The distinctive ecological elements of the machair environment, calcareous sand and an oceanic climate, which combine to give a lime-rich but unstable habitat, in which machair vegetation develops, are discussed initially. A number of different studies employing both phytosociological and ecological approaches, and drawing data from machairs in the Uists, Monach Islands and South Harris, are summarized. Based upon these, the main characteristics of machair vegetation and its key ecological relationships are described. Finally a model of machair vegetation is advanced in which two distinct types of vegetation, ‘dune’ and ‘pasture’ are recognized, and patterns of vegetation development are explained by means of ‘phases’ and ‘sequences’, terms applied to describe relative location of types of vegetation in both time and space.

Examination of mammalian pelts reveals the presence of two types of hair—long, glossy fibres known as “guard”- or “top-hair,” and shorter, softer, more curly fibres termed ”ground”- or “under-wool.” Guard-hairs are of two kinds: primary fibres classified by Toldt (1910) as “Leithaare,” and shorter, less robust secondary fibres which Toldt described as “Grannenhaare.” The under-wool is analogous to Toldt's “Wohlhaare.” More recently Toldt (1935) has described the appearance of the various fibre types occurring in hair from a wide range of mammals, and gives an extensive bibliography on hair from many orders of mammalia, including the two at present under consideration. Glaister (1931) made a photomicrographic survey of whole mounts and transverse sections of fibres from a large number of mammals. This work, however, suffers from the disadvantage that the photomicrographs were taken at low magnifications. When photographed at magnifications of the order × 500, transverse sections of fibres readily demonstrate the distribution and structure of cuticle, cortex and medulla. Such information is valuable as a means of studying structural variations in hair from different types of mammals, and often possesses considerable taxonomic significance and practical value—Dearborn (1939) reports the use of cross-sections of mammalian guard-hairs as a help to identifying small hairs found in the stomachs and excreta of predators, while the importance of fibre histology in forensic science has been reviewed by Smith and Glaister (1939). Furthermore, microchemical tests carried out on wool fibres (Bekker and King, 1931) and on transverse sections of kolinsky and hare fibres (Stoves, 1943 a) have shown that cuticle, cortex, and medulla exhibit different chemical properties, so that morphological differentiation is accompanied by variation in chemical reactivity.

The polyamine amides comprise a newly-discovered class of compounds which exhibits considerable potential for the development of selective pharmacological tools and pharmaceutical agents. In mammals and other vertebrates, they are selective, non-competitive antagonists of ionotropic glutamate receptors, but they also interact with other ionotropic receptors (e.g. nicotinic acetylcholine receptors). Thus, they are channel blockers which are selective for cation channels. We report on synthetic studies undertaken to produce hybrid analogues of these toxins based upon the argiotoxins of spider venoms and the philanthotoxins of parasitic, predatory wasp venom. The synthesis and characterisation of a mono-acylated spermine is also described. In addition, an account of current views on the many possible sites and modes of actions of the polyamine amides is presented and their potential for therapeutic neurochemistry, e.g. for the possible treatment of ischaemic damage to the nervous system, is highlighted.

The role of computers in drug discovery depends on just how much is known about the target macromolecule. If atomic detail of the receptor is known, binding free energy differences between drug variants may be computed. Major effort is being expended in extending the area of applicability of such studies by predicting protein structure based on homologies with known protein crystal data. Where no target structure is available, computational methods can provide leads by defining transition state structures and then using the approach of molecular similarity to define stable mimics to act as blockers.

Historical aspects of the Firth of Forth fisheries are described, and the present state of the stocks of exploited species is reviewed. The once-substantial pelagic fisheries have declined and now constitute only a minor component of the firth fisheries. Herring fisheries were based on spring spawning herring but the herring now caught in the firth are from stocks of overwintering juveniles of autumn spawning herring. Recent conservation measures have closed many of the firth grounds to herring and sprat fishing. The main demersal species caught are cod, haddock, whiting, plaice and lemon sole. Most landings are from catches made in the middle and outer firths and the North Sea. The demersal pair trawl is now the most important gear used in directed demersal fishing. The most important shellfish fishery is that for the Norway lobster, current landings being valued at £2·4 million. Over-exploitation resulted in a decline in the stocks in the late 1970s. They are now recovering. Recent studies suggest that population characteristics of Norway lobsters are influenced by the physical environment. The firth today is one of the most intensively exploited areas in Scotland for lobster and crabs. Other exploited shellfish include squid, winkles and mussels.

Sequential observations were made of the effects on root development of inoculating Betula pendula seedlings during propagation with sheathing mycorrhizal fungi, Amanita muscaria, Hebeloma sacchariolens or Paxillus involutus. After propagation, the seedlings were grown for two seasons in four different soils (two mineral soils and two peats) which were not sterilised.

While all inoculated seedlings had similar numbers of mycorrhizas at planting, numbers subsequently increased most rapidly with P. involutus and least rapidly with A. muscaria. From the end of the first season onwards, the uninoculated controls had as many mycorrhizas as seedlings inoculated with either A. muscaria or H. sacchariolens. These numbers were, however, usually exceeded on plants inoculated with P. involutus.

The mycorrhizas developing on the controls, and on seedlings inoculated with A. muscaria, were attributable after planting into the unsterile soils, to naturally occurring soil-borne inocula of species of Cenococcum, Hebeloma, Inocybe, Laccaria, Paxillus and Thelephora etc. Those developing on seedlings inoculated with P. involutus were all attributable to this inoculant fungus in the first year but, in the second year, the proportions decreased to 19—14%. With H. sacchariolens, at least 90% of the mycorrhizas in the two mineral soils and one of the peats (a sedge peat) were attributable in years 1 and 2 to the inoculant fungus. In the other peat (Sphagnum peat), the proportion of mycorrhizas attributable to H. sacchariolens decreased to 25% by the end of the first year and totally disappeared in the second.

The continued ability of H. sacchariolensto form mycorrhizas in a range of unsterile soils, to the virtual exclusion of mycorrhizas attributable to other fungi, is thought to be characteristic of fungi that occur early in mycorrhizal successions. In contrast,A. muscaria(a late-stage fungus), was unable to form mycorrhizas after inoculated seedlings were transferred from controlled axenic conditions to unsterilised field soils.

Two arbiters of root growth were measured—numbers of roots and their dry weights. Whereas inoculations with H. sacchariolens significantly decreased numbers in the latter part of the first season, they either had no effects on dry weights as in the mineral soils or significantly increased them as in the peats. In the second season, there was further evidence, sometimes contradictory, showing that inoculations can appreciably alter the structure of developing root systems.

Molluscan species diversity decreased westward from the North Sea into the Forth with decreasing diversity of habitats, decreasing algae and increasing turbidity of water. Species diversity varied little from year to year or seasonally at individual sites. Adult Littorina littorea in particular were larger at lower than at higher shore levels, and larger in the outer than the inner firth or estuary, while Nucella lapillus adults were of more uniform size throughout the area.

Population parameters and reproductive output of L. littorea and L. saxatilis in the estuary varied without strict relation to mere position between open firth and up-estuary sites. On the other hand, shells of L. saxatilis became progressively wider, breeding seasons of L. littorea were longer and less defined, breeding in L. saxatilis became more sharply seasonal and eggs of L. saxatilis had greater weight, calorific value and inorganic content at up-estuary sites. L. littoreashowed two-weekly peaks in spawning on spring tides while L. saxatilis showed monthly peaks in release of young near times of full moon.

Comparison of fresh material and stranded shells with material from beach deposits up to 5500′ years old indicates changes in populations with changes in climate about 550 BC. Size of Littorina spp. continued to decrease while numbers of Mytilus edulis increased greatly near the onset of the industrial revolution.

This paper reviews the status of marine fish populations in Scottish waters and considers current and potential threats. The inshore environments considered (shallow sandy bays, deeper and muddier areas, sea lochs, estuaries and firths) can be characterised by fish communities of 20-50 species, with some 20 species being present at any one locality. All of them functioned as nursery areas for commercial species and as habitats for smaller non-commercial residents. As few as 3-5 species were dominant, in terms of both numbers and biomass, in each habitat. More species occurred on the open shelf (over 200 ?) with up to 90 being taken regularly, but only 10 species accounted for 90% of both total biomass (in each of three North Sea areas) and commercial landings in Scotland by U.K. vessels. Mackerel (32.3%), herring (20.4%) and haddock (14.7%) dominated the landings. Both coastal fish communities and shelf stocks of commercial species have historically suffered from over-exploitation, a situation that has continued to date despite changes in management leading to their supposed protection. Other threats are identified, as is the need for conservation, while some legislative and research recommendations are made.

The success of plants which lived in the past should be assessed differently from that of living plants as time is an additional important factor. Success may therefore be judged in one period of time or throughout the whole geological history of the plants.

Limitations of the fossil record through plant fragmentation, lack of preservation and incomplete preservation severely restrict the amount of information available. However, accepting these problems, there are four major ways in which plants may be judged: long term survival, repeated specialisation, dominance and adaptability. Examples are given of pteridophytes that exhibit success in these four ways.

The passage of ova down the Fallopian tube and uterine horn of one side into the horn of the other side is generally referred to as transuterine migration. There is evidence that such transmigration can occur in a wide variety of animals—Ungulata, Carnivora, Cheiroptera, Insectivora and Primates (Boyd, Hamilton and Hammond, 1944; Marshall's Physiology of Reproduction, 1952). In all these forms the genital tract has a single supravaginal segment varying from a common cervical canal to the single uterine cavity of the primate uterus simplex. The uterus of the albino rat is generally described as “uterus duplex”, with separate cervical canals opening independently into the vagina, and it has been stated by Hanson and Boone (1925, 1926) and by Slonaker (1927) that there is no evidence that transuterine migration occurs in the albino rat. In the course of an experimental investigation of the vascular pattern in pregnancy in the rat, some results were obtained which indicate that transuterine migration can occur in the albino rat.

The idea that only after 1490 the European sailors had ‘come for the first time in recorded history to struggle with the limitations placed on sailing ships by the winds and currents of the open ocean’ does not correspond to reality. There is enough proof to show that much earlier, in the fifteenth century, the North-East Trades’ regularity, the wind variability in the zone directly north of them, and the Canaries Current were already known. When the fifteenth century ended, the Portuguese had already verified the symmetry of wind patterns in the Atlantic on both sides of the equatorial calm zone, which led them to apply the significant name of ‘ventos gerais’ to the trade winds of both hemispheres.

Accurate knowledge of the wind and current systems was essential to good navigation and the Portuguese ratters of the sixteenth century, chiefly ‘carreira da India’ rutters, include an increasing amount of information on that subject, referring especially to zones in the passage from the North Atlantic to the South Atlantic. The report of a voyage (1503) proves that at that time the Portuguese already knew the Gulf of Guinea winds and currents sufficiently well. As a result of oceanic sailing, the traditional ratters, exclusively coastal, developed considerably, not only by adding data about latitudes and compass variations but also by the indication of winds and currents. There appeared also an even newer type of ratter, the ‘oceanic rutter‘, in which the safest and quickest routes, because of the changeability of winds and current patterns, are indicated.

Information about elements concerning winds and currents which are included in the Portuguese ratters was revealed in printed matter after the end of the sixteenth century and this allowed some European scientists to study, because of the availability of better information, the causes of those physical phenomena, which had already been treated briefly in the sixteenth century by two nautical treatise writers, D. João de Castro and Father Fernando Oliveira.

Process of care is the most immediate, relevant and susceptible to improvement of Donabedian's three elements of quality assurance. To place the study of process in context, the history of quality assurance in English-speaking countries is reviewed, with particular emphasis on the U.S.A. A range of methods are examined in detail and examples are provided to illustrate their strengths and weaknesses. Particular attention is paid to the use of explicit and implicit criteria. The importance of information technology in monitoring the process of care cannot be over-stated. Limited audit is possible with manual records but all substantial projects require computer support. The value of capturing data from operational systems rather than from dedicated projects is emphasised. Attention is drawn to the key importance of structured records and minimum data sets; these allow information to be pooled and process studies to be generalised. Examples are given of quality assurance projects which have used information technology. Finally potential future developments are reviewed with particular reference to clinical guidelines and computer-based clinical decision support systems.

Mussels (Mytilus edulis), collected from up to nine sites, were used to monitor the degree of chemical contamination (by petroleum hydrocarbons and organotins) and the associated sublethal biological effects (scope for growth) in the vicinity of the North Sea oil terminal at Sullom Voe from 1982 to 1989. Gluss Voe represented a ‘clean reference’ site at which mussels showed a very low level of contamination and a consistently high ‘scope for growth’ (>20 J g−1 h−1). Spatial and temporal changes in the concentration of polyaromatic hydrocarbons in the mussel tissues reflected the major sources of oil inputs and the number and size of oil spillages around the tanker loading jetties. Hydrocarbon concentrations in mussels at the oil tanker jetties were typically 10-fold higher than mussels at Gluss Voe. The concentrations of tributyltin in the tissues were greatest in the area near the tanker jetties and showed a steady decline between 1986 and 1989 which correlated with a decline in tanker activity (r = +0.98).

The results demonstrated a significant correlation between the net quantity of oil spilled during the month prior to sampling and the accumulated aromatic hydrocarbons in the mussel tissues (r = +0.89). In addition, there was a significant negative relationship between scope for growth and the log concentration of aromatic hydrocarbons in the mussel tissues (r = −0.83). Toxicological interpretation of tissue residue data indicated that the decline in SFG was caused by accumulated PAHs rather than TBT. Although mussels showed a significant reduction in scope for growth in Sullom Voe they were still able to grow, reproduce and maintain their populations. When these results are placed in a wider geographical context and compared with other UK sites, it is apparent that the ‘clean reference’ site in the Shetland has the lowest recorded levels of organic contaminants, and that other sites in the vicinity of the Sullom Voe Oil Terminal are less contaminated and impacted than many estuaries on the UK mainland.

The River Tay, which drains a dominantly metamorphic catchment, has the largest freshwater discharge of any British river. Direct methods of determining the solute, suspension and bed loads at six gauging stations have enabled the river transport to be assessed at 375,000 and 997,000 tonnes annually for dry and average wet years respectively. Added to estimates of loads from the Earn and Isla rivers the load entering the head of the Tay Estuary varies from 646,000 tonnes to 1,648,000 tonnes annually. This corresponds to total losses of 100 t/km2/year to 255 t/km2 year, which equates with an average lowering of the basin surface by 4–5 cm to 11.6 cm per thousand years of dry and average conditions respectively.

Little is known about ozone (O3) effects on adult trees in the field, where ecophysiological parameters control pollutant uptake. It was the goal of this study to examine how ambient and above ambient O3 concentrations affect gas exchange of mature Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.). Therefore, twigs were enclosed in chambers and exposed to different O3 concentrations for one and two seasons over three years. During winter periods twigs were maintained under ambient conditions. Data from the shade crown of spruce trees at 1000 m a.s.l. are presented. After one and two fumigation periods no clear treatment effects on gas exchange were observed in twigs fumigated with O3 concentrations ranging from zero up to ambient (A) + 60 ppb. However, O3 at 90 ppb reduced photosynthesis and conductance. CO2 response curves indicated that in A + 90 twigs the efficiency of CO2 uptake was diminished. Observed losses in Pn of A + 90 twigs were greater than reductions in conductance indicating that stomatal closure alone did not limit CO2 uptake. We conclude that ambient and slightly above ambient O3 concentrations do not alter gas exchange of mature Norway spruce. Therefore, suppositions on O3 damage on mature spruce trees should be critically questioned.

This chapter traces the development of quality assurance in general practice over the last quarter of a century. The practical implementation of quality assurance in British general practice is set against experience in other countries. Examples illustrate how ideas for improving care have already been incorporated into normal practice. We describe some of the methods currently in use and speculate about how systems of professional accreditation might become acceptable. Finally we consider the future role of quality assurance in general practice.

The previous history of Allenopithecus is summarized and a new description provided based on freshly dead cadavers of an adult male and female and of a male stillborn infant. Analysis of details of body proportions and external anatomy confirm the apartness of Allenopithecus from Cercopithecus and indicate a transitional status towards the macaques. Striking departures from cercopithecine features occur in the face, ear, extremities, in the presence, in the female, of a catamenial swelling and in the approximation or confluence, in the male, of the ischial callosities.

The ornamental use of Salix in Britain must be measured against any detrimental impact introduced plants may have on the natural or artificial environment. Willows in amenity planting have the capacity to be both rewarding and at the same time damaging. Anyone using them should be aware of the constraints that may be imposed by the plants and by any potential site. Existing published plant lists are long and inaccurate, often failing to give proper advice on ornamental use. Commercial plant supply may be wanting. Forty species and cultivars are recommended here for a range of situations, but some require further taxonomic research and others need wider introduction to the trade.

Details are given of two more Giant Squids (Architeuthis) found in the Scottish area. The question of which species occur is discussed. It is suggested that the two species, A. harveyi Verrill and A.princeps Verrill, described from the American side, do not occur on the European side, as certain identifications would suggest. The two species found on the European side would, therefore, be A. dux Steenstrup and A. clarkei Robson.