Māori Research Collaborations,Mātauranga Māori Science and the Appropriation of Water in New Zealand

This article is an exploratory piece which introduces an argument that a new Māori-science discourse for freshwater has emerged in New Zealand. At the heart of the discourse is the Māori word mātauranga. Drawing on my attendance at a recent Māori water symposium, this work will track the shifting power relationships and fluid boundaries of groups of people with interests in science and claims to freshwater resources. With a focus on the words and language used by Ngai Tahu tribal leaders and natural scientists attending the symposium, this work asks what role the politics of language and discourse plays in transforming identities, power relations and sociopolitical hierarchies. A major focus of this article is the shifting relationships between identity, knowledge and power. Its thesis is that subtle shifts in discourse reflect wider social and symbolic struggles.     

Vb infixed plurals in Jebbāli

Quite a large number of nouns in Jebbāli exhibit infixation of Vb in their plural formation. The locus of the Vb infix, which systematically occurs in the middle of a CVCCVC stem, is unusual as it differs from the cross-linguistically common loci of infixation. According to Yu (A natural history of infixation, 2006), a survey of 154 infixation patterns in more than 100 languages “revealed that infixes invariably appear near one of the edges of a stem or next to a stressed unit… [and] 137 of these infixes (i.e. 89 %) are edge-oriented” (p. 3). In Jebbāli, the placement of infixation is driven by two forces. First, the plural forms are constrained to begin and end with stem material (i.e. material in correspondence to the singular), barring the Vb affix from occurring as a prefix or suffix. Second, the Vb infix is prosodically constrained, so that it cannot span two syllables. This paper provides a new theoretical approach to a less common pattern of infix placement, using the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky in Optimality theory, RUCCS TR-2, 1993, Optimality theory: constraint interaction in generative grammar, 2004). Since the locus of infixation in Jebbāli is not determined by a desire to be near a word edge or prosodically prominent position, and there is a tendency in the language to limit affixes to maximally one syllable, the analysis incorporates Affix≤σ which simultaneously addresses infix placement and size, ensuring that the analysis is extendable to other affixes in the language.     

Practical performance evaluation of a 10k × 10k CCD for electron cryo-microscopy

Electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) images are commonly collected using either charge-coupled devices (CCD) or photographic film. Both film and the current generation of 16 megapixel (4k × 4k) CCD cameras have yielded high-resolution structures. Yet, despite the many advantages of CCD cameras, more than two times as many structures of biological macromolecules have been published in recent years using photographic film. The continued preference to film, especially for subnanometer-resolution structures, may be partially influenced by the finer sampling and larger effective specimen imaging area offered by film. Large format digital cameras may finally allow them to overtake film as the preferred detector for cryo-EM. We have evaluated a 111-megapixel (10k × 10k) CCD camera with a 9 μm pixel size. The spectral signal-to-noise ratios of low dose images of carbon film indicate that this detector is capable of providing signal up to at least 2/5 Nyquist frequency potentially retrievable for 3D reconstructions of biological specimens, resulting in more than double the effective specimen imaging area of existing 4k × 4k CCD cameras. We verified our estimates using frozen-hydrated ε15 bacteriophage as a biological test specimen with previously determined structure, yielding a ～7 ? resolution single particle reconstruction from only 80 CCD frames. Finally, we explored the limits of current CCD technology by comparing the performance of this detector to various CCD cameras used for recording data yielding subnanometer resolution cryo-EM structures submitted to the electron microscopy data bank (http://www.emdatabank.org/).     

Herstellung künstlicher radioaktiver Teilchen

Zusammenfassung Es wurden künstliche radioaktive Teilchen in Form von im Durchmesser 5–20 m großen Plexiglasperlen hergestellt, in die eine organische Scandiumverbindung homogen eingelagert ist. Nach eintägiger Aktivierung der Perlen im Reaktor kann bei einem Teilchen von 10 m Durchmesser eine Scandiumaktivität bis zu 10^–10 Ci erreicht werden.     

Eiweißkörper inNeomonospora furcellata

Zusammenfassung InNeomonospora furcellata wurden außer den bekannten hexagonalen und kubischen Eiweißkristallen auch Eiweißspindeln und -stäbe beobachtet. Da im Golf von Neapel auch pathologische Formen vorkommen, die ebenfalls (allerdings nicht immer) diese Eiweißbildungen zeigen, wird eine Viruskrankheit vermutet.Der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften danke ich für die gewährte Subvention, Herrn Prof. Dr. Höfler für die Überlassung des vom Pflanzenphysiologischen Institut Wien gemieteten Arbeitsplatzes. Herrn Direktor Dr. Peter Dohrn danke ich für die gastliche Aufnahme in dem von ihm geleiteten Institut.     

Ancient DNA recovers the origins of Māori feather cloaks

Feather cloaks ("kakahu"), particularly those adorned with kiwi feathers, are treasured items or "taonga" to the Māori people of "Aotearoa"/New Zealand. They are considered iconic expression of Māori culture. Despite their status, much of our knowledge of the materials used to construct cloaks, the provenance of cloaks, and the origins of cloak making itself, has been lost. We used ancient DNA methods to recover mitochondrial DNA sequences from 849 feather samples taken from 109 cloaks. We show that almost all (>99%) of the cloaks were constructed using feathers from North Island brown kiwi. Molecular sexing of nuclear DNA recovered from 92 feather cloak samples also revealed that the sex ratio of birds deviated from a ratio of 1:1 observed in reference populations. Additionally, we constructed a database of 185 mitochondrial control region DNA sequences of kiwi feathers comprising samples collected from 26 North Island locations together with data available from the literature. Genetic subdivision (G(ST)), nucleotide subdivision (N(ST)) and Spatial Analysis of Molecular Variants (SAMOVA) analyses revealed high levels of genetic structuring in North Island brown kiwi. Together with sequence data from previously studied ancient and modern kiwi samples, we were able to determine the geographic provenance of 847 cloak feathers from 108 cloaks. A surprising proportion (15%) of cloaks were found to contain feathers from different geographic locations, providing evidence of kiwi trading among Māori tribes or organized hunting trips into other tribal areas. Our data also suggest that the east of the North Island of New Zealand was the most prolific of all kiwi cloak making areas, with over 50% of all cloaks analyzed originating from this region. Similar molecular approaches have the potential to discover a wealth of lost information from artifacts of endemic cultures worldwide.     

氯高铁血红素诱导k562细胞分化

近年研究证明,慢性粒细胞白血病(CML)细胞具有分化潜能。K562细胞是来自CML病人的Ph染色体阳性CML细胞株,具有红细胞系的某些特点。氯高铁血红素(hemin)可促使其合成血红蛋白,并可使血红素合成酶活性升高,而分解酶活性降低。本实验观察了K562细胞经hemin处理后的分化状态变化。     

Einschlußkörper in viruskrankenHesperis-Zellen

Zusammenfassung An einer Anzahl vonHesperis Candida undHesperis matronalis-Pflanzen zeigten sich im Botanischen Garten im Frühjahr 1959 Symptome einer Mosaikkrankheit. In den Trichomen der Blätter, in der Epidermis der Blattmittelrippe, in der Oberhaut des Stengels sowie in der Epidermis der Fruchtwand traten oft auffallend große protoplasmatische X-Körper auf. in denen sich Viruseiweißkristalle verschiedener Größe und Form bildeten.Herrn Professor Dr. Adolf Sperlich zum 80. Geburtstag.     

On true and apparent Michaelis constants in enzymology. II. Is the equation k(m)app = k(s) + k)cat)/k(1) true for enzyme-catalysed reactions with activator participation?

The article is dedicated to analysis of equation which expresses apparent Michaelis constant K(m)app) of enzyme-catalysed reactions with activator participation by means of the substrate constant K(s) and rate constant of enzyme-substrate complex decomposition k(cat). It has been shown that although it is possible to record the mechanisms of such reactions as a scheme similar to Michaelis-Menten model and to derive equation of apparent Michaelis constant as K(m(app) = K(s) + k(cat)/k(1), but this approach cannot be used for investigation of all reactions with activator participation. The equation mentioned above is not obeyed in the general case, it may be true for some mechanisms only or under certain ratio of kinetic parameters of enzyme-catalysed reactions.     

Biotechnology: the language of multiple views in Māori communities

In Aotearoa (New Zealand), the government funded studies on communicating biotechnology to different sectors in the community from 2003 to 2006. Subsequently, a researcher covering the Māori sector performed a content analysis of data gathered in the community. Qualitative analysis methods included examining text from participant interviews, focus groups, government documents, newspapers, Internet sites, and current literature. Content was coded by identifying common themes in the English and the Māori language. Words like genetic modification (GM), genetic engineering (GE), and biotechnology were explained to provide a basic understanding between the communities and researcher. The terminology applied in the research was essential to achieve communication between the researcher and the community. The resultant themes represented seven views to interpret the communities association with biotechnology: purist Māori, religious Māori, anti Māori, pro Māori, no Māori, uncertain Māori, and middle Māori views. The themes are taken from the analysis of data compiled after 3 years of completing different stages of a research project. The views indicate that a common understanding can be achieved in the diverse range of Māori tribal communities providing those communicating biotechnology can identify the view and interpretations communities associate with biotechnology. This knowledge is essential for government agencies, researchers, community practitioners, scientist, and businesses that desire to dialogue with Māori communities in the language of biotechnology.     

Catecholamines in the coelenterate Renilla köllikeri

Summary The characteristics of uptake of ³H-noradrenaline (³H-NA) and ³H-adrenaline (³H-A) in the tissues of the sea pansy, Renilla köllikeri, were studied by in vivo incubations. Lineweaver-Burk plots indicated two components of catecholamine accumulation, one representing a high-affinity uptake with an apparent K _m of 4.91×10^-7 M (³H-NA) or 4.39×10^-7 M (³H-A), and the other a low affinity process with an apparent Km of 5.52×10^-5 M (³H-NA) or 1.49×10^-5 M (³H-A). The high-affinity uptake of both tracers was strongly inhibited at low temperature and in a calcium-free medium, thus suggesting the involvement of a carrier-mediated transport mechanism, but was largely insensitive to sodium omission and ouabain. Accumulations of ³H-NA, but not ³H-A, were highly desipramine-sensitive.Light-microscopic radioautographic studies demonstrated the presence of cells reactive to both ³H-NA and ³H-A in the ectoderm, mesoglea and endoderm. Extraneuronal accumulations of ³H-NA and ³H-A were prominent in some ectodermal cells, in amoebocytes and spicule cells. Reactive neuronal processes were tentatively identified throughout the mesoglea and over all muscle layers on the basis of several morphological criteria. ³H-A, but not ³H-NA label, was more intense over the presumed photocytic zone and circular muscle than elsewhere. These and other observations support a neurotransmitter role for adrenaline (and probably noradrenaline) in control of luminescence and modulation of slow rachidial contractions.Supported by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada     

氧化应激基因表达与k基因结合核因子

氧化应激基因表达与ｋ基因结合核因子周玫,陈瑗（第一军医大学自由基医学研究室,广州５１０５１５）关键词ｋ基团结合核因子,氧化应激,基因表达调控氧化应激在很多疾病的发病机制中起着重要作用,并直接与衰老过程有关。细胞对氧化应激的反应特点是很快地诱导很多基因...     

Die Brechungsindices im Kristallkegel der MehlmotteEphestia kühniella

Zusammenfassung In den Kristallkegeln der MehlmotteEphestia kühniella (Lepidoptera) wurde durch interferometrische Messungen an unfixierten Querschnitten (Dicke 10–15 m) ein radiärsymmetrisch von der Längsachse zur Peripherie in Form einer quadratischen Parabel abnehmender Brechungsindex nachgewiesen. Der Brechungsindex weist in der Längsachse ca. 10 m vor dem distalen Ende ein Maximum mitn = 1,50 auf und fällt von dort nach distal steil, nach proximal langsam auf einen konstanten Randwert mitn = 1,38 ab. An vollständigen Kristallkegeln wurde der mittlere Brechungsindexn senkrecht zur Achse des Kegels in einer Reihe von Punkten entlang der Medianlinie gemessen. Unter der Annahme, daß die bei den Querschnittsmessungen gefundene parabelförmige Brechungsindex-Verteilung für alle Kristallkegelbereiche zutrifft, war es möglich, aus den Werten der mittleren Brechungsindices und des Randbrechungsindex die Brechungsindex-Verteilung im gesamten Kristallkegel zu berechnen.

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The refractive indices of the crystalline cone of the meal moth,Ephestia kühniella

Summary The refractive indices in the crystalline cones of the eye of the mothEphestia kühniella (Lepidoptera) were measured by interference microscopy. In fresh, unfixed sections (10–15 m thick) the refractive index decreases from the axis to the periphery approximately with the square of the distance from the axis. The maximum value ofn = 1.50 was found in the axis of the cone about 10 m from the distal end. From there, the refractive index falls steeply in the distal and gradually in the proximal direction to a constant value in the periphery ofn = 1.38. In unsectioned crystalline cones, the average refractive indexn was measured normally to the cone axis for a series of points along the median line. Assuming that the refractiv index changes in each cross section of the crystalline cone with the square of the distance from the axis, it was possible to calculate the distribution of refractive indices in the entire cone on the basis of the known values of the average refractive indices and the peripheral refractive index.

     

A metaphysics of living systems: the Yōga-Vāsistha view

TheYōga-Vāsistha is a rich and complex philosophical ‘poem’ (kāvya) of epic length, written in classical Sanskrit by an unknown author some time between the 6th and 13th centuries CE, probably around the 7th century. It is notable for its eloquent praise of self-effort and enquiry or analysis, and for its severe disparagement of the notion of fate. It views consciousness as (a) characterizing all living forms (including plant and insect life), (b) being atomic, and (c) analogous to the emergence of waves and whirlpools in water; it therefore grapples with what today would be called the problems of reductionism and emergentism. Notions of the survival of the fittest, and of a dynamic process of creation and loss, are expressed with characteristic force. The paper presents a selection of verses (in an English translation) setting forth these views, and a brief analysis of their implications. This essay is a slightly amended version of a paper that appears (with Sanskrit originals) in Menon S, Sinha A and Sreekantan B V 2002Science and Metaphysics Special Publications 10-02 (Bangalore: National Institute of Advanced Studies).     

Birch pollen abundance in Reykjavík,Iceland

A ten-year birch pollen record for Reykjavík, Iceland, has been analyzed with respect to fluctuations in the annual pollen sum, the starting date, and the duration of the birch pollen season. A three-year cycle is observed for the annual birch pollen sum, which could be of value in predicting the severity of the next birch pollen season. The annual birch pollen sum is regressed on six climatic variables, only one of which turned out to be statistically significant. The number of days with temperatures above +7.5°C in the year of inflorescence initiation shows a significant correlation with the annual birch pollen sum of the following flowering year (P =0.009). For the starting date of the birch pollen season the accumulated thermal sum on May 15 is shown to have the best predictive value, estimating it to within one week. The mean duration of the birch pollen season in southwestern Iceland is 17 days, starting May 29 and ending June 14.     

A novel hunting method for banded kōkopu

Banded kōkopu (Galaxias fasciatus) were observed attempting to catch insects off the bank of the pool in which they lived. This is previously unrecorded behaviour for this species. Details of this behaviour were recorded and described when individuals responded to the placement of insect larvae on the bank of the pool. This behaviour could explain the differences between stomach and drift net samples in previous diet studies.     

Solanum macolae,eine neue käferfeste Wildkartoffel

Theoretical and Applied Genetics -