We tested 85 isolates of β-hemolytic Streptococcus spp. against trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMX), clindamycin, and doxycycline by broth microdilution (BMD) and BD Phoenix. Susceptibility rates via BMD for TMP/SMX, clindamycin, and doxycycline were 100%, 85.5%, and 56.6%, respectively. TMP/SMX is a potential monotherapy agent for β-hemolytic Streptococcus skin and soft tissue infections.

A penicillin allergy testing service (PATS) assessed penicillin allergy in patients with hematologic malignancies; 17 patients who met criteria had negative skin testing. Patients who underwent penicillin challenge passed and were delabeled. Of delabeled patients, 87% received and tolerated β-lactams during follow-up. Providers found the PATS valuable.

This paper follows on from the initial position paper on “The Importance of Biodiversity Risks”, prepared by the Biodiversity and Natural Capital Working party, a volunteer group working under the Sustainability Board. This paper explores the link between zoonotic disease and biodiversity loss and aims to raise awareness and discussion within the actuarial community on why this should be an important consideration in risk management. This paper focuses on how zoonotic diseases emerge, how they are linked to biodiversity loss, the potential impacts in the future and progress within the financial sector. This paper forms part of a collection of papers prepared by volunteers under the Sustainability Board that focus on different elements of biodiversity risk considerations.

In this paper, we describe the system design and capabilities of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope at the conclusion of its construction project and commencement of science operations. ASKAP is one of the first radio telescopes to deploy phased array feed (PAF) technology on a large scale, giving it an instantaneous field of view that covers $31\,\textrm{deg}^{2}$ at $800\,\textrm{MHz}$. As a two-dimensional array of 36$\times$12 m antennas, with baselines ranging from 22 m to 6 km, ASKAP also has excellent snapshot imaging capability and 10 arcsec resolution. This, combined with 288 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth and a unique third axis of rotation on each antenna, gives ASKAP the capability to create high dynamic range images of large sky areas very quickly. It is an excellent telescope for surveys between 700 and $1800\,\textrm{MHz}$ and is expected to facilitate great advances in our understanding of galaxy formation, cosmology, and radio transients while opening new parameter space for discovery of the unknown.

The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS) is the first large-area survey to be conducted with the full 36-antenna Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope. RACS will provide a shallow model of the ASKAP sky that will aid the calibration of future deep ASKAP surveys. RACS will cover the whole sky visible from the ASKAP site in Western Australia and will cover the full ASKAP band of 700–1800 MHz. The RACS images are generally deeper than the existing NRAO VLA Sky Survey and Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey radio surveys and have better spatial resolution. All RACS survey products will be public, including radio images (with $\sim$ 15 arcsec resolution) and catalogues of about three million source components with spectral index and polarisation information. In this paper, we present a description of the RACS survey and the first data release of 903 images covering the sky south of declination $+41^\circ$ made over a 288-MHz band centred at 887.5 MHz.

We describe the performance of the Boolardy Engineering Test Array, the prototype for the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope. Boolardy Engineering Test Array is the first aperture synthesis radio telescope to use phased array feed technology, giving it the ability to electronically form up to nine dual-polarisation beams. We report the methods developed for forming and measuring the beams, and the adaptations that have been made to the traditional calibration and imaging procedures in order to allow BETA to function as a multi-beam aperture synthesis telescope. We describe the commissioning of the instrument and present details of Boolardy Engineering Test Array’s performance: sensitivity, beam characteristics, polarimetric properties, and image quality. We summarise the astronomical science that it has produced and draw lessons from operating Boolardy Engineering Test Array that will be relevant to the commissioning and operation of the final Australian Square Kilometre Array Path telescope.

This paper describes the system architecture of a newly constructed radio telescope – the Boolardy engineering test array, which is a prototype of the Australian square kilometre array pathfinder telescope. Phased array feed technology is used to form multiple simultaneous beams per antenna, providing astronomers with unprecedented survey speed. The test array described here is a six-antenna interferometer, fitted with prototype signal processing hardware capable of forming at least nine dual-polarisation beams simultaneously, allowing several square degrees to be imaged in a single pointed observation. The main purpose of the test array is to develop beamforming and wide-field calibration methods for use with the full telescope, but it will also be capable of limited early science demonstrations.

There is evidence that epigenetic changes occur early in breast carcinogenesis. We hypothesized that early-life exposures associated with breast cancer would be associated with epigenetic alterations in breast tumors. In particular, we examined DNA methylation patterns in breast tumors in association with several early-life exposures in a population-based case–control study. Promoter methylation of E-cadherin, p16 and RAR-β2 genes was assessed in archived tumor blocks from 803 cases with real-time methylation-specific PCR. Unconditional logistic regression was used for case–case comparisons of those with and without promoter methylation. We found no differences in the prevalence of DNA methylation of the individual genes by age at menarche, age at first live birth and weight at age 20. In case–case comparisons of premenopausal breast cancer, lower birth weight was associated with increased likelihood of E-cadherin promoter methylation (OR = 2.79, 95% CI, 1.15–6.82, for ⩽2.5 v. 2.6–2.9 kg); higher adult height with RAR-β2 methylation (OR = 3.34, 95% CI, 1.19–9.39, for ⩾1.65 v. <1.60 m); and not having been breastfed with p16 methylation (OR = 2.75, 95% CI, 1.14–6.62). Among postmenopausal breast cancers, birth order was associated with increased likelihood of p16 promoter methylation. Being other than first in the birth order was inversely associated with likelihood of ⩾1 of the three genes being methylated for premenopausal breast cancers, but positively associated with methylation in postmenopausal women. These results suggest that there may be alterations in methylation associated with early-life exposures that persist into adulthood and affect breast cancer risk.

We examined the Clostridium difficile infection rate and risk factors in an outpatient dialysis cohort. The Cox proportional hazard for developing C. difficile infection was significantly higher with high comorbidity index and low serum albumin level. Conversely, it was lower for patients who had frequent bloodstream and dialysis access-related infections.

Diamictites, many of glacial origin, are globally distributed in the Neoproterozoic. Recently, two relatively thin diamictites in the Maikhan Uul Member at the base of the Neoproterozoic Tsagaan Oloom Formation from the Zavkhan Basin of western Mongolia have been identified as being of glacial origin. The Mongolian diamictites form a series of backstepping units within the transgressive systems tract of two major depositional sequences associated with sea-level changes. In each case the diamictites of the transgressive systems tract are abruptly overlain by deeper water, upward shoaling highstand systems tracts consisting of thinly bedded sandstones and shales in sequence 1 and thinly bedded, dark carbonates in sequence 3. The fact that the sequences conform closely to depositional models established at other localities suggests that all are related to major ice ages and that the depositional sequences they have generated provide a valuable tool for global correlation in this part of the stratigraphic column. Available stratigraphic and isotope geochemical information presented by Brasier et al. (1996, this issue) suggests that both diamictites are likely to be of Sturtian age. A riftogenic setting and Sturtian age for the diamictites provide a link with eastern Australia and western America. It is possible, therefore, that these diamictites formed during the breakup of a supercontinental assembly including Siberia, Australia and Laurentia c. 750–725 Ma BP.

Five overlapping sections from the thick Neoproterozoic to early Cambrian sediments of western Mongolia were analysed to yield a remarkable carbon-isotope, strontium-isotope and small shellyfossil (SSF) record. Chemostratigraphy suggests that barren limestones of sequences 3 and 4, which lie above the two Maikhan Uul diamictites, are post-Sturtian but pre-Varangerian in age. Limestones and dolomites of sequence 5, with Boxonia grumulosa, have geochemical signatures consistent with a post-Varangerian (Ediacarian) age. A major negative δ13C anomaly (feature ‘W’) in sequence 6 lies a shortdistance above an Anabarites trisulcatus Zone SSF asemblage with hexactinellid sponges, of probable late Ediacarian age. Anomaly ‘W’ provides an anchor point for cross-correlation charts of carbon isotopes and small shelly fossils. Trace fossil assemblages with a distinctly Cambrian character first appear in sequence 8(Purella Zone), at the level of carbon isotopic feature ‘B’, provisionally correlated with the upper part of cycle Z in Siberia. A paradox is found from sequence 10 to 12 in Mongolia: Tommotian-type SSFs continue to appear, accompanied by Nemakit-Daldynian/Tommotian-type 87Sr/86Sr ratios but by increasingly heavyδ13C values that cannot be matched in the Tommotian of eastern Siberia. The steady rate of generic diversification in Mongolia also contrasts markedly with the Tommotian ‘diversity explosion’ in eastern Siberia, which occurs just above a major karstic emergence surface. One explanation is that sequences 10 to 12 in Mongolia preserve a pre-Tommotian portion of the fossil record that was missing or removed in easternSiberia. The Mongolian sections certainly deserve an important place in tracing the true course and timing of the ‘Cambrian radiation’.

The effects of varying the sowing date (early September-late October) and plant density (14–70 seeds/m2) on the establishment, overwinter survival, structure and yield of an autumn-sown, florallydeterminate line (CH304/70) of the white lupin (Lupinus albus) were examined in three contrasting growing seasons between 1991 and 1994. Crops established well when sown in early September and were sufficiently cold-hardy to survive prolonged and extremely severe early winter frosts, but crops sown in late October either lost many plants or were destroyed completely. There was a strong interaction between sowing date and autumn weather on crop structure and yield. Late sowing and cold autumn weather restricted the number of mainstem leaves and first-order lateral branches on the plant, and decreased plant height and yield potential.

Despite considerable differences between years in the weather during the summer and autumn, all crops were harvested in early September. Grain yields ranged from 0·3 to 4·5 t/ha depending on season, sowing date and plant density. Yields were strongly correlated with the number of podbearing axes and pods per m2 and, although actual yields differed depending on growing conditions, the same number of pod-bearing axes (100/m2) was required in each year to achieve maximum yield. The effects of sowing date and autumn weather on plant structure were well predicted by a simple developmental model that related vernalization and leaf development to post-sowing temperature.