‘We are all equals!’ Militarism,homogenization and ‘egalitarianism’ in nationalist state-building (1789–1945)

Cultural homogenization has accompanied many of the most destructive processes of mass displacement during the Twentieth century. Its goal has been to make polity and citizens ethnically and culturally ‘congruent’. This article questions the explanatory power of traditional accounts linking cultural homogenization with industrialization during state-building processes and the emergence of nationalism. It suggests that further attention must be paid to the role of the military as an essential institution in both of these processes. Finally, the ‘egalitarian’ rhetoric and legitimizing rationale underpinning both militarization and cultural homogenization is assessed as a most powerful nationalist tool for imposing new hierarchical structures.     

Molecular characterization of newS-RNases (‘S31’ and ‘S32’) in apple (Malus ×domestica Borkh.)’) in apple (Malus ×domestica Borkh.)

Apple exhibits gametophytic self-incompatibility (GSI) that is controlled by the multiallelic S-locus. This S-locus encodes polymorphicS ribonuclease (S-RNase) for the pistil-part 5 determinant. Information aboutS-genotypes is important when selecting pollen donors for fruit production and breeding of new cultivars. We determined the 5-genotypes of ‘Charden’ (S₂S₃S₄), ‘Winesap’ (S₁S₂₈), ‘York Imperial’ (S₂S₃₁), ‘Stark Earliblaze’ (S₁S₂₈), and ‘Burgundy’ (S₂₀S₃₂), byS-RNase sequencing and S-allele-specific PCR analysis. Two newS-RNases, S₃₁ and S₃₂, were also identified from ‘York Imperial’ and ‘Burgundy’, respectively. These newS-alleles contained the conserved eight cysteine residues and two histidine residues essential for RNase activity. Whereas S₃₁ showed high similarity to S₂₀ (94%), S₃₂ exhibited 58% (to S₂₄) to 76% (to S₂₅) similarity in the exon regions. We designed newS-allele-specific primers for amplifying S₃₁- and S₃₂-RNasc-specific fragments; these can serve as specific gene markers. We also rearranged the apple S-allele numbers containing those newS-RNases. They should be useful, along with anS-RNase-based PCR system, in determining S-genotypes and analyzing new alleles from apple cultivars.     

Cancer,Viruses, and Mass Migration: Paul Berg’s Venture into Eukaryotic Biology and the Advent of Recombinant DNA Research and Technology, 1967–1980

The existing literature on the development of recombinant DNA technology and genetic engineering tends to focus on Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer’s recombinant DNA cloning technology and its commercialization starting in the mid-1970s. Historians of science, however, have pointedly noted that experimental procedures for making recombinant DNA molecules were initially developed by Stanford biochemist Paul Berg and his colleagues, Peter Lobban and A. Dale Kaiser in the early 1970s. This paper, recognizing the uneasy disjuncture between scientific authorship and legal invention in the history of recombinant DNA technology, investigates the development of recombinant DNA technology in its full scientific context. I do so by focusing on Stanford biochemist Berg’s research on the genetic regulation of higher organisms. As I hope to demonstrate, Berg’s new venture reflected a mass migration of biomedical researchers as they shifted from studying prokaryotic organisms like bacteria to studying eukaryotic organisms like mammalian and human cells. It was out of this boundary crossing from prokaryotic to eukaryotic systems through virus model systems that recombinant DNA technology and other significant new research techniques and agendas emerged. Indeed, in their attempt to reconstitute ‹life’ as a research technology, Stanford biochemists’ recombinant DNA research recast genes as a sequence that could be rewritten thorough biochemical operations. The last part of this paper shifts focus from recombinant DNA technology’s academic origins to its transformation into a genetic engineering technology by examining the wide range of experimental hybridizations which occurred as techniques and knowledge circulated between Stanford biochemists and the Bay Area’s experimentalists. Situating their interchange in a dense research network based at Stanford’s biochemistry department, this paper helps to revise the canonized history of genetic engineering’s origins that emerged during the patenting of Cohen–Boyer’s recombinant DNA cloning procedures.     

Conservation and Wildlife Management in South African National Parks 1930s–1960s

In recent decades conservation biology has achieved a high position among the sciences. This is certainly true of South Africa, a small country, but the third most biodiverse in the world. This article traces some aspects of the transformation of South African wildlife management during the 1930s to the 1960s from game reserves based on custodianship and the “balance of nature” into scientifically managed national parks with a philosophy of “command and control” or “management by intervention.” In 1910 the four British colonies had formed the Union of South Africa, and by the 1920s there was wide acceptance of national parks, a development influenced by their success in the United States. It was not, however, until after the Second World War, that management of the expanding conservation estate altered from a rather unsystematic laissez faire variety, into more scientifically informed management practices with an efficient bureaucracy in charge. This was achieved by modifications in organizational structures and institutional cultures initiated by a change of government in 1948 which, this article argues, impacted in turn on wildlife management and shaped and professionalized many aspects of that field science. “Management by intervention” was the hallmark of South African wildlife and conservation biology from the 1960s until recently, when there have been shifts towards “adaptive resource management” in a period of further change in the country’s politics.     

Molecular phylogeny and systematics of Australian ‘Iravadiidae’ (Caenogastropoda: Truncatelloidea)

The family Iravadiidae is found to be polyphyletic in a molecular phylogenetic analysis using a subset of Australian taxa. Taxa previously assigned to Iravadia form a monophyletic clade, but Nozeba topaziaca clusters with Auricorona queenslandica n. gen. and n. sp. in an unnamed family related to Tornidae. Aenigmula criscionei n. gen. and n. sp., an iravadiid-like species from the Northern Territory, belongs to another unnamed family related to Caecidae, Calopiidae and Clenchiellidae. A systematic revision of some Australian ‘iravadiids’ raises the subgenera Fluviocingula and Pseudomerelina to full generic rank and reinstates two former synonyms of Iravadia (Fairbankia), Pellamora and Wakauraia, as genera. The species formerly identified in Australia as Iravadia quadrasi is recognised as three allopatric species; Iravadia pilbara n. sp. and the reinstated species Iravadia goliath and Iravadia quadrina. Pellamora splendida n. sp., from Western Australia, is recognised as distinct from Pellamora australis, and Fluviocingula superficialis n. sp. from Fluviocingula resima. Wakauraia fukudai n. sp. is recorded from central Queensland.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:1B9917F6-48B2-4597-85C1-F90BA9093475     

Molecular mapping of a gene ‘ld(t)’ controlling cleistogamy in rice

Cleistogamy is the self-pollination within closed spikelets and is expected to be a useful genetic tool for prevention of possible gene transfer in transgenic crops, for maintenance of genetic purity in autogamous crops, and for increased tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Mapping of the gene ld(t), which is responsible for lack of lodicules inside spikelets and causes cleistogamy, was carried out using F₂ and F₃ populations derived from a cleistogamous (CL) mutant CL-SNU × Milyang 23 cross. A number of STS markers along chromosomes were developed and bulked segregant analysis was adopted for preliminary mapping. The results showed that the ld(t) was located at the end region of chromosome 1L, flanked by S01178b (an STS marker developed for the locus at 178 cM based on the rice genetic map reported by Japanese Rice Genome Project) at 0.8 cM and co-segregated with S01181a and S01181b (an STS marker developed for the locus at 181 cM).     

Aerobiology in Russia and Neighbouring Countries, 1980–1993

Aerobiological investigations of the last ten years in the former USSR emphasised, preferentially the following problems: content of pollen in the air, pollen transport, and impact of pollen on the health of the human. Pollen grains which cause various allergic diseases have been the main object of extensive aerobiological studies. Ado and his collaborators have made valuable contributions to Aerobiology in the former USSR (Ado 1978, 1980, 1989, 1990; Ado & Gubankova, 1979 a, b). Their investigations confirmed the existence of a correlation between the number of allergic patients and the concentration of pollen grains in the atmosphere, and some peculiarities of the allergic diseases prevalent in towns.

Later, aerobiology was elaborated by the investigations of Kobzar (1987), Kobzar & Kharitonova (1990), Kobzar et al. (1990, 1991), etc. The possibility of airborne pollen grains as indicators of environmental contamination and pollution levels was demonstrated. Various data show the periods during which pollen grains are present in atmosphere, their peaks and the levels of concentration which are able to cause allergies in the territory of the former USSR.     

Height development of men and women from China,South Korea,and Taiwan during the rapid economic transformation period of the 1960s–1980s

We study height trends among Chinese, South Korean, and Taiwanese groups during the rapid economic growth period of the 1960s to the 1980s. Heights rose strongly as income grew. Did rapid income growth also cause a decline in gender inequality? Or did it rise because the gains were unevenly distributed? Gender inequality is particularly interesting given the traditionally strong son preference in the region. For mainland China, we find that gender inequality was relatively modest in the pre-reform period (before the 1980s). Especially in comparison to the early 20th century, female heights grew faster than male heights. In contrast, the 1980s transition period to an economic system with market elements was characterized by increasing gender inequality in China. This was the case to an even greater extent in South Korea, where gender dimorphism noticeably increased during the 1980s, paralleling a similar increase in sex-selective abortions. Moreover, we also study other inequality patterns in the three countries, focusing on socioeconomic, regional, and educational differences between groups.     

Armin von Tschermak-Seysenegg (1870–1952): Physiologist and Co-‘Rediscoverer’ of Mendel’s laws

The ‘rediscovery’ of Mendel’s laws in 1900 was a turning point in modern research of heredity/genetics. According to the traditional view, adopted and fostered by many textbooks of genetics, Mendel’s principles were presented in the first half of 1900 simultaneously and independently by three biologists (H. de Vries, C. Correns, E. v. Tschermak-Seysenegg). Having thus laid the foundations of further development, the ‘rediscovery’ continues to attract considerable interest. Since the 1950s, however, serious questions arose concerning both the chronology and specific conceptual achievement of the scientists involved. Not only the independence but also parallelism was analysed in the context of individual research programmes of these three scholars. The youngest of them, Erich v. Tschermak-Seysenegg, was even excluded from the list of ‘rediscoverers’. The aim of this paper is to use new archival evidence and approximate the contribution of the physiologist and ophthalmologist Armin von Tschermak-Seysenegg (1870–1952) to the events of 1900 and 1901.     

Blood–brain-barriers in aging and in Alzheimer’s disease

The aging process correlates with a progressive failure in the normal cellular and organ functioning; these alterations are aggravated in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In both aging and AD there is a general decrease in the capacity of the body to eliminate toxic compounds and, simultaneously, to supply the brain with relevant growth and nutritional factors. The barriers of the brain are targets of this age related dysfunction; both the endothelial cells of the blood–brain barrier and the choroid plexus epithelial cells of the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier decrease their secretory capacity towards the brain and their ability to remove toxic compounds from the brain. Additionally, during normal aging and in AD, the permeability of the brain barriers increase. As such, a greater contact of the brain parenchyma with the blood content alters the highly controlled neural environment, which impacts on neural function. Of interest, the brain barriers are more than mere obstacles to the passage of molecules and cells, and therefore active players in brain homeostasis, which is still to be further recognized and investigated in the context of health and disease. Herein, we provide a review on how the brain barriers change during aging and in AD and how these processes impact on brain function.     

Group definition and the idea of ‘race’ in modern China (1793–1949)

This article briefly traces the history of the idea of ‘race’ in modern China. From the nineteenth century onwards, an increasing insistence on biological differences between the ingroup and the outgroup came to contrast with traditional Chinese culturally oriented ethnocentrism. This transition from cultural universalism to racial exclusiveness started during the middle of the nineteenth century and was completed in the 1920s. Four main historical phases can be distinguished: (1) the heightening of a racial consciousness from the Opium War (1842) to the Sino‐Japanese War (1894–5); (2) the emergence of the idea of a yellow race, opposed to a superior white race in its struggle for control over the other races (1895–1902); (3) the development of a nationalistic vision of race, narrowed down to the Han Chinese, perceived as a homogeneous biological unit descended from the Yellow Emperor (1902–15); and (4) the infusion of science into a racial rhetoric that emphasized the original purity, genetic foundation and biological uniqueness of the ingroup in its interpretation of outgroups (1915–49).     

Modulation of Molecular Chaperones in Huntington’s Disease and Other Polyglutamine Disorders

Polyglutamine expansion mutations in specific proteins underlie the pathogenesis of a group of progressive neurodegenerative disorders, including Huntington’s disease, spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy, dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy, and several spinocerebellar ataxias. The different mutant proteins share ubiquitous expression and abnormal proteostasis, with misfolding and aggregation, but nevertheless evoke distinct patterns of neurodegeneration. This highlights the relevance of the full protein context where the polyglutamine expansion occurs and suggests different interactions with the cellular proteostasis machinery. Molecular chaperones are key elements of the proteostasis machinery and therapeutic targets for neurodegeneration. Here, we provide a focused review on Hsp90, Hsp70, and their co-chaperones, and how their genetic or pharmacological modulation affects the proteostasis and disease phenotypes in cellular and animal models of polyglutamine disorders. The emerging picture is that, in principle, Hsp70 modulation may be more amenable for long-term treatment by promoting a more selective clearance of mutant proteins than Hsp90 modulation, which may further decrease the necessary wild-type counterparts. It seems, nevertheless, unlikely that a single Hsp70 modulator will benefit all polyglutamine diseases. Indeed, available data, together with insights from effects on tau and alpha-synuclein in models of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, indicates that Hsp70 modulators may lead to different effects on the proteostasis of different mutant and wild-type client proteins. Future studies should include the further development of isoform selective inhibitors, namely to avoid off-target effects on Hsp in the mitochondria, and their characterization in distinct polyglutamine disease models to account for client protein-specific differences.     

‘Harem’ and ‘non-harem’ type mating systems in two species of subsocial spider mites (Acari,Tetranychidae)

The mating system of a subsocial spider mite, Schizotetranychus miscanthi Saitō, which is closely related to Schizotetranychus longus Saitō (the long seta form of Schizotetranychus celarius (Banks) is a synonym of the latter) was studied in comparison with that of S. longus. Comparisons between nesting patterns of the two related species, S. miscanthi and S. longus revealed a difference in distribution of males among nests. Although more than one male sometimes occurred in the large nests of S. miscanthi, most nests were occupied only by a single male. On the other hand, many nests of S. longus included several males. Behavioral experiments revealed that the male and females of S. miscanthi which cohabited in a nest defended their offspring from phytoseiid predators. Observations and a census of the nesting pattern in a wild population indicate that this is the second example of biparental defense and of a subsocial life-pattern in spider mites. Differences in mating systems were experimentally demonstrated in the two species. Only a single male of S. miscanthi survived in a nest, as a result of highly aggressive male-male combat, while two males of S. longus cohabited in a nest. The mating system of the former species is thus considered as harem polygyny, while that of the latter as scramble type polygyny. Furthermore, observations by video recording and scanning electron microscopy showed that the winning male in the male-male combat in S. miscanthi often preyed on the loser, suggesting cannibalism among them.     

Visible minorities and ‘White’–‘non-White’ conjugal unions in Canadian large cities

The study investigates assortative mating patterns with respect to race (visible minority status) in Canada. Using the 2001 Census data, the article analyses the occurrence of White/non-White unions in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Log-linear models indicate that the relative levels of interracial relationships vary across racial groups, immigration status, and place of residence. First, the highest odds of cohabiting or marrying a White person are found among Blacks. Whereas the high level of racial exogamy of Blacks is observed in all metropolitan areas under study, the relative position of other groups varies. Second, the highest levels of racial exogamy are found among couples composed of an immigrant and a non-immigrant but this effect varies across racial groups. Third, our hypothesis that residents of Montreal (Quebec) will inter-partner less was confirmed only for unions between two native-born Canadians. Finally, we found that French Canadians are not more inclusive of their linguistic counterparts than Anglophones.