MARSDEN FUND NEWSLETTER

No 28· July 2004

Contents

1. Why the leaves don't fall in autumn
2. News from Marsden Cottage
3. Mighty muscles: Myostatin modifies growth and repair
4. Numerical modelling of fluid flow
5. Unravelling the mysteries of Antarctic sea ice
6. Investigating water dimers and their effect on climate
7. New tools to fight multiple sclerosis
8. Rural Englands: Labouring Lives in the Nineteenth Century
9. High citations for Marsden research
10. Marsden Fund Council members, Marsden staff, and contact details

Why the leaves don't fall in autumn

Unlike other areas of the world, native forests and shrublands in New Zealand are almost entirely evergreen. Only about 10 species of trees and shrubs have more or less complete leaf loss over winter, and a further 17 could be described as "semideciduous", less than 5% of the native woody flora in total. At similar latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, deciduous trees and shrubs play a much more important role, often dominating entire landscapes.

This peculiarity of the South was noted by early scientific observers, and the reasons for the scarcity of deciduous species have been debated off and on for over a century. Now, Drs Matt McGlone and David Whitehead from Landcare Research, Lincoln, have led a Marsden-funded team, including Dr Richard Duncan from Lincoln University and Dr Rob Allen from Landcare Research, to investigate in detail just what factors contribute to New Zealand's abundance of evergreen plants.

It was initially thought that New Zealand's unique climate might be the deciding factor in the situation. New Zealand has a highly oceanic, mild, but sunny climate. So mild, in fact, that in most regions it is possible for evergreen trees and shrubs to keep up photosynthesis throughout winter. One theory was that evergreen plants are dominant in such a climate because, by retaining their leaves through winter, they can maintain photosynthesis and thus gain a fast start for growth in spring. Deciduous trees on the other hand, obviously cannot photosynthesise during winter, as they completely lose their leaves.

 

Dr Roger Dungan measuring photosynthesis of evergreen wineberry (Aristotelia serrata) in the canopy of a forest in the Taramakau Valley, Westland.

However, one problem with this theory was that a number of deciduous trees and shrubs, such as sycamore, are now naturalised in New Zealand and appear to suffer no growth handicap compared to their evergreen neighbours. Native deciduous trees and shrubs are in fact among the fastest growing plants in the country, are often abundant in early forest regrowth, and are geographically widespread. Complicating the matter was the fact that evergreen plants are also present in large numbers in colder regions of New Zealand where only marginal winter photosynthesis is possible, such as at the alpine treeline and in the cool south-eastern South Island. Clearly, the situation was more complicated than it first appeared.

The researchers conducted a study in order to learn more about the role that climate might have in influencing winter leaf loss in New Zealand plants. A patch of regenerating forest in the Taramakau Valley, Westland, was used for intensive studies of two tree species. These were the fuchsia, which is fully deciduous, and
wineberry, which sheds about half its leaves but maintains a canopy through winter.

The study, which formed the core of a PhD thesis by Roger Dungan from Lincoln University, involved the construction of a model for each species that predicted how much photosynthesis could be carried out under different climatic conditions. Surprisingly, the results indicated that there was actually very little difference between the productivity of the two species based on climate factors alone. Part of the reason for this is that fuchsia, although it is deciduous, actually carries out enough photosynthesis over summer to more than compensate for the lack of production during winter. The conclusion reached from the study was that both evergreen and deciduous strategies seem viable under present New Zealand climates. Clearly, climate was not the clear-cut answer to the problem after all.

 

Foliage of evergreen wineberry (Aristotelia serrata), left and centre, and deciduous fuschia (Fuchsia excorticata), right, in the canopy of a forest in the Taramakau Valley, Westland.

The researchers then investigated whether a second factor, soil nutrients, might also have a role in determining the relative success of the strategies. Previous research had shown that deciduous trees and shrubs overwhelmingly prefer fertile soils, whilst plants typical of low-nutrient soils tend to be evergreen, with long-lived leaves. One reason for this is that every time a plant sheds its leaves, it loses vital nutrients, mainly nitrogen and phosphorous. Plants on soils where these nutrients are scarce, therefore, tend to hold on to leaves for a long time to avoid this loss. On the other hand, if soil nutrients are plentiful, the leaves of deciduous plants can photosynthesise at their full potential, and outperform the relatively slow photosynthesis of evergreen leaves during the summer. These leaves are expendable, however, because faster growth means older leaves quickly become overshadowed, and there is also a ready supply of nutrients for regrowth in the spring.

New Zealand forest soils appeared to be relatively nutrient-poor compared with those of the Northern Hemisphere. Could this be a reason for New Zealand's abundance of evergreen plants?

Dr Sarah Richardson, a postdoctoral researcher at Landcare Research, Lincoln, led a sub-project that used a unique analysis to see how leaf attributes varied along a soil nutrient gradient near Franz Josef Glacier. The results of this study showed that, indeed, deciduous species with short-lived leaves were confined to the most nutrient-rich soils, whilst evergreen species with long-lived leaves were characteristic of nutrient-depleted soils.

Overall, the research indicates that there are two aspects, climate and soil nutrients, to the puzzle of why New Zealand has so many evergreen plants. The climate does not have the seasonal extremes of cold that significantly favours a deciduous strategy but, on the other hand, it does not rule it out. It is therefore only on limited areas of nutrient-rich soils that deciduous plants, with their much higher nutrient demand, can flourish. So, while many New Zealanders might assume that it is the temperate climate that is responsible for the beautiful, distinctive, evergreen look to the New Zealand landscape, ironically, it is the relatively poor soil which is the clincher.

For more information, contact Dr Matt McGlone Landcare Research PO Box 69, Lincoln Tel: (03) 325 6700 Email: mcglonem@landcareresearch.co.nz

News from Marsden Cottage

Funding Round

This is one of the busiest times of the year for the Marsden Fund staff. Most of the annual progress reports on current contracts are received in the February to June period each year and the research assessors are now fully occupied completing their assessment. This work comes on top of supporting the evaluation of the 2004 full proposals, which is now well under way. We have received 194 full proposals this year. These proposals have been sent to 612 referees for their expert opinion and most of the referees have now returned their reports. The reports are sent to applicants for comment before the panels consider the proposals.

As in previous years, most of the referees we use are from outside New Zealand. This year about 10% of the referees are based in New Zealand and a similar number are based in Australia. About 45% of the referees come from North America and 31% from Europe. The remainder come from Africa and Asia. This distribution varies considerably from panel to panel. For example, nearly 40% of the referees for proposals to the Social Sciences panel come from New Zealand or Australia. Given that for those in the northern hemisphere, this is often their holiday time or the time they carry out field work, I have been impressed by how many of the people we have approached immediately agreed to take on the task of refereeing for the Fund.

The assessment panels will meet during the period 9 - 20 August to make recommendations to the Marsden Fund Council who are scheduled to meet on 31 August to make the final decisions. The results will be announced in mid September. The Government increased the size of the Fund by $1.5 million in the 2004 Budget and it now stands at $34.289 million per year. However, this increase had been pre-announced by the Government two years ago so some of the increase has been pre-committed. The final figure for the amount of money to be allocated to new projects this year has not yet been decided as it will depend on the mix of proposals selected for funding, but it is likely to be between $33 and $34 million.

External Review of the Fund

Duing the July and August period, there will be a review of the Marsden Fund. This is being undertaken by contractors appointed by MoRST. This is a "high level" review looking at the Marsden Fund's position in the Vote RS&T spectrum, the value it generates and whether there are any improvements that can be made to the Fund. Part of the review process will include interviewing researchers who have received Marsden funding as well as representatives from their institutions. We are hoping for a positive outcome to the review to support our case for further increases to the Fund.

Electronic Systems

We are beginning to make a move towards more electronic means of receiving and transferring information relating to the Marsden Fund. We are now trialling electronic reporting where researchers submit their progress reports directly to us through a password protected web site. We expect this system to fully operational for all projects from September. In another move this year, most of the full proposals were sent for peer review to referees by email. We have also begun developing a system which will allow applicants to submit new proposals through a web portal, avoiding the need for applicants to prepare multiple copies of the proposals.

Mighty muscles: Myostatin modifies growth and repair

Satellite cells attached to muscle fibre.

As we are all too well aware, muscle damage is an inevitable and sometimes painful part of life. Fortunately, muscles also have a remarkable capacity to regenerate and repair themselves after injury, meaning that the inconvenience of a damaged muscle is usually only temporary. This impressive ability is due to the action of specialised muscle stem cells, called satellite cells, which are responsible for muscle growth, maintenance, and regeneration.

Satellite cells usually lie dormant in a non-dividing state. During the muscle growth that occurs as a result of injury or increased load, satellite cells are activated to re-enter the cell cycle. The activated cells divide, and begin a process that leads to the formation of new muscle fibres, or the repair of existing ones. A subset of these activated satellite cells then withdraw from the cell cycle and re-populate the satellite cell population, meaning that the process can occur again when required.

 

From left to right: Team members Ravi Kambadur, Mridula Sharma, and Mark Thomas.

Activation of satellite cells appears to be regulated by several hormones, some of which promote muscle growth, and others which suppress it when it is not needed. Although numerous studies have uncovered the effect of promoters of muscle growth and regeneration, little has been demonstrated about the role of regulators that suppress muscle growth and regeneration by causing satellite cells to become dormant. Now, researchers Dr Ravi Kambadur and Dr Mridula Sharma from AgResearch, funded by a Marsden grant, are investigating one such negatively regulating factor, Myostatin.

Myostatin acts to suppress muscle fibre formation when it is not required. Mice and cattle with mutations in their Myostatin genes are therefore heavily muscled, as they are unable to effectively regulate muscle formation.

Myostatin is known to regulate muscle size by controlling muscle formation in developing embryos. Recently, Dr Ravi Kambadur and his team, including Mark Thomas and PhD student Seumas McCroskery, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at National Institutes of Health, USA, have shown that Myostatin also has a role in regulating adult muscle. The team has demonstrated that Myostatin regulates muscle growth and regeneration by suppressing satellite cell activation and self-renewal. The research has also shown that a lack of Myostatin in mice with mutated Myostatin genes results in an increased pool of activated satellite cells and an enhanced self-renewal of satellite cells. Consistent with these results is the fact that a lack of Myostatin also appears to enhance regeneration and reduce scar tissue. In addition, Myostatin has been shown to inhibit satellite cell activation in laboratory experiments. Taken together, these findings show that Myostatin functions by maintaining the dormant state of satellite cells, and also regulates the transition to the activated state, thus controlling muscle growth.

This fundamental discovery has tremendous application in biomedicine and agriculture. For example, muscular dystrophy in humans is a condition resulting from the lack of the protein dystrophin, which leads to loss of muscle fibres. In order to compensate for the lost muscle fibre, satellite cells in muscular dystrophy patients are continuously activated, and the lost muscle fibre is replenished. However, well into adult life, the patients seem to run out of satellite cells, leading to uncompensated muscle loss, and ultimately, death.

One of the ways to control the muscle loss caused by muscular dystrophy is to increase the self-renewal of satellite cells. The current discovery by Drs Kambadur and Sharma suggests that there would be benefits in designing drugs that block the action of Myostatin. In fact, for mice with muscular dystrophy, the blockade of Myostatin did indeed result in an increase in muscle mass and strength. A research article describing this work has recently been published in the Journal of Cell Biology.

In summary, the team has demonstrated that muscle growth and regeneration can be regulated by controlling the transition of satellite cells from a state of dormancy to one of activation by regulating the levels of Myostatin. The next step is to design and test molecules that can be used to specifically block Myostatin.

 

For more information, contact Dr Ravi Kambadur AgResearch Private Bag 3123, Hamilton Tel: (07) 838 5193 Email: ravi.kambadur@agresearch.co.nz

Numerical modelling of fluid flow

From the extremely large scales of interstellar dust clouds, to the very small scales of capillary blood vessels, fluid flows are everywhere. Being able to accurately describe and model fluid flows is an important part of many areas of science and technology, including meteorology, oceanography, aircraft design, and sailing boats, to name just a few.

Most fluid flows have traditionally been described by a simple-looking set of mathematical equations discovered more than 160 years ago by French mathematician and physicist Claude- Louis Navier, and Irish mathematician George Stokes. However, although the equations themselves appear simple, their solutions are not, a fact that becomes obvious when contemplating, for example, the complexity of a flowing river, or a weather map. As a result, describing fluid flows is a process that requires a great deal of computing power. Several of the most powerful supercomputers on the planet, such as the Earth Simulator in Japan, were built specifically to solve fluid flow problems. But despite these recent huge increases in computational power, many fluid flow problems have remained beyond our reach.

Now, Dr Stéphane Popinet from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) has conducted research, funded by a Fast-Start Marsden grant, to develop more efficient methods to numerically model fluid flow. Dr Popinet's research has involved the development of new mathematical and computational approaches to provide very significant improvements in the solution of difficult fluid flow problems.

There are two main reasons why fluid flow problems have traditionally been difficult to solve. First, in most fluid flows, the processes that occur at the smallest spatial scales are tightly connected to processes at the largest spatial scales, and vice-versa. These effects occur through still ill-understood "turbulence cascades". These "range of scales" effects produce significant problems in modelling real-life situations that involve fluid flows. For example, it is entirely possible that the accurate prediction of climate evolution on a global scale requires the numerical solution of processes as small as the formation of water sprays by breaking waves.

 

Simulated flow in the region of the Tangaroa's bow. The horizontal and vertical lines show how the size of the grid is adapted to follow small-scale structures in the flow.

To overcome this problem, Dr Popinet has developed a new numerical method which uses the fact that, in most fluid flows, areas of intense activity alternate with relatively quiet backwaters. Active areas are characterised by small-scale details, in contrast to the smoother flows of quieter zones. The numerical method automatically tracks the active areas and refines the description of the solution there, while saving on computation in smoother zones. Depending on the type of problem, computations can be 10 to 100 times faster than with comparable conventional techniques, with no loss of accuracy.

A second problem with fluid flow analysis is that many important fluid flows involve more than one fluid or material. In fact, the interface between different materials, such as air and water, or between blood and the wall of a blood vessel, is often where most of the action occurs. Interfaces, however, are generally very thin, and thus hard to model numerically and with accuracy.

Dr Popinet has addressed this interface problem through an "embedded boundary" mathematical method. Rather than treating the interfaces as hard boundaries for the flow, the method automatically overlays their properties onto a continuous description of the background flow. The result is a method which can deal automatically and accurately with complex boundaries.

The simulation code which is the result of Dr Popinet's research is called Gerris,
the familiar French name of Gerris lacustris, the common water-strider, an insect which can run across the surface of water using surface tension. The name ties in with both Dr Popinet's childhood fascination with aquatic life, and the fluid dynamics aspect of his research.

 

Simulation of turbulent air flow around NIWA's RV Tangaroa. The complex shape of the ship is described automatically using the embedded boundary technique.

As well as its unique approach to fluid flow problems, Gerris is also different because of its development and distribution model. People can freely use, modify and redistribute it. While the rationale for such an approach may seem surprising at first, it is not so unusual when an analogy is made with scientific publications. Everybody agrees that the free exchange of ideas, cross-validation, and peer-review provided by scientific publications is one of the cornerstones of scientific research. Publishing scientific codes is then just a logical extension of this basic principle. Such free exchange is particularly important for the necessarily small New Zealand research community, which can only benefit from the wider audience provided by an open development model.

While Gerris was given a head start with a Fast-Start Marsden grant, much remains to be done. Extensions to oceanic and multiphase flows are now being developed in New Zealand, with collaborative research in Canada, France and Italy. Current research involves applying the complex boundary technique to the modelling of ocean flows. The goal is to develop a model that can be used continuously from global scales, down to scales as small as a few kilometres. If this is successful, this would be the first ocean model with such capabilities. A next step would be the extension to atmospheric flows for weather forecasting and climate modelling. Additionally, the team is also working on several applications of the code for small-scale processes, including wind flows for wind farms and architectural design.

Gerris web site: http://gfs.sf.net

 

For more information, contact Dr Stéphane Popinet NIWA PO Box 14­901 Kilbirnie, Wellington Tel: (04) 386 0585 Email: s.popinet@niwa.co.nz

Unravelling the mysteries of Antarctic sea ice

Preparation of the temperature probe before launch into open water from the edge of the sea ice, in February. The temperature probe is supported on the ring buoy.

Sea ice is a dominant feature on Earth, covering as much as 7% of the globe at certain times of the year. Much of this ice forms annually, doubling the size of the ice-covered southern continent of Antarctica in winter, and melting away in the warmer months. This dynamic process means that sea ice is a key player in the balance of heat that maintains the global temperature within comfortable bounds.

Because of inaccessibility, however, the process of sea ice formation has not been well understood. The sea ice attached to the coastline of Antarctica is most frequently visited in the spring and summer months when the ice is already well over 1 metre thick, meaning that scientists have had to make an inspired guess about the conditions in which the sea ice formed.

In order to gain a better understanding of the process of sea ice formation, a team of scientists, led by Dr Pat Langhorne from the Department of Physics at the University of Otago and Dr Tim Haskell from Industrial Research Ltd, and funded by a Marsden grant, are investigating the formation of a special type of Antarctic sea ice, known as 'platelet ice'. Platelet ice forms disc-like crystals, which can reach dimensions of several centimetres. These crystals appear to drift in the water, attaching themselves to foreign bodies and to the growing sea ice-water interface.

 

Platelet ice crystals that have attached themselves to oceanographic cables in the water.

Just how platelet ice forms has eluded a good explanation for over 90 years, ever since the scientists of the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910­1913 first observed its formation on their hemp ropes. It is known that the existence of platelet ice is somehow related to the cooling of sea water below its freezing point, and that this process probably occurs as ice shelf meltwater is carried to the ocean surface from depth. However, the exact details of the process of platelet ice formation have not yet been revealed.

Dr Langhorne and Dr Haskell's research was conceived to shed some light on the timing of, and reasons for, the appearance of platelet ice at the ice-water interface, and to monitor the conditions during the formation of the thin, new sea ice. In order to conduct the research, a team of three, consisting of post-doctoral fellow Dr Greg Leonard, PhD student Craig Purdie, and field assistant Jonathan Leitch, whose experience and expertise working in the Antarctic in winter was essential to the success of the project, spent 7 months over the winter period working on the sea ice close to the New Zealand base in Antarctica, Scott Base.

In a laboratory consisting of a set of shipping containers modified to be placed over a hole drilled in the sea ice, the team used oceanographic sensors to monitor the water beneath the ice. Cores collected from the sea ice, and water samples, were analysed for features such as the level of salinity and crystal structure. These experiments allowed the properties of the sea ice to be related to changes in oceanographic currents, salinity and temperature beneath the ice.

As a result of their experiments, the team was able to establish that platelet ice grows sporadically throughout the winter, and that there are times of rapid ice growth, and times when platelet ice is absent. An unexpected result of the research is that the team may also have discovered a novel way of detecting platelet ice. In order to measure oceanographic currents, a device is used that emits high frequency sound, and the reflection from particles in the water column allows the velocity of the water relative to the instrument to be measured. Interestingly, the researchers found that during times when the temperature of the water was very low, below freezing point by approximately 0.01°C, unidentified particles were present in the water, causing the sound waves emitted by the device to be scattered in all directions. The tempting conclusion is that these unidentified particles are actually platelet ice crystals. With calibration, this serendipitous result could lead to the device that measures current being converted into one that also provides an indication of the existence of platelet ice.

This research is set apart by the fact that it is conducted in winter, which is highly hazardous and a significant challenge. "The whole process of working in winter in Antarctica is not one to be taken lightly, especially working on the sea ice in the dark", said Dr Haskell. "You have to deal with the cold, the dark, limited search and rescue facilities, be aware of the possibility of accidents and manage the team members who are living in close contact for long periods of time". However, he said, "In the end it was very successful: no one was hurt, there were no significant safety issuesand we got a good proportion of the science we were after".

Removal of the first temperature probe from the sea ice sheet in mid-winter. The DitchWitch trench cutter is about to cut out a temperature probe from around 1m thickness of sea ice. Due to the weight of snow the surface of the ice is below sea level.	Removing a temperature probe in late winter, when the ice is considerably thicker. This probe, which is longer than that in the previous photo, was placed in first year sea ice in June.

Tim Haskell and Jonathan Leitch with the probe and remaining ice, which is melted off rather than cut to prevent damage to the embedded thermistors.	Removal of excess ice, some of which is used for sampling purposes.

Investigating water dimers and their effect on climate

Dr Henrik Kjaergaard. He Kitenga

One of the key factors responsible for regulating global temperatures is water vapour in our atmosphere. Water is responsible for about 75% of the atmosphere's total absorption of incoming sunlight, and it also acts as a greenhouse gas, absorbing and re-radiating infrared radiation from the Earth. Most water vapour consists of free floating, individual water molecules, but amongst these, a special type of water complex also exists, known as the water dimer.

Water dimers consist of two water molecules held together by a weak hydrogen bond. Their formation significantly changes the physical and chemical properties of the individual water molecules involved, meaning that water dimers should be taken into account in atmospheric modelling. This can only be done if their properties and atmospheric concentrations are known. Now, a group of researchers, led by Dr Henrik Kjaergaard from the University of Otago, has been investigating the properties of water dimers, particularly the way that they absorb light, with a view to establishing their importance for global climate.

In the past five years, Dr Kjaergaard and his group have worked on calculating the molecular vibrations that occur in the water dimer. As a result of this work, they have developed a unique theoretical model that has made it possible to calculate how water dimers, and other similar complexes, interact with light.

From their theoretical calculations, the team has simulated the absorption spectrum of the water dimer, and shown that the weak interaction between the two water molecules alters the absorption of light. Single water molecules absorb light strongly at several distinct, and narrow, ranges of wavelengths. When dimers are formed, these ranges become broader, and there is additional absorption at other wavelengths.

The two individual water molecules making up the water dimer complex.

These predictions have made it possible to actually detect water dimers in our atmosphere for the first time. Prior to this, researchers were simply looking in the wrong regions of the spectrum. Dr Kjaergaard's work showed researchers just where to look, and as a result, a group from Heidelberg was able to detect the presence of water dimers in the atmosphere above the North Sea last year.

The research has also made it possible to estimate the atmospheric abundance of water dimers. This was shown to be about one water dimer per 1000 water molecules ­ similar to the abundance of methane, and about a tenth of the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration.

This relative abundance confirms that water dimers may indeed be a significant factor in regulating global temperatures. Simulations of the atmospheric absorption of sunlight have shown that water dimers account for about 1% of the atmosphere's total absorption of sunlight. Importantly, the changes in the absorption spectrum of the dimer, compared to that of individual water molecules, cause additional absorption of radiation from the Sun.

Water dimers also have an effect on absorption of the Earth's radiation, and hence have an impact on global warming. Interestingly, as the Earth's temperature increases, the proportion of dimers relative to single molecules will also grow. This will lead to an increase in the amount of radiation absorbed and re-radiated back to Earth, and accelerate the process of warming still further.

As well as water dimers, it is likely that other hydrated complexes, consisting of a water molecule weakly bound to another molecule, such as water-nitrogen and water-oxygen, also play an important role in atmospheric climate. These hydrated complexes must be included in any climate change models if we want to get a more accurate picture of future climate.

 

For more information, contact Dr Henrik Kjaergaard Department of Chemistry University of Otago PO Box 56, Dunedin Tel: (03) 479 5378 Email: henrik@alkali.otago.ac.nz

New tools to fight multiple sclerosis

From left to right: Associate Professor Geoffrey Krissansen, Dr Euphemia Leung, Dr Rupinder Kanwar, and Dr Jagat Kanwar.

Multiple sclerosis is a crippling disease, in which the body's own immune system attacks the nerve fibres of the brain and spinal cord. Normally, the white blood cells that make up our immune defence system protect us every day against infection and cancer. There are many theories as to why they should turn against us and cause multiple sclerosis, but the exact mechanism by which this occurs has still not been established. It is known, however, that in order to cause damage, white blood cells must be able to cross the blood-brain barrier, a layer of tight cells which lines blood vessels, which normally prevents most immune cells from entering the nervous system.

Work at The University of Auckland, led by Associate Professor Geoffrey Krissansen, and funded in part by the Marsden Fund, has played a major role in unravelling just how this process occurs. The research, undertaken by Dr Jagat Kanwar, has shown that in order for white blood cells to cross the blood-brain barrier, two receptors that sit on the outside of white blood cells make contact with matching receptors on the blood brain barrier. The researchers were also able to show that when these receptors are blocked experimentally, this prevents the development of a multiple sclerosis-related disease in animals.

Dr Kanwar has further developed this approach by investigating substances that protect nerve cells against the toxic molecules released by destructive white blood cells. A combination of both approaches ­ blocking receptors, and protecting against toxic molecules ­ is potentially capable of reversing the symptoms of advanced multiple sclerosis. The results of the research have been published in a top clinical neurology journal and patented. The patent has been transferred to the Auckland-based biotechnology company NeuronZ, which aims to commercialise the results.

Recently, team member Dr Euphemia Leung, funded by a Marsden grant, has been spearheading the development of reagents that can be used to treat human patients with multiple sclerosis. She, together with Dr Rupinder Kanwar, and Associate Professor Carol Taylor from Massey University, has now developed an arsenal of substances for use in therapy. In particular, Dr Leung and a former colleague, Dr Klaus Lehnert, have developed four antibodies against the receptor present on the blood-brain barrier. The antibodies have been patented, and the patenting of the other agents will follow shortly.

Currently, the University is seeking commercial partners to help develop the antibodies so that they can be used to treat human patients. The antibodies have the potential to treat not only multiple sclerosis, but also a range of other inflammatory diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease.

Dr Leung has also developed a method that can potentially be used to monitor the disease status of patients with a range of inflammatory diseases. The reagents used in this method have been licensed to the biological supply company Zymed, and the company Serotec is also interested.

The team has obtained blood samples from mostly Auckland patients affected with inflammatory bowel disease via a grant from the Broad Foundation, an American funding agency in California. They will employ Dr Leung's method to monitor the disease status of the patients.

Future work will involve optimising the tools developed in the project to treat a variety of major inflammatory diseases, including multiple sclerosis. The pharmaceuticals that will be developed should deliver significant benefits compared to the steroidal agents that are currently used to treat inflammatory diseases.

Rural Englands: Labouring Lives in the Nineteenth Century

The cover of Rural Englands features an 1882 painting by George Clausen, A Field-Hand, also known as Head of a Peasant Woman.

A long-standing feature of English culture has been a strong fascination with anything rural. Rural England has been seen as a nostalgic haven, an escape from industrialism, and in fact, the very essence of Englishness itself. Despite this, the life of the rural worker in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has until now been curiously neglected in histories of England, which tend instead to focus primarily on the role of the industrial worker. Now, a new book, Rural Englands: Labouring Lives in the Nineteenth Century, funded by a Marsden grant, has been written to address this gap.

Author, Professor Barry Reay from the Department of History at The University of Auckland, aimed to sketch out the contours of a vanished world ­ the rural England of 1830­1930. The idea behind the book was to explore the diversity of English rural communities during the period, and to challenge stereotypes about features such as the village, family, and the relative importance of male and female work. Rural Englands is in fact the first ever general history of this large section of English society.

In order to write the book, Professor Reay conducted extensive research, which involved incorporating the work of other historians, but which also made extensive use of autobiographies, oral histories, parliamentary reports, social surveys, newspapers, school records, folk songs, letters, memoirs, journals, court files, poor law records, medical and sanitary reports, paintings, and photographs. Research crossed continents, making use of archives, galleries, and libraries in New Zealand, Australia, the USA, and the UK. Methodologies and research strategies involved labour history, art history, literary studies, historical geography, demography, and, of course, social and cultural history. As a result, the book includes the literary accounts of rural workers, together with art and photography associated with them.

Some of Professor Reay's discoveries about rural England were predicted at the beginning of the project, for example, the importance of the work of women and children in rural history, and the richness and dynamism of rural life. However, many outcomes were not anticipated, including the sheer range of work engaged in by rural workers, the role of rural industry, the importance of the north and west, the prevalence of communities on the margins of the rural and the urban, and the discovery of substantial visual imagery of rural workers, including photographs, paintings, prints, and postcards.

The role of emigration also runs like a thread through Rural Englands. During this time period, huge numbers of labourers left England, for New Zealand and elsewhere. Traditionally, English historians have tended to exclude these people from the nation's history, just

because they left the country. Leaving was, however, both a means of economic survival and a form of protest against old England. As such, emigrants are an important part of England's history.

As the project progressed, the importance of local variation also became increasingly clear. Whatever the topic ­ settlement type, the extent of rural industrialisation, patterns of work, wages, unemployment, economic opportunities for women and children, mortality and fertility, sports, folk customs, literacies, protest ­ regional and local variation were much more than some minor variant to be incorporated into a larger picture. The extent of localisation was so compelling that it forced a rethinking of any conception of a "rural England". As suggested in the title of the book, the term rural England needs to be replaced with rural Englands. What had begun as a book on the rural workforce became a book about "England" itself.

Originally commissioned as one of the volumes in the British Social History in Perspective series, the publishers have now opted for a stand-alone publication in paperback and hardback, in recognition of the book's potential for wide appeal. Rural Englands was released by Palgrave Macmillan in London in June, and will also be published in the USA.

 

For more information, contact Professor Barry Reay Department of History The University of Auckland Private Bag 92­019, Auckland Tel: (09) 373 7599 ext. 88072 Email: bg.reay@auckland.ac.nz

High citations for Marsden research

A bibliometric analysis of publications arising from the Marsden Fund has just been completed by the Royal Society's Evaluation Officer, Dr Andrea Knox.

Bibliometrics is the quantitative study of research publications. It can be used to measure research output and research breadth, to estimate publication impact, and to examine collaborative activity. Bibliometric analyses are often employed by national research agencies to compare their country's research output to that of other countries and to assess national research trends over time. In addition, bibliometric methods have been used to assess trends within fields and to study the factors that influence research output.

For the analysis, articles funded by Marsden were compared to the total pool of New Zealand-authored articles, for the period 1997-2001. During this period, the Marsden-funded share of articles rose from 2.6% in 1997 to 7.7% in 2001. In some fields, however, Marsden-funded articles accounted for a much higher percentage of articles. In particular, in the fields of mathematics and physics, Marsden-funded articles accounted for 25-30% of New Zealand's publications.

As a way of measuring impact, citation counts are commonly used, the rationale being that more influential research will be cited more often by other publications. Compared to all New Zealand-authored articles, the Marsden-

funded articles were found to be cited, on average, 1.7 times more often. This elevated citation rate held true for almost all subject areas.

In other differences between Marsden-funded and total New Zealand-authored articles, Marsden articles were weighted more towards fundamental areas of research, and while inter-sectoral collaborations within New Zealand (e.g. University-CRI) were less frequent on Marsden articles, international collaborations were more frequent, occurring on 48% of the articles. As might be expected, the majority of this collaboration was with North America and Western Europe.

The full report can be found at:

http://www.rsnz.org/funding/evaluation/impact.php

Marsden Fund Council members, Marsden staff, and contact details

1.Marsden Fund Council

2.Marsden Fund staff

Dr Don Smith, Manager. Tel: 04-470 5776; Email: don.smith@rsnz.org

Dr Peter Gilberd, Deputy Manager. Tel: 04-470 5778; Email: peter.gilberd@rsnz.org

Dr Rachel Averill, Research Assessor. Tel:04-470 5774: Email: rachel.averill@rsnz.org

Dr Tasha Black, Research Assessor. Tel: 04-470 5774; Email: tasha.black@rsnz.org

Rochelle Barton, Administration Officer. Tel: 04-470 5799; Email: rochelle.barton@rsnz.org

Janet Sorensen, Administration Officer. Tel: 04-470 5788; Email: janet.sorensen@rsnz.org

Marsden Update is published quarterly by the Marsden Fund and is available free on request. Editor: Anna Meyer. Email: ameyer@paradise.net.nz