Medium-term organ culture for teleost fish retinae

Whole retinae from Midas cichlids Cichlasoma citrinellum were maintained successfully in superfusion culture for 21 days post-removal and continued to exhibit normal light- and circadian-driven cone movements.     

Identification of Acinetobacter isolates using the Biolog identification system

The Biolog system was assessed for its ability to identify genospecies of Acinetobacter from a wastewater treatment plant. A success rate of 83% was achieved in identifying to genus level, but different genospecies identifications were obtained, with the possible exception of genospecies 7, when the results were compared with other published phenotypic identification schemes.     

Plantlet formation from cultured inflorescences of Dactylis glomerata L.

The objective of this study was to demonstrate plantlet formation from cultured mature inflorescences of field-grown orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) plants. Whole tillers were collected and maintained in the dark at 4°C for either 19 or 25 days before panicle sections were plated on a Linsmaier and Skoog (LS) or Schenk and Hildebrandt (SH) agar medium containing 2,4-D. Generally, better results for both cell proliferation and plantlet formation were obtained with 1) large explants (many florets) on 9.1 μM 2,4-D compared to small explants (few florets) on 1.0 μM 2,4-D, 2) SH rather than LS medium and 3) when tillers were pretreated at 4°C for 25 days rather than 19 days. Chromosome counts of basal leaf cells in 94 regenerated plants showed that no plants possessed the gametic chromosome number of n=14.     

Epidemic measles in Shetland during 1977 and 1978.

During 1977 and 1978 an unusual epidemic of measles occurred in Shetland, affecting 1032 (5%) of the population. All age groups were represented, and 309 cases occurred in people over 15. Geographical distribution of notified cases ranged from 1% to over one-third of the population aged under 65. All the recognised complications occurred, with a significant excess of respiratory troubles (p less than 0 . 05). Complications were much less common in female patients (p less than 0 . 05). Only about 30% of children under 5 had been vaccinated against the disease, and, based on a sample population, vaccination was found to have had a protective effect of 92%. On cost effectiveness alone, uptake of vaccination by a community as susceptible as that of Shetland should clearly be encouraged and probably given high priority.     

Confronting the Naturalness of Disaster in the Pacific

ABSTRACT

This introduction sets out some of the key themes addressed by the papers in the special issue on ‘Confronting the Naturalness of Disaster in the Pacific’. Disasters are now widely understood not as ‘natural’ phenomena but as events or processes that unfold at the intersection between natural or artificial hazards and human populations. We review some of the effects of the naturalisation of disaster before turning to the ways in which Pacific disasters are defined through government, media and public discourses. These discourses feature their own distinctive accounts of possible forms of agency in the context of disaster, and draw on markedly different frames of reference in attributing cause and blame. Similarly, contrasting temporalities and spatialities are invoked in addressing disasters as bounded phenomena. We conclude with reflections on the nature of responses to disaster in the Pacific in the context of increasingly unstable cultural, economic and environmental grounds for action induced by global climate change