What does the occurrence of Sporormiella (Preussia) spores mean in Australian fossil sequences?

Understanding the loss of the final few species of Australian megafauna is beset by a paucity of data on human arrival, well-provenanced megafauna, human/megafauna population range and distribution (coexistence and interaction), and the range, scale and impact of environmental changes spanning the human-megafauna period. To overcome these shortcomings, the occurrence and decline of coprophilous fungal spores of Sporormiella in sediments have been used as a proxy for extinct megaherbivores. The Sporormiella evidence is presented as the key indicator of extinction timing and these reports are often from locations where there is no known archaeological record or megafauna remains. However, interpreting fungal spore occurrence is not straightforward, as demonstrated by studies investigating taphonomy, taxonomy and the types of animal dung where Sporormiella occurs. No detailed studies on these problems exist for Australia and no evidence supporting the use of Sporormiella as a valid proxy has been reported. Here we examine the occurrence of Sporormiella spores from Cuddie Springs in south-eastern Australia. Despite a well-preserved suite of megafauna fossils, Sporormiella occurrence is sporadic and frequencies are low. We conclude that using Sporormiella alone as an indicator for the presence of megafauna is premature for the Australian context. Copyright (C) 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Embodying life-long learning: Transition and capstone experiences

This paper discusses the principle of Transition as it has been conceptualised by the Curriculum Renewal in Legal Education project. The project sought to develop a principled framework for renewing the final year of tertiary legal education in Australia. Capstone experiences were chosen as the most appropriate mechanism for assisting final year students to manage the transition process. Thoughtfully designed capstones assist students to integrate and synthesize their learning over their entire degree program, facilitate closure on the undergraduate experience, and assist students to transition from student to emerging professional. We discuss the importance of addressing final year students’ transitional needs and explain how the principle facilitates this process. Although the framework has been developed specifically for legal education in Australia its approach enables transferability across disciplines and institutions. The framework addresses criticisms that universities and law schools are not meeting the needs of final year students by preparing them for the transition to graduate life in a complex and uncertain world

Is routine urine dip stick testing justified in asymptomatic women in early pregnancy?

Background: Routine urinalysis is commonly performed in early pregnancy units (EPUs) based on historic evidence that bacteriuria is linked to pyelonephritis, pre-term birth, mid trimester loss and low birth weight. Aim was to assess the cost and diagnostic yield of routine urinalysis in asymptomatic women in early pregnancy. A secondary outcome was the birth outcomes for women with proven bacteriuria.Methods: Retrospective review of all urinalysis performed over 12 month period in a tertiary EPU and analysis of pregnancy outcomes in the proven bacteriuria group.Results: 10,490 urinalyses performed at a cost of £40,385.50. 1162 (11%) positive urine dips; 68 (0.6%) nitrite positive. 179 microscopy, culture and sensitivity performed at a cost of £2593.71. Of the 179, 65 were culture positive giving a proven bacteriuria rate of 0.6%. The most common pathogen was E-Coli. There were no recorded episodes of pyelonephritis and no statistical significance in the pre-term birth, mid trimester loss or low birth weight rate in the culture positive versus culture negative group.Conclusions: The cost associated with routine urinalysis is significant and the diagnostic yield is extremely low. We did not identify an association between bacteriuria and adverse pregnancy outcomes. As such, urinalysis should only be performed in symptomatic/ high risk patients presenting to the EPU

Socioeconomic inequalities in outcome of pregnancy and neonatal mortality associated with congenital anomalies: population based study

Objectives To investigate socioeconomic inequalities in outcome of pregnancy and neonatal mortality associated with congenital anomalies

Timing, rates, and causes of death in a large South African tuberculosis programme.

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) mortality remains high across sub-Saharan Africa despite integration of TB and HIV/ART programmes. To inform programme design and service delivery, we estimated mortality by time from starting TB treatment. METHODS: Routinely collected data on TB treatment, vital status, and the timing and causes of death, were linked to cardio-respiratory autopsy data, from 1995-2008, from a cohort of male platinum miners in South Africa. Records were expanded into person-months at risk (pm). RESULTS: 4162 TB episodes were registered; 3170 men were treated for the first time and 833 men underwent retreatment. Overall, 509 men died, with a case fatality of 12.2% and mortality rate of 2.0/100 pm. Mortality was highest in the first month after starting TB treatment for first (2.3/100 pm) and retreatment episodes (4.8/100 pm). When stratified by HIV status, case fatality was higher in HIV positive men not on ART (first episode 14.0%; retreatment episode 26.2%) and those on ART (12.0%; 22.0%) than men of negative or unknown HIV status (2.6%; 3.6%). Mortality was also highest in the first month for each of these groups. Mortality risk factors included older age, previous TB, HIV, pulmonary TB, and diagnostic uncertainty. The proportion of deaths attributable to TB was consistently overestimated in clinical records versus cardio-respiratory autopsy. CONCLUSIONS: Programme mortality was highest in those with HIV and during the first month of TB treatment in all groups, and many deaths were not caused by TB. Resource allocation should prioritise TB prevention and accurate earlier diagnosis, recognise the role of HIV, and ensure effective clinical care in the early stages of TB treatment

Causes of Multiple Sclerosis: a functional genomics approach

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the most common disabling neurological disease affecting young adults in Western Society. To date, 55 strongly associated single nucleotide polymorphisms have been discovered. We now need to identify causal genes. While T-cells as targets for therapeutic intervention have rarely proven useful, there is strong clinical and in-vitro data identifying NK cell deficiencies in patients, and key roles for monocytes in myelin and axon destruction and autoantigen presentation. RNA extracted from magnetic bead sorted monocytes and NK cells, of healthy controls (HC) and untreated patients with relapsing remitting MS (RRMS), was labelled and hybridised to Affymetrix Human Gene 1.0 ST arrays. Expression values were standardized across chips using RMA and quantile normalization as implemented in GenePattern. Genes were ranked by expression difference significance by Mann Whitney U test and ANOVA. To date, we have analysed monocytes of 30 patients and 39 HC, and NK cells from 25 patients and 32 HC. Expression differences of those genes adjacent to MS associated risk SNPs lying between 110kb upstream and 40kb downstream of a candidate gene were considered. We have identified three genes worthy of further analysis on this basis: RGS1, HHEX and THEMIS. To test the relevance of these candidates to central nervous system (CNS) autoimmunity, we aim to mimic phenotypes associated with these expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) in in-vitro cultures of purified NK cells and monocytes, and in-vivo in a mouse model of MS - experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE)

Dietary responses of Sahul (Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea) megafauna to climate and environmental change

Throughout the late Quaternary, the Sahul (Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea) vertebrate fauna was dominated by a diversity of large mammals, birds, and reptiles, commonly referred to as megafauna. Since ca. 450-400 Ka, approximately 88 species disappeared in Sahul, including kangaroos exceeding 200 kg in size, wombat-like animals the size of hippopotamuses, flightless birds, and giant monitor lizards that were likely venomous. Ongoing debates over the primary cause of these extinctions have typically favored climate change or human activities. Improving our understanding of the population biology of extinct megafauna as more refined paleoenvironmental data sets become available will assist in identifying their potential vulnerabilities. Here, we apply a multiproxy approach to analyze fossil teeth from deposits dated to the middle and late Pleistocene at Cuddie Springs in southeastern Australia, assessing relative aridity via oxygen isotopes as well as vegetation and megafaunal diets using both carbon isotopes and dental microwear texture analyses. We report that the Cuddie Springs middle Pleistocene fauna was largely dominated by browsers, including consumers of C4 shrubs, but that by late Pleistocene times the C4 dietary component was markedly reduced. Our results suggest dietary restriction in more arid conditions. These dietary shifts are consistent with other independently derived isotopic data from eggshells and wombat teeth that also suggest a reduction in C4 vegetation after ∼ 45 Ka in southeastern Australia, coincident with increasing aridification through the middle to late Pleistocene. Understanding the ecology of extinct species is important in clarifying the primary drivers of faunal extinction in Sahul. The results presented here highlight the potential impacts of aridification on marsupial megafauna. The trend to increasingly arid conditions through the middle to late Pleistocene (as identified in other paleoenvironmental records and now also observed, in part, in the Cuddie Springs sequence) may have stressed the most vulnerable animals, perhaps accelerating the decline of late Pleistocene megafauna in Australia

Cumulative Risk Effects in the Bullying of Children and Young People with Autism Spectrum Conditions

Students with autism are more likely to be bullied than their typically developing peers. However, several studies have shown that their likelihood of being bullied increases in the context of exposure to certain risk factors (e.g. behaviour difficulties, poor peer relationships). This study explores vulnerability to bullying from a cumulative risk perspective, where the number of risks rather than their nature is considered. 722 teachers and 119 parents of young people with ASC participated in the study. Established risk factors were summed to form a cumulative risk score in teacher and parent models. There was evidence of a cumulative risk effect in both models, suggesting that as the number of risks increased, so did exposure to bullying. A quadratic effect was found in the teacher model, indicating that there was a disproportionate increase in the likelihood of being bullied in relation to the number of risk factors to which a young person was exposed. In light of these findings, it is proposed that more attention needs to be given to the number of risks to which children and young people with ASC are exposed when planning interventions and providing a suitable educational environment