title: Effect of novel ketamine-analogue R5 on brain activation and select behavioural parameters

authors: Head, Mitchell Antony

subjects: anaesthetic

abstract: Ketamine is a common anaesthetic that works through complex neural mechanisms, including multiple molecular and circuitry targets. Importantly, it promotes analgesia, though it also induces undesirable effects, such as agitation, disorientation, hallucinations and nausea. Thus, there is an ongoing search for novel ketamine analogues that influence a similar repertoire of brain targets as ketamine, whose beneficial effects are potentiated. The present project, utilizing rats as an animal model, focused on examining functional properties of the ester-analogue of ketamine, R5, whose potentially beneficial profile had been suggested by preliminary studies. First, brain activation patterns following R5 compared to ketamine (and another ester-analogue control compound, R1) were assessed by employing immunohistochemical detection of an immediate-early gene product, c-Fos. R5 produced a somewhat similar pattern of activity as ketamine, whereas more profound differences in c-Fos were detected after R1. It was particularly striking in areas related to pain and addiction, including the anterior insular cortex (AIC) and paraventricular nucleus (PVN). Therefore, in the subsequent set of experiments, effects of R5 on pain- and addiction-related behavioral parameters were assessed in rats injected with R5 intracerebroventricularly (ICV) or intraparenchymally. It was found that BaCl attenuated ICV R5-induced analgesia. AIC administration of R5 produced modest analgesia in the tail-flick test. Finally, PVN R5 reduced naltrexone-precipitated exercise-induced withdrawal. In sum, R5 shows an analgesic effect similar to ketamine, most likely by targeting a similar subset of brain sites, which suggests that this particular ester-analogue can be considered as a good candidate for conceptualizing future pain management strategies.

text: Effect of novel ketamine-analogue R5 on brain activation and select behavioural parameters Ketamine is a common anaesthetic that works through complex neural mechanisms, including multiple molecular and circuitry targets. Importantly, it promotes analgesia, though it also induces undesirable effects, such as agitation, disorientation, hallucinations and nausea. Thus, there is an ongoing search for novel ketamine analogues that influence a similar repertoire of brain targets as ketamine, whose beneficial effects are potentiated. The present project, utilizing rats as an animal model, focused on examining functional properties of the ester-analogue of ketamine, R5, whose potentially beneficial profile had been suggested by preliminary studies. First, brain activation patterns following R5 compared to ketamine (and another ester-analogue control compound, R1) were assessed by employing immunohistochemical detection of an immediate-early gene product, c-Fos. R5 produced a somewhat similar pattern of activity as ketamine, whereas more profound differences in c-Fos were detected after R1. It was particularly striking in areas related to pain and addiction, including the anterior insular cortex (AIC) and paraventricular nucleus (PVN). Therefore, in the subsequent set of experiments, effects of R5 on pain- and addiction-related behavioral parameters were assessed in rats injected with R5 intracerebroventricularly (ICV) or intraparenchymally. It was found that BaCl attenuated ICV R5-induced analgesia. AIC administration of R5 produced modest analgesia in the tail-flick test. Finally, PVN R5 reduced naltrexone-precipitated exercise-induced withdrawal. In sum, R5 shows an analgesic effect similar to ketamine, most likely by targeting a similar subset of brain sites, which suggests that this particular ester-analogue can be considered as a good candidate for conceptualizing future pain management strategies.

year: 2017

title: Performance of a building integrated solar combisystem

authors: Anderson, Timothy Nicholas

subjects: solar combisystem

abstract: Solar combisystems providing both water and space heating to buildings are becoming commonplace in European and North American locations. However, the use of these systems in Australia and New Zealand is still in its infancy. While significant work has been undertaken to characterise the performance of these systems in northern hemisphere locations, this does not necessarily reflect their performance in Australia or New Zealand. This work examines the performance of solar combisystems utilising TRNSYS and F-chart simulations of an integrated solar thermal combisystem installed in a single storey detached dwelling under typical Australian and New Zealand climatic conditions. In doing this, it shows that there is significant scope for increased use of solar combisystems in the cooler climate regions of Australia and New Zealand.

text: Performance of a building integrated solar combisystem Solar combisystems providing both water and space heating to buildings are becoming commonplace in European and North American locations. However, the use of these systems in Australia and New Zealand is still in its infancy. While significant work has been undertaken to characterise the performance of these systems in northern hemisphere locations, this does not necessarily reflect their performance in Australia or New Zealand. This work examines the performance of solar combisystems utilising TRNSYS and F-chart simulations of an integrated solar thermal combisystem installed in a single storey detached dwelling under typical Australian and New Zealand climatic conditions. In doing this, it shows that there is significant scope for increased use of solar combisystems in the cooler climate regions of Australia and New Zealand.

year: 2010

title: Marine inequality, borderization, and the radical potential of kinship

authors: McCormack, Fiona

subjects: Aquaculture

abstract: This article utilizes scholarship on borders to interpret the persistence of inequality in Indigenous seascapes, irrespective of moves to redress colonial wrongs or the growing anthropocenic recognition of human-nature interconnectedness. I examine border politics in the context of Māori claims for marine title and rights and the post-settlement development of aquaculture. Drawing on Harsha Walia’s concept of “border imperialism” and Achille Mbembe’s thesis on “borderization,” the article highlights the endurance of colonial forms alongside their neoliberal transformation into the enclosures and entrapments arising in the context of accelerated marine industrialization. By holding in tension the interconnection between marine environments and kinship, on one hand, and scholarship on borders, on the other, the article suggests that Indigenous Māori kinship, expanding through multiple layers of difference, constitutes a site of resistance that has the potential to refute the logic of borderization.

text: Marine inequality, borderization, and the radical potential of kinship This article utilizes scholarship on borders to interpret the persistence of inequality in Indigenous seascapes, irrespective of moves to redress colonial wrongs or the growing anthropocenic recognition of human-nature interconnectedness. I examine border politics in the context of Māori claims for marine title and rights and the post-settlement development of aquaculture. Drawing on Harsha Walia’s concept of “border imperialism” and Achille Mbembe’s thesis on “borderization,” the article highlights the endurance of colonial forms alongside their neoliberal transformation into the enclosures and entrapments arising in the context of accelerated marine industrialization. By holding in tension the interconnection between marine environments and kinship, on one hand, and scholarship on borders, on the other, the article suggests that Indigenous Māori kinship, expanding through multiple layers of difference, constitutes a site of resistance that has the potential to refute the logic of borderization.

year: 2025