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Tribes
Kinds of Tribes Selected AbstractsToxicity of brominated volatile organics to freshwater biotaENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 9 2010Monique T. Binet Abstract As part of a larger study investigating the fate and effects of brominated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in contaminated groundwaters discharging to surface waters, the toxicity of 1,2 dibromoethene (DBE) and 1,1,2-tribromoethene (TriBE) to freshwater aquatic biota was investigated. Their toxicity to bacteria (Microtox®), microalgae (Chlorella sp.), cladocerans (Ceriodaphnia dubia), duckweed (Lemna sp.) and midges (Chironomus tepperi) was determined after careful optimization of the test conditions to minimize chemical losses throughout the tests. In addition, concentrations of DBE and TriBE were carefully monitored throughout the bioassays to ensure accurate calculation of toxicity values. 1,2-Dibromoethene showed low toxicity to most species, with concentrations to cause 50% lethality or effect (LC/EC50 values) ranging from 28 to 420,mg/L, 10% lethality or effect (LC/EC10 values) ranging from 18 to 94,mg/L and no-observed-effect concentrations (NOECs) ranging from 22 to 82,mg/L. 1,1,2-Tribromoethene was more toxic than DBE, with LC/EC50 values of 2.4 to 18,mg/L, LC/EC10 values of 0.94 to 11,mg/L and NOECs of 0.29 to 13,mg/L. Using these limited data, together with data from the only other published study on TriBE, moderate-reliability water quality guidelines (WQGs) were estimated from species sensitivity distributions. The proposed guideline trigger values for 95% species protection with 50% confidence were 2,mg/L for DBE and 0.03,mg/L for TriBE. The maximum concentrations of DBE and TriBE in nearby surface waters (3 and 1,µg /L, respectively) were well below these WQGs, so the risk to the freshwater environment receiving contaminated groundwater inflows was considered to be low, with hazard quotients <1 for both VOCs. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2010;29:1984,1993. © 2010 SETAC [source] John J. Parker and the Beginning of the Modern Confirmation ProcessJOURNAL OF SUPREME COURT HISTORY, Issue 1 2007ERNESTO J. SANCHEZ Ideological concerns' dominance of the Supreme Court confirmation process has certainly become routine, especially in the form of issue-driven interest groups' influence over the agenda for Senate debates. More significantly, the Senate normally focuses on what Laurence Tribe has called "the net impact of adding [a] candidate to the Court"1 in terms of steering the Court toward adherence to a particular judicial philosophy, such as originalism2 or pragmatism,3 or toward a specific outlook on a given constitutional issue. And when the President nominates someone with prior judicial experience, the candidate's decisions, as well as his or her prior speeches or other public activities, become fair game as supposed indications of his or her fitness for service on the Court. [source] Maintaining Abstinence in a Northern Plains TribeMEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2006Marjorie Bezdek In this article, we examine how American Indian individuals with a history of alcohol dependence have been able to maintain their abstinence despite strong pressures to return to drinking. This work builds on close collaboration with individual tribal members who have resolved their problems with alcohol and community-based service providers to develop open-ended qualitative interviews. Using these, we explored how former drinkers respond to the twin challenges raised by their former drinking associates and strong feelings that emerge when alcohol is no longer an option for coping with life's difficulties. The resolution of these challenges is central to abstinence, given the strong ties between drinking and sociality in some American Indian communities (including the one where this study was conducted) and underscores the ways in which alternate relations to alcohol can be established even within a heavy drinking cultural context. Interviews were conducted with 133 individuals from a northern plains tribe who were identified in a previous epidemiological study as having a lifetime history of alcohol dependence. Inquiry into the processes involved in the meaningful constitution of abstinence for these men and women highlights the role of religion and spirituality for some, but by no means all of these individuals and, more broadly, the emergence of what Bea Medicine has characterized as "new ways of coping," which force us to expand on leading conceptualizations of coping in the literature on problems with alcohol. [source] Front and Back Covers, Volume 23, Number 1.ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 1 2007February 200 Front and back cover caption, volume 23 issue 1 Front cover A Dutch participant in the reality television series Groeten uit de rimboe, in which Dutch and Belgian families immerse themselves in the daily life of the world's ,most primitive tribes'. Some time afterwards, their hosts pay a return visit to experience life in Europe, screened on television in the sequel Groeten terug. The two series have been subject to heated debate in the Dutch media, having been both lauded as unpretentious entertainment and condemned as unethical ,popular anthropology'. The attention of Myrna Eindhoven, Laurens Bakker and Gerard Persoon was first drawn to the series when a family was sent to Mentawai, where all three have done fieldwork. While they themselves are critical of the unashamed focus on entertainment, they became intrigued by the reactions of other anthropologists to the series. Here they connect this case from the Netherlands to the ongoing debate on ,popular anthropology' in ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, triggered by the UK series Tribe. Dutch anthropologists have mostly dismissed the series as ,not anthropology', criticizing it as exploitative and as ethnocentric. But do anthropologists have the authority to define ,popular anthropology'? How do we come to terms with blatant commercialization of our fieldwork sites, and their conversion into exotic locations for popular entertainment? Back cover NATION-BUILDING IN EAST TIMOR East Timor celebrates its Independence Day on 20 May each year. The day forms the backdrop for the largest annual encounter between the political centre and the periphery. In this photo, an elder (katuas) member of Fretilin, the largest political party, blends traditional and modern at the Independence Day celebrations in the capital, Dili, in 2005. As an exemplar of the United Nations' capacity for ,nation-building', the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste (or ,East Timor' as it is more popularly known) developed into something of a ,poster boy' for the United Nations from the day it became a sovereign nation on 20 May 2002. But in April 2006, some months after the last remaining UN staff had left, violence in the streets of the capital began to undermine social and political stability, resulting in the overthrow of prime minister Mari Alkatiri. Under the more engaged leadership of his successor, José Ramos-Horta, the threat of unrest has abated to some extent. Nevertheless, the country faces an array of serious problems , political, social and economic. In his article in this issue, David Hicks draws on his anthropological fieldwork to highlight the widening gap between the ,centre' and the ,periphery'. Hicks argues that the former embodies the institutions and quasi-Western values professed by the national leaders in Dili, while the latter centres around the traditional, largely indigenous values of the country's local communities, who comprise the overwhelming majority of the population. Although already latent before the United Nations left, this widening divergence in values is eroding the political integrity of the first nation-state to become a member of the United Nations in the 21st century, and if it continues to grow, will call into question the ability of the United Nations to ,manufacture' nation-states. Anthropology has an important role to play in highlighting and analysing the implications of grassroots discrepancies between local populations and political elites. More than this, it has a role to play in confronting the international community with the ethical and other consequences of its increasingly regular interventions in third countries. [source] The Effectiveness of Jobs Reservation: Caste, Religion and Economic Status in IndiaDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 3 2007Vani K. Borooah ABSTRACT This article investigates the effect of jobs reservation on improving the economic opportunities of persons belonging to India's Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). Using employment data from the 55th NSS round, the authors estimate the probabilities of different social groups in India being in one of three categories of economic status: own account workers; regular salaried or wage workers; casual wage labourers. These probabilities are then used to decompose the difference between a group X and forward caste Hindus in the proportions of their members in regular salaried or wage employment. This decomposition allows us to distinguish between two forms of difference between group X and forward caste Hindus: ,attribute' differences and ,coefficient' differences. The authors measure the effects of positive discrimination in raising the proportions of ST/SC persons in regular salaried employment, and the discriminatory bias against Muslims who do not benefit from such policies. They conclude that the boost provided by jobs reservation policies was around 5 percentage points. They also conclude that an alternative and more effective way of raising the proportion of men from the SC/ST groups in regular salaried or wage employment would be to improve their employment-related attributes. [source] The Supreme Court and the Interstate Slave Trade: A Study in Evasion, Anarchy, and ExtremismJOURNAL OF SUPREME COURT HISTORY, Issue 3 2004DAVID L. LIGHTNER Opponents of slavery often argued that the federal government possessed the constitutional authority to outlaw the interstate slave trade. At its founding in 1833, the American Anti-Slavery Society declared that Congress "has a right, and is solemnly bound, to suppress the domestic slave trade between the several States." The idea had been endorsed earlier, during the Missouri controversy of 1819,1820, by both John Jay and Daniel Webster. Later on, in the 1840s and 1850s, it was supported by such prominent politicians as John Quincy Adams, Salmon P. Chase, and Charles Sumner. Defenders of slavery were, of course, horrified by the suggestion that the South's peculiar institution might be attacked in this way, and they vehemently denied that the Constitution permitted any such action. The prolonged debate over the issue focused on two key provisions of the Constitution. One was the Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3), which says that Congress has the power to "regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." The other was the 1808 Clause (Article I, Section 9, Clause 1), which says that the "Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight." Abolitionists held that the Constitution sanctioned congressional interference in the domestic slave trade both generally, by virtue of the Commerce Clause, and specifically, by virtue of the 1808 Clause. They argued that since slaves were routinely bought and sold, they obviously were articles of commerce, and therefore Congress had unlimited authority over interstate slave trafficking. Furthermore, they said, the words "migration or importation" in the 1808 Clause meant that as of January 1, 1808 Congress had acquired the right not only to ban the importation of slaves, but also to prohibit their migration from one state to another. Defenders of slavery replied that Congress could not interfere in property rights and that the power to regulate commerce did not include the power to destroy it. They also said that the word "migration" in the 1808 Clause referred, not to the domestic movement of slaves, but to the entry into the United States of white immigrants from abroad.1 [source] Developing Nutrient Criteria for Streams: An Evaluation of the Frequency Distribution Method,JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION, Issue 2 2007Michael W. Suplee Abstract:, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends two statistical methods to States and Tribes for developing nutrient criteria. One establishes a criterion as the 75th percentile of a reference-population frequency distribution, the other uses the 25th percentile of a general-population distribution; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suggests either method results in similar criteria. To evaluate each method, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (MT DEQ) assembled data from STORET and other sources to create a nutrient general population. MT DEQ's reference-stream project provided reference population data. Data were partitioned by ecoregions, and by seasons (winter, runoff, and growing) defined for the project. For each ecoregion and season, nutrient concentrations at the 75th percentile of the reference population were matched to their corresponding concentrations in the general population. Additionally, nutrient concentrations from five regional scientific studies were matched to their corresponding reference population concentrations; each study linked nutrients to impacts on water uses. Reference-to-general population matches were highly variable between ecoregions, as nutrients at the 75th percentile of reference corresponded to percentiles ranging from the 4th to the 97th of the general population. In contrast, case studies-to-reference matches were more consistent, matching on average to the 86th percentile of reference, with a coefficient of variation of 13%. [source] Indigenous Peoples, State-Sanctioned Knowledge, and the Politics of RecognitionAMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 4 2005DARREN J. RANCO Invisible Indigenes: The Politics of Nonrecognition. Bruce G. Miller. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003. 248 pp. Forgotten Tribes: Unrecognized Indians and the Federal Acknowledgement Process. Mark Edwin Miller. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004. 355 pp. Gambling and Survival in Native North America. Paul Pasquaretta. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2003. 202 pp. [source] Relationship Between Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Pain in Two American Indian TribesPAIN MEDICINE, Issue 1 2005Dedra Buchwald MD ABSTRACT Objectives., To estimate the association of lifetime post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and pain in American Indians, and determine if tribe, sex, cultural and psychosocial factors, or major depression influence the magnitude of this association. Design., A cross-sectional probability sample survey completed between 1997 and 2000. A structured interview was conducted by trained, tribal members to gather information on demographic and cultural features, physical health status, psychiatric disorders, and functional status. Setting., General community. Participants., A total of 3,084 individuals randomly selected from the tribal rolls of a Southwestern (N = 1,446) and a Northern Plains (N = 1,638) tribal group who were 15,54 years of age and lived on or within 20 miles of their reservations. Outcome Measures., Bodily pain subscale of the Short Form-36. Linear regression models were fit to examine the association between lifetime PTSD and pain, adjusting for demographic, cultural, psychosocial features, painful medical conditions, and major depression. Results., The prevalence of lifetime PTSD was 16% in the Southwestern and 14% in the Northern Plains; women were nearly twice as likely as men to have lifetime PTSD in both tribes. The final adjusted model demonstrated that mean Short Form-36 bodily pain subscale scores were lower (indicating more pain) among individuals with lifetime PTSD than those without lifetime PTSD. Effect modification by tribe, sex, and depression was not observed. Conclusions., Lifetime PTSD was strongly associated with bodily pain in this rural sample of American Indians. Clinicians should be aware of, and address, the link between physical pain syndromes and PTSD. [source] Rethinking groundwater monitoring at the Hanford SiteREMEDIATION, Issue 2 2000Daniel Michael Groundwater monitoring at Department of Energy's (DOE's) Hanford Site is a large, expensive undertaking serving multiple purposes, including compliance with regulations and DOE orders, remediation efforts under CERCLA, and sitewide risk evaluations. Like most large Federal facilities, the monitoring program currently in place has evolved and grown overtime as new requirements were established and groups were assigned to address them. DOE and its regulators simultaneously awakened to the fact that there was a need to reevaluate the monitoring activities at Hanford, to better integrate the program, to avoid duplicative sampling, to improve everyone's understanding of the performance of the network, and to evaluate whether adequate data could be collected for lower cost. This paper describes the approch that was developed to guide the rethinking effort with direct and extensive involvement of DOE, EPA, Washington Department of Ecology, Indian Tribes, and DOE Contractors, and how this approach was applied to a large portion of the site. Both the human element of the process (cultural change), as well as some of the technical details associated with the effort, including a flexible application of EPA's data quality objectives process, are discussed. [source] Electronic Tribes and Postmodern Tribulations (Electronic Tribes: The Virtual Worlds of Geeks, Gamers, Shamans, and Scammers, Edited by Tyrone L. Adams and Stephen A. Smith)ANTHROPOLOGY & HUMANISM, Issue 2 2009Mark P. Whitaker No abstract is available for this article. [source] ,Model Tribes' and Iconic Conservationists?DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 1 2008The Makuleke Restitution Case in Kruger National Park ABSTRACT This article investigates how the Makuleke community in Limpopo Province achieved iconic status in relation to land reform and community-based conservation discourses in South Africa and beyond. It argues that the situation may be more complex than it first appears, and the ways in which the Makuleke story has been deployed by NGOs, activists, academics, conservationists, the state and business may be too simplistic. The authors discuss historical representations of the Makuleke ,tribe' against the backdrop of their experiences of living in the borderland Pafuri region of the Kruger National Park prior to their forced removal. After investigating the ways in which the chieftaincy, and its relation to communal land, has been strengthened by local mobilizations against threats from the neighbouring Mhinga Tribal Authority, the authors suggest that a central tension in the Makuleke area is the conflict between democratic principles governing the legal entity in control of the land (i.e., the Communal Property Association), and traditionalist patriarchal principles of the Tribal Authority. The article shows how these restitution-linked processes became implicated in the establishment in 2002 of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. The authors also argue that the image of the Makuleke as a ,model tribe' is both a product of changing historical circumstances and a contributor to contemporary discourses on land restitution and conservation. [source] The Dark Side of Indigeneity?: Indigenous People, Rights and Development in IndiaHISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 6 2007Alpa Shah In the last two decades transnational concerns over indigenous people, indigenous rights and indigenous development has reignited a history of heated debate shrouding indigeneity. This article analyses these debates in the context of the anthropology and historiography of indigeneity in India. From the production of ,tribes of mind' to the policies that have encouraged people to identify themselves as ,Scheduled Tribes', or ,adivasis', the article reviews the context that gave rise to the tensions between claims for protection and assimilation of India's indigenous peoples. Today these debates are shown to persist through the arguments of those that seek to build a support base from an adivasi constituency and are most acute with on the one hand, the work of the Marxists and indigenous activists, and on the other hand, the Hindu right-wing. Inviting serious scholarly examination of the unintended effects of well meaning indigenous protection and development measures, the article seeks to move the debate beyond both the arguments that consider the concept of indigenous people anthropologically and historically problematic and those that consider indigeneity a useful political tool. In so doing, the article warns against a ,dark side of indigeneity' which might reveal how local appropriation and experiences of global discourses can maintain a class system that further marginalises the poorest. [source] Phylogenetic analysis of the pearlfish tribe Carapini (Pisces: Carapidae)ACTA ZOOLOGICA, Issue 4 2000E. Parmentier Abstract Fishes of the tribe Carapini (Encheliophis and Carapus) share a noteworthy peculiarity: they shelter in holothurian echinoderms or bivalve hosts. Some species are considered parasitic, others commensal. This study focuses on the phylogeny of the tribe, using two other Carapidae species as an outgroup (Snyderidia canina and Onuxodon fowleri). Insofar as possible, the selected anatomical and behavioural characters where chosen in an ecomorphological perspective, as features that could be responses to various lifestyle-related constraints. Our character selection also took into account the fact that some features are (presumably) linked. Such features were grouped together as a single trait to avoid their overvaluation. This methodology enabled commensals to be separated from parasites, the former belonging to Carapus and the latter to Encheliophis. Carapus species reflect in their morphology the constraints imposed by a diet of hard, mobile, elusive prey, showing predator-type features: a strong dentition, a wide mouth opening, a robust food intake apparatus. On the other hand, the endoparasitic Encheliophis species show a generally weaker buccal apparatus and narrow mouth opening, in relation to the different constraints of their lifestyle where the diet constraints are less pronounced: they eat body parts of their host. Changes in both generic diagnoses are proposed and three species are transferred from Encheliophis to Carapus. [source] Forage collection, substrate preparation, and diet composition in fungus-growing antsECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 3 2010HENRIK H. DE FINE LICHT 1. Variation and control of nutritional input is an important selective force in the evolution of mutualistic interactions and may significantly affect coevolutionary modifications in partner species. 2. The attine fungus-growing ants are a tribe of more than 230 described species (12 genera) that use a variety of different substrates to manure the symbiotic fungus they cultivate inside the nest. Common ,wisdom' is that the conspicuous leaf-cutting ants primarily use freshly cut plant material, whereas most of the other attine species use dry and partly degraded plant material such as leaf litter and caterpillar frass, but systematic comparative studies of actual resource acquisition across the attine ants have not been done. 3. Here we review 179 literature records of diet composition across the extant genera of fungus-growing ants. The records confirm the dependence of leaf-cutting ants on fresh vegetation but find that flowers, dry plant debris, seeds (husks), and insect frass are used by all genera, whereas other substrates such as nectar and insect carcasses are only used by some. 4. Diet composition was significantly correlated with ant substrate preparation behaviours before adding forage to the fungus garden, indicating that diet composition and farming practices have co-evolved. Neither diet nor preparation behaviours changed when a clade within the paleoattine genus Apterostigma shifted from rearing leucocoprinous fungi to cultivating pterulaceous fungi, but the evolutionary derived transition to yeast growing in the Cyphomyrmex rimosus group, which relies almost exclusively on nectar and insect frass, was associated with specific changes in diet composition. 5. The co-evolutionary transitions in diet composition across the genera of attine ants indicate that fungus-farming insect societies have the possibility to obtain more optimal fungal crops via artificial selection, analogous to documented practice in human subsistence farming. [source] Taxonomy of the Cidariini (Lepidoptera, Geometridae) in Korea (II)ENTOMOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2004Sei-Woong CHOI ABSTRACT Eight genera and 16 species of the Korean Cidariini, a tribe of Larentiinae (Lepidoptera, Geometridae), were revised: Dysstroma Hübner, Paradysstroma Choi, Callabraxas Butler, Thera Stephens, Heterothera Inoue, Pennithera Viidalepp, Polythrena Guenée and Xenortholitha Inoue. Pennithera comis (Butler) was newly added to the Korean fauna. Diagnostic and phylogenetic characters supporting the monophyly of the genera and a key to the genera were provided. For the species, diagnoses with figures of male and female genitalia and distributional data with maps in Korea, and taxonomic remarks were provided. [source] Taxonomy of the Cidariini (Lepidoptera, Geometridae) in Korea (I)ENTOMOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2002Sei-Woong CHOI ABSTRACT Among forty species of the Korean Cidariini, a tribe of Larentiinae (Lepidoptera, Geometridae), nineteen species of ten genera are revised: Ecliptopera Warren, Lampropteryx Stephens, Eustroma Hübner, Eveeliptopera Inoue, Lobogonodes Bastelberger, Hysterura Warren, Sibatania Inoue, Eulithis Hiibner, Gandaritis Moore, and Electrophaes Prout. The diagnostic characters and monophyly of each genus are provided. Figures of adults including male and female genitalia, and distribution maps in Korea are also provided. [source] Boredom, "Trouble," and the Realities of Postcolonial Reservation LifeETHOS, Issue 1 2003Assistant professor Lori L. Jervis Perhaps because of its reputation as an inconsequential emotion, the significance of boredom in human social life has often been minimized if not ignored. Boredom has been theoretically linked to modernity, affluence, and the growing problem of filling "leisure time. "It has also been attributed to the expansion of individualism with its heightened expectations of personal gratification. Whether a reaction to the sensation ofunderstimulation or "overload," boredom appears to be, ultimately, a problem of meaning. In this article, we consider the applicability of these notions to the contemporary American Indian reservation context, examining discourse about boredom as expressed in interviews with members of a northern plains tribe. Of special interest is how boredom figures into the phenomenon of "trouble" (e.g., alcohol and drug abuse, violence, and illegal activities). Although boredom is certainly familiar to various strata of contemporary U.S. society,and arguably part of what it means to be human,we propose that the realities of postcolonial reservation life provide an especially fertile and undertheorized breeding ground for this condition, and our examination of the relationship between boredom and trouble suggests that boredom's implications for both individual subjectivity and group sociality are far from trivial. [source] RAPID SPECIATION AND ECOLOGICAL DIVERGENCE IN THE AMERICAN SEVEN-SPINED GOBIES (GOBIIDAE, GOBIOSOMATINI) INFERRED FROM A MOLECULAR PHYLOGENYEVOLUTION, Issue 7 2003Lukas Rüber Abstract., The American seven-spined gobies (Gobiidae, Gobiosomatini) are highly diverse both in morphology and ecology with many endemics in the Caribbean region. We have reconstructed a molecular phylogeny of 54 Gobio-somatini taxa (65 individuals) based on a 1646-bp region that includes the mitochondrial 12S rRNA, tRNA-Val, and 16S rRNA genes. Our results support the monophyly of the seven-spined gobies and are in agreement with the existence of two major groups within the tribe, the Gobiosoma group and the Microgobius group. However, they reject the monophyly of some of the Gobiosomatini genera. We use the molecular phylogeny to study the dynamics of speciation in the Gobiosomatini by testing for departures from the constant speciation rate model. We observe a burst of speciation in the early evolutionary history of the group and a subsequent slowdown. Our results show a split among clades into coastal-estuarian, deep ocean, and tropical reef habitats. Major habitat shifts account for the early significant acceleration in lineage splitting and speciation rate and the initial divergence of the main Gobiosomatini clades. We found that subsequent diversification is triggered by behavior and niche specializations at least in the reef-associated clades. Overall, our results confirm that the diversity of Gobiosomatini has arisen during episodes of adaptive radiation, and emphasize the importance of ecology in marine speciation. [source] Taxonomic level, trophic biology and the regulation of local abundanceGLOBAL ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2001Michael Kaspari Abstract 1Taxocenes , monophyletic ecological assemblages , are a key focus of macroecology. Abundance (individuals per area) is a basic property of taxocenes but has received less attention than diversity, although the two are probably related. Abundance reflects a taxocene's ability to harvest and sequester available energy and divide it among individuals. This paper explores how two properties of all taxocenes , trophic makeup and taxonomic level (e.g. genus, tribe, subfamily, family , ) , may contribute to patterns of local abundance at geographical scales. 2Forty-nine ground ant taxocenes, in habitats ranging from New World deserts to rain forests, were surveyed along a three-orders of magnitude productivity gradient using transects of 30 1-m2 quadrats at each site. Abundance , the number of nests per transect , varied over two orders of magnitude. 3Over 80% of the genera collected were omnivores. However, herbivore, omnivore, and predator taxa were added to ant taxocenes in roughly 1 order of magnitude steps up the productivity gradient. Specialist detritivores were added last. 4Net primary productivity and mean monthly temperature both consistently entered regression models predicting abundance. However, while productivity was the dominant predictor of abundance for higher taxa (families, subfamilies), temperature was the dominant predictor of abundance for lower taxa (tribes, genera). The answer to the question ,What regulates the abundance of a taxocene?' is thus sensitive to the taxonomic level of analysis. 5These data support the following scenario. Lower taxa are abiotic specialists given the insufficient number of genomes and generations required for the exploration of the entire abiotic envelope. Higher taxa, in contrast, consist of suites of abiotic specialists arrayed along the entire productivity gradient, with access to productivity everywhere the taxon occurs. If this scenario is true, individual species may respond to global changes in temperature; the higher taxa they belong to may most respond to global changes in productivity. [source] Community-based Security and Justice: Arbakai in AfghanistanIDS BULLETIN, Issue 2 2009Mohammad Osman Tariq This article discusses the successful bottom-up justice and security institutions in south-east Afghanistan that are delivering justice and security to the people in a complex atmosphere characterised by a weak and contested state, high levels of corruption, massive international and regional intervention, internal conflict based on ideology and ethnicity, and exclusion of one ethnic group and overrepresentation of others in the political arena. These local-level institutions are called Jirga and Arbakai. They have their own conceptual and contextual principles, which differentiate the Arbakai from private security companies, militias, or warlord-related armed groups. In effect, the Arbakai serves as an alternative system to the state security sector, delivering physical security to individual members of a tribe and community. [source] Language Games and Natural ReactionsJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 1 2004David Rubinstein Ludwig Wittgenstein imagines a variety of eccentric social practices,like a tribe trained "to give no expression of feeling of any kind". But he also speaks of "the common behavior of mankind" that is rooted in "natural/primitive reactions". This emphasis on the uniformities of human behavior raises questions about the plausibility of some of his imagined language games. Indeed, it suggests the claim of evolutionary psychologists that there are biologically based human universals that shape social practices. But in contrast to E.O. Wilson's belief that "genes hold culture on a leash", Wittgenstein sees culture as a mediator,rather than a conduit,of "natural reactions". This suggests that social science can incorporate the claims of evolutionary psychology without scanting the centrality of culture in action and allows that nature can be overwhelmed by culture. [source] Arctiid moth ensembles along a successional gradient in the Ecuadorian montane rain forest zone: how different are subfamilies and tribes?JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2006Nadine Hilt Abstract Aim, We examined changes in the species diversity and faunal composition of arctiid moths along a successional gradient at a fine spatial scale in one of the world's hot spots for moths, the Andean montane rain forest zone. We specifically aimed to discover whether moth groups with divergent life histories respond differentially to forest recovery. Location, Southern Ecuador (province Zamora-Chinchipe) along a gradient from early successional stages to mature forest understorey at elevations of 1800,2005 m a.s.l. Methods, Moths were sampled with weak light traps at 21 sites representing three habitat categories (early and late succession, mature forest understorey), and were analysed at species level. Relative proportions were calculated from species numbers as well as from specimen numbers. Fisher's , was used as a measure of local diversity, and for ordination analyses non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) was carried out. Results, Proportions of higher arctiid taxa changed distinctly along the successional gradient. Ctenuchini (wasp moths) contributed more strongly to ensembles in natural forest, whereas Lithosiinae (lichen moths) decreased numerically with forest recovery. Arctiid species diversity (measured as Fisher's ,) was high in all habitats sampled. The three larger subordinated taxa contributed differentially to richness: Phaegopterini (tiger moths) were always the most diverse clade, followed by Ctenuchini and Lithosiinae. Local species diversity was higher in successional habitats than in forest understorey, and this was most pronounced for the Phaegopterini. Dominance of a few common species was higher, and the proportion of species represented as singletons was lower, than reported for many other tropical arthropod communities. NMDS revealed a significant segregation between ensembles from successional sites and from forest understorey for all larger subordinated taxa (Phaegopterini, Ctenuchini, Lithosiinae). Abandoned pastures held an impoverished, distinct fauna. Faunal segregation was more pronounced for rare species. Ordination axes reflected primarily the degree of habitat disturbance (openness of vegetation, distance of sites from mature forest) and, to a lesser extent, altitude, but not distance between sampling sites. Main conclusions, Despite the geographical proximity of the 21 sites and the pronounced dispersal abilities of adult arctiid moths, local ecological processes were strong enough to allow differentiation between ensembles from mature forest and disturbed sites, even at the level of subfamilies and tribes. Differences in morphology and life-history characteristics of higher arctiid taxa were reflected in their differential representation (proportions of species and individuals) at the sites, whereas patterns of alpha and beta diversity were concordant. However, concordance was too low to allow for reliable extrapolation, in terms of biodiversity indication, from one tribe or subfamily to the entire family Arctiidae. Phaegopterini (comprising more putative generalist feeders during the larval stages) benefited from habitat disturbance, whereas Ctenuchini (with host-specialist larvae) were more strongly affiliated with forest habitats. [source] Removal of amateur blue-black tattoos in Arabic women of skin type (III,IV) with Q-switched alexandrite laserJOURNAL OF COSMETIC DERMATOLOGY, Issue 2 2005Iqbal A Bukhari Summary Background and Objectives, Tattoos in Arabic society used to have a cosmetic importance on the face of females. These were usually amateur tattoos done by non-professional women in the tribe. Because Islam as a religion prohibited its practice and its application, people became concerned about removing the old tattoos by any means. Nowadays, laser is considered an effective method of tattoo removal. Here, we report our experience in the removal of tattoos in Arabic women of skin type III,IV using the Q-switched alexandrite laser. Study Design/Materials and Methods, Twenty female subjects aged 35,50 years from similar racial and ethnic background with amateur tattoos were treated using the Q-switched alexandrite laser. Fluence threshold was determined and a spot test was made. Q-switched alexandrite laser with a fluence range 4.0,7.5 J/cm2 (mean 6.05) was used at 6,12-week intervals. Total treatment numbers ranged from three to six sessions (mean 4.15) with single-pulse technique application. Results, More than 95% lightening was achieved in five patients after three to six sessions at fluence range of 6,7.5 J/cm2 and > 75% lightening in 10 subjects after three to six sessions of treatment at fluence range of 4,7.5 J/cm2. Pinpoint bleeding was observed in one case but no pigmentary alteration or scarring was seen. Conclusion, Tattoo pigment removal by Q-switched alexandrite laser is an effective method in skin type (III,IV) with minimal side effects, which gives high patient satisfaction. [source] PHYLOGENY OF THE DASYCLADALES (CHLOROPHYTA, ULVOPHYCEAE) BASED ON ANALYSES OF RUBISCO LARGE SUBUNIT (rbcL) GENE SEQUENCES,JOURNAL OF PHYCOLOGY, Issue 4 2003Frederick W. Zechman The phylogeny of the green algal Order Dasycladales was inferred by maximum parsimony and Bayesian analyses of chloroplast-encoded rbcL sequence data. Bayesian analysis suggested that the tribe Acetabularieae is monophyletic but that some genera within the tribe, such as Acetabularia Lamouroux and Polyphysa Lamouroux, are not. Bayesian analysis placed Halicoryne Harvey as the sister group of the Acetabularieae, a result consistent with limited fossil evidence and monophyly of the family Acetabulariaceae but was not supported by significant posterior probability. Bayesian analysis further suggested that the family Dasycladaceae is a paraphyletic assemblage at the base of the Dasycladales radiation, casting doubt on the current family-level classification. The genus Cymopolia Lamouroux was inferred to be the basal-most dasycladalean genus, which is also consistent with limited fossil evidence. Unweighted parsimony analyses provided similar results but primarily differed by the sister relationship between Halicoryne Lamouroux and Bornetella Munier-Chalmas, thus supporting the monophyly of neither the families Acetabulariaceae nor Dasycladaceae. This result, however, was supported by low bootstrap values. Low transition-to-transversion ratios, potential loss of phylogenetic signal in third codon positions, and the 550 million year old Dasycladalean lineage suggest that dasyclad rbcL sequences may be saturated due to deep time divergences. Such factors may have contributed to inaccurate reconstruction of phylogeny, particularly with respect to potential inconsistency of parsimony analyses. Regardless, strongly negative g1 values were obtained in analyses including all codon positions, indicating the presence of considerable phylogenetic signal in dasyclad rbcL sequence data. Morphological features relevant to the separation of taxa within the Dasycladales and the possible effects of extinction on phylogeny reconstruction are discussed relative to the inferred phylogenies. [source] TAXONOMY OF THE NEW ZEALAND-ENDEMIC GENUS PLEUROSTICHIDIUM (RHODOMELACEAE, RHODOPHYTA)JOURNAL OF PHYCOLOGY, Issue 4 2000Louise E. Phillips A morphological, anatomical, and molecular study of the tribe Pleurostichidieae (Rhodomelaceae, Ceramiales) is presented. New collections of its only member, Pleurostichidium falkenbergii Heydrich, have enabled a thorough re-assessment of this species from a classical-morphological standpoint and have allowed the first photographs to be made of critical features of this little-known obligate epiphyte of the brown alga Xiphophora chondrophylla (Turner) Montagne ex Harvey. The relationship of the tribe to other members of the Rhodomelaceae is considered based on analysis of 18S rDNA sequences from P. falkenbergii, 14 other rhodomelaceous species, and six outgroup taxa. Pleurostichidium falkenbergii is shown to be most closely related to the tribe Polysiphonieae and only distantly related to the Amansieae, with which it was previously associated. [source] Broad versus narrow auditory tuning and corresponding bat-evasive flight behaviour in praying mantidsJOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY, Issue 1 2001Jeffrey D. Triblehorn Abstract Most praying mantids possess a single tympanal ear located in the ventral midline between the metathoracic legs. The auditory system is generally most sensitive to ultrasound in the 25,50 kHz range. Flying males exhibit a short-latency, stereotyped, multi-component response to ultrasound that allows them to escape from attacking bats. This study describes a small subset of species that differs in three major respects from the majority of mantis species: (1) their auditory tuning is 1.5,2 times broader; (2) they are sensitive to frequencies above 60 kHz (up to 130 kHz in some species) with thresholds as low or lower than at 25,50 kHz; (3) the behavioural response of the broadly tuned (BT) species includes 10,50 times more flight cessations and can be far less stereotyped, i.e. more ,evitable', than that of narrowly tuned (NT) species. However, BT species do not differ from NT species in overall sensitivity. Two species from one subfamily, the Amelinae (family Mantidae), stand out because they are among the least sensitive of any hearing mantids so far tested. Although the two amelines differ from one another in tuning curve shape, they are both more broadly tuned than most mantids. The occurrence of BT species does not follow any obvious phylogenetic pattern; they are patchily distributed among the mantis families, and both BT and NT species can be found in the same subfamily or tribe. We suggest that BT species are responding to a shared ecological pressure. Based on their tuning, the nature of their behavioural response, and their geographic distribution, we hypothesize that high duty cycle (HDC) bats (Rhinolophidae and Hipposideridae) pose a special danger to BT mantids in addition to the threat that all flying mantids face from the more common and widely distributed low duty cycle (LDC) bats. [source] Maintaining Abstinence in a Northern Plains TribeMEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2006Marjorie Bezdek In this article, we examine how American Indian individuals with a history of alcohol dependence have been able to maintain their abstinence despite strong pressures to return to drinking. This work builds on close collaboration with individual tribal members who have resolved their problems with alcohol and community-based service providers to develop open-ended qualitative interviews. Using these, we explored how former drinkers respond to the twin challenges raised by their former drinking associates and strong feelings that emerge when alcohol is no longer an option for coping with life's difficulties. The resolution of these challenges is central to abstinence, given the strong ties between drinking and sociality in some American Indian communities (including the one where this study was conducted) and underscores the ways in which alternate relations to alcohol can be established even within a heavy drinking cultural context. Interviews were conducted with 133 individuals from a northern plains tribe who were identified in a previous epidemiological study as having a lifetime history of alcohol dependence. Inquiry into the processes involved in the meaningful constitution of abstinence for these men and women highlights the role of religion and spirituality for some, but by no means all of these individuals and, more broadly, the emergence of what Bea Medicine has characterized as "new ways of coping," which force us to expand on leading conceptualizations of coping in the literature on problems with alcohol. [source] Genetic variation and relationships among eight Indian riverine buffalo breedsMOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2006SATISH KUMAR Abstract Twenty-seven microsatellite loci were used to define genetic variation and relationships among eight Indian riverine buffalo breeds. The total number of alleles ranged from 166 in the Toda breed to 194 each in the Mehsana and the Murrah. Significant departures from the Hardy,Weinberg equilibrium were observed for 26 locus-breed combinations due to heterozygote deficiency. Breed differentiation was analysed by estimation of FST index (values ranging from 0.75% to 6.00%) for various breed combinations. The neighbour-joining tree constructed from chord distances, multidimensional scaling (MDS) display of FST values and Bayesian clustering approach consistently identified the Toda, Jaffarabadi, and Pandharpuri breeds as one lineage each, and the Bhadawari, Nagpuri, Surati, Mehsana and Murrah breeds as admixture. Analysis of molecular variance refuted the earlier classification of these breeds proposed on the basis of morphological and geographical parameters. The Toda buffaloes, reared by a tribe of the same name, represent an endangered breed from the Nilgiri hills in South India. Divergence time of the Toda buffaloes from the other main breeds, calculated from Nei's standard genetic distances based on genotyping data on seven breeds and 20 microsatellite loci, suggested separation of this breed approximately 1800,2700 years ago. The results of the present study will be useful for development of rational breeding and conservation strategies for Indian buffaloes. [source] Isolation of 23 polymorphic microsatellite loci in the Neotropical palm Oenocarpus bataua Martius (Arecaceae)MOLECULAR ECOLOGY RESOURCES, Issue 1 2007R. MONTUFAR Abstract We report the isolation of 23 microsatellite loci obtained from a (GA)n -enriched genomic library of Oenocarpus bataua var. bataua. The average number of alleles per locus, the mean observed and expected heterozygosities for these microsatellite loci revealed a high level of variability. The transferability of the developed markers to other Oenocarpus species and other genera within the Euterpeae tribe was high, except for the Hyospathe genus. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||