Spatio-temporal variation in a seed bank of a semi-arid region in northeastern Brazil

This study aimed to evaluate variations in the seed bank within a 3-year temporal series in order to answer the following questions: 1) Does the seed bank's species richness and seed density differ among climatic seasons and between years? 2) Are there differences in the richness and density of seed banks between the litter and mineral soil? 3) Can the seed bank's species richness and seed density be explained by characteristics such as the previous year's precipitation and soil depth (litter or mineral soil)? The samples were collected from litter and mineral soil (0–5 cm), in 210 sub-plots, during the dry and rainy seasons of each year (August 2005 through February 2008). Overall, 79 species were recorded. On average, 1 168, 304 and 302 seeds.m⁻² were recorded in the seed bank during years I, II and III, respectively. This study showed that the Caatinga's seed bank is rich in herbaceous species, yet species' density and richness are low in the litter. Furthermore, about 43% of the variation in species richness and density was explained by soil depth (litter and mineral soil) and previous years' rainfall.     

Eye bank's success due to vision of its founders.

In 1955, the Eye Bank of Canada introduced Canadians to the idea of postmortem tissue donation. The long-time administrator of the bank''s Ontario Division, Anne Wolf, recalls the organization''s early days and how the management of donated corneas became a family affair.     

Skin tone,biracial stratification and tri-racial stratification among sperm donors

Abstract

Conception through donor insemination is an attractive option for many couples and single women in the USA, being a relatively simple and inexpensive way of having a baby by a biological birth. Sperm banks provide online catalogues in which sperm donors can be selected according to their physical and social characteristics. One sperm bank's catalogue was analysed based on the pregnancy of selected donors. Three hypotheses were tested related to colourism, biracial stratification and tri-racialism. Specifically, the selection of donors did not reflect: (1) any general preference for a lighter skin tone; (2) a black–white polarity; or (3) any trend towards tri-racialism. Donors who could be identified as Jewish or Muslim were more likely to be selected. Donors whose major was law were less likely to be selected.     

Intimate Territories and the Experimental Subject in Ladakh,India

Abstract

This paper explores the management of reproduction and sexuality as experimental political practice. In Leh District of India's Jammu and Kashmir State, vote bloc politics and a tenuous geopolitical context highlight the reproductive body's potential to maintain political and territorial control through demographic trends. Conflict between the Buddhist majority and Muslim minority is articulated partly through the regulation of fertility and sexuality. Population is described as a zero-sum game in which each side acquires or cedes territory; activists and religious leaders experiment with the body as a territorial tool. These projects collide with the hopes and fears of women and men considering love, marriage, pregnancy, and contraceptive use. This paper draws on research conducted in 2004 and 2007–2009 to explore how women's desiring and reproductive bodies are folded into geopolitical experiments, how women cope under this experimental regime, and the ways that they turn to a tactic of ‘not knowing.’     

Evaluation of cell substrates for the production of biologicals: Revision of WHO recommendations: Report of the WHO Study Group on Cell Substrates for the Production of Biologicals, 22–23 April 2009, Bethesda,USA

Evaluating cell substrates for producing vaccines and other biologicals is one of the critical aspects in assuring quality and safety of these products. As part of its mission in setting standards for biological products, WHO provides recommendations for manufacturing and evaluating biologicals. Regular updates of the guidance documents are important to manufacturers and regulators worldwide. WHO Expert Committee on Biological Standardization (ECBS) identified a need for revising the requirements for cell substrates (WHO TRS 878, annex 1). In response, WHO established a Study Group (SG) in 2006 that prepared an updated set of recommendations for using cell substrates for the production of biologicals. A summary of the proposed changes that the SG made in 2007 is available at WHO web site (http://www.who.int/biologicals/publications/meetings/areas/vaccines/cells/en/index.html). Draft revised recommendations were circulated to regulators, manufacturers and other experts for comments in April 2009.The SG held its third meeting on 22–23 April 2009 to review progress in the revision and to propose further improvements. In addition, the experts discussed the need for reference preparations, reference cell banks, and standardization of testing methodologies. The SG proposed clarifications of the rationale for in vivo testing as well as the potential for applying new methods for in vitro testing for detecting microbial agents. In line with this, WHO should conduct review of the current manufacturers' practice in using tests for microbial agents and interpreting these results. Additionally, WHO should take a lead in developing an International Standard for nucleic acid amplification test (NAT) for detecting mycoplasma contamination in cell substrates. WHO Collaborating Centers will lead this initiative, involving other relevant institutions in this area. Finally, advice on the replacement of the WHO Vero reference cell bank 10–87 with respect to the source of cells and re-characterization of the bank was provided. The intended use of the replacement cell bank would be the same as for the current cell bank, which is to serve as a source of well-characterized cells for establishing master cell banks for the production of biologicals. The SG will report outcomes of its discussion to the ECBS at its next meeting in October 2009 for further considerations and advice regarding the proposed course of action.     

‘Beauty Is No Quality in Things Themselves’: Epistemic Motivation Affects Implicit Preferences for Art

Art preferences are affected by a number of subjective factors. This paper reports two studies which investigated whether need for closure shapes implicit art preferences. It was predicted that higher need for closure would negatively affect implicit preferences for abstract art. In study one, 60 participants were tested for dispositional need for closure and then completed an Implicit Association Test (IAT) task to measure their implicit preference for abstract (vs. figurative) paintings. In study two, 54 participants completed the same IAT task. In this experiment need for closure was both manipulated by cognitive load and tapped as a dispositional trait. Results of the studies converged in showing that after controlling for other important individual factors such as participants''expertise and cognitive ability, need for closure, both as a dispositional trait and as a situationally induced motivational state, was negatively associated with implicit preference for abstract art.     

Environment,livelihood and household: The ethno‐history of Rana Tharus Badaghar households

This paper focuses on the changes occurring in households in the indigenous Rana Tharus community. I discuss the household not in terms of physical structure but instead on the social aspects: how people relate to each other through the lens of the household context. I argue that the fluid nature of households makes its flexible to different ecological environments and socio‐economic scenarios. My ethnography of Rana households clearly illustrated that the formation, structure and management of Rana households was fundamentally linked to people's livelihoods. Before 1950s, abundant land resources allowed Ranas to live in joint‐type households. This particular household arrangement not only fulfilled labour needs but also secured the mutual security for every household member. Gradually, undivided and big households (known in Rana as Badaghar) became the ideal model for Ranas as soon as such establishments did not become divided or separated. This household structure also served as an important safety net for most Ranas and fundamental to other social relationships especially Mukhiya (household head system) and Kurmaa (patrilineal kin). However, since the 1950s, new socio‐economic landscapes have significantly challenged the maintenance of traditional Rana households. Within the lifetime of most Ranas, they first experienced household fission and the disappearance of the Mukhiya system. The dynamic relationships between Rana household and new ecological, social and economic landscapes are explored here. It is concluded that the household is a critical institution allowing anthropologists to better understand the long‐term social impacts caused by state policies and ecological changes. This is because people often practice their new household relations in their everyday life as a response to environmental and livelihood changes.     

Re-embodying Sand Drawing and Re-evaluating the Status of the Camp: The Practice and Iconography of Women's Public Sand Drawing in Balgo,W.A.

The documentation of Aboriginal women's sand-drawing practice in Central Australia has to date been based largely on Munn's research amongst the Warlpiri at Yuendumu. Data from Kutjungka women from the Balgo area of Western Australia show that there are marked geographic differences in the styles of public sand drawing used by women from the two areas, as well as differences in gender coding between the two systems. The account of Balgo women's public sand drawing presented here uses methodologies grounded in recent developments in phenomenology, practice theory and embodiment theory, to examine layers of meaning encoded in this everyday practice. It suggests that women's public sand drawing in this area is linked to Kutjungka thought about the Dreaming, through webs of thought about the significance of penetrating the surface of the land, in some ways foreshadowing aspects of the women's ceremonial practices. This account suggests that the relationship between male and female ‘graphic’ systems may be more accurately described as dialogical than dichotomous.     

肝CT灌注成像技术在肝脏肿瘤应用现状、存在的问题及展望

CT灌注成像(CT perfusion imaging,CTPI)作为一种功能成像技术可无创性评估靶目标的血流动力学情况。自1993年Mile等首次报道其在肝脏肿瘤的应用以来,随着工业技术的进步,软硬件的更新,既往CTPI存在的问题,诸如,辐射剂量过高,扫描协议缺乏标准化,呼吸运动伪影,结果可重复性问题,扫描范围较小等问题均得到了不同程度的改善,使其在肝脏肿瘤应用中表现出了巨大的潜力。众所周知,CTPI的出现弥补了传统形态学成像方式对肿瘤的早期诊断,预后评估,检测新型分子靶向药物疗效等的不足。本文总结了近年来肝CTPI技术在肝肿瘤应用现状、存在的问题及未来展望。     

Ethnonationalism,ethnic nationalism,and mini‐nationalism: A comparison of Connor,Smith and Snyder

Some terms have been coined to highlight the important relation between nationalism and ethnicity. However, there has been much confusion as to the meaning of such concepts as ‘ethnonationalism’, ‘ethnic nationalism’ and ‘mini‐nationalism’. This article compares the three terms, as used respectively in the works of Walker Connor, Anthony Smith and Louis Snyder. These scholars are selected not only because of their well‐respected position in the study of nationalism but also because their works are representative of each of the three concepts. The comparison finds that since both Connor and Smith emphasized the ethnic dimension of nationalism, their ideas can be presented in one analytical framework. In fact, Connor's ‘ethnonationalism’ and Smith's ‘ethnic nationalism’ overlap with each other. However, Smith's theory of nationalism is comprehensive enough to take care of the fact that the nationalisms of many new states of today's world have no ethnic base at all, whereas Connor's analysis makes no mention of this. In this respect, Smith's model is preferred to that of Connor. Finally, Snyder's ‘mini‐nationalism’ is seen as the least useful concept, since the use of size rather than ethnicity to classify nationalisms does not increase our understanding of the concept.     

E. E. Just's broad,yet hidden,influence on modern cell and developmental biology

This year, 2019, marks the centennial of embryologist E. E. Just's discovery of what is known as the fast block to polyspermy. Just's observation of the subtle changes that occur at the egg's surface during fertilization (and in experimental parthenogenesis) led him to postulate that the egg, and indeed every cell, possesses a property he called independent irritability, which represents the cell's ability to respond in a physiologically‐relevant way to a variety of signals or triggers. In this paper, I argue that Just's concept of independent irritability informed his contemporary Johannes Holtfreter as Holtfreter attempted to explain the phenomena of embryonic induction and competence and that Holtfreter, in turn, influenced Marc Kirschner and John Gerhart in their formulation of the theory of facilitated variation. Just's influence is especially evident in Gerhart and Kirschner's presentations of what they call weak linkage—a property of living systems that allows core processes and components to be mixed and matched in different ways to generate novel traits. Unfortunately, the connection between Holtfreter's work and Just's has remained hidden. This paper gives examples of phenomena that exhibit weak linkage, and it lays out the case that Just's concept of independent irritability, through Holtfreter, Gerhart, and Kirschner, has broadly infiltrated modern cell and developmental biology.     

Composition and diversity of herbaceous patches in woody vegetation: The effects of grazing,soil seed bank,patch spatial properties and scale

Herbaceous plants contribute much to plant diversity in Mediterranean-type ecosystems though mostly occupying relatively small patches within the dense woody vegetation. While studying species diversity in the herbaceous patches, we hypothesized that grazing, soil seed bank, and spatial properties of the patch affect plant diversity and composition at different spatial scales. The study site was in an LTER site located in the Mediterranean region in north Israel. We determined herbaceous species composition in: (1) randomly sampled quadrats in herbaceous patches in grazed and un-grazed plots; (2) soil seed bank samples taken from the same patches and germinated under optimal greenhouse conditions; (3) quadrats in the same patches sown with a homogenous mixture of local soil samples. Using GIS methods, we determined small-scale spatial characteristics of the herbaceous patches. Alpha and beta diversities were calculated at the patch and plot scales using Shannon's entropy H. Grazing increased alpha diversity of local untreated seed bank samples but decreased alpha diversity of the artificial homogenous soil seed bank mixture at both patch and plot scales. Positive relation between alpha diversity and patch area was detected only under grazing. Grazing increased beta diversity in all three treatments at the patch scale. Grazing decreased the similarity in species composition between above-ground vegetation and soil seed bank. The results indicate that moderate cattle-grazing affects species diversity in the herbaceous patches within the dense maquis. This effect is scale-dependent, and interacts with the effects of soil seed bank and patch spatial-properties: without grazing soil seed bank plays a more important role than patch spatial properties, but under grazing the size and the accessibility of the patch are more important in the determination of herbaceous species composition.     

Chemical machines, Maxwell's demon and living organisms

The problem considered in this paper is whether conventional chemical machines can be used in living organisms. I first point out that, due to their molecular nature, living systems pose unique thermodynamic problems, particularly in relation to Maxwell's demon. I then show that these problems may be solved by introducing time into the fundamental statement of the second law so that it becomes valid at the molecular level. This proposal, while clarifying certain logical anomalies in classical thermodynamics, makes no difference to that science in practice. However, I deduce from this statement that there are only two general ways of obtaining useful work from a chemical reaction: the first, a “constrained equilibrium” mechanism, is that employed by conventional chemical engines, but the second, a “molecular energy” mechanism, which depends upon the rapidity of resonant energy-transfer, may not have been suggested before. I then argue that because the former mechanism is essentially macroscopic in character it cannot, in fact, be used in those biological processes, like muscular contraction or active transport, in which useful molecular work is done and that only the latter may be so used. I also suggest reasons why this conclusion has been overlooked. Muscular contraction is used to illustrate these arguments and it is shown that all models of this process so far proposed fall into the first category. Although it is possible to eliminate such models a priori, several examples are finally criticized in detail to clarify the points raised. It is shown that in fact each of these models would have to be a Maxwell's demon machine.     

Immunofluorescence Identification of Thermopolyspora polyspora,the Causative Agent of Farmer's Lung

Farmer''s lung is a serious disabling pulmonary disease found in agricultural workers. The disease is believed to be a hypersensitivity to the thermophilic actinomycetes, principally Thermopolyspora polyspora. This organism is difficult to stain with the usual bacteriological stains and thus far has not been demonstrated in the lung tissue by microscopic methods. In this paper, it is demonstrated that the fluorescent-antibody technique is a simple method for the positive identification of T. polyspora. The technique can also be used as a rapid screening test for the detection of antibodies to T. polyspora in the patient''s serum. In addition, it opens up the possibility of the identification of T. polyspora in the lung tissue of patients with farmer''s lung and makes available a means for the study of the immunological reaction in the lung parenchyma. No false positive or cross-reactions with Thermoactinomyces vulgaris or Streptomyces griseus could be demonstrated.     

Field of genes: the politics of science and identity in the Estonian genome project

This case study of the Estonian Genome Project (EGP) analyses the Estonian policy decision to construct a national human gene bank. Drawing upon qualitative data from newspaper articles and public policy documents, it focuses on how proponents use discourse to link the EGP to the broader political goal of securing Estonia's position within the Western/European scientific and cultural space. This dominant narrative is then situated within the analytical notion of the “brand state”, which raises potentially negative political consequences for this type of market‐driven genomic research. Considered against the increasing number of countries engaging in gene bank and/or gene database projects, this analysis of Estonia elucidates issues that cross national boundaries, while also illuminating factors specific to this small, post‐Soviet state as it enters the global biocybernetic economy.     

Prospective Environmental Analyses of Emerging Technology: A Critique,a Proposed Methodology,and a Case Study on Incremental Sheet Forming

Prospective environmental assessment of emerging technology is necessary in order to inform designers of beneficial changes early in a technology's development, and policy makers looking to fund projects and nudge manufacturers toward the most sustainable application of a technology. Existing analyses often have shortcomings such as failing to consider the environmental impacts in all stages of a product's life cycle; implicitly assuming that the emerging technology will be cost‐effective wherever it is technically viable; and assuming optimistic application scenarios that discontinue long‐established trends in human behavior. In this article, we propose a new approach, complementary to the prospective and anticipatory life cycle assessment literature, addressing the above concerns and attempting to make sense of the large uncertainties inherent in such analyses by using distributions to model all the inputs. The paper focuses on emerging manufacturing technologies, such as incremental sheet forming (ISF), but the issues examined are also applicable to new end‐use products, such as autonomous vehicles. This paper makes use of approaches (such as Bass modeling and product cannibalization considerations) familiar to those in the business community who anticipate market diffusion of a new technology and the effect on existing technology sales. The proposed methodology is demonstrated by estimating the potential environmental impacts in the U.S. car industry by 2030 of an emerging double‐sided ISF process. Energy and cost models of ISF and drawing are used to estimate potential mean savings of around 100 TJ_primary and 60 million U.S. dollars per year by 2030.     

Collapsing fish stocks,gendered economies,and anxieties of entrapment in coastal Sierra Leone

This article explores the economic negotiations between Sierra Leonean fishermen and the women who compete to buy their fish, tracing how relationships of gendered intimacy and interdependence are being reconfigured in a context of deepening economic precarity. Fish stocks in Sierra Leone are in crisis. Fisherfolk look back with nostalgia to a past in which bountiful harvests had made it possible for transactions of fish to be simple and impersonal. Today, by contrast, it is almost impossible for women to access fish without working to develop strong personal relationships with fishermen: deploying gifts of food, loans of money, and even secret ‘medicines’ to secure the loyalty of potential customers. I analyse how men and women reflect on their growing impoverishment through discourses that emphasize their moral ambivalence at being drawn back into webs of interpersonal dependency, and argue that these anxieties need to be understood in the context of Sierra Leone's history of domestic slavery.     

Alberta's Rural Physician Action Plan: an integrated approach to education,recruitment and retention

This paper describes the development and characteristics of a comprehensive, integrated and sustained program for the education, recruitment and retention of physicians for rural practice in Alberta--the Rural Physician Action Plan. The participation of key stakeholders (including government, the provincial medical association, the licensing authority, faculties of medicine, practising rural physicians and regional health authorities) and a sustained program budget have been key organizational issues for success. Critical to the effectiveness of this program has been the focus on professional and lifestyle issues targeting 3 distinct groups: physicians in training, physicians in practice, and rural communities and health authorities. Substantial program funding since 1991-92 of up to $3 million per year has increased rural-based activities significantly. For example, 87% of medical students and 91% of residents in family medicine in Alberta now experience 4 weeks or more of rural practice. The authors believe that the historic issues and recent trends militating against recruitment and retention of rural physicians will continue unchecked without comprehensive and sustained approaches such as Alberta''s Rural Physician Action Plan.