Playing God,Playing Adam: The Politics and Ethics of Enhancement

The question of enhancement occupies a prominent place not only in current bioethical debates but also in wider public discussions about our human future. In all of these, the problem of enhancement is usually articulated via two sets of questions: moral questions over its permissibility, extent and direction; and technical questions over the feasibility of different forms of regenerative and synthetic alterations to human bodies and minds. This article argues that none of the dominant positions on enhancement within the field of bioethics is entirely satisfactory due to the limited, monadic, pre-technological and non-cultural conception of the human that is adopted in these models. Critically engaging with both opponents of enhancement (Habermas) and its advocates (Harris, Agar, Bostrom, Dworkin), Zylinska also takes some steps towards outlining a nonnormative ethics of enhancement. The latter sees its human and non-human subjects as always already enhanced, and hence dependent, relational and coevolving with technology.     

Cognitive Representations and Cognitive Processing of Team-Specific Tactics in Soccer

Two core elements for the coordination of different actions in sport are tactical information and knowledge about tactical situations. The current study describes two experiments to learn about the memory structure and the cognitive processing of tactical information. Experiment 1 investigated the storage and structuring of team-specific tactics in humans’ long-term memory with regard to different expertise levels. Experiment 2 investigated tactical decision-making skills and the corresponding gaze behavior, in presenting participants the identical match situations in a reaction time task. The results showed that more experienced soccer players, in contrast to less experienced soccer players, possess a functionally organized cognitive representation of team-specific tactics in soccer. Moreover, the more experienced soccer players reacted faster in tactical decisions, because they needed less fixations of similar duration as compared to less experienced soccer players. Combined, these experiments offer evidence that a functionally organized memory structure leads to a reaction time and a perceptual advantage in tactical decision-making in soccer. The discussion emphasizes theoretical and applied implications of the current results of the study.     

Clinical Features of Children with Pulmonary Microscopic Polyangiitis: Report of 9 Cases

Kidneys and lungs are the most common organs involved in microscopic polyangiitis (MPA). A retrospective analysis of pediatric MPA patients with pulmonary lesions over the past 10 years was performed to investigate clinical features of MPA in children with pulmonary lesions. There were 9 patients enrolled in our study, including 2 boys and 7 girls, with a median age of 6.6 years at the time of disease onset and a median disease course of 2 months. All of the patients exhibited tachypnea, and 7 exhibited cough and hemoptysis. The most common presentation on pulmonary imaging was ground glass or patchy shadows, which were observed in 6 cases. Seven patients manifested with hematuria and proteinuria, with renal histopathology of fibrinoid necrosis/exudation of the glomerular capillaries. All of the patients presented with normocytic normochromic anemia. Of the 9 patients, 7 were positive for perinuclear antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (p-ANCA) and/or myeloperoxidase (MPO), and 2 were positive for p-ANCA/MPO and cytoplasmic ANCA/proteinase 3. Eight patients had normal complement 3 (C3) levels, and one had an elevated C3 level. Five of the 9 patients were positive for antinuclear antibody ANA, and 4 were positive for double strand DNA (ds-DNA) antibody (3 were positive for both). The 7 patients who exhibited renal involvement received steroid plus cyclophosphamide (CTX) treatment. Of these patients, 4 achieved various degrees of remission, 2 were at the beginning of induction therapy, and one was lost to follow-up. Two patients with isolated pulmonary involvement received steroid plus leflunomide treatment and achieved complete remission. Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage was the most frequent presentation of lung involvement in children with MPA, and tachypnea, cough, hemoptysis and anemia were the common clinical symptoms. The majority of these patients exhibited hematuria, proteinuria and renal insufficiency. The efficacy of steroid plus CTX or leflunomide was evident in these patients.     

The Academic Advantage: Gender Disparities in Patenting

We analyzed gender disparities in patenting by country, technological area, and type of assignee using the 4.6 million utility patents issued between 1976 and 2013 by the United States Patent and Trade Office (USPTO). Our analyses of fractionalized inventorships demonstrate that women’s rate of patenting has increased from 2.7% of total patenting activity to 10.8% over the nearly 40-year period. Our results show that, in every technological area, female patenting is proportionally more likely to occur in academic institutions than in corporate or government environments. However, women’s patents have a lower technological impact than that of men, and that gap is wider in the case of academic patents. We also provide evidence that patents to which women—and in particular academic women—contributed are associated with a higher number of International Patent Classification (IPC) codes and co-inventors than men. The policy implications of these disparities and academic setting advantages are discussed.     

Microscopic Features of Wind Damage to Leaves of Acer pseudoplatanus L

Damage done when wind causes leaves of Acer pseudoplatanus L.to rub against each other is characterized by dark and lightbrown lesions and by holes and deformations of the leaf. Lightand scanning electron microscope observations show that thisdamage is associated with collapse of adaxial and abaxial epidermalcells, collapse of the mesophyll and disruption of the abaxialepicuticular waxes. Some damage may occur even when no discolorationis evident. Topographical features suggest that the adaxialsurface of the leaf is more likely to be abraded than the abaxialsurface yet in practice it generally sustains less severe damage;the results of artificial abrasion indicate that the adaxialsurface is structurally more resistant. Some of the implicationsof such damage for the plant are discussed. Acer pseudoplatanus L., sycamore, wind damage     

Playing with Culture: The Serious Side of Humor

Indi'n Humor: Bicultural Play in Native America . Kenneth Lincoln
Keeping Slug Woman Alive: A Holistic Approach to American Indian Texts . Greg Sarris     

Global Health Policy, Local Realities: The Fallacy of the Level Playing Field

Global Health Policy, Local Realities: The Fallacy of the Level Playing Field. Linda M. Whiteford and Lenore Manderson. eds. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000. vi. 333 pp.     

Global Health Policy, Local Realities: The Fallacy of the Level Playing Field

Global Health Policy, Local Realities: The Fallacy of the Level Playing Field. Linda M. Whiteford and Lenore Manderson. eds. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000. 331pp.     

The Evolving Genome Project: current and future impact.

The National Institutes of Health/Department of Energy Human Genome Project has been funding directed research for only 5 years, and it is understandably difficult to cite important research advances directly attributable to the project. However, the project has been constructive in fostering multidisciplinary group research and an inspiring and synergistic "just do it" attitude in both political and scientific circles, domestically and abroad. This collaborative spirit has spawned large-scale genetic and physical mapping projects, with the most impressive and useful results to date being the dense genetic maps produced by the Généthon, a French organization largely supported by the French muscular dystrophy association. With the genetic and physical map reagents now becoming available, disease-gene cloning is proceeding at an increasingly rapid pace. More important than the predictable acceleration of disease-gene mapping are the unpredictable benefits: Will a dense PCR-based dinucleotide-repeat genetic map open novel alternative approaches to disease-gene isolation? Will it become possible to localize disease genes by simply analyzing unrelated, isolated probands rather than the rarer "extended family"? Proband-based "linkage-disequilibrium cloning" may become possible if adequate density, informativeness, and stability of polymorphic loci are obtained. In addition, "genome exclusion cloning" will be added to the established positional, candidate-gene, and functional-disease-gene-cloning experimental approaches. The anticipated exponential expansion of human genetic disease information over the remainder of the 10-year tenure of the Human Genome Project unveils critical yet unresolved issues for medical education and the practice of medicine.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

The Edible Mushrooms of Madagascar: An Evolving Enigma

The Edible Mushrooms of Madagascar: An Evolving Enigma. This paper on the most significant edible wild mushrooms of Madagascar is organized in the following four categories: (1) mushrooms of introduced eucalypt plantations, (2) mushrooms of introduced pine plantations, (3) mushrooms of native forests and woodlands, and (4) mushrooms found in fields, agricultural waste and other altered, non–forest habitats. Eucalyptus robusta plantations yield by far the bulk of edible mushrooms that are sold, especially species of Russula and Cantharellus. Some Suillus species of northern hemisphere origin have been introduced with pine plantations and are locally important, forming the basis of a small canning industry. In native woodland areas on the central plateau, several ectomycorrhizal mushrooms—very similar to those on the African mainland—are collected and consumed. With the exception of the widely marketed Cantharellus platyphyllus ssp. bojeriensis, these are only of local importance in the villages and smaller markets of the area. Denser forests in the mountains or on the east coast as well as manmade habitats such as fields, pastures, and agricultural wastes are searched for saprobic mushrooms of various types. Some of these saprobic mushrooms show considerable potential for cultivation. The variety of ectomycorrhizal mushrooms found in eucalypt plantations is unprecedented outside of Australia and, for the most part, do not appear to be of Australian origin. Possible reasons for this are briefly discussed. Two economically important species, Russula prolifica sp. nov. and R. edulis sp. nov., are newly described.     

岩高兰分泌组织显微结构特征及其挥发性成分分析

采用光学显微镜、扫描电镜对岩高兰茎、叶表面、断面及其分泌组织特征进行观察,采用水蒸汽蒸馏法、溶剂提取取法-水蒸汽蒸馏法、溶剂提取法对岩高兰挥发性成分进行提取,并通过GC-MS法对挥发性成分进行对比分析。结果表明:(1)岩高兰的分泌组织有腺毛和分泌细胞;叶表面有头状腺毛,由1个基细胞、1~3个柄细胞、1~4个头部细胞组成;茎髓中含有油细胞,呈黄棕色。(2)水蒸气蒸馏法和溶剂提取法-水蒸气蒸馏法提取率较低,但气味与原植物相近,共有成分10种,多带有芳香气味;溶剂提取法得率较高,但杂质较多。(3)3种方法所得挥发油中有顺-α,α-5-三甲基-5-乙烯基四氢化呋喃-2-甲醇和植酮2个共有成分;从茎和叶挥发性成分中分别鉴定出27和32种化合物,共有成分15种,含量较高的有三十四烷、二十九烷、γ-毕澄茄烯等。研究认为,分泌组织与岩高兰香气物质产生密切相关,其分泌物的组成和含量对香气有重要影响,正是这些有芳香气味的化学成分的有机结合以及自身生长的环境因素才形成了岩高兰的特征香味,此研究结果可为这一香料资源的研究与开发利用奠定基础。     

Home and Away: The Grounding of New Football Teams in Perth,Western Australia

Metropolitan sporting, and particularly football, competitions were established in all of Australia's colonial state capital cities about a century ago. Typically, they were comprised of teams from and were supported by the inhabitants of working‐class, inner suburbs. These competitions were the primary foci of Australians' sporting interest and loyalty for almost a century. But, with the shift of public attention and private capital to national competitions, the former stadia of many local clubs have become redundant spaces in what are now gentrifying inner suburbs. Simultaneously new, and even old, national league teams have sought larger, more modern (near) city centre venues for their operations. In this context, two new national league teams in Perth—Fremantle Dockers and Perth Glory—have experienced considerable challenges in establishing both physical ‘homes’ and local identities. These have included both the supplanting of traditional local clubs and the placating of new kinds of inner suburban residents.     

Playing with Black and Yellow: The Evolvability of a Batesian Mimicry

Irrespective of the selective advantage deriving from similar color pattern, the evolution of Batesian (and Müllerian) mimicry between distantly related insects groups has been perhaps facilitated by the availability to both models and mimics of similar pattern units more likely to be expressed, and to be modified in parallel ways, due to shared developmental constraints. We explore this hypothesis in a comparison of units of black-and-yellow color patterns between wasps (Vespidae) and those syrphids (Syrphidae) that are considered to be their Batesian mimics. As a proxy for evolvability we analyzed the co-occurrence of multiple color pattern within species (either as serial homologues or as expression of intraspecific variation) in 203 species of syrphids and 127 species of wasps. In both the wasps and the syrphids, the most frequent black-and-yellow patterns on the abdomen—all shared between the two insect groups—are also the most extensively linked in the networks of intraspecific co-occurrence, but are not the same in the two insect groups: in accordance with our hypothesis, this suggests positively biased evolvability.