Books received,August 1st to October 31st 1989

Abstract

This article focuses on two important questions. First, how can we explain changes in the employment position of England's racialized minority groups over the past three decades? And second, why have these changes taken place at a different pace for different minority groups? It is argued that much of the increase in Asian self-employment represents working-class accommodation to the inferior conditions of employment available under neo-liberal modernity rather than evidence of upward social mobility as current orthodoxy claims. It is also contended that the growing representation of minorities in junior non-manual work was driven by anti-racist activism around a racialized ‘black’ identity and confirms the continuing significance of ‘race’ in the English labour market. By unravelling the complex relationship between the geographical distribution of different minority groups, their educational qualifications, anti-racist activism, and racism, the study establishes why such employment change has taken place at a different pace for different minority groups.     

Percutaneous coronary intervention with adjunctive abciximab and clopidogrel in a patient with chronic idiopathic thrombocytopaenic purpura

The use of the antiplatelet agents abciximab and clopidogrel is now accepted therapy in percutaneous coronary intervention. We present a case in which these agents were used in a patient with idiopathic thrombocytopaenic purpura and a platelet count of 40x10(9)/l undergoing primary multivessel coronary stenting. This case shows that unstable coronary syndromes can occur in patients with thrombocytopaenia and that antiplatelet agents may be used safely in this context.     

Forward to the past: race,the colour scale and Michael Banton

This study examined differences in religious participation and spirituality among African Americans, Caribbean blacks (black Caribbeans) and non-Hispanic whites. Data are taken from the National Survey of American Life, a nationally representative study of African Americans, black Caribbeans and non-Hispanic whites. Selected measures of organizational, non-organizational and subjective religious participation were examined. African American and Caribbean blacks were largely similar in their reports of religious involvement; both groups generally indicated higher levels of religious participation than non-Hispanic whites. African Americans were more likely than black Caribbeans to be official members of their places of worship, engage in activities (choirs, church clubs) at their place of worship and request prayer from others. Black Caribbeans reported reading religious materials more frequently than African Americans. The discussion notes the importance of examining ethnic differences within the black American population of the United States.     

Contrasting population structure from nuclear intron sequences and mtDNA of humpback whales

Powerful analyses of population structure require information from multiple genetic loci. To help develop a molecular toolbox for obtaining this information, we have designed universal oligonucleotide primers that span conserved intron-exon junctions in a wide variety of animal phyla. We test the utility of exon-primed, intron-crossing amplifications by analyzing the variability of actin intron sequences from humpback, blue, and bowhead whales and comparing the results with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotype data. Humpback actin introns fall into two major clades that exist in different frequencies in different oceanic populations. It is surprising that Hawaii and California populations, which are very distinct in mtDNAs, are similar in actin intron alleles. This discrepancy between mtDNA and nuclear DNA results may be due either to differences in genetic drift in mitochondrial and nuclear genes or to preferential movement of males, which do not transmit mtDNA to offspring, between separate breeding grounds. Opposing mtDNA and nuclear DNA results can help clarify otherwise hidden patterns of structure in natural populations.