The Expansion of British Naval Hydrographic Administration, 1808-1829

The period from 1808 to 1829, largely neglected by those historians who have looked at the Hydrographic Office, was the crucial formative period for expansion that laid the solid foundations which later Hydrographers could then exploit. The context, achievements and failures of the Admiralty’s hydrographic function, including surveying, chart production, supply, sales and its contribution to the Navy and the scientific world, as an all encompassing beast has been overlooked; the Admiralty placed the responsibility for those tasks on the shoulders of its Hydrographer. Subsequently he determined the success or failure of the office, using his initiative to expand and develop opportunities benefiting the Admiralty, as well as managing a valuable resource of geographical intelligence, fostering links with scientists and the international hydrographic community. The Hydrographer also found himself creating his own policies, serving as Secretary to the Board of Longitude, being a consultant on navigational matters, taking responsibility for the acquisition, supply and maintenance of chronometers for the Navy, as well as being a focal point for issues concerning pay, promotion and manning for surveying specialists. The period from 1808 to 1829 saw many changes, which gave rise to numerous opportunities for expansion. The Admiralty Board and William, Duke of Clarence (as the last Lord High Admiral), both had a direct influence in the way the office expanded, which saw innovation and experimental work become part of the Hydrographer’s routine, especially after the Peace of 1815. But expansion required funding and at a time when internal economy appeared to the be the main objective within the Admiralty, Captain Thomas Hurd managed not only to establish a 100% increase in surveying capacity but laid the foundation for a distinct specialist and professional core of survey officers. His successor, Captain William Parry, despite his absences, overhauled working practices in the office, set standards for surveyors to follow and continued to expand the number of survey ships in commission. Subsequently Captain Francis Beaufort was left the most highly efficient hydrographic office since its foundation in 1795

Anaesthesia for serial whole-lung lavage in a patient with severe pulmonary alveolar proteinosis: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis is a rare condition that requires treatment by whole-lung lavage. We report a case of severe pulmonary alveolar proteinosis and discuss a safe and effective strategy for the anaesthetic management of patients undergoing this complex procedure.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 34-year-old Caucasian man was diagnosed with severe pulmonary alveolar proteinosis. He developed severe respiratory failure and subsequently underwent serial whole-lung lavage. Our anaesthetic technique included the use of pre-oxygenation, complete lung separation with a left-sided double-lumen endotracheal tube, one-lung ventilation with positive end-expiratory pressure, appropriate ventilatory monitoring, cautious use of positional manoeuvres and single-lumen endotracheal tube exchange for short-term postoperative ventilation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Patients with pulmonary alveolar proteinosis may present with severe respiratory failure and require urgent whole-lung lavage. We have described a safe and effective strategy for anaesthesia for whole-lung lavage. We recommend our anaesthetic technique for patients undergoing this complex and uncommon procedure.</p

Deficiencies in the scientific assessment of the Carmichael Mine impacts to the Doongmabulla Springs

This work is made available with the Creative Commons, Attribution License CC-BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Copyright (2019) Flinders University.Key points: (1) Adani appears likely to have significantly under-estimated future impacts to the Doongmabulla Springs Complex (DSC) arising from the Carmichael Mine. (2) Should the Carmichael Mine cause springs within the DSC to cease flowing, this impact may be irreversible. (3) The safeguard against DSC impacts proposed by Adani, namely Adaptive Management, is unsuitable and unlikely to protect the DSC from severe degradation or cessation of flow. (4) Possible cumulative impacts to the DSC from other mining activities in the Galilee Basin have not been adequately considered. We conclude that the DSC face a legitimate threat of extinction due to the Carmichael Mine project

Estimating the burden of iron deficiency among African children.

BACKGROUND: Iron deficiency (ID) is a major public health burden in African children and accurate prevalence estimates are important for effective nutritional interventions. However, ID may be incorrectly estimated in Africa because most measures of iron status are altered by inflammation and infections such as malaria. Through the current study, we have assessed different approaches to the prediction of iron status and estimated the burden of ID in African children. METHODS: We assayed iron and inflammatory biomarkers in 4853 children aged 0-8?years from Kenya, Uganda, Burkina Faso, South Africa, and The Gambia. We described iron status and its relationship with age, sex, inflammation, and malaria parasitemia. We defined ID using the WHO guideline (ferritin <?12??g/L or <?30??g/L in the presence of inflammation in children <?5?years old or <?15??g/L in children ??5?years old). We compared this with a recently proposed gold standard, which uses regression-correction for ferritin levels based on the relationship between ferritin levels, inflammatory markers, and malaria. We further investigated the utility of other iron biomarkers in predicting ID using the inflammation and malaria regression-corrected estimate as a gold standard. RESULTS: The prevalence of ID was highest at 1 year of age and in male infants. Inflammation and malaria parasitemia were associated with all iron biomarkers, although transferrin saturation was least affected. Overall prevalence of WHO-defined ID was 34% compared to 52% using the inflammation and malaria regression-corrected estimate. This unidentified burden of ID increased with age and was highest in countries with high prevalence of inflammation and malaria, where up to a quarter of iron-deficient children were misclassified as iron replete. Transferrin saturation <?11% most closely predicted the prevalence of ID according to the regression-correction gold standard. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of ID is underestimated in African children when defined using the WHO guidelines, especially in malaria-endemic populations, and the use of transferrin saturation may provide a more accurate approach. Further research is needed to identify the most accurate measures for determining the prevalence of ID in sub-Saharan Africa

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

Inter-individual variability contrasts with regional homogeneity in the human brain DNA methylome

The possibility that alterations in DNA methylation are mechanistic drivers of development, aging and susceptibility to disease is widely acknowledged, but evidence remains patchy or inconclusive. Of partic-ular interest in this regard is the brain, where it has been reported that DNA methylation impacts on neu-ronal activity, learning and memory, drug addiction and neurodegeneration. Until recently, however, lit-tle was known about the ‘landscape ’ of the human brain methylome. Here we assay 1.9 million CpGs in each of 43 brain samples representing different individuals and brain regions. The cerebellum was a consistent outlier compared to all other regions, and showed over 16 000 differentially methylated re-gions (DMRs). Unexpectedly, the sequence charac-teristics of hypo- and hypermethylated domains in cerebellum were distinct. In contrast, very few DMRs distinguished regions of the cortex, limbic system and brain stem. Inter-individual DMRs were readily detectable in these regions. These results lead to the surprising conclusion that, with the exception of cerebellum, DNA methylation patterns are more ho-mogeneous between different brain regions from the same individual, than they are for a single brain re-gion between different individuals. This finding sug-gests that DNA sequence composition, not develop-mental status, is the principal determinant of the hu-man brain DNA methylome

Orphan CpG Islands Identify Numerous Conserved Promoters in the Mammalian Genome

CpG islands (CGIs) are vertebrate genomic landmarks that encompass the promoters of most genes and often lack DNA methylation. Querying their apparent importance, the number of CGIs is reported to vary widely in different species and many do not co-localise with annotated promoters. We set out to quantify the number of CGIs in mouse and human genomes using CXXC Affinity Purification plus deep sequencing (CAP-seq). We also asked whether CGIs not associated with annotated transcripts share properties with those at known promoters. We found that, contrary to previous estimates, CGI abundance in humans and mice is very similar and many are at conserved locations relative to genes. In each species CpG density correlates positively with the degree of H3K4 trimethylation, supporting the hypothesis that these two properties are mechanistically interdependent. Approximately half of mammalian CGIs (>10,000) are “orphans” that are not associated with annotated promoters. Many orphan CGIs show evidence of transcriptional initiation and dynamic expression during development. Unlike CGIs at known promoters, orphan CGIs are frequently subject to DNA methylation during development, and this is accompanied by loss of their active promoter features. In colorectal tumors, however, orphan CGIs are not preferentially methylated, suggesting that cancer does not recapitulate a developmental program. Human and mouse genomes have similar numbers of CGIs, over half of which are remote from known promoters. Orphan CGIs nevertheless have the characteristics of functional promoters, though they are much more likely than promoter CGIs to become methylated during development and hence lose these properties. The data indicate that orphan CGIs correspond to previously undetected promoters whose transcriptional activity may play a functional role during development

Neuronal MeCP2 is expressed at near histone-octamer levels and globally alters the chromatin state

MeCP2 is a nuclear protein with an affinity for methylated DNA that can recruit histone deacetylases. Deficiency or excess of MeCP2 causes severe neurological problems, suggesting that the number of molecules per cell must be precisely regulated. We quantified MeCP2 in neuronal nuclei and found that it is nearly as abundant as the histone octamer. Despite this high abundance, MeCP2 associates preferentially with methylated regions and high-throughput sequencing showed that its genome-wide binding tracks methyl-CpG density. MeCP2 deficiency results in global changes in neuronal chromatin structure, including elevated histone acetylation and a doubling of histone H1. Neither change is detectable in glia, where MeCP2 occurs at lower levels. The mutant brain also shows elevated transcription of repetitive elements. Our data argue that MeCP2 may not act as a gene-specific transcriptional repressor in neurons, but might instead dampen transcriptional noise genome-wide in a DNA methylation-dependent manner

2018 Research & Innovation Day Program

A one day showcase of applied research, social innovation, scholarship projects and activities.https://first.fanshawec.ca/cri_cripublications/1005/thumbnail.jp