This chapter traces the development of agricultural crimes from simple, tolerated and socially accepted cultural activities to highly complex and commercialized criminal activities. For a long time in Africa, rural communities, especially farmers, were not concerned about theft as crime rarely occurred, and if it did occur, the impact was minimal. The social factors that have caused stock and crop theft to rise beyond acceptable levels in Africa are defined, highlighting the trends that have emerged, notably how criminals are taking advantage of traditional African rural culture to steal from and rob farmers. The crimes have changed from simple and highly opportunistic petty crimes to well-organized and sophisticated criminal activities. Historically, theft as the result of hunger in traditional African society was somewhat tolerated, a tradition that persists, albeit in defiance of formal law. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the need to embed the study of agricultural crime in Africa within a larger, global context.

The use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) in higher education has garnered significant attention from scholars and researchers since the release of ChatGPT, one of the prominent GAI tools, in late 2022. While academic communities are increasingly recognizing the potential of GAI in teaching and learning, concerns persist regarding the impact of individual backgrounds and employment statuses on attitudes toward GAI, particularly in private higher education. This paper examines the perspectives of academic staff across different disciplines and employment statuses on their familiarity with and incorporation of GAI technologies in teaching. It emphasizes how to integrate GAI technologies effectively into teaching while upholding academic integrity and ensuring the quality of education. The findings, derived from an online survey and descriptive analysis, reveal significant variation in GAI familiarity among disciplines, as well as differing approaches to integrating GAI tools into teaching practices and formulating policies to maintain academic integrity. Notably, full-time staff are generally more familiar with GAI than their casual counterparts. While most teaching staff are open tom students using GAI in their studies, concerns about potential breaches of academic integrity, particularly in assessments, remain prominent. To address these concerns, we recommend developing a transparent academic integrity policy along with clear guidelines for GAI use tailored to different disciplines and employment statuses. Such measures would foster an innovative and creative learning environment while safeguarding the quality of education.

This chapter describes a novel way of carrying out image analysis, reconstruction and processing tasks using cloud based service provided on the Australian National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources (NeCTAR) infrastructure. The toolbox allows users free access to a wide range of useful blocks of functionalities (imaging functions) that can be connected together in workflows allowing creation of even more complex algorithms that can be re-run on different data sets, shared with others or additionally adjusted. The functions given are in the area of cellular imaging, advanced X-ray image analysis, computed tomography and 3D medical imaging and visualisation.

Purpose : SERPINI1 is a member of serine protease inhibitor family and is expressed in neuronal tissues such as brain and retina. SERPINI1 upregulation in retina has been shown to be neuroprotective in acute ischemic injury. This study investigated the effects of SERPINI1 neutralisation on inner retinal function in healthy animal eyes. SERPINI1 is susceptible to oxidative stress, therefore we also investigated the effects of oxidative stress on SERPINI1 expression changes in 661W photoreceptor cells and change in autophagy markers.

Methods : SERPINI1 or IgG antibody was administered intravitreally in healthy mice retina (weekly once for 8 weeks, 2µl, n=20). ERGs and positive scotopic threshold response (pSTR) was measured using Phoenix Ganzfield (-4.3log cd s/m2) after 8 weeks. The amplitude of each component was measured and analysed. 661W photoreceptor cells were cultured, incubated with hydrogen-peroxide (10µM) and harvested after 8 and 24 hours. Western blotting was evaluated SERPINI1 and expression of autophagy markers.

Results : The SERPINI1 neutralisation by intravitreal injection of anti-SERPINI1 in C57BL/6 mice retinas showed no change in ERG but significant loss of pSTR amplitude as compared to IgG injected or no-injection control counterparts: mean±SEM; control vs IgG vs anti-SERPINI; 51.2±3.42 µV vs 47.02±6.03 µV vs 30.37±4.12 µV (p<0.007). Western blot showed that SERPINI1 was expressed in 661W cells and was significantly elevated after 8 hrs (81.81±9.43 vs 227.7±0.72; p<0.0001, n=3) but its expression reduced at 24 hrs following H2O2 treatment. H2O2 also significantly enhanced Beclin1 (p<0.0008), LC3II (p<0.04), Atg3 (p<0.05), Atg7 (p<0.02) and Atg16 L1 (p<0.03) after 8 hrs and expression of some of these markers was then reduced after 24 hrs. Therefore, there was an early increase in SERPINI1 in response to oxidative stress which paralleled the change in autophagy markers.

Conclusions : Blocking SERPINI1 in healthy retinal neurons diminished inner retinal function as determined by pSTR amplitude reduction. The mechanism for this is unknown but may reflect increased excitotoxicity or synaptic dysfunction. Further studies are needed to clarify relationship between SERPINI1 and autophagy in photoreceptor cells. Long term oxidative stress may induce changes in SERPINI1 levels that could render neurons more susceptible to degenerative change.