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The impact of the 1979 Williams Committee Report on Education and Training on three Australian universities is examined. The influence of public policy as implemented by Australian federal and state governments is discussed, including effects on institutional autonomy and competition for students. (Author/MLW)

The energy requirements for incorporation in vitro of [14C]leucine into sterile mitochondria isolated from thoracic flight muscles of newly-emerged Lucilia cuprina have been studied. There is an absolute requirement for addition of either ADP or ATP. Oxidisable substrates (pyruvate, DL-α-glycerophosphate, proline), or an ATP-generating system increased incorporation above that observed with added ADP or ATP alone. Both the rate and duration of incorporation are strongly dependent on the concentration of adenine nucleotides used. Experiments with oligomycin and 2,4-dinitrophenol suggest that energy for incorporation is provided as ATP. With non-sterile preparations, incorporation was, independent of added adenine nucleotides, and almost constant for up to four hours with no added substrate or adenine nucleotide. It was inhibited by added substrate and also by added amino acids, especially isoleucine and valine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural variants and chemically modified derivatives of phalloidin have been found or prepared which show all degrees of toxicity. High toxicity persists if only three of the side chains are modified. Acetylation of two of the four OH groups of phalloidin leads to less toxic products, the triacetyl derivative is nontoxic. On tosylation toxicity disappeared after reaction of only two OH groups. Alkylation of the indole nitrogen leads to equally or less toxic (N-methyl, -ethyl, carbamoylmethyl, -tert.butyl) or nontoxic (N-propyl, -pentyl) products. Toxicity is also com- pletely absent if only one of the two rings of the molecule is intact. In optical rotatory dispersion spectra all of the toxic compounds show in aqueous solution two cotton effects centered around 300 nm and 248 nm, whereas in nearly all of the nontoxic derivatives at least one of the effects is missing. Triacetylphalloidin and tribromophalloidin, both nontoxic, also exhibit “toxic” curves in water. Their conformation, however, changes on going to organic solvents like methanol or acetonitril as observed by optical rotatory dispersion studies. Thus, stability of the “aqueous” conformation in a lipophilic environment is apparently the second prerequisite for a toxic action of phallopeptides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]