What's On at UWA

Tidal stream energy, which involves placing tidal turbines in locations with large tidal currents, is receiving significant attention as a potential renewable energy source in the United Kingdom. Recent estimates suggest that tidal stream energy could supply between 5-10% of the UK’s current electricity demand.

In this talk we begin with a short discussion of where tidal currents are large around the world and why. We then discuss the theory of tidal stream energy. First a simple analytical model for a row of tidal turbines (i.e. a fence) is presented, which provides an estimate of the efficiency of a tidal turbine in terms of the energy it removes from a tidal current. The model also highlights several distinctions between wind turbines and tidal turbines.

Second we discuss how much energy can be removed by a fence of tidal turbines deployed within a tidal strait, oscillating bay and close to the tip of a coastal headland. These particular sites represent the variety of actual locations around the UK with fast moving tidal streams.

To finish, the likely prospect of tidal stream energy in Australia is discussed.

   ****All Welcome****

The Western Australia Chief Scientist, Professor Lyn Beazley, and the University of Western Australia's Centre of Excellence in Natural Resource Management are hosting a symposium in Albany to showcase the excellent science taking place in the Great Southern region.

'Great Southern, Great Science' will include presentations on nationally significant work that impacts on the Great Southern, and local research and development by scientists and professionals in the Great Southern.

Tickets will be available from the Albany Entertainment Centre box office - 9844 5005.

Standard $39.50 and Students $20.00

Registration includes morning and afternoon teas and lunch.

UWA opens up the whole campus to the public.

Come and find out about the courses on offer, valuable research, community programs, and facilities...all mixed with a day full of lots of fun activities for everyone!

Efficient and high yielding syntheses are highly desirable in all fields of chemistry research including natural product total synthesis, medicinal chemistry and process chemistry. In this context I will outline my previous research on the asymmetric synthesis of various antibiotics and my current work, in collaboration with Biota Holdings, on the development of polyvalent influenza antiviral therapeutics.

The workshop helps you to understand how to increase your effectiveness and outcomes in the following key areas: how you deal with your supervisor how you structure your study time your attitude (or lack thereof!) in relation to your research dealing with writer’s block or having difficulty writing getting the help you need when you are stuck juggling multiple commitments and never having enough time keeping on going when the going gets tough

Each year the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research hosts a Prospective Postgraduate Student Evening to inform potential students about the postgraduate opportunities available at the Institute, the School of Paediatrics and Child Health and Princess Margaret Hospital.

If you are interested in any of the 2012 projects http://www.ichr.uwa.edu.au/careers/postgrad/becoming, we suggest you attend the prospective student evening or contact the relevant researcher indicated in the booklet. The listed projects are a guide only and not a definitive list.

Dr Okuda is from Faculty of Science and Engineering, Chuo University, Japan and his research focuses around PPR proteins and plant organelle gene expression. RNA editing converts genetic information encoded in the genome at the RNA level and is thus a biological phenomenon that challenges the central dogma of molecular biology.

The 2011 Marshall-Warren lecture will be delivered by Michael Spence, Winner of the Nobel 2001 Prize in Economic Sciences with Joseph E. Stiglitz and George A. Akerlof.

In this lecture, Professor Spence will explore the main arguments of his book 'The Next Convergence'. This will appeal to those with an interest in world events and current affairs, economics and finance.

Michael Spence is a Professor of Economics at the Stern School of Business at New York University, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and was the chairman of the independent Commission on Growth and Development.

The Marshall-Warren Lecture Series honours UWA Professor Barry J Marshall and Emeritus Professor J Robin Warren, joint recipients of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their ground-breaking discovery about stomach ulcers and their bacterial basis.

This lecture series honours their significant achievement by bringing other Nobel Laureates to UWA who will share the excitement of their research with our community.

Cost: Free, however booking is essential. Book through the UWA Octagon Theatre Box Office (08) 6488 2440, M-F, noon-4.15pm

What does the future hold for us? Current lifestyles are built on large amounts of cheap energy and abundant resources.

The challenge now is that climate change and resource depletion threaten food production and peace. I expect the retrospective view of the 21st century will show up the greed and naivity of humanity, and the realisation that growth and consumption are not the route to wellbeing.

****All Welcome****

* PhD Scholarships * Hons Scholarships *Vacation Cadetship Program

Join us to find out more about the great range of research projects and scholarships on offer at LIWA.

Projects are available within the Tissue Repair Unit, Molecular Genetics Unit and Pleural Disease Unit.

Meet with senior LIWA research staff, discuss prospective research projects and find out how to apply for the generous scholarship program.

Dr Murray works as a cardiothoracic radiologist at Royal Perth and Princess Margaret hospitals and at Envision Medical Imaging. His current research interests include the utility ultra-low dose CT for children with cystic fibrosis (AREST-CF research group) and low dose CT for the secondary prevention of lung cancer.

The Soil&Water Seminar at 1pm on Tues, Sept. 6th will be given by Professor Martin Fey from the School of Earth and Environment. All welcome!

TITLE: “Towards a philosophy of soil science”

ABSTRACT: Besides the philosophy of science there is a philosophy of particular sciences. This paper addresses each of the classical branches of philosophy (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics and aesthetics) from a soil science perspective. By comparing soil with rock, regolith, biomantle and duricrust we understand it from different perspectives. The roots of soil science lie in the study of soil for its own sake. Logically the main branches of soil science should be physics, chemistry (including mineralogy) and genesis, with each having applied divisions as appropriate: edaphology (agriculture, forestry, ecology); informatics (classification, spatiation, databases); environmental management (conservation, pollution, restoration) and engineering (construction, tillage, mining, traffic and water). Some hybrid subjects such as soil biology belong less in soil science than in the partner discipline. Certain fashionable terms used in soil science have pitfalls. Notable examples (with respective pitfalls) are soil health (condition and quality are sufficient terms); ecosystem services (property, process and function are adequate terms); intrinsic value (no such thing - value is relational by definition); holism and complexity theory (cognitive significance is lacking); sustainability (green politics buzzword); and organic production (a term widely abused). Cognitive significance is crucial. Research funding and public policy interact. Researchers often have a vested interest in accepting and promoting ideas. This applies to recipients of both government and big business funding. Some of the best discoveries result from amateur interest. Professional registration is claimed to ensure ethical practice but could be seen as unethical by those whom it excludes and those who feel they pay excessively for the service. Certification should be voluntary and non-registered practitioners free to establish and benefit from their own reputations. Soil and land can be viewed from an individualist (voluntary) or collectivist (coercive) perspective. Should soil pollution and erosion be tackled by legislation or jurisprudence? Soil profiles are beautiful. The colour and tilth of a ploughed field can be fine things to behold. Restoration after mining entails aesthetic landscaping. Some creative art is soil based. Soil themes in literature can be inspiring. The philosophy of soil science affects the self esteem of practitioners and makes soil science more durable as a discipline.

The expression of the mtDNA in plants is complex, particularly at the post-transcriptional level; RNA processing events which contribute to organellar genome expression include hundreds of RNA-editing events and the splicing of numerous group-II-type introns which lie within many protein-coding genes required in both respiration and organellar genome expression mediated functions. The splicing of the mt group-II introns is therefore essential for organellar function and is dependent upon different proteincous cofactors. While in non-plant systems, the splicing of group-II introns is mediated by proteins encoded within the introns themselves which are known as Maturases, only a single Maturase ORF (matR, encoded within the forth intron in nad1 gene) was retained in the mtDNA in plants; yet, its putative role(s) in the splicing of nad1 or additional organellar introns are yet to be established. Clues to other proteins are scarce, but these are likely to be encoded within the nucleus as beside MatR there are no obvious candidates among the remaining ORFs within the mtDNA. Intriguingly, in addition to matR, higher plants nuclear genomes also harbor four Maturase-related genes (nMat 1 to 4), which exist in the nucleus as self-standing ORFs out of the context of their “evolutionary related group-II introns hosts". These are all predicted to reside within the mitochondria and are therefore expected to function in the splicing of organellar introns. GFP-localization analyses indicated that the four nuc-Mats are localized to mitochondria in Arabidopsis. Analyses of the phenotypes associated with various Arabidopsis 'knock-out' mutants established the roles of the four nMats in the splicing of a different subset of mitochondrial introns.

Sasha Ivanovich has travelled to the UAE to study the amazing city of Masdar, hailed to be the world's first carbon neutral city. The lecture will be followed by drinks.

Dear Colleagues, You are all invited to the next in the series of the DVCR Prof Robyn Owens’ Lunchtime Seminars.

Title: Socialising your Research - publishing a paper is just the start…

Guest Speakers: Prof Stephan Lewandowsky – Professorial Fellow, School of Psychology An expert in human memory and learning; Steve is a regular contributor to “The Conversation”.

Prof T. Campbell McCuaig– Director, Centre for Exploration Targeting (CET) An expert in mineral deposit genesis and exploration; Cam interacts constantly with end-users, discipline experts and other stakeholders.

Venue: Murdoch Lecture Theatre, Ground Floor, Arts Building

Date and Time: Friday 16th September 1-2pm. See: http://www.uwa.edu.au/campus-map?id=2185

RSVP is NOT required.

Note: open the attachment to enter into your diaries.

Regards,

Vincent Wallace

Vincent P. Wallace, Ph.D. Research Development Advisor (FLPS) Research Services, M459 The University of Western Australia 35 Stirling Highway, CRAWLEY, WA, 6009

Office: +61 8 6488 3056 Fax: +61 8 6488 1075

Prof French is a physician/scientist who holds the positions of Winthrop Professor of Clinical Immunology in the School of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, UWA and Consultant Clinical Immunologist at Royal Perth Hospital and PathWest Laboratory Medicine, Perth.

Recent decades have seen a rapid increase in urban development throughout Perth. Such expansion has resulted in the unfortunate removal of large amounts of endemic vegetation.

The vegetation that is retained is often already predisposed to premature decline, and is further impacted upon by many inciting and contributing factors often leading to further decline and subsequent death. The managers of these trees allocate large budgets to their ongoing maintenance, removal and replacement, often driven by the fear of limb failure and risk to life and property.

This talk will discuss the various factors that cause premature decline of trees in the Perth urban area, the importance of correct diagnosis, and alternative methods for sustainable management of the tree population.

The Seminar: Since Galvani “galvanised” his frogs in the eighteenth century there have been attempts to link living tissue with electronics. However it has been the rapid reduction in size accompanied by increases in sophistication of electronics in the twenty first century that has opened up extraordinary possibilities for linking circuitry (hardware) with biological tissue (wetware). In this seminar I will describe the various attempts to integrate microcircuits with living cells, tissues and organisms, including humans. I want to draw attention to the different motivations of those working in basic, applied and artistic research and how each has exploited the advances in technology to produce startling and futuristic objects linking the living and inanimate. I will discuss the practical and ethical dilemmas such hybrids engender and what may be possible in the all too near future.

The Speaker: Stuart Bunt is Professorial Fellow in Teaching and Learning in the School of Anatomy and Human Biology. A zoologist/neurobiologist by training, Stuart has been involved with computer aided learning and new media art since the early eighties. In 2000 he teamed up with Miranda Grounds and Oron Catts to found SymbioticA, a research laboratory for artistic research, predominantly in the life sciences. One of the first collaborative projects of the SymbioticA Research Group, based on Stuart’s research, was a drawing robot powered by a fish brain. Stuart was scientific director of SymbioticA from its inception to 2007 when SymbioticA won the inaugural Golden Nica for hybrid arts at Ars ElectronicA. SymbioticA, with Oron Catts as director, is now a State Centre of Excellence and continues to attract residents from around the world.

  We are living in a period of ecocultural disintegration. The complexity and diversity of culture and ecology (ecocultural diversity) is being removed and/or homogenised by powerful forces all tied to modernity, global development and now, climate change. In some respects we are now all in the position of Indigenous peoples who have a lived experience of the desolation of their endemic sense of place and culture. But now, as global ecosystems and the climate change, the whole earth as ‘home’ becomes alien to us.

Despite the scale and power of these transformations to our home at all scales, we generally lack the concepts to understand the negative and positive dimensions of our situation. This presentation will examine what I call  ‘psychoterratic states’ with particular emphasis on the concept of solastalgia, developed by me to explain the lived experience of negative environmental change to a loved home environment. In this case, the loved home environment is Perth and its location within South West, Western Australia.

I will conclude with some thoughts about positive concepts that oppose solastalgia that might bring about genuine sustainability and human happiness ... even in Perth.

Bio,

Glenn Albrecht undertakes internationally relevant transdisciplinary research in the domain of sustainability and ecosystem health and has also produced research papers/publications in environmental history, transdisciplinarity, sustainability, environmental politics, environmental and animal ethics.

Glenn is on the editorial board of the international journal Ecohealth and is a member of the International Association for Health and Ecology. He has been the J.W. McConnell Visiting Professor in Ecosystem Health at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario in 2003, 2005 and 2007 where he has conducted research and teaching.

**** All Welcome ****

The Seminar: Approximately 10% of fertility treatment cycles in Australia use gametes (sperm or eggs) donated from a third party. In the past donors were usually anonymous, little personal or health information about them was stored and children born were seldom told the manner of their conception. More recently there has been a shift in societal attitude away from secrecy towards openness. This seminar discusses the changes in policy and practices of donor conception in Australia over the last decade, the accompanying changes in the profile of donors and recipients, and the different value those stakeholders in the donor conception process place on information about the donor.

The Speaker: Kathy Sanders has a BSc (Hons) and PhD from The University of Western Australia (UWA). She was appointed lecturer in the School of Anatomy & Human Biology at UWA in 2002 and teaches human biology and reproductive biology to undergraduate science and medical students. Dr Sanders’ research brings together theory and practice from psychology, endocrinology and evolutionary ecology to examine lifestyle and psychosocial factors influencing human reproduction. Her research centers around three main areas: the impact and interaction of stress (psychosocial and energetic) on reproductive processes; the stress buffering effects of supportive social relationships on psychological and reproductive health outcomes; and issues surrounding the use of donated gametes and embryos in assisted reproductive technology. Dr Sanders is a deputy member of the Reproductive Technology Council of Western Australia and a member of its Scientific Advisory Committee.