What's On at UWA

What do you do when you’re feeling stressed? Where would you go if you were sexually harassed? ‘Health Day’ is run by fourth year health promotion students aiming to answer questions like these and target issues of Mental Health and Sexual Health on campus. Come down the Oak Lawn on Tuesday 8th May from 12-2pm for a range of fun activities and to find out more!

Dr Shelley Gorman from Telethon Institute for Child Health Research will give a talk on "UVR-induced vitamin D: essential for immunoregulation?" in the Microbiology & Immunology Seminar room, Friday, 11 May 2012 at 09.00am. Vitamin D is synthesised in the skin after exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) found in sunlight, and can suppress immunity in a similar manner to UVR. Our studies show that topically-applied vitamin D can increase the suppressive activity of regulatory T cells through interleukin-2 and skin-derived dendritic cell mechanisms. However, the role of vitamin post-UVR in suppressing immunity has not been determined and I will discuss our recent findings, which indicate that UV-induced vitamin D may not be essential for immunoregulation.

A public lecture by Associate Professor David Glance, Director, UWA Centre for Software Practice.

From July 2012, Australians will be able to register for their own Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR). The PCEHR will potentially allow consumers to have access to a summary of their medical information including medications, medical history, information about allergies and adverse drug reactions and letters and documents. In contrast to a summary record like the PCEHR, the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services Council (KAMSC), in collaboration with The University of Western Australia, is using a web-based electronic health record called MMEx for 22,000 mostly Aboriginal people in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The difference between this approach and the PCEHR is that everyone is working off the same record. Practitioners have to work collaboratively, because their changes are immediately seen by everyone involved in the care of the patient. It is very unlikely that the PCEHR will revolutionise health care in Australia any more than its equivalent did in the United Kingdom. From an e-health perspective, this will only come from a single shared electronic health record with clinical protocols and governance that allow health providers to collaborate with a patient in managing their health and wellbeing.

Cost: Free, no RSVP required.

The Speaker: Dr Watson trained as a molecular biologist in the United Kingdom and conducted his first post doc with Prof Steven Holgate, Prof Newton Morten and Prof. Patricia Jacobs in Southampton , UK performing genetic linkage analysis to Atopy and allergic disease. In 1994 he took up a position as the manager of the Centre for Cell and molecular Biology at the University of Western Australia.

In 1996 he was successful in obtaining NH&MRC funding for a project looking at the molecular aspects of the Murine AIDS virus. Dr Watson then moved to a research position within the WA Health Department at Royal Perth Hospital Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases to study the Hepatitis C Virus which remains one of his main research areas to date.

In 2006 Dr Watson took up the position of Manager of the newly established Geomics Node of the Lotterywset Biomedical facility located within the Department of Immunology and Immunogenetics at Royal Perth Hospital.

Dr Watson has been highly active in organising conferences both local and national (CBSM and ASM) and has previously chaired CBSM 92002-2005). Dr Watson is an ASMWA committee member and is the chair of the WA health Hepatitis C Virus statewide database development group.

He joined the Institute for Immunology and Infectious Diseases as the Laboratory Manager in December 2008. His most active area of current research is in the area of the Hepatitis C virus with particular focus on molecular immunology and antivirals.

Ms Alexandra Debowski will give a talk on "The development of a tetracycline-based gene regulation system to study H. pylori pathogenesis and persistence" in the Microbiology & Immunology Seminar room, Friday, 18 May 2012 at 09.00am. A limited number of genetic tools are available to study Helicobacter pylori pathogenesis. In particular, gene expression systems, that allow the regulation of bacterial genes during an infection are lacking. Such a genetic tool is of particular importance to study the functional role and temporal requirements of H. pylori virulence determinants as infection is persistent and clinical diseases develop after many years of chronic inflammation and epithelial damage. This study describes the development of a chromosomal H. pylori gene regulation system based on tetracyclines for the control of gene expression, both in vitro and in vivo.

A/Prof Mohammed Benghezal will give a talk on "Xer recombination in H. pylori" in the Microbiology & Immunology Seminar room, Friday, 25 May 2012 at 09.00am. In the model organism E. coli, recombination mediated by the related XerC and XerD recombinases complexed with the FtsK translocase at specialized dif sites, resolves dimeric chromosomes into free monomers to allow efficient chromosome segregation at cell division. Computational genome analysis of Helicobacter pylori, a slow growing gastric pathogen, identified just one chromosomal xer gene (xerH) and its cognate dif site (difH). Here we show that recombination between directly repeated difH sites requires XerH, FtsK but not XerT, the TnPZ transposon associated recombinase. xerH inactivation was not lethal, but resulted in increased DNA per cell, suggesting defective chromosome segregation. The xerH mutant also failed to colonize mice, and was more susceptible to UV and ciprofloxacin, which induce DNA breakage, and thereby recombination and chromosome dimer formation. xerH inactivation and overexpression each led to a DNA segregation defect, suggesting a role for Xer recombination in regulation of replication. In addition to chromosome dimer resolution and based on the absence of genes for topoisomerase IV (parC, parE) in H. pylori, we speculate that XerH may contribute to chromosome decatenation, although possible involvement of H. pylori’s DNA gyrase and topoisomerase III homologue are also considered. Further analyses of this system should contribute to general understanding of and possibly therapy development for H. pylori, which causes peptic ulcers and gastric cancer; for the closely related, diarrheagenic Campylobacter species; and for unrelated slow growing pathogens that lack topoisomerase IV, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

The Lung Institute of WA invites you to a free seminar on: "Lung function – going global in 2012" by Professor Graham Hall from the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research. Time: 12 noon for light lunch with 12.30pm – 1.30pm presentation.

Get your Quiz on to help raise money to fight sex trafficking in Nepal!

Tickets are $20 each, or a table of 8 for $145 and include some finger food. 18+ ID required, as the venue services alcohol. Children are welcome but need to be accompanied by at least one of their parents/legal guardians. Arrive at 7:30pm for a 7:45pm start.

All proceeds will be going towards Maiti Nepal, a group that provides prevention, rehabilitation, education, health services and more for Nepalese women and children who are victims of sex trafficking.

Step Right Up as The 2012 HSS Ball & Awards Night Carnival is coming soon! This spectacular wonder will be in town for one night only; Saturday 2nd June - Everyone is welcome.

Brought to you by- HSS, HSA, PHPS & SPH, this will be a night full of magic and fun not to be missed!

Step Right Up as the 2012 Health Students’ Society Ball & Awards Night Carnival is coming soon!

This spectacular wonder will be in town for one night only; Saturday 2nd June. Be mystified from 7:30pm at the Forrest Centre Atrium.

Tickets ($110 members, $115 non-members) are available from www.trybooking.com/BIAO or from committee representatives. Contact Sophie ([email protected]) or Fiona ([email protected]) for more information.

This will be a night full of magic and fun not to be missed! Three course meal, drinks and entertainment provided. This is an 18+ event.

HSS represents students studying Bachelor of Health Science and Bachelor of Science with majors of Population Health, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing and Pharmacology - Find us on Facebook "Health Students' Society (UWA)"

The Three MInute Thesis (3MT) is a fun and challenging event that encourages the communication of research to a wide audience. The UWA 3MT competition finals will be held on 25th July and this presentation is a comprehensive guide to the preparation and presentation of a compelling 3MT talk. The presenter, Simon Clews,is an experienced 3MT judge who has championed the 3MT competition in Australia and internationally.

LIWA invites you to a free seminar on: "eResearch and the opportunities of applying digital technology in healthcare research" by Professor Jennifer Harrison from iVEC@UWA. Time: 12 noon for light lunch with 12.30pm – 1.30pm presentation

The course is designed for people with little or no knowledge of statistics. It will be spread over three days covering material ranging from means and standard deviations to simple linear regression, and basic ANOVA. Some basic categorical data analysis will be included with the emphasis throughout being placed on applications rather than theory. The statistical package SPSS will be used to illustrate ideas demonstrated, however this course is aimed at enabling an understanding of basic statistics.

This lunchtime seminar will be a series of 5-7 minute presentations facilitated by Assistant Professor Rita Armstrong, followed by a thirty minute question and answer session. A light lunch will be provided.

More about the speakers:

James Trevelyan's career spans nearly 4 decades, the first two of which were devoted to engineering practice in aerospace and subsequently robotics and automation for the Australian wool industry. He and his research students developed technology for remote internet control for robots and also for providing remote access to laboratory equipment, technology that has now been widely adopted worldwide.

Dr Roberto Togneri received the B.E. degree in 1985, and the PhD degree in 1989 both from the University of Western Australia and is a Senior Member of the IEEE. He has published over 80 refereed journal and conference papers in the areas of signals and information systems and is the chief investigator on two Australian Research Council Discovery Project research grants from 2010 to 2013. Dr Togneri’s commitment to teaching is exemplified by six Faculty nominations for excellence in teaching, a 2008 Faculty team teaching award, and a 2007 School highest student satisfaction survey. He is a member of the Faculty Academy for the Scholarship of Education and a member of the Foundation Curriculum Development Team. He has co-authored a textbook and various publications in education engineering research.

Dr Andrew Guzzomi (School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering) became in 2006 the first PhD candidate from the School of Mechanical Engineering to be awarded a Postgraduate Teaching Internship. Since this time, his interest in engineering education has grown. During his postdoctoral studies at the University of Bologna he became fascinated by the history of engineering and what we can learn today from revisiting ancient sources. He is currently exploring how a society’s grasp of thresholds may be demonstrated by marked leaps in architectural/industrial/warfare technology. He has published 7 conference and 1 journal paper related to teaching and learning in engineering, was a member of the International Advisory Board for ICERI 2009 and a Session Chair for INTED 2009. Andrew has won multiple awards related to both teaching and research excellence; most recently being the sole recipient of the 2011 Faculty Teaching Excellence Award.

Associate Professor Chris McDonald currently holds the appointments of associate professor in the School of Computer Science & Software Engineering at UWA and adjunct associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. Chris has recently taught in the areas of computer networking; security & privacy; mobile & wireless computing; software design & implementation; and operating systems. Together with these areas, his research interests include wireless, ad-hoc, & mobile networking; network simulation; and Computer Science Education.

R. Nazim Khan B.E. (electrical, 1986), BSc. (Maths and Stats,1992), PhD (Stats, 2004), all from UWA, Teacher’s Certificate (1982, Fiji Institute of Technology). Nazim has taught at several institutions, including Fiji Institute of Technology, UWA (1986-1989 in School of Electrical and Electronic Eng, 1989-2002, 2004- in Maths and Stats, 2002-2003 at UQ, QUT and Griffith University). He is particularly interested in student learning and motivating students to engage with learning. He has been nominated for the Faculty teaching award several times, and received a commendation in 2007. He has presented his ideas on teaching in conferences. He is currently looking at student performance and class attendance, the effect of online learning, and student learning habits with a view to adapting teaching methods accordingly.

Winthrop Professor Hui Tong Chua is a Winthrop Professor of the School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering and the Program Chair for the Chemical Engineering Program. Hui Tong has been very much involved in the design of the Engineering Foundation units, and coordinates the Engineering Thermodynamic part of the Energy Unit. He is currently part of the research team to evaluate how well students learn under the new pedagogy for the foundation units. Hui Tong was the recipient of the Faculty 2010 Commendation Award and 2010 Award for Teaching Excellence (Individual Teaching).

Please RSVP to [email protected] as early as possible to assist with catering.

Dr Harvey Rubin will present a seminar on bioterrorism (what is it and how do we recognize it?) and illustrate the ethical considerations for the modern scientist when conducting your own work. In his talk he will consider if changes to our current governance should be considered necessary for the safe and ethical conduct of research in infectious diseases which would enhance public safety and security but that could occur at the expense of scientific curiosity. Dr Rubin is the director of the Institute for Strategic Threat Analysis and Response (ISTAR) at the University of Pennsylvania. His research in microbiology involves investigating the pathogenesis of dormancy in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and understanding the enzymology and cell biology of serine proteases and serine protease inhibitors: His lab is also involved in biomolecular computation, a new endeavour in which complex computational operations are carried out using biomolecules, in particular using DNA to create reversible logic gates. This seminar is supported by the West Australian branch of the Australian Society of Microbiology. Light refreshments will be available at this event. Parking is available at the Medicine and Dentistry library or in Hampden Rd.

The course is designed for people with knowledge of basic statistics who want to learn more about regression and analysis of variance (ANOVA).

The course is hosted by the Centre for Applied Statistics and we offer discounted rate fees to UWA Graduate Research Students.

Fee information is available on our website cas.maths.uwa.edu.au. Please register online.

The 3MT competition challenges research students to give a dynamic and engaging presentation about their research and its significance in a way that can be understood by everybody. The audience will select the "People's Choice" winner.

The Annual Lecture is the highlight of the year for the UWA Historical Society and Convocation and we are delighted to welcome Winthrop Professor Cheryl Praeger to the podium to reflect upon her years on Campus and subsequent experiences and achievements.

Mathematician Cheryl Praeger has served the University of Western Australia as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and Professor since 1976. She leads a flourishing research group in pure mathematics and is in the top one per cent of highly cited mathematicians in the world.

Attendance is free.

The course is designed for people with knowledge of basic statistics who want to learn more about how to analyse binary or survival data.

The course is hosted by the Centre for Applied Statistics and we offer discounted rate fees to UWA Graduate Research Students.

Fee information is available on our website http://www.cas.maths.uwa.edu.au/courses. Please register online.

LIWA invites you to a free seminar on: "Stem cells and lung regeneration" by Professor Geoff Laurent, Director, Centre for Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine, UWA. Time: 12 noon for light lunch with 12.30pm – 1.30pm presentation.