‘A Dispassionate and Objective Effort:’ Negotiating the First Study on the Biological Effects of Atomic Radiation

The National Academy of Science’s 1956 study on the Biological Effects of Atomic Radiation (BEAR) was designed to provide an objective analysis to assess conflicting statements by leading geneticists and by officials in the Atomic Energy Commission. Largely because of its status as a detached, non-governmental evaluation by eminent scientists, no studies have had a broader impact on the development of biological thinking in regard to nuclear policies. This paper demonstrates that despite the first BEAR study’s reputation as an objective and independent study, it was the product of careful negotiation between Academy scientists, the Atomic Energy Commission, and Britain’s Medical Research Council. This paper also reveals the fragility of the consensus that produced the Academy’s report, the range of political uses of the report, and the subsequent disaffection of the scientists who took part in it.     

Separating ‘Inquiry Questions’ and ‘Techniques’ to Help Learners Move between the How and the Why of Biology Practical Work

School science practical activities have been criticised for exposing learners to a series of phenomena disconnected from the conceptual frameworks needed to understand them. Such activities are successful in the ‘domain of observables’ but not the ‘domain of ideas’. Few resources exist for classroom teachers wishing to improve the effectiveness of practical activities in the domain of ideas. This report describes an action research project to develop a scaffold for biology practical lessons. This scaffold separates inquiry questions and the techniques needed to address them, and thus combines two approaches to scaffolding in a single tool (‘problematising’ and ‘reducing the degrees of freedom’). Analysis of the speech of 16–17 year olds in the study class (n = 23) was used to assess their engagement in the domain of ideas. Following the scaffold’s introduction, the learners were found to speak more about relevant ideas and concepts during practical activities. When the scaffold was partially faded, the learners continued to demonstrate engagement with the domain of ideas. The approach reported here would seem to have much potential for supporting learning from ‘minds-on’ biology practical work in a variety of contexts.     

“Treat the patient,not the lab” Internal medicine and the concept of ‘Person’

In different medical systems, notions of person, as patient and as healer, vary widely. An analysis of the talk of a practitioner of internal medicine in the U.S.A. reveals an understanding of patients as syndromes. The work of medicine is physiological integrity, distinct from personal and interpersonal integrity. It is suggested that the world view of this practitioner is consistent with the institutions of medicine in which he practices, and with historical movements in U.S. society and Western civilization more broadly.     

A Comparative Study of the Oxidative Profile in Graves’ Disease, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, and Papillary Thyroid Cancer

The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the oxidative profiles of three thyroid disorders: Graves’ disease (GD), Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT), and papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). Malondialdehyde levels (MDA), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) activities were examined in the plasma of 52 patients (29 untreated HT, 16 untreated GD, and 7 PTC who underwent surgical therapy). Results were compared with those of 30 healthy controls and among the three groups of patients. The GD, HT, and PTC patients exhibited increased plasma MDA levels and SOD activities compared with the controls (p?<?0.05, p?<?0.05, and p?<?0.001, respectively). CAT activities significantly increased only for the PTC and HT patients (p?<?0.001 and p?<?0.05, respectively), whereas GPx activities significantly decreased only in the GD and PTC (p?<?0.05 and p?<?0.01, respectively). The comparison among the three groups of patients has shown increased MDA level and SOD activity for the PTC patients as compared to the GD patients (p?<?0.01 and p?<?0.001, respectively). Compared with HT, PTC patients exhibited significant higher MDA level, SOD, and CAT activities and a significant lower GPx activity (p?<?0.01, p?<?0.001, p?<?0.05, and p?<?0.05, respectively). No significant discrepancies were noted between the GD and HT patients. Our results have clearly shown an oxidative profile that is highly disturbed for the PTC patients as compared to those of autoimmune disorders. Future studies are needed to determine whether or not the oxidative stress has a prognostic value in this pathology.     

Making sense of ‘mixture’: states and the classification of ‘mixed’ people

Caribbean diaspora intellectuals have contributed significantly to African-American political struggles over the years, despite arguments by some African-American intellectuals about what they discern as West Indian negativism, extremism, and divisiveness in American political life. This essay examines the legacy of a representative sample of diasporic Caribbean intellectuals since the time of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and culminating in the 1970s, notably, Garvey, members of the African Blood Brotherhood [ABB], C.L.R. James, and Walter Rodney, to demonstrate the phenomenal ideological vision, organizational capability, and political activism they have brought into fostering solidarity with African Americans in the struggle for fundamental change. The focus here is on their respective contributions to the debate on the relationship between class and race in America and the black diaspora generally, which has helped to shape the form, and orient the direction of African-American and Caribbean diasporic struggles for the better part of the twentieth century.     

Regulation of coenzyme A levels by degradation: the ‘Ins and Outs’

Coenzyme A (CoA) is the predominant acyl carrier in mammalian cells and a cofactor that plays a key role in energy and lipid metabolism. CoA and its thioesters (acyl-CoAs) regulate a multitude of metabolic processes at different levels: as substrates, allosteric modulators, and via post-translational modification of histones and other non-histone proteins. Evidence is emerging that synthesis and degradation of CoA are regulated in a manner that enables metabolic flexibility in different subcellular compartments. Degradation of CoA occurs through distinct intra- and extracellular pathways that rely on the activity of specific hydrolases. The pantetheinase enzymes specifically hydrolyze pantetheine to cysteamine and pantothenate, the last step in the extracellular degradation pathway for CoA. This reaction releases pantothenate in the bloodstream, making this CoA precursor available for cellular uptake and de novo CoA synthesis. Intracellular degradation of CoA depends on specific mitochondrial and peroxisomal Nudix hydrolases. These enzymes are also active against a subset of acyl-CoAs and play a key role in the regulation of subcellular (acyl-)CoA pools and CoA-dependent metabolic reactions. The evidence currently available indicates that the extracellular and intracellular (acyl-)CoA degradation pathways are regulated in a coordinated and opposite manner by the nutritional state and maximize the changes in the total intracellular CoA levels that support the metabolic switch between fed and fasted states in organs like the liver.The objective of this review is to update the contribution of these pathways to the regulation of metabolism, physiology and pathology and to highlight the many questions that remain open.     

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.     

A critique of the methodology of Robert Redfield: ‘Folk culture’ and other concepts

The Raw and the Cooked. Claude Levi‐Strauss. Jonathan Cape 1970. 387 pp., ill., bibl. Price £3.5.0.

Folktales of Israel. Ed. by Dov Noy with the assistance of Dan Ben Amos. Transi, by Gene Baharav. The University of Chicago Press. Folktales of the World. Chicago 1963. 221 S. $ 4.00.

Politics of Social Research. An inquiry into the ethics and responsibilities of social scientists. Ralph L. Beals. Aldine Publishing Company. Chicago 1969. 228 pp.

African Stone Sculpture. Philip Allison. Percy Lund, Humphries &; Co., Ltd. London 1968. 71 pp. 99 pls. 3 maps. Price 56 s.

The Elementary Structures of Kinship. (Les Structures élémentaires de la Parenté). Claude Lévy‐Strauss. Rev. ed. translated from the French by James Harle Bell, John Richard von Sturmer and Rodney Needham, Editor. Beacon Press, Boston; Eyre &; Spottiswoode Ltd., London. 1969. 541 pp., 87 figs. Price $ 15.00.

Contes sous la Croix du Sud. Giselle de Goustine. (Les littératures populaires de toutes les nations. N.S., T. XIII). Editions G.‐P. Maisonneuve et Larose, Paris 1967. 208 pp.

La divination malgache par le sikidy. Raymond Decary avec la collaboration de Marcelle Urbain‐Faublée. Publications du centre Universitaire des Langues Orientales Vivantes, 6e série, vol. IX. Paul Geuthner, Paris 1970. 111 pp.

Über Lebensraum und Lebensformen des Frühsemiten. Joseph Henninger. Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Forschung des Landes Nordrhein‐Westfalen. Geisteswissenschaften, Heft G 151. Westdeutscher Verlag. Köln und Opladen 1968. 61 Seiten. Kart. DM 6.60.

Indianer von gestern, heute und morgen. Beobachtungen zum Kulturwandel in den Anden Boliviens. Hermann Trimborn. Kulturgeschichtliche Forschungen; 12. Band. Albert Limbach Verlag, Braunschweig 1968. 96 S., 104 Abb., 1 Karte. Preis DM 38:—.

Der Wandel ökonomischer Rollen bei den westlichen Dan in Liberia. Eberhard Fischer. Studien zur Kulturkunde, Band XXI. Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden. Wiesbaden 1967. 481 S. 4 Taf. 7 Abb. DM 66:—.

An Anthropological Bibliography of South Asia. Together with a Directory of Anthropological Field Research. Vol. III. 1960–64. Compiled by

Elizabeth von Fürer‐Haimendorf and Helen Kanitkar. Le Monde d'Outre‐Mer Passé et Présent, Quatrième Série. Bibliographies VIII. Editions Mounton &; Cie, Paris 1970. 562 pp. Price 193 F.

Man‐apes or Ape‐men? The Story of Discoveries in Africa. Sir Wilfrid E. Le Gros Clark. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., New York 1967. 150 pp., 33 fig., bibliography, index. Price $3.95.     

Diabetes Mellitus and the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease: A Nationwide Population-Based Study

Objectives

Possible association between diabetes mellitus (DM) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been controversial. This study used a nationwide population-based dataset to investigate the relationship between DM and subsequent AD incidence.

Methods

Data were collected from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database, which released a cohort dataset of 1,000,000 randomly sampled people and confirmed it to be representative of the Taiwanese population. We identified 71,433 patients newly diagnosed with diabetes (age 58.74±14.02 years) since January 1997. Using propensity score, we matched them with 71,311 non-diabetic subjects by time of enrollment, age, gender, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and previous stroke history. All the patients were followed up to December 31, 2007. The endpoint of the study was occurrence of AD.

Results

Over a maximum 11 years of follow-up, diabetic patients experienced a higher incidence of AD than non-diabetic subjects (0.48% vs. 0.37%, p<0.001). After Cox proportional hazard regression model analysis, DM (hazard ratio [HR], 1.76; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.50–2.07, p<0.001), age (HR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.10–1.12, p<0.001), female gender (HR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.06–1.46, p = 0.008), hypertension (HR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.07–1.59, p = 0.01), previous stroke history (HR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.28–2.50, p<0.001), and urbanization status (metropolis, HR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.07–1.63, p = 0.009) were independently associated with the increased risk of AD. Neither monotherapy nor combination therapy with oral antidiabetic medications were associated with the risk of AD after adjusting for underlying risk factors and the duration of DM since diagnosis. However, combination therapy with insulin was found to be associated with greater risk of AD (HR, 2.17; 95% CI, 1.04–4.52, p = 0.039).

Conclusion

Newly diagnosed DM was associated with increased risk of AD. Use of hypoglycemic agents did not ameliorate the risk.     

Variability and Vulnerability of Coastal ‘Blue Carbon’ Stocks: A Case Study from Southeast Australia

‘Blue carbon’ ecosystems—seagrasses, tidal marshes, and mangroves—serve as dense carbon sinks important for reducing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, yet only recently have stock estimates emerged. We sampled 96 blue carbon ecosystems across the Victorian coastline (southeast Australia) to quantify total sediment stocks, variability across spatial scales, and estimate emissions associated with historical ecosystem loss. Mean sediment organic carbon (C_org) stock (±SE) to a depth of 30 cm was not significantly different between tidal marshes (87.1 ± 4.90 Mg C_org ha^?1) and mangroves (65.6 ± 4.17 Mg C_org ha^?1), but was significantly lower in seagrasses (24.3 ± 1.82 Mg C_org ha^?1). Location (defined as an individual meadow, marsh, or forest) had a stronger relationship with C_org stock than catchment region, suggesting local-scale conditions drive variability of stocks more than regional-scale processes. We estimate over 2.90 million ± 199,000 Mg C_org in the top 30 cm of blue carbon sediments in Victoria (53% in tidal marshes, 36% in seagrasses, and 11% in mangroves) and sequestration rates of 22,700 ± 5510 Mg C_org year^?1 (valued at over $AUD1 million ± 245,000 year^?1 based on the average price of $AUD12.14 Mg CO₂ eq^?1 at Australian Emissions Reduction Fund auctions). We estimate ecosystem loss since European settlement may equate to emissions as high as 4.83 million ± 358,000 Mg CO₂ equivalents (assuming 90% remineralization of stocks), 98% of which was associated with tidal marsh loss, and what would have been sequestering 9360 ± 2500 Mg C_org year^?1. This study is among the first to present a comprehensive comparison of sediment stocks across and within coastal blue carbon ecosystems. We estimate substantial and valuable carbon stocks associated with these ecosystems that have suffered considerable losses in the past and need protection into the future to maintain their role as carbon sinks.     

Nationalism and the ‘idiocy’ of the countryside: The case of Serbia

The mobilization of the countryside has direct consequences for political discourse about national values and in times of social crisis, the ‘conservatism’ of the countryside has the potential to assume an aggressive, offensive posture. When rural mobilization is accompanied by religious revival, group loyalty and so‐called ‘traditional’ values are sacralized. When rural mobilization, ethnic mobilization, and religious revival occur simultaneously, it signifies that the society is undergoing profound destabilization. Examining the case of Serbia, this article argues that while Serbia is, in cultural and social terms, predominantly rural in character, Titoist Communism imposed the values of the city on that culture, while the 1987 coup by Slobodan Milosevic represented, among other things, the triumph of the countryside over the city in Serbia.

This article begins by characterizing the countryside in cultural terms, provides documentation of the importance of rural traditions in Serbian society, documents the rural character of the Serbian national movement, connecting its ideology and behaviour with populist appeals, and examines the contribution made by the Serbian Orthodox Church to the mobilization of the Serbian countryside.     

Comparative responses of ‘Gala’ and ‘Fuji’ apple trees to deficit irrigation: Placement versus volume effects

Aims

Climate, soil water potential (SWP), leaf relative water content (RWC), stomatal conductance (g_s), fruit and shoot growth, and carbohydrate levels were monitored during the 2008 and 2009 growing seasons to study the responses of ‘Gala’ and ‘Fuji’ apple trees to irrigation placement or volume.

Methods

Three irrigation treatments were imposed, conventional irrigation (CI), partial root-zone drying (PRD, 50% of CI water on one side of the root-zone, which was alternated periodically), and continuous deficit irrigation (DI, 50% of CI water on both sides of the root-zone).

Results

After each irrigation season, DI generated twice the soil water deficit (SWD_int) than PRD (average of dry and wet sides) and a greater integrated leaf water deficit (LWD_int) than PRD and CI. Both PRD and DI reduced g_s by 9 and 15% over the irrigation period. RWC of both PRD and DI was directly related to SWP and inversely related (non-linear) to vapor pressure deficit (VPD), whereas it was unrelated to g_s. Considering individual sampling days, g_s of ‘Gala’ leaves was inversely related to VPD mainly until early August (fruit at cell expansion phase and high VPD), while it was directly related to VPD in September (no fruit and low VPD). On the contrary, g_s of ‘Fuji’ leaves was inversely related to VPD from late August until mid October (low VPD and fruit at cell expansion phase). Fruit growth was not affected by irrigation, whereas shoot and trunk growth was reduced by DI. Irrigation induced sporadic and inconsistent changes in carbohydrate contents or partitioning, with a general tendency of DI leaves to degrade and PRD to accumulate sorbitol and sucrose in dry periods.

Conclusions

‘Gala’ trees exhibited a more conservative water use than ‘Fuji’ trees due primarily to different timing of fruit growth and crop loads. Different levels of SWD_int, rather than changes in stomatal control and carbohydrate partitioning, seem to play a major role in determining a better water status in PRD than in DI trees.     

Invasion Genetics of Ponto-Caspian Gobies in the Great Lakes: A ‘Cryptic’ Species, Absence of Founder Effects, and Comparative Risk Analysis

Genetic variability and structure of nonindigenous vs native populations are compared for the Eurasian round goby Neogobius melanostomus and the tubenose goby Proterorhinus marmoratus, which both invaded Lake St. Clair of the North American Great Lakes about 1990. The round goby spread rapidly to all of the Great Lakes and the tubenose goby largely has been restricted to Lake St. Clair, with some recent range extension into western Lake Erie. Risk analyses may indicate whether genetic variability of colonizers is predictive of their relative invasive and establishment successes. The present investigation examined DNA sequence variation across the left domain of the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b gene in round and tubenose gobies from Eurasian and Great Lakes locations. We also sequenced six additional Neogobius species (including the monkey N.␣fluviatilis, racer N. gymnotrachelus, and bigheadN. kessleri gobies that have been ‘on the move’ in Europe) and the knout goby Mesogobius batrachocephalus from the Black Sea in order to develop diagnostic genetic characters to identify them in case of future and/or undetected invasions and to delineate their phylogenetic relationships. Results show that a diverse number of haplotypes characterize round and tubenose goby populations from both North America and Eurasian sites, fitting a risk analysis prediction of high genetic variability in their successful introductions. Phylogenetic results indicate that the current genus Neogobius is paraphyletic and that the subgenusApollonia thus should be elevated to the level of genus, containingApollonia (N.) melanostomus (the round goby) andA. (N.) fluviatilis (the monkey goby). In addition, there appear to be two separate species of Proterorhinus marmoratus, a marine P. marmoratus Pallas 1814 in the Black Sea (matching the original type locality), and a ‘cryptic’ freshwater species in the Danube and Dnieper Rivers and probably other Eurasian freshwater habitats, as well as invasive in the Great Lakes. We suggest resurrecting the name P. semilunaris Heckel 1837 for the freshwater species (a taxon that was originally described from rivers draining into the Aegean Sea and the Danube River, but was later placed in synonymy with P. marmoratus). An erratum to this article is available at .     

Comparative studies on the ‘5′-cap’ and in vitro translational activity of cytoplasmic and nuclear poly A(+) RNA

Summary Recent advances in the studies of the aggregation of G-actin monomers, containing one molecule of ATP, to long filaments of F-actin, with a concomitant hydrolysis of the nucleotide to ADP, are reviewed. With the aid of -ATP, the association and dissociation rate constant of the nucleotide could be determined. The binding of the nucleotide is enhanced by the binding of one Ca⁺⁺ ion, probably at a different site. The G value of the Mg⁺⁺ or Ca⁺⁺ induced polymerization has been determined to –39 to –59 kJ/mole, the critical protein concentration for the ATP-G-actin to ADP-F-actin conversion is very strongly influenced by the concentration of bivalent cations. The rate constants of the protein monomers, and the rate and equilibrium constants for the propagation step show the process to be extremely cooperative. Actin shows the interesting phenomenon of translocational head-to-tail polymerization, which may be regulated by ATP.The contact sites between the monomers in F-actin have been labeled by chemical modification. Two tryosine residues, 53 and 69, are probably close to one of the two sites. The ATP binding site has been labeled by an ATP analog, and there is evidence that it is close to the contact site.An invited article     

Sick people and ‘trolls’: A contribution to the understanding of the dynamics of physician explanatory models

This paper describes and interprets a case in which the mutual influences of countertransference and physician explanatory model (EM) are identified, as are their roles in negotiating the clinical relationship and in clinical decision-making (assessment, diagnosis, treatment, expectations of outcome). The author argues that physicians' EMs do not derive exclusively from the official and professionally ideal biomedical model, but are shaped by situational, historical, and subjective influences. Patient-typing (e.g., the widespread distinction between sick people and trolls), together with its associated emotions (e.g., empathy and disdain, respectively), pervades medical education and practice, and often supersedes the biomedical model. Physicians' subjective responses to patients can affect biomedical diagnosis. Failed empathy can lead to missed diagnosis. Finally, the case study illustrates the validity and vitality of the ethnographic approach in clinical teaching and supervision, both in eliciting physicians' own complex EMs, and in facilitating the process of reinterpretation as well.     

Biocultural Diversity: Moving Beyond the Realm of ‘Indigenous’ and ‘Local’ People

During the past decade the relationship between biodiversity and human diversity has received increased attention, resulting in the identification of what the Declaration of Belém calls an ‘inextricable link’ between biological and cultural diversity. Although the term biocultural diversity, introduced to denote this link, is being used increasingly, there has been little critical reflection on what it precisely refers to. I argue that it is used with particular reference to ‘indigenous traditional’ people, but that there is scope for extending its application within biocultural discourse. I therefore review the concept of culture and discuss what constitutes cultural values of the natural environment. I conclude that the concept of culture must be understood as involving a dynamic process of transcultural exchange and constant re-articulations of tradition resulting in the persistence of certain cultural practices. This approach ultimately reveals that the concept of biocultural diversity is also applicable to non-indigenous traditional communities.