HYBRIDS AND GENOME RELATIONS OF HIBISCUS SABDARIFFA,H. MEEUSEI,H. RADIATUS AND H. ACETOSELLA

Chromosome pairing was studied in the following hybrids: Hibiscus radiatus-meeusei (tetraploid F₁), H. sabdariffa-meeusei (tetraploid F₁ and spontaneous allooctoploid F₂), and hexaploid H. acetosella-(sabdariffa-meeusei). Genome constitutions of the species adduced from these data are symbolized as follows: H. radiatus and H. acetosella, AABB; H. meeusei, AAXX; H.sabdariffa, XXYY or AAYY.     

On being ethnic: The politics of identity breaking and making in Canada,or, Nevra on Sunday

The creation of ethnically sensitive health care is a major federal and provincial government concern in Canada at present. The concept of multiculturalism is used to reinforce the notion of rights for minority groups and the Canadian mozaic is explicitly contrasted with the American melting pot. In this paper, the lives of Greek immigrant women in Montreal are used to illustrate how class and gender are as relevant to the immigrant experience as is ethnicity. It is shown how values which were central to female identity in Greece can become a liability after immigration and how the notion of Greek identity in Canada is a fluid category which is subject to repeated transformations. It is suggested that medical anthropologists who ignore the complexity of social categories and whose focus is limited to the cultural construction of illness and the expression of distress are in danger of reinforcing a notion of the quaint ethnic, a stereotype to which the concept of multiculturalism is often reduced.

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Résumé La création de services de santé sensibles aux besoins des différents groupes ethniques est présentement un socci majeur des gouvernements fédéral et provincial au Canada. Le concept de multiculturalisme est utilisé pour renforcer I'idée des droits des groupes minoritaires et la mosaïque canadienne est explicitement contrastée avec the American melting pot. Dans cet exposé, j'utilise la vie des femmes immigrantes grecques à Montréal pour démontrer que la classe et le sexe sont aussi pertinent par rapport à l'expérience des immigrants que l'ethnicité. On montre de quelle façon les valeurs qui sont centrales à l'identité féminine en Grèce peuvent en venir à constituer un problème après l'immigration et comment la notion d'identité grecque au Canada est une catégorie fluide qui est sujette à de multiples transformations. On suggère que les anthropologues médicaux qui ne tiennent pas compte de la complexité des catégories sociales et dont le centre d'intérêt est limité à la cultural construction of illness et à l'expression of distress courent le danger de renforcer la notion de quaint ethnic, un stéréotype auquel le concept de multiculturalisme se trouve souvent réduit. Notes 1 See, for example, Low 1985; Davis 1989; Dunk 1989; Guarnaccia et al. 1989; Van Schaik 1989. 2 Data for this study were obtained initially from eighty-three fast generation Greek immigrant women living in Montreal who were given semi-structured interviews in Greek in their homes. It became apparent in the course of carrying out these interviews that the concept of nevra was central in the narratives given by virtually all of the respondents. This term was inevitably used to link environmental and psychosocial variables to distress and painful physical states. In the second phase of the research, 19 of the original women were selected for in-depth open-ended interviews during which the concept of nevra was discussed in detail. A further data set was obtained from twenty five women who were interviewed in the office of a Greek Canadian general practitioner and 15 more attending a poly-clinic in a Montreal teaching hospital. These interviews were carried out in order to establish if nevra is used as a presenting complaint in clinical settings, and if so, how it is managed by health care professionals. Several internists, psychiatrists, family and general practitioners, and social workers who have daily contact with Greek patients were also interviewed.

     

Significant extension in northern Australia of the known geographic range of the Shield Shrimp Triops australiensis (Crustacea: Notostraca)

The program BIOCLIM predicts the total geographic distribution of species, based upon the biogeoclimatic characteristics common to the localities at which they are known to occur. Field studies in the Northern Territory have located the Shield Shrimp Triops australiensis at localities substantially north of its known and predicted geographic distribution.     

Growth of food-borne pathogenic bacteria in oil-in-water emulsions: I—Methods for investigating the form of growth

Methods are presented for investigating the site and form of growth of bacteria in model oil-in-water emulsions and in dairy cream. Following growth of the bacteria, the continuous aqueous phase is gelled using agarose and the oil phase removed using a mixture of chloroform and methanol. Using this method, the authors have found that Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella typhimurium and Yersinia enterocolitica grow in the form of colonies in concentrated oil-in-water emulsions. Colonies of L. monocytogenes and Y. enterocolitica also form in artificially-inoculated fresh and tinned dairy cream. If information about the precise site of growth is not required, the authors have discovered that intact colonies can be liberated from the model emulsions by dissolving away the oil phase with chloroform: methanol.     

Methyltransferase activity in Allanthm altissima cell suspension cultures

Enzymes for the methylation of 1hydroxycanthin-6-one and a series of coumarins have been isolated from Ailanthus altissima cell suspension cultures. The coumarin methyltransferases methylate aesculetin to scopoletin and isoscopoletin, but not scopoletin, to scoparone. Fraxetin was methylated to isofraxidine but not to fraxidine and only fraxidine was methylated to 6,7,8-trimethoxycoumarin. These enzymes were studied throughout the culture growth cycle with two cell lines: 1, which produced 1-methoxycanthin-6-one as the major alkaloid and 2, in which canthin-6-one was the major alkaloid.Abbreviations UV ultraviolet - DEAE diethylaminoethyl - dw dry weight - MS mass spectrometry - NMR nuclear magnetic resonance - TLC thin layer chromatography     

Size structure of the metazoan community in a Piedmont stream

We characterized the size structure of virtually the entire metazoan community in a fourth order, sandybottomed Piedmont stream during late summer. Our study, the first to sample across all habitat types and sizes of metazoans in an aquatic ecosystem, indicates that at the community level, stream size spectra may be bimodal for the benthos or trimodal when fish are included. Animals spanning 10 orders of magnitude in dry mass (from gastrotrichs to fish) were quantitatively collected from nine habitat types. The bimodal benthic size spectrum was characterized by a meiofaunal component (mostly oligochaetes and micro-crustacea) and a macrobenthic component (mostly the introduced asiatic clam, Corbicula fluminea). Insects contributed little to overall standing crop. Size-specific contribution to whole-community metabolism was assessed using allometric equations for respiration, and we found a distinctly bimodal distribution across the entire metazoan size range, with peaks in the meiofaunal and benthic macrofaunal size ranges. Our bimodal benthic size spectrum is similar to that observed for marine benthos but not to other freshwater benthic systems, possibly because the entire range of habitat types and/or animal sizes were not sampled in the latter. Numerous factors may influence size spectra in stream ecosystems, including local geomorphic (habitat) conditions, water level fluctuations, species introductions, and predation processes.