An ocean of leisure: early cruise tours of the Pacific in an age of empire

In the late nineteenth century, the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand (USSCo.) offered a series of cruise tours from the ports of Sydney and Auckland through the islands of the South Pacific. The cruises complemented excursions to the Mediterranean, the old country and other worn lines of pleasure, remarked the Sydney Morning Herald in 1898. They even offered a novel contrast to doing Japan. Australian settlers had largely ignored their island neighbours, the newspaper continued, yet the cruise program indicated the range of splendid holiday resorts that lay on their doorstep. Although regular trading steamers made the Pacific increasingly accessible, it had been difficult until this point in time to take a comprehensive trip in the South Seas under the conditions desired by exacting tourists

Re-routing Empire? Steam-age circulations and the making of an Anglo Pacific, c.1850–90

The introduction of steam not only enhanced Australia’s transport links within the empire. It also altered attitudes towards the feasibility and desirability of transpacific connectivities, and brought new prominence to the Pacific-orientations of Australia’s eastern colonies. By envisioning steam-age connections across the Pacific, first to Panama and then to San Francisco, Australia sought to imagine and situate itself in a transpacific sphere. The routes shaped cultural sensibilities and political ideologies across the Pacific, expressed in affinities and allegiances between Australia and North America. This article examines transpacific steam from the mid- to the late nineteenth century, a fractured and indeterminate period which nevertheless laid the ground for Australia’s sense of itself as an autonomous white nation, relating across the Pacific and within a wider Anglo world beyond Britain and empire

Uncharted Waters? Cultures of Sea Transport and Mobility in New Zealand Colonial History

Uncharted Waters? Cultures of Sea Transport and Mobility in New Zealand Colonial Histor

Uncharted Waters? Cultures of Sea Transport and Mobility in New Zealand Colonial History

Uncharted Waters? Cultures of Sea Transport and Mobility in New Zealand Colonial Histor

Colonialism and Male Domestic Service Across the Asia Pacific

Examining the role of Asian and indigenous male servants across the Asia Pacific from the late-19th century to the 1930s, this study shows how their ubiquitous presence in these purportedly \u27humble\u27 jobs gave them a degree of cultural influence that has been largely overlooked in the literature on labour mobility in the age of empire. With case studies from British Hong Kong, Singapore, Northern Australia, Fiji and British Columbia, French Indochina, the American Philippines and the Dutch East Indies, the book delves into the intimate and often conflicted relationships between European and American colonists and their servants. It explores the lives of \u27houseboys\u27, cooks and gardeners in the colonial home, considers the bell-boys and waiters in the grand colonial hotels, and follows the stewards and cabin-boys on steamships travelling across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. This broad conception of service allows Colonialism and Male Domestic Service across Asia and the Pacific to illuminate trans-colonial or cross-border influences through the mobility of servants and their employers. This path-breaking study is an important book for students and scholars of colonialism, labour history and the Asia Pacific region

Abattoir Factors Influencing the Incidence of Dark Cutting in Australian Grain-Fed Beef

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of carcass traits, lairage time and weather conditions during lairage and abattoir factors that impact the incidence of dark cutting in 142,228 grain-fed carcasses, as defined by Meat Standards Australia (MSA) guidelines. This study was conducted over a 12-month period analysing data from cattle that were supplied from seven feedlots and processed at three abattoirs. Abattoir data indicated that the average incidence of dark cutting within the study was 2.8%. Increased wind speeds (WSs) and rain during lairage at the abattoir was associated with an increased risk of dark cutting, whereas variation in ambient temperature and/or relative humidity did not influence dark cutting. Heavier carcasses with whiter fat, larger hump heights, more rib fat, higher marble scores and lower ossification had lower incidences of dark cutting. The factors abattoir, time in lairage, time to grading and grader within Abattoir had significant effects on the incidence of dark cutting. The results from this study suggest that reducing the time in lairage and increasing the time between slaughter and grading are the two major ways to reduce dark cutting in MSA carcasses

Expression of CDK7, cyclin H and MAT1 is elevated in breast cancer and is prognostic in estrogen receptor- positive breast cancer

Purpose: CDK-activation kinase (CAK) is required for the regulation of the cell-cycle and is a trimeric complex consisting of Cyclin Dependent Kinase 7 (CDK7), Cyclin H and the accessory protein, MAT1. CDK7 also plays a critical role in regulating transcription, primarily by phosphorylating RNA polymerase II, as well as transcription factors such as estrogen receptor-α (ER). Deregulation of cell cycle and transcriptional control are general features of tumor cells, highlighting the potential for the use of CDK7 inhibitors as novel cancer therapeutics. Experimental Design: mRNA and protein expression of CDK7 and its essential co-factors cyclinH and MAT1, were evaluated in breast cancer samples to determine if their levels are altered in cancer. Immunohistochemical staining of >900 breast cancers was used to determine the association with clinicopathological features and patient outcome. Results: We show that expression of CDK7, cyclinH and MAT1 are all closely linked at the mRNA and protein level and their expression is elevated in breast cancer compared with the normal breast tissue. Intriguingly, CDK7 expression was inversely proportional to tumour grade and size and outcome analysis showed an association between CAK levels and better outcome. Moreover, CDK7 expression was positively associated with ER expression and in particular with phosphorylation of ER at serine 118, a site important for ER transcriptional activity. Conclusions: Expression of components of the CAK complex, CDK7, MAT1 and Cyclin H are elevated in breast cancer and correlates with ER. Like ERα , CDK7 expression is inversely proportional to poor prognostic factors and survival

Salt-inducible kinase 3, SIK3, is a new gene associated with hearing

Hearing function is known to be heritable, but few significant and reproducible associations of genetic variants have been identified to date in the adult population. In this study, genome-wide association results of hearing function from the G-EAR consortium and TwinsUK were used for meta-analysis. Hearing ability in eight population samples of Northern and Southern European ancestry (n = 4591) and the Silk Road (n = 348) was measured using pure-tone audiometry and summarized using principal component (PC) analysis. Genome-wide association analyses for PC1-3 were conducted separately in each sample assuming an additive model adjusted for age, sex and relatedness of subjects. Meta-analysis was performed using 2.3 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) tested against each of the three PCs of hearing ability in 4939 individuals. A single SNP lying in intron 6 of the salt-inducible kinase 3 (SIK3) gene was found to be associated with hearing PC2 (P = 3.7 710-8) and further supported by whole-genome sequence in a subset. To determine the relevance of this gene in the ear, expression of the Sik3 protein was studied in mouse cochlea of different ages. Sik3 was expressed in murine hair cells during early development and in cells of the spiral ganglion during early development and adulthood. Our results suggest a developmental role of Sik3 in hearing and may be required for the maintenance of adult auditory function