Developing and validating scenarios to compare midwives' knowledge and skills with the International Confederation of Midwives' essential competencies in four European countries.

Aim: To develop, pilot and validate a number of scenarios which encompass all of the International Confederation of Midwives' (ICM) competency statements and which are of relevance in various European countries, both those in the European Union and those which might become members in the future.

Design: 27 Scenarios designed to encompass all ICM competencies were tested using qualitative interviews.

Setting: Slovenia, Germany, Scotland, Kosovo.

A new method to obtain epithelial and stromal explants from human Corneo-Scleral Discs for the routine culture of corneal epithelial and fibroblast cells.

Acquisition of human corneal cells for culture is hindered not only by the scarcity of donor tissues but also by some of the standard enzymatic and mechanical isolation techniques. Good yields have been reported from full-thickness explant and sclero-limbal pieces. However, due to their greater proliferative capacity, fibroblasts will encroach and subsequently overwhelm epithelial cultures whichever technique is used.