on reproductive medicine and cancer.

The Oration has been established in memory of the late Harry Perkins, who was WAIMR’s inaugural Chairman and the driving force behind the formation of the Institute, whilst he was also Chairman of Wesfarmers.

The Harry Perkins Oration is a FREE event for the community but registration is essential as places are limited.

Directed by Barry Park, a compelling family drama about betrayal, guilt and greed - and a terrible secret revealed at the Dolphin Theatre, UWA beginning the 4th of November 2011. Starting at 7.30pm (Sunday 6th November -2pm matinee) Tickets on sale at BOCS at only $25 or $20 concession.

UWA, with the Australian Mathematical Olympiads Committee, is hosting the 2011 WA Junior Mathematics Olympiad for all bright Year 9 and exceptional Year 8 students. The aim of the competition is to identify the most gifted students in Mathematics, with great prizes on offer for the winners.

The Co-op Bookshop Sale finishes Tuesday November 15th. All Sale Books now 50% off Marked Sale Price. Last chance to grab a bargain from the huge range of gifts, reference books and fiction for summer reading. Co-op Members receive Member prices on Sale books.

Opening Hours: 8.45am-5.30pm Mon - Fri and 10.00am-4.00pm Sat

A UWA engineering qualification combines practical and theoretical learning in an exciting and engaging environment that will make you a sought-after graduate, with an internationally recognised education.

To find out more about how to become an engineer, come along to one of our free Engineering Information Evenings and talk to us about commencing your engineering career at UWA.

The information evenings will cover course and career options, the types of engineering available to study, what the course entails, entry pathways available and how to apply through TISC.

Sir Phillipps spent 60 years assembling a vast collection of medieval manuscripts - approx 60,000 items. After his death the collection was broken up and sold.

Launched in March 2011, The Conversation is an independent source of information, analysis and commentary from the university and research sector.

Speaker Bio: Andrew is a co-founder The Conversation. He previously edited The Age, The Observer (London), The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday. He was Editor-in-Chief of The Big Issue (London), and he founded and edited the Sunday Herald in Scotland. He is the Asia-Pacific Director for Innovation Media.

Australia unlike most other parts of the Western world does not have a national comprehensive Human Rights law. However, there have been some recent developments in case law in Australia, based on a patchwork of Commonwealth and State statutes which indicate that there are at least some protections for internationally recognised fundamental human rights.

The reent decisions of the Hight Court relating to the so called 'Malaysia solution' for processing refugess will be discussed, along with a decision upholding the Victorian Charter of Human Rights. The recent decision of the Federal Court in relation to racial vilification of a group of 'white Aborigines' by the Herald & Weekly Times will be referred to, along with a racial vilification case involving the Sunday Times website yet to be decided, in discussing the limits of freedom of speech.

Bio:

Greg McIntyre is a Barrister appointed Senior Counsel in 2002, an Adjunct Professor of Law at Notre Dame University and Chair of International Commission of Jurists (WA Branch). He was awarded the Australian Human Rights Commission Human Rights Law Award in 2009 for his work related to Indigenous Human Rights. He ran the seminal native title case: Mabo v Queensland and this semester has been teaching a course in Indigenous Peoples and the Law at UWA Law School.



****All Welcome****

Mature-age entry provides flexibility for entering UWA, particularly if you don't have any previous academic results. Anyone who is 20 or over on 1 March of the year of entry qualifies for our mature-age entry pathways. This information session will provide guidance to mature-age students to help you choose an entry pathway that's appropriate to the course in which you want to enrol. You can find out about what to expect from student life and let us answer your frequently asked questions.

To reserve a place at this session, please register your attendance online at www.studyat.uwa.edu.au/mature.

Celebrate the start of Summer at Symphony by the Bay: an uplifting celebration of Orchestral works performed by the Perth Symphony Orchestra and a selection of guest soloists including celebrated soprano, Sara Macliver, and violin virtuoso Paul Wright, conducted by Jessica Gethin.

Bring along a picnic and sit under the stars to experience the premiere performance of the Perth Symphony Orchestra as they play for the first time in the historic surrounds of the beautiful University Grounds.

The University Club of Western Australia will have delicious gourmet hampers available for purchase before the event and the Club Cafe and Bar will have a limited menu available on the day. This is a fully licensed event and so no outside beverage will be allowed.

Bookings are through BOCS Ticketing and catering options can be ordered through Club Reception on 6488 8770.

A public lecture by Fiona Wood FRACS AM, Winthrop Professor, Burn Injury Research Unit, School of Surgery, UWA and Chair, The McComb Research Foundation.

Winthrop Professor Fiona Wood AM is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon specializing in the field of burn care, trauma and scar reconstruction. She is the Director of the WA Burns Service. Professor Wood’s work has been recognized by numerous awards, including Western Australian Citizen of the Year 2004 and Australian of the Year 2005. Her research through the Burn Injury Research Unit UWA and the McComb Foundation is focused on scarless healing. In this lecture she will discuss some recent research into burn injury and scar healing.

Correctly accounting for soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions is necessary when assessing the carbon footprint of agricultural and bioenergy cropping systems. Although soil N2O emissions appear low in relation to N fertiliser inputs [e.g., 1.0% if Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) default factor employed], the high global warming potential of N2O (298 times greater than CO2), and the increasing amount and area to which N fertiliser is applied, means accurate estimates are required when calculating net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from grain and biodiesel production. We measured soil N2O emissions from a rain-fed, cropped soil in a semi-arid region of the Western Australian grainbelt for three years on a sub-daily basis.

The site included N fertiliser (75–100 kg N ha-1 yr-1) and no N fertiliser plots (‘control’). Emissions were measured using soil chambers connected to a fully automated system that measured N2O using gas chromatography. Daily N2O emissions were low (-1.8–7.3 g N2O-N ha-1 day-1) and culminated in 0.09–0.13 kg N2O-N ha-1 yr-1 from the N fertiliser soil and 0.07–0.09 kg N2O-N ha-1 yr-1 from the control. The proportion of N fertiliser emitted as N2O each year, after correction for the control emission (‘background’), was 0.02–0.07%. The emission factor was up to 50 times lower than the IPCC default value for the application of synthetic fertilisers to land (1.0%).

Incorporating locally measured N2O values greatly decreased the carbon footprint of wheat and biodiesel produced from the Western Australian grainbelt. Greenhouse gas emissions decreased from 487 to 304 kg CO2-equivalents per tonne of wheat using local N2O emissions rather than the international default value. Furthermore, utilising locally measured soil N2O fluxes decreased GHG emissions from the production and combustion of one GJ canola based biodiesel from 63 CO2 to 37 CO2 equivalents; with GHG emissions up to 2.1-times lower than that from the production and combustion of one GJ mineral diesel.

We recommend utilising regionally specific estimates of direct soil N2O emissions, and include estimates of indirect N2O emissions, when assessing GHG emissions from grain and biodiesel production from agricultural soils.

*** LOUISE BARTON1, WAHIDUL BISWAS2, KLAUS BUTTERBACH-BAHL3, RALF KIESE3, DANIEL CARTER4, DANIEL MURPHY1

1School of Earth & Environment, The University of Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Australia 2Centre of Excellence in Cleaner Production, Curtin University, Bentley 6845, Australia 3Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute for Meteorology & Climate Research, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany 4 Department of Agriculture and Food WA, 3 Baron-Hay Court, South Perth 6151, Australia.

****All Welcome****

WHAT CLIMATIC VARIATION HAS PREVAILED SINCE THE FIRST PEOPLE ARRIVED IN AUSTRALIA? DID ABORIGINAL FOREST BURNING AFFECT THE AUSTRALIAN SUMMER MONSOON? WHAT IMPACT HAVE PEOPLE HAD ON KIMBERLEY CLIMATES?

This talk will be about the tension the Museum of Human Disease faces between acts of law and being interesting. And will link this to the types of ways art fits into trying to resolve these tensions.

Derek Williamson is currently manger of the Museum of Human Disease at the University of New South Wales, Australia's only publicly accessible pathology collection attracting 10,000 visitors a year. With a background in science, science education and science communication Derek tries to balance the need for didactic messages with interaction which challenge audiences to think differently about the implications of knowledge for their lives.

What research can be performed at a synchrotron? What are WA scientists achieving at synchrotrons? What opportunities are there for cutting edge research in MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES, and for WA's INDUSTRY?

This one-day symposium, 23rd November at UWA's University Club, is suited for novices and experts alike, with focussed sessions aimed at

* HEALTH PROFESSIONALS AND RESEARCHERS *

* ACADEMIC RESEARCHERS *

* INDUSTRY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT *

covering topics including:

* Medical therapy * Imaging for Cystic Fibrosis gene therapy development * Iron distribution in the heart * Structural Biology * Metalloproteins * Imaging of fossils * Forensics applications * Photoelectron spectroscopy * Corrosion Science * Meteorite studies * Precious metal ore depostion *

Prof David Parsons, Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide; Dr Mel Lintern, CSIRO Exploration and Mining; Prof Keith Nugent, University of Melbourne and Prof Andrew Peele, Latrobe University; plus 9 WA speakers

Come and find out how the Australian Synchrotron can revolutionise YOUR research.

There is no charge, but registration is essential. RSVP to [email protected] by Fri 11 November 2011.

The Centre for Research Excellence in Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing invites staff, students and members of the public to attend a seminar.Professor Aileen Moreton-Robinson is presenting Bodies that Matter: Performing White Possession on the Beach, and Associate Professor Len Collard is presenting Katitjin Ngulluckiny Boodera: Kura, Yeye Mila Boorda. “Understanding our country through placenames: From the past today and into the present”

You are cordially invited to attend a book launch with Professor Chetan Ghate, our next Growth Zone Visitor.

Professor Ghate will give an overview of his book, The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Economy, and Indian reforms.  He will discuss India’s remarkable economic growth and key debates confronting the Indian economy ranging from the development displacement debate, inequality, the demographic transition, employment and employability, social mobility and the growth-environment debate.

Contributors include David Bloom, Pranab Bardhan, Devasish Mitra, and Paul Levine.

RSVP required:

Caroline Singh

Tel: 08 6488 3787

Email:[email protected]