Grasping Land: Space and Place in Contemporary Israeli Discourse and Experience

Grasping Land: Space and Place in Contemporary Israeli Discourse and Experience. Eyal Ben-Ari and Yoram Bilu. eds. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.246 pp.     

Donor Insemination: Eugenic and Feminist Implications

One concern regarding developments in genetics is that, when techniques such as genetic engineering become safe and affordable, people will use them for positive eugenics: to "improve" their offspring by enpowering them with exceptional qualities. Another is whether new reproductive technologies are being used to improve the condition of women or as the tools of a patriarchal system that appropriates female functions to itself and exploits women to further its own ends. Donor insemination is relevant to both of these issues. The degree to which people have used donor insemination in the past for positive eugenic purposes may give some insight into the likelihood of developing technologies being so used in the future. Donor insemination provides women with the opportunity to reproduce with only the most remote involvement of a man. To what degree do women take advantage of this to liberate themselves from male dominance? Through questionnaires and interviews, women who have used donor insemination disclosed their criteria for selecting sperm donors. The results are analyzed for the prevalence of positive eugenic criteria in the selection process and women's attitudes toward minimizing the male role in reproduction.     

Heredity counseling: Eugenic aspects of the premarital consultation

Abstract

Coopersmith Self‐esteem Inventory scores, obtained on a sample of 154 black and 190 white same‐sex twin pairs attending Philadelphia area schools, are analyzed to determine the effect of skin color on self‐esteem. Skin color alone, and therefore race which is highly correlated with skin color, has no effect upon self‐esteem.     

Stormy Winds and Southern Comfort(s): On Categories,Strategies, and Cartographies

How do we see Southeast Asian and diasporic visual culture today? This is the central question we ask in the Introduction to this special issue of Visual Anthropology. To answer the question, we trouble the geographic designation of “Southeast Asia” and how the region’s arts and culture have traveled and are received at the present moment. We posit that we need to see Southeast Asia and its diasporas differently. Most notably, we argue that through the lens of gender and sexuality we can better visualize and analyze the critical and creative strategies of artists and writers situated in many parts of the world. We foreground the collected essays, art pieces and poetry that query what it means to labor for the state, the art world or the academy. And as we emphasize, the collection brings together—in color, in varying compositions, in long and short form—the dynamism of art and media texts in all of their complex circulations.     

A Place Containing Many Places: Museums and the Use of Objects to Represent Place in Melanesia

In this paper I discuss a number of incompatible ways of comprehending object meanings, contrasting western ethnographic museum practice with indigenous, specifically ni-Vanuatu, understandings. I discuss these differences as a way of looking analytically at some of the practices of museum ethnography and material culture studies. There are several aspects to this contrast: here I concentrate on ideas about place. Place is a centrally important concept in Vanuatu, but is not privileged in relation to objects. Western museums, however, use provenance as any ethnographic object's defining characteristic, and have developed a sophisticated, though largely unexamined, set of principles and practices for the attribution of provenance on stylistic grounds. On the basis of provenance identification, museums attribute meaning to objects. When enshrined as professional museum practice, such approaches pose dilemmas for Melanesian museums, and are the subject of debate among Pacific region museum professionals. For ni-Vanuatu, the significance of objects on display may represent not places, but the performance of the skills that reveal the maker's place-based identity.     

Pleiotropy and heterogeneity in the expression of atherogenic lipoproteins: the IRAS Family Study

OBJECTIVE: Dyslipidemia is an important determinant of coronary disease. Phenotypic correlations between atherogenic lipids are well established, but the contribution of common genetic influences is less clear. METHODS: This study investigates the pair-wise genetic (rhog) and environmental (rhoe) correlations between apoB, LDL-C, HDL-C, and triglyceride (Tg) from Hispanic and African American families of the IRAS Family Study. RESULTS: Heritability estimates (?2) indicate significant genetic effects on apoB (?2=0.46+/-0.05), LDL-C (?2=0.40+/-0.05), HDL-C (?2=0.47+/-0.05), and Tg (?2=0.35+/-0.05) (all p<0.001). Genetic and environmental correlations were strong for apoB-LDL-C (rhog=0.87, rhoe=0.84), apoB-Tg (rhog=0.38, rhoe=0.65), and HDL-C-Tg (rhog=-0.42, rhoe=-0.46). Environmental correlations were strong for apoB-HDL-C (rhoe=-0.40), LDL-C-HDL-C (rhoe=-0.24), and Tg-LDL-C (rhoe=0.33) with weak genetic correlations for these pairs (rhog=-0.09, 0.10, 0.09 respectively). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest multiple pathways leading to atherogenic dyslipidemia. There are common genetic and environmental influences contributing to variations in apoB and LDL-C as well as apoB and Tg. In addition, the inverse relation between Tg and HDL-C appears to have both genetic and environmental basis. Identifying genes involved in atherogenic dyslipidemia will require careful dissection of the genetic architecture of these pathways.     

Eugenic sterilization: a preliminary comparison of the Scandinavian experience to that of Germany

The paper argues that historical analysis and explanation of eugenics in Germany can benefit much from systematic comparison to Scandinavia. Common cultural background and quite similar development up to 1933 provides a background for isolating salient causes in Nazi population policies. This comparison will also help a more precise understanding of the mutual dependence between science and politics in the case of eugenics. The author holds that many of the geneticists who participated in the eugenics debates of the 1930's and 1940's had a clearer grasp of the distinction between science and politics than most present day historiographers of eugenics.     

Changing Patterns in Place of Cancer Death in England: A Population-Based Study

Background

Most patients with cancer prefer to die at home or in a hospice, but hospitals remain the most common place of death (PoD).This study aims to explore the changing time trends of PoD and the associated factors, which are essential for end-of-life care improvement.

Methods and Findings

The study analysed all cancer deaths in England collected by the Office for National Statistics during 1993–2010 (n = 2,281,223). Time trends of age- and gender-standardised proportion of deaths in individual PoDs were evaluated using weighted piecewise linear regression. Variables associated with PoD (home or hospice versus hospital) were determined using proportion ratio (PR) derived from the log-binomial regression, adjusting for clustering effects. Hospital remained the most common PoD throughout the study period (48.0%; 95% CI 47.9%–48.0%), followed by home (24.5%; 95% CI 24.4%–24.5%), and hospice (16.4%; 95% CI 16.3%–16.4%). Home and hospice deaths increased since 2005 (0.87%; 95% CI 0.74%–0.99%/year, 0.24%; 95% CI 0.17%–0.32%/year, respectively, p<0.001), while hospital deaths declined (−1.20%; 95% CI −1.41 to −0.99/year, p<0.001). Patients who died from haematological cancer (PRs 0.46–0.52), who were single, widowed, or divorced (PRs 0.75–0.88), and aged over 75 (PRs 0.81–0.84 for 75–84; 0.66–0.72 for 85+) were less likely to die in home or hospice (p<0.001; reference groups: colorectal cancer, married, age 25–54). There was little improvement in patients with lung cancer of dying in home or hospice (PRs 0.87–0.88). Marital status became the second most important factor associated with PoD, after cancer type. Patients from less deprived areas (higher quintile of the deprivation index) were more likely to die at home or in a hospice than those from more deprived areas (lower quintile of the deprivation index; PRs 1.02–1.12). The analysis is limited by a lack of data on individual patients'' preferences for PoD or a clinical indication of the most appropriate PoD.

Conclusions

More efforts are needed to reduce hospital deaths. Health care facilities should be improved and enhanced to support the increased home and hospice deaths. People who are single, widowed, or divorced should be a focus for end-of-life care improvement, along with known at risk groups such as haematological cancer, lung cancer, older age, and deprivation. Please see later in the article for the Editors'' Summary     

Study of the Biological Dormancy of Aquatic Organisms in Open Space and Space Flight Conditions

Biology Bulletin - In outer space, ultraviolet and cosmic radiation, a wide range of high and low temperatures, altered gravity, electromagnetic fields, the vacuum, and their combinations determine...     

Genetic analysis of adiponectin and obesity in Hispanic families: the IRAS Family Study

Adiponectin, coded for by the APM1 gene, is a novel adipocyte-derived hormone implicated in energy homeostasis and obesity. Several genetic studies have observed evidence of association between APM1 gene polymorphisms and features of the metabolic syndrome, such as insulin resistance and obesity. As part of a comprehensive genetic analysis of the APM1 gene, we have screened 96 unrelated individuals for polymorphisms in the promoter, coding regions, and 3untranslated region (UTR). Three promoter single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), two rare coding SNPs (G113A and T1233C), and 13 SNPs in the 3UTR were identified. Eighteen SNPs were genotyped in 811 Hispanic individuals from 45 families in the IRAS Family Study (IRASFS). SNPs were tested for association with six obesity quantitative traits (body mass index, waist, waist:hip ratio, subcutaneous adipose tissue, visceral adipose tissue, and visceral:subcutaneous ratio). Significant evidence of association to at least one of the obesity traits was identified in seven of the 18 SNPs (<0.001–0.05). The promoter SNP INS CA-11156 was the most consistently associated SNP and was associated significantly with all measures of obesity, except the visceral:subcutaneous ratio (P-values 0.009–0.03). Haplotype analysis supported this evidence of association, with haplotypes containing an insertion of one CA repeat at position –11156 consistently being associated with lower obesity values (P-value <0.001–0.05). The adiponectin polymorphisms, in particular those in the promoter region, thus show significant association with obesity measures in the Hispanic population. Additional studies are needed to confirm our findings and determine which polymorphism causes the functional effect.     

Empowering Place: Multilocality and Multivocality

The concept of voice has received considerable attention in anthropology recently. This article suggests that the concept of place requires a concomitant rethinking. It explores ways in which place, like voice and time, is a politicized social and cultural construct. It applies insights from geography and sociology to the anthropological study of place, drawing on research in Melanesia, including the author's fieldwork in Vanuatu. The article concludes that attention to multilocality as well as multivocality can empower place conceptually and encourage understanding of the complex social construction of spatial meaning.     

Immunogenetics of leishmanial and mycobacterial infections: the Belem Family Study.

In the 1970s and 1980s, analysis of recombinant inbred, congenic and recombinant haplotype mouse strains permitted us to effectively ''scan'' the murine genome for genes controlling resistance and susceptibility to leishmanial infections. Five major regions of the genome were implicated in the control of infections caused by different Leishmania species which, because they show conserved synteny with regions of the human genome, immediately provides candidate gene regions for human disease susceptibility genes. A common intramacrophage niche for leishmanial and mycobacterial pathogens, and a similar spectrum of immune response and disease phenotypes, also led to the prediction that the same genes/candidate gene regions might be responsible for genetic susceptibility to mycobacterial infections such as leprosy and tuberculosis. Indeed, one of the murine genes (Nramp1) was identified for its role in controlling a range of intramacrophage pathogens including leishmania, salmonella and mycobacterium infections. In recent studies, multicase family data on visceral leishmaniasis and the mycobacterial diseases, tuberculosis and leprosy, have been collected from north-eastern Brazil and analysed to determine the role of these candidate genes/regions in determining disease susceptibility. Complex segregation analysis provides evidence for one or two major genes controlling susceptibility to tuberculosis in this population. Family-based linkage analyses (combined segregation and linkage analysis; sib-pair analysis), which have the power to detect linkage between marker loci in candidate gene regions and the putative disease susceptibility genes over 10-20 centimorgans, and transmission disequilibrium testing, which detects allelic associations over 1 centimorgan (ca. 1 megabase), have been used to examine the role of four regions in determining disease susceptibility and/or immune response phenotype. Our results demonstrate: (i) the major histocompatibility complex (MHC: H-2 in mouse, HLA in man: mouse chromosome 17/human 6p; candidates class II and class III including TNF alpha/beta genes) shows both linkage to, and allelic association with, leprosy per se, but is only weakly associated with visceral leishmaniasis and shows neither linkage to nor allelic association with tuberculosis; (ii) no evidence for linkage between NRAMP1, the positionally cloned candidate for the murine macrophage resistance gene Ity/Lsh/Bcg (mouse chromosome 1/human 2q35), and susceptibility to tuberculosis or visceral leishmaniasis could be demonstrated in this Brazilian population; (iii) the region of human chromosome 17q (candidates NOS2A, SCYA2-5) homologous with distal mouse chromosome 11, originally identified as carrying the Scl1 gene controlling healing versus nonhealing responses to Leishmania major, is linked to tuberculosis susceptibility; and (iv) the ''T helper 2'' cytokine gene cluster (proximal murine chromosome 11/human 5q; candidates IL4, IL5, IL9, IRF1, CD14) controlling later phases of murine L. major infection, is not linked to human disease susceptibility for any of the three infections, but shows linkage to and highly significant allelic association with ability to mount an immune response to mycobacterial antigens. These studies demonstrate that the ''mouse-to-man'' strategy, refined by our knowledge of the human immune response to infection, can lead to the identification of important candidate gene regions in man.     

Just the Place is Different: Comparisons of Place and Settlement Practices of some Hong Kong Migrants in Sydney

Interviews with HK migrants in Sydney yield a diverse array of perceptions about their sense of space and position. These 'spatial stories' (following de Certeau) can be read as different ways of inhabiting the everyday, as narratives which may cut across the 'proper' spatial order. All the senses are brought into play in accounts of densities and absences in people's everyday world. Banal discourses about 'here' and 'there' provide migrant subjects with a means to evaluate their social and spatial trajectories by comparing the 'feel' of very different places and scales. I also point to the limits of such strategies, and the kind of memories which lie outside of discursive exchanges.     

Eugenic and sexual folklores and the castration of sex offenders in the Netherlands (1938-1968)

This contribution questions the positive/negative eugenics dichotomy that typifies the historiography on the eugenic movement in the Netherlands and the claim that this movement was mostly marginal because only positive eugenics was pursued. From 1938 to 1968 in the Netherlands, after a decade of debates, 400 sex offenders who had been committed to asylums for the criminally insane were 'voluntarily' and 'therapeutically' castrated. For political reasons debates on castration, meant to create consensus, eliminated any reference to or connotation with eugenics, yet these policies were unthinkable without them. This article shows that thinking about social and sexual problems and their solutions in the 1930s were permeated by eugenic folklore which in turn was informed by sexual folklore. Both eugenic and sexual lore, as common sense, or as ways of knowing, were about individual and collective loss of self control which was referred to with a catch-all phrase: 'hypersexuality'. Although sexual classifications used in diagnosing sex offenders suggested the existence of discrete sexual categories, homosexuality for instance was not seen as a sexual alternative or as an identity but as the extent to which an offender suffered from a form of hypersexuality that threatened the fabric of society.     

Chronic Liver Disease and Mitochondrial Antibodies: A Family Study

Two sisters had primary biliary disease and associated autoimmune thyroiditis with high titres of mitochondrial and other autoantibodies. Their deceased mother possibly suffered from similar disorders. In the same family two brothers had multiple autoimmune reactions, including mitochondrial antibodies, but liver function tests gave normal results. Ten other close relatives were investigated. Australia antigen was not found in the proband or her relatives.     

Children and Place: A Natural Connection

One of the main objectives of this activity is to introduce students to dissection, which is an important part of scientific discovery. The students not only gain an understanding of anatomy but also develop a sense of responsibility and respect for the animal that they are using as a learning tool. The students prepare and cook the edible parts of the squid to cut down on waste and to emphasize the importance of squid as a food source worldwide.     

Family Rubella Study in Los Angeles

A prospective study was initiated before the expected rubella epidemics in 1964 and 1965 in Los Angeles. Seventy-six families were evaluated by means of rubella complement fixing (cf) antibodies. The cf test, which has notable limitations, was chosen as a serologic test because it was possible to secure repeated samples of sera from all members of the families if venipuncture could be avoided.Definite evidence of clinical or serological rubella occurred in 13 of 399 persons enrolled in 1964, an attack rate of 3.3 percent. Four persons had clinical rubella only, five had clinical disease with seroconversion and four had seroconversion only. The ratio of apparent to unapparent disease was nine to four.There were four key families, each of which had more than one individual with definite clinical or serological evidence of rubella, suggesting that clustering of rubella cases does occur in families having an index case. In these families three types of intra-family spread were demonstrated: (1) all affected members had clinical disease, (2) all those affected had only inapparent disease, and (3) both apparent and inapparent disease in the same family.     

Genetics of obesity and metabolic complications in the Quebec Family Study

Considerable progress has been accomplished over the past 10 years in the understanding of the genetic basis of obesity and its related metabolic complications. It is now well established that obesity aggregates within families and that genes are partly responsible for this familial aggregation. The number of genes potentially involved in obesity continues to grow. This review summarizes the evidence accumulated so for regarding the contribution of genetic factors in obesity and the number of gene and loci linked to obesity in the Quebec Family Study.