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Byline: Mary Tate, David Johnstone, Janet Toland, Robert Hynson Information Technology (IT) is often assumed to be a critical enabling factor for modern democratic processes. We briefly examine widespread reform of public service institutions along market principles, known as the New Public Management (NPM). We then examine some of the IT management issues that have arisen as a result of the changing nature of local government. We identify a disconnect between the current orthodoxy of local government, the expected benefits of IT, and the actual experience of IT management in public sector organisations. Many public sector organisations suffer from multiple IT management problems. These seriously affect their ability to deliver on the promise that IT management will deliver the quality management information that is required by increased demands for public accountability. We illustrate this with a case study.

Nomadic species are challenging to conserve, because their high mobility and irregular settlement patterns make it difficult to implement targeted conservation actions. Here, we report on the first sustained attempt to protect nests of Critically Endangered Regent Honeyeaters from predation and to release zoo-bred birds into a wild breeding event. During the 2023 breeding season, targeted culling of known nest predator species within the area of 10–12 wild breeding pairs within Capertee National Park was associated with a daily nest survival rate of 97.9%. This equated to an overall nest success rate of 48.6% and resulted in the fledging of 18 juveniles from nine nests – double the average nest success rate from 2015, 2016 and 2017 (24.1%) when Regent Honeyeaters bred in the same location. Population viability analysis indicates nest protection alone could slow the rate of population decline, but its effectiveness depends on the proportion of nests that can be located and protected each year. Fourteen zoo-bred Regent Honeyeaters were released approximately half way through the breeding event. Seven zoo-bred birds were confirmed alive 5 weeks post-release, but no zoo-bred birds released in 2023 attempted to breed in this year. Although our sample is small and prone to stochastic effects, we provide non-experimental evidence that nest predator management can play a key role in boosting recruitment of juvenile Regent Honeyeaters to the wild population. In combination with the reintroduction of zoo-bred birds and habitat restoration, nest predator management can help prevent imminent extinction of the Regent Honeyeater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

KipI is a sporulation inhibitor in Bacillus subtilis which acts by binding to the dimerisation and histidine phosphotransfer (DHp) domain of KinA, the principle input kinase in the phosphorelay responsible for sporulation. The N, C and H chemical shift assignments of the N-terminal domain of KipI were determined using multidimensional, multinuclear NMR experiments. The N-terminal domain has two conformers and resonance assignments have been made for both conformers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crystal structures have opened the door to understanding the mechanism and ligand specificities of MAO A and MAO B. We review here functional properties that suggest a flexibility in MAO that is likely to influence catalysis under different cellular conditions. The flexibility indicated by altered oxidation kinetics and a changed redox potential in the presence of a substrate was confirmed by circular dichroism spectroscopy. Circular dichroism also demonstrated alterations in the conformation of aromatic residues during reduction of MAO A and after covalent modification of the flavin. Visible spectra provide a convenient way to monitor ligand binding in the active site. Different groups near the flavin give different spectral changes. During reduction of MAO A, a distinct 412 nm peak appears after partial reduction. Recent work suggests that this may be a tyrosyl radical in equilibrium with the semiquinone of the flavin. Substrates prevent the appearance of the 412 nm peak but many inhibitors enhance it by preventing further reduction. We propose that steric effects in the active site could be the mechanism of this difference. Flexibility is also important for the transmission of the effects of modifying the surface thiols to the active site. Modification of multiple thiols results in inactivation but mutation of a single thiol, cysteine 374 in MAO A to alanine, decreased the catalytic potency (kcat/Km) by 30%. Thus, surface modification of MAO (for example, by oxidative stress) could reduce its activity.