Contributions in the field of palaeopalynology at the Bernard Price Institute, past, present and future

Main articleA brief chronological summary of the palynological research carried out by students and past members of the staff at the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research is presented. The contribution that each of these studies has made to the understanding of stratigraphic relationships in the southern African region is highlighted. A correlation chart of palynological biozones documented from South African localities is presented (Table 1).Non

Imagining geographies of film

To the extent that the geographic study of film has come of age, it is important to not only tie it to disciplinary issues but also to push theoretical boundaries. Geographic concern is often lacking a critical perspective, focusing primarily on the geographic realism of films rather than how they produce meaning. Geographers needed to elaborate insights through critical spatial theories, so that our studies are not only about filmic representations of space but are also about the material conditions of lived experience and everyday social practices. With this essay, we argue for more critical film geographies. In doing so, we note how a series of traditional and emergent geographic 'primitives' - landscapes, spaces/spatialities, mobilities, scales and networks - are reappraised and push disciplinary boundaries for geography and film studies in general

Impact of birth weight and gender on early postnatal hypothalamic energy balance regulatory gene expression in the young lamb

Peer reviewedPreprin

Enhancing disaster preparedness of specialty nurses on a national scale

Purpose – The number of disasters has increased by 30 per cent worldwide in the past 30 years. Nurses constitute the largest clinical group within a hospital and their ability to respond to disasters is crucial to the provision of quality patient care. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a four-year disaster preparedness partnership between two tertiary hospitals from the perspective of executive staff, senior clinical managers and specialist nurses. The national disaster response centre was situated in one hospital and the other hospital was located 3,500 km away. Design/methodology/approach – The intervention involved selected nurses working at the partner hospital to enable familiarisation with policies, procedures and layout in the event of a request for back-up in the event of a national disaster. A mixed-methods design was used to elicit the strengths and limitations of the partnership. Surveys, in-depth interviews and focus groups were used. Findings – In total, 67 participants provided evaluations including ten executive staff, 17 clinical management nurses and 38 nurses from the disaster response team. Improvements in some aspects of communication were recommended. The successful recruitment of highly skilled and committed nurses was a strength. A disaster exercise resulted in 79 per cent of nurses, able and willing to go immediately to the partner hospital for up to 14 days. Research limitations/implications – During the four year partnership, no actual disaster occurred that required support. This limited the ability to fully trial the partnership in an authentic manner. The disaster exercise, although helpful in trialling the processes and assessing nurse availability, it has some limitations. Originality/value – This innovative partnership successfully prepared specialist nurses from geographically distant hospitals for a disaster response. This together with a willingness to be deployed enhanced Australia’s capacity in the event of a disaster

Identities for hyperelliptic P-functions of genus one, two and three in covariant form

We give a covariant treatment of the quadratic differential identities satisfied by the P-functions on the Jacobian of smooth hyperelliptic curves of genera 1, 2 and 3