‘My country’s heart is in the market place’: Tom Stannage interviewed by Peter Read

Tom Stannage was one among many historians in the 1970s uncovering histories of Australia which were to challenge national narratives and community memories. In 1971, Tom returned to Western Australia after writing his PhD in Cambridge with the passion to write urban history and an understanding that in order to do so, he needed an emotional engagement with place. What he had yet to realize was the power of community memories in Western Australia to shape and preserve ideas about their place. As part of his research on the history of Perth, Tom saw how the written histories of Western Australia had been shaped by community mythologies – in particular that of the rural pioneer. He identified the consensus or ‘gentry tradition’ in Western Australian writing. In teasing out histories of conflict, he showed how the gentry tradition of rural pioneer histories silenced those of race and gender relations, convictism and poverty which were found in both rural and urban areas. His versions of history began to unsettle parts of the Perth community who found the ‘pioneer myth’ framed their consensus world-view and whose families were themselves the living links to these ‘pioneers’

ANTIGEN-REACTIVE CELLS IN NORMAL, IMMUNIZED, AND TOLERANT MICE

The numbers of antigen-reactive cells (ARC) responding to a purified protein, the polymer of S. adelaide flagellin, have been assayed in cell populations derived from several lymphoid tissues of mice. The assay, which employs the cell transfer into lethally irradiated mice, indicates that there is a response of ARC in bone marrow in the absence of thymus cells. This suggests that the immune response to this protein antigen is not thymus dependent. The presence of relatively large numbers of ARC in Peyer's patches argues for their direct participation in the immune response in the adult mouse. The kinetics of ARC and antibody-forming cells in the early primary response employing the transfer system is described. The numbers of ARC declined during the first 2 days of the immune response, but by day 6 had increased to about five times the number in unprimed spleen cells. The rise is believed to be a result of the primary injection of antigen and therefore may be described as memory; however, these experiments have not been able to further elucidate any specific qualities of the "memory cell." Tolerance induction in C57BL/Brad mice produced by repeated injections of a cyanogen bromide digest of the antigen is described. The ARC or its precursor is shown to be the site of the lesion of tolerance by direct investigation

Analysis of velocity and acceleration trends using slope stability radar to identify failure ‘signatures’ to better inform deformation trigger action response plans

This is the author accepted manuscript.Ground strata failure is a major hazard for open pit mines as it has the potential to cause damage to property and can result in multiple fatalities. Slope stability radar (SSR) systems are used to continuously monitor pit walls and they can detect slope deformation to sub-millimetre scales. However, geotechnical engineers may have limited prior data to set the required trigger action response plan (TARP) thresholds. As a result, arbitrary values or data from other sites are often used to signify dangerous deformation rates which can ineffectively trigger alarms. Therefore, the primary aim of this investigation was to identify the failure indicator factors which best inform TARP thresholds at a particular mine site. Data from eight open pit failures from the same mine were analysed and then compared with data from other published failures. A secondary aim was to a develop a database of combined failure events that could be used as a reference to set meaningful TARP threshold levels at other mine sites with similar mining conditions. The study site failure events ranged in size from 200 to 200,000 tonnes, with most failures occurring in the upper part of the slopes within highly to completely weathered rock. Geological and geotechnical characteristics of the rock mass for the observed failure modes were also included in the analysis. Multiple peak acceleration and peak velocity plots were used to determine clustering for the different characteristics investigated. It was shown that as the failure size increased so did the peak velocity, suggesting that larger failures can accommodate higher displacement rates. Analysis of the combined dataset showed a clear positive relationship between failure size and failure mode up to approximately 3,000 t. However, failure events greater than 3,000 t do not appear to have clear grouping by failure size, suggesting that other factors may control the peak acceleration and velocity rates. This suggests that the TARP should consider different trigger thresholds based on the expected failure mode and size. However, the accurate recording of all failure data across sites with additional characteristics such as, Rock Mass Rating (RMR89), GSI, weathering and lithology would enable improved analysis of velocity trends to provide further insights into factors influencing potential failure. It is concluded, that back-analysis of slope instability events using log-acceleration and log-velocity plots can refine thresholds used in TARPs for specific sites with the study site TARP presented. However, the consistent collection, processing and filtering of failure data across sites is required to improve analysis and implementation of findings

Shaking hands on the fringe : negotiating the Aboriginal world at King George's Sound

In 1826 a British military garrison was set up on the edges of an Aboriginal world at King George's Sound on the south west corner of Western Australia. This history narrates four episodes which centre on the interactions that occurred between the British newcomers and the Aboriginal people who lived there. The garrison was designed to be a holding station, to deter the French from making a territorial claim on a large and hard to defend continent and thus the British presence at King George's Sound was not an overtly colonising one. This history studies a series of events that took place during the first few years of the British settlement at King George's Sound, from when it was established as a military garrison in 1826 until after its conversion to a free settlement within the colony of Western Australia. Four narrative episodes focus on the relationships between the Aborigines who lived beyond the shores of King George's Sound and the British newcomers who stepped ashore and stayed. Western Australian historiography has rendered this past as a 'friendly frontier' - a reflection of the few violent incidents between the Aboriginal people who lived in the area and the newcomers who set up their camps. This history attempts to leave behind such tropes as 'friendly' and 'peaceful' and look closely at the everyday experiences of individual people as well as the complexities in the developing relationships between particular British newcomers and Aboriginal individuals

An Economical Tandem Multiplex Real-Time PCR Technique for the Detection of a Comprehensive Range of Respiratory Pathogens

This study used real-time PCR assays to screen small sample volumes for a comprehensive range of 35 respiratory pathogens. Initial thermocycling was limited to 20 cycles to avoid competition for reagents, followed by a secondary real-time multiplex PCR. Supplementary semi-nested human metapneumovirus and picornavirus PCR assays were required to complete the acute respiratory pathogen profile. Potential pathogens were detected in 85 (70%) of pernasal aspirates collected from 121 children with acute respiratory symptoms. Multiple pathogens were detected in 29 (24%) of those samples. The tandem multiplex real-time PCR was an efficient method for the rapid detection of multiple pathogens

Memory Inflation during Chronic Viral Infection Is Maintained by Continuous Production of Short-Lived, Functional T Cells

SummaryDuring persistent murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) infection, the T cell response is maintained at extremely high intensity for the life of the host. These cells closely resemble human CMV-specific cells, which compose a major component of the peripheral T cell compartment in most people. Despite a phenotype that suggests extensive antigen-driven differentiation, MCMV-specific T cells remain functional and respond vigorously to viral challenge. We hypothesized that a low rate of antigen-driven proliferation would account for the maintenance of this population. Instead, we found that most of these cells divided only sporadically in chronically infected hosts and had a short half-life in circulation. The overall population was supported, at least in part, by memory T cells primed early in infection, as well as by recruitment of naive T cells at late times. Thus, these data show that memory inflation is maintained by a continuous replacement of short-lived, functional cells during chronic MCMV infection

Seasonal trivalent influenza vaccination during pregnancy and the incidence of stillbirth: population-based retrospective cohort study

Concern for the safety to the fetus is a commonly cited reason for vaccine refusal during pregnancy. Results from this investigation support the safety of seasonal influenza vaccination during pregnancy and suggest seasonal influenza vaccination may be protective against stillbirth