Does social status within a dominance hierarchy mediate individual growth,residency and relocation?

The availability of food, and hence energy, is known to influence the abundance, habitat choice and growth of individuals. In contrast, there is a paucity of knowledge on how the interaction of energy supply and social status determines patterns of residency and movement. This study tests whether the presence of conspecifics and an individual’s social status in relation to food supply influence the fitness and movement of a drift-feeding fish (Galaxias fasciatus). Using an information-theoretic approach (AIC), our analysis indicated that the most parsimonious model of fish movement among pools was one that included food supply, social rank and fish relative growth rate. Our results indicated that subordinate fish relocated more frequently compared to dominant fish, most likely as a consequence of intra-specific competition that limited the access of these smaller fish to resources and constrained their growth. Our results suggest that energy constraints may force individuals to explore new habitats in an effort to find more energetically profitable patches. We conclude that intra-specific competition mediated through the social hierarchy amongst closely interacting individuals plays a key role in determining individual growth, residency and relocation.     

“Constructing” the Cell Cycle in 3D

The cycle of duplication and division, known as the cell cycle, is the essential mechanism by which all living organisms reproduce. This activity allows students to develop an understanding of the main events that occur during the typical eukaryotic cell cycle mostly in the process of mitotic phase that divides the duplicated genetic material creating two genetically identical daughter cells.     

Molecular relatedness within the “Ascochyta pinodes-complex”

The morphological, molecular and pathological characters of 34 isolates identified as Ascochyta pinodes, A. phaseolorum, and Phoma medicaginis var. pinodella were determined. Initial molecular findings, based on PCR fragment size and RFLPs of sections of the mitochondrial genome, the rRNA gene cluster and the beta-tubulin gene complex, were further investigated by sequencing of the total rRNA ITS regions. Isolates were homogenous for all characteristics determined, with the exception of conidial size and septation, and RFLPs of AT rich (presumptive mitochondrial) DNA. The results suggest that the isolates represent host preferential forms of a single taxon, and this finding is discussed in relation to the known teleomorphs and reference material of the species studied.     

Finding “Space” for Comanagement of Forests within the Neoliberal Paradigm: Rights,Strategies, and Tools for Asserting a Local Agenda

As neoliberalism continues to influence environmental governance, it affects notions about the appropriate level of community involvement in resource management. Under more recent iterations, hybrid forms of governance are emphasized, including government–civil society partnerships and approaches geared towards harnessing the strengths of local communities. Here we explore the characteristics of different resource management rights, strategies, and tools through which communities can find political space to assert their own agendas within a neoliberalized policy environment. We examine the successful use of some of these approaches by communities during the initial development of community forests policy and practice in British Columbia, Canada. While we confirm the complex, contingent and case-specific nature of opportunities for comanagement created through neoliberal policy elements, we suggest that space does exist for community forest bodies to assert local values, goals and strategies, demonstrating the creativity, ingenuity and determination of communities to attain a real voice in management.

The EEC and the law of the sea: How close to one voice?

Abstract

The Member States of the European Economic Community (EEC) constituted one of the most important negotiating groups at the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III). The EEC is competent to deal with several matters that were included in the Draft Treaty on the Law of the Sea. When such matters were considered at the Conference, the President of the EEC Council, rather than the Commission, spoke on behalf of the group. Coordination meetings were held at expert level and by the heads of delegations. Agreement was reached on the principal issues before the Conference such as the Economic Zone, the Area, protection of the marine environment, and scientific research. The group was less successful in having its views accepted by the Conference, largely because the member's views were those of the highly industrialized states and emphasized navigational rights. The EEC participation clause was almost as important as substantive issues for the group, because it enabled the Community to become a party to the Treaty. EEC competences are contrasted with single state competences, and some of the possible consequences of less than total ratification of the Treaty by EEC Members are considered.     

Becoming data: biometric IDs and the individual in ‘Digital India’

Aadhaar (literally ‘foundation’) is the largest national biometric identification drive the world has witnessed. An Aadhaar is a twelve-digit ID number linked to its holder's iris scans, fingerprints, facial photograph, and demographic information in a centralized database. In but a decade, India has expeditiously enrolled over 90 per cent of its billion-strong population into a Central Identities Data Repository. This essay is an ethnographic consideration of the processes by which Aadhaar enrollees become data, focusing on the sociopolitical valence of biometric data. It argues that the datafication of the body via Aadhaar occasions re-examinations of – and contestations over – the idea of the individual in postcolonial India, a country often deemed sociocentric in popular and scholarly discourse alike. Further, it suggests that biometric socialization facilitates belonging in a ‘Digital India’, often rendered as a data cosmopolis in emergent technocratic imaginations.     

Biosociality,biocitizenship and the new regime of hope and despair: interpreting “Portraits of Hope” and the “Mehmet Case”

The concepts of biocitizenship and biosociality, in many ways developed as a reaction to the former critique of genetification and fears of a return of eugenics, have gained a stronghold in much of the current debates on the social effects of modern-day genetics. In contrast to claims of a return to eugenics, the literature on biocitizenship highlights the new choice-enhancing possibilities involved in present-day biomedicine, underlining the break with past forms of biopower. In this analysis, hope becomes a life-inducing and vitalizing force, opening new avenues of civic participation and engagement. Most critics of this analysis have attacked the claims to novelty attributed to these concepts, arguing that more traditional forms of biopower remain as important as ever. In contrast, we argue that the biocitizenship literature underestimates the radical nature of this break with the past, ending up with a too narrow and one-sided interpretation of the ramifications of the new discourse of hope. On the basis of two different case stories, the “Portraits of Hope” campaign from California, USA and the “Mehmet Case” from Norway, we indicate an alternative “darker” reading of the new discourse of hope, arguing that its driving force is not so much future possibilities as present despair.