Special Issue on‘‘Computational Cardiology’’

<正>We are pleased to announce a special issue on‘‘Computational Cardiology’’of the journal Genomics,ProteomicsBioinformatics(GPB),aiming to provide a platform for high-quality papers focusing on the topic and we invite submissions for this special issue(to be published in the fall of 2015).Dr.Benjamin Meder(University of Heidelberg and German Center for Cardiovascular Research–DZHK     

Special Issue on‘‘Biomarkers for Diseases’’

<正>The journal Genomics ProteomicsBioinformatics(GPB)is now inviting submissions for a special issue(to be published in the winter of 2015)on the topic of‘‘Biomarkers for Diseases’’.As an emerging index,disease biomarkers have demonstrated the potential application in diagnosis and prognosis.The detection of the disease indicators at molecular level,DNA,RNA     

Special Issue on‘‘Metagenomics of Marine Environments’’

<正>We are pleased to announce a special issue on‘‘Metagenomics of Marine Environments’’of the journal Genomics,ProteomicsBioinformatics(GPB),aiming to provide a platform for high-quality papers focusing on the topic and we invite submissions for this special issue(to be published in the fall of 2015).With most microbes being difficult or impossible to culture     

100 Years of Research on ‘Turbellaria’

Comprehensive research on the ‘Turbellaria’ – or what are known now as the free-living platyhelminths – can mark its beginnings with the first monographic treatises on the group, foremost those by v. Graff, Lang, Wilhelmi and Benham. A major center for turbellarian research grew up around Graff in Graz, Austria, from 1884 through the first quarter of the 20th century; among its members were Böhmig, A. Meixner, J. Meixner, Reisinger and Steinböck. Other contributors to the major research effort in the later years of the 19th and early part of the 20th century were scattered in Germany, Italy, France, Scandinavia, Russia, Japan and the United States and included Hofsten, Steinmann, Wilhelmi, Sabussov, Beauchamp, Bresslau, Bock, Kenk, Ijima and Kaburaki. The attention to detail and accuracy of presentation by these early workers in Graz and elsewhere has made their contributions of long-lasting value. Between 1910 and 1960, modern research whose impact is still widely felt today took form. It includes studies in systematics (Luther, Karling, Hyman, Meixner, Beauchamp, Ijima, Ivanov, Mamkaev, Kenk, Papi, Riedl, Marcus, Ax), development (Bresslau , Reisinger, Steinböck), physiology (Hyman, Westblad), and genetics (Benazzi). Electron microscopy had a profound impact on morphological study starting in the 1970's, and the data it provided led to a new phylogenetic system of the Platyhelminthes as a whole, emphasizing the paraphyletic nature of the ‘Turbellaria’ within it. Systematic biology can be expected to make further advances by combining molecular methods with high-quality traditional taxonomic ones, still essential to this field. Other methodological advances spurring turbellarian research today include immunocytochemistry, molecular biology of nucleic acids, karyology and computational methods. Better understanding of nervous systems and muscle systems should come through studies in functional biology, immunocytochemistry, fluorescence microscopy and molecular biology. Understanding the early evolution of the brain as a control center in the nervous system will be especially interesting. Studies of structural and regulatory proteins as well as the newer microscopical techniques should provide insight into the regulation of cell proliferation, tissue growth, and embryonic development. Ecology and behavior are areas in which research efforts should be intensified. Culturing and the new techniques in molecular biology, microscopy and computational methods now allow the collection of quantitative, experimental data in these fields. Current karyological and biogeographical studies as well as work on the evolution of sex in hermaphrodites are encouraging signs that we might soon better understand many aspects of reproduction and of interactions of free-living platyhelminths in their ecosystems. Turbellarians remain important research subjects for reasons that inspired interest by even the earliest workers, the probability that they are the most primitive living representatives of the Bilateria.     

A comment on ‘colonialism and ethnicity’

Self‐reported incidence of racial discrimination was investigated among four Asian‐American groups to explore their magnitude and the ways of coping with the discrimination episodes. The samples showed that among the two modes of coping ‐ problem‐focused or emotion‐focused coping ‐ a majority of Asian Americans has utilized the latter. Reasons of adopting these coping strategies were further explored for their determinants. Intergroup differences in ethnicity, education, gender and cultural values were found to exert influences on the ways of coping with racial discrimination among Asian Americans.     

A critical note on ‘exclusive recognition’

Cenk Saracoglu conceptualizes the antipathy towards Kurdish migrants manifesting in certain cities of Turkey since the early 2000s as ‘exclusive recognition’ in his article ‘“Exclusive recognition”: the new dimensions of the question of ethnicity and nationalism in Turkey’ published in Ethnic and Racial Studies 32(4). According to the author, these recent developments represent ‘a historically specific ethnicization process’ and its sources cannot be found directly and only in historical discourses and policy of mainstream Turkish nationalism. In this note, I contradict the author's claims by asserting that the recent manifestations of anti-Kurdish sentiments are an extension of the ongoing policies of Turkish national identity based on Turkish nationalism.     

A note on ‘A generalized two-sex logistic model’

We re-visit the recently published paper on a generalization of the two-sex logistic model by Maxin and Sega [A generalized two-sex logistic model, J. Biol. Dyn. 7(1) (2013), pp. 302–318]. We show that the logistic assumption of a non-increasing birth rate can be replaced by a more general assumption of a non-increasing ratio between the female/male birth and mortality rate. In this note we indicate the changes necessary in the proofs of the theorems in [D. Maxin and L. Sega, A generalized two-sex logistic model, J. Biol. Dyn. 7(1) (2013), pp. 302–318] and discuss several situations where this new assumption is useful.     

Local vs. Trans-regional Perspectives on Southeast Asian ‘Indianness’

This article is an attempt to define the concept ‘(Southeast Asian) Indianness’ through a comparative approach based on a local vs. trans-regional perspective. I shall analyse the complex relationships that develop between a translocal, urban and literate Indo-Aryan Great Tradition and a local, rural and oral Little Tradition. First, I shall tackle the question of whether literacy has any socio-religious relevance and endeavour to identify its relationship to orality. I will subsequently analyse the (re-) Indianisation process as a socio-political construct and will finally propose some re-readings of ‘Aryapheresis’ (i.e. ‘Indian [ārya] Transplant’ [phérein]), which I believe has been applied wrongly in some cases, to some Southeast Asian Indian-based socio-cultural realities.