The use of coffins and jars as funerary receptacles was common across Southeast Asia. During the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries AD, cremation was the dominant mortuary tradition on the Angkorian plains, but in the Cardamom Mountains to the south, contemporaneous groups practised a unique burial tradition involving the deposition of un-cremated bone in exposed ceramic vessels and log coffins. The authors present the first geochemical analysis of individuals from this highland culture, specifically the site of Phnom Pel. The childhood diets of those interred in jars and coffins may have been sourced from different areas within the Cardamom Mountains, suggesting that the individuals came from discrete groups.

The date and significance of the megalithic jar sites of central Laos are comparatively poorly understood features of the Southeast Asian archaeological landscape. First explored systematically in the 1930s, only limited research on these sites has been undertaken since. This article presents the recent excavations at Ban Ang—or site 1—a megalithic jar site of nearly 400 jars, located in Xieng Khouang Province. The results confirm the findings of earlier research, but additionally reveal a range of mortuary practices, high rates of infant and child mortality, and new evidence dating these interments to the ninth to thirteenth centuries AD.

The Iron Age of Mainland Southeast Asia began in the fifth century bc and lasted for about a millennium. In coastal regions, the development of trade along the Maritime Silk Road led to the growth of port cities. In the interior, a fall in monsoon rains particularly affected the Mun River valley. This coincided with the construction of moats/reservoirs round Iron Age settlements from which water was channelled into wet rice fields, the production of iron ploughshares and sickles, population growth, burgeoning exchange and increased conflict. We explore the social impact of this agricultural revolution through applying statistical analyses to mortuary samples dating before and after the development of wet rice farming. These suggest that there was a swift formation of social elites represented by the wealth of mortuary offerings, followed by a decline. Two associated changes are identified. The first involved burying the dead in residential houses; the second considers the impact of an increasingly aquatic environment on health by examining demographic trends involving a doubling of infant mortality that concentrated on neonates. A comparison between this sequence and that seen in coastal ports suggests two interconnected instances of rapid pathways to social change responding to different social and environmental stressors.

Recent archaeological investigations and technological applications have increased our appreciation of the intricacies of pre-Angkorian societal development. The results reveal a transformative period characterised by increasing socio-political complexity, exchange and technological transfer, differences in burial wealth, growing levels of conflict and variation in site morphology. Among the excavated Iron Age sites in Cambodia, Lovea, near the heart of Angkor, is well placed to provide a greater understanding of these changes in this region. Excavation and remote sensing confirm that the two moats surrounding Lovea are testimony to the early adoption of water-management strategies. These strategies grew in complexity, culminating in the vast network of canals, reservoirs and tanks that are the hallmarks of the hydraulic society of Angkor.

The understanding of Angkorian pre-state society has been greatly enhanced by an increase in archaeological investigation in recent years. From excavations conducted at Cambodian Iron Age sites we have evidence that attests to a transformative period characterised by increasing sociopolitical complexity, intensified inter- and trans-regional mercantile activity, differential access to resources, social conflict, technological transfer and developments in site morphology. Among the growing corpus of Iron Age sites excavated, Phum Lovea, on the periphery of Angkor, is uniquely placed to provide insight into increasing sociopolitical complexity in this area. The site is one of the few prehistoric moated settlements known in Cambodia and the only one to date to have been excavated. Excavation of the site has revealed an Iron Age agrarian settlement whose occupants engaged in trade and exchange networks, craft specialisation, metal production, and emergent water management strategies. These attributes can be seen as antecedent to the profound developments that characterise the first millennium CE polity centred on Angkor.

Entry into graduate programmes is highly competitive. Although careers advisors working within higher education do their best to prepare students for engagement with these programmes; anecdotal reports suggest many graduates remain unsure what it is these employers are seeking, and how it is assessed. Our study examines both selection criteria profiles and practices, drawing comprehensive data from 20 New Zealand firms and finds that regardless of a firm's characteristics, most seek a very similar graduate profile, with the concepts of candidate ‘well roundedness’ and ‘fit’ considered most vital. Selection practices employed are tightly connected to this graduate profile. These findings shed some much needed light for graduates on what is, but also what is not, highly sought after by employers in the recruitment and selection process. They should also be of benefit to universities by assisting them to better prepare their graduates for successful transition into the employment market.

We present the first radiocarbon dates from previously unrecorded, secondary burials in the Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia. The mortuary ritual incorporates nautical tradeware ceramic jars and log coffins fashioned from locally harvested trees as burial containers, which were set out on exposed rock ledges at 10 sites in the eastern Cardamom Massif. The suite of 28 14C ages from 4 of these sites (Khnorng Sroal, Phnom Pel, Damnak Samdech, and Khnang Tathan) provides the first estimation of the overall time depth of the practice. The most reliable calendar date ranges from the 4 sites reveals a highland burial ritual unrelated to lowland Khmer culture that was practiced from cal AD 1395 to 1650. The time period is concurrent with the 15th century decline of Angkor as the capital of the Khmer kingdom and its demise about AD 1432, and the subsequent shift of power to new Mekong trade ports such as Phnom Penh, Udong, and Lovek. We discuss the Cardamom ritual relative to known funerary rituals of the pre- to post-Angkorian periods, and to similar exposed jar and coffin burial rituals in Mainland and Island Southeast Asia.

In a previous communication on the bacteriology of dehydrated fish (Shewan, 1945), data were presented concerning various aspects of the drying process, and their bearing upon commercial production was discussed. This communication reports further work, done mainly during the war, on the effect of storage conditions on the bacterial flora of various kinds of dehydrated fish products.

The present communication completes the series of war-time studies (Shewan, 1945, 1953) on the dehydration of fish, and is concerned with certain aspects of the bacteriology of the small-scale commercial production of dehydrated fish (herring, kipper, fresh and smoked cod), carried out in the summers of 1944 and 1945 by the Ministry of Food in a factory at Aberdeen. During these commercial trials, samples of fish were taken each day for a routine bacterial count and examined for the presence of food-poisoning pathogens. Several other tests were made from time to time in order to elucidate special points, such as the adequacy of the cooking procedure and the occasional incidence of high bacterial counts. The following is a summary and review of these results; with some recommendations for future production.

In experiments at this Station designed to find the most appropriate methods for the dehydration of fish, it was early recognized that bacteriological control would be necessary in order to ensure the safety of the final product. Many preliminary experiments were performed before a suitable method was found for commercial production. In these experiments data were obtained and are given here to illustrate the general argument, although most of the results are concerned largely with the method finally adopted.

1. The proximate analysis has been made of several profiles from the north-east of Scotland, these including Scots pine, beech, birch and Calluna heath.

2. The system of proximate analysis proposed by Waksman has been used as a basis for the investigation, but various modifications have been introduced, e.g. sugar and cellulose determinations, with a view to obtaining greater accuracy.

3. Although a restricted number of profiles has been investigated, the results indicate that these may be divided into two groups, viz. raw humus and mull types, according to the manner in which the various fractions have been decomposed.

The extent to which practice nurses use the best available evidence to inform their activities in cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke prevention is not known. This paper reports on a study designed to explore the extent to which practice nurses use the available evidence in the prevention of CVD and stroke, and to explore the associations between research utilization and other individual and organizational factors. A national survey of practice nurses employed in 11 health authorities was conducted. Self-completion questionnaires were returned by 1187 practice nurses (response rate 60.4%). In relation to the risk factors smoking, hypertension, raised plasma cholesterol and lack of exercise, the majority of practice nurses reported interventions which are supported by research evidence. However, only 66% of the respondents recommended nicotine patches for smoking cessation, 42% referred patients for hypertension at levels above those recommended by national guidelines, and only 3.9% followed the latest recommended guidelines for exercise prescription. Statistically significant associations were found between total research utilization scores and a number of individual and organizational characteristics. The study findings are discussed together with their implications for practice and education.

Whenever a new fragment by Wilde appears, it inevitably raises hope that the often vulgarized but still fascinating relationship between the life and the work will somehow be clarified. Did the one really get all the genius, the other merely the talent, as he told Gide? Were the two always so disparate, so irreconcilable, as he insisted? Did work always seems, as he once said it seemed, ‘not a reality but a way of getting rid of reality’? If so, was this why ‘the real life is the life we do not lead’, the life of the literary imagination? Or was it that the ‘real life’ and ordinary life alternately promised Wilde those intense experiences his imagination craved, then took it in turns to double-cross him?

The MS of Oscar Wilde's A Wife's Tragedy belonging to the Clark Library comprises 28 unbound foolscape sheets, including one partial sheet, all of which are feint ruled except for one (20 A) which is plain. There is an additional small quarto sheet of plain correspondence paper with the watermark ‘Silver Linen’. Wilde provides no continuous pagination (and litte pagination of any kind), so I have numbered the sheets according to what I consider their most likely and satisfactory continuity, denoting the two sides of each sheet by A and B. The single quarto sheet, bearing merely an incomplete title, ‘Wife's Tragedy’, is not included in this sequence of pagination.