The Imagined Child: Ambiguity and Agency in Australian Intercountry Adoption

The adoption by Australian couples of children from ‘overseas’ involves claborate processes of bureaucratic assessment, approval and ‘parent education’. This paper explores adults' notions of ‘child’(ren) from ‘overseas’, which help shape and constitute such social processes, not only with couples seeking to adopt, but also with those cultural brokers who assess, regulate and ‘educate’ couples pursuing adoption, such as social workers and psychologists. The ways in which the adoptive ‘child’ is imagined and anticipated by counsellors and would‐be parents alike are explored through ethnographic data from South Australia. However, the proclivities of prospective adoptive parents to imagine their child‐to‐be are attenuated by certain social knowledge in relation to countries of origin. This leads to an exploration of ambiguities and tensions between the intercountry adoptive child as a tabula rasa and as a culturally and historically constituted person. The significance of ambiguities and contradictions for the child's agency and identities is highlighted, within the context of certain social policies around adoption. The chronological age of the child at the time of ‘allocation’ to its adoptive parents is considered as constituting a cultural fulcrum, upon which the identity and situational significance of the ‘origins’ of the child are deemed to subsequently turn.     

Litter quality and environmental controls of home‐field advantage effects on litter decomposition

The ‘home‐field advantage (HFA) hypothesis’ predicts that plant litter is decomposed faster than expected in the vicinity of the plant where it originates from (i.e. its ‘home’) relative to some other location (i.e. ‘away’) because of the presence of specialized decomposers. Despite growing evidence for the widespread occurrence HFA effects, what drives HFA is not understood as its strength appears highly variable and context‐dependent. Our work advances current knowledge about HFA effects by testing under what conditions HFA is most important. Using published data on mass loss from 125 reciprocal litter transplants from 35 studies, we evaluated if HFA effects were modulated by macroclimate, litter quality traits, and the dissimilarity between ‘home’ and ‘away’ of both the quality of reciprocally exchanged litters and plant community type. Our results confirmed the occurrence of an overall, worldwide, HFA effect on decomposition with on average 7.5% faster decomposition at home. However, there was considerable variation in the strength and direction (sometimes opposite to expectations) of these effects. While macroclimate and average litter quality had weak or no impact on HFA effects, home‐field effects became stronger (regardless of the direction) when the quality of ‘home’ and ‘away’ litters became more dissimilar (e.g. had a greater dissimilarity in N:P ratio; F_1,42 = 6.39, p = 0.015). Further, home‐field effects were determined by the degree of difference between the types of dominant plant species in the ‘home’ versus ‘away’ communities (F_2,105 = 4.03, p = 0.021). We conclude that home‐field advantage is not restricted to particular litter types or climate zones, and that the dissimilarity in plant communities and litter quality between the ‘home’ and ‘away’ locations, are the most significant drivers of home‐field effects.     

BALANCING LIBERATION AND PROTECTION: A MODERATE APPROACH TO ADOLESCENT HEALTH CARE DECISION‐MAKING

In this paper I examine the debate between ‘protectionists’ and ‘liberationists’ concerning the appropriate role of minors in decision‐making about their health care, focusing particularly on disagreements between the two sides regarding adolescents. Protectionists advocate a more traditional, paternalistic approach in which minors have relatively little input into the healthcare decision‐making process, and decisions are made for them by parents or other adults, guided by a commitment to the patient's best interests. Liberationists, on the other hand, argue in favour of expanded participation by minors in treatment decisions, and decision‐making authority for at least some adolescents. My examination of the debate includes discussion of liberationist shifts that have taken place in the medical community as well as in legal policy and practice, and consideration of recent research on adolescent development. In the final section of the paper, I propose a moderate position that addresses both liberationist and protectionist concerns.     

Cross‐genus adoptions in delphinids: One example with taxonomic discussion

Although relatively rare, adoptions have been reported in a number of mammals, involving almost exclusively individuals of the same species, and hardly ever between species or across genera. Adoption remains poorly documented and its proximate causes are controversial. Here, we describe a unique case of a cross‐genus adoption within a small community of common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) at Rangiroa Atoll in French Polynesia. It involves a foster female adopting a presumed melon‐headed whale (Peponocephala electra) calf while already mothering its presumed biological offspring. While the inclusive fitness hypothesis can be rejected for this adult female mother, acquisition of parental skills is also unlikely to have driven adoption in parallel to natural motherhood. We argue that the primiparous foster mother’s inexperience and personality may have contributed to factors driving such non‐adaptive behavior. We also propose that the adoptee’s persistence in initiating and maintaining an association with the adult female bottlenose dolphin could have played a major role in the adoption’s ultimate success, as well as the persistence of this cross‐genus adoption after the disappearance of the biological offspring. A brief discussion of adoption and hybridization within the Delphinidae taxon is included to identify how this cross‐genus adoption fits into context of marine mammal parental care.     

The Nation‐State,Public Education,and the Logic of Migration: Chinese Students in Hungary

Public education remains the nation‐state's foremost instrument of forging citizens. But the emergence of ‘international education’, a system explicitly based on the ideology of globality and outside the purview of national curricula, provides a way to circumvent the citizen‐making machine. This article, based on fieldwork among Chinese secondary school students in Hungary, considers the interaction between ‘international education’ and transnational migrants in a nation‐state whose public education, as the state itself, has little interest in the ‘integration’ of non‐natives.     

Architecture and assembly of the Gram‐positive cell wall

The bacterial cell wall is a mesh polymer of peptidoglycan – linear glycan strands cross‐linked by flexible peptides – that determines cell shape and provides physical protection. While the glycan strands in thin ‘Gram‐negative’ peptidoglycan are known to run circumferentially around the cell, the architecture of the thicker ‘Gram‐positive’ form remains unclear. Using electron cryotomography, here we show that Bacillus subtilis peptidoglycan is a uniformly dense layer with a textured surface. We further show it rips circumferentially, curls and thickens at free edges, and extends longitudinally when denatured. Molecular dynamics simulations show that only atomic models based on the circumferential topology recapitulate the observed curling and thickening, in support of an ‘inside‐to‐outside’ assembly process. We conclude that instead of being perpendicular to the cell surface or wrapped in coiled cables (two alternative models), the glycan strands in Gram‐positive cell walls run circumferentially around the cell just as they do in Gram‐negative cells. Together with providing insights into the architecture of the ultimate determinant of cell shape, this study is important because Gram‐positive peptidoglycan is an antibiotic target crucial to the viability of several important rod‐shaped pathogens including Bacillus anthracis, Listeria monocytogenes, and Clostridium difficile.     

A single‐stranded conformational polymorphism (SSCP)‐derived quantitative variable to monitor the virulence of a Barley yellow dwarf virus‐PAV (BYDV‐PAV) isolate during adaptation to the TC14 resistant wheat line

A standardized single‐stranded conformational polymorphism (SSCP) procedure is proposed as an alternative to the time‐consuming biological characterization of Barley yellow dwarf virus‐PAV (BYDV‐PAV) isolates. Using this procedure, six of 21 overlapping regions used to scan the viral genome gave patterns specific to ‘4E’ (avirulent) or ‘4T’ (‘4E’‐derived virulent) isolates. The calibration of samples and integration of SSCP patterns corresponding to the nucleotide region 1482–2023 allowed the estimation of P_T values that reflect the proportions of a ‘4T’‐specific band. Analysis of the biological (area under the pathogen progress curve) and molecular (P_T) data suggested a positive linear relation between these variables. Moreover, sequence analysis of the nucleotide region 1482–2023 highlighted the presence of a nucleotide polymorphism (C/A₁₈₃₅) which can be considered as a candidate for virus–host interactions linked to the monitored virulence. According to these parameters, P_T values associated with ‘4E’‐ and ‘4T’‐derived populations show that: (i) long‐term infection of a BYDV‐PAV isolate on the ‘TC14’ resistant host leads to the fixation of virulent individuals in viral populations; and (ii) the introduction of susceptible hosts in successive ‘TC14’ infections results in the maintenance of low virulence of the populations. Thus, the presented study demonstrates that SSCP is a useful tool for monitoring viral populations during the host adaptation process. The described impact of host alternation provides new opportunities for the use of the ‘TC14’ resistance source in BYDV‐resistant breeding programmes. This study is part of the global effort made by the scientific community to propose sustainable alternatives to the chemical control of this viral disease.     

Novel N‐Cycloalkylcarbonyl‐N′‐arylthioureas: Synthesis,Design, Antifungal Activity and Gene Toxicity

A synthesis method of novel N‐cycloalkylcarbonyl‐N′‐arylthioureas was developed. It consists of sequential addition of equimolecular amounts of ammonium isothiocyanate and substituted anilines to cycloalkylcarbonyl chlorides. The identity and purity of products were confirmed by LC/MS spectra, their structure by elemental analysis, IR and ¹H‐NMR spectra. Preliminary antimicrobial screening for standard microorganisms and molecular docking allowed to select several structures for antifungal and genetic toxicity studies. Conducted in vitro screening of 9 compounds for antifungal potential against 11 phytopathogenic fungi and three Phytophthora strains revealed that two N‐(arylcarbamothioyl) cyclopropanecarboxamides at a concentration of 50 μg/ml exhibited activities comparable to the standard antifungal agent ‘Cyproconazole’. Analysis of mutagenicity of novel thioureas using the Salmonella reverse mutagenicity assay (‘Ames Test’) showed a low gene‐toxicity profile.     

Hierarchical partitioning of ant diversity: implications for conservation of biogeographical diversity in arid and semi‐arid areas

Aim The scale of observation is important in detecting the spatial variation of biological assemblages, which should be taken into consideration for an appropriate plan of biogeographical conservation. We investigated whether (1) World Wildlife Fund’s ecoregion units are the appropriate scale for conserving ant diversity in Iran, (2) each ecoregion represents a distinct ant community composition and (3) patterns of diversity partitioning differ among four ecoregions. Location Iran, a sampling transect along four arid and semi‐arid ecoregions. Methods We applied hierarchical partitioning to data collected from a nested sampling design including four hierarchical levels: ‘local’, ‘landscape’, ‘ecoregional’ and ‘whole‐region’. Observed alpha and beta diversity components were compared with values of null distributions. Hierarchical cluster analysis was applied to evaluate similarity of ant species composition among ecoregions. Results Partitioning of whole‐region species richness showed that 85% of the species richness was generated by beta diversity among ecoregions and landscapes. The highest value of diversity was generated by beta diversity among ecoregions. Unlike whole‐region partitioning, separate partitioning within each ecoregion revealed that beta component among localities contributed to species richness of each ecoregion. Ecoregions showed different patterns of diversity partitioning. The alpha component contributed largely to the total diversity of two ecoregions, but for two other ecoregions, beta component contributed more than alpha component. Cluster analysis identified four discrete ant species compositions; however, it split landscapes of one ecoregion into two distinct groups. Main conclusions Whole‐region diversity partitioning indicates that ecoregions represent the appropriate scale for conserving ant diversity and that each ecoregion has a distinct ant fauna. However, different conservation strategies should be considered for different ecoregions owing to the differing scales of variation within them. Boundaries of ecoregions remain a subject for further studies. The influence of climate change on ecoregional boundaries should be considered and should be predicted with respect to future conservation maps.     

Home range,core areas and movement in the ‘critically endangered’ kipunji (Rungwecebus kipunji) in southwest Tanzania

Understanding how threatened forest primates use a heterogeneous landscape is essential to ensuring their survival. Kipunji (Rungwecebus kipunji) are ‘critically endangered’, arboreal monkeys restricted to two sites in Tanzania. Over 90% of the population lives in the degraded Rungwe‐Kitulo forests of the Southern Highlands. In this study, we present the first comprehensive investigation into daily path length and home range size of kipunji, based on data from four groups followed simultaneously over 70 consecutive days on Mt. Rungwe. The mean daily distance travelled was 1293 m (SE 150.82), and daily distance was not significantly correlated to group size. Using fixed kernel density estimation, an area enclosing 90% of the home range calculated using the ‘reference’ method as a smoothing parameter, measured a mean of 306.18 ha (SE 67), and the core area (50% use) was 86.55 ha (SE 18.73). Using the ‘least‐squares cross validation’ method, the mean home range and core area were 205.45 ha (SE 57.02) and 55.45 ha (SE 14.23) respectively. Home range overlap was extensive, although contact between groups was rare, with >97.30% of all observations within 20 min separated by >250 m. The data strongly suggest that kipunji are not territorial.     

Listening to the Call of Dance: Re‐thinking Authenticity and ‘Essentialism’

A sustained and devastating critique has been aimed in recent years at a metaphysics of truth which understands truth and authenticity as essence, as fixed, self‐identical and persistent over time. So successful has this critique been that it is now possible to speak of authenticity only in terms of a certain ‘strategic’ or politically necessary engagement, on the part of subaltern groups, with an essentialist metaphysics. While the critique is a necessary one, taken on its own it has resulted in a reductionist presumption that we are only ever going to encounter versions of truth that we have already understood, for purposes of critique, as so many versions of ‘essentialism’. By contrast, in the ceremonial performances of dance described in this issue of TAJA, across a broad spectrum of cultures, we witness the striking persistence and centrality of references to virtuosity, appropriate ‘feeling’ and to the experience of a kind of integrity, coherence and ‘truth’ in a good performance. The commentary argues that these distinctions rest on traditions that move us quite far from an essentialism both of the spirit and of the body, requiring instead a fresh effort of understanding on our part. Utilising other traditions to develop a better, less reified understanding of truth criteria can help arrest a certain hyper‐expansion of ‘the political’ that threatens to leave no other terms alive with which to inform its own vision of the relation between past, present and future.     

Home or away? Differences between home‐ and clinic‐based dental examinations for older people

Objective: To determine whether home‐based and clinic‐based dental examinations of older people are comparable. Background: Despite a number of studies which have examined the concordance between different examiners or examination circumstances, none has directly compared an oral examination conducted at home with one conducted in an appropriate clinical setting. Materials and methods: Dentate participants (n = 61) aged between 65 and 74 years underwent two clinical examinations, one in a conventional dental clinic and the other in the person’s home. Kappa statistics, intra‐class correlation coefficients and ‘Difference against mean’ plots were used to determine the nature and extent of any bias. Results: The summary estimates for missing teeth and dental caries were close, although the home‐based examinations resulted in a lower estimate of the mean number of decayed teeth and of untreated coronal decay. The lowest reliability statistics were observed with respect to the prevalence of untreated coronal caries, filled root surfaces and root surface (Decayed or Filled Surfaces) DFS. The periodontitis prevalence estimates were closer, but the reliability statistics were relatively low. The extent of bleeding on probing was relatively under‐estimated in the home‐based examinations. ‘Difference against mean’ plots indicated that, overall, the clinic‐based examinations detected more disease (although this was not observed for all clinical parameters which were measured). Conclusion: While clinic‐based examinations will remain the preferred option, the potential loss of information associated with home‐based examinations is unlikely to be great enough to preclude using them where required, although surveys with larger samples (and therefore more accurate estimates) should restrict their proportion of home‐based examinations to no more than 10%. As they are less precise, surveys with samples of 300 or fewer can safely accommodate up to about one‐third of their examinations being conducted in participants’ homes.     

Unravelling the Philosophies Underlying ‘Animal Personality’ Studies: A Brief Re‐Appraisal of the Field

The last decade has seen lots of studies on ‘animal personality’ (i.e. the study of consistent between‐individual behavioural differences). As timely and promising as this field is, its development has come with a diversity of research questions. As an unfortunate consequence, it now suffers from substantial confusion about what ‘animal personality’ is, and how relevant related research frameworks are. Here, we stress the current inconsistencies and sources of confusion pertaining to the field, and their consequences on terminology used and miscommunication between researchers. In an attempt to unravel and clarify the concepts underlying the field, we identify two distinct, but complementary, theory‐driven conceptual frameworks: the intra‐individual variability (IIV) approach and the life‐history (LH) approach, which we believe encompass the vast majority of existing ‘personality studies’. Finally, we argue in favour of theory‐driven studies of consistent behavioural differences and state that the integrative statistical properties of random regression models should not override the merit of alternative conceptual frameworks. We then provide brief guidelines and warnings for a parsimonious and sound use of terminology.     

Varied tastes: home range implications of foraging‐patch selection

Despite evidence of home range behaviour across many taxa, the mechanisms underlying the development of home ranges are still unknown. Recently, models have been developed to explore these mechanisms for both territorial and non‐ territorial species. One such model for a generic forager suggests animal memory and optimal foraging theory as underlying mechanisms driving forager movement and the development of stable home ranges. Although this is a promising model for ungulate home range development, assumptions of the model have yet to be evaluated. Using GPS relocation data from two populations of elk, we explored how foraging patch selection might influence the structure and development of home ranges in elk Cervus elaphus. During the summer growing season, we identified and sampled foraging patches used by elk. Points along elk paths not used for foraging were sampled identically for comparison. We contrasted ‘patch’ and ‘nonpatch’ data points, to identify foraging selection differences across herd, sex and season using a combination of directly sampled and remotely sensed covariates. In general, elk selected patches with higher biomass, cover, slope and lower traffic on the nearest road. These patch‐selection results speak directly to differences between foraging areas and other areas used by elk and demonstrate that both physiographic and anthropocentric features influence foraging patch selection. Our results offer insight as to what defines a valuable foraging patch for elk and how these patches might influence the development and structure of home ranges in a free‐ranging ungulate.     

The Question of ‘Corruption’ in Nepal

Drawing on ethnographic material about a set of Nepalese cultural practices known as ‘nutabad —ciypabad’, ‘favouritism’, the paper attempts; first, to chart the meaning favouritism has for Nepalis in their everyday encounters with central administration and the forms these interactions take and their cultural significations; second, to examine the way the idea of favouritism is constructed by the Westernized intellectuals to mean corruption and their reasons for so doing. The key sociological concept utilized for this analysis is ‘power’, specifically its operation in the field of political ethics centring on a conflict between two opposing ideologies; one advocated by the Westernized intellectuals who are pressing for the adoption of the principle of ‘impartiality’ in government; the other being that which is inherent in the Hindu traditional mode of statecraft wherein the institution of ‘the favour’ and therefore ‘partiality’ as a value is paramount and is in accord with Hindu cultural values, generally.     

Testing parasite ‘intimacy’: the whipworm Trichuris muris in the European house mouse hybrid zone

Host‐parasite interaction studies across hybrid zones often focus on host genetic variation, treating parasites as homogeneous. ‘Intimately’ associated hosts and parasites might be expected to show similar patterns of genetic structure. In the literature, factors such as no intermediate host and no free‐living stage have been proposed as ‘intimacy’ factors likely constraining parasites to closely follow the evolutionary history of their hosts. To test whether the whipworm, Trichuris muris, is intimately associated with its house mouse host, we studied its population genetics across the European house mouse hybrid zone (HMHZ) which has a strong central barrier to gene flow between mouse taxa. T. muris has a direct life cycle and nonmobile free stage: if these traits constrain the parasite to an intimate association with its host we expect a geographic break in the parasite genetic structure across the HMHZ. We genotyped 205 worms from 56 localities across the HMHZ and additionally T. muris collected from sympatric woodmice (Apodemus spp.) and allopatric murine species, using mt‐COX1, ITS1‐5.8S‐ITS2 rDNA and 10 microsatellites. We show four haplogroups of mt‐COX1 and three clear ITS1‐5.8S‐ITS2 clades in the HMHZ suggesting a complex demographic/phylogeographic history. Microsatellites show strong structure between groups of localities. However, no marker type shows a break across the HMHZ. Whipworms from Apodemus in the HMHZ cluster, and share mitochondrial haplotypes, with those from house mice. We conclude Trichuris should not be regarded as an ‘intimate’ parasite of the house mouse: while its life history might suggest intimacy, passage through alternate hosts is sufficiently common to erase signal of genetic structure associated with any particular host taxon.     

Home on the range: spatial ecology of loggerhead turtles in Atlantic waters of the USA

Aim Although satellite tracking has yielded much information regarding the migrations and habitat use of threatened marine species, relatively little has been published about the environmental niche for loggerhead sea turtles Caretta caretta in north‐west Atlantic waters. Location North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, USA. Methods We tracked 68 adult female turtles between 1998 and 2008, one of the largest sample sizes to date, for 372.2 ± 210.4 days (mean ± SD). Results We identified two strategies: (1) ‘seasonal’ migrations between summer and winter coastal areas (n = 47), although some turtles made oceanic excursions (n = 4) and (2) occupation of more southerly ‘year‐round’ ranges (n = 18). Seasonal turtles occupied summer home ranges of 645.1 km² (median, n = 42; using α‐hulls) predominantly north of 35 ° latitude and winter home ranges of 339.0 km² (n = 24) in a relatively small area on the narrow shelf off North Carolina. We tracked some of these turtles through successive summer (n = 8) and winter (n = 3) seasons, showing inter‐annual home range repeatability to within 14.5 km of summer areas and 10.3 km of winter areas. For year‐round turtles, home ranges were 1889.9 km². Turtles should be tracked for at least 80 days to reliably estimate the home range size in seasonal habitats. The equivalent minimum duration for ‘year‐round’ turtles is more complex to derive. We define an environmental envelope of the distribution of North American loggerhead turtles: warm waters (between 18.2 and 29.2 °C) on the coastal shelf (in depths of 3.0–89.0 m). Main conclusions Our findings show that adult female loggerhead turtles show predictable, repeatable home range behaviour and do not generally leave waters of the USA, nor the continental shelf (< 200m depth). These data offer insights for future marine management, particularly if they were combined with those from the other management units in the USA.     

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.     

The influence of host and non‐host companion plants on the behaviour of pest insects in field crops

Companion plants grown as ‘trap crops’ or ‘intercrops’ can be used to reduce insect infestations in field crops. The ways in which such reductions are achieved are being described currently using either a chemical approach, based on the ‘push‐pull strategy’, or a biological approach, based on the ‘appropriate/inappropriate landing theory’. The chemical approach suggests that insect numbers are reduced by chemicals from the intercrop ‘repelling’ insects from the main crop, and by chemicals from the trap‐crop ‘attracting’ insects away from the main crop. This approach is based on the assumptions that (1) plants release detectable amounts of volatile chemicals, and (2) insects ‘respond’ while still some distance away from the emitting plant. We discuss whether the above assumptions can be justified using the ‘appropriate/inappropriate landing theory’. Our tenet is that specialist insects respond only to the volatile chemicals released by their host plants and that these are released in such small quantities that, even with a heightened response to such chemicals, specialist insects can only detect them when a few metres from the emitting plant. We can find no robust evidence in the literature that plant chemicals ‘attract’ insects from more than 5 m and believe that ‘trap crops’ function simply as ‘interception barriers’. We can also find no evidence that insects are ‘repelled’ from landing on non‐host plants. Instead, we believe that ‘intercrops’ disrupt host‐plant finding by providing insects with a choice of host (appropriate) and non‐host (inappropriate) plant leaves on which to land, as our research has shown that, for intercropping to be effective, insects must land on the non‐host plants. Work is needed to determine whether non‐host plants are repellent (chemical approach) or ‘non‐stimulating’ (biological approach) to insects.