FURTHERING INJUSTICES AGAINST WOMEN: GENETIC INFORMATION, MORAL OBLIGATIONS, AND GENDER

The purpose of this paper is to show that a decontextualized approach to ethical issues is not just unhelpful for the decision making process of real, situated human beings, but dangerous. This is so, because by neglecting the context in which people make moral decisions we run the risk of reinforcing or furthering injustices against already disadvantaged groups. To show this, I evaluate three moral obligations that our ability to obtain genetic information has made salient: the duty to obtain genetic information about ourselves, the obligation to inform family members about genetic risks and the duty not to reproduce when we know that there is a high risk of transmitting a serious disease or defect. I will argue here that in ignoring the context in which these moral obligations are put into practice, and in particular the situation of women in our society, those who defend these moral duties might be furthering injustices against women.     

The use of parsimony in testing phylogenetic hypotheses

With the advance of cladistic theory differences in principle between it and other systematic techniques are few but of fundamental importance. In the mechanics of classification they are confined to ranking and the rejection of paraphyletic taxa. In cladistic analysis, leading to cladograms, trees and phylogeny reconstruction, inconsistencies in apparent synapomorphies are said to be resolved using Popper's hypothetico-deductive method together with the principle of parsi However, not only do cladists not use Popper's methodology, which is inconsistent with parsimony, but their use of parsimony is invalid as a test of phylo The only accepted extrinsic test of a classification is that enunciated by John Stuart Mill. It has been claimed that cladistic classifications yield the best results when judged by Mill's criteria, but this is only possibly the case with analytic classifications produced by numerical techniques. No satisfactory test exists in normal (synthetic) cladism for distinguishing synapomorphy from homoplasy. The effects of this are particularly dire in cladograms and classifications involving fossils in which a Stufenreihe arrangement is adopted.     

Sex-specific demographic behaviours that shape human genomic variation

In the human species, the two uniparental genetic systems (mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome) exhibit contrasting diversity patterns. It has been proposed that sex-specific behaviours, and in particular differences in migration rate between men and women, may explain these differences. The availability of high-density genomic data and the comparison of genetic patterns on autosomal and sex chromosomes at global and local scales allow a reassessment of the extent to which sex-specific behaviours shape our genome. In this article, we first review studies comparing the genetic patterns at uniparental and biparental genetic systems and assess the extent to which sex-specific migration processes explain the differences between these genetic systems. We show that differences between male and female migration rates matter, but that they are certainly not the only contributing factor. In particular, differences in effective population size between men and women are also likely to account for these differences. Then, we present and discuss three anthropological processes that may explain sex-specific differences in effective population size and thus human genomic variation: (i) variance in reproductive success arising from, for example, polygyny; (ii) descent rules; and (iii) transmission of reproductive success.     

Parasites, democratization, and the liberalization of values across contemporary countries

The countries of the world vary in their position along the autocracy–democracy continuum of values. Traditionally, scholars explain this variation as based on resource distribution and disparity among nations. We provide a different framework for understanding the autocracy–democracy dimension and related value dimensions, one that is complementary (not alternative) to the research tradition, but more encompassing, involving both evolutionary (ultimate) and proximate causation of the values. We hypothesize that the variation in values pertaining to autocracy–democracy arises fundamentally out of human (Homo sapiens) species‐typical psychological adaptation that manifests contingently, producing values and associated behaviours that functioned adaptively in human evolutionary history to cope with local levels of infectious diseases. We test this parasite hypothesis of democratization using publicly available data measuring democratization, collectivism–individualism, gender egalitarianism, property rights, sexual restrictiveness, and parasite prevalence across many countries of the world. Parasite prevalence across countries is based on a validated index of the severity of 22 important human diseases. We show that, as the hypothesis predicts, collectivism (hence, conservatism), autocracy, women’s subordination relative to men’s status, and women’s sexual restrictiveness are values that positively covary, and that correspond with high prevalence of infectious disease. Apparently, the psychology of xenophobia and ethnocentrism links these values to avoidance and management of parasites. Also as predicted, we show that the antipoles of each of the above values—individualism (hence, liberalism), democracy, and women’s rights, freedom and increased participation in casual sex—are a positively covarying set of values in countries with relatively low parasite stress. Beyond the cross‐national support for the parasite hypothesis of democratization, it is consistent with the geographic location at high latitudes (and hence reduced parasite stress) of the early democratic transitions in Britain, France and the U.S.A. It, too, is consistent with the marked increase in the liberalization of social values in the West in the 1950s and 1960s (in part, the sexual revolution), regions that, a generation or two earlier, experienced dramatically reduced infectious diseases as a result of antibiotics, vaccinations, food‐ and water‐safety practices, and increased sanitation. Moreover, we hypothesize that the generation and diffusion of innovations (in thought, action and technology) within and among regions, which is associated positively with democratization, is causally related to parasite stress. Finally, we hypothesize that past selection in the context of morbidity and mortality resulting from parasitic disease crafted many of the aspects of social psychology unique to humans.     

When Correction Turns Positive: Processing Corrective Prosody in Dutch

Current research on spoken language does not provide a consistent picture as to whether prosody, the melody and rhythm of speech, conveys a specific meaning. Perception studies show that English listeners assign meaning to prosodic patterns, and, for instance, associate some accents with contrast, whereas Dutch listeners behave more controversially. In two ERP studies we tested how Dutch listeners process words carrying two types of accents, which either provided new information (new information accents) or corrected information (corrective accents), both in single sentences (experiment 1) and after corrective and new information questions (experiment 2). In both experiments corrective accents elicited a sustained positivity as compared to new information accents, which started earlier in context than in single sentences. The positivity was not modulated by the nature of the preceding question, suggesting that the underlying neural mechanism likely reflects the construction of an interpretation to the accented word, either by identifying an alternative in context or by inferring it when no context is present. Our experimental results provide strong evidence for inferential processes related to prosodic contours in Dutch.     

Difference detection in LC-MS data for protein biomarker discovery

MOTIVATION: There is a pressing need for improved proteomic screening methods allowing for earlier diagnosis of disease, systematic monitoring of physiological responses and the uncovering of fundamental mechanisms of drug action. The combined platform of LC-MS (Liquid-Chromatography-Mass-Spectrometry) has shown promise in moving toward a solution in these areas. In this paper we present a technique for discovering differences in protein signal between two classes of samples of LC-MS serum proteomic data without use of tandem mass spectrometry, gels or labeling. This method works on data from a lower-precision MS instrument, the type routinely used by and available to the community at large today. We test our technique on a controlled (spike-in) but realistic (serum biomarker discovery) experiment which is therefore verifiable. We also develop a new method for helping to assess the difficulty of a given spike-in problem. Lastly, we show that the problem of class prediction, sometimes mistaken as a solution to biomarker discovery, is actually a much simpler problem. RESULTS: Using precision-recall curves with experimentally extracted ground truth, we show that (1) our technique has good performance using seven replicates from each class, (2) performance degrades with decreasing number of replicates, (3) the signal that we are teasing out is not trivially available (i.e. the differences are not so large that the task is easy). Lastly, we easily obtain perfect classification results for data in which the problem of extracting differences does not produce absolutely perfect results. This emphasizes the different nature of the two problems and also their relative difficulties. AVAILABILITY: Our data are publicly available as a benchmark for further studies of this nature at http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~jenn/LCMS     

Spousal age-gaps,partner preferences,and consequences for well-being in four Colombian communities

Across cultures, women tend to marry older men. This phenomenon is commonly described as the result of evolved mate choice preferences, which cause men to base reproductive decisions on cues of youth and fertility in women, and women to base such decisions on cues of wealth and status in men. Other researchers have challenged this idea, arguing that husband-older spousal age-gaps might not be consistent with the joint preferences of men and women; age-gaps might instead arise as the result of sexual conflict. In such cases, the realized age-gap could benefit one party at a cost to the other. In practice, large age-gaps may result in negative outcomes for younger women married to older men—e.g., because of power differences in these relationships. Testing for the existence of sexual conflict over the size of the spousal age-gap in Tanzania, researchers found no evidence that large age-gaps are harmful to women. Here, we conceptually replicate this previous work, and assess the relationship between spousal age-gaps, partner preferences, and individual well-being in four communities in Colombia. We extend prior methods by inferring the size of idealized age-gaps using network structured mate-choice games, and measuring the realized age-gap directly among ever-married partners. Our analyses suggest that there is limited evidence of sexual conflict over the size of the spousal age-gap in these communities. First, realized age-gaps are not large on average—around 1–7 years across communities. Second, the age-gaps that do exist are consistent with the preferences of both men and women—at least during their early to middle reproductive periods. And, lastly, large age-gaps are not negatively associated with measures of fertility or well-being for either sex. Our results underscore the importance of appreciating the cultural context within which behavioral practices with potentially negative consequences are situated.     

Biometric evidence that sexual selection has shaped the hominin face

We consider sex differences in human facial morphology in the context of developmental change. We show that at puberty, the height of the upper face, between the lip and the brow, develops differently in males and females, and that these differences are not explicable in terms of sex differences in body size. We find the same dimorphism in the faces of human ancestors. We propose that the relative shortening in men and lengthening in women of the anterior upper face at puberty is the mechanistic consequence of extreme maxillary rotation during ontogeny. A link between this developmental model and sexual dimorphism is made for the first time, and provides a new set of morphological criteria to sex human crania. This finding has important implications for the role of sexual selection in the evolution of anthropoid faces and for theories of human facial attractiveness.     

Trigonal bipyramidal iron(III) and manganese(III) oxo, sulfido, and selenido complexes. An electronic-structural overview

Using density functional theory calculations, we have carried out a broad survey of trigonal bipyramidal iron(III) and manganese(III) oxo, sulfido, selenido, and hydroxo complexes, with tripodal tetradentate "triureidoamine" supporting ligands. The calculations reproduce the experimentally observed high-spin states of these compounds; a multifunctional analysis suggests that the high-spin nature of these species follows largely from their trigonal bipyramidal geometry. In conjunction with earlier calculations, the present study provides a broad overview of spin density profiles in iron-oxo species in general. Iron-oxo d(pi)-p(pi) interactions invariably result in a substantial spin density on the oxygen, which in turn may be significantly tuned by hydrogen bonding interactions. The oxygen spin densities are smaller in analogous manganese-oxo species, indicating that manganese is less adept at pi-bonding than iron, which parallels earlier findings on porphyrin systems. The Fe(III)-S/Se spin density profiles provide one of the first confirmations in a transition metal context of Schleyer's prediction that the heavier p-block elements are as effective as their second-row congeners in terms of their pi-donating ability.     

‘The Miserablest People in the World’: Race,Humanism and the Australian Aborigine

This paper considers how an idea of the Australian Aborigine impacted upon the development of racial thinking throughout the nineteenth century. We distinguish three phases of this development. Against the background of what was considered to be a distinctly human capacity to rise above nature, our central argument however is that the extreme and irremediable savagery attributed to the Aborigine led to the mid‐nineteenth shift to a polygenist, or an innatist, idea of race. The first part of our discussion, covering the early 1800s, elicits a specifically humanist puzzlement at the unimproved condition of the Aborigines. But, as we will show in the central part of our discussion, it was not only the Aborigines' inclination but their capacity for ‘improvement’ that came to be doubted. Challenging the very basis upon which ‘the human’ had been defined, and the unity of humankind assumed, the Aborigine could not be accommodated within a prevailing conception of racial difference as a mere variety of the human. The elaboration of polygenism may therefore be understood as arising out of this humanist incomprehension: as an attempt to account for the ontologically inexplicable difference of the Australian Aborigine. In the final part of our discussion, we trace the legacy of the Aborigine's place within polygenism through the evolutionary thought of the late nineteenth century. Despite an explicit return to monogenism, here the Aborigine is invoked to support the claim that race constitutes a more or less permanent difference and, for certain races, a more or less permanent deficiency. And as, in these terms, the anomalous Aborigine became an anachronism, so Australia's indigenous peoples came to embody the most devastating conclusion of evolutionary thought: that in the human struggle for existence certain races were destined not even to survive.     

Competitiveness,gender and handedness

We conduct an intercultural experiment in three locations on three different continents to elicit competitiveness and study whether individual differences in competitiveness are related to handedness. Being a “lefty” (i.e., having either a dominant left hand or a dominant left foot) is associated with neurological differences which are determined prenatally, and can therefore be seen as a proxy for innate differences. In large-scale data with incentivized choices from 3664 participants from India, Norway and Tanzania, we find a significant gender gap in competitiveness in all cultures. However, we find inconsistent results when comparing the competitiveness of lefties and righties. In north-east India we find that lefties of both genders are significantly more competitive than righties. In Norway we find that lefty men are more competitive than any other group, but women’s competitiveness is not related to handedness. In Tanzania, we find no relationship between handedness and the competitiveness of either gender. The merged data show weak evidence of a positive correlation between being a lefty and competitiveness for men, but no such evidence for women. Thus, our data provide suggestive but not robust evidence that individual and gender differences in competitiveness are partially determined by innate factors, where innate factors are proxied by the complex, prenatally shaped trait of handedness.     

In Defense of a Folk Model: The "Skipper Effect" in the Icelandic Cod Fishery

The Icelandic folk model of fishing success emphasizes the importance of the skipper. The validity of this folk model has recently been hotly debated in the social science literature. In this study an attempt is made to estimate the role of the skipper in fishing success. First, we document by a national survey the composition of the folk model of fishing success held by the Icelandic public. Second, drawing on extensive interview data we outline the model of fishing success proposed by skippers themselves. Third, we test this folk science of the skipper by means of visual and statistical analysis against a social science model that emphasizes the role of material factors. The results show that fishing success is not determined by technological and material factors, leaving plenty of room for human factors, such as the skills and knowledge of the skipper. These results are consistent with folk notions of the skipper effect, but contradictory to earlier results of social science. Finally, the results are discussed in a theoretical context with reference to resource management and the nature of folk models.     

Is cooperativeness readable in static facial features? An inter-cultural approach

There is evidence in the literature that non-verbal physical features are used as cues for a propensity to cooperate. However, further studies of the human ability to visually detect cooperativeness are required. In particular, the existence of static facial cues of altruism remains questionable. Moreover, an investigation of both sex differences and cross-cultural applicability with respect to altruism detection skills is crucial in the context of the evolution of human cooperation. In this study, we used both a public good game and a charitable contribution to assess the cooperativeness of 156 men and 172 women in rural Senegal and took facial photographs of these individuals. The second portion of the study was conducted in France. In total, 194 men and 171 women were asked to distinguish the most and least selfish individual from a series of 80 pairs of Senegalese facial photographs, each pair consisting of the highest and the lowest contributor from a group in the public good game. Using mixed modeling techniques, we controlled for facial masculinity, age and socio-economic status. For male pairs, both male and female French raters were able to identify more often than by chance which individual made the smallest contribution to the public good in each group; however, detection was not successful with female faces. These results suggest that sex-specific traits are involved and that only male facial traits indicating cooperative skills are, at least inter-culturally, readable. The specific facial traits involved are investigated. However, the charitable contribution was not correlated with the contribution to the public good, and further work is necessary to identify which specific altruistic traits are detectable and to assess the generality of these results.     

Who is the fairest of them all? The independent effect of attractive features and self-perceived attractiveness on cooperation among women

The present paper analyzes the extent to which attractiveness-related variables affect cooperative behavior in women. Cooperativeness is evaluated through a Prisoner's Dilemma Game (PDG). We consider several morphometric variables related to attractiveness: fluctuating asymmetry (FA), waist–hip ratio (WHR), body mass index (BMI) and facial femininity (FF). These variables have been shown to predict human behavior. We also include as a control variable a score for self-perceived attractiveness (SPA). We test differences in these variables according to behavior in the PDG. Our results reveal that low-FA women cooperate less frequently in the PDG. We also find that women with lower WHR are more cooperative. This result contradicts the expected relation between WHR and behavior in the PDG. We show that this effect of WHR on cooperation operates through its influence on the expectation that participants hold on the cooperative intent of their counterpart. In addition, we show that the effect of attractive features on cooperation occurs independently of the participants' perception of their own appeal. Finally, we discuss our results in the context of the evolution of cooperative behavior and under the hypothesis that attractiveness is a reliable indicator of phenotypic quality.     

Marriage, Social Inequality, and Women's Contact with Their Natal Families in Alliance Societies: Two Tamang Examples

Anthropological and other approaches to women's natal kin links demonstrate a relationship between these linkages and the reproduction of social inequality, in addition to noting implications for the social standing of women themselves. Few studies have, however, dynamically considered the simultaneous dimensions of individual history, community context, and interfamilial politics influencing such contact. Using data from two Tamang communities in Nepal, this article examines the impact of changing individual experience and interfamilial relations on home visits in the first year of marriage. Explicit attention is given to these forms of social action as a critical moment in the construction of social inequality. Informant testimony is combined with statistical analysis to demonstrate the salience of these natal visits in the early months of marriage for individual and wider social relationships. The visits are shown to be strongly related to the nature of interfamilial relations organized by marriage in addition to earlier life-course experiences of women. Different community contexts, however, condition the direction of effects for these variables in ways consistent with enduring structures of relationship.     

The analysis of hidden electrophoretic variation: Interspecific electrophoretic differentiation and amino acid divergence

Summary In a study of 25 human variants and 23 evolutionary alleles of hemoglobin we show that intraspecific and interspecific patterns of electrophoretic variability are not comparable. Significant deviation from the predicted electrophoretic differentiation between evolutionary alleles is normally found only when amino acid sequence divergence exceeds 10%. When two sequences had diverged at less than 30 out of 287 amino acid residues sites, only 7% of comparisons showed significant deviations from the expected difference of electrophoretic mobility, while significant deviation was shown by 57% of comparisons involving 30–40 residue differences, by 79% in the case of 51–60 differences and by all of the comparisons involving more than 60 differences. In contrast, human variants, which differ by only one or two amino acid residues (less than 1% difference), had significant deviations in 58% of comparisons. Those mutations that appear as fixed differences in the evolutionary material probably represent only a subset of the mutations which can appear within the species. The results suggest that statistical comparisons such as genetic distance may not measure the same process within a species as between species. This is due not to inherent problems with the statistic, but rather to inherent differences in the nature of molecular changes that are detectable by electrophoresis at different stages of population divergence.     

Genetic susceptibility, evolution and the kuru epidemic

The acquired prion disease kuru was restricted to the Fore and neighbouring linguistic groups of the Papua New Guinea highlands and largely affected children and adult women. Oral history documents the onset of the epidemic in the early twentieth century, followed by a peak in the mid-twentieth century and subsequently a well-documented decline in frequency. In the context of these strong associations (gender, region and time), we have considered the genetic factors associated with susceptibility and resistance to kuru. Heterozygosity at codon 129 of the human prion protein gene (PRNP) is known to confer relative resistance to both sporadic and acquired prion diseases. In kuru, heterozygosity is associated with older patients and longer incubation times. Elderly survivors of the kuru epidemic, who had multiple exposures at mortuary feasts, are predominantly PRNP codon 129 heterozygotes and this group show marked Hardy-Weinberg disequilibrium. The deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium is most marked in elderly women, but is also significant in a slightly younger cohort of men, consistent with their exposure to kuru as boys. Young Fore and the elderly from populations with no history of kuru show Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. An increasing cline in 129V allele frequency centres on the kuru region, consistent with the effect of selection in elevating the frequency of resistant genotypes in the exposed population. The genetic data are thus strikingly correlated with exposure. Considering the strong coding sequence conservation of primate prion protein genes, the number of global coding polymorphisms in man is surprising. By intronic resequencing in a European population, we have shown that haplotype diversity at PRNP comprises two major and divergent clades associated with 129M and 129V. Kuru may have imposed the strongest episode of recent human balancing selection, which may not have been an isolated episode in human history.     

Sequence of pituitary-adrenal cortical hormone responses to low-dose physostigmine administration in young adult women and men

We previously demonstrated greater HPA axis activation in adult men compared to adult women following low-dose administration of the anticholinesterase inhibitor, physostigmine (PHYSO). Because blood sampling was done infrequently following PHYSO, the rise times of AVP, ACTH1-39, and cortisol could not be determined. In the present study, we determined the sequence of hormone increases by frequent blood sampling following PHYSO. Twelve adult women and 12 adult men underwent three test sessions 5-7 days apart: PHYSO, saline control, and repeat PHYSO. As in the earlier study, PHYSO produced no side effects in half the subjects and mild side effects in the other half, with no significant female-male differences. None of the hormone responses was significantly correlated with the presence or absence of side effects. In both women and men, the AVP increase preceded the ACTH1-39 increase, which in turn preceded the cortisol increase. The AVP and ACTH AUCs were significantly positively correlated in both women and men, supporting AVP as an acute stimulus to ACTH secretion. Also as in the earlier study, the AVP response to PHYSO was more than twice as great in men as in women, but the difference was not statistically significant. We therefore analyzed the results of both studies combined (N=26 women and 26 men). The men had a significantly greater AVP response and a trend toward a greater ACTH1-39 response compared to the women. These findings further support the concept of sexual diergism (functional sex difference) in the influence of CNS cholinergic systems on HPA hormone secretion.     

Physical explanations and biological explanations,empirical laws and a priori laws

Philosophers intent upon characterizing the difference between physics and biology often seize upon the purported fact that physical explanations conform more closely to the covering law model than biological explanations. Central to this purported difference is the role of laws of nature in the explanations of these two sciences. However, I argue that, although certain important differences between physics and biology can be highlighted by differences between physical and biological explanations, these differences are not differences in the degree to which those explanations conform to the covering law model, which fits biology about as well as it does physics.     

Sexual Dimorphism in the Human Olfactory Bulb: Females Have More Neurons and Glial Cells than Males

Sex differences in the human olfactory function reportedly exist for olfactory sensitivity, odorant identification and memory, and tasks in which odors are rated based on psychological features such as familiarity, intensity, pleasantness, and others. Which might be the neural bases for these behavioral differences? The number of cells in olfactory regions, and especially the number of neurons, may represent a more accurate indicator of the neural machinery than volume or weight, but besides gross volume measures of the human olfactory bulb, no systematic study of sex differences in the absolute number of cells has yet been undertaken. In this work, we investigate a possible sexual dimorphism in the olfactory bulb, by quantifying postmortem material from 7 men and 11 women (ages 55–94 years) with the isotropic fractionator, an unbiased and accurate method to estimate absolute cell numbers in brain regions. Female bulbs weighed 0.132 g in average, while male bulbs weighed 0.137 g, a non-significant difference; however, the total number of cells was 16.2 million in females, and 9.2 million in males, a significant difference of 43.2%. The number of neurons in females reached 6.9 million, being no more than 3.5 million in males, a difference of 49.3%. The number of non-neuronal cells also proved higher in women than in men: 9.3 million and 5.7 million, respectively, a significant difference of 38.7%. The same differences remained when corrected for mass. Results demonstrate a sex-related difference in the absolute number of total, neuronal and non-neuronal cells, favoring women by 40–50%. It is conceivable that these differences in quantitative cellularity may have functional impact, albeit difficult to infer how exactly this would be, without knowing the specific circuits cells make. However, the reported advantage of women as compared to men may stimulate future work on sex dimorphism of synaptic microcircuitry in the olfactory bulb.