Missing Persons: A Critique of Personhood in the Social Sciences

Missing Persons:. Critique of Personhood in the Social Sciences. Mary Douglas and Steven Ney. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. 223 pp.     

Evidence of Drought Stress Memory in the Facultative CAM,Aptenia cordifolia: Possible Role of Phytohormones

Although plant responses to drought stress have been studied in detail in several plant species, including CAM plants, the occurrence of stress memory and possible mechanisms for its regulation are still very poorly understood. In an attempt to better understand the occurrence and possible mechanisms of regulation of stress memory in plants, we measured the concentrations of phytohormones in Aptenia cordifolia exposed to reiterated drought, together with various stress indicators, including leaf water contents, photosynthesis and mechanisms of photo- and antioxidant protection. Results showed that plants exposed to drought stress responded differently if previously challenged with a first drought. Gibberellin levels decreased upon exposure to the first drought and remained lower in double-stressed plants compared with those exposed to stress for the first time. In contrast, abscisic acid levels were higher in double- than single-stressed plants. This occurred in parallel with alterations in hydroperoxide levels, but not with malondialdehyde levels, thus suggesting an increased oxidation state that did not result in oxidative damage in double-stressed plants. It is concluded that (i) drought stress memory occurs in double-stressed A. cordifolia plants, (ii) both gibberellins and abscisic acid may play a role in plant response to repeated periods of drought, and (iii) changes in abscisic acid levels in double-stressed plants may have a positive effect by modulating changes in the cellular redox state with a role in signalling, rather than cause oxidative damage to the cell.     

Differences in Medicine: Unraveling Practices, Techniques, and Bodies

Differences in Medicine: Unraveling Practices, Techniques, and Bodies. Marc Berg and Annemarie Mol. eds. Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 1998. + 270 pp.     

Bodies of data: doubles,composites, and aggregates

In this essay, I describe three bodies of data, analysing how relations are drawn between physical, digital, and political composites. Following the phrase ‘getting to know your data self’, my aim is to draw out the kinds of relations people use data to make, and the versions of the body that I find codified in data imaginaries. Thematically, the stories give different accounts of control over data, as the data body is doubled, built out of composites, and aggregated into a body politic.     

Evaluating Archaeological Evidence for Demographics,Abandonment, and Recovery in Late Antique and Byzantine Anatolia

Archaeological evidence, particularly that deriving from systematic regional surveys, offers great potential for understanding social and demographic change in Anatolia between 300 and 1200 CE. We first consider major factors inherent to regional archaeological data sets that complicate simple synthesis and generalization between projects. We then provide a synthesis focused on longue durée questions relevant to cross-disciplinary examination of the relationship between environmental and societal change and examine potential connections between major changes in settlement patterns observed in the seventh- and eighth- century archaeological data and larger questions of systemic collapse and resilience in the face of climate change. To conclude, we assess current archaeological evidence for the processes of agricultural adaptation at the transition associated with the end of the ancient economy.     

种子类别和埋藏深度对雌性小泡巨鼠发现种子的影响

2001年9～12月,在四川省都江堰林区实验围栏内研究了栓皮栎、袍树、栲树、石栎、青冈和油茶种子与6种埋藏深度对小泡巨鼠雌性成体发现埋藏种子的影响。结果表明：1)由于不同种子在种子大小、营养价值和单宁含量等存在差异,雌性小泡巨鼠对个体最大的石栎种子发现率最高,油茶(脂肪含量高)和栲树(单宁含量低)次之,单宁含量较高的袍树、青冈和栓皮栎则较低;2)埋藏深度与雌性小泡巨鼠发现栓皮栎种子的比例呈显负相关,即随着埋藏深度增加,小泡巨鼠发现埋藏种子的比例则减少。     

Persons, Places, and times: the meanings of repetition in an STD clinic

In this article we work the tensions between the way clinical medicine and public health necessarily construct the problem of "repetition" in the context of a sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic and the ways patients narrate their illness experiences. This tension-between clinical and epidemiological exigencies and the messiness of lived experience-is a recurring theme of work conducted at the intersections of epidemiology, anthropology, and clinical medicine. Clinically, repeated infections are a threat to the individual body and to "normal" biological processes like reproduction. From a public health perspective, "repeaters" are imagined to be part of a "core group" that keeps infections in circulation, endangering the social body. Yet patients' accounts are anchored in particular social histories, and their experiences rely on different time scales than those implicated in either of these types of readings. Extended analyses are provided of two such accounts: one in which repetition can be "read" as part of a performance of recovery, and one in which repetition is bound up in the effort to avoid becoming the involuntary subject of institutionally administered intervention. We argue the need to open up the category of repeaters to include the social and draw on work by Cheryl Mattingly to suggest that one way to do this in the context of the STD clinic might be to adopt forms of therapeutic practice that make use of interpretive, in addition to technical, skills.     

Evidence That Head and Body Lice on Homeless Persons Have the Same Genotype

Human head lice and body lice are morphologically and biologically similar but have distinct ecologies. They were shown to have almost the same basic genetic content (one gene is absent in head lice), but differentially express certain genes, presumably responsible for the vector competence. They are now believed to be ecotypes of the same species (Pediculus humanus) and based on mitochondrial studies, body lice have been included with head lice in one of three clades of human head lice (Clade A). Here, we tested whether head and body lice collected from the same host belong to the same population by examining highly polymorphic intergenic spacers. This study was performed on lice collected from five homeless persons living in the same shelter in which Clade A lice are prevalent. Lice were individually genotyped at four spacer loci. The genetic identity and diversity of lice from head and body populations were compared for each homeless person. Population genetic structure was tested between lice from the two body regions and between the lice from different host individuals.We found two pairs of head and body lice on the same homeless person with identical multi locus genotypes. No difference in genetic diversity was found between head and body louse populations and no evidence of significant structure between the louse populations was found, even after controlling for a possible effect of the host individual. More surprisingly, no structure was obvious between lice of different homeless persons.We believe that the head and body lice collected from our five subjects belong to the same population and are shared between people living in the same shelter. These findings confirm that head and body lice are two ecotypes of the same species and show the importance of implementing measures to prevent lice transmission between homeless people in shelters.     

Two Systems of Maintenance in Verbal Working Memory: Evidence from the Word Length Effect

The extended time-based resource-sharing (TBRS) model suggested a working memory architecture in which an executive loop and a phonological loop could both support the maintenance of verbal information. The consequence of such a framework is that phonological effects known to impact the maintenance of verbal information, like the word length effect (WLE), should depend on the use of the phonological loop, but should disappear under the maintenance by the executive loop. In two previous studies, introducing concurrent articulation in complex span tasks barely affected WLE, contradicting the prediction from the TBRS model. The present study re-evaluated the WLE in a complex span task while controlling for time parameters and the amount of concurrent articulation. Specifically, we used a computer-paced span task in which participants remembered lists of either short or long words while concurrently either articulating or making a location judgment. Whereas the WLE appeared when participants remained silent, concurrent articulation eliminated the effect. Introducing a concurrent attention demand reduced recall, but did not affect WLE, and did not interact with concurrent articulation. These results support the existence of two systems of maintenance for verbal information.     

Planning the Family in Egypt: New Bodies, New Selves

Planning the Family in Egypt: New Bodies, New Selves. Kamran Asdar Ali. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002. xii. 233 pp.