Journal articles on the topic 'Non-biodegradable pattern'

In this work, we present the method for the creation of an anisotropic electric pattern on thin poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) films through PSS grafting by azo-containing moieties followed by light-induced polymers redistribution. Thin PEDOT:PSS films were deposited on the flexible and biodegradable polylactic acid (PLLA) substrates. The light-sensitive azo-groups were grafted to PSS using the diazonium chemistry followed by annealing in methanol. Local illumination of azo-grafted PEDOT:PSS films through the lithographic mask led to the conversion of azo-moieties in Z-configuration and further creation of the lateral gradient of azo-isomers along the film surface. The concentration gradient led to the migration of PSS away from the illuminated area, increasing the PEDOT chains’ concentration and the corresponding increase of local electrical conductivity in the illuminated place. Utilization of mask with linear pattern results in the appearance of conductive PEDOT-rich and non-conductive PSS-rich lines on the film surface, and final, lateral anisotropy of electric properties. Our work gives an optical lithography-based alternative to common methods for the creation of anisotropic electric properties, based on the spatial confinement of conductive polymer structures or their mechanical strains.

The development of vaccines is one of the most significant medical accomplishments which has helped to eradicate a large number of diseases. It has undergone an evolutionary process from live attenuated pathogen vaccine to killed whole organisms or inactivated toxins (toxoids), each of them having its own advantages and disadvantages. The crucial parameters in vaccination are the generation of memory response and protection against infection, while an important aspect is the effective delivery of antigen in an intelligent manner to evoke a robust immune response. In this regard, nanotechnology is greatly contributing to developing efficient vaccine adjuvants and delivery systems. These can protect the encapsulated antigen from the host’s in-vivo environment and releasing it in a sustained manner to induce a long-lasting immunostimulatory effect. In view of this, the present review article summarizes nanoscale-based adjuvants and delivery vehicles such as viral vectors, virus-like particles and virosomes; non-viral vectors namely nanoemulsions, lipid nanocarriers, biodegradable and non-degradable nanoparticles, calcium phosphate nanoparticles, colloidally stable nanoparticles, proteosomes; and pattern recognition receptors covering c-type lectin receptors and toll-like receptors.

The aim of this study was to quantify and characterize the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) of paddy fields and crop fields in Tottori, Japan. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and ultraviolet (UV) absorbance was measured for the filtrated water of each samples. DOC concentration and SUVA (specific UV absorbance) of biodegradation analysis samples were determined around 50 days after the incubation. In the Fukui paddy fields, DOC concentration varied seasonally from 1.1 to 10.1mg.Cl−1, showing higher concentration in heavy runoff of non-agriculture period in April. However, DOC concentration variation did not always correspond to rainfall. The Obadake paddy fields also showed a similar pattern with Fukui paddy fields. The daily DOC discharge per area in Fukui (up), Fukui (down), Obadake (south), Obadake (north) paddy fields influent from paddy fields were 0.02, 0.0161, 0.0135 and 0.0027kg.a−1.day−1, respectively. These differences resulted from differences in agricultural types and customs of farmers according to paddy fields and fields. Also, SUVA (an indirect means to evaluate humic substances (hydrophobic fraction)) of the studied influent waters from paddy fields were generally lower than the influent waters from crop fields. The non-biodegradable DOC accounted for 50.2–98%, 46.8–85.5% of the total DOC in the paddy fields and crop fields.

Heavy metal stress as result of natural and anthropogenic activities is main environmental problem. Pb and Hg are among non-biodegradable metals thus remaining persistent in soil and water. The present study was carried out to assess growth and biochemical responses of two varieties (Desi and Misri) of Trifolium alexandrinum L. after application of varying levels (25mg/kg, 50mg/kg and 100mg/kg) of Pb and Hg in soil along with control. Seed germination, biomass of above and below ground tissues, number of flowers and leaves, leaf area and nodulation was observed. For biochemical attributes, green pigments, protein and amino acids, were determined. Both varieties (Desi and Misri) showed variable responses in relation to both Pb and Hg. Similarly, the pattern of character expression was independent for metal levels and types. Misri performed consistently better as it showed best threshold for most of the attributes studied. Hg was found to be more toxic as compared to the Pb as it induced more drastic decline in parameters studied. The study showed that biometric traits can be used as good predictors and the biochemical parameters cannot be used as useful biochemical markers as they showed no marked disparity.

Objective: The present research work is aimed at the development of an in situ gel polymer composite to provide local and sustained delivery of therapeutic agents in the vaginal cavity. Administration of medicated gel into a vaginal cavity is very complicated, inconvenient and needs expert assistance. There is a chance of expulsion of liquid formulation from site of application, leads to poor therapeutic efficacy. The effective drug delivery system for the vaginal cavity should be of liquid for application and gel to reside in the cavity. Methods: In situ gel composed of chitosan (0.8%) cross-linked with β-glycerol phosphate (15%) and glutaraldehyde treated guar gum (0.2%) was developed. Gel was characterized for in situ gelling properties. In vitro drug release pattern of the gel was tested on a nutrient agar medium containing attenuated E. coli and B. Subtilis. In vitro diffusion pattern of gel was tested using KC-diffusion cell with Simulated Vaginal Fluid (SVF) (pH 4.2) as the diffusion medium. Results: In situ gel exhibited sharpest sol-gel transition at 35±2°C, at pH 5.4 in 62±1.31sec. The viscosity of polymer composite is 51.25±3.68 CPs at 20±2°C and 328.56±4.16 CPs at 35±2°C. The gelation time of gel was found to be decreasing as the concentration of cross-linking agent β-GP increased. Formulations exhibited a shear thinning property. Drug release from this polymeric composite was found to be highly linear and follows non-fickian diffusion mechanism. Conclusion: This advanced thermosensitive in situ gel is convenient to apply and reside in the vaginal cavity for a prolonged period of time. The gel is mucoadhesive, biodegradable and suitable for controlled drug delivery in the cavity.

This research has focused on the fabrication of electro spun-keratin base composite nanofiber, in order to develop the organic dye removal filters. The filters were prepared from a keratin-base material, which was extracted from chicken feathers. A biodegradable polymer including Poly (lactic acid) was blended into keratin to improve fibre process-ability. Titanium dioxide (anatase) and clay (Na-montmorillonite) were mixed into the PLA/Keratin blended solution prior to fabrication into non-woven fibre using the electro-spinning process. The objective of this research was to study the effect of TiO2 and clay on the process-ability, the morphology, and the filter efficiency (methylene blue removal) of the fibres. SEM images showed the morphology of small PLA/Keratin/clay-base fibres. SEM-scan mapping EDX technique showed a good dispersion of keratin, clay and TiO2 along the fibres. XRD pattern also showed the existence of PLA, keratin and TiO2. But the peak of clay was not strong enough. However, the evidence of clay was clearly shown by SEM-EDX technique as reported above. The capability to remove organic dye (methylene blue) was investigated by using UV-Vis spectrophotometer technique. From all of our results, it can be concluded that PLA/Keratin/TiO2/clay is an effective filter for the removal of organic dye from wastewater.

Background: Cadmium and lead are widespread and non-biodegradable pollutants of great concern to human health. In real life scenarios, we are exposed to mixtures of chemicals rather than single chemicals, and it is therefore of paramount importance to assess their toxicity. In this study, we investigated the toxicity of Cd and Pb alone and as a mixture in an animal model of acute exposure. Methods: Experimental groups received a single treatment of aqueous solution of Cd-chloride (15 and 30 mg/kg body weight (b.w.) and Pb-acetate (150 mg/kg b.w.), while the mixture group received 15 mg Cd/kg b.w. and 150 mg Pb/kg b.w. Toxic effects of individual metals and their mixture were investigated on hematological and biochemical parameters, and the redox status in the plasma, liver, and kidneys of treated Wistar rats. Results: Tissue-specific changes were recorded in various parameters of oxidative damage, while the accumulation of metals in tissues accompanied the disturbances of both hematological and biochemical parameters. It was observed that the level of toxic metals in tissues had a different distribution pattern after mixture and single exposure. Conclusions: Comprehensive observations suggest that exposure to Cd and Pb mixtures produces more pronounced effects compared to the response observed after exposure to single metal solutions. However, further research is needed to confirm toxicokinetic or toxicodynamic interactions between these two toxic metals in the organisms.

Clinical applications of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) as a small diameter graft have been limited due to its limited patency rates, even though its demands are high. After fabricating the biodegradable PLGA layers on both the inside and outside of ePTFE, long-term in vitro smooth muscle cell culture was performed on the luminal scaffold surface. The fabricated hybrid ePTFE scaffolds were designed to have three distinctive layers and porous structures in the biodegradable layers generated by gas-foaming of the ammonium bicarbonate porogens, i.e. two layers of poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) as biodegradable layers for tissue engineering and an ePTFE layer in the middle as a non-biodegradable layer. We evaluated the regenerated vascular tissues after applying either static or pulstile flow on a smooth muscle cells-seeded hybrid scaffold. Analysis of the engineered tissues was performed with SEM for morphological observation and H&E staining for observation of tissue development dependent upon a mode of culture system, flow patterns and scaffold species.

There is an increasing interest in biodegradable metal implants made from magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn) and their alloys because they are well tolerated in vivo and have mechanical properties that approach those of non-degradable metals. In particular, Zn and its alloys show the potential to be the next generation of biodegradable materials for medical implants. However, Zn has not been as well-studied as Mg, especially for stent applications. Manufacturing stents by laser cutting has become an industry standard. Nevertheless, the use of this approach with Zn faces some challenges, such as generating thermal stress, dross sticking on the device, surface oxidation, and the need for expensive thin-walled Zn tubing and post-treatment. All of these challenges motivated us to employ photo-chemical etching for fabricating different designs of Zn (99.95% pure) stents. The stents were constructed with different strut patterns, made by photo-chemical etching, and mechanically tested to evaluate radial forces. Stents with rhombus design patterns showed a promising 0.167N/mm radial force, which was comparable to Mg-based stents. In vitro studies were conducted with uncoated Zn stents as control and Parylene C-coated Zn stents to determine corrosion rates. The Parylene C coating reduced the corrosion rate by 50% compared to uncoated stents. In vivo studies were carried out by implanting photo-chemically etched, uncoated Zn stent segments subcutaneously in a C57BL/6 mice model. Histological analyses provided favorable data about the surrounding tissue status, as well as nerve and blood vessel responses near the implant, providing insights into the in vivo degradation of the metal struts. All of these experiments confirmed that Zn has the potential for use in biodegradable stent applications.

Rain-harvesting planting can improve crop biomass and enhance precipitation use efficiency in rainfed semiarid areas. In this study, field trials were conducted during summer 2007–2010 to determine the impacts of different mulching patterns in rainfall harvesting planting on spring corn growth and development in a typical semihumid dryland farming area of the Loess Plateau in China, which is characterised by spring droughts. Rain-harvesting ridges and planting furrows were mulched with 8% biodegradable film (RCSB), liquid film (RCSL), or not mulched (RCSN), and bare land drilling without mulching served as the control (CF). We found that the rain-harvesting effects of ridges and the evaporation-inhibiting and moisture-conserving effects of mulching materials during the spring corn growing season significantly increased water storage in the 0–100cm soil layer (P<0.05) compared with CF, where mulching was more beneficial than the non-mulching treatments. In the 100–200cm soil layers, there were no significant effects (P>0.05) of the treatments on water storage. During 2007–2010, the average plant height increased by 26.6%, 15.4%, and 11.1% under RCSB, RCSL, and RCSN relative to CF respectively, whereas the per plant biomass increased by 26.6%, 15.4%, and 11.1% under these treatments, and the grain yield increased by 32.3%, 17.5%, and 15.0%. Therefore, in the semihumid dryland farming areas of the Loess Plateau, rain-harvesting planting greatly increased the growth, development, and dry matter accumulation by spring corn, thereby enhancing its biomass yield, whereas the plastic-covered ridges and furrows mulched with biodegradable films substantially increased the yield-enhancing effects.

Abstract Introduction The bone marrow (BM) niche is known to exert a protective effect on lymphoid tumors, such as multiple myeloma (MM), where mesenchymal stem cell interactions with clonal plasma cells increase tumor proliferation and survival. However, certain cells within the BM milieu, such as mature osteoblasts and osteocytes, have demonstrated the potential to inhibit tumor growth; utilizing these cells presents a promising new anti-cancer approach. Hence, designing better methods of bone-specific delivery for both direct cancer cell treatment and indirect treatment through the modulation of bone cells may result in a potent, two-pronged anti-cancer strategy. Our work aimed to develop a novel system to target both MM and bone cells to induce greater osteogenesis and hamper tumor growth. Methods PEG–PLGA nanoparticles (NPs) coupled to alendronate (“bone-targeted”) or alone (“non-targeted”) were formulated and loaded with bortezomib (“BTZ-NPs”) or left empty (“BTZ-free”). NPs were characterized for their physiochemical properties, including size (using dynamic light scattering; surface charges (Zeta potential); and bone affinity (using hydroxyapatite binding). NPs were engineered with different formulation methods and those with the optimal physiochemical characteristics and drug encapsulation efficiency were used for further studies. BTZ release kinetics were analyzed using HPLC. Anti-MM effects were assessed in vitro using MTT, bioluminescence (BLI) and Annexin V/PI apoptosis flow cytometry analysis on MM1S cells. In vivo, efficacy was measured by mouse weight, BLI and survival after i.v. cancer cell injections in mice. Cellular uptake was assessed in vitro by flow cytometry and in vivo biodistribution was assessed using fluorescent whole body and fixed section imaging. Bone specificity was assessed in vitro by co-culture of bone-targeted and non-targeted NPs with bone chips or hydroxyapatite using fluorescence and TEM imaging. In an in vivo model of myeloma treatment, female Nod/SCID beige mice were injected i.v. with 4 × 106 Luc+/GFP+ MM1S cells and, at day 21, treated with a) BTZ, b) BTZ-bone-targeted NPs, c) BTZ-non-targeted NPs or d) BTZ-free bone-targeted NPs. Using an in vivo model of pre-treatment for cancer prevention, mice were pre-treated with i.p. injections of BTZ-bone-targeted NPs and appropriate controls thrice weekly for 3 weeks. They were then injected i.v. with Luc+/GFP+ 5TGM1 or MM1S cells and monitored for BLI and survival. Static and dynamic bone histomorphometry and μCT were used to assess effects of pre-treatment on bone formation and osteolysis prevention. Results Our biodegradable, NPs had uniform size distribution within the range of 100 to 200 nm based on the type of formulation, with a zeta potential of ±5mV. Bone- targeted NPs showed high affinity towards bone mineral in vitro and better skeletal accumulation in vivo compared to non-targeted NPs. NPs were easily up-taken by cells in vitro, and BTZ release kinetics showed a burst followed by a sustained-release pattern over 60 hrs. BTZ-NPs induced apoptosis in MM cells in vitro. Importantly, BTZ-bone-targeted-NP pre-treated mice showed significantly less tumor burden (BLI) and longer survival than free drug or drug-free bone-targeted NPs, thus demonstrating a tumor-inhibiting effect unique to the BTZ-bone-targeted-NPs. Pre-treatment with BTZ increased bone formation in tibias and femurs, as measured by μCT of bone volume/total volume, and trabecular thickness and number, suggesting that increased bone volume may inhibit MM. In a second mouse model, both BTZ-bone-targeted NPs and BTZ-free NPs were equally able to reduce tumor growth in vivo when given after tumor formation. Conclusion Bone-targeted nanoparticles hold great potential for clinical applications in delivering chemotherapies to bone marrow niches, reducing off-target effects, increasing local drug concentrations, and lengthening the therapeutic window. BTZ-bone-targeted NPs are able to slow tumor growth and increase survival in mice when used as a pre-treatment. This may result, at least in part, from BTZ-induced increased bone formation. These findings indicate that BTZ-bone-targeted NPs exert a chemopreventive effect in MM in vivo, thus suggesting their potential use in the clinical setting. Disclosures: Basto: BIND Therapeutics: Patent licensed by BIND, Patent licensed by BIND Patents & Royalties. Farokhzad:BIND Therapeutics: Employment, Equity Ownership; Selecta Biosciences: Employment, Equity Ownership. Ghobrial:Onyx: Membership on an entity’s Board of Directors or advisory committees; BMS: Membership on an entity’s Board of Directors or advisory committees; BMS: Research Funding; Sanofi: Research Funding; Novartis: Membership on an entity’s Board of Directors or advisory committees.

The efficacy of a drug in a specific application requires the maintenance of appropriate drug blood level concentration during a prolonged period of time. Controlled release delivery is available for many routes of administration and offers many advantages (as microparticles and nanoparticles) over immediate release delivery. These advantages include reduced dosing frequency, better therapeutic control, fewer side effects, and, consequently, these dosage forms are well accepted by patients. Advances in polymer material science, particle engineering design, manufacture, and nanotechnology have led the way to the introduction of several marketed controlled release products and several more are in pre-clinical and clinical development. The objective of this work is to prepare and evaluate diltiazem HCl loaded albumin microparticles using a factorial design. Albumin (natural polymer) microparticles were prepared by emulsion heat-stabilization method. Selected formulations were characterized for their entrapment efficiency, particle size, surface morphology, and release behavior. Analysis of variance for entrapment efficiency indicates that entrapment efficiency is best fitted to a response surface linear model. Surface morphology was studied by scanning electron microscopy. Scanning electron microscopy of the microparticles revealed a spherical, nonporous and uniform appearance, with a smooth surface. The geometric mean diameter of the microparticles was found to be 2-9 µm, which more than 75% were below 3.5 µm and drug incorporation efficiency of 59.74 to 72.48% (w/w). In vitro release profile for formulations containing diltiazem HCl loaded BSA microparticles with heat stabilization technique shows slow controlled the release of the drug up to 24 hours. The release pattern was biphasic, characterized by an initial burst effect followed by a slow release. All selected microparticles exhibited a prolonged release for almost 24 hours. On comparing regression-coefficient (r²) values for Hixson Crowel, Higuchi and Peppas kinetic models, different batches of microparticles showed Fickian, non-Fickian, and diffusion kinetics. The release mechanism was regulated by D:P ratio. From the statistical analysis it was observed that as the drug:polymer (D:P) ratio increased, there was a significant increase in the encapsulation efficiency. Based on the particle size, entrapment efficiency and physical appearance, DTM-3 formulations were selected for in vivo release study and stability study. The in vivo result of drug loaded microparticles showed preferential drug targeting to liver followed by lungs, kidneys and spleen. Stability studies showed that maximum drug content and closest in vitro release to initial data were found in the formulation stored at 4 ºC. In present study, diltiazem HCl loaded BSA microparticles were prepared and targeted to various organs to satisfactory level and were found to be stable at 4 ºC.

Nanoparticles of metal and metallic oxides have become a very active research area in the field of material chemistry. The surface effect is mainly responsible for deviation of the properties of nano-materials from that of the bulk. Nanosize copper oxide was synthesized by hydrolysis of copper salts in basic medium using biodegradable non-ionic polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG) as surface active agent The X-ray powder diffraction patterns (XRD) present typical peaks of copper oxides formed. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images determined the shape and the nanosizes of the particles of about 10-30nm. The results exhibited the role of intermediate nanosize copper hydroxide species on the formation of copper oxide nanoparticles. The influence of synthesis temperature, reaction time, calcination temperature, etc. was studied.

Fire and burns represent the fourth cause of death in the world. Numerous options for dressings exist, but their selection should be based on several factors such as burn severity, wound location and water retention. Collagen (COLL) is the most common protein in the human body and, due to its biocompatibility, is the main component in biomaterials development. Mefenamic acid (MA) is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug with analgesic properties, and carboxymethylcellulose (NaCMC) is a biocompatible and biodegradable polymer that is commonly used in biomedical field. Collagen - carboxymethylcellulose - mefenamic acid hydrogels, developed in order to be used in burn treatments were lyophilized and the corresponding spongious matrices were investigated by optical microscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, water absorption, enzymatic degradation and drug release kinetics studies. All tests revealed proper morphological structure, favourable release patterns, convenient swelling capacity and degradation profiles, indicating the possibility of their use for medical applications.

Waste management in preindustrial times was simple because most of the waste consists of organic materials which decompose naturally. However with the change in consumption patterns of the Maldivians, non- biodegradable synthetic materials such as plastic have become one of the leading causes of marine and coastal pollution in the Maldives. In an attempt to identify a low cost efficient approach of Solid Waste Management system across the country, the Maldivian government has introduced a community based solid waste management system at island level. Hence, the main focus of this study is to explore factors that influence effectiveness of Community Based Solid Waste management systems implemented at island level, using Driver, Pressure, State, Impact, Response (DPSIR) framework. Community participation, community satisfaction level and community willingness to pay for the new system was evaluated in the study. Analysis of data showed, even though most people in the community were satisfied with the new system , there was no association between community satisfaction level and their willingness to pay for the sustenance of the new system. In addition, even though community was aware about plastic pollution, there was no association between community perception about plastic pollution and their willingness to adopt green consumer behaviors. The results also showed that even though majority of community members were satisfied with the current model of waste management system, the current system does not address the driving factors that contributes to solid waste generation at island level.

Marine pollution occurs due to the entry of organized or unorganized, point or non – point land based releases of industrial, agricultural and residential waste. Biodegradable organic waste rich in microorganisms lead to potentially harmful effects and alter oxygen cycle, where as excessive inputs of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus stimulate algal growth leading to eutrophication.Thermodynamics play an important role in chemicals reactions occurring in ocean during degradation of organic waste. The rate of reactions is altered due to temperature and high salinities. This aspect is very crucial while predicting the self purification capacity of the water body. Adequate experimental work pertaining to the order of reaction and thermodynamic constants is essential to prove the basis of the predicted assimilative capacity of the system.In Mumbai, huge quantity of domestic waste is generated. Due to land restrictions, complete treatment of tertiary level is not feasible. The Municipal administrators take the advantage of coastal location and discharge this waste into the ocean with just meagre preliminary treatment. The disposal practices are advanced and well planned but still expected purification or dilution is not achieved in the near shore region. This has resulted in spoiling the impact zone of coastal areas creating stress on the living biota and non compliance of the marine water quality standards.Three major issues in coastal system, viz. Operation and control of waste discharges, degradation patterns of pollutants and self purification capacity needs systematic evaluation to maintain favorable conditions for aquatic life. Hence it is essential to study the reaction kinetics and thermodynamic behaviour of the biodegradation of carbonaceous waste occurring under highly saline conditions. Experiments are conducted to confirm the kinetics and thermodynamics of biodegradation of domestic waste water into marine water at variable salinities. The paper presents the findings of kinetic behaviour particularly the values for rate of reaction, Activation energy and related constants.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a catastrophic illness of multifactorial etiology, involves a rapid upsurge in inflammatory cytokines that leads to hypoxemic respiratory failure. Dexamethasone, a synthetic corticosteroid, mitigates the glucocorticoid-receptor-mediated inflammation and accelerates tissue homeostasis towards disease resolution. To minimize non-target organ side effects arising from frequent and chronic use of dexamethasone, we designed biodegradable, lung-targeted microspheres with sustained release profiles. Dexamethasone-loaded lipopolymeric microspheres of PLGA (Poly Lactic-co-Glycolic Acid) and DPPC (Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine) stabilized with vitamin E TPGS (D-α-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol succinate) were prepared by a single emulsion technique that had a mean diameter of 8.83 ± 0.32 μm and were spherical in shape as revealed from electron microscopy imaging. Pharmacokinetic and biodistribution patterns studied in the lungs, liver, and spleen of Wistar rats showed high selectivity and targeting efficiency for the lung tissue (re 13.98). As a proof-of-concept, in vivo efficacy of the microspheres was tested in the lipopolysaccharide-induced ARDS model in rats. Inflammation markers such as IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α, quantified in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid indicated major improvement in rats treated with dexamethasone microspheres by intravenous route. Additionally, the microspheres substantially inhibited the protein infiltration, neutrophil accumulation and lipid peroxidation in the lungs of ARDS bearing rats, suggesting a reduction in oxidative stress. Histopathology showed decreased damage to the pulmonary tissue upon treatment with the dexamethasone-loaded microspheres. The multipronged formulation technology approach can thus serve as a potential treatment modality for reducing lung inflammation in ARDS. An improved therapeutic profile would help to reduce the dose, dosing frequency and, eventually, the toxicity.

Abstract. Introduction: The use of antibiotic impregnated biodegradable synthetic high purity calcium sulfate (SHPCS) beads is frequently reported as they offer increased concentration of antibiotics locally, without need for removal. However some wound discharge following their use has been noted. The purpose of this study was to determine any correlation between wound discharge and infection remission.Methodology: Retrospective study of 39 cases of Osteoarticular infections from April 2013 to November 2016 in whom SHPCS beads were used. All patients underwent the standard staged protocol of aggressive debridement, deep tissue biopsy, implant removal where indicated and early soft tissue cover. SHPCS beads were used locally in the second stage combined with appropriate antibiotics based on tissue culture. All patients received systemic antibiotics for a period of 6 weeks and followed up for a minimum period of six months. The study analysed the patient demographics, etiology, surgical procedures, culture patterns, local antibiotics used, radiological status of beads, incidence and characteristics of wound discharge and outcome.Results: There were 25 cases of chronic osteomyelitis, eight infected non unions, three peri prosthetic joint infections, two soft tissue infections and one case of acute osteomyelitis. 17 of these infections were following osteosynthesis. The cultures were negative on eight occasions in seven patients. A total of 40 organisms were isolated in the other patients; commonest being Staphylococcus aureus (n=16) and E coli (n=7). SHPCS beads were mixed with vancomycin in 17 cases, colistin in 11, vancomycin with colistin in eight and vancomycin with gentamicin in four. Voriconazole was used in one case with fungal infection.Eight cases (20.51 %) developed discharge from the wound at an average of 6 days after inserting the beads. The discharge was serous with no foul smell in six and purulent in two inflamed wounds. Four cases underwent re-debridement; two cases with purulent discharge and subsequent positive cultures; two with serous discharge early in the series and no evidence of infection on re-exploration with negative cultures. The remaining four patients with serous wound discharge were observed without any further surgical intervention, with the discharge stopping spontaneously between 15 to 36 days post operatively. There was no correlation between antibiotic used and wound discharge. Radiographic analysis showed dissolution of all the beads at an average of 36 days in the 39 cases. Heterotrophic ossification was not observed.Clinical and radiological remission of infection was observed in 37 cases (94.9%). Two patients died during the course of hospitalization, secondary to septicaemia and multi organ failure. Three patients had an infection recurrence within six months, managed successfully by re-debridement and appropriate antibiotics. Radiological union was achieved in seven of the eight infected non unions.Conclusions: With the encouraging rates of infection remission we have observed, we continue to use antibiotic loaded SHPCS as an alternative for local antibiotic delivery in the treatment of osteoarticular infections. However, wound discharge is a known potential observation following implantation of calcium sulfate beads, subsiding typically within four to six weeks.The appearance of wound discharge can vary, ranging from purulent discharges to non-purulent, serous/ sero sanguineous fluid wound discharges. The presence of a wound discharge alone does not necessarily imply a failure to treat the infection.It is important to be aware of this side effect and guard against unnecessary re- operations, by careful consideration and monitoring all of the available clinical signs of infection, in addition to blood test results and radiographic evidence. Further research is needed to determine the relationship between the implantation of antibiotic loaded calcium sulfates and the incidence and duration of drainage.

The search for biodegradable, non-toxic, healthy and eco-friendly treatments to increase the shelf life of fruits results in the use of edible, biodegradable films, or surface coatings. Under tropical conditions prevailing high temperatures coupled with low humidity severely affect the grape quality and reduce shelf life. Guar gum (0.25 %) with different levels of alpha tocopherols viz.; 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 percent were applied on bunches of Thompson Seedless with objective to improve quality for extended shelf life. Treated bunches of Thompson Seedless were placed at 10℃ and 60-65 percent RH for 28 days. Observations showed that the application of guargum with alpha-tocopherol improved overall appearance, delayed pattern of TSS and acidity changes, increased antioxidant activities and total phenol content. A combination of alpha-tocopherol (0.6 %) with guar gum (0.25%) was found more effective over other combinations.

Plastic pollution is a recent global issue. Its utilisation has increased tremendously in all aspects of life. Marine wildlife is a major threat group. As a result of these environmental degradation caused by plastics, there are various effort to manage it sustainably. This includes innovation in plastic-based product packaging. There are increasing interests in the field of ethical/responsible consumption as many campaigns are driving the environmentally-friendly consumerism. This paper is focusing on explaining women’s purchasing preference in the environmental-friendly product packaging. Cross-sectional data were collected through a web-based survey. The research population consisted of women consumers who are working in Klang Valley, Malaysia. A three-part questionnaire was used as an instrument; demographic profiles, purchasing patterns and purchasing preference. Only 3.5% of respondents preferred to buy grocery items made from environmental-friendly packaging materials. This result complicates the food packaging waste pollution problems, as 70% of the purchasing of the grocery items is made on a weekly basis which will intensify the non-biodegradable plastic pollution problems.

: Beauty and wellness remain for both women and men an important target also because global attractiveness is considered a cue indicating the ability to maintain beauty and wellness. Consequently neuromarketing has occurred as an innovative mean to interact with consumer's trend, actually looking for high-quality and natural cosmetics and food. By the biometric studies, in fact, it seems possible to verify the consumers’ willingness to buy the right products they are looking for. On the other hand, customers are requesting cosmeceuticals and nutraceuticals acting positively on the superficial appearance of face and body, seem to be able to boost the immune system also, limiting the stress conditions. This general disease is induced by the actual way of living on a planet invaded by a great quantity of waste released from human’s activities. The consequent pollution alters the ecological balance of the body, influencing negatively the life of animals and plants also. Thus, the induced stress, further increased by the COVID-19 spread, could change the human brain' neural conditions. Consequently, in humans the production of both neurons' stem cells and cortisol could decrease, while in plants, the patterns of growth could affect the leaf cuticle and stomatal conductance. Thus brain, under psychosocial stress, actively demands energy from the body, eliciting a marked increase in eating by a major carbohydrate intake which sacrifices the requirements of other organs. In any way, pollution has wide-ranging adverse health and social effects, further worsened by an increased worldwide aged population who, requiring more food and goods, increases the waste production. What the proposed solution? To change the way of consuming and producing, it is necessary to optimize the material resource, minimizing waste that should be recycled and reused by a green economy approach. So doing, it could be possible to realize a new industrial Renaissance reducing consumption of water, energy and natural raw materials. Thus the necessity to use sustainable technologies and materials for maintaining human wellbeing in an environment in which the species' biodiversity could be assured. At this purpose, chitin nanofibrils(CN), nano-lignin (NL) and their derived compounds have been proposed to make nanoparticles (NPs) by the use of water as solvent. These NPs, loaded with different active ingredients, may be embedded into innovative natural or man-made polymers and used to make biodegradable carriers in the form of non-woven tissues and films. Depending on the polymers and on the actives loaded into the fibers, these new vehicles may be used to produce smart cosmeceuticals, nutraceuticals or advanced medications. It is interesting to underline that all these innovative NPs and tissue/films can be produced by natural polymers and ingredients, obtained from waste materials and produced by sustainable technologies at low consumption of water and energy, according to the new green economy.

IntroductionRegional identity is a constant construction, in which landscape, human activity and cultural imaginary build a narrative of place. For the Tasmanian Midlands, the interactions between history, ecology and agriculture both define place and present problems in how to recognise, communicate and balance these interactions. In this sense, regionality is defined not so much as a relation of margin to centre, but as a specific accretion of environmental and cultural histories. According weight to more-than-human perspectives, a region can be seen as a constellation of plant, animal and human interactions and demands, where creative art and design can make space and give voice to the dynamics of exchange between the landscape and its inhabitants. Consideration of three recent art and design projects based in the Midlands reveal the potential for cross-disciplinary research, embedded in both environment and community, to create distinctive and specific forms of connectivity that articulate a regional identify.The Tasmanian Midlands have been identified as a biodiversity hotspot (Australian Government), with a long history of Aboriginal cultural management disrupted by colonial invasion. Recent archaeological work in the Midlands, including the Kerry Lodge Archaeology and Art Project, has focused on the use of convict labour during the nineteenth century in opening up the Midlands for settler agriculture and transport. Now, the Midlands are placed under increasing pressure by changing agricultural practices such as large-scale irrigation. At the same time as this intensification of agricultural activity, significant progress has been made in protecting, preserving and restoring endemic ecologies. This progress has come through non-government conservation organisations, especially Greening Australia and their program Tasmanian Island Ark, and private landowners placing land under conservation covenants. These pressures and conservation activities give rise to research opportunities in the biological sciences, but also pose challenges in communicating the value of conservation and research outcomes to a wider public. The Species Hotel project, beginning in 2016, engaged with the aims of restoration ecology through speculative design while The Marathon Project, a multi-year curatorial art project based on a single property that contains both conservation and commercially farmed zones.This article questions the role of regionality in these three interconnected projects—Kerry Lodge, Species Hotel, and Marathon—sited in the Tasmanian Midlands: the three projects share a concern with the specificities of the region through engagement with specifics sites and their histories and ecologies, while also acknowledging the forces that shape these sites as far more mobile and global in scope. It also considers the interdisciplinary nature of these projects, in the crossover of art and design with ecological, archaeological and agricultural practices of measuring and intervening in the land, where communication and interpretation may be in tension with functionality. These projects suggest ways of working that connect the ecological and the cultural spheres; importantly, they see rural locations as sites of knowledge production; they test the value of small-scale and ephemeral interventions to explore the place of art and design as intervention within colonised landscape.Regions are also defined by overlapping circles of control, interest, and authority. We test the claim that these projects, which operate through cross-disciplinary collaboration and network with a range of stakeholders and community groups, successfully benefit the region in which they are placed. We are particularly interested in the challenges of working across institutions which both claim and enact connections to the region without being centred there. These projects are initiatives resulting from, or in collaboration with, University of Tasmania, an institution that has taken a recent turn towards explicitly identifying as place-based yet the placement of the Midlands as the gap between campuses risks attenuating the institution’s claim to be of this place. Paul Carter, in his discussion of a regional, site-specific collaboration in Alice Springs, flags how processes of creative place-making—operating through mythopoetic and story-based strategies—requires a concrete rather than imagined community that actively engages a plurality of voices on the ground. We identify similar concerns in these art and design projects and argue that iterative and long-term creative projects enable a deeper grappling with the complexities of shared regional place-making. The Midlands is aptly named: as a region, it is defined by its geographical constraints and relationships to urban centres. Heading south from the northern city of Launceston, travellers on the Midland Highway see scores of farming properties networking continuously for around 175 kilometres south to the outskirts of Brighton, the last major township before the Tasmanian capital city of Hobart. The town of Ross straddles latitude 42 degrees south—a line that has historically divided Tasmania into the divisions of North and South. The region is characterised by extensive agricultural usage and small remnant patches of relatively open dry sclerophyll forest and lowland grassland enabled by its lower attitude and relatively flatter terrain. The Midlands sit between the mountainous central highlands of the Great Western Tiers and the Eastern Tiers, a continuous range of dolerite hills lying south of Ben Lomond that slope coastward to the Tasman Sea. This area stretches far beyond the view of the main highway, reaching east in the Deddington and Fingal valleys. Campbell Town is the primary stopping point for travellers, superseding the bypassed towns, which have faced problems with lowering population and resulting loss of facilities.Image 1: Southern Midland Landscape, Ross, Tasmania, 2018. Image Credit: Patrick Sutczak.Predominantly under private ownership, the Tasmanian Midlands are a contested and fractured landscape existing in a state of ecological tension that has occurred with the dominance of western agriculture. For over 200 years, farmers have continually shaped the land and carved it up into small fragments for different agricultural agendas, and this has resulted in significant endemic species decline (Mitchell et al.). The open vegetation was the product of cultural management of land by Tasmanian Aboriginal communities (Gammage), attractive to settlers during their distribution of land grants prior to the 1830s and a focus for settler violence. As documented cartographically in the Centre for 21st Century Humanities’ Colonial Frontier Massacres in Central and Eastern Australia 1788–1930, the period 1820–1835, and particularly during the Black War, saw the Midlands as central to the violent dispossession of Aboriginal landowners. Clements argues that the culture of violence during this period also reflected the brutalisation that the penal system imposed upon its subjects. The cultivation of agricultural land throughout the Midlands was enabled by the provision of unfree convict labour (Dillon). Many of the properties granted and established during the colonial period have been held in multi-generational family ownership through to the present.Within this patchwork of private ownership, the tension between visibility and privacy of the Midlands pastures and farmlands challenges the capacity for people to understand what role the Midlands plays in the greater Tasmanian ecology. Although half of Tasmania’s land areas are protected as national parks and reserves, the Midlands remains largely unprotected due to private ownership. When measured against Tasmania’s wilderness values and reputation, the dry pasturelands of the Midland region fail to capture an equivalent level of visual and experiential imagination. Jamie Kirkpatrick describes misconceptions of the Midlands when he writes of “[f]latness, dead and dying eucalypts, gorse, brown pastures, salt—environmental devastation […]—these are the common impression of those who first travel between Spring Hill and Launceston on the Midland Highway” (45). However, Kirkpatrick also emphasises the unique intimate and intricate qualities of this landscape, and its underlying resilience. In the face of the loss of paddock trees and remnants to irrigation, change in species due to pasture enrichment and introduction of new plant species, conservation initiatives that not only protect but also restore habitat are vital. The Tasmanian Midlands, then, are pastoral landscapes whose seeming monotonous continuity glosses over the radical changes experienced in the processes of colonisation and intensification of agriculture.Underlying the Present: Archaeology and Landscape in the Kerry Lodge ProjectThe major marker of the Midlands is the highway that bisects it. Running from Hobart to Launceston, the construction of a “great macadamised highway” (Department of Main Roads 10) between 1820–1850, and its ongoing maintenance, was a significant colonial project. The macadam technique, a nineteenth century innovation in road building which involved the laying of small pieces of stone to create a surface that was relatively water and frost resistant, required considerable but unskilled labour. The construction of the bridge at Kerry Lodge, in 1834–35, was simultaneous with significant bridge buildings at other major water crossings on the highway, (Department of Main Roads 16) and, as the first water crossing south of Launceston, was a pinch-point through which travel of prisoners could be monitored and controlled. Following the completion of the bridge, the site was used to house up to 60 male convicts in a road gang undergoing secondary punishment (1835–44) and then in a labour camp and hiring depot until 1847. At the time of the La Trobe report (1847), the buildings were noted as being in bad condition (Brand 142–43). After the station was disbanded, the use of the buildings reverted to the landowners for use in accommodation and agricultural storage.Archaeological research at Kerry Lodge, directed by Eleanor Casella, investigated the spatial and disciplinary structures of smaller probation and hiring depots and the living and working conditions of supervisory staff. Across three seasons (2015, 2016, 2018), the emerging themes of discipline and control and as well as labour were borne out by excavations across the site, focusing on remnants of buildings close to the bridge. This first season also piloted the co-presence of a curatorial art project, which grew across the season to include eleven practitioners in visual art, theatre and poetry, and three exhibition outcomes. As a crucial process for the curatorial art project, creative practitioners spent time on site as participants and observers, which enabled the development of responses that interrogated the research processes of archaeological fieldwork as well as making connections to the wider historical and cultural context of the site. Immersed in the mundane tasks of archaeological fieldwork, the practitioners involved became simultaneously focused on repetitive actions while contemplating the deep time contained within earth. This experience then informed the development of creative works interrogating embodied processes as a language of site.The outcome from the first fieldwork season was earthspoke, an exhibition shown at Sawtooth, an artist-run initiative in Launceston in 2015, and later re-installed in Franklin House, a National Trust property in the southern suburbs of Launceston.Images 2 and 3: earthspoke, 2015, Installation View at Sawtooth ARI (top) and Franklin House (bottom). Image Credits: Melanie de Ruyter.This recontextualisation of the work, from contemporary ARI (artist run initiative) gallery to National Trust property enabled the project to reach different audiences but also raised questions about the emphases that these exhibition contexts placed on the work. Within the white cube space of the contemporary gallery, connections to site became more abstracted while the educational and heritage functions of the National Trust property added further context and unintended connotations to the art works.Image 4: Strata, 2017, Installation View. Image Credit: Karen Hall.The two subsequent exhibitions, Lines of Site (2016) and Strata (2017), continued to test the relationship between site and gallery, through works that rematerialised the absences on site and connected embodied experiences of convict and archaeological labour. The most recent iteration of the project, Strata, part of the Ten Days on the Island art festival in 2017, involved installing works at the site, marking with their presence the traces, fragments and voids that had been reburied when the landscape returned to agricultural use following the excavations. Here, the interpretive function of the works directly addressed the layered histories of the landscape and underscored the scope of the human interventions and changes over time within the pastoral landscape. The interpretative role of the artworks formed part of a wider, multidisciplinary approach to research and communication within the project. University of Manchester archaeology staff and postgraduate students directed the excavations, using volunteers from the Launceston Historical Society. Staff from Launceston’s Queen Victorian Museum and Art Gallery brought their archival and collection-based expertise to the site rather than simply receiving stored finds as a repository, supporting immediate interpretation and contextualisation of objects. In 2018, participation from the University of Tasmania School of Education enabled a larger number of on-site educational activities than afforded by previous open days. These multi-disciplinary and multi-organisational networks, drawn together provisionally in a shared time and place, provided rich opportunities for dialogue. However, the challenges of sustaining these exchanges have meant ongoing collaborations have become more sporadic, reflecting different institutional priorities and competing demands on participants. Even within long-term projects, continued engagement with stakeholders can be a challenge: while enabling an emerging and concrete sense of community, the time span gives greater vulnerability to external pressures. Making Home: Ecological Restoration and Community Engagement in the Species Hotel ProjectImages 5 and 6: Selected Species Hotels, Ross, Tasmania, 2018. Image Credits: Patrick Sutczak. The Species Hotels stand sentinel over a river of saplings, providing shelter for animal communities within close range of a small town. At the township of Ross in the Southern Midlands, work was initiated by restoration ecologists to address the lack of substantial animal shelter belts on a number of major properties in the area. The Tasmania Island Ark is a major Greening Australia restoration ecology initiative, connecting 6000 hectares of habitat across the Midlands. Linking larger forest areas in the Eastern Tiers and Central Highlands as well as isolated patches of remnant native vegetation, the Ark project is vital to the ongoing survival of local plant and animal species under pressure from human interventions and climate change. With fragmentation of bush and native grasslands in the Midland landscape resulting in vast open plains, the ability for animals to adapt to pasturelands without shelter has resulted in significant decline as animals such as the critically endangered Eastern Barred Bandicoot struggle to feed, move, and avoid predators (Cranney). In 2014 mass plantings of native vegetation were undertaken along 16km of the serpentine Macquarie River as part of two habitat corridors designed to bring connectivity back to the region. While the plantings were being established a public art project was conceived that would merge design with practical application to assist animals in the area, and draw community and public attention to the work that was being done in re-establishing native forests. The Species Hotel project, which began in 2016, emerged from a collaboration between Greening Australia and the University of Tasmania’s School of Architecture and Design, the School of Land and Food, the Tasmanian College of the Arts and the ARC Centre for Forest Value, with funding from the Ian Potter Foundation. The initial focus of the project was the development of interventions in the landscape that could address the specific habitat needs of the insect, small mammal, and bird species that are under threat. First-year Architecture students were invited to design a series of structures with the brief that they would act as ‘Species Hotels’, and once created would be installed among the plantings as structures that could be inhabited or act as protection. After installation, the privately-owned land would be reconfigured so to allow public access and observation of the hotels, by residents and visitors alike. Early in the project’s development, a concern was raised during a Ross community communication and consultation event that the surrounding landscape and its vistas would be dramatically altered with the re-introduced forest. While momentary and resolved, a subtle yet obvious tension surfaced that questioned the re-writing of an established community’s visual landscape literacy by non-residents. Compact and picturesque, the architectural, historical and cultural qualities of Ross and its location were not only admired by residents, but established a regional identity. During the six-week intensive project, the community reach was expanded beyond the institution and involved over 100 people including landowners, artists, scientists and school children from the region (Wright), attempting to address and channel the concerns of residents about the changing landscape. The multiple timescales of this iterative project—from intensive moments of collaboration between stakeholders to the more-than-human time of tree growth—open spaces for regional identity to shift as both as place and community. Part of the design brief was the use of fully biodegradable materials: the Species Hotels are not expected to last forever. The actual installation of the Species Hotelson site took longer than planned due to weather conditions, but once on site they were weathering in, showing signs of insect and bird habitation. This animal activity created an opportunity for ongoing engagement. Further activities generated from the initial iteration of Species Hotel were the Species Hotel Day in 2017, held at the Ross Community Hall where presentations by scientists and designers provided feedback to the local community and presented opportunities for further design engagement in the production of ephemeral ‘species seed pies’ placed out in and around Ross. Architecture and Design students have gone on to develop more examples of ‘ecological furniture’ with a current focus on insect housing as well as extrapolating from the installation of the Species Hotels to generate a VR visualisation of the surrounding landscape, game design and participatory movement work that was presented as part of the Junction Arts Festival program in Launceston, 2017. The intersections of technologies and activities amplified the lived in and living qualities of the Species Hotels, not only adding to the connectivity of social and environmental actions on site and beyond, but also making a statement about the shared ownership this project enabled.Working Property: Collaboration and Dialogues in The Marathon Project The potential of iterative projects that engage with environmental concerns amid questions of access, stewardship and dialogue is also demonstrated in The Marathon Project, a collaborative art project that took place between 2015 and 2017. Situated in the Northern Midland region of Deddington alongside the banks of the Nile River the property of Marathon became the focal point for a small group of artists, ecologists and theorists to converge and engage with a pastoral landscape over time that was unfamiliar to many of them. Through a series of weekend camps and day trips, the participants were able to explore and follow their own creative and investigative agendas. The project was conceived by the landowners who share a passion for the history of the area, their land, and ideas of custodianship and ecological responsibility. The intentions of the project initially were to inspire creative work alongside access, engagement and dialogue about land, agriculture and Deddington itself. As a very small town on the Northern Midland fringe, Deddington is located toward the Eastern Tiers at the foothills of the Ben Lomond mountain ranges. Historically, Deddington is best known as the location of renowned 19th century landscape painter John Glover’s residence, Patterdale. After Glover’s death in 1849, the property steadily fell into disrepair and a recent private restoration effort of the home, studio and grounds has seen renewed interest in the cultural significance of the region. With that in mind, and with Marathon a neighbouring property, participants in the project were able to experience the area and research its past and present as a part of a network of working properties, but also encouraging conversation around the region as a contested and documented place of settlement and subsequent violence toward the Aboriginal people. Marathon is a working property, yet also a vital and fragile ecosystem. Marathon consists of 1430 hectares, of which around 300 lowland hectares are currently used for sheep grazing. The paddocks retain their productivity, function and potential to return to native grassland, while thickets of gorse are plentiful, an example of an invasive species difficult to control. The rest of the property comprises eucalypt woodlands and native grasslands that have been protected under a conservation covenant by the landowners since 2003. The Marathon creek and the Nile River mark the boundary between the functional paddocks and the uncultivated hills and are actively managed in the interface between native and introduced species of flora and fauna. This covenant aimed to preserve these landscapes, linking in with a wider pattern of organisations and landowners attempting to address significant ecological degradation and isolation of remnant bushland patches through restoration ecology. Measured against the visibility of Tasmania’s wilderness identity on the national and global stage, many of the ecological concerns affecting the Midlands go largely unnoticed. The Marathon Project was as much a project about visibility and communication as it was about art and landscape. Over the three years and with its 17 participants, The Marathon Project yielded three major exhibitions along with numerous public presentations and research outputs. The length of the project and the autonomy and perspectives of its participants allowed for connections to be formed, conversations initiated, and greater exposure to the productivity and sustainability complexities playing out on rural Midland properties. Like Kerry Lodge, the 2015 first year exhibition took place at Sawtooth ARI. The exhibition was a testing ground for artists, and a platform for audiences, to witness the cross-disciplinary outputs of work inspired by a single sheep grazing farm. The interest generated led to the rethinking of the 2016 exhibition and the need to broaden the scope of what the landowners and participants were trying to achieve. Image 7: Panel Discussion at Open Weekend, 2016. Image Credit: Ron Malor.In November 2016, The Marathon Project hosted an Open Weekend on the property encouraging audiences to visit, meet the artists, the landowners, and other invited guests from a number of restoration, conservation, and rehabilitation organisations. Titled Encounter, the event and accompanying exhibition displayed in the shearing shed, provided an opportunity for a rhizomatic effect with the public which was designed to inform and disseminate historical and contemporary perspectives of land and agriculture, access, ownership, visitation and interpretation. Concluding with a final exhibition in 2017 at the University of Tasmania’s Academy Gallery, The Marathon Project had built enough momentum to shape and inform the practice of its participants, the knowledge and imagination of the public who engaged with it, and make visible the precarity of the cultural and rural Midland identity.Image 8. Installation View of The Marathon Project Exhibition, 2017. Image Credit: Patrick Sutczak.ConclusionThe Marathon Project, Species Hotel and the Kerry Lodge Archaeology and Art Project all demonstrate the potential of site-based projects to articulate and address concerns that arise from the environmental and cultural conditions and histories of a region. Beyond the Midland fence line is a complex environment that needed to be experienced to be understood. Returning creative work to site, and opening up these intensified experiences of place to a public forms a key stage in all these projects. Beyond a commitment to site-specific practice and valuing the affective and didactic potential of on-site installation, these returns grapple with issues of access, visibility and absence that characterise the Midlands. Paul Carter describes his role in the convening of a “concretely self-realising creative community” in an initiative to construct a meeting-place in Alice Springs, a community defined and united in “its capacity to imagine change as a negotiation between past, present and future” (17). Within that regional context, storytelling, as an encounter between histories and cultures, became crucial in assembling a community that could in turn materialise story into place. In these Midlands projects, a looser assembly of participants with shared interests seek to engage with the intersections of plant, human and animal activities that constitute and negotiate the changing environment. The projects enabled moments of connection, of access, and of intervention: always informed by the complexities of belonging within regional locations.These projects also suggest the need to recognise the granularity of regionalism: the need to be attentive to the relations of site to bioregion, of private land to small town to regional centre. The numerous partnerships that allow such interconnect projects to flourish can be seen as a strength of regional areas, where proximity and scale can draw together sets of related institutions, organisations and individuals. However, the tensions and gaps within these projects reveal differing priorities, senses of ownership and even regional belonging. Questions of who will live with these project outcomes, who will access them, and on what terms, reveal inequalities of power. Negotiations of this uneven and uneasy terrain require a more nuanced account of projects that do not rely on the geographical labelling of regions to paper over the complexities and fractures within the social environment.These projects also share a commitment to the intersection of the social and natural environment. They recognise the inextricable entanglement of human and more than human agencies in shaping the landscape, and material consequences of colonialism and agricultural intensification. Through iteration and duration, the projects mobilise processes that are responsive and reflective while being anchored to the materiality of site. Warwick Mules suggests that “regions are a mixture of data and earth, historically made through the accumulation and condensation of material and informational configurations”. Cross-disciplinary exchanges enable all three projects to actively participate in data production, not interpretation or illustration afterwards. Mules’ call for ‘accumulation’ and ‘configuration’ as productive regional modes speaks directly to the practice-led methodologies employed by these projects. The Kerry Lodge and Marathon projects collect, arrange and transform material taken from each site to provisionally construct a regional material language, extended further in the dual presentation of the projects as off-site exhibitions and as interventions returning to site. The Species Hotel project shares that dual identity, where materials are chosen for their ability over time, habitation and decay to become incorporated into the site yet, through other iterations of the project, become digital presences that nonetheless invite an embodied engagement.These projects centre the Midlands as fertile ground for the production of knowledge and experiences that are distinctive and place-based, arising from the unique qualities of this place, its history and its ongoing challenges. Art and design practice enables connectivity to plant, animal and human communities, utilising cross-disciplinary collaborations to bring together further accumulations of the region’s intertwined cultural and ecological landscape.ReferencesAustralian Government Department of the Environment and Energy. Biodiversity Conservation. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2018. 1 Apr. 2019 <http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/conservation>.Brand, Ian. The Convict Probation System: Van Diemen’s Land 1839–1854. Sandy Bay: Blubber Head Press, 1990.Carter, Paul. “Common Patterns: Narratives of ‘Mere Coincidence’ and the Production of Regions.” Creative Communities: Regional Inclusion & the Arts. Eds. Janet McDonald and Robert Mason. Bristol: Intellect, 2015. 13–30.Centre for 21st Century Humanities. Colonial Frontier Massacres in Central and Eastern Australia 1788–1930. 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