Ethnic identity on display: West Indian youth and the creation of ethnic boundaries in high school

The black immigrant population in New York City has grown exponentially since 1990, such that West Indians now compose the majority of the black population in several neighbourhoods. This article examines how this ethnic density manifests among youth in high school, and how it has influenced ethnic identity formation among second-generation West Indians. My findings are based on twenty-four interviews and eight months of participant observation in two Brooklyn high schools from 2003 to 2004. The results show that in both schools, Caribbean island identities have become a ‘cool’ commodity within peer groups. Further, although it was important to express pride in one's island identity, these young people often blurred their national origin boundaries by drawing on Jamaican popular culture as way of projecting a unified ‘West Indian identity’. The research also uncovers evidence of a de-stigmatization of Haitianness as a way to incorporate them as cultural insiders into the larger Caribbean collective.     

Blood Metals Concentration in Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetics

Mechanisms for the onset of diabetes and the development of diabetic complications remain under extensive investigations. One of these mechanisms is abnormal homeostasis of metals, as either deficiency or excess of metals, can contribute to certain diabetic outcomes. Therefore, this paper will report the blood levels of chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), selenium (Se), and zinc (Zn) in subjects with type 1 diabetes (n?=?192, mean age 48.8 years, mean disease duration 20.6 years), type 2 diabetes (n?=?68, mean age 68.4 years, mean disease duration 10.2 years), and in control subjects (n?=?59, mean age 57.2 years), and discuss the results indicating their possible role in diabetes. The metal concentrations were measured by sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry after microwave-induced acid digestion of blood samples. The accuracy was checked using a blood-based certified reference material, and recoveries of all elements were in the range of 92–101 % of certified values. Type 1 diabetes was found to be associated with Cr (p?=?0.02), Mn (p?<?0.001), Ni (p?<?0.001), Pb (p?=?0.02), and Zn (p?<?0.001) deficiency, and type 2 diabetes with Cr (p?=?0.014), Mn (p?<?0.001), and Ni (p?<?0.001) deficiency. These deficiencies were appreciated also subdividing the understudied patients for gender and age groups. Furthermore, in type 1 diabetes, there was a positive correlation between Pb and age (p?<?0.001, ρ?=?0.400) and Pb and BMI (p?<?0.001, ρ?=?0.309), while a negative correlation between Fe and age (p?=?0.002, ρ?=??0.218). In type 2 diabetes, there was a negative correlation between Fe and age (p?=?0.017, ρ?=??0.294) and Fe and BMI (p?=?0.026, ρ?=??0.301). Thus, these elements may play a role in both forms of diabetes and combined mineral supplementations could have beneficial effects.     

Immune and Stress Responses Covary with Melanin-Based Coloration in the Barn Swallow

Eumelanin and pheomelanin are the main endogenous pigments in animals and melanin-based coloration has multiple functions. Melanization is associated with major life-history traits, including immune and stress response, possibly because of pleiotropic effects of genes that control melanogenesis. The net effects on pheo- versus eumelanization and other life-history traits may depend on the antagonistic effects of the genes that trigger the biosynthesis of either melanin form. Covariation between melanin-based pigmentation and fitness traits enforced by pleiotropic genes has major evolutionary implications particularly for socio-sexual communication. However, evidence from non-model organisms in the wild is limited to very few species. Here, we tested the hypothesis that melanin-based coloration of barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) throat and belly feathers covaries with acquired immunity and activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, as gauged by corticosterone plasma levels. Individuals of both sexes with darker brownish belly feathers had weaker humoral immune response, while darker males had higher circulating corticosterone levels only when parental workload was experimentally reduced. Because color of belly feathers depends on both eu- and pheomelanin, and its darkness decreases with an increase in the concentration of eu- relative to pheomelanin, these results are consistent with our expectation that relatively more eu- than pheomelanized individuals have better immune response and smaller activation of the HPA-axis. Covariation of immune and stress response arose for belly but not throat feather color, suggesting that any function of color as a signal of individual quality or of alternative life-history strategies depends on plumage region.     

Rapid Detection of Ceratocystis platani Inoculum by Quantitative Real-Time PCR Assay

Ceratocystis platani is the causal agent of canker stain of plane trees, a lethal disease able to kill mature trees in one or two successive growing seasons. The pathogen is a quarantine organism and has a negative impact on anthropogenic and natural populations of plane trees. Contaminated sawdust produced during pruning and sanitation fellings can contribute to disease spread. The goal of this study was to design a rapid, real-time quantitative PCR assay to detect a C. platani airborne inoculum. Airborne inoculum traps (AITs) were placed in an urban setting in the city of Florence, Italy, where the disease was present. Primers and TaqMan minor groove binder (MGB) probes were designed to target cerato-platanin (CP) and internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) genes. The detection limits of the assay were 0.05 pg/μl and 2 fg/μl of fungal DNA for CP and ITS, respectively. Pathogen detection directly from AITs demonstrated specificity and high sensitivity for C. platani, detecting DNA concentrations as low as 1.2 × 10⁻² to 1.4 × 10⁻² pg/μl, corresponding to ∼10 conidia per ml. Airborne inoculum traps were able to detect the C. platani inoculum within 200 m of the closest symptomatic infected plane tree. The combination of airborne trapping and real-time quantitative PCR assay provides a rapid and sensitive method for the specific detection of a C. platani inoculum. This technique may be used to identify the period of highest risk of pathogen spread in a site, thus helping disease management.     

Rook,But Not Jackdaw,Post‐Conflict Third‐Party Affiliation Reduces Aggression for Aggressors

Post‐conflict (PC) affiliation refers to positive social interactions that occur after fights. Although this behavior has been widely studied, its functions are rarely tested. We examine a potential function of PC third‐party affiliation (affiliation between former opponents and bystanders) in rooks and jackdaws by investigating the hypothesis that conflicts lead to further aggression and that PC third‐party affiliation increases to reduce such aggression. The results show that PC affiliation reduces PC aggression for rook aggressors who were less likely to receive aggression after conflicts when they were affiliating with another vs. when they were alone. The opposite result was found for victims of both species who received more aggression after conflicts, and this aggression was not reduced by the act of affiliating. Finally, for jackdaw aggressors, the amount of aggression received after conflicts was not influenced by whether the individual was affiliating or alone, indicating that PC third‐party affiliation may serve a function that we did not examine. These findings highlight the importance of investigating functional differences in PC affiliative behavior according to the role played in the conflict.     

The effect of extreme weather events on breeding parameters of the White Stork Ciconia ciconia

Capsule Although the White Stork avoids adverse weather conditions by modifying its arrival and breeding, it cannot avoid extreme weather events during the breeding season.

Aims To show how extreme weather conditions can influence breeding attempts of a large, long-lived species, the White Stork.

Methods We analysed data on arrivals of White Storks in Western Poland from 2005 to 2013 and detailed breeding biology parameters from 2009 to 2013 in relation to weather conditions. We analysed breeding success and breeding failure rate from 1974 to 2013.

Results In years with a cold March White Storks arrived later than when March was warmer. Frost during incubation negatively influenced the hatching success. Extreme weather events caused high late mortality even for nestlings older than 30 days. Data from 27 breeding seasons showed a significant increase in mean breeding success but also a significant increase in the proportion of pairs which lost broods in the nestling stage.

Conclusion The White Stork can modify its arrival in response to current weather conditions on the breeding grounds but it cannot respond to extreme weather events. Due to increasing frequency of extreme weather events caused by climate change, White Stork breeding success may decrease in the future.     

VARIATION IN THERMAL PERFORMANCE AND REACTION NORMS AMONG POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

The major goal of evolutionary thermal biology is to understand how variation in temperature shapes phenotypic evolution. Comparing thermal reaction norms among populations from different thermal environments allows us to gain insights into the evolutionary mechanisms underlying thermal adaptation. Here, we have examined thermal adaptation in six wild populations of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) from markedly different natural environments by analyzing thermal reaction norms for fecundity, thorax length, wing area, and ovariole number under ecologically realistic fluctuating temperature regimes in the laboratory. Contrary to expectation, we found only minor differences in the thermal optima for fecundity among populations. Differentiation among populations was mainly due to differences in absolute (and partly also relative) thermal fecundity performance. Despite significant variation among populations in the absolute values of morphological traits, we observed only minor differentiation in their reaction norms. Overall, the thermal reaction norms for all traits examined were remarkably similar among different populations. Our results therefore suggest that thermal adaptation in D. melanogaster predominantly involves evolutionary changes in absolute trait values rather than in aspects of thermal reaction norms.     

The role of procalcitonin in neonatal intensive care unit patients with candidemia

Candidemia is a major infectious complication in neonatal patients. The isolation of yeasts from blood is still the ??gold standard?? for its diagnosis, but other laboratory markers (i.e., circulating antigens) have been studied with varying specificities and sensitivities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of procalcitonin for the diagnosis of candidemia in neonatal patients at high risk. To verify if the use of different commercial methods can highlight dissimilar results of sensitivity and/or specificity, the determination of procalcitonin serum levels was estimated by two systems. Overall, 90 patients from a Neonatal Intensive Care Units were enrolled, of whom six developed Candida bloodstream infection. Four of six infants with candidemia had slight increase of procalcitonin values (0.5?C1?ng/mL). Only one baby showed very high levels but he had fungal and bacterial sepsis at the same time, while no elevation was observed in the sixth patient. No statistically significant difference was observed between two different methods at the time of monitoring (p?>?0.643). Both methods showed a sensitivity of 83.3?% at diagnosis, while the specificity was 73.8 and 63.1?% by methods A and B, respectively. In the light of the low sensibility and specificity of this assay, we can assume that the determination of procalcitonin would not seem to play a significant role in the diagnosis of fungal infection in neonatal patients.