A. W. Campbells Australian career: 1905-1937

The Australian Alfred Walter Campbell (1868-1937) is remembered as one of the two chief pioneers of the study of the cytoarchitectonics of the primate cerebral cortex. He had worked in Britain carrying out neuroanatomical and neuropathological research for almost two decades before his famous monograph on Histological Studies on the Localisation of Cerebral Function appeared in 1905. In that year he returned to his native Australia and practiced for over 30 years in Sydney as a neurologist rather than a neuropathologist, publishing mainly clinical material though he was involved in the investigation of the epidemic of Australian X disease, a viral encephalitis. His abrupt change in both the nature and the location of his career at a time when he was well established in Britain appears to have been a consequence of his marriage and the need to provide for a family. His simultaneous apparent abandonment of research seems not to have really been the case. As judged from the contents of a paper presented to a local medical congress in Sydney in 1911, it appears that, in Australia, Campbell did carry out a major comparative anatomical and histological investigation of the possibility of localization of function in the cerebellar cortex. He never published this work in detail. His investigation let him to conclude that no such localization of function existed, a view contrary to the then topical interpretation of Bolk (1906), but one in accordance with Gordon Holmes' views a decade later. Campbell's circumstances in Sydney, his extremely reticent nature and the essentially negative outcome of his investigation probably explain his failure to make his study more widely known.

A dynamic role for HDAC7 in MEF2-mediated muscle differentiation

The overlapping expression profile of MEF2 and the class-II histone deacetylase, HDAC7, led us to investigate the functional interaction and relationship between these regulatory proteins. HDAC7 expression inhibits the activity of MEF2 (-A, -C, and -D), and in contrast MyoD and Myogenin activities are not affected. Glutathione S-transferase pulldown and immunoprecipitation demonstrate that the repression mechanism involves direct interactions between MEF2 proteins and HDAC7 and is associated with the ability of MEF2 to interact with the N-terminal 121 amino acids of HDAC7 that encode repression domain 1. The MADS domain of MEF2 mediates the direct interaction of MEF2 with HDAC7, MEF2 inhibition by HDAC7 is dependent on the N-terminal repression domain and surprisingly does not involve the C-terminal deacetylase domain. HDAC7 interacts with CtBP and other class-I and -II HDACs suggesting that silencing of MEF2 activity involves corepressor recruitment. Furthermore, we show that induction of muscle differentiation by serum withdrawal leads to the translocation of HDAC7 from the nucleus into the cytoplasm. This work demonstrates that HDAC7 regulates the function of MEF2 proteins and suggests that this class-II HDAC regulates this important transcriptional (and pathophysiological) target in heart and muscle tissue. The nucleocytoplasmic trafficking of HDAC7 and other class-II HDACs during myogenesis provides an ideal mechanism for the regulation of HDAC targets during mammalian development and differentiation.

A review of the family Enenteridae Yamaguti, 1958 (Digenea), with descriptions of species from Australian waters, including Koseiria huxleyi n. sp.

The family Enenteridae is reviewed, with keys to the genera and species and diagnoses of the family and genera, based on a cladistic analysis utilising 44 characters. Subfamilies are not recognised. Descriptions of the following taxa from Australian marine teleosts are given: Enenterum mannarense from Kyphosus sydneyanus, SW Australia, E. elongatum from Kyphosus sydneyanus, SW Australia (these two species are distinguished by the number of oral lobes and the ovary to anterior testis distance), Koseiria huxleyi n. sp. from Chaetodontoplus meredithi, Great Barrier Reef (this new species is distinguished by the vitellarium reaching into the forebody, the infundibuliform terminal oral sucker, the unlobed ovary and the distinct post-oral ring), Koseiria xishaense from Kyphosus cinerascens and K. vaigiensis, Great Barrier Reef, Cadenatella isuzumi from Kyphosus cinerascens and K. vaigiensis, Great Barrier Reef, and C. pacifica (Yamaguti, 1970) n. comb. [was Jeancadenatia] from Kyphosus cinerascens and K. vaigiensis, Great Barrier Reef. The genus Jeancadenatia is considered a synonym of Cadenatella, and the new combination C. dollfusi (Hafeezullah, 1980) is formed. Members of the family are parasitic mainly in herbivorous fishes with a few genera and species from non-herbivorous fishes.

Do generalized visual training programmes for sport really work? An experimental investigation

We assessed the effectiveness of two generalized visual training programmes in enhancing visual and motor performance for racquet sports. Forty young participants were assigned equally to groups undertaking visual training using Revien and Gabor's Sports Vision programme (Group 1), visual training using Revien's Eyerobics (Group 2), a placebo condition involving reading (Group 3) and a control condition involving physical practice only (Group 4). Measures of basic visual function and of sport-specific motor performance were obtained from all participants before and immediately after a 4-week training period. Significant pre- to post-training differences were evident on some of the measures; however, these were not group-dependent. Contrary to the claims made by proponents of generalized visual training, we found no evidence that the visual training programmes led to improvements in either vision or motor performance above and beyond those resulting simply from test familiarity.

Client resistance in outreaching social work in Hong Kong

This paper reports the survey findings of a study on the outreaching social workers' perceptions of client resistance. In light of their social work practice 10th youth-at-risk in Hong Kong, resistance is generally recognised as a natural phenomenon in the counselling process and to a certain extent, is an obstacle to engaging in purposeful worker-client relationship as well as effecting behavioural changes. On Pipes and Davenport's (1990) classification, the respondents were more likely to classify client resistance as innocuous behaviours like missing appointments and refusing to discuss problems than disarming and proactive behaviours. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Sterilization of girls and women with intellectual disabilities - Past and present justifications

This article describes findings from empirical research examining sterilization applications for miners made to the Family Court of Australia between 1992 and 1999. Original materials and written reports from experts,family members, and judicial officers are used to highlight the dominant discourse and themes. These are compared with historical characterizations of young women with disabilities used during the notorious eugenics period in the first half of the 20th century. The new ways of justifying sterilization use the sanitized language of best interests, silencing constructionist approaches to disability and gender issues. The new ways are reminiscent of the old ways of discrimination, prejudice, and violation.

The calculation of accident risks in fitness for work assessments: diseases that can cause sudden incapacity

Risk equations have been developed to assist in determining fitness for work of people with diseases that may cause rapid loss of control. The four equations calculate the frequency of fatal injury to the person with the disease, the frequency of fatal injury to colleagues in the workplace, and the cost of fatal injury and property damage to the employer, it is suggested that the additional risk of fatal injury to the person with the disease should not exceed the fatal injury rate in high-risk industries such as forestry, fishing and mining. it is also suggested that the additional risk of fatal injury to each colleague should be no more than one-tenth of the fatal injury rate due to motor vehicle accidents in the community. Two hypothetical case examples are given, demonstrating the use of the equations. The equations highlight the need to examine the risks associated with individuals, their specific jobs and their workplaces. They also highlight significant uncertainties in the determination of fitness, which perhaps have been underestimated in the past. Wherever possible, redundant defences should be utilized to prevent accidents in the event of sudden incapacity.

Major colour patterns of reef-building corals are due to a family of GFP-like proteins

Reef-building corals are renowned for their brilliant colours yet the biochemical basis for the pigmentation of corals is unknown. Here, we show that these colours are due to a family of GFP-like proteins that fluoresce under ultraviolet (UV) or visible light. Pigments from ten coral species were almost identical to pocilloporin (Dove et al. 1995) being dimers or trimers with approximately 28-kDa subunits. Degenerative primers made to common N-terminal sequences yielded a complete sequence from reef-building coral cDNA, which had 19.6% amino acid identity with green fluorescent protein (GFP). Molecular modelling revealed a 'beta -can' structure, like GFP, with 11 beta -strands and a completely solvent-inaccessible fluorophore composed of the modified residues Gln-61, Tyr-62 and Gly-63. The molecular properties of pocilloporins indicate a range of functions from the conversion of high-intensity UV radiation into photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) that can be regulated by the dinoflagellate peridinin-chlorophyll-protein (PCP) complex, to the shielding of the Soret and Q(x) bands of chlorophyll a and c from scattered high-intensity light. These properties of pocilloporin support its potential role in protecting the photosynthetic machinery of the symbiotic dinoflagellates of corals under high light conditions and in enhancing the availability of photosynthetic light under shade conditions.

Family dynasties in the Tasmanian native hen (Gallinula mortierii)

For species that form multi-generational and territorial family groups, resource-rich areas are predicted to support family dynasties in which one genetic lineage continuously occupies an area and may even expand to occupy surrounding areas. Data from a long-term study of Tasmanian native hens (Gallinula mortierii) support this prediction. The reproductive success and dispersal patterns of 18 hen lineages were monitored for seven breeding seasons and over several generations. The founder group with the highest average territory quality produced the highest total number of fledged young and the highest number of fledged linear descendants, accounting for 24% of the combined reproductive output of these 18 lineages. In the space of 6 years, this single genetic lineage expanded from one territory to occupy 12 of the 47 territories present in the population. This rate of expansion was over four times the population average for the same period. A multivariate analysis revealed that the success of a genetic lineage depended only on the number of high-quality territories surrounding the founder group. These results further demonstrate the resource-dependent nature of reproductive success in this species, and also highlight the potential importance of family dynasties in other cooperative species with complex social dynamics and dispersal patterns.