Objectives Although a great deal of research is conducted into the neurobiological correlates of autism, there has been no recent overview of the findings from this research in terms of how they translate to clinical practice. To provide an overview of recent literature in the fields of head size, brain volume, brain region, connectivity between brain regions, and synaptic function, as they apply to autism, with a view to informing clinical practice.

Methods Major empirical and review papers on these topics from the last 30 years were identifed via a search of PubMed, Google Scholar, and PsychInfo, using the descriptors ‘autism’, ‘head size’, ‘brain volume’, ‘brain region’, ‘connectivity between brain regions’, and ‘synaptic function’. To distil the key findings relevant to clinical practice, both authors conducted blind reviews, producing a set of ‘key’ papers for this purpose.

Results Each feld produced a number of major fndings, which were then described and discussed, and translated into a table of ‘Findings’, ‘Diagnostic suggestions’ (for the clinician’s protocols), and ‘Clinical actions’ (suggestions for interactions with carers of autistic children and adults).

Conclusions The stability of the research within each field varies, with some clear findings and others that are yet to be consistently verified. Despite this, some specific clinical implications for diagnosis and treatment (particularly clinician-carer interactions) are described.

Dr Helen Newton-Turner introduced a powerful model of bringing science into practice by working closely with breeders and the wider industry. This collaboration model has led to considerable achievements in genetic improvement in the Australian animal industries, with efficient genetic evaluation systems being implemented, providing a platform to achieve well defined breeding objectives and the introduction of new technologies such as genomic selection. The same model can be used to foster future development to achieve sustainable further improvements, allowing further technologies such as functional genomics to be used where they add value.

This article relates to breeding programs that seek to manage genetic diversity. The method maximizes a multicomponent objective function, applicable across breeding scenarios. However, this paper focuses on breeding decisions following immigration of 10 unrelated individuals into a highly inbred simulated population (F ≈ 0.34). We use Optimal Contribution Selection to maximize retention of genetic diversity. However, some treatments add Coancestry Assortative Mating (CAM). This helps to avoid early dilution of immigrant genetic material, maximizing its ability to contribute to genetic diversity in the longer term. After 20 generations, this resulted in considerably increased genetic diversity, with mean coancestries 59% of what random pairing gave. To manage progeny inbreeding, common practice is to reject matings above an upper limit. As a suboptimal rules-based approach, this resulted in 26% decreased genetic diversity and 8% increased inbreeding in the long term, compared with random pairing. In contrast, including mean progeny inbreeding as a continuous variable in the overall objective function decreased final inbreeding by 37% compared with random pairing. Adding some emphasis on selection for a single trait resulted in a similar pattern of effects on coancestry and inbreeding, with 12% higher trait response under CAM. Results indicate the properties of alternative methods, but we encourage users to do their own investigations of particular scenarios, such as including inbreeding depression. Practical implementation of these methods is discussed: they have been widely adopted in domestic animal breeding and are highly flexible to accommodate a wide range of technical and logistical objectives and constraints.

Evidence of successful predation or scavenging in the fossil record represents important palaeobiological data to more thoroughly understanding extinct ecosystems. Shelly coprolites are particularly useful indications of durophagous predation in deposits, as they can have a higher preservational potential than their producers. Here we present a new shelly coprolite from the Silurian (Přídolí) Wallace Shale of New South Wales, Australia. This specimen contains abundant fragments of the trilobite Denckmannites rutherfordi Sherwin, 1968 that show limited disarticulation across exoskeletal sections. We propose that a pterygotid eurypterid was the most likely producer of this coprolite, although trilobites and fishes are not completely excluded as possible trace-makers. In documenting this specimen, we highlight that the Wallace Shale likely preserves a more complex palaeoecosystem than previously thought and renewed efforts to understand this deposit are needed in light of this new insight.