This year we were very fortunate to have Dr John Long from Victoria Museum deliver the 2009 Annual Public Lecture for the School of Biomedical Sciences. Dr Long is a palaeontologist with an outstanding research record. Each year since 2005 he has published a paper in the prestigious journal Nature. His fascinating work on 3D fossils from 380 millions ago has led to him being bestowed with numerous national and international awards. He is highly sought after on the lecture circuit because of his engaging style and interesting research theme. Dr Long delivered an entertaining and insightful lecture on the pains and joys of research, from the pitfalls of recognising mistakes to the triumphs of discovering some of the most unique fossils in the history of palaeontology. The lecture was followed by the School awards ceremony where our best and brightest undergraduate students were recognised for their high achievements in our premier science courses. Once again we pay tribute to the efforts of these students and their peers for making the teaching of undergraduate science such a rewarding experience.   

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Exams
 It's time to prepare the Final and Special/Supplementary exams for Semester One 2009.
 
Final Examinations
All exam questions should be entered into iQ by NO LATER than Friday 24th April 2009. Please see “Preparing your examination papers – NEW PROCESS”.  This will allow time for final question entry john.jpg(external examiners), formatting of the exam and for the Discipline Chair to peruse and approve the papers in time for the university deadline.
 
Coordinators should have contacted members of the teaching team by Monday 16th March, requesting that questions for their courses by submitted by 20th April.   Details of the EOS must comply with the assessment schedule.
 
These deadlines are not negotiable. If you think you may have a problem meeting these deadlines, please see your discipline chair!
 
                Anatomy - Susan Mercer
                Physiology and Biosciences - Wally Thomas
                Pharmacology - Rod Minchin
                Professional Courses - Conrad Sernia
                
Supplementary/Special Examinations
It is essential we receive special/supplementary examination questions at the same time as the end of semester examinations.  These exams occur in July so there will be no time to prepare them after the exam period.  It is essential that all short answer questions come with model answers so that marking can be completed during the "holiday" period when some academics are absent on leave.

All special/supplementary exam papers will be produced at the same time as the end of semester exams, but will not be printed until after the end of semester exam has been marked.  This will allow any problem questions to be revised or replaced prior to printing.

Preparing your examination papers – NEW PROCESS
Each exam will be set up in iQ by Shannon or Jan as per the Course Assessment Schedule.  Due to problems with accessing iQ for staff, both internal and external, we have requested that Course Coordinators email the exam questions to sbms@uq.edu.au for data entry by admin staff.  Course coordinators will automatically be given access to their course in iQ
 
Where possible, Course Coordinator’s are requested to provide all questions as a whole document to sbms@uq.edu.au, instead of on an examiner basis, by 20th April, 2009.

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Ask not what your research administrator can do for you, but what you can do for your research administrator.
 
Seriously, I need your help.....

The deadline for us to have all SBMS 2008 HERDC-Eligible publications  entered into eSpace is 17 April. We have been furiously entering into the system all those journal articles which we have been alerted to through PubMed and ISI email alerts. There are currently only 104 HERDC publications in the SBMS collection. That is way down on previous years and I suspect there are at least 30 book chapters and articles published in journals which PubMed and ISI do not index.
 
Check out the report which lists all 2008 publications we have found and entered.
 
What I need you to do over the coming days:

Check the report lists all your 2008 HERDC-Eligible publications. This report lists all pubs under your surname so checking it will be quick and painless.
 
If you find there are publications missing from the attached list:

Please email a .pdf of the article to Shirley

If it is a book chapter or book chapter, and you have a copy of the book, please let us know and Shirley will come and pick it up to make the required copies for hardcopy evidence. Books will be returned within days. If you do not have a copy of the book, send Shirley the details and we will organise for an inter-library loan.

IMPORTANT: Under rules introduced last year, ‘in press’ date determines collection year. That means that anything released ‘in press’ towards the end of last year needs to go in this year’s collection, even if it did not come out in print until 2009. Publications with an 2008 in press date are only eligible for return in this year’s collection – please call me on 51348 if confused.

Why should you be bothered?

Each publication we can claim results in money returned to the School. I remind you that some of this money is returned directly to you under internally applied URG calculations. No publications can be entered into the collection after the 17 April, 2009. Thanks for your assistance. It is greatly appreciated!
 

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OHS Inductions (10.30am, Rm 305, Skerman)
Please ensure all new staff and students (including undergrads) attend an induction before starting work in your laboratories. Our Wednesday inductions are also open to any staff or students who require a refresher. New personnel working in PC2 labs are required to do PC2 training via TEDI also.

Induction dates: 15 April, 6 May, 20 May, 10 June, 24 June

PC 2 training dates: 6 May, 17 June, 28 July

Outcomes from the December 08 Safety Management Systems Audit

SBMS Safety Plan identified the lack of Safe Operating Procedures (SOPs) and the Audit confirmed this. SOP’s for high-risk School equipment will be developed first. Robyn has made a new SOP template for SBMS which has been adopted by the OHS Unit. Current SBMS equipment custodian will be asked to complete an SOP for their nominated school equipment, and expert users will be asked to verify these SOP’s. These should be accompanied by a risk assessment. Copies of these will be kept on the School OHS Intranet site.

Risk Assessments (RA), it has been observed that many supervisors have not “approved” RA’s. Also some existing RA may be “incomplete” because of changes in faculty (from BACS Faculty to Faculty of Science). All supervisors are asked to review and approve their risk assessment.

Chemical RA will now be undertaken using the chemical module of the online database, however paper based risk assessments will still be used for stored chemicals. Implementation of this change in procedure will be discussed at the Lab Managers meeting to be held in the near future.

Hazard Audits
Our annual hazard identification audits have commenced. All areas will be audited before the end of the year. Please ensure all documentation (ie. training records, risk assessments and Standard Operating Procedures) are up to date, chemicals adequately stored and labeled.

SBMS Equipment Training Workshops
Training sessions for new users of SBMS Equipment will be held on Thursday 23 April. If you wish to use or expect to use this equipment in the future please attend the appropriate session.

9.30 -10.00 Histology -Bld Otto 511 (Paul Addison)
10.00 -10.15 Liquid Nitrogen Store - Bld Richie 104C (Neville Barry)
10.30 -10.45 Autoclave- Bld Otto 517/Bld MacGregor 111B (Bruno Rey/Neville Barry)
10.45-11.00 Gel Doc - Bld Otto 516/Bld Skerman 416 (Tina claxton/Wayne Johnson)
11.00-11.15 Centrifuges - Bld Skerman 419/Bld Otto 516 (David Simmons & Paul Dawson/Toni McCurry & Megan Probyn)

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Stephen Anderson - Recreation      April 6 – 14
Mike Bennett - Recreation      April 7 - 9
Karin Borges -  Conference     April 8 – 9
Kay Colthorpe - Recreation      April 15 – 17
Elizabeth Gillam - Maternity to September 18, 2009
Bradley Launikonis - Conference     April 15 – 17
Daniel Markovich - Conference     April 2 – 3
Stuart Mazzone - Conference - April 15 - 23
Stuart Mazzone - Recreation - April 24 - May 1
Rod Minchin -  Recreation - April 6 – 8
Conrad Sernia -  LSL - March 30 - April 17
Conrad Sernia - LSL - June 29 - July 24
Peter Thorn - Conference - June 25 - July 6

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Thank you to SBMS Staff and Students

The Finance team wishes to sincerely thank you (all the staff and students) for your willingness to tackle UniFi purchasing, for your patience as you identified and overcame unexpected problems and bugs in the system, and for your continued positive attitude.

We really think you are a clever and adaptable ‘bunch’ and have done remarkably well with a difficult new system. Looking back three months, we never imagined there would be so many issues to overcome. We could not have got through this without your co-operation and pleasant attitude.

We continue to contact the UniFi team regularly with questions and concerns, but expect things to only get better from now on.

Please continue to let us know of any problems you are experiencing or if you need any further assistance from the Finance team.

Accessing UniFi from off-campus

In order to access UniFi from off-campus (eg home, travelling), you will need the University’s free Virtual Private Network (VPN) software. A very helpful information page and the free software is available.

If you order it, you must ‘receive it’ in UniFi

When you take delivery of goods (or services) you have ordered through UniFi, you must go into UniFi e-procurement and mark the items as ‘received’.  If this is not done, the supplier will not be paid, and this can result in the company stopping supply to the whole University.
 
Instructions for Receiving in UniFi:
 
Open the webpage: my.uq.edu.au and sign in. Select UniFi from the menu on the left hand side

Go to e-procurement, then into Receive Items. 
 
Enter the SBMS business unit: 05400, then click on ADD.
 
The next screen will bring up any items you have ordered, which have not yet been marked as received.  If you know an item has been received, tick the box beside it, then click on Receive Selected at the top of the page.
 
The next, and final page, allows you to choose the quantity you have received, if it is less than you have ordered.  However in most cases you will have ordered ONE and received ONE, so then click on Save Receipt, and you are finished.

If you have any difficulties, or any questions, please contact Tom Orth or phone 51144. 
 

Nominating a temporary budget holder in your absence

There seems to have been a breakthrough in nominating a temporary budget holder to approve your orders while you are on leave, or otherwise unavailable. When you need this set up, please email sbmsfinance@uq.edu.au with your username (eg UQWSHAKE), the username of your fill-in person, and the dates you want this to take effect.

Some staff have successfully used the Unifi function of ‘My System Profile’, to nominate a temporary budget holder, however UniFi Staff now advise this may not always work. They would prefer to receive an email to action the change. The School Finance section will co-ordinate your requests until UniFi announce a more permanent process.

Financial Statements

If you are wondering when you will receive a Financial statement for your project/s, you are not alone. This is a problem for the whole of the University.

It is incomprehensible why Financial statements for Project holders are still not available. Despite trying to obtain an indication of when something will be ready, at this time there is no information on how much longer it will be.

Animal Agistment Charges

The Animal House has started a new process of emailing monthly agistment charges to Academic staff. This is for your records and you do not need to do anything further with the Agistment charge form, as they are also sending the information to the Finance team.

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Degrees Awarded

Congratulations to the following students and their supervisors -

Dr Andrea Marshall: Supervised by A/Prof. Mike Bennett – Awarded PhD: January 16
Biology and Population Ecology of Manta birostris in Southern Mozambique. Andrea is back working in Mozambique with fellow student, Simon Pierce at the Mantra Ray and Whale Shark Centre. Andrea has been based in Mozambique since 2003. Her PhD research on the population ecology of manta rays, was the first ever doctoral thesis to be completed on this enigmatic species. Andrea's ground-breaking field research on the ecology and biology of Mozambican manta rays has led to several major new discoveries. She is currently working with the community and Government toward establishing a Manta Ray National Park in the area of Tofo Beach where the Centre is based. The BBC has recently finished filming a documentary about her research which will be released later this year.


Dr Maria Ikonomopoulou: Supervised by Dr Adrian Bradley – Awarded PhD: February 2 Steroid homones, steroid binding proteins and persistent environmental pollutants in green (Chelonia Mydas) and flatback (natator Depressus) turtles Maria has the position of Research Officer in the Genetics and population Division in the Brisbane Inflammatory Bowel Disease Research Group in the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR).
Dr Lisa Kidd: Supervised by Professor Mark Forwood – Awarded PhD: 1 March
Investigation of activated remodelling in the healing of experimental stress fractures and the influence of anti-inflammatory treatments. Lisa is a Senior Lecturer in Equine Surgery and Lameness in the UQ School of Veterinary Science. She is also actively involved in the planning and design for the new UQ Veterinary School being built at the Gatton Campus.

Dr Louise Harvey: Supervised by Dr Darryl Eyles – Awarded PhD: 23 March
The effect of developmental vitamin D3 deficiency on brain development, behaviour and immune function in the Sprague Dawley rat. Louise has a Post-Doc Fellowship at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Her research focus is still on animal models of schizophrenia, as well as looking at prenatal bacterial and viral infections as risk factors. Here is a photo of Louise all rugged up like an Eskimo to protect against a windchill of -17C!!

Recent Submissions
Emma Luong-Van (supervised by A/Prof. Simon Cool submitted 31 December 2008)
Carley Bansemer (supervised by A./Prof. Mike Bennett submitted 29 January 2009)
Blake Harahush (supervised by Prof. Shaun Collin submitted 1 March 2009)
Lenore Litherland (supervised by Dr Kerstin Fritschest submitted 1 March 2009)
Ricky Chen (supervised by A/Prof. Joe Lynch submitted 29 March 2009)
Susan Theiss (supervised by Dr Nathan Hart submitted 31 March 2009)

2009 New 1st Semester Students
We are very fortunate to have international students from France, India, China, Mexico, Malaysia and Korea. The influence of these student’s cultural and academic background will surely add richness to our School. A warm welcome is extended to –

Ashrufal Alam - Principal Advisor: A/Prof. Lindsay Brown. Potential cardiovascular benefits of natural products high in antioxidants
James Cuffe – Principal Advisor: Dr Karen Moritz. The effect of maternal glucocorticoid exposure on the development of hypertension.
Carlie Cullen – Principal Advisor: Dr Nick Lavidis. The effects of pre-natal ethanol exposure and chronic stress and praescent on cognitive function in juvenile, adult and aged rats.
Tanya Cully – Principal Advisor: Dr Brad Launikonis. Calcium handling in healthy and dystrophic skeletal muscle.
Eduardo Garza – Principal Advisor: Prof. Shaun Collin. Vision in elasmobranchs and its role in behaviour.
Jiun Low – Principal Advisor: A/Prof. Peter Thorn. Stimulus secretion coupling in pancreatic cells.
Gillian (Yi) Ma – Principal Advisor: Prof. Chen Chen. Effect of metabolic regulatory hormones on cardiomyocytes.
Kirsty MacRae – Principal Advisor: A/Prof. Conrad Sernia. Regulation of RANKL and OPG by Angiotension II.
Dale Pavlovski – Principal Advisor: Dr Trent Woodruff. Pregnancy complications and the role played by the complement system.
Michael Sinclair – Principal Advisor: Prof. Chen Chen. The impact of adipocytes on pancreatic islet cells in type-2 diabetes: A mechanism of islet cell dysfunction.
Jereme Spiers – Principal Advisor: Dr Nick Lavidis. The effect of plant derived odours on the structure and function of the amygdale during acute and chronic stress.
Francesca Toselli – Principal Advisor: A/Prof. Elizabeth Gillam. The role of cytochrome P450 enzymes in isatin production and anxiety.
Sarah Van-Eyk – Principal Advisor: Dr Nathan Hart. Sensory ecology of the giant shovelnose ray Glaucostegus typus.
Mike Wu – Principal Advisor: Dr Trent Woodruff. The functional role of a novel C5a receptor (C5L2) in inflammatory diseases.
Wanhua Zhong – Principal Advisor: A/Prof. Mark Bellingham. Changes to expression of sodium channel isoforms and their role in the pathogenesis of Amyotroiphic lateral sclerosis

Focus on a Postgraduate Student

Carley Bansemer  (Mike Bennett Lab) – A sailing adventure of a lifetime

About 20 years ago my parents left Australia to work in Asia. A few years later with the help of a few friends they sailed their catamaran from Mooloolaba to Asia. Sadly (for me), my education was considered more important and I was to remain at boarding school. However, I vowed that I would not miss out on the return trip to Australia.
 
In January this year my parents retired, I submitted my PhD thesis for examination (Population biology, distribution, movement patterns and conservation requirements of the grey nurse shark along the east coast of Australia), under the supervision of Associate Professor Mike Bennett and Associate Professor Shaun Collin) and it was finally time to join my parents in Singapore and for the three of us to sail Crystal Voyager II home (via Darwin).
 
Our planned route was fairly direct to Bali. We then headed north again to explore and enjoy the diving and scenic landscapes of as many of the volcanic islands of Indonesia (Maluku region within the Banda Sea) as time would permit. The more remote the better even if that meant another 72 hours of non-stop sailing with minimal sleep.
 
The trip was definitely one I will never forget, while we had many amazing experiences we were also shocked and truly shattered at the complete destruction of many of the reef habitats through explosive fishing methods and the use of cyanide. The only areas left untouched were the dramatic vertical walls that descended from the shallows down to several thousand metres below. Thankfully these spectacular vertical walls were safeguarded by nature from destructive fishing practices. The ornamental fish were diverse and plentiful and yet the pelagic and larger predatory fish were terribly rare even off the walls in voracious currents.
 
One reef we visited (Take Bone Rate) was also visited by Jacques-Yves Cousteau in the mid-late 1990s. At this time Cousteau described Take Bone Rate as one of the most beautiful places he had ever experienced and possibly the most biodiverse in Indonesia and perhaps the world.
 
As our time was limited and we had travelled a long way (off track at 6 knots) to reach this location we thought we would use manta boards to identify a great dive location. Take Bone Rate is the largest atoll in Indonesia and the third largest in the world. To our shock and after an hour of manta boarding around the outer edge of the reef – the entire area we covered had been reduced to rubble. A single species of trigger fish the dominant remaining resident. All in all, throughout Indonesia there were few dives where we weren’t shaken with our ears left ringing from blast fishing. If we weren’t stunned by the blasts then we could see the trail of evidence and dead fish left as waste in the relatively shallow flats as we completed our safety stop.
 
Despite this, the experience will remain a lifelong memory. The vertical walls, the volcanic scenery, and the spectacular sunsets were magic.

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Support our Reefs
Last year’s International Year of the Reef highlighted the importance and ongoing destruction (from pollution, overfishing and global climate change) of one of nature's most precious gifts. Please check out this call to action from the International Society of Reef Studies.

“Coral reefs feed, protect, and provide livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people around the world. They create homes for billions of fish and other animals, buffer coastlines from the ravages of storms, and provide rich economic opportunities through tourism and fishing. Their value to society has been estimated at more than $300 billion/yr. Reefs are the dynamic centers of the most concentrated biodiversity on Earth.”

“Only by taking bold and urgent steps now can we hope to ensure that reefs will survive to enrich life on earth, as they have for millions of years before us. By failing to act we risk bequeathing an impoverished ocean to our children and future generations.”
Do you have some ideas to help green our school and university and stretch that grant money a little further? Do you want to get involved with the green office program? Please get in contact with Dave Logan, the SBMS Green Office Rep Ext: 54080 Email: d.logan@uq.edu.au

Dave Logan
CoralWatch Project Manager
Ext: 54080
E-mail: d.logan@uq.edu.au

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