In 1850, a nine-year-old boy living in London, England, is forcibly snatched out of a devastatingly broken family upon the disclosure of his father's infidelity. In the care of a guardian, this child loses everything familiar as he is shipped off as part of British colonial expansion in the Canterbury region of New Zealand, supposedly "for his own good." As a result, little Grayson's life and sense of identity are shattered, and it seems a mysterious generational legacy propels his life into inexplicable tragedy and loss. Will a destructive family dynamic triumph, or will a transcendent power arrest the evil at work and release a positive inheritance upon this family?

Competitive binding techniques such as radioimmunoassay (RIA) are widely used to measure an enormous variety of compounds in biological fluids. Current methods have 1 2 arisen from the pioneering work ofYalow and Berson in the U. S. A. and Ekins in the u. K. Much of the early development was concerned with the analysis of protein hormones, and nearly a decade passed before attention focussed also on small molecules such as steroids and drugs. The potential of immunoassay methods for drug monitoring in clinical and forensic laboratories and in addict treatment programmes resulted in the commercial production of immunoassays for various therapeutic and abused drugs, making the technique available to laboratories lacking the facilities to raise their own antisera and synthesise labelled compounds. However, commercial assays are not only expensive but are restricted in range, and so it is advantageous for a forensic laboratory to have the capability to devise "in-house" immunoassays suited to its particular requirements. This chapter describes the theory and practice of RIA in forensic drug analysis. Much of the theory and some of the practice are applicable to immunoassays in which non isotopic labels are used, but such assays are not described in detail since, to date, the versatility and sensitivity of RIA have made it the immunoassay technique of choice in forensic toxicology. The particular advantages of RIA are its sensitivity and the fact that samples such as haemolysed blood can be assayed with little or no prior preparation."

Because of the magnificent response to the call for papers for the 7th International Biodeterioration Symposium held at Cambridge, UK, some difficulties have been experienced in the editing of these proceedings. The numbers of papers submitted exceeded expectation and because of this it has been necessary to accommodate those not actually in the proceedings into the International Biodeterioration journal. A small number of papers were not suitable for publication and were therefore eliminated. Many authors disregarded the guidelines laid down for the length of submitted papers. However, every attempt has been made to accommodate the maximum number of contributions in the proceedings. The original selection included those which most nearly conformed to the length requirement. Even so this has meant, in many cases, cutting down the text, eliminating tables and/or illustrations and pruning the reference list. When references have been trimmed a note has been included to the effect that an extended list may be obtained from the author/senior author. Where it was not possible to carry out these procedures without seriously altering the text and the import of the paper they have been included amongst those to be published in the journal International Biodeterioration. The exceptions to the procedures outlined above are the invited review papers which have been presented in full. Happily, the authors have been conscientious in keeping to the guidelines laid down for these contributions.

In 1850, a nine-year-old boy living in London, England, is forcibly snatched out of a devastatingly broken family upon the disclosure of his father's infidelity. In the care of a guardian, this child loses everything familiar as he is shipped off as part of British colonial expansion in the Canterbury region of New Zealand, supposedly "for his own good." As a result, little Grayson's life and sense of identity are shattered, and it seems a mysterious generational legacy propels his life into inexplicable tragedy and loss. Will a destructive family dynamic triumph, or will a transcendent power arrest the evil at work and release a positive inheritance upon this family?