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Genetic Analysis of Australia’s Extinct Fauna, Dr Kieren Mitchell, 25th September, 2016


In the Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk, 1.30 pm Sunday 25th September 2016Keiran Mitchell bio pic

Following its death, the DNA of an animal can be preserved in its bones and teeth for thousands of years. Sequencing this “ancient DNA” allows us to gain insights into the identity and evolution of now-extinct species. In this presentation Kieren will discuss the history of the ancient DNA field, factors affecting the preservation of DNA, and work he is currently involved in focused on extinct Australian species such as the thylacine and giant short-faced kangaroos.

Dr Kieren Mitchell grew up in Tasmania before moving to Adelaide for university, where he studied genetics and evolutionary biology. Having completed his PhD, he now works at the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide. He currently collaborates with researchers from around the world to study extinct species from North America, South America, Europe, Asia, New Zealand, Madagascar, and Australia.

Admission: $6 General Public, $4 Friends of the Museum and Students
Free for members of The Royal Society of Tasmania
As these events are popular, RSVP is essential Thursday 22nd

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles in Under-Ice Exploration and Research, Mr Peter King, 28 August, 2016


August 28, 1.30 pm in the Meeting Room, QVMAG, Inveresk

 

Mr Peter King

 

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are free swimming robots, which can travel to great depths and far reaching locations. Beginning in the 70s, researchers have tried to exploit their capabilities for working in one of the most remote environments of the earth, under-ice. With continued development and new technologies AUVs continue increase their vital role in under-ice exploration and polar science. In 2015 the Australian Maritime College, under the Antarctic Gateway Partnership project, committed to the purchase and development of an advanced, polar capable AUV. This talk will outline some history of AUV operations in under-ice exploration, their current role in Antarctica and the engineering challenges they face.PeterKing2PeterKing1

Mr Peter King is the coordinator of the Australian Maritime College’s AUV Facility. Since obtaining his engineering degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland, he has spent over a decade working in ocean technology, research, and autonomous underwater vehicles. At Memorial, he was the lead operator and engineer for a large survey AUV, conducting habitat survey, hydrodynamic studies, and development of vehicle autonomy and advanced navigation. Under the Antarctic Gateway Partnership project, Peter has come to Tasmania to help bring online, a new polar capable AUV for polar research in Antarctica.

Admission: $6 General Public, $4 Friends of the Museum, LHS Members, and Students

Free for members of The Royal Society of Tasmania

To assist us with the organization of this event

RSVP by Thursday 25th August 2016:

Email  bookings@qvmag.tas.gov.au  or  telephone  6323 3798

Professor Nicholas King presents The Enthusiastic Immune System: Curbing Nature’s Oldest Attack Dogs without Forgoing their Protection — Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk — 1.30 pm Sunday 26th June 2016


The Royal Society of Tasmania — 2016 Launceston Lecture Series

Professor Nicholas King

M.B. Ch.B., Ph.D., FRCPA (Hon)

Professor and Head of Immunopathology, Discipline of Pathology, School of Medical Sciences USYD will present

The Enthusiastic Immune System: Curbing Nature’s Oldest Attack Dogs without Forgoing their Protection
in the Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk — 1.30 pm Sunday 26th June 2016

Nick King virus1 NIck King virus2Once infected by virus, nerve cells of the brain will attract large numbers of white blood cells to clear the infection. Among these, a primitive group known as monocytes, newly minted by the bone marrow, causes inflammation that amplifies the immune response. However, this behaviour can also cause lethal damage. In a novel therapeutic strategy, we have used immune modifying nanoparticles to modulate monocyte migration and function, to reduce inflammation, increase healing and enable survival, not just in viral infection of the brain, but in a range of other diseases in which inflammation is excessive.

Nick KingProf. Nicholas King, as Professor of Immunopathology, heads the Discipline of Pathology and is Founding Director of the Advanced Cytometry Core Facility at the University of Sydney. He holds both Medical and PhD degrees and runs a research group that investigates how the immune response causes damage during neurotropic mosquito-borne virus infections, publishing widely on the subject over more than 30 years. He has been President of the Federation of Immunological Societies of Asia-Oceania and is currently on the Executive Council of the International Union of Immunological Societies. He holds a Vice Chancellor’s Excellence in Teaching Award and was awarded honorary membership of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia.

Admission: $6 General Public, $4 Friends of the Museum and Students

Free for members of The Royal Society of Tasmania

To assist us with the organisation of this event

RSVP by Thursday 23rd June 2016:

Email  bookings@qvmag.tas.gov.au  or  telephone  6323 3798

The Long Road Back from the Edge of Extinction by Robin Walpole [full text of presentation]


 

Firstly – let me put our current situation into context and say that this isn’t the first time Tasmanian Railways have nearly died – it is the third.

And Secondly – the jury is still out on the Long Term Survival aspect of the current re-capitalisation.

The Tasmanian Railway Dilemma:

Because of the small size of the market – the small population, the small tonnages on offer and the relatively small distances, railways in Tasmania have always struggled.

This is again not helped by the fact that Tasmanian is the most mountainous state of Australia – making construction and on-going infrastructure maintenance expensive.

Tasmanian has a total population of 512,000.

The current Tasrail operational system consists of 642 route km of single track.

The longest container route haul of Hobart to Burnie is 360 km.

We currently carry 2.5 million nett tonnes of freight for 366 m nett tonne km – and no passengers.

By comparison:

  • Kiwi Rail – the system most like us in the region has 4000 route km and 4,000 million nett tonne km.
  • Generally accepted minimum container route haul – 600 km (Auckland to Christchurch, Melbourne to Sydney, Brisbane to Rockhampton).

Where we have come from:

The first railways in Tasmania were built and operated by private companies.

  • The Launceston and Deloraine – a 5 ft 3 in gauge railway of 1871.
  • The Tasmanian Mainline Railway Company – a 3 ft 6 in railway of 1876 from Hobart to Launceston.

Both of these companies encountered financial difficulties with the Tasmanian government taking over the L & D in 1872 and the TMR in 1890.

The second failure is not necessarily popularly seen as such. However when the Whitlam government offered to take over the Tasmanian Government Railway (TGR) system, the system was deeply in debt and extremely run down, both from a rollingstock and a track and bridges infrastructure point of view.

The Commonwealth Government via its Australian National Railways Commission invested in more modern and efficient locomotives and resleepered and rerailed much of the key network. A number of major deviations were constructed and the rail in the key network was welded into continuous lengths.

In the effort to drive value for money, maximum use was made of part/worn materials from other Australian systems. Some of the compromises associated with the second hand rollingstock and material were to come back later to haunt the current management.

With the privatisation of AN in 1998 to the foreign owned consortium of Australian Transport Network (ATN), some recapitilisation continued. This new owner further emphasised the AN preference for North American railroad management and operations, the introduction of second hand EMD locomotives and a move to 18 tal on the core network.

International business far remote from Australia dictated the ultimate destiny of ATN as various companies rationalised, merged, failed or were sold off.

Finally ownership returned to “local” hands with the Toll Group’s Pacific National division acquired operational ownership in 2004.

Notable events in the PN years were the purchase of the Emu Bay Railway and the purchase of the refurbished MKA Class locomotives.

The business under PN struggled to generate sufficient funds to pay for its on-going infrastructure maintenance. This generated a downward spiral where differed maintenance impacted on reliability which in turn drove down traffic levels.

A series of derailments – at one point – more than once a week – sucked customer confidence and drove up operational costs.

PN had had enough and wanted out. Even this wasn’t easy as the Tasmanian government took some time to come to a decision.

The Concept of the Owner of Last Resort:

Again the railway was in a state of serious disrepair and another recapitalization would be necessary.

From 1978 until 2005, the Tasmanian government largely ignored the railway and it took some time for them to again relearn the concept of “Owner of Last Resort”.

It doesn’t matter who owns it, if you are the responsible government and you allow the railway to collapse, then there are serious financial and economic dis-benefits to the local economy – especially to the on-going maintenance costs of the parallel highway system.

Unfortunately, Tasmania was – as usual – rather cash strapped.

But there are always consequences. Our highway system is now still struggling to recover from the damage inflicted by the closedown of PN services.

A quick summary of the problems:

In using the phrase “condemned”, “life expired” or “in urgent need of repair”, the term when applied to the Tasmanian railway network generally described a condition that is well beyond normally accepted “condemnation” levels.

Bridges:

One major and several other medium sized timber bridges in urgent need of repair.

Transoms on all bridges seriously life expired.

Four major non-timber bridges in urgent need of replacement.

Rail wear:

Rail wear exceeded the normally accepted understanding of Rail Wear Condemn Limits. Derailments were occurring due to excessive rail wear.

Track:

  • Little ballast – especially on the shoulders – and the track is largely steel sleepers on Continuous Welded Rail that needs shoulder ballast.
  • A remaining high proportion of timber sleepers in the network – nearly all life expired.
  • Many early steel sleepers failing or failed.
  • Interspersed timber and various steel sleeper types causing formation pumping due to uneven track stiffness.
  • Poor formation – largely uncompacted original in-situ material – poorly drained.

Level Crossings:

  • Most level crossings life expired. Both track and road surface.
  • Level crossing protections systems life expired.

Drainage and Vegetation Control:

  • Side drainage blocked or non-existent
  • Vegetation cleared by passing traffic. Trees falling across the track a regular occurrence.

Staff and Contractor skills:

  • No in-house technical expertise – in engineering or railway engineering
  • All corporate engineering knowledge effectively lost
  • Residual staff competent but technically isolated
  • Local Contractors – mainly road based, with little railway understanding
  • Specialist railway contractors – mainland imports working on a fly in fly out basis – often with very little understanding of the special needs of a lightly built marginal narrow gauge railway.

Maintenance Access:

  • No road or vehicle track access. All access  for track maintenance by hi-rail vehicle

Past Compromises: The good intentions of the AN years now complicate matters:

AN acquired and transferred to Tasrail a vast quantity of rail and steel sleepers off the North Australia railway with its closure in 1976. The 80 CR rail was originally off the Trans Australia Railway and was rolled by varying manufacturers in 1913 – 1915.

Rail:

The 80 CR rail is generally a poorer quality steel. It doesn’t perform nearly as well as the lighter 1940/50s 63 lb TGR rail. Wearability, rail breaks and web collapse.

Sleepers:

  • Interspersed sleepers – a random interspersed pattern of timber and 3 different types of steel sleeper – resulted in variable track stiffness and inevitably to a pumping track/formation.
  • The NA sleepers are 6 mm tight for gauge in 1067 mm gauge track. Many were placed in tight radius curves with heavily side worn rail. (Nominal gauge 1067 mm + 12 mm). When the rail in the curves is replaced without resleepering – the curve is nominally 18 mm tight.  This results in higher levels of both wheel and rail wear.

 And Tasrail is Re-born – in December 2009:

The Tasmanian government resumed responsibility for the network in 2009 and together with extensive Commonwealth funding, set about rebuilding the network.

A new wholly Tasmanian government owned private company has been set up to manage the railway network.

So far the task list is as follows:

  •  Bridges replaced or upgraded – 38
  • Bridge transoms replaced – 5,000
  • Replaced sleepers – 300,000
  • New rail – 52 km
  • Welds – 5000
  • Ballast – 62,000 tonnes
  • Level crossings equipment upgrades – 124
  • Replaced and/or repaired 4 major culverts.
  • 3 major slips

2013

This year Tasrail will replace 4 major bridges and install 60 km of concrete sleepers in the critical sections of the Brighton to Burnie corridor.

We have been fortunate in being able to access concrete sleepers and part/worn 47 kg rail at a reasonable price.

Drainage and vegetation is under control. The track is stabilising and the Track Condition is improving and the Temporary Speed Restrictions are reducing.

The first of our new locomotives and wagons will arrive. A momentous occasion for Rollingstock – the first new locomotives in Tasmania since the last of the ZA Class in 1976.

We are back to a normally functioning railway – but it is still a Work in Progress.

New Rollingstock:

Our current locomotive and wagon fleet is 40 years old and made up of historic TGR stock and second-hand stock from other Australian railways, including Standard Gauge railways.

While the infrastructure work was primarily funded by Commonwealth monies, the Tasmanian Government has been largely responsible for funding the “above” rail portion.

  • Hi-rail maintenance trucks – 15
  • Tamping machine and Regulator – 1 +1
  • Wagons
  • Locomotives – 17

Remaining Challenges:

  • The extensive system of 100 m reverse curves.
  • The 1 in 40 grades – mainly associated with 100 m radius curves.
  • 200 track km of life expired 80 CR rail

The Future:

The present doesn’t ensure the future. And without sufficient investment funding – there will be no future. Our current tonnage – and the current prospects for tonnage, makes financial re-investment in infrastructure problematical. The par dyne has not changed. We can cover our short-term maintenance costs and with traffic growth – probably our full maintenance cycle costs.

We cannot rely on container traffic alone.  We have two important small bulk traffics – cement from Railton to Devonport and mineral concentrates from the West Coast mines. The prospect for growth in the West Coast mines is good – but unlikely to exceed 2 m Nt.

Coal – the original railway commodity – there are good prospects of modest export tonnages.

This leaves investment by Infrastructure Australia. We are quietly confident of funding under NB2 to complete the concrete resleepering and rerailing from Brighton to Burnie.

While we are fighting – and fighting with a substantial chance – the jury is still out on the long term survival of Tasmanian Railways.

Delving into the Soil Carbon Black Box – November 24th 2013


Dr Leigh Sparrow, Senior Research Fellow in Soil Science, Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, UTAS

will present  Delving into the Soil Carbon Black Box in the Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk, 2.00 pm Sunday November 24th 2013

Abstract

By virtue of its cool temperate climate, Tasmania’s soils generally have high concentrations of carbon. Intensive farming, especially frequent cropping, causes carbon concentrations to decrease. Dr Sparrow will outline the principles which govern the amount of carbon expected for any particular combination of soil, climate and farming system, and show how these apply to current Tasmanian situations. The data provide cause for concern about sustainable farming and carbon sequestration in soil, but there is also some good news.

Biography

Dr Sparrow is a Senior Research Fellow in Soil Science with the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, University of Tasmania. With a background in soil fertility, Dr Sparrow’s early career focused on soil testing and fertiliser management, but he has also studied heavy metal contamination, irrigation management and soil-borne diseases. His recent research includes modelling and measuring changes in soil carbon in different farming systems, with the aim of assessing the capacity of the soil to sustain agriculture. Implications for carbon storage in soil have also been evaluated.

Admission: $5 General Public, $3 Friends of the Museum, $2 Students
Free for members of the Royal Society of Tasmania

To assist us with the organization of this event
RSVP by Thursday 21st November 2013:
Email bookings@qvmag.tas.gov.au or telephone 6323 3798

 

The Long Road Back from the Edge of Extinction – the Tasmanian Railway dilemma.


Robin Walpole
Chief Engineer,
Tasrail, Launceston, Tasmania

will present

The Long Road Back from the Edge of Extinction – the Tasmanian Railway dilemma.

in the Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk
2.00 pm Sunday October 27th 2013
Admission: $5 General Public, $3 Friends of the Museum, $2 Students
Free for members of the Royal Society of Tasmania

To assist us with the organization of this event
RSVP by Thursday 24th October 2013:
Email bookings@qvmag.tas.gov.au or telephone 6323 3798

Tasmanian Railways have had a chequered history. This illustrated talk will shed some light on the historical context of the third failure of Tasmanian railways and the challenges of its survival in today’s context. It will discuss the conditions that led to the railway’s failure, the concept of The Owner of Last Resort, the gradual reconstruction process, and some of the challenges in overcoming past compromises. Many interesting photographs will accompany this enlightening journey into Tasrail’s history.

Robin Walpole is currently the Chief Engineer of Tasrail and brings to the position extensive experience in railway infrastructure throughout Australia, SE Asia and Africa. Prior to coming to Tasrail he was working on the rehabilitation of Third World narrow gauge railways in Africa.

Science Education in Tasmania – a teacher’s perspective – 22 September, 2013


Science Education in Tasmania – a teacher’s perspective.

Presentation by Jane Hall-Dadson
QVMAG – Inveresk
Sunday 22 September at 2.00 pm

 

Jane Hall-Dadson  Advanced Skills Teacher, Mathematics Learning Area,  Launceston College, Tasmania  will present 

Science Education in Tasmania – a teacher’s perspective.

in the Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk at 2.00 pm Sunday September 22nd 2013  

Admission: $5 General Public, $3 Friends of the Museum, $2 Students

Free for members of the Royal Society of Tasmania 

To assist us with the organization of this event

RSVP by Thursday 19th September 2013:

Email  bookings@qvmag.tas.gov.au  or  telephone  6323 3798

Good teaching requires a solid curriculum, engaging activities with relevance to real life and passionate, well- trained teachers, Jane Hall-Dadson says.

Ms Hall-Dadson will outline the recent history of changes in Tasmania’s Science curriculum, showing how students learn scientific concepts, develop scientific skills and understand applications of science in the real world citing innovative programs and inspiring student work.

She will also discuss strategies to enhance uptake of Science subjects beyond grade 10 . 

Jane Hall-Dadson began her career as a Medical Laboratory Scientist, working in private pathology, mainly in Medical Microbiology and Haematology/Serology. She completed teacher training  and became a Secondary Science & Mathematics teacher in 1997.

Her work has been recognised in numerous awards including a series of TSTS ANZAAS Science Teacher Awards, the Australian Academy of Science Teacher Award  and  the 2010 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Science Teaching. Ms Hall- Dadson is Vice-president of the Science Teachers Association of Tasmania and represents Tasmania on the Council of the Australian Science Teachers Association.

Delving into the soil carbon black box – 24th November, 2013


Delving into the soil carbon black box

Presentation by Dr Leigh Sparrow
QVMAG
Sunday, 24th November 2013    Commencing 2.00 pm until

Childhood Obesity – Professor Alison Venn – 25 August 2013


Childhood Obesity (TBC)

Presentation by Professor Alison Venn
QVMAG – Inveresk
Sunday, 25th August 2013    Commencing 2.00 pm until


Royal Society of Tasmania – 2013 Launceston Lecture Series

 Professor Alison Venn, BSc Hons PhD

Deputy Director; Associate Director – Research

Menzies Research Institute, Tasmania

will present

Cardiovascular Disease and type 2 Diabetes – links to childhood overweight and obesity.

 

in the Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk

 2.00 pm Sunday August 25th 2013

Admission: $5 General Public, $3 Friends of the Museum, $2 Students

Free for members of the Royal Society of Tasmania

 

To assist us with the organization of this event

RSVP by Thursday 22nd August 2013:

Email bookings@qvmag.tas.gov.au or telephone 6323 3798

Cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes are common and costly health problems in Australia. Adult risk factors are well understood but the contribution made by childhood factors is uncertain. The Childhood Determinants of Adult Health (CDAH) study, led by the Menzies Research Institute Tasmania, is a follow-up study over nearly three decades of 8,500 children from 109 schools nation-wide. It is helping to define, for the first time, the key contributions of childhood overweight and obesity to adult disease.

Professor Alison Venn completed her PhD in immunology at the National Institute for Medical Research in the UK. Following postdoctoral research in malaria immunology at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, she trained as an epidemiologist and spent ten years researching women’s reproductive health at La Trobe University. Since joining the Menzies Research Institute in 2000 she has broadened her research interests to cover the causes and prevention of chronic disease. Her particular focus is on how lifestyle (smoking, physical activity, diet, alcohol consumption) and obesity in childhood and early adulthood affect the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes later in life.

The Promise of Personalised Medicine: Hope or Hype – Professor Don Chalmers – 28 July 2013


The Promise of Personalised Medicine. – hope or hype

Presentation by Professor Don Chalmers

QVMAG – Inveresk
2:00 pm Sunday, 28th July 2013.
Admission: $5 General Public, $3 Friends of the Museum, $2 Students
Free for members of the Royal Society of Tasmania
To assist us with the organization of this event RSVP by Thursday 25 July : Email bookings@qvmag.tas.gov.au or telephone 6323 3798

 

Brief Abstract of the Talk

Francis Collins – one of the chief architects of the Human Genome Project and now director of the National Institutes of Health in the USA – in his book Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution in Personalized Medicine – presents a more hopeful vision of the future of medicine compared with the disorder of our current health-care system. This vision is of personalised medicine where most people have their whole genome sequenced (WGS) and their results integrated with their personal decisions about diet, lifestyle, healthcare and treatments.

In the pharmaceutical area, personalised medicine aims, based on an individual’s genetic profile, to develop new drugs, to better match drugs to the individual patient and to minimise adverse drug reactions for individual patients. In genetic testing, there is an increasing range of direct–to-customer (DTC) tests available, which have raised concerns amongst other national regulatory authorities. A PHG Foundation Research Report in 2008 concluded that a failure to improve clinical evaluation of genetic tests will undermine the development of personalised medicine.

This address will discuss the hopes and hype in personalised medicine and whether the future of personalised medicine may depend on developing new ethical and legal standards to ensure public trust and confidence in personalised medicine.

About the Speaker

Professor Don Chalmers is Dean of the Law School and Distinguished Professor at the University of Tasmania. He is Director of the Centre for Law and Genetics and Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.

Professor Chalmers is Chair of the Gene Technology Ethics and Community Consultative Committee and Deputy – Chair of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Licensing Committee.

He is a member of the international Human Genome Organization Ethics Committee and of the International Cancer Genome Consortium.

Professor Chalmers was chair of the NHMRC Australian Health Ethics Committee from 1994-2000 and is the author of many publications related to gene research and bioethics.

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