Multicultural Washington,DC: the changing social and economic landscape of a post-industrial metropolis

This article, based on a case-study of Washington, DC, presents an historical-structuralist perspective on the social, political and economic forces that underlie contemporary patterns of US metropolitan inequality. Section one explores the unique history of the DC black population- the largest US urban concentration of African Americans until World War I. Section two discusses the ascendance of Washington, DC, as the international capital of the post World War II era. This period features the rapid expansion of white suburbia together with the growth and increasing concentration of African Americans in the urban core. Section three examines Washington, DC, as an exemplar of the US post-industrial metropolis. These distinguishing characteristics include the emerging 'multicultural majority' of the central city, widening urban/suburban socioeconomic 'divide', and profound shift in immigrant settlement patterns (from city to suburbia). The findings suggest that Washington, DC, may offer instructive insights into the future of multicultural relations in post-industrial US society.     

Masculinity and nationalism: gender and sexuality in the making of nations

Richard G. Fox (ed.), NATIONALIST IDEOLOGIES AND THE PRODUCTION OF NATIONAL CULTURE, Washington: American Anthropological Association, 1990, 177 pp., $17.00.

Michael Watson (ed.), CONTEMPORARY MINORITY NATIONALISM, London: Routledge, 1990, 277 pp., £35.00.

Christie Davies, ETHNIC HUMOR AROUND THE WORLD, A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1990, 404 pp., $39.95.

Elizabeth Fox‐Genovese, WITHIN THE PLANTATION HOUSEHOLD: BLACK AND WHITE WOMEN OF THE OLD SOUTH, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1988, 544 pp., $34.95 and $12.95 (paper).

Darlene Clark Hine, BLACK WOMEN IN WHITE: RACIAL CONFLICT AND COOPERATION IN THE NURSING PROFESSION, 1890–1950, Btoomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1989, 264 pp., $35.00 and $12.95 (paper).

Pnina Werbner, THE MIGRATION PROCESS, Oxford: Berg, 1989, 391 pp., $56.00.

Elaine Pinderhughes, UNDERSTANDING RACE, ETHNICITY AND POWER: THE KEY TO EFFICACY IN CLINICAL PRACTICE, New York: The Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan, 1989, 269 pp., £20.00.

Paul B. Pedersen, Juris G. Draguns, Walter J. Lonner, Joseph E. Trimble, COUNSELLING ACROSS CULTURES, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989, (third edition), xii + 402 pp., £14.35 (paper).

Roland Littlewood and Morris Lipsedge, ALIENS AND ALIENISTS: ETHNIC MINORITIES AND PSYCHIATRY, London: Unwin Hyman, 1989, (second edition), xvii + 334 pp., £32.00 and £10.95 (paper).

H. Russell Bernard and Jesús Salinas Pedraza, NATIVE ETHNOGRAPHY; A MEXICAN INDIAN DESCRIBES HIS CULTURE, London: Sage Publications, 1989, 648 pp., £62.00 (Illustrated).     

Generating power: gender,ethnicity and empowerment in India's Narmada Valley

Current analyses of issues relating to ethnicity and empowerment are silent about the significance of the environment in shaping and being shaped by human relations. For its part, environmental policy research, with few exceptions, has also ignored the dynamics of identity construction and cultural values that inform human relationships with the environment and thus affect environmental sustainability. I address this gap in the scholarship through an analysis of the Sardar Sarovar Project [SSP] in India. I explore the interweaving of the constructions of gender, ethnicity and empowerment and their implications for a new politics of the environment - the politics of environmental justice. I argue that discourses of modernization underpin the arguments of all those who discuss the SSP, whether in favour or against.     

Individual health and the visibility of village economic inequality: Longitudinal evidence from native Amazonians in Bolivia

Mounting evidence suggests that income inequality is associated with worse individual health. But does the visibility of inequality matter? Using data from a horticultural-foraging society of native Amazonians in Bolivia (Tsimane’), we examined whether village inequality in resources and behaviors with greater cultural visibility is more likely to bear a negative association with health than village inequality in less conspicuous resources. We draw on a nine-year annual panel (2002–2010) from 13 Tsimane’ villages for our main analysis, and an additional survey to gauge the cultural visibility of resources. We measured inequality using the Gini coefficient. We tested the robustness of our results using a shorter two-year annual panel (2008–2009) in another 40 Tsimane’ villages and an additional measure of inequality (coefficient of variation, CV). Behaviors with low cultural visibility (e.g., household farm area planted with staples) were less likely to be associated with individual health, compared to more conspicuous behaviors (e.g., expenditures in durable goods, consumption of domesticated animals). We find some evidence that property rights and access to resources matter, with inequality of privately-owned resources showing a larger effect on health. More inequality was associated with improved perceived health – maybe due to improved health prospects from increasing wealth – and worse anthropometric indicators. For example, a unit increase in the Gini coefficient of expenditures in durable goods was associated with 0.24 fewer episodes of stress and a six percentage-point lower probability of reporting illness. A one-point increase in the CV of village inequality in meat consumption was associated with a 4 and 3 percentage-point lower probability of reporting illness and being in bed due to illness, and a 0.05 SD decrease in age-sex standardized arm-muscle area. In small-scale, rural societies at the periphery of market economies, nominal economic inequality in resources bore an association with individual health, but did not necessarily harm perceived health. Economic inequalities in small-scale societies apparently matter, but a thick cultural tapestry of reciprocity norms and kinship ties makes their effects less predictable than in industrial societies.     

Fixity and Flux: Bidayuh (Dis)engagements with the Malaysian Ethnic System

This article explores conceptions of the Malaysian ethnic system from the perspective of certain Bidayuhs, an indigenous group of Sarawak, Borneo. Recent scholarship has highlighted the ‘fluid’ and ‘shifting’ nature of Malay identity; but less attention has been paid to how ethnic minorities in the region depict Malayness. I suggest that for many Bidayuhs, Malay-ness is marked by an inescapable flxity which stifies a fluidity that they value as intrinsic to Bidayuh-ness and other aspects of life. Moreover, this sense of flxity has been mapped onto their conceptions of the (Malay-dominated) Malaysian ethnic system, in which they are inescapably entangled. The article investigates some of the consequent tensions arising from Bidayuh (dis)engagements with Malaysia's ethnic ‘flxity’, while tracing certain trends and changes in this relationship.     

Routes into education and employment for young Pakistani and Bangladeshi women in the UK

The article examines the educational and employment experiences and aspirations of young Pakistani and Bangladeshi people living in Oldham, in Great Manchester. Many young people demonstrated high aspirations and high levels of participation, particularly in relation to the educational and occupational level of their parents. Explanatory factors include the cultural value of education among Asian groups, the desire by parents to ensure success for their children and the ethnic penalty which these young people incur in the labour market. However, not all Pakistani and Bangladeshi young people have these aspirations. Girls who wished to continue their education faced a more complex situation than boys; for girls it was important to avoid jeopardizing the family honour. Nonetheless, national statistics show a marked increase in the numbers of young Pakistani and Bangladeshi women in full-time undergraduate courses in recent years. Women with degree level qualifications showed considerable determination to combine paid employment with family life.     

Like one of the family: race,ethnicity, and the paradox of US national identity

The tensions between individual rights promised to US citizens and group discrimination targeted against African Americans and similar racial/ethnic groups constitute one enduring paradox of US society. This essay examines this paradox by exploring how a gendered family rhetoric contributes to understandings of race and US national identity. Using African American women's experiences as a touchstone for analysis, the article suggests that African American women's treatment as second-class citizens reflects a belief that they are 'like one of the family', that is, legally part of the US nation-state, but simultaneously subordinated within it. To investigate these relationships, the article examines 1) how intersecting social hierarchies of race and ethnicity foster racialized understandings of US national identity; 2) how the gendered rhetoric of the American family ideal naturalizes and normalizes social hierarchies; and 3) how gendered family rhetoric fosters racialized constructions of US national identity as a large national family.     

Ethnic differences in ventricular hypertrabeculation on cardiac MRI in elite football players

Purpose

Left ventricular (LV) trabeculation may be more pronounced in ethnic African than in Caucasian (European) athletes, leading to possible incorrect diagnosis of left ventricular non-compaction cardiomyopathy (LVNC). This study investigates ethnic differences in LV hypertrabeculation amongst elite athletes with cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and electrocardiography (ECG).

Methods

38 elite male football (soccer) players (mean age 23.0, range 19–34 years, 28/38 European, 10/38 African) underwent CMR and ECG. Hypertrabeculation was assessed using the ratio of non-compacted to compacted myocardium (NC/C ratio) on long-axis and short-axis segments. ECGs were systematically rated.

Results

No significant differences were seen in ventricular volumes, wall mass or E/A ratio, whereas biventricular ejection fraction (EF) was significantly lower in African athletes (European/African athletes LVEF 55/50 %, p = 0.02; RVEF 51/48 %, p = 0.05). Average NC/C ratio was greater in African athletes but only significantly at mid-ventricular level (European/African athletes: apical 0.91/1.00, p = 0.65; mid-ventricular 0.89/1.45, p < 0.05; basal 0.40/0.46, p = 0.67). ECG readings demonstrated no significant group differences, and no correlation between ECG anomalies and hypertrabeculation.

Conclusions

A greater degree of LV hypertrabeculation is seen in healthy African athletes, combined with biventricular EF reduction at rest. Recognition of this phenomenon is necessary to avoid misdiagnosis of LVNC.     

Categorical inequality,institutional ambivalence,and permanently failing institutions: the case of immigrants and barriers to health care in America

Abstract

I draw on the theories of Charles Tilly, Robert K. Merton, Eleanor Barber, Marshall Meyer, and Lynne Zucker to develop a three-part framework for understanding the organizational and institutional interface between social services like health care and disadvantaged minorities like immigrants. Tilly's theory of durable inequality is transposed to categorical inequalities in organizations and law. His vocabulary of motives is expanded to include categorical entrenchment, restitution, and compensation. These embedded inequalities lead to institutional ambivalence in the provision of services and to permanently failing institutions that work poorly, waste resources, or provide uneven quality, yet do not collapse but endure while resisting reform. One rationale for resistance is ‘moral hazard’ by individuals; but the theory of moral hazard is biased and partial, because provider moral hazard and insurer moral hazard are more prevalent. The specific manifestations of these concepts and dynamics between them warrant further research in different contexts.     

Paediatric cardiac surgical mortality in England after Bristol: descriptive analysis of hospital episode statistics 1991-2002

Objective To describe trends in mortality of open cardiac surgery in children in Bristol and England since 1991.Design Retrospective analysis of hospital episode statistics data.Setting All open cardiac surgery of children in England.Population Patients younger than 16 undergoing open cardiac surgical procedures in England between April 1991 and March 2002. Three time periods were defined: epoch 3 (April 1991 to March 1995), epoch 5 (April 1996 to March 1999), epoch 6 (April 1999 to March 2002).Main outcome measure Mortality in hospital within 30 days of a cardiac procedure.Results We identified 5221 open operations between April 1996 and March 2002 in children under 1 year and 6385 in children aged 1-15 years. Mortality for all centres combined fell from 12% in epoch 3 to 4% in epoch 6. Mortality in children under 1 year at Bristol fell from 29% (95% confidence interval 21% to 37%) in epoch 3 to 3% (1% to 6%) in epoch 6, below the national average. The reduction in mortality did not seem to be due to fewer high risk procedures or an increase in the numbers of low risk cases. Oxford had a significantly higher mortality than the national average in all three epochs (11% (5% to 18%) in epoch 6), which was not affected by adjusting for procedure or the inclusion of cases with missing outcomes.Conclusions At Bristol, mortality for open operations in children aged under 1 year has fallen markedly, to below the national average. Nationwide mortality has also fallen. Improved quality of care may account for the drop in mortality, through new technologies or improved perioperative and postoperative care, or both.     

Size inequality and the tragedy of the commons phenomenon in plant competition

Game theory predicts that the evolutionarily stable level of root production is greater for plants grown with neighbours compared to plants grown alone, even when the available resources per plant are constant. This follows from the fact that for plants grown alone, new roots compete only with other roots on the same plant, whereas for multiple plants grown in a group, new roots can also compete with the roots of other plants, thereby potentially acquiring otherwise unavailable resources at their neighbours’ expense. This phenomenon, which results in plants grown with neighbours over-proliferating roots at the expense of above-ground biomass, has been described as a ‘tragedy of the commons’, and requires that plants can distinguish self from non-self tissues. While this game theoretical model predicts the evolutionarily stable strategies of individual plants, it has only been tested on average allocation patterns of groups of plants. This is problematic, because average patterns can appear to reflect a tragedy of the commons, even when none has occurred. In particular, assuming (1) a decelerating relationship between individual plant biomass and the amount of resources available, and (2) greater size inequality in plants grown with neighbours compared to plants grown alone (due to asymmetric competition), then plants grown with neighbours should, at least on average, be smaller than plants grown alone. This is a manifestation of ‘Jensen’s Inequality’, which states that for decelerating functions, the average value of the function is less than the function of the average value. We suggest that Jensen’s Inequality should serve as an appropriate null hypothesis for examining biologically-based explanations of changes in biomass allocation strategies.     

Managing professional service firms in a multi-ethnic context: an ethnographic study

Whether ethnic minority enterprise is a distinctive phenomenon markedly different from the general small firm population continues to be a major point of interest. However, there are two curious omissions within existing debates. First, the management of social relations within the workplace is rarely an explicit focus for research. Second, the increasingly significant small professional or business service sector remains neglected despite its growing importance. This article addresses these issues through an ethnographic study of two firms from different ethnic groups (African-Caribbean and Pakistani) engaged in the provision of specialist business and computer services. Despite the prevalence of a discourse predicated on notions of 'professionalism', ethnic ties were found to be a significant consideration upon issues relating to recruitment, workforce composition and community linkages. To some extent, ethnic identity predicated on religion was an important influence on business outlook for the Pakistani firm. And the African-Caribbean firm also appeared cognizant of the position of the wider co-ethnic community. However, ethnic considerations were not decisive influences within the workplace. Rather, they interacted with market and employment-related issues, thus creating a 'relatively autonomous' labour process.     

Portuguese migration to the Canary Islands: an analysis based on surnames

As a part of a wider analysis of population and genetic exchange between Spain and Portugal, the long-term pattern of Portuguese immigration to the Canary Islands was studied by means of the frequency of Portuguese surnames. A database of 1,995,833 individuals was obtained from the Spanish National Statistics Institute (2006). Among the 826 most frequent surnames to appear, 79 surnames of Portuguese origin were selected. The distribution of these surnames by municipalities and islands, the Fisher index of diversity, and the Lasker inter-population relationship coefficients R(ij) were considered. These coefficients were inter-correlated and correlated with other variables that could have influenced the distribution of surnames. From the observed distribution of the frequency of surnames, a non-random migration pattern conditioned by economic factors was found. The greatest diversity of surnames existed in cane cultivating areas after the first arrival of Portuguese immigrants. A later dispersion of surnames among islands was correlated with the inter-island geographic distances. In some islands the arrival of new immigrants continued due to their strategic location within the Canary archipelago. The Canary Islands reveal a high frequency and diversity of Portuguese surnames. The results also prove a heterogeneous distribution of these surnames throughout the archipelago. In contrast to the Portuguese archipelagos, some Canary localities have received immigrants continuously because of their economic importance in sugar cane cultivation and strategic geographic location on the maritime routes to Africa and America.     

Fungal radiation in the Cape Floristic Region: an analysis based on Gondwanamyces and Ophiostoma

The Cape Floristic Region (CFR) displays high levels of plant diversity and endemism, and has received focused botanical systematic attention. In contrast, fungal diversity patterns and co-evolutionary processes in this region have barely been investigated. Here we reconstruct molecular phylogenies using the ITS and beta-tubulin gene regions of the ophiostomatoid fungi Gondwanamyces and Ophiostoma associated with southern African Protea species. Results indicate that they evolved in close association with Protea. In contrast to Protea, Ophiostoma species migrated to the CFR from tropical and subtropical Africa, where they underwent subsequent radiation. In both Gondwanamyces and Ophiostoma vector arthropods probably facilitated long-distance migration and shorter-distance dispersal. Although ecological parameters shaped most associations between ophiostomatoid fungi and Protea, there is congruence between fungal-host-associations and the systematic classification of Protea. These results confirm that the entire biotic environment must be considered in order to understand diversity and evolution in the CFR as a whole.     

RNAshapes: an integrated RNA analysis package based on abstract shapes

We introduce RNAshapes, a new software package that integrates three RNA analysis tools based on the abstract shapes approach: the analysis of shape representatives, the calculation of shape probabilities and the consensus shapes approach. This new package is completely reimplemented in C and outruns the original implementations significantly in runtime and memory requirements. Additionally, we added a number of useful features like suboptimal folding with correct dangling energies, structure graph output, shape matching and a sliding window approach.     

Africans in the diaspora: black-white earnings differences among America's Africans

The condition of Africans in the diaspora proffers insight into not just their adaptation to their new countries, but also the nature of racial stratification at their destinations. We examine race differences in earnings between black and white Africans in America and find sizeable differences among immigrants who have relatively similar human capital profiles. Whites have annual earnings 80 per cent higher than their black counterparts, and the gap in hourly wage is almost 48 per cent. More significantly, more than half (53 per cent) of the race difference in wages remains unexplained by earnings-related attributes such as education, occupation, and hours worked. We discuss these results against the backdrop of the ongoing debate on discrimination and the significance of race for socio-economic attainment in America.