The frog fauna of Groote Eylandt, Northern Territory, Australia

The results are reported of a survey of the frog fauna of Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia. The fauna includes 13 species representing the families Hylidae and Leptodactylidae. The zoogeographic implications of the absence of certain species widely distributed on the mainland are discussed.     

Status of mammals on Groote Eylandt: Safe haven or slow burn?

Native mammals across northern Australia have suffered severe decline, with feral cats (Felis catus), introduced herbivores and changed fire regimes being implicated as drivers. However, uncertainty surrounding the relative contribution of each of these threats, and the interactions between them, is limiting the development of effective management strategies. The absence of introduced herbivores and cane toads (Rhinella marina) on Groote Eylandt, Northern Territory, provides an opportunity to evaluate some hypothesised threats in isolation of others. We used camera traps to investigate the correlates of native mammal distribution and abundance at 112 lowland savanna sites across Groote Eylandt. Two large grids of camera traps were also deployed to obtain estimates of feral cat density. We hypothesised that native mammal populations would be negatively associated with feral cat occupancy as well as frequent, large fires. Native mammal site‐occupancy on Groote Eylandt was generally higher compared to mainland Northern Territory. Feral cats were infrequently detected, precluding both an estimate of feral cat density and an evaluation of the relationship between feral cats and native mammals. We found no evidence that native mammal site‐occupancy or relative abundance is negatively associated with frequent, large fires. The relatively healthy state of native mammal populations on Groote Eylandt is likely due to the low density of feral cats, the benign fire regime and the absence of large introduced herbivores and cane toads. However, due to a lack of historical data, the current state of mammals should not be taken as evidence that these populations are safe from decline. This study highlights that the apparent resilience of mammal populations is a result of complex interactions between factors that vary substantially across the landscape. Caution is therefore required when making broad inferences about the drivers of mammal decline from studies that are spatially and temporally limited.     

Recommendation on methodical instructions on the collection of rumen juice

Abstract

for subject 9.2 ?Use of non-protein-nitrogen compounds in ruminant feeding“, prepared by the COMECON work-group on the occasion of the Methodical Conference held from 6th to 11th of February, 1969.

in Berlin, German Democratic Republic.

(Participating countries: People's Republic of Bulgaria, Hungarian People's Republic, German Democratic Republic, People's Republic of Poland, Roumanian Socialist Republic, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic).     

East-Side story: the standardisation of psychotropic drugs at the Charité Psychiatric Clinic, 1955-1970

The present article illustrates the history of psychotropic drugs introduced in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1945 onwards. We begin by examining the introduction of an anti-depressant and a tranquilizer at the university psychiatric clinic, Charité, in East Berlin. On the basis of patient files, we consider the monitoring routines, altered by the use of psychotropic drugs, and the difficulties that arose when these routines were translated into existing research programs. In the 1960s, attempts to evaluate the psychiatric practice were based on psychopathology whereas at the end of the 1960s there was a shift to “target symptoms”.     

Reflections on Grant Evans’ The Politics of Ritual and Remembrance: Laos since 1975

In this article I reflect on Grant Evans’ landmark and influential The Politics of Ritual and Remembrance: Laos since 1975, the way in which this book relates to the transformation from socialism to post‐socialism in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), to the crisis of legitimacy of the communist regime, and to issues of social memory, Buddhism, nationalism, iconography, and ethnic minorities. I also consider how other scholars have engaged with The Politics of Ritual and Remembrance both critically and supportively since the publication of the monograph in 1998 . I include in my analysis some observations on Evans’ quite radical change in political views over his career as a student, journalist and academic, culminating in his critique of socialism in general and the LPDR in particular and his controversial sympathy for the Lao monarchy.     

From the Murray to the Mekong: Grant Evans' life and fieldwork

This article presents glimpses of the life and fieldwork of Grant Evans, the foremost anthropologist and historian to work on Laos in recent decades. It explores his youth in rural Australia, his tumultuous student years, and the challenges he faced as a professional scholar negotiating the Lao PDR bureaucracy. It draws insights from some of his early writing for alternative publications in Australia, as well as extensive discussions and correspondence with family, friends, professional counterparts and former students. It identifies factors in Grant's early life that were instrumental in his ability to research the Lao PDR. Ultimately, Grant possessed wide‐ranging academic and non‐academic interests. He was highly respected as a scholar and was a very decent human being.     

Recommendation on the Methodics of Determining some Metabolic Products contained in rumen juice and blood

Abstract

for subject 9.2 ?Use of non-protein-nitrogen compounds in ruminant feeding“, prepared by the Comecon work-group on the occasion of the Methodical Conference held from 6th to 11th of February, 1969, in Berlin, German Democratic Republic.

for subject 9.2 ?Use of non-protein-nitrogen compounds in ruminant feeding“, prepared by the Comecon work-group on the occasion of the Methodical Conference held from 6th to 11th of February, 1969, in Berlin, German Democratic Republic.     

Acrobat to academic: A sketch of the life and carrer of Frederick E. Samson,Jr.

Fred Samson's carrer began in osteopathy and show business. After service as a medic during World War II, he earned, a doctoral degree in physiology at the University of Chicago and joined the faculty of the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1952. There he conducted pioneering research on cerebral energy metabolism and axoplasmic transport while inspiring a generation of students in the classroom and lab. During the mid 1960s, he began a fruitful and lasting collaboration with the Neurosciences Research Program and its founder, Francis O. Schmitt. In 1973 he became director of the Ralph Smith Mental Retardation Research Center in Kansas City, where he added metabolic mapping of the brain in relation to seizure activity and drug toxicity to his research accomplishments. He retired in 1989, still pursuing new problems and continuing to inspire colleagues with his enthusiasm for neurochemistry and the joy of science.Special issue dedicated to Dr. Frederick E. Samson.     

An early chapter in behavioral physiology and sociobiology: the science of Martin Lindauer

The fields of behavioral physiology and sociobiology enjoyed spectacular success in post World War II Germany. One of the major contributors to this blossoming in behavioral science was Martin Lindauer, who furthered the research approach of his mentor (Karl von Frisch), made numerous seminal discoveries, and nurtured a strong next generation in the area of neurobiology and behavior. We review the scientific development of Martin Lindauer within the German academic system in the years surrounding World War II, examine his research approach and achievements, and discuss his unusually successful methods of scientific pedagogy.     

Differences in baseline lung cancer mortality between the German uranium miners cohort and the population of the former German Democratic Republic (1960–2003)

A previous analysis of the radon-related lung cancer mortality risk, in the German uranium miners cohort, using Poisson modeling techniques, noted internal (spontaneous) rates that were higher on average than the external rates by 16.5% (95% CI: 9%; 24%). The main purpose of the present paper is to investigate the nature of, and possible reasons for, this difference by comparing patterns in spontaneous lung cancer mortality rates in a cohort of male miners involved in uranium extraction at the former Wismut mining company in East Germany with national male rates from the former German Democratic Republic. The analysis is based on miner data for 3,001 lung cancer deaths, 1.76 million person-years for the period 1960–2003, and national rates covering the same calendar-year range. Simple “age–period–cohort” graphical analyses were applied to assess the main qualitative differences between the national and cohort baseline lung cancer rates. Some differences were found to occur mainly at higher attained ages above 70 years. Although many occupational risk factors may have contributed to these observed age differences, only the effects of smoking have been assessed here by applying the Peto–Lopez indirect method for calculating smoking attributability. It is inferred that the observed age differences could be due to the greater prevalence of smoking and more mature smoking epidemic in the Wismut cohort compared to the general population of the former German Democratic Republic. In view of these observed differences between external population-based rates and internal (spontaneous) cohort baseline lung cancer rates, it is strongly recommended to apply only the internal rates in future analyses of uranium miner cohorts.     

Defending Scientific Freedom and Democracy: The Genetics Society of America’s Response to Lysenko

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the leaders of the Genetics Society of America (GSA) struggled to find an appropriate group response to Trofim Lysenko’s scientific claims and the Soviet treatment of geneticists. Although some of the leaders of the GSA favored a swift, critical response, procedural and ideological obstacles prevented them from following this path. Concerned about establishing scientific orthodoxy on one hand and politicizing the content of their science on the other, these American geneticists drew on democratic language and concepts as they engaged in this political issue. The relatively weak statements that did emerge from the GSA attracted little attention in the scientific or popular press. The intensely politicized atmosphere of American science complicated the GSA’s task, as domestic concerns about protecting democracy were beginning to constrain academic freedom. In the context of American Cold War culture, Lysenko became just one example of the dangers the Cold War world presented to scientific freedom.     

H. G. Bronn and the History of Nature

The German paleontologist H. G. Bronn is best remembered for his 1860 translation and critique of Darwin’s Origin of Species, and for supposedly twisting Darwinian evolution into conformity with German idealistic morphology. This analysis of Bronn’s writings shows, however, that far from being mired in an outmoded idealism that confined organic change to predetermined developmental pathways, Bronn had worked throughout the 1840s and 1850s on a new, historical approach to life. He had been moving from the study of plant and animal forms in the abstract towards placing them into geological and biogeographical context, analyzing patterns of progress and adaptation, explaining species diversity and individual variation, and applying biological insights to practical problems such as artificial breeding. Even though Bronn never fully accepted the idea of species transformation, he saw Darwin’s theory as a bold new move toward his own goal of establishing a comprehensive, historical science of life, and he presented it as such in his translation and commentary. Thus Darwin’s ideas gained a quick and generally favorable hearing in Germany not because of their easy assimilability into an older tradition, but because of their appeal to the innovative Bronn.     

The Cold War Context of the Golden Jubilee,Or, Why We Think of Mendel as the Father of Genetics

In September 1950, the Genetics Society of America (GSA) dedicated its annual meeting to a "Golden Jubilee of Genetics" that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the rediscovery of Mendel's work. This program, originally intended as a small ceremony attached to the coattails of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) meeting, turned into a publicity juggernaut that generated coverage on Mendel and the accomplishments of Western genetics in countless newspapers and radio broadcasts. The Golden Jubilee merits historical attention as both an intriguing instance of scientific commemoration and as an early example of Cold War political theatre. Instead of condemning either Lysenko or Soviet genetics, the Golden Jubilee would celebrate Mendel - and, not coincidentally, the practical achievements in plant and animal breeding his work had made possible. The American geneticists' focus on the achievements of Western genetics as both practical and theoretical, international, and, above all, non-ideological and non-controversial, was fully intended to demonstrate the success of the Western model of science to both the American public and scientists abroad at a key transition point in the Cold War. An implicit part of this article's argument, therefore, is the pervasive impact of the Cold War in unanticipated corners of postwar scientific culture.     

The skull of Combe Capelle

Since the end of World War II two of the most important anthropological artefacts of the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte in Berlin, the skulls and skeletons of Le Moustier and Combe Capelle, were believed to be missing or destroyed, respectively. The postcrania were severely damaged during a fire after the museum was bombed in February 1945, while the skulls were brought to the Soviet Union in 1945. In 1965, the skull of the Neanderthal man from Le Moustier and the chain of the grave of Combe Capelle were found amongst the art objects returned by the Soviet Union into the German Democratic Republic in 1958. However, the Combe Capelle skull was still missing. In the end of 2001 this skull could be found and identified in a store-house of the museum. Now, one the oldest known representatives of Homo sapiens sapiens is again available for scientific research and public exhibitions.     

Erhard Eylmann’s Missionary Position

ABSTRACT

The German anthropologist Erhard Eylmann relied heavily on assistance provided by missionaries when he undertook fieldwork in Australia. During two periods at the Hermannsburg mission he developed a strained relationship with Carl Strehlow. In his major work Eylmann wrote a damning critique of missionaries. While there was a level of personal animosity between Eylmann and Strehlow, at the heart of the antagonism were fundamental differences concerning the nature and function of the discipline of anthropology. The missionaries sought anthropological knowledge to promote mutual understanding, above all through language, as a prelude to conversion to Christianity. They proceeded from the assumption that the future of Indigenous Australians would be within the context of the adoption of Christian belief systems. Eylmann in contrast took the view that the differences between Europeans and Indigenous Australians were physical, essential and insuperable. Sceptical about the possibility of achieving mutual understanding, he devoted his fieldwork primarily to describing, recording and collecting for the purpose of assembling a detailed record of a population he believed destined for extinction. Eylmann and German missionary anthropologists such as Strehlow had in common that they stood outside the paradigm of British social evolutionistic thinking which dominated Australian anthropology around the turn of the century at the time. At the same time, the differences in the anthropological endeavours of Eylmann and Strehlow indicate the great breadth of approaches opening up within German anthropology. In particular they point to the emergence of an ‘antihumanist’ turn at the end of the nineteenth century.     

Technology and malaria control, 1930-1960: the career of Rockefeller Foundation engineer Frederick W. Knipe

Frederick W. Knipe was a malaria-control engineer with the Rockefeller Foundation, serving in Bulgaria, Albania, India, Mexico, Italy, and the United States. There were two phases to his career: from 1930 to 1943 he focused on drainage works that reduced or eliminated mosquito habitat, and from 1944 to 1960 he supervised DDT spraying programs. His appointments to the WHO Expert Committee on Insecticides, 1948-55, demonstrate that his contributions to malaria-control were highly regarded by his peers.     

THE THREE G's Meeting the Invertebrate Cell Culture Pioneers: Goldschmidt, Gaw, and Grace

It was my good fortune to meet personally the three invertebrate cell culture pioneers,Richard Goldschmidt,Zan-Yin Gaw,and Thomas D.C.Grace (Fig.1).In 1951 I met Goldschmidt at a symposium in Cold Spring Harbor,but I only knew that he was a prominent geneticist.I had no idea about his insect cell culture work at Yale University and daily contacts with Ross G.Harrison.In 1959 Zan Yin Gaw in Wuhan successfully cultured monolayers of silkworm cells for more than one year.I reported his breakthrough achievement at the 11th International Congress of Entomology in Vienna in 1960,but his work was completely ignored outside China.In 1982 Gaw invited me to Wuhan where he told me that he studied in the United States in the 1930s,working as postdoctoral scientist at the Rockefeller Institute,where he was daily meeting William Trager,and later at Yale University in the Osborn Laboratory,where he was inspired by Harrison.T.D.C.Grace worked in my laboratory at Rockefeller University during 1957 and 1958,then returned to CSIRO in Canberra,Australia.     

Evangelism,Ethnography and Linguistics: Carl Strehlow and J. R. B. Love

ABSTRACT

This article considers the intersection of evangelism, ethnography and linguistics in the work of two missionaries living among Aboriginal communities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Carl Strehlow was one of several German missionaries working in central Australia in the 1890s and into the twentieth century. J. R. B. Love met Strehlow briefly in 1913, but did not become a fully committed missionary himself until the 1920s. This paper first considers Strehlow’s evangelical, linguistic and ethnographic interests in relation to some of his German contemporaries, before comparing his approach to that of the younger, Presbyterian, Love to elucidate the inter-relationships between evangelism, linguistics and ethnography in the 1890s and early twentieth century in Australia.     

Beginning of pollen flight information in the former German Democratic Republic

Volumetric air sampling via the Burkard pollen and spore trap is described. The influence of meteorological factors on the occurrence of airborne pollen was investigated; the concentration of pollen grains is increased in strata of reduced vertical air exchange. A pollen flight information service has been developed since 1989 for Erfurt and other areas in the former German Democratic Republic.     

Polyploidy Among Isolates of Phytophthora infestans from Eastern Germany

The ploidy of 101 isolates of Phytophihora infestans from the eastern states of the Federal Republic of Germany (formerly the German Democratic Republic) was determined by Feulgen DNA microdensitometry. The isolates used in this investigation were collected during 11 growing seasons between 1976 and 1990. Fifty hyphal nuclei per isolate were used for DNA measurements. Polyploids predominated throughout the 15-year sampling period. Four of the isolates collected during 1989 were diploid. Based on the results of this investigation, there appears to have been no trend towards a diploid. sexual population during the sampling period.