Image and archetype: Male and female as metaphor in the thought of card G. Jung and Ogotemmêli of the dogon

Norris Brock Johnson is Associate Professor of Anthropology, at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.     

Nanotechnology in Therapeutics: hydrogels and beyond

Nanotechnology in Therapeutics: Current Technology and Applications, Edited by Nicholas A. Peppas, J. Zach Hilt and J. Brock Thomas (Horizon Bioscience, 2007) contains seventeen chapters written by leading specialists in the field of polymeric materials for drug delivery and holds wealth of background as well as state of the art material divided into four sections: "Intelligent Therapeutics and Responsive Delivery Systems for Improved Absorption and Delivery", "Therapeutic Micro- and Nanodevices", "Nanostructured Therapeutic Materials" and "Nanoparticulate Systems in Intelligent Therapy". This newly published volume provides a stimulating read and a good point of reference to researchers wishing to explore the interdisciplinary fusion of nnanotechnology and medical therapeutics. The following gives brief summary and critically reviews the book.     

Book Reviews

Sawyer, R.T . (1986) Leech Biology .
Brock, Th.D. (1985) A Eutrophie Lake: Lake Mendota, Wisconsin .
Hocutt, C.H. & Wiley, E.O . (Eds) (1986) The Zoogeography of North American Freshwater Fishes .
Schwoerbel, J . (1987) Handbook of Limnology .
Alabaster, J.S . (Ed.) (1985) Habitat Modifications and Freshwater Fisheries .     

American Gypsy: A Stranger in Everybody's Land

American Gypsy:. Stranger in Everybody's Land. 1999. 80 minutes, color, English narration with some spoken Romani. film produced and directed by Jasmine Dellal. For more information contact Little Dust Productions, 878 Grove St., San Francisco, CA 94117; http://americangypsy.com/ .     

Gene therapy: different strategies for different applications

American Society of Gene Therapy: First Annual MeetingSeattle, Washington, USA, 28–31 May 1998     

mtDNA analysis of a prehistoric Oneota population: implications for the peopling of the New World.

mtDNA was successfully extracted from 108 individuals from the Norris Farms Oneota, a prehistoric Native American population, to compare the mtDNA diversity from a pre-Columbian population with contemporary Native American and Asian mtDNA lineages and to examine hypotheses about the peopling of the New World. Haplogroup and hypervariable region I sequence data indicate that the lineages from haplogroups A, B, C, and D are the most common among Native Americans but that they were not the only lineages brought into the New World from Asia. The mtDNA evidence does not support the three-wave hypothesis of migration into the New World but rather suggests a single "wave" of people with considerable mtDNA diversity that exhibits a signature of expansion 23,000-37,000 years ago.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Avila, J. L. & Harris, J. R. (ed.). 1992. Subcellular Biochemistry, Volume 18: Intracellular Parasites. Plenum Press, New York.
Fensome, R. A., Taylor, F. J. R., Norris, G., Sarjeant, W. A. S., Wharton, D. I. & Williams, G. L. 1993. A Classification of Living and Fossil Dinoflagellates. Micropaleontology Special Publication No. 7. Micropaleontology Press, American Museum of Natural History, New York.
Volberding, P. & Jacobson, M. A. (ed.). 1993. AIDS Clinical Review 1993/1994. Marcel Decker, Inc., New York.
Hyde, J. E. (ed.). 1993. Protocols in Molecular Parasitology , Volume 21 in the Methods in Molecular Biology Series. Hurnana Press, Totowa, New Jersey.     

Book reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
M icroorganisms from S mallpox to L yme D isease (1990). Edited by T.D. Brock.
E hrlichiosis : A V ector -B orne D isease of A nimals and M an (1990). Edited by J.C. Williams & I. Kakoma.
P erspectives in A ntiinfective T herapy (1989). Edited by G.G. Jackson, H.D. Schlumberger & H.J. Zeiler.     

Film Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Discovering Country and Western Music . 1977. Produced by Bernard Wilets.
Full of Life A-Dancin' . 1978. Produced by Robert Fiore and Richard Nevell and directed by Robert Fiore.
Guitar Craft . 1977. Produced by Rob Williams.
Gypsy Yodeler . 1978. Produced by Ron Taylor.
Homemade American Music . 1980. Produced by Carrie Aginsky and Yasha Aginsky.
New England Fiddles . 1984. Produced and directed by John M. Bishop.
Nimrod Workman: To Fit My Own Category . 1975. Directed by Scott Faulkner and Anthony Slone and produced by Appalshop
Oaksi . 1979. Directed by Anthony Slone and produced by Appalshop
Ralph Stanley's Bluegrass Festival . 1982. Produced and directed by Jim Kent.
Sourwood Mountain Dulcimers . 1976. Produced by Gene DuBey.
Sprout Wings and Fly . 1982. A film by Les Blank, Cece Conway , and Alice Gerrard.
Tough, Pretty or Smart: A Portrait of the Patoka Valley Boys . 1981. Produced by Richard Kane and Dillon Bustin.     

Movement and Dance

Rumba: Dance and Social Change in Contemporary Cuba. Yvonne Daniel. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995. 196 pp.
Human Action Signs in Cultural Context: The Visible and Invisible in Movement and Dance. Brenda Farnell. ed. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1995. 309 pp.     

A response to Brock and Skene

Wicclair responds briefly to articles by Dan W. Brock, "Patient decision-making competence and risk," and Loane Skene, "Risk-related standard inevitable in assessing competence," in this issue of Bioethics. Brock and Skene were responding to Wicclair's essay, "Decision-making capacity and risk," also in this issue of Bioethics. Wicclair had critiqued the arguments of Brock and Allen Buchanan, published elsewhere, concerning standards of competence for health care treatment decision making.     

Starch in prasinophycean algae

Reserve products isolated from three species of prasinophycean algae: Pyramimonas parkeae Norris and Pearson, Pyramimonas amylifera Conrad and Platymonas tetrathele West were compared. Three pieces of experimental evidence indicate that the reserve product of each of the species analyzed is a true starch. (I) There is no essential difference between the light absorption curve for the complex formed between corn starch and iodine and the corresponding curves for the algal products. (2) The β-amylase breakdown limit of these compounds is very close to that of corn starch. (3) The X-ray diffraction diagrams produced by the reserve material from Pyramimonas parkeae and Platymonas tetrathele is a so-called A-spectrum characteristic of cereal starches while the diagram produced by grains from Pyramimonas amylifera corresponds to the B-spectrum typical for tuber starches. The dissimilarity between the X-ray diagrams produced by the starches from the Pyramimonas species suggests that a re-examination of the taxonomy of these species is warranted.     

A 60-kilodalton protein component of the counting factor complex regulates group size in Dictyostelium discoideum

Much remains to be understood about how a group of cells or a tissue senses and regulates its size. Dictyostelium discoideum cells sense and regulate the size of groups and fruiting bodies using a secreted 450-kDa complex of proteins called counting factor (CF). Low levels of CF result in large groups, and high levels of CF result in small groups. We previously found three components of CF (D. A. Brock and R. H. Gomer, Genes Dev. 13:1960-1969, 1999; D. A. Brock, R. D. Hatton, D.-V. Giurgiutiu, B. Scott, R. Ammann, and R. H. Gomer, Development 129:3657-3668, 2002; and D. A. Brock, R. D. Hatton, D.-V. Giurgiutiu, B. Scott, W. Jang, R. Ammann, and R. H. Gomer, Eukaryot. Cell 2:788-797, 2003). We describe here a fourth component, CF60. CF60 has similarity to acid phosphatases, although it has very little, if any, acid phosphatase activity. CF60 is secreted by starving cells and is lost from the 450-kDa CF when a different CF component, CF50, is absent. Although we were unable to obtain cells lacking CF60, decreasing CF60 levels by antisense resulted in large groups, and overexpressing CF60 resulted in small groups. When added to wild-type cells, conditioned starvation medium from CF60 overexpressor cells as well as recombinant CF60 caused the formation of small groups. The ability of recombinant CF60 to decrease group size did not require the presence of the CF component CF45-1 or countin but did require the presence of CF50. Recombinant CF60 does not have acid phosphatase activity, indicating that the CF60 bioactivity is not due to a phosphatase activity. Together, the data suggest that CF60 is a component of CF, and thus this secreted signal has four different protein components.     

Book Reviews

Book Review in This Article:
Materials and Methods in Fermentation. G. L. Solomons
British Medical Bulletin.
Diagnostic Procedures for Viral and Rickettsial Infections. Edited by E. H. Lennette and N. J. Schmidt.
The Yeasts. Volume I. Biology of Yeasts. Edited by A. H. Rose and J. S. Harrison.
Methods in Microbiology. Edited by J. R. Norris and D. W. Ribbons.     

Effect of teichoic acid on resistance to the membrane-lytic agent of Streptococcus zymogenes

Davie, Joseph M. (Indiana University, Bloomington), and Thomas D. Brock. Effect of teichoic acid on resistance to the membrane-lytic agent of Streptococcus zymogenes. J. Bacteriol. 92:1623-1631. 1966.-The resistance of Streptococcus zymogenes to its own lytic agent has been shown to be due to the production of a specific, inhibitory teichoic acid. A survey of streptococcal strains showed that only strains resistant to the lytic agent produced the specific inhibitor. In addition, the inhibitor can be removed from spheroplasts of resistant strains, thereby making them sensitive to the lysin. Throughout the early part of the growth cycle, the inhibitor is associated with the cell and cannot be found in the medium. During late logarithmic phase, however, the inhibitor is released into the medium by the cells, and therefore is a contributing factor to the apparent lability of the lytic agent. The purified, inhibitory teichoic acid contains ribitol, phosphate, glucose, and d-alanine. The alkaline lability of the biological activity of the teichoic acid was correlated with the hydrolysis of the d-alanine. A streptococcal strain which is sensitive to the membrane-lytic agent produced an inactive ribitol teichoic acid which lacks the ester-linked d-alanine, whereas a lysin-resistant mutant of this strain produces a teichoic acid which contains d-alanine and which has inhibitory activity.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Brundu, G., Brock, J., Camarda, I., Child, L. & Wade, M. (eds.) 2001. Plant Invasions: Species Ecology and Ecosystem Management .     

Native American Resistance To Integration: Contemporary Confrontations And Religious Revitalization

Abstract

Most studies dealing with North American Indian integration often focus upon efforts directed at tribal groups by a dominant society in forced acculturation. This paper seeks to examine current trends initiated by tribal groups and members to resist integration. Aspects for consideration include confrontative efforts - Alcatraz, Wounded Knee II, and the “Longest Walk.” The recent efforts of religious revitalization as the Sioux Sun Dance, which forms a part of enhanced efforts toward developing a new “native ethic” in combatting integration and assimilation, will be assessed as an increasing ethnic marker to many Native Americans.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Daniel Cooper Alarcon . The Aztec Palimpsest: Mexico in the Modern Imagination. Johann P. Arnason . Social Theory and Japanese Experience: The Dual Civilization. Fernando Coronil . The Magical State: Nature, Money and Modernity in Venezuela. Carrie B. Douglass . Bulls, Bullfighting and Spanish Identities. Leela Dube . Women and Kinship: Comparative Perspectives on Gender in South and South-East Asia. Roy Ellen and Katsuyoshi Fukui (eds) . Redefining Nature: Ecology, Culture and Domestication. Melvyn C. Goldstein . The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet and the Dalai Lama. Robert Hobbs . Hong Kong Now! Hal. B. Levine . Constructing Collective Identity: A Comparative Analysis of New Zealand Jews, Maori and Urban Papua New Guineans. Torben Retbell, (ed.) . East Timor: Occupation and Resistance. Anne Salmond . Between Worlds: Early Exchanges Between Maori and Europeans 1773–1815. Cathy A. Small . Voyages - From Tongan Villages to American Suburbs. William Washabaugh (ed.) . The Passion of Music and Dance: Body, Gender and Sexuality. Robert L. Welsch (ed.). An American Anthropologist in Melanesia: A. B. Lewis and the Joseph N. Field South Pacific Expedition 1909–1913.     

SINGLE BOOK REVIEWS

P'ungmul : South Korean Drumming and Dance . Nathan Hesselink. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. 271 pp.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Allen Buchanan, Dan, W. Brock, Norman Daniels, and Daniel Wikler, From Chance to Choice – Genetics and Justice
Ruth Macklin, Against Relativism: Cultural Diversity and the Search for Ethical Universals in Medicine
Christian Munthe, Pure Selection: The Ethics of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis and Choosing Children without Abortion