Presbyterian Theological College

Book review

This article seeks to reconsider the early history of Presbyterianism in the Colony of NSW up to John Dunmore Lang’s arrival in Sydney. It is hoped that a clearer view of early Presbyterian activity will be gained. An overview of Scottish Presbyterianism up to the 1820s is given to provide context for Australian circumstances. Governor John Hunter and the convict Thomas Muir were involved in significant pioneering Presbyterian worship and ministry. The origins and activities of Ebenezer Presbyterian Church are examined. Given that it was part of NSW at the time, early Presbyterian activity on the Clyde and Macquarie Rivers in the Midlands of VDL and the circumstances around the establishment of the Scots Church in Hobart under Archibald MacArthur are examined. Hitherto unknown information provides important perspectives on the better-known situation in Sydney and with Lang. The article concludes by considering the work of William Wemyss, who organised a ‘union’ congregation in Sydney from 1821 to 1823.

Review

To assess the rapidity of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measured synovitis (as measured by synovial thickening using the RAMRIS-SAFE score) and bone edema in active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) subjects treated with golimumab. Secondary aims: to correlate MRI measures with disabilities of the arm, shoulder, and hand (DASH), physician global (PhysG) and patient global (PatG) assessments. Patients with active RA and inadequate response to methotrexate were recruited. Active RA was defined as RA with a Disease Activity Score of 28 joints - C-reactive protein ≥4.2 at screening AND active disease (synovitis and edema) of the chosen hand or wrist on MRI at screening, as determined by the central blinded MRI reader (PB). Outcomes measures were assessed at baseline, 2, 6, and 12 weeks. MRI results were interpreted by one experienced observer (PB), blinded to clinical measures. Pearson's correlation co-efficient (SPSS) was used to express the relationship between DASH, PhysG, PatG and MRI measures. Eighteen patients were included in the study. All subjects completed follow-up visits and MRI assessment. Mean age was 60.6 years (range 22-72), and 10 were female, 8 male, and disease duration was mean 4.72 years (range 1-28); all patients were taking background methotrexate. The changes in MRI synovial volume were evident by visit 2. The strongest correlations with the DASH for MRI parameters were total synovial thickening (0.923) and edema (0.921). Golimumab was associated with rapid improvement in clinical measures and patient-reported outcome measures. Mean synovial thickening demonstrated early rapid improvement. MRI synovial thickening demonstrated a strong correlation with DASH, PatG and PhysG.

By Drew Hunter (Wheaton: Crossway, 2020), 601pp., hbk, US$19.99.
 ISBN 9781433569494

To promote a more efficient and transparent geochemistry data ecosystem, a consortium of Australian university research laboratories called the AuScope Geochemistry Network assembled to build a collaborative platform for the express purpose of preserving, disseminating and collating geochronology and isotopic data. In partnership with geoscience‐data‐solutions company Lithodat Pty Ltd, the open, cloud‐based AusGeochem platform (https://ausgeochem.auscope.org.au) was developed to simultaneously serve as a geosample registry, a geochemical data repository and a data analysis tool. Informed by method‐specific groups of geochemistry experts and established international data reporting practices, community‐agreed database schemas were developed for rock and mineral geosample metadata and secondary ion mass spectrometry U‐Pb analysis, with additional models for laser ablation‐inductively coupled‐mass spectrometry U‐Pb and Lu‐Hf, Ar‐Ar, fission‐track and (U‐Th‐Sm)/He under development. Collectively, the AusGeochem platform provides the geochemistry community with a new, dynamic resource to help facilitate FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data management, streamline data dissemination and advanced quantitative investigations of Earth system processes. By systematically archiving detailed geochemical (meta‐)data in structured schemas, intractably large datasets comprising thousands of analyses produced by numerous laboratories can be readily interrogated in novel and powerful ways. These include rapid derivation of inter‐data relationships, facilitating on‐the‐fly data compilation, analysis and visualisation.

Whereas calls were usually disposed of in a short space of time, the one from Mare Street Chapel in Hackney to Matthew Henry took twenty-three months. The difficulty lay with Matthew Henry himself. He vacillated, alternately wishing to accept the call and then wishing to remain with his beloved congregation in Chester. Pressured from both sides, he tried to withdraw his acceptance of the call, but the people at Hackney held him to his word. Before leaving Chester, he was an ill man, but he drove himself to be a faithful pastor at Hackney while trying to finish his Exposition of Holy Scripture and serve the wider dissenting community in London. Kidney stones and late-onset diabetes seriously affected him, distorting his decision making and ultimately bringing about his death after just two years of ministry in Hackney.

Hereditary endocrine neoplasias, including phaeochromocytoma/paraganglioma and medullary thyroid cancer, are caused by autosomal dominant mutations in several familial cancer genes. A common feature of these diseases is the presentation of multiple primary tumours, or multifocal disease representing independent tumour clones that have arisen from the same initiating genetic lesion, but have undergone independent clonal evolution. Such tumours provide an opportunity to discover common cooperative changes required for tumourigenesis, while controlling for the genetic background of the individual. We performed genomic analysis of synchronous and metachronous tumours from five patients bearing germline mutations in the genes SDHB, RET, and MAX. Using whole exome sequencing and high-density single-nucleotide polymorphism arrays, we analysed two to four primary tumours from each patient. We also applied multi-region sampling, to assess intratumoural heterogeneity and clonal evolution, in two cases involving paraganglioma and medullary thyroid cancer, respectively. Heterogeneous patterns of genomic change existed between synchronous or metachronous tumours, with evidence of branching evolution. We observed striking examples of evolutionary convergence involving the same rare somatic copy-number events in synchronous primary phaeochromocytoma/paraganglioma. Convergent events also occurred during clonal evolution of metastatic medullary thyroid cancer. These observations suggest that genetic or epigenetic changes acquired early within precursor cells, or pre-existing within the genetic background of the individual, create contingencies that determine the evolutionary trajectory of the tumour. Copyright © 2017 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.