Neural ‘bubble’ dynamics in two dimensions: foundations

An extension to two dimensions of recent results in continuum neural field theory (CNFT) in one dimension is presented here. Focus is placed on the treatment of receptive fields and of learning on afferent synapses to obtain topographic maps. Received: 26 March 1997 / Accepted in revised form: 16 December 1998     

‘Optimal thermal range’ in ectotherms: Defining criteria for tests of the temperature-size-rule

Thermal performance curves for population growth rate r (a measure of fitness) were estimated over a wide range of temperature for three species: Coleps hirtus (Protista), Lecane inermis (Rotifera) and Aeolosoma hemprichi (Oligochaeta). We measured individual body size and examined if predictions for the temperature-size rule (TSR) were valid for different temperatures. All three organisms investigated follow the TSR, but only over a specific range between minimal and optimal temperatures, while maintenance at temperatures beyond this range showed the opposite pattern in these taxa. We consider minimal and optimal temperatures to be species-specific, and moreover delineate a physiological range outside of which an ectotherm is constrained against displaying size plasticity in response to temperature. This thermal range concept has important implications for general size-temperature studies. Furthermore, the concept of 'operating thermal conditions' may provide a new approach to (i) defining criteria required for investigating and interpreting temperature effects, and (ii) providing a novel interpretation for many cases in which species do not conform to the TSR.     

‘Where are you from’ or ‘when did you come’? Temporal dimensions in migrants' reflections about settlement and return

In this article we explore the added value of foregrounding temporal dimensions in migration research. Age at the time of migration, length of stay in the country of settlement and individual life-cycle stages matter for migrants' settlement and return considerations. However, these factors are rarely put centre stage in analyses. We draw on data from sixty-seven informants with different country backgrounds, who had either immigrated recently, arrived as children, or were born in Norway. We find that the implications of temporal dimensions cut across national and ethnic backgrounds. Age at the time of migration and the relative proportion of life spent in the origin and in the settlement country play an important role in migrants' considerations about settlement and return; as does being single, a parent with small children, or retired. An approach foregrounding temporal dimensions thus reveals the changeability of considerations over time and highlights similarities and differences beyond ethnicity.     

The past of others: Korean memorials in New York’s suburbia

Since the first decade of this century, public monuments to the memory of “comfort women” – women and girls forced into sexual service from the 1930s through 1945, by the Japanese Imperial Army – have been established in the United States by the Korean diaspora. This paper analyses recent memorials in the suburbs of New York that have experienced rapid immigration from Korea since the 1990s. The memorials met local resistance due to perceptions of unrelatedness to the American land. Such immigrant initiatives, however, have been supported by municipal governance. The project of inscribing a passage from East Asian history in the American context may be considered symptomatic of wider cognitive and social shifts in immigrant adaptation. Assimilation through the inclusion of immigrant heritage, along with an increasing sense of entitlement in being both “ethnic” and “American”, have been integral to this contest regarding collective memory.     

The enhanced expression of heat stress-related genes in scleractinian coral ‘Porites harrisoni’ during warm episodes as an intrinsic mechanism for adaptation in ‘the Persian Gulf’

Coral Reefs - Shallow water tropical reefs are widely threatened by anthropogenic ocean warming which sometimes exceeds their thermal tolerance limit. The majority of reefs have been currently...     

The ‘Psychic Surgeon’ and the schizophrenic patient: Crisis in a ‘Medicodrama’

This paper is concerned with a Filipino psychic surgeon confronted by a particularly challenging case of a kind perhaps unprecedented in his practice. The paper describes and analyzes how the practitioner modified his usual clinical performance and adapted his actions to demands of an extremely difficult situation. The case is viewed in wider perspective relative to the significance of performative acts of healing in a pluralistic medical setting.     

‘Genomemark’: Detecting Word Periodicity in Biological Sequences

Abstract

Identifying and predicting the structural characteristics of novel repeats throughout the genome can lend insight into biological function. Specific repeats are believed to have biological significance as a function of their distribution patterns. We have developed ‘GenomeMark,’ a computer program that detects and statistically analyzes candidate repeats. Specifically, ‘GenomeMark’ identifies the periodic distribution of unique words, calculating their χ² and Z-score values. Using ‘GenomeMark,’ we identified novel sequence words present in tandem throughout genomes. We found that these sequences have remarkable spacer sequence distributions and many were genome specific, validating the genome signature theory. Further analysis confirmed that many of these sequences have a specific biological function. The program is available from the authors upon request and is freely available for non-commercial and academic entities.     

‘Thunder’: Shock waves in pre-biological organic synthesis

A theoretical study of the gas dynamics and chemistry of lightning-produced shock waves in a postulated primordial reducing atmosphere was conducted. It was shown that the conditions are similar to those encountered in a previously performed shock-tube experiment which resulted in 36% of the ammonia in the original mixture being converted into amino acids. The calculations gave the (very large) energy rate of about 0.4 cal/cm²/yr available for amino produproduction, supporting previous hypotheses that thunder could have been responsible for efficient large scale production of organic molecules serving as precursors of life.     

‘Mental’ in ‘southie’: Individual,family, and community responses to psychosis in South Boston

The deinstitutionalization of psychiatric patients is a deeply cultural as well as political task. It entails the sharing of responsibility for human distress with family and community. Consequently, the locus of social control has also shifted from psychiatric and medical expertise to community and legal institutions. Diagnosis and treatment models must be more compatible with lay explanatory models. This paper explores the various meanings of going mental and being mental in the white, working class, ethnic neighborhood of South Boston. The data are extracted from a study of the impact of deinstitutionalization on a cohort of middle-aged, psychiatric patients discharged from Boston State Hospital in the attempt to return them to community living. Individual, family, and community responses to, and interpretations of, the symptoms of mental distress are discussed. The study indicates that even seriously disturbed individuals are sensitive to cultural meanings and social cues regarding the perception, expression, and content of psychiatric episodes. While madness invariably disenfranchises, it does not necessarily deculturate the individual.     

A Sense of Belonging and Exclusion: ‘Touchability’ and ‘Untouchability’ in Tamil Nadu

In India, touch is a prime marker of status and social relations. Those who are impure are ‘untouchable’,1 The terms ‘Untouchable’ and ‘Untouchability’ have been abandoned due to the humiliating meaning these terms confer, therefore I use them in inverted commas. The politically correct and common terms today are Scheduled Castes, in short sc, or Dalits, or sometimes Harijan. I use them here synonymously. but those who are of a relatively higher purity are also, depending on the context, either ‘untouchable’ or ‘touchable’ only under certain fixed rules. In this paper, I will explore the contexts in which body contact and touch can be part of personal relations. I describe how these body contacts signify important social relations and establish community identity. Further, I will analyse how patterns of body contact on the one hand change during childhood, and on the other hand produce changes in the status of a social persona. The last point to be investigated is the meaning of touch as a sign for public representations.     

The role of nodal roots in prostrate clonal herbs: ‘phalanx’ versus ‘guerrilla’

The influence of nodal rooting on branching was studied in three evolutionarily and morphologically diverse species of prostrate clonal herbs: Tradescantia fluminensis (a monocotyledonous extreme ‘phalanx’ species), Calystegia silvatica (a dicotyledonous extreme ‘guerrilla’ species) and Trifolium repens (a dicotyledonous intermediate species). In all three, branch development from axillary buds is regulated by a positive signal produced by roots together with inhibitory influences from both pre-existing branches and shoot apical buds (apical dominance). Responses to nodal roots are cumulative and increased root activity leads to more vigorous bud outgrowth. In the absence of nodal roots, a single basal root system is unable to maintain continued extension growth of the shoot. We suggest that as individual nodal roots and stem internodes are both short-lived in these nodally-rooting clonal species, the plants’ investment in them is minimal. Thus, in contrast to perennial species lacking nodal roots, individual root systems in prostrate clonal herbs are small and stems have little secondary thickening and development of long-distance transport tissues. Hence the decline in extension growth of the shoot in the absence of nodal roots could be linked to the weak development of long-distance transport tissues in their relatively thin horizontal stems and to resource sharing between primary stems and lateral branches (as suggested by the greater retardation of primary stem growth in the more profusely branched ‘phalanx’ species (Trifolium and Tradescantia) than in the weakly branched ‘guerrilla’ species, Calystegia). These findings are consistent with the view that the long-term persistence of genotypes of nodally-rooting prostrate species is dependent upon them encountering the moist conditions required to facilitate the continual development of new young nodal root systems.     

Social Patterning in Adiposity in Adolescence: Prospective Observations from the Chinese Birth Cohort ‘‘Children of 1997’’

Introduction

Low early life socio-economic position is more strongly associated with adiposity among women than men. We examined whether the sex difference of social patterning in general and central adiposity exists before adulthood.

Methods

In Hong Kong’s “Children of 1997” birth cohort, we used multivariable regression to examine the association of parental education, a marker of early life socio-economic position, with body mass index (BMI) (n = 7252, 88% follow-up) and waist-height ratio (n = 5636, 68% follow-up), at 14 years.

Results

Parental education of Grade 9 or below, compared to Grade 12 or above, was associated with higher waist-height ratio z-score particularly in girls (0.30, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.19, 0.41) compared to boys (0.12, 95% CI 0.02, 0.22) (p for sex interaction = 0.02). Lower parental education was associated with greater BMI z-score in adolescents of locally born mothers, but not adolescents of migrant mothers, with no difference by sex.

Conclusions

Different social patterning in different markers of adiposity may imply different sociological and biological mediating pathways. A stronger association between low early life socio-economic position and waist-height ratio in adolescent girls may indicate sex-specific influences of SEP related early life exposures on central adiposity.