“Smothered” Infants—Neglect,Infanticide or SIDS? A Fresh Look at the 19th Century Mortality Schedules

Based on the U.S. Federal Mortality Schedules from the years 1850–1880 infant deaths <1 year were investigated in order to determine whether mortality attributed to “smothering” or “overlaying” followed known SIDS trajectories. By comparing a case sample of 2,236 smothered/overlaid deaths with an age-, regionally and time-matched control sample of all-cause infant deaths (N = 58,293), striking similarities with SIDS became apparent, which were not mimicked in the control sample. These epidemiological traits included a disproportionate vulnerability during the second to fourth month of life (Poisson RR 12.94, p < 0.001), a remarkable birth and death seasonality, as well as pronounced racial disparities. The study could also corroborate sex-specific discrepancies—such as differential impact of month of birth on age-at-death. Results of a Cox regression furthermore indicate that age, sex, race and death season were significant predictors of mortality. This strongly supports the hypothesis that these infant deaths represent empirical evidence of 19th century SIDS.     

Correlations between the psychological peculiarities of an individual and the efficacy of a single neurofeedback session (by the EEG characteristics)

Modifications of different EEG rhythms induced by a single neurofeedback session (by the EEG characteristics) directed toward an increase in the ratio of the spectral powers (SPs) of the α vs θ oscillations were compared with the psychological characteristics of the tested subjects (the group included 30 persons). A generally accepted neurofeedback technique was used; the intensity of acoustic white noise served as the feedback signal. EEG potentials were recorded from the C3 and C4 leads. Psychological testing was carried out using Eysenck’s (EPQ), Rusalov’s (OST), and (16 PF) questionnaires. The directions of changes in the SPs of EEG frequency components were found to significantly correlate with some individuality-related peculiarities of the tested subjects. The SP of the δ rhythm correlated with the EPQ scale “neuroticism,” OST scale “social plasticity,” and 16 PF factors H (“parmia”), I (“premsia”), and Q₃ (“self-control of behavior”). The SP of the θ component demonstrated correlations with the OST scales “ergisity,” “plasticity,” and “social temp” and with 16 PF factors M (“autia”), Q₄ (“frustration”), and Q1 (“exvia”). The SP of the α rhythm correlated with 16 PF factors Q₃ (“self-control of behavior”), G (“strength of superEgo”), O (“hypothymia”), L (“protension”), and N (“shrewdness”). The SP of the β rhythm correlated with the OST scale “emotionality,” while that of the γ rhythm showed correlations with the 16 PF indices L (“protension”) and M (“autia”). Changes in the ratio of the α vs θ SPs correlated with the EPQ scale “neuroticism.” Thus, our data confirm the statement that a high individual variability of the results of a single (first in the series) neurofeedback session is to a great extent related to peculiarities of the individual psychological pattern of the subject. Neirofiziologiya/Neurophysiology, Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 239–247, May–June, 2006.     

Evolution and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

This paper and its subsequent parts (Part II and Part III) build on an earlier publication (McKenna 1986). They suggest that important clinical data on the relationship between infantile constitutional deficits and microenvironmental factors relevant to SIDS can be acquired by examining the physiological regulatory effects (well documented among nonhuman primates) that parents assert on their infants when they sleep together. I attempt to show why access to parental sensory cues (movement, touch, smell, sound) that induce arousals in infants while they sleep could possibly help one of many different subclasses of infants either to override certain kinds of sleep-induced breathing control errors suspected to be involved in SIDS or to avoid them altogether. I do not suggest that solitary nocturnal sleep “causes” SIDS, that all parents should sleep with their infants, or that traditional SIDS research strategies should be abandoned. However, using evolutionary data, I do suggest that an adaptive fit exists between parent-infant sleep contact and the natural physiological vulnerabilities of the neurologically immature human infant, whose breathing system is more complex than that of other mammals owing to its speech-breathing abilities. This “fit” is best understood, it is argued, in terms of the 4–5 million years of human evolution in which parent-infant contact was almost certainly continuous during at least the first year of an infant’s life. Thus, to dismiss the idea that solitary sleep has no physiological consequences for infants does not accord with scientific facts. James J. McKenna is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Pomona College. He also has an appointment as an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics, Child Psychiatry, and Human Behavior at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine. His primary research interests and many of his publications concern aspects of primate parenting and infant development among both human and nonhuman primates. For the past seven years he has been investigating from an anthropological perspective possible environmental correlates of the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and has just finished a preliminary study on the physiological correlates of human parent-infant co-sleeping. His earlier monograph on the subject (cited in this paper) has received much international attention. He and his colleagues (Mosko and Dungy) are the first to have used standard polysomnographic techniques to document simultaneously human parent-infant co-sleeping. He has won three awards for distinguished teaching at Pomona College.     

From “Us vs. Them” to “Shared Risk”: Can Animals Help Link Environmental Factors to Human Health?

Linking human health risk to environmental factors can be a challenge for clinicians, public health departments, and environmental health researchers. While it is possible that nonhuman animal species could help identify and mitigate such linkages, the fields of animal and human health remain far apart, and the prevailing human health attitude toward disease events in animals is an “us vs. them” paradigm that considers the degree of threat that animals themselves pose to humans. An alternative would be the development of the concepts of animals as models for environmentally induced disease, as well as potential “sentinels” providing early warning of both noninfectious and infectious hazards in the environment. For such concepts to truly develop, critical knowledge gaps need to be addressed using a “shared risk” paradigm based on the comparative biology of environment–host interactions in different species.     

Characteristics of EEG reactivity changes during the performance of dual tasks in healthy subjects (voluntary postural control and calculation)

Comprehensive EEG and stabilography investigation with separate and simultaneous performance of motor (voluntary postural control) and cognitive (calculation) tasks has been performed in 20 healthy subjects (22 ± 0.7 years). Specific spatial and frequency reactive changes have been found during motor task performance. These included an increase in coherence in the EEG α band for distant derivation pairs in the right hemisphere, as well as in symmetric parietal-occipital areas in both hemispheres. Cognitive task performance was accompanied by an increase in coherence for the slow bands (δ and θ) with a higher activation in the left hemisphere and frontal cortex areas. In performing the dual task, one could observe activation of spatial and frequency changes including both motor and cognitive tasks. In the dual tasks where both components were performed worse as compared to the control, reactive reorganization of EEG coherence was less pronounced than during the performance of separate tasks. A decrease in the coherence of the α₁ band in the frontal areas appeared as a zone of “conflict of interest” or interference. In dual tasks with better performance of each component as compared to the control, EEG coherence increased in each specific area, as well as in the areas of “conflict of interests.”     

Wavelet entropy in event-related potentials: a new method shows ordering of EEG oscillations

 In this work we show the application of a measure of entropy defined from the wavelet transform, namely the wavelet entropy (WS), to the study of event-related potentials (ERPs). WS was computed for ERPs recorded from nine healthy subjects with three different types of stimuli, among them target stimuli in a cognitive task. A significant decrease of entropy was correlated with the responses to target stimuli (P300), thus showing that these responses correspond to a more “ordered” state than the spontaneous EEG. Furthermore, we propose the WS as a quantitative measure for such transitions between EEG (“disordered state”) and ERP (“ordered state”). Received: 12 April 2000 / Accepted in revised form: 11 September 2000     

Two types of using of space in the resident common shrews <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sorex araneus</Emphasis> L.

The home range of resident animals is considered as “familiar area” including a “foraging area.” It has been revealed that the activity of an average animal unit in the “foraging area” could be approximated by normal distribution. Estimation of activity distribution in the “familiar area” (beyond the “foraging area”) was impeded by means of marking since it might be difficult to record distant movements, and the method does not provide an essential body of data. In the case of the common shrew Sorex araneus, the “familiar area” was estimated using pitfall as animals evade them in the known areal. The “foraging area” radius of the average shrew was taken to be 30 m (95% of the animal unit activity), the radius of “familiar area” was within the range of 180–240 m. The “foraging area” was expected to provide the animal with vital resources, and the “familiar area” reflects its need for exploratory activity.     

What would T. H. Huxley have made of prion diseases?

T. H. Huxley was “Darwin’s bulldog,” and took the offensive in championing the cause of evolution against skeptical scientists and outraged theologians. As such, he took part in one of the great “paradigm shifts” of biology, at the end of the nineteenth century. Huxley was a rigorous scientist and wrote important articles on scientific method, as well as publishing extensively on a wide range of subjects in natural history. In the second half of the twentieth century, the “prion hypothesis” was put forward to explain the pathogenesis of a curious group of diseases known as the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. This also involved a “paradigm shift” because the prion hypothesis postulated that biologically relevant information could be enciphered in protein conformation (rather than encoded in nucleic acid base sequences), and could be transmitted from one molecule to another, thereby causing infectious disease. This article examines a few of Huxley’s remarks to speculate on how he might have responded to the scientific debate about prion disease had he lived a century later.     

Combined effects of predators and parasites on shoaling behavior of fishes

A review of experimental, field and theoretical papers on several topics related to the study of variability of fish shoaling behavior caused by separate impacts of predators and parasites as well as by combined effects of these factors. First, antipredator functions and changes in fish shoal parameters caused by predation risk are briefly discussed. Then, effects of parasites that have the potential to act as a force that can select for either larger or smaller group size, or even for solitary behavior are reviewed. Predation- and parasitism-induced variations in the shoal size and shape, distance between members of a shoal, position of fish within a shoal, effects of habitat complexity, parasite-assortative shoaling are described. Finally, an interplay between the parasitism and predation risks that could influence protective functions of fish shoaling is discussed. It is emphasized that not only the binary “predator-prey” and “host-parasite” systems, but a three-component system “parasite.-host-predator” which embrace both direct and indirect effects have to be studied.     

Source-sink landscape theory and its ecological significance

Exploring the relationships between landscape pattern and ecological processes is the key topic of landscape ecology, for which, a large number of indices as well as landscape pattern analysis model were developed. However, one problem faced by landscape ecologists is that it is hard to link the landscape indices with a specific ecological process. Linking landscape pattern and ecological processes has become a challenge for landscape ecologists. “Source” and “sink” are common concepts used in air pollution research, by which the movement direction and pattern of different pollutants in air can be clearly identified. In fact, for any ecological process, the research can be considered as a balance between the source and the sink in space. Thus, the concepts of “source” and “sink” could be implemented to the research of landscape pattern and ecological processes. In this paper, a theory of sourcesink landscape was proposed, which include: (1) In the research of landscape pattern and ecological process, all landscape types can be divided into two groups, “source” landscape and “sink” landscape. “Source” landscape contributes positively to the ecological process, while “sink” landscape is unhelpful to the ecological process. (2) Both landscapes are recognized with regard to the specific ecological process. “Source” landscape in a target ecological process may change into a “sink” landscape as in another ecological process. Therefore, the ecological process should be determined before “source” or “sink” landscape were defined. (3) The key point to distinguish “source” landscape from “sink” landscape is to quantify the effect of landscape on ecological process. The positive effect is made by “source” landscape, and the negative effect by “sink” landscape. (4) For the same ecological process, the contribution of “source” landscapes may vary, and it is the same to the “sink” landscapes. It is required to determine the weight of each landscape type on ecological processes. (5) The sourcesink principle can be applied to non-point source pollution control, biologic diversity protection, urban heat island effect mitigation, etc. However, the landscape evaluation models need to be calibrated respectively, because different ecological processes correspond with different source-sink landscapes and evaluation models for the different study areas. This theory is helpful to further study landscape pattern and ecological process, and offers a basis for new landscape index design. __________ Translated from Acta Ecologica Sinica, 2006, 26(5): 1444–1449 [译自: 生态学报]     

Dynamic role of “illite-like” clay minerals in temperate soils: facts and hypotheses

Analysis of new data and reinterpretation of published information for clay minerals found in temperate climate soil profiles indicates that there is often a gradient of “illite-like” clay minerals with depth. We used the term “illite-like” because these observations are based on X-Ray Diffractogram patterns and not on layer charge measurements which allow to define properly illite. It appears that “illite-like” layers are concentrated in the upper, organic - rich portion of the soil profile both under grassland and forest vegetation. “Illite-like” layer quantity seems directly related to soil potassium status. Indeed, intensive agriculture practises without potassium fertilization reduce “illite-like” content in surface soils, whereas several years of potassic fertilization without plant growth can increase “illite-like” content. The potassic soil clay mineral, illite, is particularly important in that it can be the major source of readily available potassium for plants. Spatial and temporal dynamics of clay minerals should be related to the potassium cycle. We propose that the frequently observed general trend of increasing exchangeable potassium in the top soil can be correlated with an increase in “illite-like” in the clays and that the decrease of potassium caused by intensive agricultural practices leads to “illite-like” layer destabilization. This vision of “illite-like” layer as a potassium reservoir refueled by plants and emptied by intensive cropping renews the concept of potassium availability and indicates a need to be discussed as well in natural ecosystems as in cultivated ecosystems.     

J D Bernal (1901–1971) in perspective

Conclusion We must conclude that the sub-title of Bernal’s “The Social Function of Science” — “What science does: what science could do” is still the relevant challenge and indicates Bernal’s chief contribution, besides the foundation of molecular biology to our civilization. It is manifest that resources spent on armaments are a monstrous pathological symptom of our social structure. The ancient problem of “what is property” and what may be “owned” and by whom or by what organs of society is awakening.     

Linear-no-threshold is a radiation-protection standard rather than a mechanistic effect model

The linear-no-threshold (LNT) controversy covers much more than the mere discussion whether or not “the LNT hypothesis is valid”. It is shown that one cannot expect to find only one or even the only one dose–effect relationship. Each element within the biological reaction chain that is affected by ionizing radiation contributes in a specific way to the final biological endpoint of interest. The resulting dose–response relationship represents the superposition of all these effects. Till now there is neither a closed and clear picture of the entirety of radiation action for doses below some 10 mSv, nor does clear epidemiological evidence exist for an increase of risk for stochastic effects, in this dose range. On the other hand, radiation protection demands for quantitative risk estimates as well as for practicable dose concepts. In this respect, the LNT concept is preferred against any alternative concept. However, the LNT concept does not necessarily mean that the mechanism of cancer induction is intrinsically linear. It could hold even if the underlying multi-step mechanisms act in a non-linear way. In this case it would express a certain “attenuation” of non-linearities. Favouring LNT against threshold-, hyper-, or sub-linear models for radiation-protection purposes on the one hand, but preferring one of these models (e.g. for a specific effect) because of biological considerations for scientific purposes on the other hand, does not mean a contradiction.     

The Moral Aesthetics of Simulated Suffering in Standardized Patient Performances

Standardized patient (SP) performances are staged clinical encounters between health-professional students and people who specialize in role-playing the part of patients. Such performances have in recent years become increasingly central to the teaching and assessment of clinical skills in U.S. medical schools. SP performances are valued for being both “real” (in that they involve interaction with a real person, unlike written examinations) and “not real” (in that the SP does not actually suffer from the condition portrayed, unlike an actual patient). This article considers how people involved in creating SP performances reconcile a moral commitment to avoid suffering (to keep it “not real”), with an aesthetic commitment to realistically portray it (to keep it “real”). The term “moral aesthetic” is proposed, to indicate a sensibility that combines ideas about what is morally right with ideas about what is aesthetically compelling. Drawing on ethnographic research among SPs and SP program staff and medical faculty who work closely with them, this article argues that their work of creating “realism” in simulated clinical encounters encompasses multiple different (and sometimes conflicting) understandings and practices of realism, informed by three different moral aesthetics: (1) a moral aesthetic of induction, in which an accurate portrayal with a well-documented provenance serves to introduce experientially distant forms of suffering; (2) a moral aesthetic of inoculation, in which the authenticity and emotional impact of a performance are meant to inoculate students against the impact of future encounters with suffering; (3) a moral aesthetic of presence, generating forms of voice and care that are born out of the embodied presence of suffering individuals in a clinical space. All are premised on the assumption that risk and suffering can be banished from SP performances. This article suggests, however, that SP performances necessarily raise the same difficult, important, fundamentally ethical questions that are always involved in learning from and on human beings who are capable of suffering, and who need and deserve recognition and respect as well as care.     

Circumscription of Malvaceae (Malvales) as determined by a preliminary cladistic analysis of morphological, anatomical, palynological, and chemical characters

We report a phylogenetic analysis of “core” Malvales (Tiliaceae, Sterculiaceae, Bombacaceae, and Malvaceae) based on morphological, anatomical, palynological, and chemical features. The results of the analyses lead to the conclusion that Tiliaceae, Sterculiaceae, and Bombacaceae, as variously delimited, are paraphyletic; only the Malvaceae are likely monophyletic. The genera of “core” Malvales form a well-defined clade. Genera of “Tiliaceae” constitute the basal complex within “core” Malvales. The “Sterculiaceae” (most genera)+ “Bombacaceae” + Malvaceae form a clade on the basis of a monadelphous androecium; “Bombacaceae”+ Malvaceae also form a clade, which is diagnosable on the basis of monoloculate anthers. It is clear that the traditional classification, with its arbitrarily delimited evolutionary grades, is unsatisfactory, especially if one seeks to reflect phylogeny accurately. Thus, Malvaceae is redefined to refer to the most recent common ancestor of plants previously considered to be “Tiliaceae,” “Sterculiaceae,” “Bombacaceae,” and Malvaceae, and all of the descendants of that ancestor. This broadly circumscribed Malvaceae can be diagnosed by several presumed synapomorphies, but we draw special attention to the unusual floral nectaries that are composed of densely packed, multicellular, glandular hairs on the sepals (or less commonly on the petals or androgynophore).     

“Girney” vocalizations among Japanese macaque females: Context and function

One vocalization in the Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata) system of communication is the “girney.” Previous studies indicated that the “girney” is used for short range communication and that it tends to occur when subordinate animals approach and groom dominant ones and when females without infants approach females who have infants. Data were collected on the social behavior of adult female Japanese monkeys of the Arashiyama-A troop in Texas in order to test those results. The study indicates that “girneys” are the most frequently occurring vocalizations of females during and following the birth season and that they occur primarily in two contexts. Those are the proximity of a female to another female with a new infant and the proximity of a lower ranking animal to a higher ranking one. The contexts are ones in which the risk of aggression is high, and the “girneys” appear to function as appeasement gestures to reduce the risk.     

Amerindian cannibalism: practice and discursive strategy

This paper examines certain colonial and contemporary texts for their representations of Amerindian cannibalism during the Columbian period. Colonial texts from this period describe cannibalism as one of the Amerindians’ major “offences” against humanity. Some contemporary studies criticize this depiction of Amerindian cannibalism as a “myth” perpetrated by colonizers and their apologists to justify the enslavement and genocide of Amerindians. On the one hand colonial texts fall prey to an ethnocentric view of cannibalism; on the other hand contemporary texts explain away this amply documented cultural phenomenon. While the two positions appear to be at variance with each other, it is suggested that what they hold in common is a schema of analyzing culture that does not easily admit the existence of a phenomenon that is “Other” without explaining it as a totalized alterity or without explaining it away. Both positions thus help reinscribe the Wild Savage-Noble Savage stereotypes. ...each man calls barbarism, whatever is not his own practice ... Michel De Montaigne     

THE NEW PARADIGM OF RECOVERY FROM SCHIZOPHRENIA: CULTURAL CONUNDRUMS OF IMPROVEMENT WITHOUT CURE

This article is a qualitative investigation of the subjective experience of recovery from the perspective of persons living with schizophrenia-related disorders. An NIMH-sponsored ethnographic study of community outpatient clinics was completed for 90 persons taking second-generation antipsychotic medications. Research diagnostic criteria and clinical ratings were obtained in tandem with an anthropologically developed Subjective Experience of Medication Interview (SEMI) that elicits narrative data on everyday life and activities, medication and treatment, management of symptoms, expectations concerning recovery, and stigma. Ethnographic observations from diverse settings (clinics, public transportation, restaurants, homes) were also obtained. The primary findings are that recovery was experienced in relation to low levels of symptoms, the need to take medications to avoid hospitalization or psychotic episodes, and personal agency to struggle against the effects of illness. The majority of participants articulated their sense of illness recovery and expectation that their lives would improve. Improvement and recovery is an incremental, yet definitively discernable subjective process. Several problems were identified as part of this process surrounding cultural conflicts that generate the experience of ambivalence analyzed here as the “paradox of recovery without cure,” irreconcilable “catch-22” dilemmas involving sacrifice (e.g., one must be “fat” or be “crazy”), and substantial stigma despite improvement in illness and everyday life experience.