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THE London & Home Counties Branch of the Library Association is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year, and fortuitously the jubilee falls on the same day of the week as the branch's foundation—Tuesday, May 1. The branch is holding a buffet reception at Buckingham Palace Road Library that evening, to which all present and former members are cordially invited and which will be attended by LA President K C Harrison, himself a former chairman of the branch.

IN the life of a man ten years is a comparatively short period, but in aeronautics it is an epoch.

In this chapter, we introduce readers to the volume, a collection of 13 inquiries that employ the methodology of self-study in teacher education practices (S-STEP) in culturally and linguistically diverse settings across the globe. After sharing the purpose and origins of the project, we provide an overview of the volume’s organization and brief summaries for each study. As a whole, the collection addresses two pressing yet interrelated challenges in teacher education research: understanding teacher educator development over the career span and how these scholar-practitioners prepare teachers for an increasingly diverse, mobile, and plurilingual world.

A SIMPLIFIED presentation of basic gust load factor theories, designed to supply information requested frequently by pilots, has been prepared by the Aircraft Airworthiness Section of the V.G. Civil Aeronautics Authority.

IT is not only feminine attire that is subject to the vagaries of fashion. Anyone who has watched the evolution of the aeroplane over any considerable period of time will have noticed how subject it also is to the dictates of Fashion's decrees. Springing up from no one quite knows where, one suddenly becomes conscious that there has been a subtle change in the appearance of the aeroplanes seen about. There are always, of course, a few “ frumps ” whose type remains readily recognisable owing to its resemblance to its parents and ancestors. But it is none the less the fact that at any given period the bulk of the aeroplanes of the day have a similarity of appearance. This is indeed a constantly recurring pitfall for the enthusiast who for one reason or another does not have the opportunity of making very frequent visits to an aerodrome. On one of the rare occasions when he makes his presence felt he is apt to incur the contempt of his more knowledgeable colleagues by an unfortunate propensity for confusing the aeroplanes produced by the designers of different, and perhaps closely rival, firms. The position in this respect seems to get worse. Twenty‐five years ago no one but the veriest ignoramus could mistake a Blriot, say, for a Farman or an Antoinette. Nowadays, however, it is comparatively easy— or so we confess we find it—to be confused about the make of half a dozen different types of aeroplane. A few years ago it still remained easy at any rate to segregate machines by the eye into their respective classes. There was a stateliness, possibly even a suspicion of clumsiness, about a bomber which distinguished it instantly from a fighter. But even this superficial distinction is nowadays denied to those unfortunates of whom we write.

The purpose of this paper is to obtain high-solids-content and low-viscosity starch adhesive, and improve bonding strength of the pure starch adhesive.

Maize starch was treated by hydrochloric acid solution with different concentrations, and acid-thinned starch adhesive was prepared. Polyisocyanate as a crosslinking agent was added to improve water resistance of the pure starch adhesive.

The physical and chemical properties of the acid-thinned starch adhesive were characterised. Acid hydrolysis did not change structure of starch granules, but increased its crystallinity. After acid modification, starch granules became less smooth and some fragments appeared. Acid treatment had little influence on thermal stability of starch, when acid hydrolysis was not strong. High concentration of HCl solution led to starch granules being destroyed, resulting in decrease in bonding strength. The optimal HCl concentration was 0.5 mol/L. Polyisocyanate addition was beneficial to improve the bonding strength of the acid-thinned starch adhesive.

Acid hydrolysis changed the properties of the starch adhesive.

Acid hydrolysis decreased viscosity of the starch adhesive and improved its solids content, which had a positive effect on the application of the starch adhesive.

It was helpful to develop an environment-friendly, natural polymer-based wood adhesive.

The properties of acid-thinned starch and acid-thinned starch adhesive were studied.

This paper aims to describe the physiological analysis of L. rhamnosus VTT E‐97800 and its adaptive response to osmotic stress induced by trehalose.

Cells of L. rhamnosus E800 in the stationary phase of growth were subjected to osmotic stress induced by trehalose treatments. The effects of osmotic stress on the viability of the study strain were determined by conducting flow cytometric analysis with carboxyfluorescein diacetate (cFDA) and propidium iodide (PI) and by observing the corresponding cells growth on MRS agar plates. Osmotic‐induced changes of esterase activity and membrane integrity were monitored. Ability to extrude intracellular accumulated cF (additional vitality marker) was taken into consideration.

The fluorescence‐based approach gave additional insights on osmotic induced changes of cellular events, which could not be explicitly assessed by culture techniques. Trehalose treatments caused a transient membrane permeabilization as revealed by a gradual decrease in esterase activity (a measure of enzyme activity and thus of viability) with increase in trehalose molarity. However, culturability on MRS agar was not significantly affected. Membrane integrity was maintained and there was an improvement in the ability of cells to extrude intracellular accumulated cF.

The paper provides a comparative study of the conventional culture techniques and the flow cytometric viability assessment which showed that esterase activity cannot be relied on to ascertain the culturability and viability status of an organism.

Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, a probiotic of human origin, known to have health beneficial effects can be exposed to osmotic stress when applied in food production as important quantities of sugars are added to the food product. The aim of this study is to assess the mode of action of non‐electrolytes stress on its viability.

Investigations were carried out on stationary phase cells treated with 0‐1.5M sugars, by means of flow cytometric method (FCM) and plate enumeration method. Osmotically induced changes of microbial carboxyfluorescein (cF)‐accumulation capacity and propidium iodide‐exclusion were monitored. The ability of the cells to extrude intracellularly accumulated cF upon glucose energization was ascertained as an additional vitality marker, in which the kinetics of dye extrusion were taken into consideration as well. Sugar analysis by HPLC was also carried out.

The results of FCM analysis revealed that with sucrose, only cells treated at 1.5M experienced membrane perturbation but there was a preservation of membrane integrity and enzymatic activity. There was no loss of viability as shown by plate counts. In contrast, the majority of trehalose‐treated cells had low extent of cF‐accumulation. For these samples a slight loss of viability was recorded on plating (logN/N_o ∼ −0.45). At 0.6M, cells had similar extrusion ability as the control cells upon glucose energization. However, 20 per cent of sucrose‐treated cells and 80 per cent of trehalose‐treated cells extruded the dye in the first 10min.

This finding pointed out the importance of trehalose to enhance the dye extrusion activity, which is regarded as an analogue of the capability of cells to extrude toxic compounds. Sugars exert different effects on the physiological and metabolic status of LGG but none caused a significant viability loss. LGG can be a choice probiotic bacterium in sugar‐rich food production e.g. candies, marmalade etc., in which exposure to high osmotic pressure is be expected.