Shan Calendrical Systems: The Everyday Use of Esoteric Knowledge

In this paper I examine the Shan calendrical system as an aspect of exoteric knowledge. To do this I first place the communities I lived in and the experts I consulted in the context of Shan communities and Shan experts. Next I provide a brief account of the Shan calendrical system as I learned it from local experts. I then discuss what everyday people know about the system and age and gender variation in the extent of knowledge. In order to understand this variation. I briefly describe Shan conception of knowledge and power and the place of Buddhism in this system. I go on to explore how one acquires expert status, how experts use calendrical knowledge, and why people consult experts.     

The changing status of the Brown hare (Lepus capensis L.) in Britain

Game bag records are used to examine temporal and geographical changes in numbers of Brown hares. Records are taken from a survey made by the Oxford Bureau of Animal Population in 1938, which covered over 400 estates, and from the Game Conservancy's National Game Census, which has been monitoring shooting records of between 400 and 500 estates since 1961. Eastern regions of Britain had higher bags of hares than western regions in the three periods; 1891–1910, 1917–1936, 1961–1978. Hare game bags were generally high in counties with large proportions of tilled land. There was no consistent temporal trend in bags from different areas before 1938, but all areas show a considerable reduction in bags since 1961. This reduction is statistically significant. Time-series analysis of one extended set of data did not show evidence of cyclic fluctuations.     

Demographic effects of temperature‐dependent sex determination: will tuatara survive global warming?

Global climate change is of particular concern for small and isolated populations of reptiles with temperature-dependent sex determination because low genetic variation can limit adaptive response in pivotal temperatures, leading to skewed sex ratios. We explore the demographic consequences of skewed sex ratios on the viability of a tuatara population characterized by low genetic diversity. We studied the rare species of tuatara ( Sphenodon guntheri ) on the 4 ha North Brother Island in New Zealand over two nesting seasons and captured 477 individuals, with a 60% male bias in the adult population. Females first breed at 15 years and have extremely low rates of gravidity, producing clutches of three to eight eggs every 9 years. Simulations of the population using population viability analysis showed that the current population is expected to persist for at least 2000 years at hatchling sex ratios of up to 75% male, but populations with 85% male hatchlings are expected to become extinct within approximately 300 years (some eight generations). Incorporation of inbreeding depression increased the probability of extinction under male biased sex ratios, with no simulated populations surviving at hatchling sex ratios >75% male. Because recent models have predicted that climate change could lead to the production of all male S. guntheri hatchlings by 2085, we examined whether periodic intervention to produce mixed or female biased sex ratios would allow the population to survive if only males were produced in natural nests. We show that intervention every 2–3 years could buffer the effects of climate change on population sex ratios, but translocation to cooler environs might be more cost-effective. Climate change threatens tuatara populations because neither modified nesting behaviour nor adaptive response of the pivotal temperature can modify hatchling sex ratios fast enough in species with long generation intervals.     

Do alternate escape tactics provide a means of compensation for impaired performance ability?

Whole‐animal performance abilities can facilitate the avoidance of predation and consequently influence fitness, but determining the functional significance of antipredation tactics is difficult without understanding how alternate predator escape strategies are related. We measured maximal sprint speed and dive duration in the semi‐aquatic skink Oligosoma suteri to determine how morphology and behaviour influence these alternate predator escape techniques and the relationship between the two measures. Gravid females and juveniles ran significantly slower, but had equivalent or longer dive durations than males and nongravid females. The two performance measures were not influenced by the same morphological and behavioural traits, and were not correlated among individuals. Thus, individuals that are poor sprinters because of their state (e.g. gravid or tail‐less individuals) would have a greater likelihood of successful escape by adopting an alternate escape strategy. For species that use multiple strategies for the same function, quantifying selection on whole‐animal performance will be difficult. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 99 , 241–249.     

STAKEHOLDER PERSPECTIVES ON ETHICAL CHALLENGES IN HIV VACCINE TRIALS IN SOUTH AFRICA

There is little published literature on the ethical concerns of stakeholders in HIV vaccine trials. This study explored the ethical challenges identified by various stakeholders, through an open-ended, in-depth approach. While the few previous studies have been largely quantitative, respondents in this study had the opportunity to spontaneously identify the issues that they perceived to be of priority concern in the South African context. Stakeholders spontaneously identified the following as ethical priorities: informed consent, social harms, collaborative relationships between research stakeholders, the participation of children and adolescents, access to treatment for participants who become infected with HIV, physical harms, fair participant and community selection, confidentiality, benefits, and payment.
While there is some speculation that research in developing countries poses special ethical challenges, overall no issues were identified that have not been anticipated in international guidance, literature and popular frameworks. However, the South African context affords a distinctive gloss to these expected issues; for example, respondents were concerned that the predominant selection of black participants may perpetuate racist practices of apartheid. Stakeholders should be aware of contextual factors impacting on the implementation of ethical principles. We make a series of recommendations for South African trials, including amendments to the ethical-legal framework and research policies, and, for further research.