The language skills of New Zealand Polynesian children: From deficiency to diversity

The American Indian and Alaskan Native population has grown rapidly since 1950 because of changes in the racial classification of persons with mixed Indian and non‐Indian descent. These changes have challenged once common expectations that the Indian population was likely to shrink over time through assimilation. However, in regions of the United States where the recent growth of the Indian population has been particularly sharp most married Indians are married to non‐Indians. Fertility rates of women who are part of intermarried couples are lower than fertility rates for Indian women in racially endogamous marriages. The majority of the children of intermarried Indians in high intermarriage regions are labelled with the race of the non‐Indian parent. Intermarriage is likely to substantially reduce the long‐run impact of changes in identification on the future growth of the Indian population. At the same time, in a few states the American Indian population remains ethnically homogenous and shows no signs of imminent amalgamation into the general American population.     

Eliminating driftnets from the North Pacific Ocean: U.S.—Japanese cooperation in the international North Pacific Fisheries Commission, 1953–1993

Japanese negotiators agreed to eliminate driftnet fishing for salmon in the North Pacific Ocean by the end of 1992. The Japanese high seas fishing fleet for salmon had been an economically valuable yet environmentally destructive operation for four decades. The Japanese government progressively phased out lucrative Japanese salmon fishing operations in the North Pacific, apparently capitulating to U.S. pressure. No U.S. enforcement with punitive sanctions proved necessary, however. Specific characteristics of the international market created the possibility of an environmentally benign international agreement. International integration of the market for fisheries products was made possible by the high market value of salmon in the United States and in Japan. In the 1970s, foreign direct investment from vertically integrated, Tokyo‐based fishing firms into canning and processing operations in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest facilitated U.S. Japanese agreement. The high existence (nonuse) value of marine mammals in the United States was also an important factor.     

Motion characterization by self-distribution–function procedure

In the present paper a procedure for the biomolecular motion characterization based on the evaluation of the Mean Square Displacement (MSD), through the Self Distribution Function (SDF), is presented. In particular it will be shown how the MSD, which represents a good observable for the characterization of the dynamical properties in disordered systems, can be decomposed into partial contributions associated to the system dynamical processes within a specific spatial scale. It will be shown how the SDF procedure allows to evaluate both the total MSD and the partial MSDs through the total SFD and the partial SDFs. As a result, the total MSD is the weighed sum of the partial MSD contributions in which the weights are obtained by the fitting procedure of measured EINS intensity data. We apply the SDF procedure at EINS data collected, by the IN13 backscattering spectrometer at the Institute Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, on aqueous mixtures of two homologous disaccharides (sucrose and trehalose) and on dry myoglobin in trehalose environment. It emerges that the hydrogen bond imposed network of the water–trehalose mixture appears to be stronger with respect to that of the water–sucrose mixture and this result can justify the highest bioprotectant effectiveness of trehalose in comparison with sucrose. Furthermore it emerges that, the partial MSD behaviours of sucrose and trehalose are equivalent in the low Q domain (0–1.7) Å^− 1 whereas they are different in the high Q domain (1.7–4) Å^- 1. This circumstance suggests that the higher structure sensitivity of sucrose in respect to trehalose should be related to the small spatial observation windows.     

Towards sustainable land use: identifying and managing the conflicts between human activities and biodiversity conservation in Europe

Conflicts between biodiversity conservation and human activities are becoming increasingly apparent in all European landscapes. The intensification of agricultural and silvicultural practices, land abandonment and other land uses such as recreation and hunting are all potential threats to biodiversity that can lead to conflicts between stakeholder livelihoods and biodiversity conservation. To address the global decline in biodiversity there is, therefore, a need to identify the drivers responsible for conflicts between human activities and the conservation of European biodiversity and to promote the management of these conflicts. Here, the drivers of biodiversity conflicts are analysed in a European context for five habitat types: agricultural landscapes, forests, grasslands, uplands and freshwater habitats. A multi- disciplinary approach to conflict management is described, with active stakeholder involvement at every stage of conflict identification and management as well as a range of other approaches including stakeholder dialogue and education, consumer education, improvement of political and legislative frameworks, financial incentives, and planning infrastructure.     

全数字化血管造影机应用探讨

目的探讨应用全数字化血管造影机检查的图像质量及X射线剂量。方法500人次冠状动脉造影检查,常规拍摄左前斜位加头位或足位,右前斜位加头位或足位,必要时加摄蜘蛛位。结果采取支架植入治疗左前降支狭窄92例,左回旋支狭窄28例及右冠状动脉狭窄45例,冠状动脉微细血管显示佳,管腔内血栓、血管内膜撕裂、支架等显示清晰。结论全数字化血管造影机采集的图像佳,X线剂量较低。     

Neuroimaging and genetic associations of attentional and hypnotic processes

In the aftermath of the human genome project, genotyping is fast becoming an affordable and technologically viable complement to phenotyping. Whereas attempts to characterize hypnotic responsiveness have been largely phenomenological, data emanating from exploratory genetic data may offer supplementary insights into the genetic bases of hypnotizability. We outline our genetic and neuroimaging findings and discuss potential implications to top-down control systems. These results may explain individual differences in hypnotizability and propose new ideas for studying the influence of suggestion on neural systems.     

Plants for Peace? Conflict Management in the Development of Ten South African Outreach Nurseries

Conflict is inherent to development, but the intensity of conflicts over small-scale projects is often severely underestimated. Effectively managed conflict can strengthen relationships and enhance productivity, but unresolved conflict undermines relationships, morale and projects. This paper examines conflict management during the development of ten South African outreach nurseries situated within communities experiencing high levels of poverty. Sources of conflict included: (1) Contestations over scarce or limited resources, or (2) ownership; (3) Disputes over accountability; (4) Struggles over social boundaries or (5) individual or collective identities; (6) Deteriorating interpersonal relationships; (7) Power struggles between community participants and (8) Structural imbalances between implementing organisations and community stakeholders. Conflicts spiraled into violence or near-violence in two cases, with threats of violence in two others. Fostering cooperative relationships and operational environments requires concerted effort from the outset, including the development of effective institutions. Development fundamentals cannot be exchanged for expediency; adequate time, staff, and resources have to be allocated to projects.

Projected [<Superscript>1</Superscript>H,<Superscript>15</Superscript>N]-HMQC-[<Superscript>1</Superscript>H,<Superscript>1</Superscript>H]-NOESY for large molecular systems: application to a 121 kDa protein-DNA complex

We present a projected [¹H,¹⁵N]-HMQC-[¹H,¹H]-NOESY experiment for observation of NOE interactions between amide protons with degenerate ¹⁵N chemical shifts in large molecular systems. The projection is achieved by simultaneous evolution of the multiple quantum coherence of the nitrogen spin and the attached proton spin. In this way NOE signals can be separated from direct-correlation peaks also in spectra with low resolution by fully exploiting both ¹H and ¹⁵N frequency differences, such that sensitivity can be increased by using short maximum evolution times. The sensitivity of the experiment is not dependent on the projection angle for projections up to 45° and no additional pulses or delays are required as compared to the conventional 2D [¹H,¹⁵N]-HMQC-NOESY. The experiment provides two distinct 2D spectra corresponding to the positive and negative angle projections, respectively. With a linear combination of 1D cross-sections from the two projections the unavoidable sensitivity loss in projection spectra can be compensated for each particular NOE interaction. We demonstrate the application of the novel projection experiment for the observation of an NOE interaction between two sequential glycines with degenerate ¹⁵N chemical shifts in a 121.3 kDa complex of the linker H1 histone protein with a 152 bp linear DNA.     

Justice or respect? A comparative perspective on politics in Cyprus

This article argues that the anonymity of modern politics - usually seen as a requirement for good democracy - may in fact undermine cooperative politics in small-scale societies. For very many people in the world, this essay argues, it is not the pre-social, monadic individual of Western liberalism but an immanently social person who is or should be the possessor of the rights, responsibilities and freedoms of the polity. As a result, the principle of 'universal' equality is always already delimited by the nation conceived as ethnos. This essay takes the case of Cyprus to show that in this divided island democracy has been imagined as a freedom defined ethnically - as freedom for a particular group. Moreover, various historical contingencies brought those imaginings of a true and just democratic ethnos into conflict. The themes of "justice" and "respect" employed here represent those aspirations and their seemingly inevitable conflict.     

Large Scale Purification of Isoinhibitors of Trypsin from Swine Colostrum Using Zinc Chelate Chromatography and Chromatofocusing

Low molecular weight trypsin inhibitors were purified from swine colostrum on a large scale under mild conditions. Ammonium sulfate fractionation and metal chelate chromatography on zinc chelate Sepharose and phenyl Sepharose were used for removal of the bulk of proteins. The inhibitors showed only a weak hydrophobic interaction with phenyl Sepharose even in the presence of 1 M (Nll₄)₂SO4, and advantage was taken of this property to remove the inhibitors from contaminating colostrum proteins which remained tightly adsorbed to phenyl Sepharose under these conditions. The low and high molecular weight inhibitors were then separated by gel filtration on Bio-Gel P-300. The low molecular weight material was eluted in three major inhibitor fractions on DEAE-Sepharose.

Chromatofocusing of these fractions provided greater resolution of the inhibitors, and several previously unreported inhibitor peaks were detected. The six major inhibitors purified by chromatofocusing were homogeneous as judged by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence and absence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. These inhibitors were composed of a single polypeptide chain with a molecular weight of 18,000 as determined by Sephacryl S-200 gel filtration and polyacrylamide qel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate and e-mercaptoethanol. The specific activities of the pure inhibitors were approximately 30% higher than those previously reported.