Obituary, Professor William Dalziel Jackson, 1921-2002

Emeritus Professor Bill Jackson is remembered as an academic, botanist, ecologist and geneticist. He was all of these things and much more. He was a truly inspirational teacher who made time available to students regardless of what else was on. An insightful researcher, he established the core principles of ecological theory that describe the processes shaping the Tasmanian vegetation. He was a leader and visionary who saw the way forward in botanical research and fostered its development over nearly 50 years

An international, multicentre evaluation and description of Burkholderia pseudomallei infection in cystic fibrosis

BACKGROUND: Several cases of Burkholderia pseudomallei infection in CF have been previously reported. We aimed to identify all cases globally, risk factors for acquisition, clinical consequences, and optimal treatment strategies. METHODS: We performed a literature search to identify all published cases of B. pseudomallei infection in CF. In addition we hand-searched respiratory journals, and contacted experts in infectious diseases and CF around the world. Supervising clinicians for identified cases were contacted and contemporaneous clinical data was requested. RESULTS: 25 culture-confirmed cases were identified. The median age at acquisition was 21 years, mean FEV(1) % predicted was 60 %, and mean BMI was 19.5 kg/m(2). The location of acquisition was northern Australia or south-east Asia for most. 19 patients (76 %) developed chronic infection, which was usually associated with clinical decline. Successful eradication strategies included a minimum of two weeks of intravenous ceftazidime, followed by a consolidation phase with trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, and this resulted in a higher chance of success when instituted early. Three cases of lung transplantation have been recorded in the setting of chronic B. pseudomallei infection. CONCLUSION: Chronic carriage of B. pseudomallei in patients with CF appears common after infection, in contrast to the non-CF population. This is often associated with an accelerated clinical decline. Lung transplantation has been performed in select cases of chronic B. pseudomallei infection. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12890-015-0109-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Variation in Eucalyptus barberi L. Johnson & Blaxell

Phenetic variation within Eucalyptus barberi L. Johnson & Blaxell was examined and compared to related Tasmanian species. "Typical" northern populations were morphologically distinct from the more diverse group of populations to the south. This phenetic disjunction did not correspond to the major geographic disjunction in the range of E. barberi. Detailed study of two morphologically aberrant population indicated that they probably arose from in situ hybridisation: however, the exact identities of the progenitor species remains unclear. The type locality and several of the "southern" populations, as well as aberrant populations at Meredith Tier and Ponybottom Creek, deserve formal conservation

Fgf2 Regulates Proliferation of Neural Crest Cells, with Subsequent Neuronal Differentiation Regulated by Lif or Related Factors

Two of the key early events in the development of the peripheral nervous system are the proliferation of neural crest precursor cells and their subsequent differentiation into different neural cell types, We present evidence that members of the fibroblast growth factor family, (FGF1 or FGF2) act directly on the neural crest cells in vitro to stimulate proliferation in the presence of serum, These findings correlate with in situ hybridisation analysis, which shows FGF2 mRNA is expressed in cells both in the neural tube and within newly formed sensory ganglia (dorsal root ganglia, DRG) at embryonic day 10 in the mouse, when neural crest precursors are proliferating within the DRG, This data infers an autocrine/paracrine loop for FGF regulation of proliferation, Evidence supporting this notion is provided by the finding that part of the endogenous proliferative activity in the NC cultures is related to FGF, It was also found, in early neural crest cultures, that exogenous FGF completely inhibited neuronal differentiation, probably as a direct consequence of its mitogenic activity, In order to stimulate neuronal differentiation significantly, it was necessary to remove the FGF and replace it with leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) or related factors, Under these conditions, 50% of the cells differentiated into neurons, which developed a sensory neuron morphology and were immunoreactive for the sensory markers CGRP and substance P. These data support a model of neural crest development, whereby multipotential neural crest precursor cells are stimulated to divide by FGF and subsequent development into sensory neurons is regulated by LIF or other cytokines with a similar signalling mechanism

Aberrational Effects for Shadows of Black Holes

In this paper, we discuss how the shadow of a Kerr black hole depends on the motion of the observer. In particular, we derive an analytical formula for the boundary curve of the shadow for an observer moving with given four-velocity at given Boyer--Lindquist coordinates. We visualize the shadow for various values of parameters.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures; Proceedings of the 524. WE-Heraeus-Seminar held at the Physikzentrum, Bad Honnef, Germany, 17.--23.2.201

Tasmania's eucalypts: their place in science

While representing only 29 of the more than 700 eucalypt species, those on the island of Tasmania have a unique place in the history and scientific discovery of this iconic genus. Eucalypts entered written history when Abel Tasman discovered Tasmania in 1642 and the type specimen for the genus, Eucalyptus obliqua L’Hér., was collected from Bruny Island in 1777 during Cook’s third voyage. The discovery of some of the endemic taxa was linked with the French expedition searching for La Pérouse in 1772-3, and the return of the type specimens to France was a great triumph against adversity. Nearly half a century later British botanists contributed to the discovery of the Tasmanian eucalypts with colonial collectors sending specimens to Kew Gardens, with Australian-based botanists completing the pioneering stages of botanical discovery in the early 1900’s. Botanists in Tasmania then led experimental approaches to understanding their evolution, ensuring a place for the island’s eucalypts in 20th Century science. The first major study of eucalypt chromosomes and cell division was undertaken with the Tasmanian eucalypts in the 1930’s. The post war decade saw the establishment of many of the lines of scientific enquiry pursued today, through the research of pioneering Tasmanian scientists such as Newton H. Barber and the recently deceased Bill Jackson, both of whom served as Professor of Botany at the University of Tasmania. Their studies of the roles of natural selection and hybridization in the evolution of tree genera led to outstanding work on the nature and origins of clinal variation. Molecular techniques have now allowed many of the questions posed by the early work of Jackson and Barber to be addressed. However, just as old questions are answered, new questions arise as genomic studies on this unique Australian genus open a new era of scientific discovery