The behaviour of Dutch fresh water ecologists in response to environmental concern

Due to the rise of environmental concern ecologists have been asked for advice more frequently since the late 1960s. This article discusses how the changing relationship between ecologists and society has affected the behaviour of one particular group of ecologists, namely Dutch fresh water ecologists, by focussing on their behaviour towards job market control and public interest activities. The analysis has been based on interviews with 65 Dutch fresh water ecologists together with an analysis of their publications.In contrast with American ecologists, Dutch fresh water ecologists have made little effort to control their job market by formal arrangements such as formulating a code of ethics and certification procedures. Secondly, Dutch fresh water ecologists generally conceive of their own role in contributing to the solution of environmental problems in relation to that of the environmentalists by doing good research and reliable advisory work. Although a significant number of researchers also address lay publics by writing popular articles and/or holding lectures, only a minority actively participates in environmental politics.     

Tachykinin NK-1 receptor probed with constrained analogues of substance P

The action of rotameric probes introduced either in position 7 or 8 in the sequence of substance P (SP) was investigated, i.e. -tetrahydroisoquinoleic acid (Tic), -fluorenylglycine (Flg), -diphenylalanine (Dip), the diastereoisomers of -1-indanylglycine (Ing) and -benz[ƒ]indanylglycine (Bfi), the Z- and E-isomers of dehydrophenylalanine and dehydronaphthylalanine (Δ^ZPhe, Δ^EPhe, Δ^ZNal, Δ^ENal) and (Dmp). The aim of this study was the topographical characterization of the binding subsites of human NK-1 receptor expressed in CHO cells, especially the S₇ and S₈ subsites, corresponding to residues Phe⁷ and Phe⁸ of substance P. According to the binding potencies of these substituted-SP analogues, the S₇ binding subsite is smaller than the S₈ subsite: the S₇ subsite accepts only one aromatic nucleus, while the S₈ can accommodate three coplanar nuclei altogether. These findings are compatible with the idea that the S₈ binding subsite may reside in the extracellular loops of the hNK-1 receptor. NK-1 agonists bind to human NK-1 receptor and activate the production of both inositol phosphates and cyclic AMP. As already quoted for septide, [pGlu⁶, Pro⁹]SP(6–11), discrepancies are observed between affinity (K_i) and activity (EC₅₀) values for IPs production. While a weak correlation between K_i and EC₅₀ values for IPs production could be found (r = 0.70), an excellent correlation could be demonstrated between their affinities (K_i) and their potencies (EC₅₀) for cAMP production (r = 0.97). The high potency (EC₅₀) observed for ‘septide-like’ molecules on PI hydrolysis, compared to their affinity is not an artefact related to the high level of NK-1 receptors expressed on CHO cells since a good correlation was found between EC₅₀ values obtained for PI hydrolysis and those measured for spasmogenic activity in guinea pig ileum bioassay (r = 0.94).

According to the binding potencies of constrained analogues of phenylalanine, the S₇ binding subsite of human NK-1 receptor is small, whereas the S₈, which can accommodate three coplanar nuclei, might probably reside in the extracellular loop. The discrepancies observed between affinity (K_i) and activity (EC₅₀) values for IPs production are not an artefact of CHO cells since a good correlation was found between EC₅₀ for PI hydrolysis and those measured in guinea pig ileum bioassay.     

Bootlegging on a desert mountain: The political ecology of Agave (Agave spp.) demographic change in the Sonora river valley,Sonora, Mexico

Recent studies suggest that wild agave (Agavespp.) plants in Sonora, Mexico, are being over-harvested by mescal makers on communal lands. Using the conceptual framework of regional political ecology (Blaikie and Brookfield, 1987), I discuss the ecological processes of agave depletion, and investigate the social, economic, and political contexts in which unsustainable harvest practices arise. Whereas all the mescal makers have knowledge of sustainable harvest methods, population growth, expansion of agriculture onto ecologically marginal lands, and increasing dependence on wild harvested products from communal lands created the socioeconomic context for increased demand for mescal income. The ideology of household autonomy, and the belief that the village has no right to internally regulate use of the commons, created the political context for rapid, unsustainable harvesting—a tragedy of the commons. However, recent cultural changes have caused a reversal of this trend, and some wild agave populations may be recovering.     

Words matter: Reflections on language projects with chimpanzees and their implications

Beginning in the 1960s the first systematic projects dedicated to testing whether great apes could acquire some aspects of human language were conducted. The ape subjects demonstrated remarkable capacities to learn and use elements of either sign language or an artificial language. The results from research across several laboratories drew a mixture of excitement and skepticism, and critiques and debates have ensued since the earliest reports were published. This continues today. Terrace (2019, Nim: A chimpanzee who learned sign language. New York, NY: Columbia University Press) repeats many of the same points made decades earlier, and has added some additional critiques. That scientists hold different perspectives on what to conclude from ape language studies is expected. However, any conclusion one draws should be based upon available evidence, which we outline in this review. We also address the critiques offered by Terrace (2019), including the stance that apes cannot understand or use words. Focusing on symbol use by chimpanzees and bonobos we describe evidence that argues for understanding of words, including capacities for declarative communication and intersubjectivity found in these apes. We conclude that the many decades of research using a variety of symbol systems challenges the absolutist position that chimpanzees and bonobos cannot learn language or understand the concept of a word.     

基于文化与政治生态学的社会生态系统演进机制研究 ——以杭州与西湖为例

科学认识社会生态系统演进机制是对其进行有效管理的重要基础。以文化与政治生态学为理论基础,提出适合杭州—西湖社会生态系统的综合研究框架,识别了杭州—西湖社会生态系统的5个演进阶段,并分析出系统演进中的3种潜在状态。自然、政治、经济以及社会驱动力是影响杭州—西湖社会生态系统的主导因素,人类行为影响整个生态系统中扰动的频率、大小和形式并改变西湖生态系统的结构与功能,进而影响西湖为城市提供生态系统服务的潜能。在不同历史时期,基于自然、社会、经济、文化等多层面的需求,西湖在不同系统状态下为城市供给不同类别和质量的生态系统服务,总体而言供给与调节服务比例逐渐下降,文化服务逐渐上升,并且后者逐步成为最主要的生态系统服务类别。杭州与西湖在长期的互馈共生中建立了社会生态系统的自适应性调节机制,其背后的生态智慧可为现代风景园林规划提供重要启示。     

Chocolate cities: A brief note from a race and capitalism perspective

Marcus Hunter and Zandria Robinson have provided us with an innovative methodology for analysing “maps” of African Americans’ lived political, social and cultural experiences past and present. Their powerful innovation is creating maps of the black experience based on black people’s lived experience. They argue that carefully tracing spatially blacks’ political, social and cultural patterns over time leads one to the conclusion that the shared experiences of blacks throughout the polity (and indeed throughout the Diaspora) have far more in common than not. I argue that we can better understand not only the maps that black people have created, but also chocolate cities themselves by using an analytical framework that integrates the analysis of the lived experience of black people with a structural analysis that interrogates the articulation of white supremacy, capitalism and patriarchy. This framework is related to the developing research into racial capitalism that is now being conducted globally.     

Purity and Corruption: Chinese Communist Party Applicants and the Problem of Evil

In contemporary China, university students play a key ideological role as the future vanguard of the nation and for this reason they are intensely courted by the Chinese Communist Party. This article addresses the moral ambiguities of this courtship for students, who face the paradox that while the party centre and collectivist authoritarian ideology invariably claims moral superiority, individual party cadres are frequently exposed as morally corrupt. The evil of cadre corruption becomes the nodal point for questioning party morality, a central stake in support of collectivist authoritarian ideology as well as in its denunciation. For students, the problem of evil within the force, representing the collective good is never resolved in either false consciousness or an unmasking of ideology. Doubt instead proceeds as two incommensurable interpretations of party morality persist in suggesting themselves, and this I suggest has important implications for our understanding of political legitimacy in authoritarian states.     

北京市民营医疗机构发展现状与对策探析

描述了北京市民营医疗机构发展的基本情况及其特色优势,并从政策环境及自身建设两个方面分析了北京市民营医疗机构发展存在的主要问题,由此提出加快落实相关政策、优化民营医疗机构发展环境以及民营医疗机构加强自身建设和规范化管理等建议。     

Good anthropology in dark times: Critical appraisal and ethnographic application

‘Dark Anthropology’ and its complementary ‘Anthropology of the Good’ have become influential and debated notions in anthropology in recent years. I here parse distinctive features of these emphases, address their relation to theory and to ethnography, and consider the stakes involved in concretely applying their conceptual designations. I discuss the general shift in anthropology from grand theory to key concept, and the topical delimitation of theory that results. In larger purview, Dark Anthropology and the Anthropology of the Good both have long theoretical genealogies as well as practical contexts of political and social understanding, including vis‐à‐vis recent events in the U.S. and elsewhere. I suggest that considering the relationship between politico‐economically structured inequality and attempts to assert positive meaning and purpose is the most productive way to ethnographically apply their alternative conceptualisations. This brings to greater focus the thorny question of whose understanding of inequality or suffering, or of moral value and positive wellbeing, is being articulated—the sentiments of the people studied, or the concepts of the analyst? It seems vital to examine both analytic and indigenous views of dark times, and of the good, to refine our understanding of both, that is, in order to consider our complementary conceptualisations in relation to both sides of the emic/etic coin. This refines our understanding of local sensibilities and also of the appropriate limit points of our own conceptual associations.     

Dream Content and Political Ideology

This pilot study focuses on the relationship of dream content and political ideology in a contemporary U.S. context. The study involved 56 people, 28 (14 male and 14 female) who identified themselves as members of the political right and 28 (14 male and 14 female) who identified themselves as members of the political left. Most recent dream reports from these subjects were analyzed using Hall and Van de Castle content analysis categories. Following that quantitative analysis, each dream was analyzed in terms of its narrative qualities (themes, images, emotional patterns, etc.). Although the small size of the study makes it impossible to offer definitive interpretations, the findings are suggestive: people on the political right had more nightmares, more dreams in which they lacked personal power, and a greater frequency of lifelike dreams; people on the political left had fewer nightmares, more dreams in which they had personal power, and a greater frequency of good fortunes and bizarre elements in their dreams. These findings have plausible correlations to certain features of the political ideologies of people on the left and the right, and merit future investigation in larger-scale studies.