Interpodes: Poland, Tom Keneally and Australian Literary History

Poland features in a number of Keneally’s books and is one of the leading sources of translation for his work. The article explores possible causes and effects around this fact, and surveys some reader responses from Poland. It notes the connections that Keneally’s Catholic background and activist sympathies allow to modern Polish history and assesses the central place of his Booker-winning Schindler’s Ark filmed as Schindler’s List

Experimental investigation of evolving anisotropy in unsaturated soils

This paper investigates the ‘initial’ and ‘evolving’ mechanical anisotropy of a compacted unsaturated soil. Awide campaign of triaxial compression and extension tests, involving different stress and suction paths, has been performed on both isotropically and anisotropically compacted samples of unsaturated Speswhite kaolin. The first objective is the definition of the initial yield surface of the compacted soil after suction equalisation and before any plastic loading/wetting path takes place. This is followed by the investigation of the evolution of the yield surface induced by plastic straining along different loading/wetting paths. Experimental results are interpreted by using two alternative stress variables, namely net stresses σij and Bishop’s stress σ� ij ¼ σij þ δijSrs (where δij is Kronecker delta, Sr is the degree of saturation and s is suction). Constant suction cross-sections of the yield surface are represented as distorted ellipses not passing through the origin in the q:p plane of deviator stress plotted against mean net stress, and by distorted ellipses passing through the origin in the q:p* plane of deviator stress plotted against mean Bishop’s stress. The inclination of these distorted elliptical yield curves evolves with plastic straining but remains the same at all suction levels for a given level of plastic deformation. The critical state lines in the planes q:p and q:p*, or in the semi-logarithmic v:lnp and v:lnp* planes (v is the specific volume), are generally independent of initial anisotropy or stress history, suggesting that fabric memory tends to be erased at critical state

Review of Manohar Malgonkar: a study of his complete fiction, by D.S. Rao

Review of Manohar Malgonkar: a study of his complete fiction, by D.S. Ra

Selective co-expression of synaptic proteins, α-synuclein, cysteine string protein-α, synaptophysin, synaptotagmin-1, and synaptobrevin-2 in vesicular acetylcholine transporter-immunoreactive axons in the guinea-pig ileum

Author version made available in accordance with publisher's policy.Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by Lewy bodies and neurites composed mainly of the presynaptic protein α-synuclein. Frequently, Lewy bodies and neurites are identified in the gut of Parkinson's disease patients and may underlie associated gastrointestinal dysfunctions. We recently reported selective expression of α-synuclein in the axons of cholinergic neurons in the guinea pig and human distal gut; however, it is not clear whether α-synuclein expression varies along the gut, nor how closely expression is associated with other synaptic proteins. We used multiple-labeling immunohistochemistry to quantify which neurons in the guinea pig ileum expressed α-synuclein, cysteine string protein-α (CSPα), synaptophysin, synaptotagmin-1, or synaptobrevin-2 in their axons. Among the 10 neurochemically defined axonal populations, a significantly greater proportion of vesicular acetylcholine transporter-immunoreactive (VAChT-IR) varicosities (80% ± 1.7%, n = 4, P < 0.001) contained α-synuclein immunoreactivity, and a significantly greater proportion of α-synuclein-IR axons also contained VAChT immunoreactivity (78% ± 1.3%, n = 4) compared with any of the other nine populations (P < 0.001). Among synaptophysin-, synaptotagmin-1-, synaptobrevin-2-, and CSPα-IR varicosities, 98% ± 0.7%, 96% ± 0.7%, 88% ± 1.6%, and 85% ± 2.9% (n = 4) contained α-synuclein immunoreactivity, respectively. Among α-synuclein-IR varicosities, 96% ± 0.9%, 99% ± 0.6%, 83% ± 1.9%, and 87% ± 2.3% (n = 4) contained synaptophysin-, synaptotagmin-1-, synaptobrevin-2-, and CSPα immunoreactivity, respectively. We report a close association between the expression of α-synuclein and the expression of other synaptic proteins in cholinergic axons in the guinea pig ileum. Selective expression of α-synuclein may relate to the neurotransmitter system utilized and predispose cholinergic enteric neurons to degeneration in Parkinson's disease.Australian National Health & Medical Research Counci

Sensory innervation of the guinea pig colon and rectum compared using retrograde tracing and immunohistochemistry.

Embargoed until 2 April 2017 as per publisher's policy

Neurochemical coding compared between varicose axons and cell bodies of myenteric neurons in the guinea-pig ileum

This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.The discrete functional classes of enteric neurons in the mammalian gastrointestinal tract have been successfully distinguished on the basis of the unique combination of molecules and enzymes in their cell bodies (“chemical coding”). Whether the same chemical coding exists in varicose axons of different functional classes has not been systematically tested. In this study, we quantified the coexistence of markers that define classes of nerve cell bodies in the myenteric plexus of the guinea-pig ileum, in varicose axons of the same neurons. Profound differences between the combinations of immunohistochemical markers in myenteric nerve cell bodies and in their varicosities were identified. These discrepancies were particularly notable for classes of neurons that had previously been classified as cholinergic, based on immunoreactivity for choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) in their cell bodies. To detect cholinergic varicose axons of enteric neurons in this study, we used antiserum against the vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT). ChAT-immunoreactivity has been reported to be consistently co-localized with 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) in interneuronal cell bodies, yet only 29 ± 5% (n = 4) of 5-HT-immunoreactive varicosities contained vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT). Somatostatin coexists with ChAT-immunoreactivity in a class of descending interneuron but only 21 ± 1% (n = 4) of somatostatin-immunoreactive varicosities were VAChT-immunoreactive. Comparable discrepancies were also noted for non-cholinergic markers. The results suggest that chemical coding of cell bodies does not necessarily reflect chemical coding of varicose axon terminals and that the assumption that nerve cell bodies that contain ChAT are functionally cholinergic may be questionable.Australian National Health & Medical Research Counci

Neurochemical characterization of extrinsic nerves in myenteric ganglia of the guinea pig distal colon

"This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: [Chen, B. N., Sharrad, D. F., Hibberd, T. J., Zagorodnyuk, V. P., Costa, M. and Brookes, S. J.H. (2015), Neurochemical characterization of extrinsic nerves in myenteric ganglia of the guinea pig distal colon. J. Comp. Neurol., 523: 742–756. doi: 10.1002/cne.23704], which has been published in final form at [http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cne.23704]. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. http://olabout.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-820227.html#terms"Extrinsic nerves to the gut influence the absorption of water and electrolytes and expulsion of waste contents, largely via regulation of enteric neural circuits; they also contribute to the control of blood flow. The distal colon is innervated by extrinsic sympathetic and parasympathetic efferent and spinal afferent neurons, via axons in colonic nerve trunks. In the present study, biotinamide tracing of colonic nerves was combined with immunohistochemical labeling for markers of sympathetic, parasympathetic and spinal afferent neurons to quantify their relative contribution to the extrinsic innervation. Calcitonin gene-related peptide, vesicular acetylcholine transporter and tyrosine hydroxylase, which selectively label spinal afferent, parasympathetic and sympathetic axons, respectively, were detected immunohistochemically in 1 ± 0.5% (n = 7), 15 ± 4.7% (n = 6) and 24 ± 4% (n = 7) of biotinamide-labeled extrinsic axons in myenteric ganglia. Immunoreactivity for vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, nitric oxide synthase, somatostatin, vesicular glutamate transporters 1 and 2 accounted for a combined maximum of 14% of biotinamide-labeled axons in myenteric ganglia. Thus, a maximum of 53% of biotinamide-labeled extrinsic axons in myenteric ganglia were labeled by antisera to one of these eight markers. Viscerofugal neurons were also labeled by biotinamide, and shown to have distinct morphologies and spatial distributions that correlated closely with their immunoreactivity for nitric oxide synthase and choline acetyltransferase. As reported for the rectum, nearly half of all extrinsic nerve fibers to the distal colon lack the key immunohistochemical markers commonly used for their identification. Their abundance may therefore have been significantly underestimated in previous immunohistochemical studies

Synthesis, characterization and DFT studies of the cobalt(III) complex of a tetrapodal pentadentate N4S donor ligand

The synthesis of the pentadentate ligand 2,6-bis(3,3-dimethyl-2,4-dioxocyclohexanyl)-4-thiaheptane (N(4)Samp) is described. The synthetic pathway involves the coupling of two 1,3-(dimethylenedioxy)-2-methyl-2-(methylene-p-toluenesulfonyl)propane moieties with sodium sulfide and subsequent synthetic elaboration to prepare the final N4S donor system. The cobalt(III) complex [Co(N(4)Samp)Cl](2+) has been prepared and subsequently crystallized as the tetrachlorozincate salt. The X-ray structure analysis confirms the pentadentate nature of the ligand and shows the thioether donor occupying one apex with four equivalent amine donors effectively occupying the equatorial plane of the molecule. The sixth coordination site is occupied by a chloro ligand. The electronic absorption and C-13 NMR spectra have been studied. DFT calculations have been employed to explore structural and mechanistic comparisons between [Co(N(4)Samp)Cl](2+) and an analogous pentaamine complex