Religion,ethnicity and politics: Hindu and Muslim Indian immigrants in the United States

This article focuses on the political struggles between Hindu and Muslim Indian immigrant groups in the United States over the definition of "Indianness". Hindu Indian American organizations define India as a Hindu society and are strong supporters of the Hindu nationalist movement in India. Muslim Indian American organizations, on the other hand, view India as a multi-religious and multicultural society. They are striving to safeguard India's secularism and towards this end, have entered into coalitional relationships with lower caste groups. Both types of organizations are working to influence American and Indian politics in line with their respective interests, leading to an exacerbation of the conflict between the two immigrant groups. This article examines the reasons for this development and its implications, both for the development of an Indian American community in the United States and for religion and politics in India.     

When in America,do as the Americans? The evolution of health behaviors and outcomes across immigrant cohorts

This study seeks to understand US immigrants’ health-related behaviors and outcomes across arrival cohorts. We simultaneously examine risky consumption choices (smoking and drinking) and physical health conditions (asthma, diabetes, vision problems, and coronary heart diseases) using data from the National Health Interview Surveys (1989–2018). We incorporate cohort fixed-effects and the interactions between cohort effects and years since immigration into our empirical framework to capture the dynamics of immigrant health over time. For all health indicators, we find that there are important differences between arriving immigrants and natives. Despite some heterogeneity in the dynamics of unhealthy behaviors, this heterogeneity seems to dissipate as we explore longer-term health outcomes. Overall, our findings provide an interesting outlook on how the integration into the host society affects American immigrants’ health. We contribute new results to the immigrant assimilation literature, which has primarily focused on obesity and wages.     

Navigating a river by its bends: a study on transnational social networks as resources for the transformation of Cambodia

This article explores in what ways first-generation Cambodian French and Cambodian American returnees create and employ the social capital available in their transnational social networks upon their return to Cambodia. The triangular interdependence between the returnees, their overseas immigrant communities and homeland society is taken as a starting point. The central argument is that Cambodian French and Cambodian American returnees build different relationships to Cambodia due to: (1) the influence of their immigrant communities in the countries of resettlement; and (2) the contexts of their exit from Cambodia. Findings in this multi-sited case study bring forward that ideas of return held by the three parties involved, may force re-migrants into transnationalism in both host and home countries. Findings also demonstrate that social capital may be seen as a resource or a restraint in the lives of returnees.     

The imagination of ‘society’ in measurements of immigrant integration

Abstract

My aim in this contribution is to clarify in which way social scientific measurements of immigrant integration operate as a form of ‘social imagination’, that is, of the routinized and professionalized visualization of social life. Through such measurements, images of ‘society’ are produced that feed into larger social imaginaries. My discussion takes as an example Dutch discourse and research on integration. Crucial to the constitution of society in the Netherlands and many other Western European countries is what I call a culturist discourse that has many similarities to racism. This discourse demarcates the boundaries of society by rendering objectively observable the non-integrated who are considered to reside ‘outside society’. The image of society thereby produced is that of a morally cleansed realm: social problems are relegated to the domain ‘outside society’, consisting of persons in need of integration.     

Analyzing the number of common integration sites of viral vectors--new methods and computer programs

Vectors based on γ-retroviruses or lentiviruses have been shown to stably express therapeutical transgenes and effectively cure different hematological diseases. Molecular follow up of the insertional repertoire of gene corrected cells in patients and preclinical animal models revealed different integration preferences in the host genome including clusters of integrations in small genomic areas (CIS; common integrations sites). In the majority, these CIS were found in or near genes, with the potential to influence the clonal fate of the affected cell. To determine whether the observed degree of clustering is statistically compatible with an assumed standard model of spatial distribution of integrants, we have developed various methods and computer programs for γ-retroviral and lentiviral integration site distribution. In particular, we have devised and implemented mathematical and statistical approaches for comparing two experimental samples with different numbers of integration sites with respect to the propensity to form CIS as well as for the analysis of coincidences of integration sites obtained from different blood compartments. The programs and statistical tools described here are available as workspaces in R code and allow the fast detection of excessive clustering of integration sites from any retrovirally transduced sample and thus contribute to the assessment of potential treatment-related risks in preclinical and clinical retroviral gene therapy studies.     

Is The Premise Of Egalitarianism Inequality?

The article focusses on two questions. One is the conditions under which one might expect to find community level egalitarian ideology in complex societies. The other is a more specific concern with the occurrence of egalitarian ideology among contemporary small scale hunting and gathering societies. A common lower class situation is critical when this translates into community acceptance of the overriding legitimacy of equalisation of status within the community. Also important is the location of the community in opposition to the wider society which it sees as external, threatening, dominating and intrusive.     

Understanding the diversity of immigrant incorporation: a forms-of-capital model

This article develops the concept of forms of capital as the basis of a model of immigrant incorporation. The model sets out the manner in which the social, financial, and human-cultural capital of immigrant families predict the sorting of immigrants into various labour market trajectories. For example, immigrants arriving with low stocks of financial and human-cultural capital are most likely to find employment in the ethnic economy, whereas immigrants with human-cultural capital that is fungible in the host society tend to gain employment in the broader mainstream economy. Event history analysis is employed to demonstrate the model on four patterns of job mobility common among immigrants: entrepreneurship, professional-managerial-technical jobs, employment in the public sector, and semi- or low-skilled factory work and low-paid service jobs. The findings show that the mix of capital immigrants arrive with, and subsequently accumulate, shapes the trajectory of their incorporation into the host society. The research is based on a field study of Asian immigrants in the greater Los Angeles area.     

Biocommunication and natural genome editing

The biocommunicative approach investigates communication processes within and among cells, tissues, organs and organisms as sign-mediated interactions, and nucleotide sequences as code, i.e. language-like text, which follows in parallel three kinds of rules: combinatorial (syntactic), context-sensitive (pragmatic), and content-specific (semantic). Natural genome editing from a biocommunicative perspective is competent agent-driven generation and integration of meaningful nucleotide sequences into pre-existing genomic content arrangements and the ability to (re-)combine and (re-)regulate them according to context-dependent (i.e. adaptational) purposes of the host organism.     

Challenges in the Care of Clients with Established Cardiovascular Disease: Lessons Learned from Australian Community Pharmacists

Background

As primary healthcare professionals, community pharmacists have both opportunity and potential to contribute to the prevention and progression of chronic diseases. Using cardiovascular disease (CVD) as a case study, we explored factors that influence community pharmacists’ everyday practice in this area. We also propose a model to best illustrate relationships between influencing factors and the scope of community pharmacy practice in the care of clients with established CVD.

Methods

In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 community pharmacists in New South Wales, Australia. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed ad verbatim, and analysed using a “grounded-theory” approach.

Results

Our model shows that community pharmacists work within a complex system and their practice is influenced by interactions between three main domains: the “people” factors, including their own attitudes and beliefs as well as those of clients and doctors; the “environment” within and beyond the control of community pharmacy; and outcomes of their professional care. Despite the complexity of factors and interactions, our findings shed some light on the interrelationships between these various influences. The overarching obstacle to maximizing the community pharmacists’ contribution is the lack of integration within health systems. However, achieving better integration of community pharmacists in primary care is a challenge since the systems of remuneration for healthcare professional services do not currently support this integration.

Conclusion

Tackling chronic diseases such as CVD requires mobilization of all sources of support in the community through innovative policies which facilitate inter-professional collaboration and team care to achieve the best possible healthcare outcomes for society.     

Integration of Gorilla Females into Heterosexual Captive Groups

In captivity, gorilla females are exchanged between zoos. Integration processes might be accompanied by aggression from resident females towards the immigrant. Group size as well as individual factors are thought to influence frequency of aggression. For the present study, four introductions of females into three different captive groups were observed. It was hypothesized that establishment of a relationship between silverback and the new female is important for the integration process. Resident females were expected to be reluctant against new competitors for male service. Expectations were met, except for a juvenile immigrant. Resident females initiated most aggression, but male aggression also often increased against the new females. However, males and the resident immatures showed affiliations and closest proximity towards the immigrant. With one exception, the new females were responsible for establishing proximity to the male. Only one male supported the immigrant in conflicts and showed a high rate of control interventions. The role of the silverback is eminent, however, age and social experience of all involved individuals influence interactions.     

DIASPORIC GENERATIONS. MEMORY,POLITICS AND NATION AMONG CUBANS IN SPAIN

Both national and international studies of education often show that the performance of immigrant students is substantially lower than that of non-immigrant students. This article investigates the contribution of socio-economic, sociocultural and school factors to the relative performance of first- and second-generation immigrant students in twenty countries using data from the OECD's 2000 Program for International Student Assessment. In most countries, socio-economic factors substantially account for the weaker performance of immigrant students, whereas sociocultural factors contribute little and school factors are important in only a limited number of instances. Altogether, these factors account for the bulk of the difference in achievement between immigrant and non-immigrant students in almost all the countries examined.     

Host genetics and environmental factors regulate ecological succession of the mouse colon tissue-associated microbiota

Background

The integration of host genetics, environmental triggers and the microbiota is a recognised factor in the pathogenesis of barrier function diseases such as IBD. In order to determine how these factors interact to regulate the host immune response and ecological succession of the colon tissue-associated microbiota, we investigated the temporal interaction between the microbiota and the host following disruption of the colonic epithelial barrier.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Oral administration of DSS was applied as a mechanistic model of environmental damage of the colon and the resulting inflammation characterized for various parameters over time in WT and Nod2 KO mice.

Results

In WT mice, DSS damage exposed the host to the commensal flora and led to a migration of the tissue-associated bacteria from the epithelium to mucosal and submucosal layers correlating with changes in proinflammatory cytokine profiles and a progressive transition from acute to chronic inflammation of the colon. Tissue-associated bacteria levels peaked at day 21 post-DSS and declined thereafter, correlating with recruitment of innate immune cells and development of the adaptive immune response. Histological parameters, immune cell infiltration and cytokine biomarkers of inflammation were indistinguishable between Nod2 and WT littermates following DSS, however, Nod2 KO mice demonstrated significantly higher tissue-associated bacterial levels in the colon. DSS damage and Nod2 genotype independently regulated the community structure of the colon microbiota.

Conclusions/Significance

The results of these experiments demonstrate the integration of environmental and genetic factors in the ecological succession of the commensal flora in mammalian tissue. The association of Nod2 genotype (and other host polymorphisms) and environmental factors likely combine to influence the ecological succession of the tissue-associated microflora accounting in part for their association with the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases.     

The society as an ultimate value and the socio‐cosmic configuration*

In modern ideology the individual is felt to be the ultimate value. This feature is documented in two of its long‐lasting developments which lend progressively to disregard society as a coherent whole. First the quest for freedom as stated according to the Human Rights perspective opened by the Enlightenment. Second the Middle Ages’ tendency to relegate society to the “mystical body” of Christ and of king.

Holistic ideologies, in contrast to modern ideology, are summarized in their general socio‐cosmic structure, which shows society as the ultimate value not separated from nature. Anthropology is built upon this contrast between individualistic ideology and the holistic one.     

Different genetic structures revealed resident populations of a specialist parasitoid wasp in contrast to its migratory host

Genetic comparisons of parasitoids and their hosts are expected to reflect ecological and evolutionary processes that influence the interactions between species. The parasitoid wasp, Cotesia vestalis, and its host diamondback moth (DBM), Plutella xylostella, provide opportunities to test whether the specialist natural enemy migrates seasonally with its host or occurs as resident population. We genotyped 17 microsatellite loci and two mitochondrial genes for 158 female adults of C. vestalis collected from 12 geographical populations, as well as nine microsatellite loci for 127 DBM larvae from six separate sites. The samplings covered both the likely source (southern) and immigrant (northern) areas of DBM from China. Populations of C. vestalis fell into three groups, pointing to isolation in northwestern and southwestern China and strong genetic differentiation of these populations from others in central and eastern China. In contrast, DBM showed much weaker genetic differentiation and high rates of gene flow. TESS analysis identified the immigrant populations of DBM as showing admixture in northern China. Genetic disconnect between C. vestalis and its host suggests that the parasitoid did not migrate yearly with its host but likely consisted of resident populations in places where its host could not survive in winter.     

Thirty years of the "Asociación Española de Micología"

Since the foundation of the "Asociación Espa?ola de Micología" thirty years ago, we have consolidated the Spanish mycological community and also witnessed remarkable changes, not only in the Spanish society but in the scientific community as a whole. As it usually happens to human beings, during this time the "Asociación Espa?ola de Micología" has matured transforming itself into a solid scientific society. However, the "Asociación Espa?ola de Micología" will have to continue its transformation to adapt to new changes. This article shows the most relevant aspects in the history of the "Asociación Espa?ola de Micología" as well as new challenges that the society might face in the future.     

Host–microbial symbiosis in the mammalian intestine: exploring an internal ecosystem

The mammalian intestine contains a complex, dynamic, and spatially diversified society of nonpathogenic bacteria. Very little is known about the factors that help establish host-microbial symbiosis in this open ecosystem. By introducing single genetically manipulatable components of the microflora into germfree mice, simplified model systems have been created that will allow conversations between host and microbe to be heard and understood. Other paradigms of host–microbial symbiosis suggest that these interactions will involve an exchange of biochemical signals between host and symbionts as well as among the bacteria themselves. The integration of molecular microbiology, cell biology, and gnotobiology should provide new insights about how we adapt to a microbial world and reveal the roles played by our indigenous ‘nonpathogenic’ flora. BioEssays 20 :336-343, 1998. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Imitate to integrate: reviewing the pathway for B chromosome integration in Trypoxylon (Trypargilum) albitarse (Hymenoptera, Sphecidae)

B chromosomes are genomic "intruders" normally characterized by their total dispensability counteracted by a variety of drive mechanisms, which assures their presence regardless of their harmful effects on the host genome. From an evolutionary standpoint, the relationship between standard (A) and B chromosomes can go through different pathways, from an everlasting arms race to a cordial B integration. Examples underlying the first situation are fairly common; B integration, however, has been more a theoretical than a practical possibility. The B chromosome in the haplodiploid solitary wasp Trypoxylon albitarse is probably the first example of a "mimetic" B, which is being integrated into the A genome by limiting itself to one B per haploid genome, the same dosage as the A chromosomes. Here we review some of the findings underlying this hypothesis and discuss the T. albitarse B strategy as a possible mechanism for B chromosome integration as a regular member of the chromosome complement in haplodiploid organisms.     

‘All daughters and sons of the Republic’? Producing difference in French education

Anthropological focus on public sphere debates can have the unintended consequence of reaffirming ideological oppositions (‘secularism versus Islam’) while ignoring other processes of difference production. In this article, I examine how French school employees build a logic of cultural otherness in an arena of uncertain social reproduction. Contrary to analyses of the French public sphere that emphasize the ideology of secular universalism, I argue that this dominant ideology has little purchase in the thick of social relations in a peripheral school. Faced with neoliberal transformations and diminishing resources, teachers draw instead on diverse discourses that have the effect of producing cultural difference. Through this process, immigrant‐origin students are presented as incommensurable with Frenchness, and Frenchness becomes rooted in family structure and territory. This case illustrates how state actors confront the contradictions that inhabit universal citizenship and reconfigure the project of Republican schooling.     

Social relationships between immigrant and resident bonobo (Pan paniscus) females at Wamba.

Social relations and behaviours of adolescent female pygmy chimpanzees (Pan paniscus) that migrated between unit groups were studied at Wamba, Za?re. Each immigrant female selected one particular resident female, a 'specific senior female' (SSF) and frequently approached and followed her. Affinitive behaviours (e.g. grooming, genitogenital rubbing) were frequently performed between the immigrant and her SSF. Most affinitive behaviours were more likely to be initiated by the immigrant than by her SSF. The immigrant's relationship with her SSF seemed to facilitate the immigrant's integration into the new unit group. Resident males actively approached and mated with the immigrant females. Copulation also appeared to further the immigrant's stable relationship with the resident males.