Epstein-Barr virus-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma of the elderly expresses EBNA3A with conserved CD8+ T-cell epitopes

Post-transplantation lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD) arise in the immunosuppressed and are frequently Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) associated. The most common PTLD histological sub-type is diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (EBV+DLBCL-PTLD). Restoration of EBV-specific T-cell immunity can induce EBV+DLBCL-PTLD regression. The most frequent B-cell lymphoma in the immunocompetent is also DLBCL. ‘EBV-positive DLBCL of the elderly’ (EBV+DLBCL) is a rare but well-recognized DLBCL entity that occurs in the overtly immunocompetent, that has an adverse outcome relative to EBV-negative DLBCL. Unlike PTLD (which is classified as viral latency III), literature suggests EBV+DLBCL is typically latency II, i.e. expression is limited to the immuno-subdominant EBNA1, LMP1 and LMP2 EBV-proteins. If correct, this would be a major impediment for T-cell immunotherapeutic strategies. Unexpectedly we observed EBV+DLBCL-PTLD and EBV+DLBCL both shared features consistent with type III EBV-latency, including expression of the immuno-dominant EBNA3A protein. Extensive analysis showed frequent polymorphisms in EBNA1 and LMP1 functionally defined CD8+ T-cell epitope encoding regions, whereas EBNA3A polymorphisms were very rare making this an attractive immunotherapy target. As with EBV+DLBCL-PTLD, the antigen presenting machinery within lymphomatous nodes was intact. EBV+DLBCL express EBNA3A suggesting it is amenable to immunotherapeutic strategies.

The recovery concept and crisis intervention : time for a revolution in the realm of acute psychiatric care

“Mental illness is a tough illness to survive, it is incurable but manageable. Living with the illness when at its full potency can disrupt your life at any moment.” Intensive care for patients experiencing acute psychiatric distress is an essential yet complex part of mental health services as a whole system. Psychiatric intensive care units remain a source of controversy; despite promising developments to health services incorporating recovery goals and processes outlined by people with a mental illness themselves. In past decades changes in the provision of mental health services have focused on the restoration of a meaningful and empowered life with choice and hope as a defining attribute of recovery. Yet, what does recovery mean and how are recovery principles accomplished in psychiatric intensive care arrangements for someone experiencing acute psychiatric distress?

Interocular corneal symmetry in refractive error groups

Purpose: To examine between eye differences in corneal higher order aberrations and topographical characteristics in a range of refractive error groups. Methods: One hundred and seventy subjects were recruited including; 50 emmetropic isometropes, 48 myopic isometropes (spherical equivalent anisometropia ≤ 0.75 D), 50 myopic anisometropes (spherical equivalent anisometropia ≥ 1.00 D) and 22 keratoconics. The corneal topography of each eye was captured using the E300 videokeratoscope (Medmont, Victoria, Australia) and analyzed using custom written software. All left eye data were rotated about the vertical midline to account for enantiomorphism. Corneal height data were used to calculate the corneal wavefront error using a ray tracing procedure and fit with Zernike polynomials (up to and including the eighth radial order). The wavefront was centred on the line of sight by using the pupil offset value from the pupil detection function in the videokeratoscope. Refractive power maps were analysed to assess corneal sphero-cylindrical power vectors. Differences between the more myopic (or more advanced eye for keratoconics) and the less myopic (advanced) eye were examined. Results: Over a 6 mm diameter, the cornea of the more myopic eye was significantly steeper (refractive power vector M) compared to the fellow eye in both anisometropes (0.10 ± 0.27 D steeper, p = 0.01) and keratoconics (2.54 ± 2.32 D steeper, p < 0.001) while no significant interocular difference was observed for isometropic emmetropes (-0.03 ± 0.32 D) or isometropic myopes (0.02 ± 0.30 D) (both p > 0.05). In keratoconic eyes, the between eye difference in corneal refractive power was greatest inferiorly (associated with cone location). Similarly, in myopic anisometropes, the more myopic eye displayed a central region of significant inferior corneal steepening (0.15 ± 0.42 D steeper) relative to the fellow eye (p = 0.01). Significant interocular differences in higher order aberrations were only observed in the keratoconic group for; vertical trefoil C(3,-3), horizontal coma C(3,1) secondary astigmatism along 45 C(4, -2) (p < 0.05) and vertical coma C(3,-1) (p < 0.001). The interocular difference in vertical pupil decentration (relative to the corneal vertex normal) increased with between eye asymmetry in refraction (isometropia 0.00 ± 0.09, anisometropia 0.03 ± 0.15 and keratoconus 0.08 ± 0.16 mm) as did the interocular difference in corneal vertical coma C (3,-1) (isometropia -0.006 ± 0.142, anisometropia -0.037 ± 0.195 and keratoconus -1.243 ± 0.936 μm) but only reached statistical significance for pair-wise comparisons between the isometropic and keratoconic groups. Conclusions: There is a high degree of corneal symmetry between the fellow eyes of myopic and emmetropic isometropes. Interocular differences in corneal topography and higher order aberrations are more apparent in myopic anisometropes and keratoconics due to regional (primarily inferior) differences in topography and between eye differences in vertical pupil decentration relative to the corneal vertex normal. Interocular asymmetries in corneal optics appear to be associated with anisometropic refractive development.

Re-strengthening Brisbane City Hall : a case study of heritage engineering

Upgrading old buildings with the evolution of building requirements, this project investigates new approaches that can be applied to strengthen our own heritage buildings using historical and comparative analysis of heritage building restorations locally and abroad. Within the newly developing field of Heritage Engineering, it evaluates the innovative Concrete Overlay technique adapted to building restoration of the Brisbane City Hall. This study aims to extend the application of Concrete Overlay techniques and determine its compatibility specifically to heritage buildings. Concrete overlay involves drilling new reinforcement and placing concrete on top of the existing structure. It is akin to a bone transplant or bone grafting in the case of a human being and has been used by engineers to strengthen newer bridges.

Growing biodiverse carbon-rich forests

Regrowing forests on cleared land is a key strategy to achieve both biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation globally. Maximizing these co-benefits, however, remains theoretically and technically challenging because of the complex relationship between carbon sequestration and biodiversity in forests, the strong influence of climate variability and landscape position on forest development, the large number of restoration strategies possible, and long time-frames needed to declare success. Through the synthesis of three decades of knowledge on forest dynamics and plant functional traits combined with decision science, we demonstrate that we cannot always maximize carbon sequestration by simply increasing the functional trait diversity of trees planted. The relationships between plant functional diversity, carbon sequestration rates above-ground and in the soil are dependent on climate and landscape positions. We show how to manage ‘identities’ and ‘complementarities’ between plant functional traits in order to achieve systematically maximal co-benefits in various climate and landscape contexts. We provide examples of optimal planting and thinning rules that satisfy this ecological strategy and guide the restoration of forests that are rich in both carbon and plant functional diversity. Our framework provides the first mechanistic approach for generating decision-making rules that can be used to manage forests for multiple objectives, and supports joined carbon credit and biodiversity conservation initiatives, such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation REDD+. The decision framework can also be linked to species distribution models and socio-economic models in order to find restoration solutions that maximize simultaneously biodiversity, carbon stocks and other ecosystem services across landscapes. Our study provides the foundation for developing and testing cost-effective and adaptable forest management rules to achieve biodiversity, carbon sequestration and other socio-economic co-benefits under global change.

Using strategically applied grazing to manage invasive alien plants in novel grasslands

Introduction Novel ecosystems that contain new combinations of invasive alien plants (IAPs) present a challenge for managers. Yet, control strategies that focus on the removal of the invasive species and/or restoring historical disturbance regimes often do not provide the best outcome for long-term control of IAPs and the promotion of more desirable plant species. Methods This study seeks to identify the primary drivers of grassland invasion to then inform management practices toward the restoration of native ecosystems. By revisiting both published and unpublished data from experiments and case studies within mainly an Australian context for native grassland management, we show how alternative states models can help to design control strategies to manage undesirable IAPs by manipulating grazing pressure. Results Ungulate grazing is generally considered antithetical to invasive species management because in many countries where livestock production is a relatively new disturbance to grasslands (such as in Australia and New Zealand as well as Canada and the USA), selective grazing pressure may have facilitated opportunities for IAPs to establish. We find that grazing stock can be used to manipulate species composition in favour of the desirable components in pastures, but whether grazing is rested or strategically applied depends on the management goal, sizes of populations of the IAP and more desirable species, and climatic and edaphic conditions. Conclusions Based on our findings, we integrated these relationships to develop a testable framework for managing IAPs with strategic grazing that considers both the current state of the plant community and the desired future state—i.e. the application of the principles behind reclamation, rehabilitation, restoration or all three—over time.

Molecular approaches to diagnosis and management of ovarian cancer

The recent advances in the understanding of the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer have been helpful in addressing issues in diagnosis, prognosis and management. The study of ovarian tumours by novel techniques such as immunohistochemistry, fluorescent in situ hybridisation, comparative genomic hybridisation, polymerase chain reaction and new tumour markers have aided the evaluation and application of new concepts into clinical practice. The correlation of novel surrogate tumour specific features with response to treatment and outcome in patients has defined prognostic factors which may allow the future design of tailored therapy based on a molecular profile of the tumour. These have also been used to design new approaches to therapy such as antibody targeting and gene therapy. The delineation of roles of c-erbB2, c-fms and other novel receptor kinases in the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer has led initially to the development of anti-c-erbB2 monoclonal antibody therapy. The discovery of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes will have an impact in the diagnosis and the prevention of familial ovarian cancer. The important role played by recessive genes such as p53 in cancer has raised the possibility of restoration of gene function by gene therapy. Although the pathological diagnosis of ovarian cancer is still confirmed principally on morphological features, addition of newer investigations will increasingly be useful in addressing difficult diagnostic problems. The increasingly rapid pace of discovery of genes important in disease, makes it imperative that the evaluation of their contribution in the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer is undertaken swiftly, thus improving the overall management of patients and their outcome.

Odometry-driven inference to link multiple exemplars of a location

A major challenge for robot localization and mapping systems is maintaining reliable operation in a changing environment. Vision-based systems in particular are susceptible to changes in illumination and weather, and the same location at another time of day may appear radically different to a system using a feature-based visual localization system. One approach for mapping changing environments is to create and maintain maps that contain multiple representations of each physical location in a topological framework or manifold. However, this requires the system to be able to correctly link two or more appearance representations to the same spatial location, even though the representations may appear quite dissimilar. This paper proposes a method of linking visual representations from the same location without requiring a visual match, thereby allowing vision-based localization systems to create multiple appearance representations of physical locations. The most likely position on the robot path is determined using particle filter methods based on dead reckoning data and recent visual loop closures. In order to avoid erroneous loop closures, the odometry-based inferences are only accepted when the inferred path's end point is confirmed as correct by the visual matching system. Algorithm performance is demonstrated using an indoor robot dataset and a large outdoor camera dataset.

Autonomous movement-driven place recognition calibration for generic multi-sensor robot platforms

In this paper we present a method for autonomously tuning the threshold between learning and recognizing a place in the world, based on both how the rodent brain is thought to process and calibrate multisensory data and the pivoting movement behaviour that rodents perform in doing so. The approach makes no assumptions about the number and type of sensors, the robot platform, or the environment, relying only on the ability of a robot to perform two revolutions on the spot. In addition, it self-assesses the quality of the tuning process in order to identify situations in which tuning may have failed. We demonstrate the autonomous movement-driven threshold tuning on a Pioneer 3DX robot in eight locations spread over an office environment and a building car park, and then evaluate the mapping capability of the system on journeys through these environments. The system is able to pick a place recognition threshold that enables successful environment mapping in six of the eight locations while also autonomously flagging the tuning failure in the remaining two locations. We discuss how the method, in combination with parallel work on autonomous weighting of individual sensors, moves the parameter dependent RatSLAM system significantly closer to sensor, platform and environment agnostic operation.

Dealing with shadows : capturing intrinsic scene appearance for image-based outdoor localisation

In outdoor environments shadows are common. These typically strong visual features cause considerable change in the appearance of a place, and therefore confound vision-based localisation approaches. In this paper we describe how to convert a colour image of the scene to a greyscale invariant image where pixel values are a function of underlying material property not lighting. We summarise the theory of shadow invariant images and discuss the modelling and calibration issues which are important for non-ideal off-the-shelf colour cameras. We evaluate the technique with a commonly used robotic camera and an autonomous car operating in an outdoor environment, and show that it can outperform the use of ordinary greyscale images for the task of visual localisation.

Cinema studies : Women's Experimental Cinema edited by Robin Blaetz

Women’s Experimental Cinema provides lively introductions to the work of fifteen avant-garde women filmmakers, some of whom worked as early as the 1950s and many of whom are still working today. In each essay in this collection, a leading film scholar considers a single filmmaker, supplying biographical information, analyzing various influences on her work, examining the development of her corpus, and interpreting a significant number of individual films. The essays rescue the work of critically neglected but influential women filmmakers for teaching, further study, and, hopefully, restoration and preservation. Just as importantly, they enrich the understanding of feminism in cinema and expand the terrain of film history, particularly the history of the American avant-garde.

A reference station-based GNSS computing mode to support unified precise point positioning and real-time kinematic services

Currently, the GNSS computing modes are of two classes: network-based data processing and user receiver-based processing. A GNSS reference receiver station essentially contributes raw measurement data in either the RINEX file format or as real-time data streams in the RTCM format. Very little computation is carried out by the reference station. The existing network-based processing modes, regardless of whether they are executed in real-time or post-processed modes, are centralised or sequential. This paper describes a distributed GNSS computing framework that incorporates three GNSS modes: reference station-based, user receiver-based and network-based data processing. Raw data streams from each GNSS reference receiver station are processed in a distributed manner, i.e., either at the station itself or at a hosting data server/processor, to generate station-based solutions, or reference receiver-specific parameters. These may include precise receiver clock, zenith tropospheric delay, differential code biases, ambiguity parameters, ionospheric delays, as well as line-of-sight information such as azimuth and elevation angles. Covariance information for estimated parameters may also be optionally provided. In such a mode the nearby precise point positioning (PPP) or real-time kinematic (RTK) users can directly use the corrections from all or some of the stations for real-time precise positioning via a data server. At the user receiver, PPP and RTK techniques are unified under the same observation models, and the distinction is how the user receiver software deals with corrections from the reference station solutions and the ambiguity estimation in the observation equations. Numerical tests demonstrate good convergence behaviour for differential code bias and ambiguity estimates derived individually with single reference stations. With station-based solutions from three reference stations within distances of 22–103 km the user receiver positioning results, with various schemes, show an accuracy improvement of the proposed station-augmented PPP and ambiguity-fixed PPP solutions with respect to the standard float PPP solutions without station augmentation and ambiguity resolutions. Overall, the proposed reference station-based GNSS computing mode can support PPP and RTK positioning services as a simpler alternative to the existing network-based RTK or regionally augmented PPP systems.

Manifestations of preoperational reasoning on similar programming tasks

In this research paper, we study a simple programming problem that only requires knowledge of variables and assignment statements, and yet we found that some early novice programmers had difficulty solving the problem. We also present data from think aloud studies which demonstrate the nature of those difficulties. We interpret our data within a neo-Piagetian framework which describes cognitive developmental stages through which students pass as they learn to program. We describe in detail think aloud sessions with novices who reason at the neo-Piagetian preoperational level. Those students exhibit two problems. First, they focus on very small parts of the code and lose sight of the "big picture". Second, they are prone to focus on superficial aspects of the task that are not functionally central to the solution. It is not until the transition into the concrete operational stage that decentration of focus occurs, and they have the cognitive ability to reason about abstract quantities that are conserved, and are equipped to adapt skills to closely related tasks. Our results, and the neo-Piagetian framework on which they are based, suggest that changes are necessary in teaching practice to better support novices who have not reached the concrete operational stage.

An evidence-based brochure to educate contact lens wearers about safe contact lens wear

Contact lenses are a successful and popular means to correct refractive error and are worn by just under 700,000 Australians1 and approximately 125 million people worldwide. The most serious complication of contact lens wear is microbial keratitis, a potentially sight-threatening corneal infection most often caused by bacteria. Gram-negative bacteria, in particular pseudomonas species, account for the majority of severe bacterial infections. Pathogens such as fungi or amoebae, which feature less often, are associated with significant morbidity. These unusual pathogens have come into the spotlight in recent times with an apparent association with specific lens cleaning solutions...

A near-to-far non-parametric learning approach for estimating traversability in deformable terrain

It is well recognized that many scientifically interesting sites on Mars are located in rough terrains. Therefore, to enable safe autonomous operation of a planetary rover during exploration, the ability to accurately estimate terrain traversability is critical. In particular, this estimate needs to account for terrain deformation, which significantly affects the vehicle attitude and configuration. This paper presents an approach to estimate vehicle configuration, as a measure of traversability, in deformable terrain by learning the correlation between exteroceptive and proprioceptive information in experiments. We first perform traversability estimation with rigid terrain assumptions, then correlate the output with experienced vehicle configuration and terrain deformation using a multi-task Gaussian Process (GP) framework. Experimental validation of the proposed approach was performed on a prototype planetary rover and the vehicle attitude and configuration estimate was compared with state-of-the-art techniques. We demonstrate the ability of the approach to accurately estimate traversability with uncertainty in deformable terrain.