A STATISTICAL TEST OF CONSENSUS OBTAINED FROM GENERALIZED PROCRUSTES ANALYSIS OF SENSORY DATA

Matrix matching techniques such as Generalized Procrustes Analysis (GPA) always produce a matrix of maximal agreement which can then be used to graphically represent samples in “consensus plots”. The degree to which the consensus plots produced by GPA on sensory data (such as that obtained from free choice profiling) actually give a picture of true consensus among panelists, as opposed to being merely artifacts of the analysis, has not been examined. Using a Monte Carlo approach, a statistical test is defined for qualifying this consensus. Examples of the application of the test to sensory profiling data of fruit flavors are given.     

Mesoamerican Healers

Mesoamerican Healers. Brad R. Huber and Alan R. Sandstrom. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001. 403 pp.     

Temporal dynamics and spatial variability in the enhancement of canopy leaf area under elevated atmospheric CO2

Increased canopy leaf area (L) may lead to higher forest productivity and alter processes such as species dynamics and ecosystem mass and energy fluxes. Few CO₂ enrichment studies have been conducted in closed canopy forests and none have shown a sustained enhancement of L. We reconstructed 8 years (1996–2003) of L at Duke's Free Air CO₂ Enrichment experiment to determine the effects of elevated atmospheric CO₂ concentration ([CO₂]) on L before and after canopy closure in a pine forest with a hardwood component, focusing on interactions with temporal variation in water availability and spatial variation in nitrogen (N) supply. The dynamics of L were reconstructed using data on leaf litterfall mass and specific leaf area for hardwoods, and needle litterfall mass and specific leaf area combined with needle elongation rates, and fascicle and shoot counts for pines. The dynamics of pine L production and senescence were unaffected by elevated [CO₂], although L senescence for hardwoods was slowed. Elevated [CO₂] enhanced pine L and the total canopy L (combined pine and hardwood species; P<0.050); on average, enhancement following canopy closure was ～16% and 14% respectively. However, variation in pine L and its response to elevated [CO₂] was not random. Each year pine L under ambient and elevated [CO₂] was spatially correlated to the variability in site nitrogen availability (e.g. r²=0.94 and 0.87 in 2001, when L was highest before declining due to droughts and storms), with the [CO₂]‐induced enhancement increasing with N (P=0.061). Incorporating data on N beyond the range of native fertility, achieved through N fertilization, indicated that pine L had reached the site maximum under elevated [CO₂] where native N was highest. Thus closed canopy pine forests may be able to increase leaf area under elevated [CO₂] in moderate fertility sites, but are unable to respond to [CO₂] in both infertile sites (insufficient resources) and sites having high levels of fertility (maximum utilization of resources). The total canopy L, representing the combined L of pine and hardwood species, was constant across the N gradient under both ambient and elevated [CO₂], generating a constant enhancement of canopy L. Thus, in mixed species stands, L of canopy hardwoods which developed on lower fertility sites (～3 g N inputs m^?2 yr^?1) may be sufficiently enhanced under elevated [CO₂] to compensate for the lack of response in pine L, and generate an appreciable response of total canopy L (～14%).     

Discriminant analysis of Lepidopteran prey characteristics and their effects on the outcome of bird-feeding trials

Discriminant analysis was used to analyse the results of 348 bird-feeding trials conducted from 1982 to 1985 in Leverett, Massachusetts. Four size classes, seven appearance categories, and five larval host types, based on 163 species of moths and butterflies used as prey in two or more trials, were selected as predictor variables to discriminate between prey taken and not taken by birds. Discriminant analysis of individual feeding trials correctly classified 97.5 percent of prey taken or not-taken and ranked the predictor variables according to their relative importance in determining prey acceptability. Characteristics most acceptable to birds were: (1) large size, (2) bark-like appearance, (3) warning colouration, (4) woody generalist, (5) dead-leaf-like appearance, (6) woody specialist, and (7) medium size. Characteristics least acceptable to birds were: (1) small size, (2) mimetic appearance, (3) butterfly appearance, (4) herbaceous specialist food type, (5) black-and-white appearance, (6) extra large size, and (7) overall generalist feeder. A summary of the analyses includes a discriminant function based on lepidopteran characteristics that can be used to predict the prey acceptability of species not used in this study. A multiple regression analysis of prey taken revealed that size alone and larval host type combined with other prey characteristics were the most important variables in determining the selection of prey regardless of their abundance in the trials.     

Cross-Border Marriages: Gender and Mobility in Transnational Asia

Cross-Border Marriages: Gender and Mobility in Transnational Asia . Nicole Constable, ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. 232 pp.     

"Kissing a Baby Is Not at All Good for Him": Infant Mortality, Medicine, and Colonial Modernity in the U.S.-Occupied Philippines

Feminist scholars have begun to consider the ways indigenous practices of child rearing were and are challenged in (post)colonial discourse and practice, and how these practices have become a terrain on which definitions of nation, state, and economy are contested. In this article, I adopt a historical anthropological approach to consider how Filipino child-rearing strategies were described and stigmatized in educational, public health, and public welfare discourses in the U.S.-occupied Philippines in the early 20th century. I demonstrate how public health practices and discourses that were generated as part of a "benevolent" campaign against high rates of infant mortality were strategically used as a weapon against Filipino arguments for independence. I also consider how discourses constructing Filipino caregivers as overly indulgent were linked to metropolitan concerns about production of the "new industrial man" and were used to develop a racialized critique of the cultural practices of Filipinos.     

Detarieae sensu lato (Fabaceae) from the Late Oligocene (27.23 Ma) Guang River flora of north‐western Ethiopia

New species of caesalpinioid legumes, Cynometra sensu lato and Afzelia, are described from the Late Oligocene (27.23 Ma) Guang River flora in north‐western Ethiopia. Both taxa show leaf characteristics that are shared with extant species in the Guineo‐Congolian, Sudanian and/or Zambezian regions of Africa today. The presence of these two species in Ethiopia during the Palaeogene provides further evidence of the importance of the legume tribe Detarieae in northern and north‐eastern Africa throughout much of the Cenozoic, even although the clade is poorly represented in these regions today. The fossil record documents a significant palaeogeographical and evolutionary history of Detarieae in Africa, especially compared with that of Europe and Anatolia. Based on this evidence, it is unlikely that significant diversification of extant African Detarieae took place on the Eurasian landmass. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 163 , 44–54.