"Mrs. Landes Meet Mrs. Benedict": Culture Pattern and Individual Agency in the 1930s

This article presents Ruth Landes as a transitional figure in 20th-century anthropology between the culture and personality studies of the interwar years and the study of power and structural dynamics so important in the discipline by the end of the century. Expanding on Benedict's theory of culture pattern and employing the life history method, Landes highlights in her work relations of power in the structural dynamics of culture as she explores: the experience of social marginality; the making of the public symbolic order; the plurality of local knowledge systems; the role of the individual; what she called "the moot problem of women and men"; and the relationship of researcher and researched. [Keywords: Ruth Landes, Ruth Benedict, culture, gender, power]     

Plant remains from Sardinia,Italy with notes on barley and grape

This paper presents archaeobotanical results from Sardinia, an island in the western Mediterranean. The starting point is the material excavated at Duos Nuraghes near Borore, but remains provided by other sites are taken into account as well. Naked wheat, presumably a tetraploid wheat such as Triticum durum Desf. (macaroni wheat), and Hordeum vulgare L. (barley) are the most common finds from the Neolithic up to the Medieval period. Triticum dicoccum Schübl. (emmer), Lens culinaris Medik. (lentil), Pisum sativum L. (pea) and Vicia faba L. var. minor (horse bean) have been grown as well. A medieval context revealed Beta vulgaris L. (beet). The most common find in the category of fruits is Vitis vinifera L. (grape). The overall picture is one of continuity in agricultural practices. Nevertheless this picture may be false. In the early Bronze Age the cultivation of barley may have shifted from the naked variety towards the hulled variety. The Phoenicians may have introduced new cultivars of grapevine, although the native grapevine was not replaced by these. The weed taxa suggest some change in agriculture from Punic or Roman times onwards. Received August 10, 2001 / Accepted January 15, 2002     

Mrs3p, Mrs4p, and frataxin provide iron for Fe-S cluster synthesis in mitochondria

Yeast Mrs3p and Mrs4p are evolutionarily conserved mitochondrial carrier proteins that transport iron into mitochondria under some conditions. Yeast frataxin (Yfh1p), the homolog of the human protein implicated in Friedreich ataxia, is involved in iron homeostasis. However, its precise functions are controversial. Anaerobically grown triple mutant cells (Deltamrs3/4/Deltayfh1) displayed a severe growth defect corrected by in vivo iron supplementation. Because anaerobically grown cells do not synthesize heme, and they do not experience oxidative stress, this growth defect was most likely due to Fe-S cluster deficiency. Fe-S cluster formation was assessed in anaerobically grown cells shifted to air for a brief period. In isolated mitochondria, Fe-S clusters were detected on newly imported yeast ferredoxin precursor and on endogenous aconitase by means of [35S]cysteine labeling and native gel separation. New cluster formation was dependent on iron addition to mitochondria, and the iron concentration dependence was shifted dramatically upward in the Deltamrs3/4 mutant, indicating a role of Mrs3/4p in iron transport. The frataxin mutant strain lacked protein import capacity because of low mitochondrial membrane potential, although this was partially restored by growth in the presence of high iron. Under these conditions, a kinetic defect in new Fe-S cluster formation was still noted. Import of frataxin into frataxin-minus isolated mitochondria promptly corrected the Fe-S cluster assembly defect without further iron addition. These findings show that Mrs3/4p transports iron into mitochondria, whereas frataxin makes iron already within mitochondria available for Fe-S cluster synthesis.     

Frataxin and mitochondrial carrier proteins, Mrs3p and Mrs4p, cooperate in providing iron for heme synthesis

Frataxin is a conserved mitochondrial protein implicated in cellular iron metabolism. Deletion of the yeast frataxin homolog (YFH1) was combined with deletions of MRS3 and MRS4, mitochondrial carrier proteins implicated in iron homeostasis. As previously reported, the Deltayfh1 mutant accumulated iron in mitochondria, whereas the triple mutant (DeltaDeltaDelta) did not. When wild-type, Deltamrs3/4, Deltayfh1, and DeltaDeltaDelta strains were incubated anaerobically, all strains were devoid of heme and protected from iron and oxygen toxicity. The cultures were then shifted to air for a short time (4-5 h) or a longer time (15 h), and the evolving mutant phenotypes were analyzed (heme-dependent growth, total heme, cytochromes, heme proteins, and iron levels). A picture emerges from these data of defective heme formation in the mutants, with a markedly more severe defect in the DeltaDeltaDelta than in the individual Deltamrs3/4 or Deltayfh1 mutants (a "synthetic" defect in the genetic sense). The defect(s) in heme formation could be traced to lack of iron. Using a real time assay of heme biosynthesis, porphyrin precursor and iron were presented to permeabilized cells, and the appearance and disappearance of fluorescent porphyrins were followed. The Mrs3/4p carriers were required for rapid iron transport into mitochondria for heme synthesis, whereas there was also evidence for an alternative slower system. A different role for Yfh1p was observed under conditions of low mitochondrial iron and aerobic growth (revealed in the DeltaDeltaDelta), acting to protect bioavailable iron within mitochondria and to facilitate its use for heme synthesis.     

西藏色季拉山野生药用植物资源多样性及其保护与利用

该研究采取路线调查、样方套记录、野外标本采集鉴定以及查阅文献资料等方法,对色季拉山野生药用植物多样性进行了系统普查分析,为该区野生药用植物资源的保护、利用和系统研究提供科学依据。结果显示:(1)色季拉山共有野生药用植物104科350属647种,其中蕨类植物13科15属22种,裸子植物2科3属9种,被子植物89科332属616种。草本野生药用植物478种,占总种数的73.88%;木本植物169种,占总种数的26.12%;全草类、根与根茎类药用植物最多,分别占药用植物总种数的46.21%和30.14%。(2)含1~5种的单种科和寡种科为绝对多数,占色季拉山野生药用植物总科数的72.11%,但仅占药用植物总种数的22.57%;而含种数最多的7科,只占总科数的6.73%,却共含255种之多,占总种数的39.41%,对色季拉山药用植物资源的构建起主导作用。(3)含有1个种的属最多,占总属数的64.00%,色季拉山药用植物没有明显优势的大属,表明属的构成较为复杂多样。(4)清热是色季拉山药用植物的主要功效,共有260种清热药用植物,占药用植物总种数的40.19%。(5)民族药用植物83科249属360种,占色季拉山野生药用植物总种数的55.64%。其中,藏药植物在民族药用植物中所占比例最大,共有63科156属235种,占民族药用植物总种数65.28%。研究表明,色季拉山野生药用植物种类多样性较高,药用植物生活型、部位、药效、民族用药类型丰富,但部分珍稀濒危资源如云南红景天、天麻、西藏八角莲等个体数量极少,建议建立专门的保护区,加强对野生药用植物资源及其原生境的保护,并加强人工繁育研究,针对资源储量制定适度合理的采摘利用量,以期实现野生药用植物资源的可持续利用。     

Autarchy, market disintegration, and health: the mortality and nutritional crisis in Nazi Germany, 1933-1937.

Trends in mortality, nutritional status and food supply are compared to other living standard indicators for the Weimar Republic (1919-1933) and for the early years of the Nazi regime (1933-1937). The results imply that Germany experienced a substantial increase in mortality rates in most age groups in the mid-1930s, even relative to those of 1932, the worst year of the Great Depression. Moreover, children's heights--an indicator of the quality of nutrition and health--were generally stagnating between 1933 and 1938, but had increased significantly during the 1920s. Persecution, by itself, does not explain such an adverse development in biological welfare; the non-persecuted segments of the German population were affected as well. The reason for this adverse development was caused by the fact that military expenditures increased at the expense of public health measures. In addition, food imports were curtailed, and prices of many agricultural products were controlled. There is ample evidence that this set of economic policies had an adverse effect on the health and nutritional status of the population. The highly developed areas of Germany with large urban sectors and the coastal regions of the Northwest were affected most from the policy of restricting imports of protein-rich agricultural products.     

Ecology and conservation of the crowned lemur, Lemur coronatus, at Ankarana, n. Madagascar. With notes on Sanford's lemur, other sympatrics and subfossil lemurs

Forests of Ankarana limestone massif in northern Madagascar support one of the largest and least disturbed populations of Crowned Lemurs, Lemur coronatus. This paper reports a preliminary study of the ecology of this species in the Ankarana Special Reserve conducted at the end of the dry season in 1986, with additional information collected a year later. Crowned Lemurs occur in very high densities in the semi-deciduous canopy forest and this probably represents a dry season refuge for the species. They also use more open habitats, including sparsely vegetated limestone and degraded forest. Sanford's Lemur, Lemur fulvus sanfordi, also inhabits the Ankarana forests but is most abundant in degraded habitats. Crowned and Sanford's Lemurs had similar patterns of activity, which included nocturnal travelling and feeding bouts. Crowned Lemurs proved to be unusual among Lemur species in displaying low spatial troop cohesion and a lack of obvious troop hierarchy. Stronglyoides-like enteric helminths infested about one third of Crowned Lemurs but were apparently not causing disease. Crowned Lemurs fall prey to the Fosa, Cryptoprocta ferox, and the young possibly also to the largest raptors. A total of seven living lemur species (including the very rare Propithecus diadema perrieri and Daubentonia madagascariensis) were confirmed at Ankarana by the authors, and three further species have been reported by other observers. In addition to these ten extant lemurs, four subfossil species have been discovered: three of them (Hapalemur simus, Palaeopropithecus and Mesopropithecus) by the authors. The possibility that all 14 lemurs were once sympatric is discussed. For the present, the lemurs of Ankarana are protected from hunting by local taboo. Nevertheless they are under severe threat from habitat destruction, despite Ankarana's Special Reserve status. Given the very restricted distributions of Crowned and Sanford's Lemurs, both must be considered as threatened with extinction.