New insights into the karyotypic relationships of Chinese muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi), forest musk deer (Moschus berezovskii) and gayal (Bos frontalis)

To investigate the karyotypic relationships between Chinese muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi), forest musk deer (Moschus berezovskii) and gayal (Bos frontalis), a complete set of Chinese muntjac chromosome-specific painting probes has been assigned to G-banded chromosomes of these three species. Sixteen autosomal probes (i.e. 6-10, 12-22) of the Chinese muntjac each delineated one pair of conserved segments in the forest musk deer and gayal, respectively. The remaining six autosomal probes (1-5, and 11) each delineated two to five pairs of conserved segments. In total, the 22 autosomal painting probes of Chinese muntjac delineated 33 and 34 conserved chromosomal segments in the genomes of forest musk deer and gayal, respectively. The combined analysis of comparative chromosome painting and G-band comparison reveals that most interspecific homologous segments show a high degree of conservation in G-banding patterns. Eleven chromosome fissions and five chromosome fusions differentiate the karyotypes of Chinese muntjac and forest musk deer; twelve chromosome fissions and six fusions are required to convert the Chinese muntjac karyotype to that of gayal; one chromosome fission and one fusion separate the forest musk deer and gayal. The musk deer has retained a highly conserved karyotype that closely resembles the proposed ancestral pecoran karyotype but shares none of the rearrangements characteristic for the Cervidae and Bovidae. Our results substantiate that chromosomes 1-5 and 11 of Chinese muntjac originated through exclusive centromere-to-telomere fusions of ancestral acrocentric chromosomes. Copyright (C) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Land Use and Military Supply in the Highland Zone of Roman Britain

Davies, Jeffrey. 'Land Use and Military Supply in the Highland Zone of Roman Britain', In: Artefacts and Archaeology. Aspects of the Celtic and Roman World (University of Wales Press, 2002), pp.44-61 RAE2008

Aspects of care 4: views of professionals and mothers

This is the fourth in a series of six papers presenting key findings from a national study that was undertaken to investigate the role and responsibilities of midwives and to identify continuing educational need. The background to the study and the titles of the other papers in the series have been outlined in the first paper. This paper focuses on midwives’, supervisors’, doctors’ and mothers’ views regarding quality of care issues, with particular emphasis on what makes a ‘good’ midwife.

Exploring knowledge and skills on HIV in student nurses and midwives

A cross-sectional survey design using a self-administered questionnaire was sent to a sample of 62 final-year student nurses and midwives to describe their knowledge of, skills related to, and attitudes towards, human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Out of the 47 respondents who return the questionnaire, only 53% stated that they had received class instruction on the topic and 63.8% claimed to have increased their knowledge mainly from reading professional journals. Although only 32% said that they had cared for a patient or knew of a family member or another person with the disease, 91% indicated that they were willing to care for such patients. Overall, the respondents demonstrated positive attitudes towards this group of patients and a good level of knowledge about the subject, although some gaps were evident. However, a large majority stated that their skills to cater for the physical and psychological needs of this group of patients were deficient and would like further training.

Sex talk? overcoming barriers about sex and contraception after childbirth

Anecdotal evidence tells professionals that childbirth is the best form of contraception. However, sexual health problems are the very common after childbirth with Barrett et al (2000) arguing that only 15% of women who have a postnatal sexual problem reported discussing it with a health professional. As health professionals with a predilection for the ‘clinical’ and the ‘prescriptive’ we organise antenatal classes to discuss bathing the baby and post partum reunions to recount birth stories, but often fail to address sexual health problems and contraception after birth.(Glazener 1997). Many women who have carefully used contraception for years prior to pregnancy are often not helped to re-engage with the issues following birth. This would seem to be a particular problem for the most vulnerable parents such as adolescent mothers and their partners (Social Exclusion Unit 1999, 2004) where some young women go on to have more than one baby in a short time period (Reeves 2003). The focus of this paper is to explore the apparent general failure of health professionals to discuss sex after childbirth and provide information regarding reliable contraception. Glazener (1997) tells us that health professionals are encouraged to educate and prepare patients antenatally, for example to be trained to identify problems and deal with them openly and sympathetically. What is brought into question is why this form of rigorous support is not extended to providing sexual health advice in the immediate and often vulnerable postnatal period and why this provision is not a priority for some groups. The paper will explore if this situation caused by a lack of training or is it a symptom of our culture and a British attitude towards sex and contraception.

Learners' emotional and psychic responses to encounters with learning support in further education and training

This article investigates the experience of individual learners who have been allocated learning support in the further education system in England. The particular focus is on interviewees' constructions of their emotional and psychic experiences. Through the adoption of a psycho-social perspective, learners' tendency to 'idealise' their learning support workers is understood as a strategy for coping with the anxiety generated by a range of previous experiences. The implications for policy-makers are discussed.

Flavian laws, the railway, the newspaper and Loring’s breads

It is abound the research on the formation, rise and failure of the financial and industrial network undertaken by the Loring-Heredia-Larios triangle, bourgeois families who introduced the Industrial Revolution in the south of Andalusia. On the contrary, there are almost nonexistent studies from the perspective of the mentality that sustained their business, social and ethical model in the algid decades of their action (1850-1860). In this paper we propose some hypotheses about the ideological structures of bourgeois group and point out some keys, clues and signs for a future reconstruction of this kind, which so far has not been incardinated that early and failed malaguenan industrial revolution in streams thinking of that time.