Culturally Situated Design Tools: Ethnocomputing from Field Site to Classroom

Ethnomathematics is the study of mathematical ideas and practices situated in their cultural context. Culturally Situated Design Tools (CSDTs) are web-based software applications that allow students to create simulations of cultural arts—Native American beadwork, African American cornrow hairstyles, urban graffiti, and so forth—using these underlying mathematical principles. This article is a review of the anthropological issues raised in the CSDT project: negotiating the representations of cultural knowledge during the design process with community members, negotiating pedagogical features with math teachers and their students, and reflecting on the software development itself as a cultural construction. The move from ethnomathematics to ethnocomputing results in an expressive computational medium that affords new opportunities to explore the relationships between youth identity and culture, the cultural construction of mathematics and computing, and the formation of cultural and technological hybridity.     

Habitat use by sympatric populations of Pseudomys novaehollandiae and Mus domesticus in coastal heathland

Abstract Patterns of habitat use by Pseudomys novaehollandiae and Mus domesticus were investigated on a 6. 8 ha area of coastal heathland, almost five years after it last burned in Myall Lakes National Park. One hundred and fifty-one trap stations were positioned on 17 traplines across a mosaic of interlocking macrohabitats. This pattern was a consequence of the site's topography and to a lesser extent fire history. Multivariate statistical procedures were employed to identify those microhabitat parameters that contribute to both individual species’ habitat use and the partitioning of habitat to reduce competition for space. Trapping results show P. novaehollandiae to be almost three times as abundant as M. domesticus at this time, although M. domesticus does show strong regional, and hence local, fluctuations in abundance over time. Both species exhibit habitat selection (P< 0. 05) with individuals preferring dry, tall closed heath and open heathland habitats. Immature P. novaehollandiae (< 15 g) were found mostly in short dense wet heath and may have been dispersing. Species exhibit high between-habitat overlap using Pianka's formula (0. 88). This overlap is substantially reduced within macrohabitats (0. 28), when trap stations are considered as resource states, suggesting a considerable degree of microhabitat separation at the trap station level. Discriminant function and multiple regression analyses identify microhabitat selection that is not strongly focused, suggesting both species to be spatial generalists. Elevation was selected as the most significant variable in these analyses and represents a soil moisture gradient that determines changes in the floristic and structural components of the biotic environment. No single habitat variable was found to explain within-habitat separation convincingly, however, when a factor analysis of habitat variables was used to produce a reduced three-dimensional factor space the outcome was marked. The 95% confidence envelopes for the distribution of each species show an extremely low overlap in factor space, with a zero overlap in the X-Y plane and less than 1% overlap in theY-Z plane. Differential micro-habitat selection does produce effective habitat partitioning, thus facilitating coexistence of these two species. We suspect this occurs primarily by M. domesticus altering habitat selection. There is evidence to suggest that M. domesticus acts as a fugitive species occupying resource niches left vacant by P. novaehollandiae and other small mammal species coexisting on the study area.     

A pilot study of cervical screening in an inner city area—lessons for a national programme

The objectives of this study were to examine aspects of organization of a proposed national screening programme based in general practice. The target population of women aged 25–59 years and their general practitioners (GPs), in a defined inner city area, was identified from a population register of persons eligible for free medical services; a computerized system was developed for invitations and record linkage of cytology results. Smears were examined in one laboratory and follow up of women with abnormal smears was undertaken by one gynaecologist. A random sample of non‐responders was surveyed by questionnaire. Response following two invitations was only 20%. Practices with male doctors only had significantly lower reponse rates ( P <0.001) than those with a female doctor/nurse. A survey of non‐responders showed that over 20% of addresses were incorrect and 16% of those interviewed were ineligible for smear tests. A preference for a female to undertake smears was expressed by 67%, and 77% believed that the purpose of the cervical smear was to detect cancer. An accurate population register, health promotion, support for GP practices, provision of alternative venues for smear tests, development of computer systems, accurate data entry and fail‐safe follow up are aspects of a cervical screening service which must be addressed prior to setting up a national service.     

Evidence for Involvement of Protein Kinase C in Germinal Vesicle Breakdown in Chaetopterus

We have examined the possible involvement of protein kinase C (C-kinase) in the initiation of germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) in Chaetopterus oocytes. Two tumor-promoting phorbol esters (phorbol-12, 13-dibezoate and 12-0-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate [TPA]) and a permeant diacylglycerol (1-oleoyl-2-acetylglycerol), potent activators of C-Kinase, triggered GVBD. Two other phorbol esters (phorbol-13-monoacetate and 4α-phorbol-12, 13-didecanoate), which do not activate C-kinase, were inactive. Three C-kinase antagonists (W-7, H-7 and retinol) inhibited both naturally-and TPA-induced GVBD, whereas W–5, a much less inhibitory W–7 analog, had no effect on GVBD. Triggering of GVBD by TPA was independent of extracellular Ca²⁺. Although naturally-induced GVBD was blocked by micromolar concentrations of the calmodulin antagonist, calmidazolium (R24571), and by millimolar concentrations of the permeant cAMP analog, dibutryryl cAMP, TPA-induced GVBD was not affected by these agents. These results support the hypothesis that both C-kinase and calmodulin are involved in the sequence of events leading to GVBD in this species.