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An analysis of radioactivity in organisms inhabiting the intertidal region of the Island of Skye revealed accumulation of gamma radioactivity by specific organisms, such as lichens, to be markedly enhanced as compared with other autotrophs. The movement of radioactivity through trophic levels culminating in organisms such as the predator Nucella lapillus is described. A comparison with previous work indicates a marked decrease in the gamma count in these organisms due to a variety of factors as discussed. The importance of the position of the organism on the shore during the post‐Chernobyl contaminated rainfall is reiterated.

This paper compares the gamma‐radioactivity values determined in an intertidal ecosystem on the Atlantic island of Barra in the Western Isles of Scotland in 1989 and 1994. Distinct differences in the accumulation values in different trophic levels were detected on each occasion, but, in the intervening five years between surveys, there have also been marked reductions in the gamma counts in many different organisms of each trophic level. Gamma‐radioactivity has continued to move through the sandy soils of the machair coastal dunes system, and hence away from the rooting zone of the vegetation. The decreasing gamma‐radioactivities noted point to a shoreline ecosystem that is recovering from the input of Chernobyl fallout.

Large metalliferous spoil and smelting tip sites, generated during the Nabatean, Roman and Byzantine periods, continue to exist in southern Jordan and still exert important effects on both plants and animals (including humans) inhabiting the area. Humans are exposed to both copper and lead pollution as a consequence of the inhalation and ingestion of heavy metals, which often involves significant bio‐accumulation through trophic levels. This paper explores aspects of an important source of severe dietary contamination which has potential public health implications in terms of effects on the health of exposed individuals.

Specimens of the bracket fungus (Ganoderma applanatum) were collected from highly polluted sites in Czechoslovakia and also from England. The bracket fungus was found to be an excellent long‐term monitor/accumulator of atmospheric pollutants and collected material arriving by impaction and sedimentation from the atmospheric environment.

Investigates the effects of acid precipitation on nutrient mobilization in vegetation, in the Nottingham (UK) area near a large coal‐fired power station. In stem flow and canopy throughfall samples, from holly, yew and a grass, mobilization of Ca, K and Na was enhanced. Examines the importance of leaf presentation and foliar stratification. Loss of elements as a result of mobilization by acid precipitation is deleterious to autotrophs and may affect the populations of heterotrophs.

In his book on Animal Chemistry Liebig wrote as follows:—

It has been held not infrequently that of the influences which together mould the individual and determine his or her value as a social unit those of heredity are so prepotent as to leave little room for those of the environment. By others this view has seemed to involve unjustifiable pessimism. You will, I think, admit that in the past when there was little objective knowledge to bear on such questions, current views were largely decided by that ingrained difference in social outlook which has divided and still divides human opinion on so many other fundamental questions. Those who are naturally inclined to justify privilege, and who have felt instinctively that class distinctions are a social necessity founded on nature, have been tempted perhaps to emphasise too exclusively the unmistakable influence of heredity; those to whom a different outlook is natural have wished to believe, not, of course, that all are born equal as the eighteenth century philosophers declaimed, but that in favourable environments individuals tend to display greater equality of capacity.

The Editor and Publishers regret that the prolonged dispute in the printing trade made it impossible to produce the February issue of this journal punctually, and continues to hamper them in their work.

Attempts to draw together some main implications arising from studying usage of survey data forecasting the demand for durables. Posits that re‐interview tests are important, shedding light on the influences on consumer demand, by perhaps identifying respects in which purchasers and non‐purchasers differ. Suggests that predictive models, which have some foundation, stand a better chance of confident usage. Points out that some studies appear to show cross‐sectional investigations perform reasonably well in explaining individual household behaviour, both in terms of level of outlay on consumer durables and in identifying purchasers of particular commodities. Aims to describe overall patterns of results in more general terms and to draw them together by focusing specifically on what they suggest about the nature of individual behaviour and decisions regarding consumer durables.

The purpose of this paper is to study compatibility variations in buyer‐seller relationships between Mainland Chinese firms and Hong Kong Chinese buyer firms that act as intermediaries to markets in the West.

Data are drawn from 19 multiple in‐depth case study interviews with Mainland and Hong Kong Chinese firms and buyer firms from the West.

Compatibility dimensions that provide further evidence of factors that underpin the nature of classical‐type exchange arrangements, vis‐à‐vis relational relationships, within Chinese buyer‐seller interactions are identified. Compatibility variations based on political and legal factors are driven by interpretation and application of Chinese state laws at the business and provincial levels rather than at the national level. Mainland Chinese tend to exhibit authoritative vis‐à‐vis Confucian‐based practices and a short‐term orientation within interactions.

There is a need to expand the psychic distance composite to elucidate compatibility variations within the distinct provincial business regions of China. Quantitative studies to test for compatibility variability in China business practices across China are needed next. A better understanding of the nature of classical inclinations used by the Chinese is crucial, as is an understanding of how firms, both domestic and foreign, are able to leverage classical and relational relationships within Mainland China.

Uncertainty associated with the entrepreneurial behaviours of Chinese businesspersons and a varying emphasis on traditional Confucian values in business result in a hybridisation of interactions across classical and relational types. Guanxi may be evolving beyond traditional social and personal trust as Mainland Chinese business relationships have advanced from the smaller scale CFB stage to the state‐owned enterprise stage, and now to the larger and increasingly important world trade stage.

The paper challenges shortcomings in research that has centred exclusively on the relational nature of Chinese business interactions, and it builds on previous research to study compatibility variations underpinning these Chinese interactions. It predicts a hybridisation of interactions amongst Chinese actors and provides a foundation for future quantitative research to study compatibility variations, and also classical‐type business practices across China. Increased international market awareness may also be leading to the inclusion of an economic trust factor, driving classical‐type Chinese buyer‐seller relationships, as is more characteristic of arrangements found in Western exchanges.