Colliding Worlds: Asteroid research and the legitimization of war in space

Accepted versio

The perception of racism in ambiguous scenarios

Recent theorising on the nature of racism suggests that over the last few decades it has come to be expressed in more subtle and ambiguous ways because while many Whites proclaim egalitarian values, their cognitions and behaviour are influenced by prejudices that are buried deep in their psyche. This leads to the possibility that those who perpetrate and those who experience racism may have different interpretations of events that involve racism. Essed (1991) has suggested that because they are exposed to racism systematically, those who experience racism are in a good position to detect it if they have both knowledge of normal behaviour for particular situations, and a general knowledge of racism. Using Essed\u27s model of the assessment of racist events, the descriptions of six videotaped ambiguously racist scenarios given by 40 Caucasian students and 40 Asian students were analysed to determine whether situational or general knowledge of racism was evident. Contrary to expectations, the Asian students, who belong to a group targeted with racism in Australia, were less likely to see racism in the scenarios. Finding the scenarios to be acceptable indicated a lack of situational knowledge and, hence, an inability to use general knowledge of racism if it exists. The role of cultural values in the application of situational knowledge is discussed, and further empirical investigations of Essed\u27s model are proposed.<br /

Enhanced study of facial soft tissues using a novel large scale histology technique

The safety and effectiveness of facial cosmetic surgery procedures are dependent on detailed 3D understanding of the complex surgical anatomy of the face. Traditional, small sample size anatomical dissection studies have limitations in providing definitive clarification of the fascial layers of the face, and especially in their relationship with the facial nerve, and their reaction to surgical manipulation. The objective study of large tissue areas is required to effectively demonstrate the broader architecture. Conventional histology techniques were modified to handle extraordinarily large tissue samples to fulfill this requirement. Full-thickness soft tissue samples (skin to bone) of maximum length 18 cm, width 4 cm, and tissue thickness 1 cm, were harvested from 20 hemifaces of 15 fresh human cadavers (mean age at death = 81 years). After fixation, the samples were processed with an automated processor using paraffin wax for 156 h, sectioned at 30 μm, collected on gelatin-chromium-coated glass slides, stained with a Masson's Trichrome technique and photographed. Using this technique, excellent visualization was obtained of the fascial connective tissue and its relationship with the facial mimetic muscles, muscles of mastication and salivary glands in 73 large histological slides. The resulting slides improved the study of the platysma and superficial musculo-aponeurotic system (SMAS), the spaces and ligaments, the malar fat pad, and the facial nerve in relations to the deep fascia. Additionally, surgically induced changes in the soft-tissue organization were successfully visualized. This technique enables improved insight into the broad structural architecture and histomorphology of large-scale facial tissues.</p