The effectiveness of interpretive methods in informal educational facilities : an experimental study with reference to marine parks

Interpretation has been used in many tourism sectors as a technique in achieving building hannony between resources and human needs. The objectives of this study are to identify the types of the interpretive methods used, and to evaluate their effectiveness, in marine parks. This study reviews the design principles of an effective interpretation for marine wildlife tourism, and adopts Drams' five design principles (1997) into a conceptual framework. Enjoyment increase, knowledge gain, attitude and intention change, and behaviour modification were used as key indicators in the assessment of the interpretive effectiveness of the Vancouver Aquarium (VA) and Marineland Canada (MC). Since on-site research is unavailable, a virtual tour is created to represent the interpretive experiences in the two study sites. Self-administered questionnaires are used to measure responses. Through comparing responses to the questionnaires (pre-, post-virtual tours and follow-up), this study found that interpretation increased enjoyment and added to respondents' knowledge. Although the changes in attitudes and intentions are not significant, the findings indicate that attitude and intention changes did occur as a result of interpretation, but only to a limited extent. Overall results suggest that more techniques should be added to enhance the effectiveness of the interpretation in marine parks or self-guiding tours, and with careful design, virtual tours are the innovative interpretation techniques for marine parks or informal educational facilities.

A geochemical and paleoceanographic investigation using marine molluscs of the late Quaternary marine submergences Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia

Sedjrrlents deposited in the Late Quaternary marine sUbrnergences that follov'ted the deglaciation of Ontario} Quebec., and 6ritlst-1 Columbia often contaln an abundant nlarlne invertebrate macrofauna. The rnacrofauna~ dotYllnated by aragonitic pelecypods} is fully preserved In their original mineralogy and cherrlistry 8S deternl1ned by x-ray dlffractlon., scannlng electron tl-,lcroscoDY., trace and r1l1 nor elet11ent analyses and stable isotopes. Ttle trace elernent and stable isotope geochen-Ilstry of chernlcal1y unaltered aragorlitlc molluscs can be used to determine paleoter1-lperatures and paleosallnltles." HO\Never} corrections need to be tllade \fvtlen deterrTIlnlng oxygen-isotope paleotenlperi:ttures due to the lnfluence of isotopically 11gtlt glaciol rneltv-laters and reduced sal1nltles. Ttle eastern Laurentide Ice Sheet probably had an o:~ygen lS0tOP1C composition as low as -8e) 0/00 (Sr1[IW). In additl0fl} corrections need to be rnade to the carbonlsotope values, before salinity deterrnlnatlons are t11ade., due to the reJjuctlon of the terrestrial carbon bl0rnass during glac1al maxlrna. Using geochernlcal data frot11 537 marlne n-'8crolnvertebrates frorTI 72 localities in soutt-,easter Ontarl0 and southern Quebec, it tras been deterrnined that the Late Quaternary Char1lplaln Sea \N6S density stratified along salinity and temperatlJre gradients. The deep-\h/aters of tt-,e Charnplaln Sea tlad salinities that ranged frorn 31 to 36 ppt} and terrlperatures of 00 to 5°C. Conversely.. the st1alloy./-\f*later regirrle of ttle Ctlarnplaln Sea tlad sal1nltles that ranged fron-, 24 to 33 ppt} Y.tltt1 terrlperatures ranglng from 5° to 15°C. Tr,8 rrlajorl rnlnor1 and trace e1et1-,ent geochernlcal analysls of 155 marine lnvertebrates frorn 4 10C611t1es of tt-,e Late Quaternary Ft. Langley Forrnatlon and Capl1ano Sedlments;. souttl\Nestern Brltlsh Columblal suggest l t~lat the 'waters of the o-,arlne lnundation that fol1o....ved the retreating Cordl11eran Ice Sheet had sal1nltles ranglng frorn 32 to 3f. DPt.

Engineering an improved adenovirus packaging cell line

Recombinant human adenovirus (Ad) vectors are being extensively explored for their use in gene therapy and recombinant vaccines. Ad vectors are attractive for many reasons, including the fact that (1) they are relatively safe, based on their use as live oral vaccines, (2) they can accept large transgene inserts, (3) they can infect dividing and postmitotic cells, and (4) they can be produced to high titers. However, there are also a number of major problems associated with Ad vectors, including transient foreign gene expression due to host cellular immune responses, problems with humoral immunity, and the creation of replication competent adenoviruses (RCA). Most Ad vectors contain deletions in the E1 region that allow for insertion of a transgene. However, the E1 gene products are required for replication and thus must be supplied in trans by a helper ceillille that will allow for the growth and packaging of the defective virus. For this purpose the 293 cell line (Graham et al., 1977) is used most often; however, homologous recombination between the vector and the cell line often results in the generation of RCA. The presence of RCA in batches of adenoviral vectors for clinical use is a safety risk because tlley . may result in the mobilization and spread of the replication-defective vector viruses, and in significant tissue damage and pathogenicity. The present research focused on the alteration of the 293 cell line such that RCA formation can be eliminated. The strategy to modify the 293 cells involved the removal of the first 380 bp of the adenovirus genome through the process of homologous recombination. The first step towards this goal involved identifying and cloning the left-end cellular-viral jUl1ction from 293 cells to assemble sequences required for homologous recombination. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed to clone the junction, and the clone was verified through sequencing. The plasn1id PAM2 was then constructed, which served as the targeting cassette used to modify the 293 cells. The cassette consisted of (1) the cellular-viral junction as the left-end region of homology, (2) the neo gene to use for positive selection upon tranfection into 293 cells, (3) the adenoviral genome from bp 380 to bp 3438 as the right-end region of homology, and (4) the HSV-tk gene to use for negative selection. The plasmid PAM2 was linearized to produce a double strand break outside the region of homology, and transfected into 293 cells using the calcium-phosphate technique. Cells were first selected for their resistance to the drug G418, and subsequently for their resistance to the drug Gancyclovir (GANC). From 17 transfections, 100 pools of G418f and GANCf cells were picked using cloning lings and expanded for screening. Genomic DNA was isolated from the pools and screened for the presence of the 380 bps using PCR. Ten of the most promising pools were diluted to single cells and expanded in order to isolate homogeneous cell lines. From these, an additional 100 G41Sf and GANef foci were screened. These preliminary screening results appear promising for the detection of the desired cell line. Future work would include further cloning and purification of the promising cell lines that have potentially undergone homologous recombination, in order to isolate a homogeneous cell line of interest.