Equivocal locations: being ‘red’ in ‘Red Bologna’

This article addresses a classic ethnographic problem in the study of Italy: how is it that people can subscribe simultaneously to seemingly contradictory ideologies, such as Catholicism and Communism? It does so by describing examples from Italy's ‘showcase city’ of the left, ‘Red Bologna’, in which to be ‘red’ is ubiquitous but each person's ‘red’ is a different thing: being ‘red’ (differently) is the idiom in which real political distinctions are expressed over issues like religion or immigration. In parallel, I discuss the relationship between the ‘field’ as a location and the ‘field’ as a conceptual topic. My account replicates internal ethnographic differences at the analytical level by highlighting the differences between being left‐wing in Bologna and its meaning as a concept in anthropology. Hence the ‘equivocal location’: a field‐site that is productively different, from what an inexperienced ethnographer expected from it, from conceptual discussions in anthropology, and from itself.     

Nations and Tribes ‘Within’: Emerging Aboriginal ‘Nationalisms’ in Katherine

Throughout Australia, many Aboriginal responses to the legislative and administrative pressures of the native title regime have been couched in a nation‐building idiom expressed through legally incorporated Aboriginal associations. The membership criteria of these umbrella associations are often derived from definitions of the ‘tribe’ or ‘language group’. Yet, in a kind of Balkanisation, those who see themselves as marginalised to positions of uncertainty on the peripheries of the nation often seek to establish their own independent corporations on the basis of exclusive ties to specific areas of land within it, in search of greater recognition and in competition for scarce resources. In Katherine, in the Northern Territory of Australia, the administrative and legislative gaze of the State, particularly the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976, brought into focus a Jawoyn ‘tribe’, soon to express itself in the idiom of nationhood, closely followed by a Wardaman ‘tribe’ and ‘nation’. More recently, a native title gaze has now brought into focus ‘new’ configurations of kindred clusters, apparently located on the ‘peripheries' of the Jawoyn and Wardaman nations, and named and valued them as Dagoman. This paper discusses the processes associated with an emerging, but seemingly already fragmenting, Dagoman nation. It argues that divergent and changing Aboriginal subjectivities disrupt what might be seen as mimetic processes as Aboriginal people employ strategies of transforming essentialist representations of their collective selves in changing conditions of possibility.     

‘Dancing the image’: materiality and spirituality in Andean religious ‘images’

In the Christian tradition, representing the divine has often been considered both an impossible and yet necessary endeavour rooted in the human need in certain moments of weakness to visualize God. In this article, based on research findings from fieldwork carried out with urban indigenous groups in La Paz, Bolivia, I suggest that the articulation of local and Catholic representational traditions and practices has produced an understanding of the religious image not so much as an object of detached contemplation or a reference to a religious symbol but rather as an energized element which physically shapes the relationship and exchange between the material and the spiritual world. I suggest that through a study of Andean religious images we may be able to produce an alternative ontological perspective on the relationship between the spiritual, material, and living worlds.

Résumé

Dans la tradition chrétienne, la représentation du divin est souvent considérée comme une gageure impossible et pourtant nécessaire, motivée par la nécessité humaine de visualiser Dieu dans les moments de faiblesse. À partir des matériaux de terrain obtenus auprès de groupes autochtones urbains à La Paz, en Bolivie, l'auteur suggère ici que l'articulation des traditions et pratiques de représentation locales et catholiques a conduit à concevoir l'image religieuse moins comme un objet de contemplation détachée ou une référence à un symbole religieux que comme un élément chargé d'énergie, qui donne physiquement forme à la relation et aux échanges entre le monde matériel et le monde spirituel. L'article suggère qu'à travers l'étude des images religieuses andines, on pourrait élaborer un autre point de vue ontologique sur la relation entre les mondes spirituel, matériel et vivant.     

Ontogeny,morphology and taxonomy of the soft‐bodied Cambrian ‘mollusc’ Wiwaxia

The soft‐bodied Cambrian organism Wiwaxia poses a taxonomic conundrum. Its imbricated dorsal scleritome suggests a relationship with the polychaete annelid worms, whereas its mouthparts and naked ventral surface invite comparison with the molluscan radula and foot. 476 new and existing specimens from the 505‐Myr‐old Burgess Shale cast fresh light on Wiwaxia's sclerites and scleritome. My observations illuminate the diversity within the genus and demonstrate that Wiwaxia did not undergo discrete moult stages; rather, its scleritome developed gradually, with piecewise addition and replacement of individually secreted sclerites. I recognize a digestive tract and creeping foot in Wiwaxia, solidifying its relationship with the contemporary Odontogriphus. Similarities between the scleritomes of Wiwaxia, halkieriids, Polyplacophora and Aplacophora hint that the taxa are related. A molluscan affinity is robustly established, and Wiwaxia provides a good fossil proxy for the ancestral aculiferan – and perhaps molluscan – body plan.     

‘I am helping them’: ‘Traffickers’, ‘anti‐traffickers’ and economies of bad faith

For several years, aid programs in the Mekong region have taken an increasing interest in cross‐border mobility and human trafficking and its relationship with development. More recently, there has been an increasing interest in the identification of trafficked victims and the investigation, arrest and prosecution of traffickers. Whereas anti‐trafficking programs ubiquitously define themselves as being in a battle with traffickers, this article argues that although they are not homologous social actors, both engage in acts of bad faith. The article elaborates this argument by drawing attention to the recruitment process within the Lao sex industry as well as to the way in which aid programs attempt to identify trafficked victims. It concludes that imaginary aspects of development underpin a simultaneous disjuncture yet enable the social reproduction of the life worlds of ‘traffickers’ and ‘anti‐traffickers’ alike.     

Detection and Identification of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum’, ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma mali’ and ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma pyri’ in Stone Fruit Trees in Poland

A survey was made to determine the incidence of phytoplasmas in 39 sweet and sour cherry, peach, nectarine, apricot and plum commercial and experimental orchards in seven growing regions of Poland. Nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using the phytoplasma‐universal primer pairs P1/P7 followed by R16F2n/R16R2 showed the presence of phytoplasmas in 29 of 435 tested stone fruit trees. The random fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) patterns obtained after digestion of the nested PCR products separately with RsaI, AluI and SspI endonucleases indicated that selected Prunus spp. trees were infected by phytoplasmas belonging to three different subgroups of the apple proliferation group (16SrX‐A, ‐B, ‐C). Nucleotide sequence analysis of 16S rDNA fragment amplified with primers R16F2n/R16R2 confirmed the PCR/Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) results and revealed that phytoplasma infecting sweet cherry cv. Regina (Reg), sour cherry cv. Sokowka (Sok), apricots cv. Early Orange (EO) and AI/5, Japanese plum cv. Ozark Premier (OzPr) and peach cv. Redhaven (RedH) was closely related to isolate European stone fruit yellows‐G1 of the ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum’ (16SrX‐B). Sequence and phylogenetic analyses resulted in the highest similarity of the 16S rDNA fragment of phytoplasma from nectarine cv. Super Queen (SQ) with the parallel sequence of the strain AP15 of the ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma mali’ (16SrX‐A). The phytoplasma infecting sweet cherry cv. Kordia (Kord) was most similar to the PD1 strain of the ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma pyri’ (16SrX‐C). This is the first report of the occurrence of ‘Ca. P. prunorum’, ‘Ca. P. mali’ and ‘Ca. P. pyri’ in naturally infected stone fruit trees in Poland.     

Cleaner Wrasses Keep Track of the ‘When’ and ‘What’ in a Foraging Task1

In recent years evidence has accumulated that at least some animals can remember the ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘when’ of personal experiences. Currently, evidence for such ability is taxonomically restricted to birds and mammals. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that cleaner wrasses Labroides dimidiatus are able to remember when they interacted with what after a single event. In nature, cleaners remove ectoparasites from other reef fishes, so‐called clients. Clients are depleted, non‐stationary food patches at the end of an interaction and replenished only after a delay. In our experiments, we presented twelve cleaners every 2.5 min, a choice between two of a total of four plates with different colours and patterns. One plate was always accessible but contained a non‐preferred food item while the other three contained a preferred food item, but allowed a next feeding event only after 5, 10 or 15 min. Thus, to maximise food intake, cleaners had to remember for each choice when they had last interacted with which plate. When confronted with two plates offering preferred food, cleaners showed an overall significant preference for the plate that allowed access during the trial. For six cleaners, the preference was significant. Also, on trials involving the always accessible plate, cleaners discriminated between trials in which they had to eat the non‐preferred food and trials on which they could eat the preferred food. In conclusion, cleaners are able to track the ‘when’ and ‘what’ (or possibly ‘who’) within a biologically meaningful time period.     

Grading the commercial optical biosensor literature—Class of 2008: ‘The Mighty Binders’

Optical biosensor technology continues to be the method of choice for label‐free, real‐time interaction analysis. But when it comes to improving the quality of the biosensor literature, education should be fundamental. Of the 1413 articles published in 2008, less than 30% would pass the requirements for high‐school chemistry. To teach by example, we spotlight 10 papers that illustrate how to implement the technology properly. Then we grade every paper published in 2008 on a scale from A to F and outline what features make a biosensor article fabulous, middling or abysmal. To help improve the quality of published data, we focus on a few experimental, analysis and presentation mistakes that are alarmingly common. With the literature as a guide, we want to ensure that no user is left behind. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘Black’ and ‘white’ death: burials in a time of Ebola in Freetown,Sierra Leone

The article examines experiences of the 2014‐15 Ebola crisis in Freetown, Sierra Leone, through an analysis of the performance of burials. While most of the city's residents had no contact with the virus, ‘Ebola’ was inescapable, owing to the onerous state of emergency regulations imposed by national and international authorities. All burials, regardless of the cause of death, were to be performed by newly established official teams operating according to unfamiliar biomedical and bureaucratic protocols. Burials became emblematic of the crisis through presenting a conflict between local practices and novel procedures, which was coded locally in a complex racial language of ‘black’ and ‘white’, recalling a long regional history of violent integration into the Atlantic World. Building on long‐standing anthropological discussion on the relationship between ‘good’ death and social order, the article explores how burials became sites around which opposing ‘orders’ were experienced, negotiated, and reconciled in locally meaningful ways.     

The AAT1 locus is critical for the biosynthesis of esters contributing to ‘ripe apple’ flavour in ‘Royal Gala’ and ‘Granny Smith’ apples

The ‘fruity’ attributes of ripe apples (Malus × domestica) arise from our perception of a combination of volatile ester compounds. Phenotypic variability in ester production was investigated using a segregating population from a ‘Royal Gala’ (RG; high ester production) × ‘Granny Smith’ (GS; low ester production) cross, as well as in transgenic RG plants in which expression of the alcohol acyl transferase 1 (AAT1) gene was reduced. In the RG × GS population, 46 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for the production of esters and alcohols were identified on 15 linkage groups (LGs). The major QTL for 35 individual compounds was positioned on LG2 and co‐located with AAT1. Multiple AAT1 gene variants were identified in RG and GS, but only two (AAT1‐RGa and AAT1‐GSa) were functional. AAT1‐RGa and AAT1‐GSa were both highly expressed in the cortex and skin of ripe fruit, but AAT1 protein was observed mainly in the skin. Transgenic RG specifically reduced in AAT1 expression showed reduced levels of most key esters in ripe fruit. Differences in the ripe fruit aroma could be perceived by sensory analysis. The transgenic lines also showed altered ratios of biosynthetic precursor alcohols and aldehydes, and expression of a number of ester biosynthetic genes increased, presumably in response to the increased substrate pool. These results indicate that the AAT1 locus is critical for the biosynthesis of esters contributing to a ‘ripe apple’ flavour.     

Reconstituted viral envelopes — ‘Trojan Horses’ for drug delivery and gene therapy?

Reconstituted viral envelopes (RVEs) are formed by solubilizing intact virus in detergent and reassembling the envelope on removal of detergent. RVEs can be formed in the presence of agents that become encapsulated and can then be utilized in vitro and in vivo for drug delivery, cell destruction, transfer of membrane components, and as vectors for genetic engineering. The problems with biotechnological applications of RVEs and possible strategies for overcoming them are discussed in this article.     

Cruising: ‘Moral Panic’ and the Cronulla Riot

In this paper I draw on ethnography I undertook amongst locals in the Cronulla area after the riot of December 2005. A number of the young beach goers I came across had been on a P&O ‘schoolies cruise’ at the time of the riot. For two weeks the students depended on the media for information about what was going on in their suburbs. Sailing back, I was told, a pumped‐up chorus of ‘Shi‐ire!’ and ‘White Pride!’ rang out over Sydney Heads, as expectations climbed high of the ship being met by gangs of Middle Eastern youths, ready for the fight. Back on the beach, months later, bodies baking in the sun try to reconcile the thought of riot with what they know about Australia, and Cronulla, as a place of laid back, leisurely, lazily tolerant people. How can the two scenes of bodily excess be brought together? What are the limits of the ‘moral panic’ idea, in relation to the Cronulla riot? How do the competing truths of major discourses on Cronulla misrepresent the community in question?     

Potential defence from herbivory by ‘dazzle effects’ and ‘trickery coloration’ of leaf variegation

The very conspicuous dazzle coloration invented for naval defence during World War I was used in pre‐radar days to mislead attackers of naval units about vessel size, type, speed, and direction. Among several potential types of defences, it is proposed that zebra‐like white leaf variegation may defend leaves and other plant organs from herbivory as a result of dazzle effects. Two different dazzle effects may be involved in defending plants from herbivory, making it hard for herbivores (1) to decide where, in a three‐dimensional space, to bite the leaves (large herbivores) and (2) to land on them (insects). In addition, the related types of leaf coloration described in the present study, comprising parallels of military defensive trickery naval painting, may also deceive herbivores about the actual shape, location, and identity of leaves. Some of these visual defences may operate at the same time as other visual defences, such as aposematism, or serve various physiological functions. © 2014 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2014, 111 , 692–697.