Tissue viability nurses' experiences of managing wound exudate.

Wound exudate presents several challenges for patients and nurses. The description of exudate volume, colour and viscosity varies greatly, often depending on the personal preference of the nurse. When the nature and volume of exudate has been described, management of exudate presents its own issues in terms of ensuring that the appropriate dressing or intervention is selected and used effectively.

Radiotherapy-induced skin reactions: assessment and management.

Radiotherapy, the use of high-energy rays to either kill cancer cells or treat some benign tumours, is undoubtedly a positive intervention. However, as the primary mode of action in radiotherapy treatment is the killing of cells to prevent replication, other non-cancerous cells may be affected. For example, up to 85% of patients will experience some form of skin reaction, which will range from local erythema to moist desquamation.

VARIATION IN THE MATING SYSTEM OF EICHHORNIA PANICULATA (SPRENG.) SOLMS. (PONTEDERIACEAE).

A multilocus procedure was used to estimate outcrossing rates from allozyme data in nine populations of Eichhornia paniculata from NE Brazil and Jamaica. The populations were chosen to represent stages in a proposed model of the evolutionary breakdown of tristyly to semi-homostyly; they differed in morph structure (trimorphic, dimorphic, or monomorphic) and floral traits likely to influence the mating system. The interpopulation range in outcrossing rate, t, was 0.

ON THE DARWINIAN HYPOTHESIS OF THE ADAPTIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF TRISTYLY.

Darwin proposed that the function of the stamen-style polymorphism in heterostylous plants is to increase the probability of legitimate (compatible) pollinations among the floral morphs. Conspicuous pollen trimorphism in tristylous Pontederia cordata enables a test of the hypothesis. Comparison of the composition of pollen loads in naturally pollinated stigmas of intact and emasculated flowers were made at a population in Paugh Lake, Ontario, which was visited primarily by bumblebees.