A nitrogen-deficient medium and m-Endo agar were employed in the isolation of members of the tribe Klebsielleae from surfaces of vegetables and seeds. With m-Endo agar at an incubation temperature of 37 C, nearly 50% of the vegetables and seven out of seven seed samples yielded organisms which biochemically and serologically were identified as Klebsiella pneumoniae, Viable counts were generally in the range of 103 cells per g of vegetable peel or seed. Organisms classified as K. pneumoniae exhibited seven different IMViC patterns, with the-+ +, +++ +, and-+++ patterns most common. Seven of the eleven K. pneumoniae serotypes encountered have previously been isolated from human urinary tract and other infections. Fifty percent of the 40 K. pneumoniae examined exhibited positive acetylene-reducing activity, i.e., they possessed the capability for fixing N2. Vegetables containing K. pneumoniae may constitute a potential reservoir for human nosocomial genitourinary or other infections. 'Technical paper no. 3553, Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station.

The phenotypic and nucleic acid properties of Klebsiella pneumoniae have been studied on cultures obtained from six different habitats (humans, vegetables, seeds, trees, rivers, and pulp mills). The 19 cultural reactions of 107 isolates varied significantly only in tryptophanase activity and dulcitol fermentation. The percentage of guanine plus cytosine base composition of 41 isolates varied from 53.9 to 59.2%. The range of percentage of guanine plus cytosine base composition for environmental klebsiellas was broader than that for the cultures of human origin. The range of deoxyribonucleic acid relative reassociation (homology) to the human K. pneumoniae reference strain extended from 5% to 100% and the chromosome molecular weights ranged from 2,200 x 106 to 3,000 x 106. The species of K. pneumoniae is thus molecularly more heterogeneous than previously thought and most isolates of human, pulp mill, and river origin are genetically indistinguishable. The presence of K. pneumoniae therefore represents a deterioration of the microbiological quality of the environment and should be considered of public health significance. At the present time the health significance of the molecularly more divergent strains, primarily of vegetable and seed origin, their relationship to klebsiellas of human origin, or to other genera of the Enterobacteriaceae is unclear.

Ethics committees have an important role to play in ensuring ethical standards (e.g. BERA, ESRC, RCUK recommendations) are met by educational researchers. Balancing obligations to participants, society, institutions and the researchers themselves is not, however, easy. Researchers often experience the ethics committee as unsympathetic to their research endeavour, whilst ethics committees find some research approaches do not make ethical implications sufficiently explicit. This potential for misunderstanding is evident in the literature, but studies investigating how participants perceive this relationship are missing. This research comprises a novel empirical study which explores researcher perceptions of research ethics committees. Fifty‐five participants in higher education departments of education responded to an online survey. Open and closed‐ended questions were used to collect data on roles, methodological stance, experiences of the research ethics committee, perceived tensions and examples of good practice. The results indicated that contemporary educational researchers regard research ethics committees as friends when researcher and reviewer are transparently engaged in a shared endeavour. When this shared endeavour breaks down, for a variety of reasons—including apparently unreasonable demands or mutual misunderstanding—the research ethics committees can become foes. The difference between foe and friend lies in the quality of communication, clear systems and a culture of respectful mutual learning. The contributions of this study have practical implications for the ways that education researchers and research ethics committees relate to one another within university settings, both to alleviate areas of tension and to arrive at a shared understanding which will enable best ethical research practice.

Modes of collaboration are gendered in the sense that they define power relationships among members of a group. In this study, the authors define three collaborative modes: dialogic, asymmetrical, and hierarchical. Dialogic and asymmetrical modes are emancipating and characterized by flexibility, open-ended inquiry, and concern for the growth and development of the individuals involved. Hierarchical modes are oppressive and are characterized by rigidity and suppression of the voices of others in the group. Two collaborative writing groups in a chemical engineering design course exemplify these modes. The first, composed of two women and two men, was primarily dialogic, and the second, composed of two women and three men, exhibited characteristics of all three modes.

This article examines, from a feminist perspective, the costs and the benefits accruing to divorced mothers and suggests that for many women divorce may be the "chance of a new lifetime." Case materials from interviews with divorced mothers are cited and implications for social policy are discussed. Development of services and lobbying groups for divorced women within existing women's centers are advocated, as well as the establishment of specialized "divorce centers," to serve women both during the acute crises of separation and on a continuing basis.