The Texture of Events and the Stuff of Dreams: Jean Rouch at the Heart of Film and Anthropology

Too little known in the English‐speaking world, Jean Rouch died in 2004, leaving a prolific body of work. Influenced by the surrealists, by dance, cinema and music, his ‘shared anthropology’ and filmmaking began when he was an engineer in colonial West Africa during World War II—through friendship with African public works employees and revolt over the working and living conditions of the people forced to labour. Rouch saw his engineering, anthropology and filmmaking as creating with the concrete, ‘building bridges’. He did not renounce the ‘rational’, but wanted to supplement and broaden it with other ways of searching and knowing, always concerned with the relationship of the concrete material to the spiritual, dream and fantasy—working in the imaginative place where art meets science. This article discusses Rouch's ciné‐ethnography, focusing on a few of the many films he made.     

两例事故受照者染色体畸变分析及生物剂量估算

应用外周血淋巴细胞染色体畸变形和CB微核分析方法,对2000年河南许昌“3.06”^60Co辐射事故1例受照（A）和2000年河南开封“6.26”辐射事故一例过量放射性核素内污染致γ射线照射受照（B）的生物剂量进行估算。结果表明,“A”和“B”两例受照依据双＋环率估算的剂量分别为1.44Gy和0.15Gy,CB微核率估算的剂量分别为1.43Gy和0.22Gy,与用物理方法估算的剂量比较接近,亦与放射损伤的临床诊断一致。泊松分布检验证实,“A”偏离泊松分布,受到不均匀照射。提示染色体畸变和CB微核分析是非常可靠的生物计量估算方法。     

From Victim to Victor: “Breaking Bad” and the Dark Potential of the Terminally Empowered

As treatments for malignancies have improved incrementally over the preceding decades, patients with cancer have been encouraged to reject an attitude of hopelessness and to choose instead the role of fighters. The recasting of the cancer patient as warrior and winner, upheld through the Livestrong movement, reaches its monstrous apotheosis in the form of Walter White, the central figure in the AMC television series “Breaking Bad.” The story begins with Walt as the protagonist, but the arc of this conversion narrative transforms him into the antagonist, exploring the darkest potential of his post-diagnosis empowerment. His awareness of his own mortality enables him to take risks that his more rational, pre-cancer self would have avoided. Rather than being rendered impotent by fear of an impending death, he finds himself emboldened, liberated from behavioral norms, capable of heretofore-unthinkable violence and even murder. As Walt moves from victim to victor, the viewer realizes the perils of a survive-at-all-costs mentality and is forced to question their own, initially sympathetic perception of Walt. The series subverts the notion of the cancer patient made noble through struggle by portraying a man betrayed by his own body who then becomes willing to betray everything else in the amoral service of his pride.     

Le dossier Vavilov

Vavilov’s dossier. Gould revived the memory of N.I. Vavilov, a victim of the Stalinian system and misjudged among occidental evolutionists. His contribution is impressive in applied research (phytogeography, his list of world-wide plant resources, a unique collection of germplasms intact and always available) as well as in theoretical research work on artificial selection, immunitary relationships between parasite and plant, the bases of his Law of homologous series in hereditary variations, and centers of origin of cultivated plants. Darwinian concept of natural selection were essential for him, but he considered that the evolutionary changes were not only produced by random variations, but by preset channels, recognising the internal constraints of heredity. His heritage has always been maintained in his Institutes. His Evolutionary theories are now confirmed by molecular genetics and systematics. S.J. Gould was the first to revive Vavilov’s memory and scientific importance. During his studies on the gastropod Cerion Gould recognised the balance between external and internal constraints in Evolution. To cite this article: M. Debrenne, F. Debrenne, C. R. Palevol 2 (2003).     

Sibling cannibalism in the ladybird beetleHarmonia axyridis: Fitness consequences for mother and offspring

The adaptive significance of sibling cannibalism was analyzed in the ladybird beetle Harmonia axyridis at two prey densities. Possible costs and benefits were considered from three points of view: the mother, the cannibal and the victim. Cannibals ate both infertile and fertile eggs, thereby increasing in body length and survival rate with the intensity of sibling cannibalism. The cannibalistic trait was clearly beneficial to the cannibal when aphid density was low. However, it was not always beneficial when aphid density was high and the victims were full siblings. The altruistic behavior of being a victim was beneficial only when the victim was cannibalized by full siblings at low aphid density. The mother attained almost equal fitness at low aphid density, regardless of the intensity of sibling cannibalism. This suggests that sibling cannibalism is not maladaptive for the mother. At high aphid density, however, mother's fitness decreased with the intensity of sibling cannibalism, indicating that sibling cannibalism is maladaptive for the mother when larval food availability is high.     

Violent coalitionary attacks and intraspecific killing in wild white-faced capuchin monkeys (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cebus capucinus</Emphasis>)

During 12 years of observation, we have observed three confirmed and two inferred lethal coalitionary attacks on adult male white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) by members of two habituated social groups at Lomas Barbudal Biological Reserve, Costa Rica. In one case, an alpha male was badly wounded and evicted from his group, and when later found by his former groupmates he was attacked by several of them and died less than 24 h later. In two other cases, lone extra-group males were mobbed by adult and immature males of a bisexual group. One victim's abdomen was torn open and he died less than 24 h later. A second victim was quite badly bitten but may have escaped. The fourth and fifth cases resulted from intergroup encounters. One victim lost the use of both arms but may have survived, whereas the other died of unknown causes within an hour of the attack. The observed death rate from coalitionary aggression at our site is approximately the same as that reported for eastern chimpanzees. Because at least three of the five observed incidents involved large coalitions attacking lone victims, they support the general hypothesis that imbalances of power contribute to intraspecific killing in primates. However, the occurrence of lethal coalitional attacks in a species lacking fission–fusion social organization poses a challenge to the more specific version of the imbalance-of-power hypothesis proposed by Manson and Wrangham in 1991 to explain chimpanzee and human intergroup aggression.     

Medical ethics in the wake of the Holocaust: departing from a postwar paper by Ludwik Fleck

In 1948 Ludwik Fleck published a paper in Polish discussing the use of humans in medical experiments, thereby addressing his peers. Though the paper has so far not been translated or studied, it has been taken to indicate Fleck's deep commitment to ethical questions, notably the question of informed consent. In being written by a former victim of the Nazi policy and a survivor of the Holocaust also acting as an expert witness in the trial of the IG Farben in Nuremberg, the paper is of interest. A scrutiny of Fleck's text and related sources discloses, however, not only the complexity of the issue at the centre of the Nuremberg trial, but also Fleck's unexpected stance in seemingly adducing his arguments from both the German defendants and the prosecution, heavily informed by US scientists. Further, the contentious discussion of the past in Fleck's paper reveals its links to modern bioethical discussion. Though sometimes oblivious of that past, it still faces the same questions.     

A within-group gang attack on a young adult male chimpanzee: Ostracism of an ill-mannered member?

During a long-term study of wild chimpanzees in Tanzania, an unusual gang attack on a young adult male by the alpha male and seven other members of the same unit group (community) was observed and videotaped. Before the gang attack, the victim had not pant-grunted to the alpha male or to other adult males except for the second-ranked male, but had often bullied adult females without apparent reason. The alpha male's violent behavior, therefore, might have been punishment of or revenge against the ill-mannered young chimpanzee. This is the first record of an adult male other than an ex-alpha male becoming the object of ostracism by wild chimpanzees, although the victimized male did manage to return to the group after more than three months, when an ex-alpha male succeeded in reestablishing his former position.     

Dead or Alive? Factors Affecting the Survival of Victims during Attacks by Saltwater Crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) in Australia

Conflicts between humans and crocodilians are a widespread conservation challenge and the number of crocodile attacks is increasing worldwide. We identified the factors that most effectively decide whether a victim is injured or killed in a crocodile attack by fitting generalized linear models to a 42-year dataset of 87 attacks (27 fatal and 60 non-fatal) by saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) in Australia. The models showed that the most influential factors were the difference in body mass between crocodile and victim, and the position of victim in relation to the water at the time of an attack. In-water position (for diving, swimming, and wading) had a higher risk than on-water (boating) or on-land (fishing, and hunting near the water''s edge) positions. In the in-water position a 75 kg person would have a relatively high probability of survival (0.81) if attacked by a 300 cm crocodile, but the probability becomes much lower (0.17) with a 400 cm crocodile. If attacked by a crocodile larger than 450 cm, the survival probability would be extremely low (<0.05) regardless of the victim’s size. These results indicate that the main cause of death during a crocodile attack is drowning and larger crocodiles can drag a victim more easily into deeper water. A higher risk associated with a larger crocodile in relation to victim’s size is highlighted by children’s vulnerability to fatal attacks. Since the first recently recorded fatal attack involving a child in 2006, six out of nine fatal attacks (66.7%) involved children, and the average body size of crocodiles responsible for these fatal attacks was considerably smaller (384 cm, 223 kg) than that of crocodiles that killed adults (450 cm, 324 kg) during the same period (2006–2014). These results suggest that culling programs targeting larger crocodiles may not be an effective management option to improve safety for children.     

Bonobos Protect and Console Friends and Kin

Post-conflict third-party affiliation has been reported to have different functional meanings, one of them being consolation. Here, we tested the main hypotheses that have been put forth to explain the presence of this phenomenon at a functional level in the bonobo: Self-Protection Hypothesis, Victim-Protection Hypothesis, Relationship-Repair or Substitute for Reconciliation Hypothesis, and Consolation Hypothesis. By analyzing the data collected over 10 years, we investigated what factors affected the distribution of both spontaneous third party affiliation (initiated by the bystander) and solicited third party affiliation (initiated by the victim). We considered factors related to the individual features (sex, rank, age) of victim and bystander, their relationship quality (kinship, affiliation), and the effect that third party affiliation had on the victim (such as protection against further attacks and anxiety reduction). Both spontaneous and solicited third party affiliation reduced the probability of further aggression by group members on the victim (Victim-Protection Hypothesis supported). Yet, only spontaneous affiliation reduced victim anxiety (measured via self-scratching), thus suggesting that the spontaneous gesture – more than the protection itself – works in calming the distressed subject. The victim may perceive the motivational autonomy of the bystander, who does not require an invitation to provide post-conflict affiliative contact. Moreover, spontaneous - but not solicited - third party affiliation was affected by the bond between consoler and victim, being the relationship between consoler and aggressor irrelevant to the phenomenon distribution (Consolation Hypothesis supported). Spontaneous affiliation followed the empathic gradient described for humans, being mostly offered to kin, then friends, then acquaintances. Overall, our findings do not only indicate the consolatory function of spontaneous third-party affiliation but they also suggest that consolation in the bonobo may be an empathy-based phenomenon.     

Effects of acute stress on lateralization of lipid peroxidation in the brain depend on the behavioral typology of rats

Using the "emotional resonance test" albino mongrel male rats were separated for their preference to light or dark space during the cry of a "victim" rat receiving footshock. Rats avoiding the cry of a "victim" by moving to the light space were characterized by higher levels of lipid peroxidation (LPO) products. A short footshock resulted in a dramatic LPO decrease in both hemispheres in the brain of all rats under study, but in rats not avoiding the cry of a "victim" (preferring dark space) "left" asymmetry of LPO increased.     

Arguing by analogy in the fetal tissue debate

In the debate over fetal tissue use, an analogy is often drawn between removing organs from the body of a person who has been murdered to use for transplantation, and collecting tissue from an aborted fetus to use for the same purpose. The murder victim analogy is taken by its proponents to show that even if abortion is the moral equivalent of murder, there is still no good reason to refrain from using the fetal tissue, since as a society we do not see any problem about using organs from murder victims. However, I argue that the analogy between murder victims and aborted fetuses does not hold — the two situations are not the same in all morally relevant respects. Thus the murder victim analogy does not provide an argument in favour of fetal tissue transplant. In conclusion, I point to some of the potential pitfalls of using analogies in ethical argument.     

Serious gastric perforation after second stereotactic body radiotherapy for peripheral lung cancer that recurred after initial stereotactic body radiotherapy: a case report

Background

In recent reports, re-irradiation with stereotactic body radiotherapy for lung tumors in patients previously treated with thoracic radiation therapy resulted in several serious toxicities. Serious non-lung toxicities were observed mostly in patients with central tumors, but we experienced a case of fatal gastric perforation after a second stereotactic body radiotherapy in a patient with a peripheral lung tumor.

Case presentation

An 83-year-old Asian man was diagnosed with T2N0M0 lung cancer in the form of squamous cell carcinoma in the lower lobe of his left lung. He was treated with stereotactic body radiotherapy of 40 Gy in 4 fractions and the tumor decreased in size in partial response. The local tumor recurred 8 months after the first stereotactic body radiotherapy, and he was re-irradiated with a second stereotactic body radiotherapy of 50 Gy in 4 fractions. A Sengstaken–Blakemore tube was inserted below his diaphragm by laparoscopic surgery before the second stereotactic body radiotherapy in order to reduce the stomach dose by keeping his stomach apart from the tumor. Two months after the second stereotactic body radiotherapy, he developed fatal gastric perforation and gastropleural fistula penetrating his diaphragm.

Conclusions

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report about a gastric perforation after stereotactic body radiotherapy for lung tumors and it warns of serious complication of stereotactic body radiotherapy in not only centrally located but also peripherally located tumors like in this case.

     

Emil Starkenstein--one of the most important personalities of European continental pharmacology in the period between the two world wars

Emil Starkenstein (1884-1942), professor of pharmacology at the German Medical Faculty of Charles University in Prague, was not only an experimental pharmacologist, but also the pioneer of clinical pharmacology. During the World War I (1914-1918) he took advantage of his knowledge of experimental pharmacology for the new approaches to the treatment of bacillary dysentery, cholera and of epidemic typhus fever. In 1918 he published the article "Clinical Pharmacology--Theory and Praxis at the Patient's Bedside", in which he defined the main task of clinical pharmacology as the implementation and verification of experimental pharmacology achievements in clinical therapy. During the period 1921-1933, his scientific interests involved namely analgesic combinations, seasickness therapy and pharmacology of iron. He published more than 240 scientific articles and three textbooks. Emil Starkenstein died on November 6, 1942 as a victim of Holocaust. Starkenstein s collection of more than 20,000 reprints of scientific studies, which has been deposited recently in the Archives of Charles University in Prague is very valuable.     

Intracommunity Coalitionary Killing of an Adult Male Chimpanzee at Ngogo,Kibale National Park,Uganda

Intercommunity coalitionary killing of adult and adolescent males has been documented in two chimpanzee communities in the wild, and it was strongly suspected in a third. It may increase survivorship for the attackers, their mates, and their offspring by reducing the combined strength of hostile neighbors and/or by increasing territory size and food availability, and it may help the attackers to attract mates. Lethal coalitionary attacks by males on other male members of their own communities would not provide these benefits and are not expected, given the importance of cooperation among male community members in contests for dominance rank and in both defense and offense against neighboring males. Nevertheless, intracommunity coalitionary killings associated with struggles for alpha rank occur in the wild and in captivity, and observers have seen serious gang attacks on maturing adolescent and young adult males at Mahale and Budongo: the victim in the Budongo case was killed (Fawcett and Muhumuza, 2000). I describe a lethal attack on a young adult male by a large coalition of males from his community at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda. The Ngogo community is the largest known for chimpanzees and has an unusually large number of males. The attack was not related to a struggle for alpha rank: the victim was low-ranking and the community had a well-established alpha at the time. However, the victim had risen substantially in the male hierarchy over the past few years and might have appeared threatening to many higher-ranking males. Simultaneously, he associated relatively little with most other adult males, had relatively few grooming partners and was not well integrated into the male grooming network, and had no influential allies. The combination of these social factors with the unusual demographic circumstances – which presumably meant that mating competition was relatively high and the cost of losing one male relatively low – might have triggered the attack.     

Rudimentary Sympathy in Preverbal Infants: Preference for Others in Distress

Despite its essential role in human coexistence, the developmental origins and progression of sympathy in infancy are not yet fully understood. We show that preverbal 10-month-olds manifest sympathetic responses, evinced in their preference for attacked others according to their evaluations of the respective roles of victim, aggressor, and neutral party. In Experiment 1, infants viewing an aggressive social interaction between a victim and an aggressor exhibited preference for the victim. In Experiment 2, when comparing the victim and the aggressor to a neutral object, infants preferred the victim and avoided the aggressor. These findings indicate that 10-month-olds not only evaluate the roles of victims and aggressors in interactions but also show rudimentary sympathy toward others in distress based on that evaluation. This simple preference may function as a foundation for full-fledged sympathetic behavior later on.     

Reconciliation and the Costs of Aggression in Wild Barbary Macaques (Macaca sylvanus): A Test of the Integrated Hypothesis

The ‘integrated hypothesis’ predicts that reconciliation (the post‐conflict friendly interaction between former opponents observed in various group‐living species) functions to reduce anxiety and the risk of aggression from the former opponent or a bystander in the aftermath of a conflict. It also predicts that relationship quality between opponents affects the occurrence of reconciliation and modulates the anxious response of the opponents after a conflict. Because of the asymmetric nature of aggressive interactions, the cost of aggression is likely to differ between the victim and the aggressor. The aim of this study was to test the predictions of the ‘integrated hypothesis’ independently for the victim and the aggressor of a conflict. We collected data on two wild groups of Barbary macaques. This study represents, to our knowledge, the first systematic test of the integrated hypothesis on wild, non‐provisioned animals. Victims of aggression were at a greater risk of receiving aggression from the former opponent or a bystander after a conflict and showed elevated anxiety. We found no such costs for the aggressor. Reconciliation reduced anxiety in the victim but did not reduce their risk of receiving aggression. Finally, relationship quality affected the occurrence of reconciliation but did not modulate post‐conflict anxiety. The results of our study show that the costs of aggression are asymmetrically distributed between the victim and the aggressor. Such differences are likely to lead to different social tactics used by the victim and the aggressor in the aftermath of a conflict.     

Affiliation Between Aggressors and Third Parties Following Conflicts in Long-Tailed Macaques (Macaca fascicularis)

Studies on cercopithecine monkeys have shown that soon after an agonistic conflict, victims have increased rates of affiliation with the agressor—reconciliation—but not with other group members. Postconflict affiliation is thought to function to restore disturbed relationships and to reduce social tension. This study on a captive group of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) is focused on postconflict affiliative behavior of the aggressor. Increased rates of contact between female aggressors and kin of the victim occurred, as well as between female aggressors and their own kin. Furthermore, there were increased rates of contact between aggressors—males and females—and other group members. The increase in contacts with the victim's kin was selective, i.e., it could not be ascribed to the increased contact tendency with group members in general, and was not a side effect of the aggressor's proximity to the victim due to reconciliation. The increase in contacts with own kin was not selective. The fact that male aggressors do not have increased postconflict contacts with their kin or with kin of the victim is in agreement with the notion that males are less integrated in the nepotistic matrilineal network than females are. The fact that studies by others that focused on the victim evidence no increase in postconflict contacts with kin of the opponent or with other group members may be explained by the aggressor's larger influence over the postconflict situation: to reduce social tension, it might be more effective to affiliate with the aggressor than with the victim. Our findings emphasize that conflicts influence the behavior of other monkeys besides the direct contestants and, thus, indicate that the disturbance of social homeostasis is a matter of concern for all group members.     

A rendezvous with the queen of ion channels: Three decades of ion channel research by David T Yue and his Calcium Signals Laboratory

David T. Yue was a renowned biophysicist who dedicated his life to the study of Ca²⁺ signaling in cells. In the wake of his passing, we are left not only with a feeling of great loss, but with a tremendous and impactful body of work contributed by a remarkable man. David's research spanned the spectrum from atomic structure to organ systems, with a quantitative rigor aimed at understanding the fundamental mechanisms underlying biological function. Along the way he developed new tools and approaches, enabling not only his own research but that of his contemporaries and those who will come after him. While we cannot hope to replicate the eloquence and style we are accustomed to in David's writing, we nonetheless undertake a review of David's chosen field of study with a focus on many of his contributions to the calcium channel field.     

Deconvolution of isotope signals from bundles of multiple hairs

Segmental analysis of hair has been used in diverse fields ranging from forensics to ecology to measure the concentration of substances such as drugs and isotopes. Multiple hairs are typically combined into a bundle for segmental analysis to obtain a high-resolution series of measurements. Individual hair strands cycle through multiple phases of growth and grow at different rates when in the growth phase. Variation in growth of hair strands in a bundle can cause misalignment of substance concentration between hairs, attenuating the primary body signal. We developed a mathematical model based on the known physiology of hair growth to describe the signal averaging caused by bundling multiple hairs for segmental analysis. The model was used to form an inverse method to estimate the primary body signal from measurements of a hair bundle. The inverse method was applied to a previously described stable oxygen isotope chronology from the hair of a murder victim and provides a refined interpretation of the data. Aspects of the reconstruction were confirmed when the victim was later identified.