Enhancing laboratory activity with computer‐based tutorials

Students should be encouraged to take full advantage of expensive laboratory resources by being adequately prepared Computer‐based laboratory tutorials have proved very successful in generating competence and confidence in the laboratory as well as reinforcing lecture material. This paper presents an outline of the tutorial process with its on‐line referencing of the recommended textbook, the favourable reaction of students, and discussion of logistical and authoring problems

Subject Classification of Collection-level Descriptions Using DDC for Information Landscaping

Collection-level description (CLD) has emerged as an important tool for facilitating user access to large heterogeneous collections within digital library and hybrid information environments. Such metadata enables "information landscaping" techniques to be deployed, thereby allowing users to survey, discover and identify relevant collections. This can aid the precision of item-level queries by eliminating collections which may produce a significant number of false-drops or may contain no relevant items. The ability to provide suitable subject indexing and subject-based organization within such collection-level environments is an increasingly important user requirement, particularly for landscaping; yet it remains highly problematic owing to, for example, the broad subject coverage of many collections and the item-level nature of controlled vocabularies. In this paper we propose a methodology for the subject designation of collections using the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC). The proposed approach allows the establishment of reliable, consistent and meaningful DDC class numbers to facilitate improved user browsing and searching tools within CLD systems. The methodology will be demonstrated using the Scottish Collections Network (SCONE) and alternative techniques to facilitate general subject analysis will also discussed

Reviews

Francis Botto, Dictionary of Multimedia and Internet Applications ‐ A Guide for Developers and Users, Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 1999. ISBN: 0–471–986240. Hardback, x+362 pages, £34.95

Sexual selection and assortative mating : an experimental test

This work was funded by the Marie Curie Initial Training Network ‘Understanding the evolutionary origin of biological diversity’ (ITN-2008-213780 SPECIATION) and by a US National Science Foundation grant (DEB 0093149) and NERC grants (NE/B504065/1; NE/D003741/1) to RRS.Mate choice and mate competition can both influence the evolution of sexual isolation between populations. Assortative mating may arise if traits and preferences diverge in step, and, alternatively, mate competition may counteract mating preferences and decrease assortative mating. Here, we examine potential assortative mating between populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura that have experimentally evolved under either increased (‘polyandry’) or decreased (‘monogamy’) sexual selection intensity for 100 generations. These populations have evolved differences in numerous traits, including a male signal and female preference traits. We use a two males: one female design, allowing both mate choice and competition to influence mating outcomes, to test for assortative mating between our populations. Mating latency shows subtle effects of male and female interactions, with females from the monogamous populations appearing reluctant to mate with males from the polyandrous populations. However, males from the polyandrous populations have a significantly higher probability of mating regardless of the female's population. Our results suggest that if populations differ in the intensity of sexual selection, effects on mate competition may overcome mate choice.PostprintPeer reviewe

A test of genetic models for the evolutionary maintenance of same-sex sexual behaviour

This study was supported by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) fellowships to NWB (NE/G014906/1, NE/L011255/1) and a NERC grant to NWB and MGR (NE/I016937/1).The evolutionary maintenance of same-sex sexual behaviour (SSB) has received increasing attention because it is perceived to be an evolutionary paradox. The genetic basis of SSB is almost wholly unknown in non-human animals, though this is key to understanding its persistence. Recent theoretical work has yielded broadly applicable predictions centred on two genetic models for SSB: overdominance and sexual antagonism. Using Drosophila melanogaster, we assayed natural genetic variation for male SSB and empirically tested predictions about the mode of inheritance and fitness consequences of alleles influencing its expression. We screened 50 inbred lines derived from a wild population for male–male courtship and copulation behaviour, and examined crosses between the lines for evidence of overdominance and antagonistic fecundity selection. Consistent variation among lines revealed heritable genetic variation for SSB, but the nature of the genetic variation was complex. Phenotypic and fitness variation was consistent with expectations under overdominance, although predictions of the sexual antagonism model were also supported. We found an unexpected and strong paternal effect on the expression of SSB, suggesting possible Y-linkage of the trait. Our results inform evolutionary genetic mechanisms that might maintain low but persistently observed levels of male SSB in D. melanogaster, but highlight a need for broader taxonomic representation in studies of its evolutionary causes.PostprintPeer reviewe

Audit of domperidone use as a galactogogue at an Australian tertiary teaching hospital

BACKGROUND: Domperidone is often used to promote lactation among women who have difficulty breastfeeding. OBJECTIVE: To examine prescribing and dispensing practices of domperidone at the Women's and Children's Hospital (WCH), Adelaide. METHODS: A retrospective audit of domperidone dispensing among women with singleton pregnancies who delivered at the WCH between January 2000 and July 2010 was undertaken. Women dispensed domperidone were identified using WCH pharmacy dispensing records. Maternal and infant clinical data were obtained from the WCH Perinatal Statistics Collection. An audit of paper-based medical records was undertaken for a random sample of 261 mother-child pairs to collect prescribing and additional clinical data. RESULTS: From 2000 to 2010, 1605 women were dispensed domperidone. There was a steady increase in the percentage of women dispensed domperidone, from 5% of total WCH pregnancies in 2010. Among women dispensed domperidone, the percentage of women who received > 1 dispensing remained consistent (20%) over time, as did the median number of days (12) from delivery to first dispensing. Multiparous women were more likely to receive domperidone within 3 days following delivery compared to primiparous women (8% vs 4%; P < .01). Most women (80%) received directions to take domperidone according to a standard tapering dosing regimen over 12 days. Notably, 60% of women had no documentation of being assessed by a lactation consultant. CONCLUSION: From 2000 to 2010, there was a considerable increase in domperidone dispensing. With a lack of clinical evidence to guide use, current practice appears to be based on anecdotal evidence.Luke E. Grzeskowiak, Sze Wen Lim, Alicia E. Thomas, Usha Ritchie and Andrea L. Gordo

'Of Red War and Little Else': European Responses to Indigenous Violence in the Tasman World, c.1769-1850s

Europeans responded to indigenous internecine violence in a variety of ways in the Tasman world from first contact to the middle of the nineteenth century. Whereas extant historiography has previously addressed European responses to Māori and Aboriginal violence in geographic and temporal isolation, a comparison spanning time and space augments knowledge of these responses. Violence was not the only aspect of indigenous societies Europeans responded to, nor was indigenous violence the only justification for colonisation. However an investigation of the ways in which Europeans represented and responded to indigenous violence enables a better understanding of the processes of the colonisation of the Tasman world. Indigenous internecine violence included cannibalism, infanticide, inter-gender violence, and inter-tribal warfare. Through a wide variety of European observations of this violence, this thesis identifies an initial conceptualisation of both New Zealand Māori and Aboriginal peoples of Australia as violent, cannibal ‘savages’. This conceptualisation was used to justify both colonisation and the related evangelical and colonial administrative attempts to suppress indigenous violence, as internecine violence was deemed ‘un-civilised’, unchristian, and unacceptable. Europeans attempted to suppress indigenous violence as it was seen both as an impediment to colonisation and, relatedly, as an inhibitor to the ‘redemption’ of indigenous peoples. While indigenous violence was seen as a barrier to colonisation, however, it was also simultaneously used to promote colonisation. Thus the attempted suppression of indigenous violence developed into the European mobilisation and utilisation of intra-Māori and intra-Aboriginal violence in the promotion of colonisation. The development of European responses to indigenous internecine violence – from conceptualisations, through attempted suppression, to utilisation – is here examined in a Tasman-world context, drawing upon the interactions between these varied responses. In tracing this development within a comparative framework, both indigenous agency and a rejection of the historiographically persistent notions of a homogenous (and harmonious) Aboriginal Australia and a homogenous Māori people during this time period are key threads

'[T]he Sound of the Bell Amidst the Wilds': Evangelical Perceptions of Northern Aotearoa/New Zealand Maori and the Aboriginal Peoples of Port Phillip, Australia, c.1820s-1840s

This study investigates evangelical missionary perceptions of northern Aotearoa/New Zealand Maori and the Aboriginal peoples of the Port Phillip district of New South Wales, Australia, during the 1820s-1840s, a period when evangelical humanitarianism was at its height and European racial thinking was in a particularly formative stage. The thesis uses three case studies: the Church Missionary Society missionaries George Clarke and the Reverend William Yate in northern Aotearoa/New Zealand, and the Wesleyan Missionary Society missionary the Reverend Francis Tuckfield in the Port Phillip district of New South Wales, Australia. Clarke, Yate, and Tuckfield's perceptions of the indigenous peoples they sought to 'save' are explored through an examination of journals, letters to missionary society secretaries in London, personal correspondence, and in the case of Yate, evidence presented to the ' House of Commons' Select Committee on Aborigines (British Settlements)' and his published Account of New Zealand (1835). Particular attention is paid to how these men's perceptions changed over three key stages: prior to arriving in their respective mission fields, the initial period following their arrival, and after a significant period of residence. Evangelical missionary endeavour in both Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australia is compared in this thesis because in the early nineteenth century these two places were part of a common Tasman world. The similarities in evangelical experiences in the Tasman world during this period reveal an evangelical community within which ideas and information flowed freely. Comparative exploration of evangelical perceptions of northern Maori and the Aboriginal peoples of Port Phillip reveals that adaptation and evolution occurred through missionaries' experiences. Evolution of evangelical ideas is revealed in missionary encounters with a number of non-European populations, which further shaped missionary ideas about those they sought to 'save'. Adaptation of evangelical ideas is reflected in the different evangelical experiences in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australia. These differences, most significantly the opposing experiences of success in Aotearoa/New Zealand and failure in Port Phillip, Australia, indicate that evangelical views of non-Europeans were not static, but rather they were altered as a result of experience