Master planned estates : parish or panacea?

Master planned estates in Australia emerge from two major directions: one aims to address the inadequacies of 1970s suburbanisation and the other comes from governments and developers seeking to realise alternatives. The very idea of master planning has a longer history, one that arguably dates back to 19th-century Utopian Socialism and Baron Haussmann\u27s redesign of Paris, which involved a large-scale, comprehensive alternative vision realised by a sanctioned authority. Master planning thereby partakes of both utopianism and authoritarianism. These associations have infused the discussion and construction of Australian master planned estates rendering them both pariah and panacea. But research and my own experience suggests that they are far more panaceas than pariahs

Resolving taxonomic confusion : establishing the genus Phytobacter on the list of clinically relevant Enterobacteriaceae

Although many clinically significant strains belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae fall into a restricted number of genera and species, there is still a substantial number of isolates that elude this classification and for which proper identification remains challenging. With the current improvements in the field of genomics, it is not only possible to generate high-quality data to accurately identify individual nosocomial isolates at the species level and understand their pathogenic potential but also to analyse retrospectively the genome sequence databases to identify past recurrences of a specific organism, particularly those originally published under an incorrect or outdated taxonomy. We propose a general use of this approach to classify further clinically relevant taxa, i.e., Phytobacter spp., that have so far gone unrecognised due to unsatisfactory identification procedures in clinical diagnostics. Here, we present a genomics and literature-based approach to establish the importance of the genus Phytobacter as a clinically relevant member of the Enterobacteriaceae family

Description of Pseudomonas imrae sp. nov., carrying a novel class C β-lactamase gene variant, isolated from gut samples of Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus)

Three β-lactam resistant bacterial strains isolated from gut samples of wild Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus) collected from the northern North Sea were characterized by polyphasic analyses. The strains were determined to belong to the genus Pseudomonas but could not be assigned to a known species. The nearly-complete 16S rRNA gene sequence showed the highest similarity (99.9%) to four different species, although partial rpoD sequence exhibited relatively low similarities to Pseudomonas proteolytica (93.4%) and other Pseudomonas spp. Genome sequencing and subsequent digital DNA–DNA hybridization (dDDH), average nucleotide identity (ANI) analysis and core genome analysis confirmed that these strains represent a novel species within the genus Pseudomonas. The three strains demonstrated ANIb values >99.5% with each other, confirming that all three strains (CCUG 74779T = CECT 30571T, CCUG 74780 and CCUG 74781) belong to the same genomospecies. Phylogenomic analysis confirmed that the strains form a distinct genomic clade, representing a novel taxonomic species, for which the name Pseudomonas imrae sp. nov., is proposed, with strain CCUG 74779T (=CECT 30571T) designated as the type strain. We report the complete genome sequence of the type strain of P. imrae sp. nov. and show that it carries a gene encoding a novel variant of a chromosomally-encoded class C β-lactamase, which has been designated as PFL-7

Land Prices in Wollongong: 1956-72

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Macroeconomic variables and real estate returns: an international comparison

The relationship between property returns and the macro economy is important to investors' strategies. Pattern analysis based on correlation models reveals the ongoing macroeconomic links with major international property markets. In this study, gross domestic product, unemployment, and inflation were identified as leading macroeconomic determinants affecting Australian, Canadian, U.K., and U.S. commercial property performance during 1985-1999

Tri-axial dynamic acceleration as a proxy for animal energy expenditure; should we be summing values or calculating the vector?

Dynamic body acceleration (DBA) has been used as a proxy for energy expenditure in logger-equipped animals, with researchers summing the acceleration (overall dynamic body acceleration - ODBA) from the three orthogonal axes of devices. The vector of the dynamic body acceleration (VeDBA) may be a better proxy so this study compared ODBA and VeDBA as proxies for rate of oxygen consumption using humans and 6 other species. Twenty-one humans on a treadmill ran at different speeds while equipped with two loggers, one in a straight orientation and the other skewed, while rate of oxygen consumption (VO2) was recorded. Similar data were obtained from animals but using only one (straight) logger. In humans, both ODBA and VeDBA were good proxies for VO2 with all r2 values exceeding 0.88, although ODBA accounted for slightly but significantly more of the variation in VO2 than did VeDBA (P<0.03). There were no significant differences between ODBA and VeDBA in terms of the change in VO2 estimated by the acceleration data in a simulated situation of the logger being mounted straight but then becoming skewed (P = 0.744). In the animal study, ODBA and VeDBA were again good proxies for VO2 with all r2 values exceeding 0.70 although, again, ODBA accounted for slightly, but significantly, more of the variation in VO2 than did VeDBA (P<0.03). The simultaneous contraction of muscles, inserted variously for limb stability, may produce muscle oxygen use that at least partially equates with summing components to derive DBA. Thus, a vectorial summation to derive DBA cannot be assumed to be the more ‘correct’ calculation. However, although within the limitations of our simple study, ODBA appears a marginally better proxy for VO2. In the unusual situation where researchers are unable to guarantee at least reasonably consistent device orientation, they should use VeDBA as a proxy for VO2