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New Interest (new + interest)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences33%

Selected Abstracts

English and British National Identity

HISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2006
Krishan Kumar
National identities in the British Isles have been a neglected subject of study for a long time, though interest has been growing recently. Why the neglect, and why the new interest? This article proposes that much of the puzzle has to do with the peculiar, and dominating, position of England historically within the United Kingdom. This has led to a relative indifference to questions of national identity on the part of the English, and, by a defensive reaction, a corresponding increase, over time, with such questions on the part of the Scots, Welsh and Irish. The English developed a largely ,non-national' conception of themselves, preoccupied as they were with the management of the United Kingdom and the British Empire; the ,Celtic' nations followed a more familiar pattern of developing national consciousness, as shown elsewhere in Europe. With the loss of the British Empire, large-scale immigration, the call of Europe, and renewed nationalist movements that threaten the ,break-up' of Britain, it is the English who find themselves most acutely faced with questions of national identity. Hence the new interest in national identity, especially among the English but also generally throughout the United Kingdom as other groups seek to imagine alternative futures for themselves. [source]

Fetal programming and fetal psychology

INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2010
Peter T. Ellison
Abstract The introduction of the ,fetal programming hypothesis', first in epidemiology, subsequently in a broad range of disciplines concerned with developmental biology, has generated new interest in phenotypic plasticity, the mechanisms that govern it, and its place in evolutionary biology. A number of epidemiological studies link small size at birth, assumed to be a consequence of constrained prenatal energy availability, with adverse effects on the risk of chronic diseases later in life. The cluster of chronic diseases associated with the metabolic syndrome and alterations of glucose metabolism are particularly implicated. Recent evidence suggests that epigenetic modification of gene expression affecting the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis may be involved in these effects. In animal studies epigenetic alteration of HPA axis activity and responsiveness is associated with changes in adult behaviour and stress responsiveness. The potential for similar effects to contribute to psychological and psychiatric outcomes in humans has been explored in a number of contexts, including famine exposure, observed covariance with birth weight, and prenatal dexamethasone treatment of fetuses at risk of congenital adrenal hyperplasia. While fetal programming effects have now been widely demonstrated across species and human populations, the adaptive significance of these effects is still a matter of debate. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Spatial integration at multiple scales: rice markets in Madagascar

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2009
Christine Moser
Market integration; Prices; Rice Abstract The dramatic increase in the price of rice and other commodities over the past year has generated new interest in how these markets work and how they can be improved. This article uses an exceptionally rich data set to test the extent to which markets in Madagascar are integrated across space at different scales of analysis and to explain some of the factors that limit spatial arbitrage and price equalization within a single country. We use rice price data across four quarters of 2000,2001 along with data on transportation costs and infrastructure availability for nearly 1,400 communes in Madagascar to examine the extent of market integration at three different spatial scales,subregional, regional, and national,and to determine whether non-integration is due to high transfer costs or lack of competition. The results indicate that markets are fairly well integrated at the subregional level and that factors such as high crime rates, remoteness, and lack of information are among the factors limiting competition. [source]

Role of TPH-2 in brain function: News from behavioral and pharmacologic studies

JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH, Issue 14 2007
Roberto W. Invernizzi
Abstract The recent discovery of TPH-2, a new isoform of tryptophan hydroxylase, the enzyme that catalyses the transformation of tryptophan into 5-hydroxytryptophan and the rate-limiting step in brain serotonin (5-HT) biosynthesis, has boosted new interest in the many functions of 5-HT in the brain and non-nervous tissues. Recent studies on TPH-2 are reviewed with particular attention to the role of this enzyme in behavior and in response to drugs as assessed by comparing strains of mice carrying a functional polymorphism of TPH-2. Most studies concur to indicate that 5-HT synthesis through TPH-2 influence nervous tissues whereas TPH-1 is responsible for the synthesis and action of 5-HT in peripheral organs. Partial impairment of brain 5-HT synthesis caused by polymorphism of the gene encoding TPH-2 causes reduced release of the neurotransmitter, increased aggressiveness, and alters the response to drugs inhibiting the reuptake of 5-HT. Strain comparison might be a useful strategy to investigate the genotype-dependent alterations of TPH-2. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

A new interest in an old remedy for headache and backache for our obstetric patients: a sphenopalatine ganglion block

ANAESTHESIA, Issue 6 2001
S. Cohen
First page of article [source]

Front and Back Covers, Volume 26, Number 3.

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 3 2010
June 2010
Front cover caption, volume 26 issue 3 Front cover A Greenpeace activist dressed as Justice protests in front of the Japanese embassy in Buenos Aires. She draws attention to the trial of Toru Suzuki and Junichi Sato, two Greenpeace activists seeking to expose corruption in the Japanese whale meat industry, who are being prosecuted in the Japanese courts for theft and trespass, in a trial that has continued since 2008. Back in 1993, Arne Kalland analyzed the notable success of the Western environmental movement, Greenpeace in particular, in mobilizing public opinion against continued whaling in the northern hemisphere. The key to this success, Kalland argued, lay in the environmentalists' construction of the ,superwhale', an imaginary, mythic creation which displayed numerous positive qualities with which people could closely identify. Environmentalist thinking has now become intertwined with the discourse of animal rights, including the claim that whales are special to the extent that they are entitled to legal rights on a somewhat similar basis to human beings. In this image, the script on the dress, the Japanese emblem of the rising sun, the blindfold and the scales of justice unbalanced by Japanese-caught whale meat all work to signify that the Japanese are entirely out of step with such progressive ideas. In this issue, Adrian Peace argues that the conflicting attitudes of Japan and Australia to whales and on the practice of whaling stem from diverging cultural and historical factors , the most basic among which is that, whilst Australians construe whales as awesome mammals, the Japanese perceive them as mere fish. Back cover FOOTBALL IN AFRICA On 11 June 2010, all eyes will turn to Johannesburg, South Africa, for the start of the 19th FIFA World Cup. The month-long tournament is one of the world's biggest sporting events, and this year will involve 32 teams from all over the world, attracting a worldwide audience of over 3 billion people and involving commercial agreements worth more than US $21 billion. Significantly, this is also the first time the competition has been held on the African continent. On the eve of the tournament, Richard Vokes reflects on the history and meaning of ,the beautiful game' in Africa, on the basis of a case study from southwestern Uganda. Football was introduced to Uganda by early European missionaries, and later gained in popularity as a result of the patronage it received from first colonial, and later post-colonial, state enterprises. However, the game's current mass appeal is a more recent phenomenon, due in large part to the media reforms introduced in Uganda after 1986, and the advent of satellite broadcasting technology. Vokes examines the nature of this new fandom, and of the media environments which have generated it. He argues that whilst certain features of the current craze , in particular, its peculiar fascination for specifically English football , can be seen as an outcome of spectatorship, this does not mean that the phenomenon is superficial. On the contrary, the new interest in football in Uganda has frequently produced unexpected, and in some ways quite profound, social effects. In his editorial Keith Hart uses the occasion of the World Cup to reflect on South Africa's significance for the world, as both the most developed African nation and the chief victim of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. [source]