Reflections on the Centenary of Sir William Osler: Science and Humanity are One, for Nursing and Medicine

Sir William Osler (1849-1991) was Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford in the UK and a founding professor at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The centenary of Osler’s death is a time for recognition in nursing, as well as medicine, of a pioneering and highly influential Oxford physician on both sides of the Atlantic, an influence that extended to nursing from the UK to the USA. This letter captures reflections and discussion on contemporary nursing issues from an Osler Seminar Series, held at the University of Oxford in 2019 to mark the Centenary of Sir William Osler’s death, focusing on his thinking and influence related to nursing. This extended letter illuminates issues on themes of science and humanity within a clinical and educational context, exploring a range of key contemporary nursing issues. These include the significance of interpersonal relations as they relate to care attitude and care technology; the therapeutic influence of the nurse; nursing education and clinical-academic development; the value of a life world perspective on nursing and wellbeing; and practice development within the context of person-centred workplace cultures. These issues are contextualised with examples from practice and include some from nursing developments and those illustrated in part by the clinical speciality of dermatological care. The letter concludes by considering the significance of the nursing service to promoting access to quality health care in the twenty-first century and its relevance to recognising the nursing contribution to universal health care through the WHO International Year(s) of the Nurse and Midwife in 2020-21

The effect of Lolium perenne L. ploidy and Trifolium repens L. inclusion on dry matter intake and production efficiencies of spring-calving grazing dairy cows

peer-reviewedThe objective of this study was to investigate the effect of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.; PRG) ploidy and white clover (Trifolium repens L.) inclusion on milk production, dry matter intake (DMI), and milk production efficiencies. Four separate grazing treatments were evaluated: tetraploid PRG only, diploid PRG only, tetraploid PRG with white clover, and diploid PRG with white clover. Individual DMI was estimated 8 times during the study (3 times in 2015, 2 times in 2016, and 3 times in 2017) using the n-alkane technique. Cows were, on average, 64, 110, and 189 d in milk during the DMI measurement period, corresponding to spring, summer, and autumn, respectively. Measures of milk production efficiency were total DMI/100 kg of body weight (BW), milk solids (kg of fat + protein; MSo)/100 kg of BW, solids-corrected milk/100 kg of BW, and MSo/kg of total DMI. Perennial ryegrass ploidy had no effect on DMI; however, a significant increase in DMI (+0.5 kg/cow per day) was observed from cows grazing PRG-white clover swards compared with PRG-only swards. Sward white clover content influenced DMI as there was no increase in DMI in spring (9% sward white cover content), whereas DMI was greater in summer and autumn for cows grazing PRG-white clover swards (+0.8 kg/cow per day) compared with PRG-only swards (14 and 23% sward white clover content, respectively). The greater DMI of cows grazing PRG-white clover swards led to increased milk (+1.3 kg/cow per day) and MSo (+0.10 kg/cow per day) yields. Cows grazing PRG-white clover swards were also more efficient for total DMI/100 kg of BW, solids-corrected milk/100 kg of BW, and MSo/100 kg of BW compared with cows grazing PRG-only swards due to their similar BW but higher milk and MSo yields. The results highlight the potential of PRG-white clover swards to increase DMI at grazing and to improve milk production efficiency in pasture-based systems

The GLEAMing of the first supermassive black holes

Galaxie

Unexpected circular radio objects at high Galactic latitude

Large scale structure and cosmolog

Comprehensive analysis of epigenetic clocks reveals associations between disproportionate biological ageing and hippocampal volume

The concept of age acceleration, the difference between biological age and chronological age, is of growing interest, particularly with respect to age-related disorders, such as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Whilst studies have reported associations with AD risk and related phenotypes, there remains a lack of consensus on these associations. Here we aimed to comprehensively investigate the relationship between five recognised measures of age acceleration, based on DNA methylation patterns (DNAm age), and cross-sectional and longitudinal cognition and AD-related neuroimaging phenotypes (volumetric MRI and Amyloid-β PET) in the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle (AIBL) and the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). Significant associations were observed between age acceleration using the Hannum epigenetic clock and cross-sectional hippocampal volume in AIBL and replicated in ADNI. In AIBL, several other findings were observed cross-sectionally, including a significant association between hippocampal volume and the Hannum and Phenoage epigenetic clocks. Further, significant associations were also observed between hippocampal volume and the Zhang and Phenoage epigenetic clocks within Amyloid-β positive individuals. However, these were not validated within the ADNI cohort. No associations between age acceleration and other Alzheimer’s disease-related phenotypes, including measures of cognition or brain Amyloid-β burden, were observed, and there was no association with longitudinal change in any phenotype. This study presents a link between age acceleration, as determined using DNA methylation, and hippocampal volume that was statistically significant across two highly characterised cohorts. The results presented in this study contribute to a growing literature that supports the role of epigenetic modifications in ageing and AD-related phenotypes

Uncovering the heterogeneity and temporal complexity of neurodegenerative diseases with Subtype and Stage Inference

The heterogeneity of neurodegenerative diseases is a key confound to disease understanding and treatment development, as study cohorts typically include multiple phenotypes on distinct disease trajectories. Here we introduce a machine-learning technique\u2014Subtype and Stage Inference (SuStaIn)\u2014able to uncover data-driven disease phenotypes with distinct temporal progression patterns, from widely available cross-sectional patient studies. Results from imaging studies in two neurodegenerative diseases reveal subgroups and their distinct trajectories of regional neurodegeneration. In genetic frontotemporal dementia, SuStaIn identifies genotypes from imaging alone, validating its ability to identify subtypes; further the technique reveals within-genotype heterogeneity. In Alzheimer\u2019s disease, SuStaIn uncovers three subtypes, uniquely characterising their temporal complexity. SuStaIn provides fine-grained patient stratification, which substantially enhances the ability to predict conversion between diagnostic categories over standard models that ignore subtype (p = 7.18 7 10 124 ) or temporal stage (p = 3.96 7 10 125 ). SuStaIn offers new promise for enabling disease subtype discovery and precision medicine

New 20-cm radio-continuum study of the small Magellanic cloud - part III: Compact Hii regions

We present and discuss a new catalogue of 48 compact Hii regions in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and a newly created deep 1420 MHz (λ=20 cm) radio-continuum image of the N19 region located in the southwestern part of the SMC. The new images were created by merging 1420 MHz radiocontinuum archival data from the Australian Telescope Compact Array. The majority of these detected radio compact Hii regions have rather flat spectral indices which indicates, as expected, that the dominant emission mechanism is of thermal nature

Wide-band spectral variability of peaked spectrum sources

Galaxie