The diary of Robert John Mullins (1833-1913)

Summary of Content: This volume offers its readers extracts from the diary and the correspondence of Robert John Mullins, Anglican missionary, priest and in due time principal of what was called the Kafir Institution in Grahamstown and as such a pioneer in the field of western education to black South Africans. After his marriage to Jennie Roe he was assisted in all that he undertook by a loyal and devoted wife. The editors have made use of the earlier diaries and manuscripts because of the light they shed on the conditions in the eastern Cape frontier in the crucial years before and after the cattle-killing. While Mullins' own observations are those of a young missionary his remarks and the record of his experiences are themselves to be viewed in the light of the recent scholarship in regard to the cattle-killing which reveals the multisidedness of an appalling social tragedy. What Mullins wrote records, for better or for worse, episodes which show how South Africans of different origins have in the past regarded one another. Mullins was a committed Christian eager to offer to all whom he could reach the salvation of Christ in which he so fervently believed.He was often intolerant of Xhosa customs he could not understand as well as often perplexed and discouraged. But the overwhelming impact of this record is what it took to be a missionary: courage, commitment, humour, resilience, a capacity to endure physical hardship and enjoy physical activity. All these were qualities which Robert John Mullins possessed in abundance. As his diary shows they were the qualities the frontier demanded. Working over a long period of time Nancy Charton and Brenda Nicholls (who became a coeditor in 1991) have transcribed the diary entries and the correspondence working with the help of the sites of some of the missionary activity. The help of members of the Mullins family (notably Judy Sturrock and her husband) is gratefully acknowledged. Earlier generous contributions made it possible to obtain a typescript from which the editors could work. Every effort has been made to identify the individuals (Xhosa, Tembu and white) and events (both in South Africa and abroad) which are alluded to in the diary. This was a time consuming task and the editors are grateful to all who helped them with it. The book consists of an introduction and eleven chapters. The introduction describes the material and the methods of the editors, discusses the religious and social conditions of the time, addresses the problems of interpartition presented by the cattle-killings, turns attention to the dilemmas of missionaries and then focusses the attention of readers on the diarist Robert John Mullins (with Jennie as later stand-in) as well as the value of the diary. There is much to interest the educationist, the theologian, the economist, and the historian. Chapter 1 deals with Mullins' voyage to the Cape in 1854 and the extracts record the experiences of an exuberant as well as a dedicated lad of sixteen. Chapter 2 deals with the arrival at the Cape in 1854. Chapter 3 gives us a picture of Mullins' experience of Graham's Town in 1854. Chapter 4 deals with Mullins' experience at St Luke's Mission. Chapter 5 covers the period of 1856-57 when Mullins was at Balotwa and the cattle-killing frenzy developed. Chapter 6 describes the hunger and turmoil which followed in the wake of the cattle-killing. Chapter 7 describes the founding of a new station, St Peter's Gwytyu. Chapter 8 is concerned with life at St Peter's in the early months of 1858. Chapter 9 covers the last months at St Peter's and his journey to the Bashee. Chapters 10 and 11 cover the early years in the married life of Robert John Mullins and his wife Jennie. The Mullins' delight in family life is strongly evident in their joy in each other's company and their anxious joy over their first-born baby. Chapter 11 gives the reader the texts of letters written by Robert John and his wife Jennie in the years which marked the end of Mullins' career as a frontier missionary, and the opening to him of the opportunity to become Principal of the Kafir Institution. A map carefully prepared by Mr Oakley West of the Geography Department, with the assistance of Deby Brody, enables the reader to trace the frontier journeys of Robert John Mullins and his wife Jennie who were among the pioneers of frontier societies who did their best to make available to others what they believed to be the eternal benefits of the Christian faith, and the accompanying mores of the 'western' culture of their day

Prognostic factors in solitary plasmacytoma of the bone: a multicenter Rare Cancer Network study

BACKGROUND: Solitary plasmacytoma (SP) of the bone is a rare plasma-cell neoplasm. There are no conclusive data in the literature on the optimal radiation therapy (RT) dose in SP. Therefore, in this large retrospective study, we wanted to assess the outcome, prognostic factors, and the optimal RT dose in patients with SP. METHODS: Data from 206 patients with bone SP without evidence of multiple myeloma (MM) were collected. Histopathological diagnosis was obtained for all patients. The majority (n = 169) of the patients received RT alone; 32 chemotherapy and RT, and 5 surgery. Median follow-up was 54 months (7–245). RESULTS: Five-year overall survival, disease-free survival (DFS), and local control was 70%, 46%, and 88%; respectively. Median time to MM development was 21 months (2–135) with a 5-year probability of 51%. In multivariate analyses, favorable factors were younger age and tumor size < 5 cm for survival; younger age for DFS; anatomic localization (vertebra vs. other) for local control. Older age was the only predictor for MM. There was no dose-response relationship for doses 30 Gy or higher, even for larger tumors. CONCLUSION: Younger patients, especially those with vertebral localization have the best outcome when treated with moderate-dose RT. Progression to MM remains the main problem. Further investigation should focus on adjuvant chemotherapy and/or novel therapeutic agents

Skeletal Plasmacytoma: Progression of disease and impact of local treatment; an analysis of SEER database

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Previous reports suggest an as yet unidentifiable subset of patients with plasmacytoma will progress to myeloma. The current study sought to establish the risk of developing myeloma and determine the prognostic factors affecting the progression of disease.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Patients with plasmacytoma diagnosed between 1973 and 2005 were identified in the SEER database(1164 patients). Patient demographics and clinical characteristics, treatment(s), cause of death, and survival were extracted. Kaplan-Meier, log-rank, and Cox regression were used to analyze prognostic factors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The five year survival among patients initially diagnosed with plasmacytoma that later progressed to multiple myeloma and those initially diagnosed with multiple myeloma were almost identical (25% and 23%; respectively). Five year survival for patients with plasmacytoma that did not progress to multiple myeloma was significantly better (72%). Age > 60 years was the only factor that correlated with progression of disease (p = 0.027).</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Plasmacytoma consists of two cohorts of patients with different overall survival; those patients that do not progress to systemic disease and those that develop myeloma. Age > 60 years is associated with disease progression. Identifying patients with systemic disease early in the treatment will permit aggressive and novel treatment strategies to be implemented.</p

RNA interference approaches for treatment of HIV-1 infection

HIV/AIDS is a chronic and debilitating disease that cannot be cured with current antiretroviral drugs. While combinatorial antiretroviral therapy (cART) can potently suppress HIV-1 replication and delay the onset of AIDS, viral mutagenesis often leads to viral escape from multiple drugs. In addition to the pharmacological agents that comprise cART drug cocktails, new biological therapeutics are reaching the clinic. These include gene-based therapies that utilize RNA interference (RNAi) to silence the expression of viral or host mRNA targets that are required for HIV-1 infection and/or replication. RNAi allows sequence-specific design to compensate for viral mutants and natural variants, thereby drastically expanding the number of therapeutic targets beyond the capabilities of cART. Recent advances in clinical and preclinical studies have demonstrated the promise of RNAi therapeutics, reinforcing the concept that RNAi-based agents might offer a safe, effective, and more durable approach for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Nevertheless, there are challenges that must be overcome in order for RNAi therapeutics to reach their clinical potential. These include the refinement of strategies for delivery and to reduce the risk of mutational escape. In this review, we provide an overview of RNAi-based therapies for HIV-1, examine a variety of combinatorial RNAi strategies, and discuss approaches for ex vivo delivery and in vivo delivery

Transient recharge estimability through field-scale groundwater model calibration

The estimation of recharge through groundwater model calibration is hampered by the nonuniqueness of recharge and aquifer parameter values. It has been shown recently that the estimability of spatially distributed recharge through calibration of steady-state models for practical situations (i.e., real-world, field-scale aquifer settings) is limited by the need for excessive amounts of hydraulic-parameter and groundwater-level data. However, the extent to which temporal recharge variability can be informed through transient model calibration, which involves larger water-level datasets, but requires the additional consideration of storage parameters, is presently unknown for practical situations. In this study, time-varying recharge estimates, inferred through calibration of a field-scale highly parameterized groundwater model, are systematically investigated subject to changes in (1) the degree to which hydraulic parameters including hydraulic conductivity (K) and specific yield (Sy ) are constrained, (2) the number of water-level calibration targets, and (3) the temporal resolution (up to monthly time steps) at which recharge is estimated. The analysis involves the use of a synthetic reality (a reference model) based on a groundwater model of Uley South Basin, South Australia. Identifiability statistics are used to evaluate the ability of recharge and hydraulic parameters to be estimated uniquely. Results show that reasonable estimates of monthly recharge (<30% recharge root-mean-squared error) require a considerable amount of transient water-level data, and that the spatial distribution of K is known. Joint estimation of recharge, Sy and K, however, precludes reasonable inference of recharge and hydraulic parameter values. We conclude that the estimation of temporal recharge variability through calibration may be impractical for real-world settings.Matthew J. Knowling and Adrian D. Werne

A non-intrusive approach for efficient stochastic emulation and optimization of model-based nitrate-loading management decision support

Use of physically-motivated numerical models like groundwater flow-and-transport models for probabilistic impact assessments and optimization under uncertainty (OUU) typically incurs such a computational burdensome that these tools cannot be used during decision making. The computational challenges associated with these models can be addressed through emulation. In the land-use/water-quality context, the linear relation between nitrate loading and surface-water/groundwater nitrate concentrations presents an opportunity for employing an efficient model emulator through the application of impulse-response matrices. When paired with first-order second-moment techniques, the emulation strategy gives rise to the “stochastic impulse-response emulator” (SIRE). SIRE is shown to facilitate non-intrusive, near-real time, and risk-based evaluation of nitrate-loading change scenarios, as well as nitrate-loading OUU subject to surface-water/groundwater concentration constraints in high decision variable and parameter dimensions. Two case studies are used to demonstrate SIRE in the nitrate-loading context.Jeremy T.White, Matthew J.Knowling, Micheal N.Fienen, Daniel T.Feinstein, Garry W.McDonald, Catherine R.Moor