A population study of Diplodus Annularis (Perciformes: Sparidae), low genetic variation through allozyme analyses for the Maltese populations

This study focuses on the genetic structure of the population of the annular seabream, Diplodus annularis. A number of specimens were collected from thirteen sites around the Maltese Islands (Central Mediterraenan), and were analyzed for seven allozyme loci. This investigation showed a low genetic variation for the sampled population. Also this investigation explored the possibility of utilizing non-invasive sampling for allozyme analyses.peer-reviewe

Acyclovir induced nephropathy : a case report

Acyclovir is frequently used in the management of suspected or proven serious viral infections in children. Despite its good safety profile serious side effects are known to occur. We describe a case of suspected viral encephalitis treated with intravenous acyclovir and complicated by acute, reversible, renal failure. To our knowledge this is the first such report in a Maltese Paediatric patient.peer-reviewe

Current trends in the management of childhood gastroenteritis in the community

Infection of the gastrointestinal tract are still amongst the most common infections of childhood. Despite improvements in the standard of living over the last fifty years, gastroenteritis still constitutes a sizeable amount of general practitioner consultations and hospital admissions, Although most infections’ are mild and self-limiting with the minimum of active treatment, a small proportion require more aggressive management and hospital admission. With the advent of oral rehydration solutions the management of gastroenteritis has become simpler and the complication of hypernatraemic dehydration rare.peer-reviewe

Phage therapy : its uses and flaws pertaining to pseudomonas aeruginosa infections

As cases of antibiotic resistant bacteria increase, possible alternatives to antibiotics have often been sought. One alternative discussed in literature is phage therapy. While this procedure has been studied for many decades, there is still much to learn for such a practice to become commonplace. For the purpose of this review, Pseudomonas aeruginosa will be discussed, since it often exhibits antibiotic resistance in hospitals.peer-reviewe

There's No Place Like Home: Dwelling and Being at Home in Digital Games

This chapter considers the presence, in digital games, of experiences of dwelling. Starting with an engagement with the philosopher Edward S. Casey's distinction between hestial and hermetic spatial modes, the chapter argues that the player's spatial engagement with digital game worlds has tended to align with the hermetic pole, emphasizing movement, traversal and exploration. By contrast, hestial spatial practices, characterized by centrality, lingering and return, are far less prevalent both in digital games themselves and in discussions on spatiality in the game studies discourse. To counter this lack, this chapter draws upon philosophical work on space by Casey, Martin Heidegger, Yi-Fu Tuan and Christian Norberg-Schulz, using these as a conceptual lens to identify spatial structures and practices in digital games that diverge from the hermetic mode. Attention is paid to games that invite pausing and lingering in place, games where the player's relation to place is structured around practices of building, the phenomenology of home and dwelling in games, and familiarity and identity as experiential characteristics of being at home. Minecraft and Animal Crossing: New Leaf are examined in detail as case studies, though the chapter also refers to examples from other games

Working Among Asylum-Seekers and Refugees - The Emigrants' and Refugees' Commission's Experience

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The use of inhaled corticosteroids in wheezy pre-school age children : current practice and literature review

Preschool children and infants frequently suffer wheezy episodes, mostly associated with viral respiratory tract infections. There is no evidence to support the use of maintenance low dose inhaled corticosteroids to prevent or manage episodic mild wheeze caused by such viral infections. However, infants and young children with recurrent episodic wheeze and a positive asthma risk index (i.e. risk factors associated with a predisposition for the future development of asthma) should be considered for a short, three-month trial of an inhaled corticosteroid. Failure to respond to an inhaled corticosteroid should prompt its discontinuation and not an increase in the drug dose. Persistent wheezing should suggest a possibility of an alternate diagnosis and the child should be referred for further investigations. Some recurrently wheezy infants and children simply do not respond to inhaled corticosteroids and most symptoms remit spontaneously after the age of five years, especially among those who do not have an atopic predisposition. The use of large doses of inhaled corticosteroids in young children whose wheezing persists should be discouraged due to the significant risk of long-term effects.peer-reviewe

Ebola : the English connection

When one considers that many persons from the African continent arrive in Malta legally or otherwise, it is not inappropriate to surmise that some unfamiliar and possibly highly dangerous exotic disease, to which we are not accustomed, may someday be introduced into the island and may primarily and principally expose our medical, nursing and laboratory staff and their families to an alien infection with unpleasant and possibly fatal consequences. This essay illustrates such an incident including medical emergency.peer-reviewe

Lessons from an unplanned scientific and academic life

It is salutary, before reaching the middle of one’s eighties, whilst time is still available and memory is still in good order, to review a long life in its highlights, so as to better appreciate the circumstances that shaped and steered that life through its many days. Besides this appreciation, such a review permits a listing of lessons learned through that life, its joys as well as its woes, in the hope that they may be useful to young readers of your story. Like all other such stories, mine was the story of an individual, who lived under unique circumstances and reacted to them in a unique way. My story is best treated in terms of where it was experienced, that being: Malta (1929 to 1952), Oxford (1952 to 1956), Singapore (1956 to 1960), Khartoum (1960 to 1965), and Saskatoon (1965 to the time of writing). Each transition was necessitated by its own circumstance, brought fresh challenges and sustained a global career with few regrets and much personal and professional satisfaction.peer-reviewe

Translating transitional justice: the Solomon Islands Truth and Reconciliation Commission

This paper contends that although the Solomon Islands Truth and Reconciliation Commission replicated the structure and operation of a truth commission based on a globalised and placeless theory of best practice in transitional justice, it was not adequately contextualised or integrated with local approaches to reconciliation and peacebuilding and therefore fell short of its ambitious mandate. Introduction The Solomon Islands Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was the first truth commission in the Pacific, established under the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act 2008  (TRC Act) in an effort to ‘promote national unity and reconciliation’ following the civil conflict which troubled the country between 1998 and 2003. The commission was publicly launched in 2008 by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Chair of the South African TRC, and officially began operations in 2010 for two years. The commission presented its five-volume final report to Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo in February 2012; however, the report has yet to be publicly released or presented to parliament, despite requirements in the Act to do so. The ongoing silence of the government led to the editor of the final report, long-term Solomon Islands resident Bishop Terry Brown, unofficially releasing the report electronically in early 2013. The TRC conducted exhumations, research, closed hearings and statement taking across six of the nine provinces,  overcoming financial constraints, logistical challenges and difficult terrain. Several regional and thematic public hearings were also held and broadcast on the radio. The final report was handed over to the prime minister within the allocated two-year time frame. In light of these achievements, the Solomon Islands TRC could be considered a ‘success’ insomuch as it fulfilled its mandated duties and produced a final report — a challenging and remarkable achievement itself. This success, however, was arguably superficial, a performance of reconciliation in the theatre of post-conflict peacebuilding. A wider perspective of post-conflict peacebuilding and reconciliation in the Solomon Islands shows the TRC was a minor player on a crowded stage. Many Solomon Islanders were unaware of the TRC, and those familiar with its acronym or name were often unaware of its role or mandate. This paper contends that although the Solomon Islands TRC replicated the structure and operation of a truth commission based on a globalised and placeless theory of best practice in transitional justice, the TRC was not adequately contextualised or integrated with local approaches to reconciliation and peacebuilding and therefore fell short of its ambitious mandate. The commission did, however, produce a final report which in and of itself may serve as a positive outcome of the commission’s work. The experience of the Solomon Islands TRC demonstrates not only the conceptual and practical challenges faced and friction experienced of implementing a truth commission, but also the potential that truth commissions offer for promoting reconciliation and peacebuilding in post- conflict contexts in Melanesia. This paper is divided into six parts. First, a brief background of the Solomon Islands conflict is outlined. Second, the recent evolution of the peacebuilding and transitional justice fields are discussed to offer a background for the Solomon Islands TRC. Third, the various conflict management and reconciliation practices in Solomon Islands are outlined, leading to the fourth part which introduces and describes the background of the Solomon Islands TRC. The challenges of and failures to adapt the TRC to the local context are illustrated in the fifth part, with a discussion focused on the mistranslation of the meaning and value of both ‘truth’ and ‘reconciliation’ in post- conflict Solomon Islands. Finally, the sixth part argues that despite being initially championed by civil society actors, rather than becoming a ‘hybridised’ institution, the commission had a veneer of adaptation, and was ‘replicated’ according to normative transitional justice discourse