University Of Western Australia Research Articles

Study Evaluates Hydrate Antiagglomerants

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper OTC 28578, “Quantitative Ranking and Development of Hydrate Antiagglomerants,” by Shane A. Morrissy, Temiloluwa O. Kuteyi, Mike L. Johns, Eric F. May, SPE, and Zachary M. Aman, SPE, University of Western Australia, and Stuart F. McKay, SPE, Woodside Energy, prepared for the 2018 Offshore Technology Conference Asia, Kuala Lumpur, 20–23 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Copyright 2018 Offshore Technology Conference. Reproduced by permission. A common hydrate-management strategy involves the use of large volumes of thermodynamic inhibitors (THIs) to operate outside the hydrate-stability region. However, this strategy represents significant capital expenditure and operating costs. Low-dosage hydrate inhibitors (LDHIs), in the form of kinetic hydrate inhibitors (KHIs) and antiagglomerants (AAs), present an economical alternative to THIs. In this study, a quantitative micromechanical force (MMF) has been deployed to study the performance of seven industry AAs. The results illustrate that an effective AA is one that lowers the cohesive forces between hydrate particles. Introduction AAs prevent hydrate agglomeration of a steady-state hydrate slurry. Hydratephilic AAs are surfactants that adsorb to the hydrate/oil interface in preference to the water/oil interface. Current operating experience suggests that AAs may be unsuited to the high water cuts that are characteristic of late field life. A successful hydrate AA lowers the cohesive force or surface free energy of hydrate particles to prevent agglomeration. Rocking cells and high-pressure visual autoclaves provide a semiquantitative assessment of hydrate blockage. However, a knowledge gap exists with regard to whether current industry AAs actually lower hydrate interparticle cohesive and surface free energy. Techniques to deconvolute the mechanism of the action of AAs are required to better understand how AAs affect hydrate blockage. Experimental Procedure Micromechanical Hydrate Cohesive Force. A third-generation MMF apparatus was used to measure the cyclopentane hydrate interparticle cohesive force. The MMF uses cyclopentane to create Structure II cyclopentane hydrates, the same hydrate structure present in the field. The cohesive-force-measurement technique was adapted from previous re-search on hydrate cohesion and asphaltene cohesion. Interfacial Tensiometry. An optical interfacial tensiometer was used to measure the interfacial tension (IFT) between water and oil phases at ambient pressure and room temperature. A hooked needle with the AA prepared in paraffin oil was placed in a bulk phase of deionized water. The resolution of this apparatus is typically +- 1 mN/m and the threshold sensitivity is 1 mN/m. Typically, surfactant-free systems will rap-idly reach equilibrium within 1 minute of creating an oil droplet in water. Conversely, the presence of a surfactant may decrease the IFT as a function of time, asymptotically approaching a steady-state value. Because the AAs studied contain surfactant functionality, each IFT was measured for at least 20 minutes, after which point the IFT was not observed to change with time. Each data point represents an average of at least four independent trials.

High Life Study protocol: a cross-sectional investigation of the influence of apartment building design policy on resident health and well-being

IntroductionThe rapid increase in apartment construction in Australia has raised concerns about the impacts of poorly designed and located buildings on resident health and well-being. While apartment design policies exist,...

Practical Applications of Bitcoin Price Anomalies: Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Trading on LocalBitcoins

<h3>Practical Applications Summary</h3> In <b>Bitcoin Price Anomalies: Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Trading on LocalBitcoins</b> from the Summer 2019 issue of <b><i>The Journal of Alternative Investments</i></b>, authors <b>Mark Holub</b> (of the <b>UWA Business School</b> at the <b>University of Western Australia</b>) and <b>Jackie Johnson</b> (an independent researcher in Perth, Australia) investigate why prices on the LocalBitcoins peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace run higher than on regular exchanges. They also explore whether investors can make gains by buying low on an exchange and selling high on LocalBitcoins (a process known as arbitrage). The answer is yes—but for not much money, and only by taking a lot of risk. The price differences are caused by differences in how the two marketplaces let investors buy and sell. LocalBitcoins lets buyers use PayPal, credit cards and gift card codes—which are risky for sellers because payments may fail. So, sellers set higher prices for riskier payment methods. Also, trades at the highest prices are rare and for not much money—meaning buyers with money to spend aren’t eager to pay a premium. So, investors can make small profits through arbitrage, but only if they are willing to assume significant risk. They should decide for themselves whether that is worth it. <b>TOPICS:</b>Currency, risk management, performance measurement

Digital literacies in language education

Janaina Cardoso interviews Mark Pegrum

Feminist heritage walks: materialising the feminist past in Perth, Australia and Glasgow, UK

Alison Bartlett has been researching the ways in which post 1970s feminism can be remembered as a material movement, investigating the role of objects, museums, archives, and sites of feminist events. Her most recent book on this topic is Things That Liberate: an Australian Feminist Wunderkammer, edited with Margaret Henderson. She is an Associate Professor in English and Literary Studies at The University of Western Australia, and has published widely on Australian feminist protest, Australian literature, maternal cultures and feminist pedagogy. Her forthcoming book is Flirting in the Era of #MeToo: Negotiating Intimacy, with Kyra Clarke and Rob Cover.This article proposes the idea of feminist heritage sites as a way of remembering feminist intellectual and activist legacies in situ. Sites of feminist activism offer global positioning with longitude and latitude, somewhere to drop a Google Maps pin, and also offer tangible locations of intangible heritage that arguably shape civic life and citizenship. The article canvasses literature from interrelated disciplinary areas to propose two case studies as sites of feminist memory: a feminist tour from 1980s Perth in Western Australia where the author lives, and the Glasgow women’s heritage walks in Scotland. The idea of walking proves to be significant as a way of moving through sites and producing knowledge, and is investigated as a feminist methodology and epistemology embodying a critical process of thinking through the recent feminist past.

Stability Over Time and Between Generations of Differential DNA Methylation Identified by Epigenome-Wide Association Study of Adolescent Adiposity

Background: Obesity predisposes to cardiovascular disease, itself influenced by perinatal factors. Epigenetics is hypothesized to link perinatal influences with later obesity. We aimed to identify, using an epigenome wide association study, differentially methylated CpGs measured at 17-years-old that associated with concurrent adiposity, then to ascertain whether the strongest of these associations were stable over time, between generations, and mediated the association between early life environment and later body composition. Methods: Genome-wide DNA methylation profiles were assayed using Infinium HumanMethylation 450K BeadChip arrays on blood samples from 1050 17-year-olds from The Raine Study (Generation 2). CpGs associated with adiposity measures (anthropometry, subcutaneous/visceral fat thickness by ultrasound) were pyrosequenced at 17 and 20-years-old (n=817), and in their mothers (n=406). Perinatal factors were examined as mediators of associations between CpG methylation and adiposity. Findings: Increased methylation of pyrosequenced CpGs within Musashi RNA Binding Protein 2 (MSI2), solute carrier family 25 member 10 (SLC25A10) and Ras Association (RalGDS/AF-6) Pleckstrin Homology Domains 1 (RAPH1) were associated with adiposity. Adjusting for perinatal factors, these CpGs independently predicted adolescent BMI accounting for 24% of the variance. MSI2 remained associated with BMI over time (β/SD, false discovery adjusted p-values: 17-years-old β=0.026, p=0.0025; 20-years-old β=0.027, p=0.0029), between generations (mother β=0.044, p=7.5e-04), with high sensitivity C-reactive protein (β=0.120, p=0.023) and leptin (β=0.149, p=0.0004). Interpretation: We report novel associations between DNA methylation within MSI2, SLC25A10 and RAPH1 with increased adolescent adiposity. For MSI2 these were stable over time, consistent across mother and child and, associated with inflammation. Funding Statement: The Raine Study Team, The NH&MRC, and The Telethon Kids Institute provided long term support of the Study. The University of Western Australia (UWA), Curtin University, The Telethon Kids Institute, Women and Infants Research Foundation, Edith Cowan University, Murdoch University, The University of Notre Dame Australia and Raine Medical Research Foundation provided funding for Core Management of the Raine Study. The DNA methylation work was supported by NHMRC grant 1059711. The 17 year follow-up was supported by National Health and Medical Research Council Program grant (ID353514) and Project grant (ID403981). RCH and TAM are supported by NHMRC Fellowships (grant number 1053384 and 1042255, respectively). S.R is supported by National Health and Medical Research Council EU grant (1142858) and the Department of Health, Western Australia FutureHealth fund in connection with the European Union's Horizon2020 grant 733206. This work was supported by resources provided by The Pawsey Supercomputing Centre with funding from the Australian Government and the Government of Western Australia. KMG is supported by the UK Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12011/4), the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR Senior Investigator (NF-SI-0515-10042) and the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre) and the European Union (Erasmus+ Programme Early Nutrition eAcademy Southeast Asia-573651-EPP-1-2016-1-DE-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP). Declaration of Interests: KMG has received reimbursement for speaking at conferences sponsored by companies selling nutritional products, and is part of an academic consortium that has received research funding from Abbott Nutrition, Nestec and Danone. All other authors declare no conflicts of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: Institutional ethics approval has been obtained through the University of Western Australia Ethics Committee (RA/4/1/6613, 1214-EP, RA-4-1-2646). Informed consent was obtained from legal guardians or parents of those under the age of 17 years with assent of the child. Informed consent was obtained for those 17 years and older.

Australian Rock Art in the Expanded Field: History, Meaning, and Contemporary Context

Compared with the prehistoric parietal art of Europe, Australian Aboriginal rock art is little known in art historical contexts, despite that fact that many of these works are older, more dynamic, and more sophisticated. More than the laneways of inner-city streets, much of the Australian landscape is literally layered with art. There are thousands of rock art sites recorded in Australia and perhaps an equal number that have been forgotten or destroyed. New galleries and cathedrals of colour are regularly reported in the popular press. Yet the status of rock art in Australian art history, like much of the rest of Indigenous art production, is under-researched and poorly conceptualised within the discipline. To address this, we devised a panel session for the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand’s 2017 annual conference, at the University of Western Australia, upon which this special issue is based. The responses we received were curated into two parallel interdisciplinary sessions, each of which had an artist, an art historian and an archaeologist.

Scale Heterogeneity and Its Implications for Discrete Choice Analysis

Katrina J. Davis, Research fellow UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia; Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia; and Land, Environment, Economics, and Policy Institute, University of Exeter Business School, Exeter, United Kingdom; k.davis2{at}exeter.ac.uk

Adapting Law Lectures to Maximise Student Engagement: Is It Time to 'Transform'?

Technological advances have undoubtedly brought significant benefits to students in higher education. Classes can be recorded for students who are unable to attend, communication between students and staff can be facilitated more easily online, and web-based tools and resources improve learning and university efficiency. However, this has not come without a cost. Class attendance has long been considered a significant issue in higher education, and has dramatically declined in the past decade. This is especially prominent in lectures, which have traditionally focused on information transfer from an instructor to their students without requiring students to think critically or respond. This is in contrast to tutorials and other workshop-style classes that are heavily problem solving-based. As Huff notes, this traditional style of lecturing often leads only to undeveloped information transfer from the lecturer to the student ‘without passing through the brains of either’. In such circumstances, lecture recordings capture most important information that students require, with significant resulting impact on attendance rates. In a study of a psychology class, Grabe, Christopherson, and Douglas found that 61 per cent of voluntary absences from class can be attributed to the availability of online lecture notes. A University of Western Australia (UWA) study conducted by Mascher and Skead found that 80 per cent of students attend classes because they do not want to miss something not picked up on a recording or because a class is not recorded. Dwindling student attendance is a major teaching and learning concern of higher education institutions worldwide. For many years, studies have shown that low attendance rates result in a significantly less effective teaching and learning environment. Higher student attendance directly corresponds with more positive student evaluation of teachers, and with higher grades and deeper learning. Collett, Gyles, and Hrasky found that a class taught fully online had significantly lower performance on multiple-choice tests when compared to a class taught through a combination of online and in- class instruction. Furthermore, if lectures fail to engage students or even draw them to the university campus, then this will have significantly adverse implications for traditional campus-based universities in an increasingly globalised, online, and competitive higher education market. Law schools face their own particular challenges, too. Law students are expected to develop the skills to critically interpret, apply, analyse, and comment on legal issues and principles. However the traditional, ‘one-way’ information transfer style of lecturing is far more adept to rote learning than to developing skills in critical analysis. How, then, can universities respond to this problem? One solution is shifting to ‘transformative’ teaching, whereby students’ learning and experience is ‘transformed’ and dynamic relationships between teachers, students, and a shared body of knowledge are created in order to promote student learning and personal growth. Transformative teaching and learning has its roots in the late-twentieth century, but has achieved significant traction in higher education literature in the past 10 years. Transformative teaching methods are designed to substantially increase student engagement and interest through transforming, or altering, students’ outlook or learning styles. As lectures, the most fundamental educational tool in legal education, ordinarily contain few transformative aspects, this style of class is ripe for such transformation. This article outlines an empirical study of students, staff, and executives at the UWA Law School to determine preferences for transformative teaching techniques and how they would best improve engagement and enjoyment in a lecture environment. Through a mix of student-centred learning, problem-based learning and active learning, an adaption of lectures to include more transformative techniques will be proposed — a formative resuscitation that would not go as far as King’s suggestion in the 1970s of a ‘radical departure from the normal type of classroom teaching’. This exploratory process will assist law schools, and indeed other university faculties, in improving attendance, engagement, and learning outcomes in lectures, with the aim of contemporising and helping transform student experiences at university. An emphasis on transformative teaching will also provide support for the continued use of ‘small seminar-style’ classes that are already utilised in many Australian law schools. Following an examination of relevant transformative teaching literature in Part II and a brief methodological outline in Part III, results of the study are analysed in Part IV and a set of key recommendations for law lectures proposed in Part V.

Lost at sea.

A growing sensory smog threatens the ability of fish to communicate, navigate, and survive.

Study protocol of a multicentre cohort pilot study implementing an expanded preconception carrier-screening programme in metropolitan and regional Western Australia

IntroductionPreconception carrier screening (PCS) identifies couples at risk of having children with recessive genetic conditions. New technologies have enabled affordable sequencing for multiple disorders simultaneously, including identifying carrier status for...

Shark depredation and behavioural interactions with fishing gear in a recreational fishery in Western Australia

This work was carried out under animal ethics approval from The University of Western Australia (approval number F 18979). We thank Terry Maxwell and Robert Perrett, the skippers of 'Osso Blue' and 'Blue Horizon', respectively, for their assistance with collection of video footage, and for providing detailed information on shark interactions with fishing vessels. Thanks also to the deckhands of these vessels and to all of the recreational fishers who assisted with collection of video footage. We also thank Rory McAuley from the Western Australia Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, for shark identification. Todd Bond and Michael Taylor from The University of Western Australia and Glenn Moore from the Western Australia Museum assisted with teleost fish identification. Two anonymous reviewers helped improve the manuscript. The research was financially supported by the Jock Clough Marine Foundation and the Western Australia Government's Recreational Fishing Initiatives Fund (project number 2016/08), which was administered by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development and Recfishwest. J. D. M. was funded by the Australian Federal Government and The University of Western Australia, through an Australian Postgraduate Award and an International Research Training Program (RTP) Stipend Scholarship, respectively.

A Conversation with Noel Cressie

Noel Cressie, FAA is Director of the Centre for Environmental Informatics in the National Institute for Applied Statistics Research Australia (NIASRA) and Distinguished Professor in the School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics at the University of Wollongong, Australia. He is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Missouri (USA), Affiliate of Org 398, Science Data Understanding, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (USA), and a member of the Science Team for NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite. Cressie was awarded a B.Sc. with First Class Honours in Mathematics in 1972 from the University of Western Australia, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Statistics in 1973 and 1975, respectively, from Princeton University (USA). Two brief postdoctoral periods followed, at the Centre de Morphologie Mathématique, ENSMP, in Fontainebleau (France) from April 1975–September 1975, and at Imperial College, London (UK) from September 1975–January 1976. His past appointments have been at The Flinders University of South Australia from 1976–1983, at Iowa State University (USA) from 1983–1998, and at The Ohio State University (USA) from 1998–2012. He has authored or co-authored four books and more than 280 papers in peer-reviewed outlets, covering areas that include spatial and spatio-temporal statistics, environmental statistics, empirical-Bayesian and Bayesian methods including sequential design, goodness-of-fit, and remote sensing of the environment. Many of his papers also address important questions in the sciences. Cressie is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and the Spatial Econometrics Association, and he is an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute. Noel Cressie’s refereed, unrefereed, and other publications are available at: https://niasra.uow.edu.au/cei/people/UOW232444.html.

Visualising Antimicrobial Susceptibility with Supervised Machine Learning

Background: Despite its importance to global health, antibiotic resistance remains difficult to detect and quantify without extensive laboratory work. The clinical laboratory uses antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) to guide the treatment of infection, even though an accurate result can take several days to produce. We previously developed a flow cytometer-based AST method that rapidly generated data from antibiotic-exposed bacteria. Visualization and classification of complex multidimensional flow cytometer data by supervised machine learning presented a potential solution to the need for more timely antimicrobial therapeutic decision support. Method: We employed a three-stage machine learning process to visualize and classify the effects of antimicrobial exposure on bacteria in a series of flow cytometer experiments. Using data from our flow-assisted antimicrobial susceptibility test (FAST) method, we optimised each successive stage of analysis, to build an ensemble machine learning pipeline. We then compared the results generated by the ensemble-generated FAST result with proprietary flow cytometer software, and with the AST reference method (Minimum Inhibitory Concentration by Broth Microdilution). Finally, we applied the analytic pipeline to data from representative bacterial isolates from a clinical laboratory to assess the potential impact of the pipeline on the speed and accuracy of AST. Results: The three successive data machines (a) defined an antibiotic-unexposed population (AUP) of test bacteria, (b) classified the FAST result as within/outside antimicrobial concentration test range, and when within range (c) detected a concentration-dependent antimicrobial effect (CDE) from which we determined a predicted effective concentration (PEC) for subsequent comparison with the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) broth microdilution (BMD) reference method. The complete pipeline generated an AUP, a susceptibility in-/outside tested range, a CDE, and a PEC. Reference culture collection Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus strains (ATCC 25922, ATCC 700603, ATCC 25923, ATCC 29213) tested against different antimicrobial agents (E. coli, K. pneumoniae: 13 agents, SEMPA1, SensititreTM, Oxoid, UK; and S. aureus: 16 agents, SEMSE3, Sensititreâ„¢, Oxoid) demonstrated a high degree of concordance between BMD MIC results and machine learning pipeline-analysed FAST results (categoric agreement of 91%, essential agreement of 100%). Detailed AST results were available from critical clinical isolates of E. coli and S. aureus on the same working day with only one major error (ME), the day before definitive BMD results. Conclusion: We used machine learning tools to visualise and classify antimicrobial susceptibility with the complex, multidimensional bacterial data sets generated by the FAST method. The speed at which antimicrobial susceptibility can be determined with the machine learning demonstrated here enabled same-day AST results from clinical isolates. This makes a case for using supervised machine learning to prototype automated or unsupervised analytical processes that improve the speed and throughput of rapid ASTs. When used by clinical microbiology services, the faster speed of AST result generation enabled by the combination of FAST and machine learning chould improve early antimicrobial therapeutic decisions, antimicrobial stewardship and identification of critical antimicrobial resistance. Funding: This project was unfunded, but data used to develop and test this pipeline were generated in projects funded by the Health Department of Western Australia, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, ThermoFisher Scientific, the University of Western Australia and Lab Without Walls Inc., a locally-based not-for-profit organization, in which major equipment and small volume reagents were provided gratis by ThermoFisher Scientific, Division of Protein and Cell Analysis, Eugene, Oregon, USA. Declaration of Interest: Dr Inglis reports other from University of Western Australia, other from ThermoFisher Scientific, outside the submitted work. In addition, Dr Inglis and three other authors (TFP, KTM, CFC) have a patent PCT for flow cytometry-assisted susceptibility testing, managed by the University of Western Australia in association with the Health Department of Western Australia pending to University of Western Australia. Ethical Approval: No results obtained in this study were used in the clinical management of patients. Bacterial isolates from clinical specimens were obtained after sub-culture onto agar media in accordance with the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines on research ethics which advise that bacterial isolates from clinical samples can be used without patient consent or waiver.

Portable DNA sequencer helps farmers stymie devastating viruses

Armed with a battery-operated minicomputer, a handheld DNA sequencer, and portable DNA-extraction machine, researchers gathered in a cassava field in Tanzania last August to chase down a major plant pest. Their plan was unprecedented: sequence the whole genome of the plant material to detect all potential viruses—and do so in a single day on a farm. “We called it tree lab, we were sitting under a tree,” says Laura Boykin, a computational biologist at the University of Western Australia. A group of farmers looks over a field of cassava in Mbinga, Tanzania, in 2016; unearthed cassava root is pictured ( Inset ). Researchers in the Cassava Virus Action Group have been able to increase yield by using portable DNA sequencers and extractors that facilitate the early detection of diseased plants. Image credit: Laura Boykin (photographer). Because plant samples are typically sent overseas to test for viruses, there’s a big distance between the farm and the laboratory—thousands of miles if you’re in eastern Africa. But within a few hours, a group of researchers, part of the Cassava Virus Action Project, determined what viruses infected the cassava crops on the farm and, more importantly, alerted farmers they would need to plant new crops that are resistant to the viruses they found. The researchers call themselves an “action group” because they’re “taking the level of knowledge we get as scientists, down to the farmer,” says Peter Sseruwagi, a research scientist at Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute (MARI) in Tanzania. “We’re able to show the farmer in a single day, what their crops are infected with.” This is a big deal, especially in Africa, where cassava, a sweet potato–like starch, is intricately tied to lives and livelihoods for many of the people on the continent. The two main cassava diseases, cassava brown streak virus and cassava mosaic …

Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS): Normative Data for Older Adults.

Provide updated older adult (ages 60+) normative data for the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), Form A, using regression techniques, and corrected for education, age, and gender. Participants (aged 60-93 years; N = 415) were recruited through the Healthy Ageing Research Program (HARP), University of Western Australia, and completed Form A of the RBANS as part of a wider neuropsychological test battery. Regression-based techniques were used to generate normative data rather than means-based methods. This methodology allows for the control of demographic variables using continuous data. To develop norms, the data were assessed for: (1) normality; (2) associations between each subtest score and age, education, and gender; (3) the effect of age, education, and gender on subtest scores; and (4) residual scores which were converted to percentile distributions. Differences were noted between the three samples, some of which were small and may not represent a clinically meaningful difference. Younger age, more years of education, and female gender were associated with better scores on most subtests. Frequency distributions, means, and standard deviations were produced using unstandardized residual scores to remove the effects of age, education, and gender. These normative data expand upon past work by using regression-based techniques to generate norms, presenting percentiles, as well as means and standard deviations, correcting for the effect of gender, and providing a free-to-use Excel macro to calculate percentiles.

Disentangling latitudinal diversity gradients in Taxonomic, Phylogenetic, and Functional diversity of Atlantic reef fishes

Disentangling latitudinal diversity gradients in Taxonomic, Phylogenetic, and Functional diversity of Atlantic reef fishes

The association between in-utero exposure to stressful life events during pregnancy and male reproductive function in a cohort of 20-year-old offspring: The Raine Study.

Is exposure to gestational stress in the critical time window for the normal differentiation and growth of male reproductive tissue associated with male reproductive function in offspring in later life? Exposure to stressful life events (SLEs) in early, but not late gestation, are associated with reduced adult male reproductive function, consistent with the hypothesis that events during early prenatal life programme adult male reproductive function. Animal studies suggest that gestational stress may impact on the reproductive function of male offspring, but human evidence is sparse. Using a prospective longitudinal cohort, we examined the association between number and type of maternal stressors during pregnancy in both early and late gestation and reproductive function in 643 male Generation 2 (offspring) at age 20 years. Mothers and their male Generation 2 (offspring) from The Raine Study participated. Mothers prospectively reported SLEs during pregnancy recorded at gestational weeks 18 and 34 using a standardized 10-point questionnaire. The 643 male Generation 2 (offspring) underwent testicular ultrasound examination and semen analysis and provided serum for reproductive hormone analysis. Multivariate linear regression analysis was used to examine associations. Of 643 recruited males, 407 (63%) were exposed to at least one SLE in early gestation. Fewer SLEs were reported in late gestation (n = 343, 53%). Maternal SLE exposure in early gestation was negatively associated with total sperm count (β = -0.31, 95% CI -0.58; -0.03), number of progressive motile sperm (β = -0.15, 95% CI -0.31; 0.00) and morning serum testosterone concentration (β = -0.04, 95% CI -0.09; -0.00). No similar effects of maternal SLE exposure in late pregnancy were detected. The large sample size and an objective detailed direct assessment of adult male reproductive function with strict external quality control for sperm quality, as well as detailed prospectively collected information on prenatal SLEs in two distinct time windows of pregnancy reported by the women in early and late gestation along with other risk factors, imply minimal possibility of recall, information bias and selection bias. When assessing our results, we adjusted for a priori chosen confounders, but residual confounding or confounding by factors unbeknown to us cannot be ruled out. It is not possible to measure how SLEs impacted differently on the mother's experience or perception of stress. Resilience (coping) gradients may alter cortisol levels and thus modify the associations we observed and the mothers' own perception of stress severity may have provided a more precise estimate of her exposure. Our findings suggest that exposure to SLEs in early, but not late gestation, are associated with reduced adult male reproductive function. Improved support for women with exposure to SLEs during pregnancy, particularly during the first trimester, may improve the reproductive health of their male offspring in later life. Intervention studies of improved pregnancy support could provide more insight into this association and more information is needed about the potential specific epigenetic mechanisms underlying this association. The male fertility sub-study was funded by NHMRC Grant 634 457. The core management of the Raine Study is funded by University of Western Australia, Curtin University, Telethon Kids Institute, Women and Infants Research Foundation, Edith Cowan University, Murdoch University, The University of Notre Dame Australia and Raine Medical Research foundation. Dr Bräuner's salary was supported by Læge Sofus Carl Emil Friis og Hustru Olga Doris Friis foundation in Denmark. All authors declare no competing interests. N/A.

Features of the metabolic syndrome in late adolescence are associated with impaired testicular function at 20 years of age.

Features of the metabolic syndrome in late adolescence are associated with impaired testicular function at 20 years of age.

Work Placements in Masters of Translation: Five Case Studies from the University of Western Australia

In Australia work placements are an essential part of most postgraduate qualifications in Translation Studies as a way to guarantee graduates’ job-readiness. Work placements, however, are not always run ethically and efficiently. This research paper analyzes the pragmatic and theoretical aspects of professional placements in Translation Studies, and reports on work placements of five Masters students at the University of Western Australia. The students’ experiences were diverse and proved that safeguards need to be put in place for work placements to be successful tripartite collaborations between universities, trainees and hosts. Flexibility and students’ autonomy seemed to play an important part in the success of work placement arrangements. Both work supervisor and subject coordinator must be properly prepared for their tasks, perhaps taking guidance from their counterparts in vocational studies. Nonetheless, all students in these cases studies were confronted with real-life issues that translators have to routinely solve and this rapidly increased their job-readiness.