Work-integrated learning in maritime archaeology: an Australian approach

In recent years the Maritime Archaeology Program (MAP) at Flinders University has developed an innovative work-integrated learning program, in association with industry partners that includes fieldwork opportunities and internships (work-placements). This is largely in response to suggestions from consultancy companies and government agencies about the lack of job-ready skills among maritime archaeology graduate students. This is a very flexible program that aims to provide students with opportunities of at least two weeks and up to 3 months to develop both fieldwork skills and more general work practices. This paper will argue that work-integrated learning assists the graduates to get a position and then helps them to do well in that job. Participating in daily work practices and experiencing fieldwork are seen as keys in producing work-ready graduates

A future for Australian maritime archaeology?

For a small sub-discipline of archaeology, maritime archaeology seems to have had a relatively long and glorious history in Australia. Celebratory reviews or overviews of selected parts of the history of Australian maritime archaeology have been published fairly regularly since the 1986 appearance of Graeme Henderson's book Maritime Archaeology in Australia (Henderson 1986). These publications include two articles that were published in the pages of this journal (Hosty and Stuart 1994; McCarthy 1998). While there is obviously much to be celebrated about the history of maritime archaeology in Australia, a self-critical examination of the state of the sub-discipline with some ideas about where it might be going in the next two or three decades is, I suggest, a useful exercise as we enter the 21st century

Assessing the significance of 20th century underwater cultural heritage

Significance assessment is frequently used to evaluate the importance of archaeological sites both on land and, more recently, underwater. The assessment of significance often determines suitability for legislative protection. Australia has a variable record with regard to the legislative protection of twentieth century underwater cultural heritage, with the current situation being particularly inconsistent. Recent proposed and actual changes to international conventions as well as to Australian national and state legislation and administrative arrangements have created at least five different legislative regimes. This paper will focus on the significant differences that exist in the legislative protection afforded twentieth century underwater cultural heritage in Australia. These arise partly as a result of the case-by-case approach to significance assessment that still exists in South Australia under the SA Historic Shipwrecks Act 1982 compared to the various systems of blanket coverage such as those with a fixed date (of 1900 in Western Australia under the Maritime Archaeology Act) or a rolling date (of 75 years under the Commonwealth Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976). It will also address some of the problems that are becoming apparent with the current exclusive focus by both Commonwealth and State agencies on shipwrecks rather than the totality of underwater cultural heritage. Problems that can only increase with the ratification by Australia of the draft UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage expected to occur during 2002

An inherently mass-conserving semi-implicit semi-Lagrangian discretisation of the shallow-water equations on the sphere

Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological SocietyFor the shallow-water equations on the sphere, an inherently mass-conserving semi-Lagrangian discretisation (SLICE) of the continuity equation is coupled with a semi-implicit semi-Lagrangian discretisation of the momentum equations. Various tests from the literature (two with analytical nonlinear solutions) are used to assess the model's performance and also to compare it with that of a variant model that instead employs a standard non-conserving semi-implicit semi-Lagrangian discretisation of the continuity equation. The mass-conserving version gives results that are overall somewhat better than the non-conserving one

Complement autoantibodies in atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome and IgA nephropathy

PhD ThesisAtypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome (aHUS) is renal disease associated with mutations and/or polymorphisms in genes encoding complement proteins, including complement factor H (CFH), factor I (CFI) and membrane cofactor protein (CD46). Recently, deficiency of CFH-related (CFHR) proteins 1 and 3 (via loss of the CFHR3/CFHR1 gene block) was linked to the generation of autoantibodies to CFH. Around 10% of aHUS patients develop CFH autoantibodies, adding aHUS to a growing list of kidney diseases with a defined autoimmune component. IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is another such renal disease, where autoantibodies target an aberrantly glycosylated IgA1. To investigate the role of CFH and CFHR copy number variation in the control of complement activation in aHUS and IgAN, I have first generated a full panel of recombinant CFHR proteins in mammalian cell culture. These were then used to generate unique monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and ELISA protocols to screen for autoantibodies. Using carefully optimised immunisation protocols, I used my recombinant CFHR proteins to produce several highly-specific CFHR mAbs. One of which targets CFHR1 (R1/1037) and three target CFHR4 (R4/244, R4/277 and R4/123). The generation of these antibodies have allowed putative ELISA screens to be developed to measure the concentration of CFHR4 in healthy individuals and aHUS patients. My full panel of CFHR proteins also enabled screening of both aHUS and IgAN patients for the presence of autoantibodies to CFH and the CFHR proteins. Screening of aHUS plasma did not indicate the presence of any novel CFHR autoantibodies. However, IgA autoantibodies against CFHR5 (~9%) and CFH (~32%) were detected in IgAN patients. Interestingly, 64% of IgAN patients show reactivity with bovine CFH. During this PhD, I have generated a panel of unique reagents for the study of CFHR proteins in health and disease. These have allowed me to demonstrate for the first time, the presence of CFH and CFHR5 autoantibodies in a preliminary cohort of IgAN patients