“The correlates of attitudes toward euthanasia” revisited

Abstract

In a 1979 Social Biology article, B. K. Singh found religious affiliation to be an insignificant variable for the prediction of euthanasia and suicide attitudes. Reanalysis of this same data indicated that religious affiliation, coded as a discrete variable, Catholic vs. non‐Catholic, was masking existing differences among religious denominations. Using a chi‐square partitioning analysis comparing Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, and Non Religion categories indicated significant differences between Protestant and a combined category of Non Religion‐Jews for both euthanasia and suicide attitudes. Future efforts to predict euthanasia and suicide attitudes should include religious affiliation as dummy variable instead of an artificially dichotomized variable.     

‘National mission’: biopolitics,non-Jewish immigration and Jewish conversion policy in contemporary Israel

A large number of non-Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union have arrived in Israel since the late 1980s. This article explores how the Israeli State has responded to this perceived demographic threat by endorsing a pro-Jewish conversion policy targeted at this population of new citizens. By analysing a variety of ethnographic and textual materials, I trace the organizational processes and discursive practices through which conversion has been crafted into a ‘national mission’: an all-encompassing state endeavour whose impetus is a national-Zionist biopolitics. The Foucauldian concept of biopolitics offers a novel way to understand the interface between religious conversion and the nation-state. Specifically, it positions the concept of population as a primary analytical category, thereby enabling us to understand religious conversion as a mechanism of national population policy.     

Confidence in crisis? Understanding trust in government and public attitudes toward mandatory state health powers

In response to the possibility of a bioterror attack using smallpox, many states have updated and revised their current public health laws in line with the Model Act, which would effectively give states the right to invoke mandatory state health powers, such as quarantine or vaccine. Previous studies have supported the importance of allying with the public in creating and implementing effective bioterror response policies. Historical case studies and recent research suggest that when the public is not supportive of government health policies, they may be less willing to comply. In this study we analyze a recent survey to determine the effects of a set of variables, including aspects of trust in government that have been found in previous studies to influence public opposition to compulsory government health policies, on opinions about compulsory vaccination and quarantine.     

The habits of roots: what's up down under?

Defining interactions of roots with the surrounding soil environment has been the focus of many recent investigations. As a result of these efforts, we are gaining an appreciation of the varied and often surprising strategies whereby roots adjust to and condition their soil environment for optimal growth and development. This article summarizes current knowledge of the often complex interactions between roots and biotic and abiotic factors within the soil. These interactions are interpreted in terms of modifications in the development or the physiology of the root.     

The roots—a short history of industrial microbiology and biotechnology

Early biotechnology (BT) had its roots in fascinating discoveries, such as yeast as living matter being responsible for the fermentation of beer and wine. Serious controversies arose between vitalists and chemists, resulting in the reversal of theories and paradigms, but prompting continuing research and progress. Pasteur’s work led to the establishment of the science of microbiology by developing pure monoculture in sterile medium, and together with the work of Robert Koch to the recognition that a single pathogenic organism is the causative agent for a particular disease. Pasteur also achieved innovations for industrial processes of high economic relevance, including beer, wine and alcohol. Several decades later Buchner, disproved the hypothesis that processes in living cells required a metaphysical ‘vis vitalis’ in addition to pure chemical laws. Enzymes were shown to be the chemical basis of bioconversions. Studies on the formation of products in microbial fermentations, resulted in the manufacture of citric acid, and chemical components required for explosives particularly in war time, acetone and butanol, and further products through fermentation. The requirements for penicillin during the Second World War lead to the industrial manufacture of penicillin, and to the era of antibiotics with further antibiotics, like streptomycin, becoming available. This was followed by a new class of high value-added products, mainly secondary metabolites, e.g. steroids obtained by biotransformation. By the mid-twentieth century, biotechnology was becoming an accepted specialty with courses being established in the life sciences departments of several universities. Starting in the 1970s and 1980s, BT gained the attention of governmental agencies in Germany, the UK, Japan, the USA, and others as a field of innovative potential and economic growth, leading to expansion of the field. Basic research in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology dramatically widened the field of life sciences and at the same time unified them considerably by the study of genes and their relatedness throughout the evolutionary process. The scope of accessible products and services expanded significantly. Economic input accelerated research and development, by encouraging and financing the development of new methods, tools, machines and the foundation of new companies. The discipline of ‘New Biotechnology’ became one of the lead sciences. Although biotechnology has historical roots, it continues to influence diverse industrial fields of activity, including food, feed and other commodities, for example polymer manufacture, biofuels and energy production, providing services such as environmental protection, and the development and production of many of the most effective drugs. The understanding of biology down to the molecular level opens the way to create novel products and efficient environmentally acceptable methods for their production.     

Microenvironmental influences of apoptosis in vivo and in vitro

The apoptosis program of physiological cell death elicits a range of non-phlogistic homeostatic mechanisms—“recognition, response and removal”—that regulate the microenvironments of normal and diseased tissues via multiple modalities operating over short and long distances. The molecular mechanisms mediate intercellular signaling through direct contact with neighboring cells, release of soluble factors and production of membrane-delimited fragments (apoptotic bodies, blebs and microparticles) that allow for interaction with host cells over long distances. These processes effect the selective recruitment of mononuclear phagocytes and the specific activation of both phagocytic and non-phagocytic cells. While much evidence is available concerning the mechanisms underlying the recognition and responses of phagocytes that culminate in the engulfment and removal of apoptotic cell bodies, relatively little is yet known about the non-phagocytic cellular responses to the apoptosis program. These responses regulate inflammatory and immune cell activation as well as cell fate decisions of proliferation, differentiation and death. Here, we review current knowledge of these processes, considering especially how apoptotic cells condition the microenvironments of normal and malignant tissues. We also discuss how apoptotic cells that persist in the absence of phagocytic clearance exert inhibitory effects over their viable neighbors, paying particular attention to the specific case of cell cultures and highlighting how new cell-corpse-clearance devices—Dead-Cert^® Nanoparticles—can significantly improve the efficacy of cell cultures through effective removal of non-viable cells in the absence of phagocytes in vitro.     

Practitioner attitudes in the United States and United Kingdom toward decisions at the end of life: are medical ethicists out of touch?

Objective To assess whether UK and US health care professionals share the views of medical ethicists about medical futility, withdrawing or withholding treatment, ordinary or extraordinary interventions, and the doctrine of double effect. Design, subjects, and setting Answers to a 138-item attitudinal questionnaire completed by 469 UK nurses studying the Open University course on “Death and Dying” were compared with those of a similar questionnaire administered to 759 US nurses and 687 US physicians taking the Hastings Center course on “Decisions Near the End of Life.” Results Practitioners accept the relevance of concepts widely disparaged by bioethicists: double effect, medical futility, and the distinctions between heroic and ordinary interventions and withholding and withdrawing treatment. Within the UK nurses'' group, the responses of a “rationalist” axis of respondents who describe themselves as having “no religion” are closer to the bioethics consensus on withholding and withdrawing treatment. Conclusions Professionals'' beliefs differ substantially from the recommendations of their professional bodies and from majority opinion in bioethics. Bioethicists should be cautious about assuming that their opinions will be readily accepted by practitioners.     

The “Normalization” of Intersex Bodies and “Othering” of Intersex Identities in Australia

Once described as hermaphrodites and later as intersex people, individuals born with intersex variations are routinely subject to so-called “normalizing” medical interventions, often in childhood. Opposition to such practices has been met by attempts to discredit critics and reasserted clinical authority over the bodies of women and men with “disorders of sex development.” However, claims of clinical consensus have been selectively constructed and applied and lack evidence. Limited transparency and lack of access to justice have helped to perpetuate forced interventions. At the same time, associated with the diffusion of distinct concepts of sex and gender, intersex has been constructed as a third legal sex classification, accompanied by pious hopes and unwarranted expectations of consequences. The existence of intersex has also been instrumentalized for the benefit of other, intersecting, populations. The creation of gender categories associated with intersex bodies has created profound risks: a paradoxically narrowed and normative gender binary, maintenance of medical authority over the bodies of “disordered” females and males, and claims that transgressions of social roles ascribed to a third gender are deceptive. Claims that medicalization saves intersex people from “othering,” or that legal othering saves intersex people from medicalization, are contradictory and empty rhetoric. In practice, intersex bodies remain “normalized” or eliminated by medicine, while society and the law “others” intersex identities. That is, medicine constructs intersex bodies as either female or male, while law and society construct intersex identities as neither female nor male. Australian attempts at reforms to recognize the rights of intersex people have either failed to adequately comprehend the population affected or lacked implementation. An emerging human rights consensus demands an end to social prejudice, stigma, and forced medical interventions, focusing on the right to bodily integrity and principles of self-determination.     

Immigrant and native? The case of the swamp foxtail Cenchrus purpurascens in Australia

Aim

Spring wetlands in arid regions of Australia provide habitat for many highly endemic organisms, including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and plants, but these unique ecosystems have been under pressure since the arrival of Europeans about 250 years ago. Arguments over whether particular plant species are long‐term spring inhabitants or recent immigrants are confounding efforts to conserve spring flora. One such example is the swamp foxtail, Cenchrus purpurascens, a grass that is variably listed in the literature as being native to Australian wetlands or as being an introduced weedy species from Asia.

Location

Australia, China and Korea.

Methods

We use DNA sequences of the nuclear ITS and the chloroplast DNA regions trnL‐F and matK, complemented with newly designed simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, to assess the native status of C. purpurascens in Australia and determine whether there is genetic differentiation among spring populations.

Results

We find that, although there has been gene flow between Asia and Australia in the geological past, the populations are now strongly differentiated: C. purpurascens has probably been present in Australia through the Pleistocene. In Australia, there is also strong genetic differentiation among populations from different springs, and between springs and non‐springs populations, indicating long‐term occupancy of some springs sites.

Main conclusions

Cenchrus purpurascens was present in Australia well before European colonization of the continent. The level of genetic differentiation among populations enhances the existing conservation values of Elizabeth Springs, Edgbaston, Doongmabulla and Carnarvon Gorge springs complexes within the Great Artesian Basin.

     

The temperature influences the ratio of glucosidase and galactosidase activities of β-glycosidases

The selectivity for the glycon part of a donor substrate of -glycosidases from almond, a mesophilic (Kluyveromyces fragilis) and three highly thermophilic organisms (Caldocellum saccharolyticum, Sulfolobus solfataricus and Pyrococcus furiosus) was investigated at various temperatures (25–90 °C). On the basis of kinetic constants, the selectivity was calculated as the specificity constant (V _max /K _m ) ratio or V _max ratio of glucoside to galactoside donor. In the almond -glucosidase and the mesostable enzyme one enzyme activity dominated whereas the thermostable enzymes expressed both high -glucosidase and high -galactosidase activities. Surprisingly, for -glycosidases from almond, K. fragilis, and C. saccharolyticum the donor selectivity decreased as the temperature increased. In contrast, two of the highly thermostable enzymes (from S. solfataricus and P. furiosus) had constant donor selectivity as the temperature increased. The results thus showed -glycosidases of differing origins to differ markedly in their substrate specificity and in the extent to which their selectivity for the glycon part of the donor substrate is influenced by the temperature.     

‘The importance of symbiosis in philosophy of biology: an analysis of the current debate on biological individuality and its historical roots’

Symbiosis plays a fundamental role in contemporary biology, as well as in recent thinking in philosophy of biology. The discovery of the importance and universality of symbiotic associations has brought new light to old debates in the field, including issues about the concept of biological individuality. An important aspect of these debates has been the formulation of the hologenome concept of evolution, the notion that holobionts are units of natural selection in evolution. This review examines the philosophical assumptions that underlie recent proposal of the hologenome concept of evolution, and traces those debates back in time to their historical origins, to the moment when the connection between the topics of symbiosis and biological individuality first caught the attention of biologists. The review is divided in two parts. The first part explores the historical origins of the connection between the notion of symbiosis and the concept of biological individuality, and emphasizes the role of A. de Bary, R. Pound, A. Schneider and C. Merezhkowsky in framing the debate. The second part examines the hologenome concept of evolution and explores four parallelisms between contemporary debates and the debates presented in the first part of the essay, arguing that the different debates raised by the hologenome concept were already present in the literature. I suggest that the novelty of the hologenome concept of evolution lies in the wider appreciation of the importance of symbiosis for maintaining life on Earth as we know it. Finally, I conclude by suggesting the importance of exploring the connections among contemporary biology, philosophy of biology and history of biology in order to gain a better understanding of contemporary biology.     

The dog that didn’t bark: Preschool education and middle-school attitudes in Tulsa

To examine associations between participation in Tulsa’s preschool programs and a set of middle-school attitudes, we used propensity score weighting to compare the Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) pre-K participants and, separately, the Community Action Project (CAP) Head Start participants to students who had attended neither TPS pre-K nor Head Start as 4-year olds. In the context of very few significant findings, positive associations were found between pre-K participation (in both the TPS pre-K and CAP Head Start programs) and the students’ attitudes about grit as assessed with the goal-setting subscale. Head Start participation was also associated with more cautionary views of risky sexual behavior. The results are discussed with regard to prevailing hypotheses guiding research on long-term pre-K impacts, measurement challenges, and expectations of pre-K education.     

The roots of Evo-Devo in Russia: Is there a characteristic “Russian Tradition”?

This paper raises the general question of whether there are any national peculiarities that characterize the scientific and philosophical roots of Russian-language evolutionary developmental biology. The researchers and theories are surveyed which, with hindsight, have been crucial for the Russian tradition when it comes to general methodological principles and constituting concepts. Based on published works and archival documents the main concepts of the “founding fathers” of the Russian tradition with their “Western analogues” are compared. The focus is on A. O. Kowalevsky (1840–1901), I. I. Metschnikov (1945–1916), A. N. Sewertzoff (1866–1936), I. I. Schmalhausen (1884–1963) and the parallelisms between them and E. Haeckel (1834–1919), V. Franz (1883–1950), and C. H. Waddington (1905–1977). In addition, the problem of specific influences constituting the Russian-language context of the Modern Synthesis is addressed. The major thesis of this paper is that the very character of the Russian developmental biology and its intellectual environment predisposed a strong bias towards environmentalist interpretations and thus anticipated what we now call “ecological developmental biology”. This paper is an extended version of my talk delivered to the First and founding meeting of the European Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology (EDD), 16–19 August (Prague, Czech Republic). I thank Scott Gilbert for inviting me to this meeting

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Patterns of above- and belowground biomass allocation in China’s grasslands: Evidence from individual-level observations

Above- and belowground biomass allocation not only influences growth of individual plants, but also influences vegetation structures and functions, and consequently impacts soil carbon input as well as terrestrial ecosystem carbon cycling. However, due to sampling difficulties, a considerable amount of uncertainty remains about the root: shoot ratio (R/S), a key parameter for models of terrestrial ecosystem carbon cycling. We investigated biomass allocation patterns across a broad spatial scale. We collected data on individual plant biomass and systematically sampled along a transect across the temperate grasslands in Inner Mongolia as well as in the alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau. Our results indicated that the median of R/S for herbaceous species was 0.78 in China’s grasslands as a whole. R/S was significantly higher in temperate grasslands than in alpine grasslands (0.84 vs. 0.65). The slope of the allometric relationship between above- and belowground biomass was steeper for temperate grasslands than for alpine. Our results did not support the hypothesis that aboveground biomass scales isometrically with belowground biomass. The R/S in China’s grasslands was not significantly correlated with mean annual temperature (MAT) or mean annual precipitation (MAP). Moreover, comparisons of our results with previous findings indicated a large difference between R/S data from individual plants and communities. This might be mainly caused by the underestimation of R/S at the individual level as a result of an inevitable loss of fine roots and the overestimation of R/S in community-level surveys due to grazing and difficulties in identifying dead roots. Our findings suggest that root biomass in grasslands tended to have been overestimated in previous reports of R/S.     

Secretion activity of white lupin’s cluster roots influences bacterial abundance,function and community structure

White lupin (Lupinus albus L. cv. Amiga) reacts to phosphate deficiency by producing cluster roots which exude large amounts of organic acids. The detailed knowledge of the excretion physiology of the different root parts makes it a good model plant to study plant-bacteria interaction. Since the effect of the organic acid exudation by cluster roots on the rhizosphere microflora is still poorly understood, we investigated the abundance, diversity and functions of bacteria associated with the cluster roots of white lupin, with special emphasis on the influence of root proximity (comparing root, rhizosphere soil and bulk soil fractions) and cluster root growth stages, which are characterized by different excretion activities. Plants were grown for five weeks in microcosms, in the presence of low phosphate concentrations, on acidic sand inoculated with a soil suspension from a lupin field. Plate counts showed that bacterial abundance decreased at the stage where the cluster root excretes high amounts of citrate and protons. In vitro tests on isolates showed that the frequencies of auxin producers were highest in juvenile and mature cluster roots and significantly decreased in senescent cluster roots. However, no significant difference in the frequency of auxin producers was found between cluster and non cluster roots. The diversity and structure of bacterial communities were investigated by DGGE of 16S rDNA and 16S rRNA. The diversity and community structure were mostly influenced by root proximity and, to a lesser extent, by cluster root stage. The richness of bacterial communities decreased with root proximity, whereas the proportion of active populations increased. The high citrate and proton excretion occurring at the mature stage of cluster roots had a strong impact on the structure and richness of the bacterial communities, both in the root and in the rhizosphere soil.     

The Trivers–Willard hypothesis of parental investment: No effect in the contemporary United States

The Trivers–Willard hypothesis (TWH) predicts that parents will bias their sex ratio toward sons when in good condition and toward daughters when in poor condition. Many human studies have tested the related hypothesis that parents' bias allocation of resources to existing sons and daughters according to the same principle. The present study used time diary and self-report data from the parents of 3200 children in the US to test the hypothesis that as status increases, parents will allocate more resources to sons vs. daughters. It finds no evidence that higher-status parents invest more in sons or that lower status parents invest more in daughters. This finding illustrates the specificity of situations in which the TWH effects should be expected. Only certain types of parental investment — such as protection and a bias in the sex ratio — may have been selected to vary according to parental condition. Optimal allocation of resources after the child is born, however, is achieved not by the simple bias predicted by the TWH, but by allocating resources among offspring in ways that yield the largest marginal inclusive fitness gains.