bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Constant Volume Techniques Using Gas Analysis
Authors: Lighton John R. B.
Published: February 2019

By using modern gas analyzers and variations of constant volume techniques described in Chapter 2, simple and high-throughput measurement of the metabolic rates of organisms ranging in size from bacteria to large insects and even small vertebrates are easily implemented. It is also possible to measure water loss rate and carbon dioxide production using only an oxygen analyzer. These respirometry techniques can be deployed in the field as well as the laboratory. Both manual and automated, computerized implementations of constant volume techniques for metabolic rate measurement are covered in full step-by-step detail, and appropriate analytical protocols for oxygen, carbon dioxide, or both oxygen and carbon dioxide analysis systems are also described in detail.
Aquatic Oxygen Analysis
Authors: Lighton John R. B.
Published: February 2019

Measuring oxygen consumption rates in aquatic media is the only practical method for determining the metabolic rates of cell cultures and aquatic organisms. This chapter describes the three principal variations of aquatic respirometry—closed and open system (or flow-through) respirometry, and headspace respirometry—together with procedures for calibrating aquatic respirometry systems, acquiring data from them, and analyzing the resulting data. Appendix 2 describes the operation of the widely used Clark dissolved oxygen electrode, the characteristics of common electrode membrane materials, and necessary routine maintenance. Common problems are discussed and trouble-shooting guides are included.
Direct Calorimetry
Authors: Lighton John R. B.
Published: February 2019

This chapter describes calorimetry or the direct measurement of heat production, a technique first used by Lavoisier and Paulze for measuring metabolic rates. Bomb calorimetry—a technique for measuring the energy content of foods and other materials—is also described. The three most common applications of direct calorimetry—gradient, differential, and fluid transfer calorimetry—are described. Methods for combining direct calorimetry with indirect calorimetry (or respirometry) and the compensating calculations that are required are presented, together with a brief description of a basic direct calorimeter for small mammals that can be made from inexpensive and commonly available materials.
Measuring Field Metabolic Rates
Authors: Lighton John R. B.
Published: February 2019

This chapter describes various techniques for measuring metabolic rates of unrestrained organisms in the field. These include stable isotope techniques, which allow the accurate measurement of the carbon dioxide production of wild animals over an interval ranging from a few hours to several days. The main disadvantage of the method is that the measurement is integrative and the organism must be captured on at least two occasions. Alternative techniques for real-time measurement of metabolic rates utilizing flow-through respirometry in wild, unrestrained animals are described, including representative case studies measuring hovering metabolism in wild hummingbirds, the foraging energetics of ants in the wild, and the energetics of nest building in wasps.
Flow-through Respirometry: The Basics
Authors: Lighton John R. B.
Published: February 2019

This chapter describes the basic theory behind the most widely used method for measuring metabolic rates: flow-through or open-system respirometry. The advantages and disadvantages of the technique are summarized and the two major types of flow-through respirometry systems are described. Recommendations are given on choosing an appropriate flow rate to compromise between speed of response and signal amplitude; on the nature and importance of the cage time-constant; on using mathematical techniques for response correction by compensating for first-order wash-out kinetics and avoiding mixing errors; the essential differences between oxygen and carbon dioxide analysis; choosing a data acquisition system; generating and measuring flow rates; removing or mathematically compensating for water vapor; important tools; and checklists for deciding on system configuration for a given investigation.
Flow-through Respirometry: Excurrent Flow Measurement
Authors: Lighton John R. B.
Published: February 2019

This chapter describes the setup, plumbing, and equations for implementing a respirometry system wherein the flow rate of the air leaving the animal chamber is known. Such systems are usually referred to as pull systems, because the air is usually pulled from a chamber or mask at a known rate, and the concentrations of incurrent and excurrent gases are alternately measured. Such systems are often the only practical way of measuring the metabolic rates of large animals. Setups and equations for oxygen-only, carbon dioxide-only, and combined oxygen and carbon dioxide systems are described. Methods for creating multiple-animal pull mode respirometry systems, for compensating flow rate, and for the automatic baselining (that is to say, measuring incurrent gas concentrations) of respirometry systems are discussed.
Validating Flow-through Respirometry
Authors: Lighton John R. B.
Published: February 2019

This chapter describes methods for validating the measurements made using flow-through respirometry. These methods include the injection of nitrogen at a known flow rate into a respirometry system; burning a small flame of ethanol or methanol at a rate measured by weighing the lamp (often called “alcohol recovery”); and burning hydrocarbon gases such as methane, ethane, or propane. The first two techniques yield information on absolute oxygen consumption rates; the gas flame technique yields information on ratios between oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production, as does the alcohol recovery technique. Full practical details including all relevant equations are given.
The Varieties of Gas Analyzers
Authors: Lighton John R. B.
Published: February 2019

All analyzers have strengths and limitations that vary with the technology used, and directly affect their suitability for different types of metabolic rate measurement. It is important for researchers to become familiar with the characteristics of the analyzer(s) they are using. This chapter discusses the chief technologies utilized in aerial gas analyzers for O2, CO2, and water vapor, and their advantages, disadvantages, and operating characteristics. For oxygen analyzers, the single channel and differential heated zirconia cell, single channel and differential fuel cell, and paramagnetic types are described. For carbon dioxide analyzers, the single-wavelength and dual-wavelength nondispersive infrared types are discussed. For water vapor analyzers, the chilled-mirror, infrared and capacitive types are considered.
The Varieties of Scrubbers, Tubing, and Tubing Connectors
Authors: Lighton John R. B.
Published: February 2019

This chapter discusses several often-neglected areas of respirometry infrastructure. These include the correct selection of scrubber chemicals for removing water vapor and/or carbon dioxide from air streams, without undesirable interactions; chemical-free scrubbing techniques such as selective membranes, thermal condensing systems, and mathematical correction for water vapor dilution; selecting tubing for metabolic measurement; evaluating the different tubing chemistries in light of the intended application; selecting appropriate tubing diameters for the flow rates that will be used; selecting tubing connectors; maintaining connector gender conventions to minimize plumbing confusion; and other related topics.
The Politics of Hybridity-Mimicry in Hari Kunzru’s The Impressionist and Marlene van Niekerk’s Agaat
Authors: Forter Greg
Published: February 2019

This chapter critiques the continued influence of Homi Bhabha’s theories of hybridity and mimicry in the colonial context, while putting Bhabha’s ideas into dialogue with those of Roberto Retamar. Hari Kunzru’s The Impressionist and Marlene van Niekerks’ Agaat offer nuanced revisions of both theorists’ positions. They elaborate versions of hybridity and mimicry that are intensely attuned to the interplay between historical forces and subjective experience; they grasp the limited yet real agency of colonized selves in fashioning responses to colonial power; and they situate colonialist textuality in a dynamic relation both to extra-discursive institutions of domination and to subjective interiority. These shared commitments result in fictional historiographies that emphasize the politically variable effects of hybridity-mimicry rather than the inevitable subversion described by Bhabha or the linguistic guerrilla warfare outlined by Retamar.
Introduction
Authors: Ólafsson Stefán , Daly Mary , Kangas Olli , Palme Joakim
Published: February 2019

This introductory chapter by Stefán Ólafsson, Mary Daly, Olli Kangas, and Joakim Palme sets the scene for this volume’s approach. It starts by describing the main research questions, the context, and the underlying themes. It then lays out the explanatory framework that guides the analysis and ends with an overview of each chapter of the book. The book combines general comparative studies of some 30 European countries with a more in-depth analysis of 9 countries, spanning differential experiences of the Great Recession. These include four countries that experienced a very deep crisis (Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Spain), three that were not as severely affected (Denmark, Finland, UK), and two that were only modestly affected (Norway and Sweden). The book shows that the welfare state played a much larger role in averting negative crisis consequences than during the Great Depression of the 1930s, its influence varying considerably between countries or welfare regimes.
Welfare Consequences of the Crisis in Europe
Authors: Ólafsson Stefán , Stefánsson Kolbeinn
Published: February 2019

In this chapter, authors Stefán Ólafsson and Kolbeinn H. Stefánsson provide a general comparative overview of the welfare consequences of the 2008 crisis, using the financial hardship indicator as well as a number of others, such as unemployment, income developments, and poverty. They compare the outcomes between different welfare regimes and by depth of the crisis. They then go on to explore the development of financial hardship within socio-economic groups across Europe and indicate where the increase was largest. Hence the chapter provides an important insight into how burdens were shared and which groups bore the brunt of the crisis.
Ireland
Authors: Daly Mary
Published: February 2019

Mary Daly examines the severe crisis in Ireland in this chapter. The crisis was preceded by an extended period of rapid economic growth, yet the national financial situation had been deteriorating prior to the recession. When it hit, a strong austerity approach was adopted, dictated principally by the terms of the financial bailout Ireland secured in 2010. In return for this funding, Ireland undertook a very detailed programme of reforms in which social policy and changed taxation were prioritized. These reforms featured large reductions in social expenditure and significant cuts to all benefits (except old-age pensions) and services, increasing poverty and hardship. Housing-related indebtedness increased quite widely as well. Reforms also institutionalized a much stronger activation approach. Apart from this, there was little or no major restructuring of the Irish welfare state, hence this proved quite resilient in a period that saw the overshadowing if not demise of social partnership.
Iceland’s Strategy of Redistribution
Authors: Ólafsson Stefán
Published: February 2019

Stefán Ólafsson here explains the characteristics of the bubble economy in Iceland, the magnitude of the financial collapse of 2008, and its consequences. The crisis was dramatic and deep but bottomed out early (2010). Since then good growth has prevailed. The governments of the crisis period applied various policy reactions that worked quite well, and included both macroeconomic stimulus measures and social protective efforts. Ólafsson describes what he terms Iceland’s redistribution strategy, which aimed to protect the more vulnerable households. These included increased transfers aimed at the lower income groups, job creation, activation and rehabilitation, debt relief, and changed taxation policy. Altogether these efforts succeeded in softening the worst crisis consequences and contributed to an equalization of income distribution. Financial hardship topped in 2010 and has come down since then, gradually and persistently. By 2017 the highest employment and income levels of the pre-crisis years had been regained.
UK
Authors: Bennett Fran
Published: February 2019

This chapter shows how the UK tackled the crisis. The UK was affected early and implemented a post-crisis stimulus package quickly. But from 2010, with a new government, austerity was the watchword, with cuts in social security expenditures prioritized over tax increases. Spending on education and health was shielded, as were old-age pensioners’ benefits, but those of families with children were reduced. From 2015 a Conservative majority government continued on a similar path, though also implementing tax cuts and a higher minimum wage. Under the new Prime Minister, the aim of balancing the public finances was postponed. Initially the pain of the crisis was shared more broadly. But financial hardship increased after 2012, especially for lone parents and disabled people, and benefit cuts affected women in particular. Whilst employment has increased, recovery has been slow. It seems unlikely positive welfare state developments can be expected in the near future.
Denmark
Authors: Andersen Jørgen Goul
Published: February 2019

Jørgen Goul Andersen shows that Denmark entered the crisis with a strong economy, but also with a housing and credit bubble beginning to burst. This contributed to constraining private consumption for a long period. When the government switched in May 2010 to zero growth in public consumption and to significant cuts in social protection, this left exports as the only possible driver of growth. It took ten years for private consumption per capita to catch up with 2007 levels, while the number of public employees declined by 5 per cent from 2010 to 2016. Welfare and tax reforms since 2008 have contributed to an erosion of social citizenship, accompanied by strong rhetoric questioning the deservingness of people in a vulnerable position. Whereas the weakest groups are at risk of being excluded from social protection, the long-term decline in welfare services may ‘crowd in’ private welfare for the upper middle classes.
Game Theory and Diplomatic History
Authors: Zagare Frank C.
Published: February 2019

This chapter explores a number of issues connected with the use of game-theoretic models to organize analytic narratives. First, a causal explanation of the 1936 Rhineland crisis is developed within the confines of a game-theoretic model of asymmetric or unilateral deterrence with incomplete information. In this context, the chapter then introduces the concept of a perfect Bayesian equilibrium. Then, some methodological obstacles that may arise in a more complex case, such as the 1879 Austro-German alliance, are discussed, and suggestions for overcoming them are offered. Finally, the advantages of using game models to more fully understand real world events are highlighted.
The Moroccan Crisis of 1905–6
Authors: Zagare Frank C.
Published: February 2019

This chapter focuses on the Moroccan crisis of 1905–6, which was the first in a series of early twentieth-century confrontations that are generally considered to have led to World War I. The chapter interprets this crisis in the context of an incomplete information game model, the Tripartite Crisis Game, and one of its proper subgames, the Defender–Protégé subgame. British support of France during the 1906 Algeciras Conference, which ended the crisis, the firm stand that France took at the conference, and the German decision to press for a conference, are explained in terms of the model’s principal variables. In addition, the chapter discusses the Entente Cordiale and the “deterrence vs. restraint dilemma” associated with it, and similar strategic relationships. While the analysis is not necessarily at odds with the conclusions of some historians, it is more powerful because it is explicit about the causal mechanisms at work.
A General Explanation of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Authors: Zagare Frank C.
Published: February 2019

This chapter develops a new explanation of the Cuban missile crisis, from a general escalation model of interstate conflict. Specifically, the equilibrium structure of the Asymmetric Escalation Game with incomplete information is used to explain the initiation, development, and resolution of the crisis. This model brings with it a clear set of theoretical expectations about the conditions under which a limited conflict can occur. It also explains why intense interstate disputes occur and, if and when they do, they are successfully resolved (or not). Answers to all three of the foundational questions traditionally associated with the crisis are derived from an examination of the model’s strategic dynamic. The model’s applicability to the strategic relationship of the United States and North Korea is also discussed.
Postscript
Authors: Zagare Frank C.
Published: February 2019

In this chapter, developments in game theory over time are summarized, and the utility of game theory for analyzing conflictual interstate relationships is evaluated. The most important point to be taken from the collection of analytic narratives in this book is game theory’s ability to deliver an explicit causal mechanism upon which explanations can be constructed, and to do this in a transparent and logically consistent way. Game models, by their very nature, facilitate the assessment of logical consistency, minimize the probability of its absence, and encourage counterfactual or “off-the-equilibrium-path” reasoning, allowing for contingent theorizing inter alia. Causal mechanisms are especially valuable because they provide the element of necessity absent in standard (historical) narratives. Nonetheless, game-theoretic knowledge, like all knowledge, is always provisional, so an attitude of intellectual modesty, not arrogance, is the proper one.
Tragedy as Philosophy in the Reformation World
Authors: Leo Russ
Published: February 2019

Tragedy as Philosophy in the Reformation World examines how a series of influential poets, theologians, and humanist critics turned to tragedy to understand providence and agencies human and divine across diverse Reformation milieux. Rejecting familiar assumptions about tragedy, crucial figures like Philipp Melanchthon, David Pareus, Lodovico Castelvetro, John Rainolds, and Daniel Heinsius developed distinctly philosophical ideas of tragedy, irreducible to drama or performance, inextricable from rhetoric, dialectic, and metaphysics. In its proximity to philosophy, tragedy afforded careful readers crucial insight into causality, probability, necessity, and the terms of human affect and action. With these resources at hand, Reformed theologians, poets, and critics produced daring and influential theses on tragedy between the 1550s and the 1630s, all directly related to pressing Reformation debates. And while some poets employed tragedy to render sacred history palpable with new energy and urgency, others marshalled a precise philosophical notion of tragedy directly against spectacle and stage-playing, endorsing anti-theatrical theses on tragedy inflected by Aristotle’s Poetics. Uncovering a tradition of Reformation poetics in which tragedy often opposes performance, the work also explores the impact of these scholarly debates on more familiar works of vernacular tragedy, illustrating how William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and John Milton’s 1671 poems take shape in conversation with philosophical and philological investigations of tragedy. Tragedy as Philosophy in the Reformation World demonstrates how Reformation took shape in poetic as well as theological and political terms while simultaneously exposing the importance of tragedy to the history of philosophy.
Introduction
Authors: Roy Rohan Deb , Attewell Guy N.A.
Published: February 2019

This introductory chapter defines the intellectual agenda of locating the medical, and explains its significance. It situates the volume as a platform for the traffic of ideas and approaches between the history of medicine as a sub-discipline and South Asian history, more generally. It sets out recent historiographical trajectories, examines the theoretical purchase of historical ontologies (as the methodological inspiration) for this project, and provides a brief outline of chapters in this collection.
State Medicine or Medical State?
Authors: Saha Jonathan
Published: February 2019

A devastating prison epidemic broke out in Thayetmyo jail in Lower Burma in the summer of 1881, resulting in the deaths of over one-hundred inmates. The event could be justifiably described as a failure of colonial bio-politics and the state’s use of Western medicine to preserve the lives of those under its care. Certainly all the medical interventions made to arrest the spread of the deadly disease were ineffective. Even diagnosis remained disputed. However, this episode also reveals the centrality of medical knowledge and practice to how colonial officials performed and enacted the state. The official inquiry into the epidemic demonstrates that Western medicine informed the disciplining of state practices. Rather than illustrating how medicine was deployed by the colonial state, the epidemic provides us with a window onto how the colonial state was shaped by medicine.
‘Dr. Kar I Presume!’
Authors: Pandya Vishvajit , Mazumdar Madhumita
Published: February 2019

This chapter draws attention to the complex trajectories of the history of biomedicine among the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups of the Andaman Islands. It argues that the scattered traces one follows to address historical or anthropological research in the tribal reserves of the Andaman Islands have led to questions that have often muddled assumptions about the category of the ‘medical.’ The chapter does a close reading of state medical discourse as it takes shape in the memoirs of a government physician in the Jarawa Tribal Reserve. It argues that Dr Kar’s memoir cum ethnography offers important insights into the contingent formations of the ‘medical’ in the interstices of tribal welfare practice in the Andaman Islands.
Deities and Devotees
Authors: Bhrugubanda Uma Maheswari
Published: February 2019

If cinema has the power to possess people, persuade, or mesmerize them, how do we understand that compelling power? Is the display of devotion in the cinema hall the same as devotion in a temple? How have cinema and popular religion shaped each other? Through engaging with these questions, this book presents a genealogical study of the intersections between cinema, religion, and politics in South India. The first full-length study of the Telugu mythological and devotional films, this book combines a history of these genres with an anthropology of film-making and viewership practices. In the decades from the 1940s to the 2000s, it examines film texts, as well as methods of film-making and publicity, modes of film criticism as well as practices of viewership. The book draws on film and media theory to foreground the specificity of new technologies and the new kind of publics they create. Anthropological theories of religion, secularism, embodiment, and affect are combined with political theories of citizenship to complicate our understanding of the overlapping formations of film spectators, citizens, and devotees. It argues that the cinema offers a unique opportunity to explore the affective dimensions of citizenship and the formation of citizen–devotees.
Performing Deities and Devotees
Authors: Bhrugubanda Uma Maheswari
Published: February 2019

Chapter 5 adopts the framework suggested by Partha Chatterjee for the study of popular culture wherein the critical focus is on disciplinary practices rather than underlying beliefs or concepts. Therefore, it continues the previous chapter’s reflections on affect and embodiment through an anthropology of film-making and film-screening practices. Drawing on biographies and memoirs of film-makers and actors as well as personal interviews it tracks the debates within the disciplinary field of cinema and brings into view the diversity of perceptions and changing production and performance practices when it comes to representing divinity and religiosity. It also pays special attention to the unique modes of publicity and tailor-made marketing strategies adopted for these religious genres.
Conclusion
Authors: Bhrugubanda Uma Maheswari
Published: February 2019

As Walter Benjamin observed, modernity ushered in not only new political forms, but also new audio–visual technologies which revolutionized human perception. While Foucault reveals the new political rationalities which come into operation in the modern era, Benjamin alerts us to the fact that this operation is made visible in particular ways by film and other media technologies. Therefore, this concluding chapter focuses on the significant ways in which the new perceptual apparatus of the cinema and the media partake in the production of the citizen–devotee. This chapter begins by examining the significance of the use of double endings, voice-overs, and documentary footage in many mythological and devotional films. It then proceeds to examine the shifting relation between cinema and other media to demonstrate the ways in which they produce the ‘reality’ of popular religion. It argues that cinema becomes a key audio–visual archive in this process.
The Hindi Literary Sphere (1920s–1940s) from the Micro-Perspective of Lucknow
Authors: Nijhawan Shobna
Published: February 2019

Chapter 1 investigates periodical publishing in the Hindi belt of the 1920s and sets a selected few influential periodicals of the time in relationship to publishing activities emerging out of Lucknow. It shows how the Hindi periodicals Mādhurī (1922–50) and Sudhā (1927–41) as well as the publishing house Gaṅgā Pustak Mālā (est. 1918/1919) along with its press and book depot, that is, Ganga Fine Art Press (est. 1927/1928) and Gaṅgā Granthāgār (c.1931), established Lucknow as the new centre for Hindi publishing in the 1920s and 1930s. This information is embedded into the production of literature by Gaṅgā Pustak Mālā’s combatants in the Hindi public sphere, that is, small and large printers, publishers, and distributors whose epitexts were advertised in Sudhā.
‘Canon’ Formation (Part II)
Authors: Nijhawan Shobna
Published: February 2019

Through the medium of print, processes of standardization, indigenization, canonization, and scientification not only of Hindi as the proposed national language, but also of Hindu national culture become visible in the early decades of the twentieth century. This chapter contextualizes such processes through a detailed analysis of Sudhā’s thematic columns. Processes of the nationalization of literature in particular are discussed through a micro-perspective on to Sudhā as it created its very own archives of knowledge of what it considered to be the national arts, medicine and science, music, news, and formerly orally transmitted knowledge on domesticity, homespun remedies, health, cooking, and child-rearing. Visually, women featured centrally in the column section of the periodical. Even though they were for the most part featured as recipients of knowledge, they were also imagined as women taking active roles in the construction of this supposedly canonical knowledge.
Anthropogenic Landscapes of the Central Himalayas
Authors: Pande Vasudha
Published: February 2019

This chapter traces the impact of human activities on the Central Himalayas and trans-Himalayas over almost four millennia. It shows how the shifts in the use of natural resources was linked to the emergence of new political configurations and changing landscapes. Foragers inhabited the middle and lower Himalayas from the Paleolithic, whereas pastoral activity is visible on the Upper and Trans-Himalayas. The mining of gold, copper and iron led to metallurgy, tools and trade. Stone buildings, water reservoirs and the cultivation of barley, millet, and rain-fed rice supported population increase and produced terraced farming which eventually led to the clearing of the malarial valley floors and facilitated introduction of paddy. This is the agrarian landscape of today, suffering from severe stress and growing depopulation.
Wild Children
Authors: Adams Michael
Published: February 2019

Acceptance of risk and uncertainty is both an ancient cultural capacity and a very necessary current one for our collective uncertain futures. Considering ecological and social histories through a lens that accentuates adaptation and capacity rather than pathology reveals different landscapes of hope for human societies and all the other beings with whom we share the planet. The continuity of older, more environmentally and socially benign relationships between people, animals and landscapes hold potential for responding to unfolding uncertainty. Many predictions of Earth futures are deeply negative. Having the capacity to move beyond the limitations of rationality may be key to embracing positive uncertainty. Learning from cultures where change is normalized and acknowledged might help us move beyond ideas of grief and loss for old ways of life, and an obsession with control, to a cultural disposition towards attentiveness, care and respect.
A Historical Ecology of Cattle in Mozambique
Authors: Ekblom Anneli
Published: February 2019

The historical ecology of cattle in Mozambique illustrates the intricate and long-term relationship between people, cattle, and landscapes, and the ecological skills of farmers and herders. Africa’s long history of cattle breeding is a history of careful selection for specific traits and of hybridization between breeds and of breed conservation. Despite variations in cattle numbers due disease, droughts and confiscations of cattle, herders have managed to replenish their herds relatively quickly. Herders have been able to respond to shifting market demands and the informal local cattle market has remained strong. The relative stability of cattle prices in relation to other currencies suggests that ‘cattle economy’ is governed by a different logic compared to other potential stores of wealth. The ecological knowledge and economic strength of local cattle rearing needs to be taken into account both in development and landscape planning.
History Eats Its Young
Authors: Swart Sandra
Published: February 2019

Africa is a vast and diverse continent, with a rapidly growing economy, and a significant role to play in the contemporary and future global order. This chapter argues that Africa’s deep past matters too, especially the continent’s socio-environmental longue durée. It shows why the neglect of a deep past and the idea of unchanging nature and people in nature is political. It focuses on the first nation (San/Bushmen) to illustrate the pernicious dangers of short-termism and argues that a long-term view of the past shatters the myth of discrete ethnicities and disrupts notions of human homogeneity. Deep history makes the story of human impact on the climate and environment more nuanced and complex. All this makes one reconsider much more than just Africa in history: but the very idea of beginnings and endings, the non-linear movements of people and effects of nature, the ways early peoples remade ecologies right down to the present day.
Narratives from Indian Seas
Authors: Arthur Rohan
Published: February 2019

While terrestrial conservation in India strives to achieve a historical stasis built on a strong preservationist Edenic ecology, coastal and marine systems have always been multi-use environments whose management has had to embrace the dynamic realities of historical contingencies. The author discusses two case studies from the Lakshadweep Archipelago documenting how near-historical processes have sculpted the ecology of these coupled social-ecological systems. The first shows how the resilience of coral reefs to climate change was epiphenomenally enhanced by a pelagic fisheries development programme that deflected fishing away from reefs. The second documents the unforeseen consequences of effective green turtle conservation – leading to major conflict with local fishers and a decline in seagrass ecosystems.
Imperial Culture and Hunting in Colonial India
Authors: Mandala Vijaya Ramadas
Published: February 2019

This chapter offers a brief account of the institution of the hunt, or shikar, and its significance as an allegory of rule in pre-colonial and colonial India, by illustrating the transition of hunting from the Mughals to the East Indian Company period. Further, this study moves away from the purely recreational focus on hunting, and places it within the world of everyday colonial administration and rule. It firmly establishes the link between shikar and governance, particularly how the British positioned and employed big-game hunting and conservation at various levels, and in different situations, aimed at the establishment and stabilization of colonial rule, and in ordering and redrawing Indian marginal territories. Another key aspect is how shikar served as an essential platform, where power and rule operated in a recreational situation. Here, the chapter illustrates the way the hunting field aided and enabled the British to formulate their political and imperial agendas in an expedient way. The sporting lives of the Company administrators like John Malcolm and James Outram are studied in detail to demonstrate the nature of high imperial decades and British military credence in the Indian hunting field.
The Raj and the Paradoxes of Wildlife Conservation
Authors: Mandala Vijaya Ramadas
Published: February 2019

Chapter 5 examines the environmental and wildlife conservation issues with reference to hunting in colonial India. Addressing the issues of forestry, environment, and empire in relation to Indian wildlife, it is possible to evaluate the ways in which the British contested, constructed, and tailored wildlife conservation attitudes to meet the needs of smooth governance, while maintaining the imperial sport of hunting. Against this backdrop, the chapter explains how the issue of conservation remained in tension with imperial hunting and exploitation in colonial India. While explaining these intricacies, this study suggests that the British ruled tigers, elephants, and the native people through their inconsistencies rather than from a unified Orientalist ideology. In this, the reader would learn how the British attitudes and the policies implemented were situational and pragmatic. More importantly, it points to a story that signifies the ability of the powerful to change attitudes and shift behaviours according to the circumstances. Thus in colonial India, tigers were seen as the symbolic enemies of civilization, noxious creatures that were in the way of economic development and tragic symbols of a decimated nature, all at the same time, whereas elephants were left alone because of their usefulness. Extermination and preservation of species thus went hand-in-hand so that colonial interests rather than animal welfare could be promoted.
Hunters-Turned-Conservationists
Authors: Mandala Vijaya Ramadas
Published: February 2019

The final chapter locates the careers of two prominent hunters-turned-conservationists—Jim Corbett and Richard Burton—within the essential paradox of hunting and conservation in colonial India. In the case of both, as this chapter demonstrates, any simple binary of the colonizer–colonized model is inadequate to explain their prolific hunting in the first half of their lives as well as their passionate commitment to the cause of conservation in the second half. The chapter examines how, in their dual roles as hunter and conservationist, killer and protector, ruler and saviour, both men encompassed the quintessential split image of the British Raj. Particularly in their role as slayers of man-eating predators, Corbett and Burton offer an extremely nuanced and complex image that revises any straightforward impression of colonial hunters in India dominating their natural environment in imitation of the imperial domination of India’s politics. Despite such caveats, this chapter argues that Corbett and Burton remained staunch loyalists to the British Raj, and cautions that the wider history of conservation thinking should pay due attention to the critical and historical analysis of individuals like Corbett and Burton, whose individual approaches to conservation issues were drawn from lived experience, just as much as from broader colonial attitudes.
Developments Leading to the Creation of a Central Archive
Authors: Bhattacharya Sabyasachi
Published: February 2019

This chapter explores the fundamental issues encountered by the Government of India in archiving records. The colonial state was evolving a policy of record keeping that oscillated between certain polar opposites. First, there were two opposite models in the 1860s—that of archival organization in a decentralized departmental basis, as opposed to the concept of a centralized record office. Second, there were different ideas about how to go about the business of documenting British rule in India. There was another issue: a choice between a policy of limiting access to documents to those authorized by virtue of bureaucratic privilege as opposed to allowing access to the interested public. The fourth area of conflicting policy perceptions was at the epistemological level: is the object of archiving acquisition, preservation, and dissemination of historical knowledge, or it something more limited, namely documentation as an instrument of governance?
The UV spectral slope β and stellar population of most active star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 4
Authors: Yamanaka Satoshi , Yamada Toru
Published: February 2019

We investigate a stellar population of star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 4 by focusing on the slope of their rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) continuum, β, where fλ ∝ λβ. We investigate a sample of bright Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) with i′ ≤ 26.0 in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey field by using a spectral energy distribution fitting analysis. We find that the apparently redder (βobs > −1.73) LBGs tend to be dusty (AV > 1.0), and have young stellar populations (βint < −2.42) and intrinsically active star-forming galaxies (SFR ≳ a few $\times \ 10^{2}\, {M_{\odot }}\:\mbox{yr}^{-1}$). This means that a significant fraction of the UV-selected LBGs at z ∼ 4 contains on-going, active, and dust-obscured star-forming galaxies. We compare the infrared to UV luminosity ratio, which is estimated from our optical/near-infrared data assuming dust attenuation laws, with sub-millimeter observations from previous works. The result suggests that the Calzetti-like dust attenuation law is preferable for active and dusty star-forming LBGs at z = 4. We also find that an extrapolation of the βint–MUV, int relation toward the fainter magnitude range below our sample magnitude limit intersects the βobs–MUV, obs relation previously obtained in deeper narrow-area observations at MUV = −18.9 and β = −1.94, which coincides with the break point of the βobs–MUV, obs relation observed so far. This coincidence suggests that we see an almost dust-free population at MUV, obs ≳ −18.9.
Whiteness, Heteropaternalism, and the Gendered Politics of Settler Colonial Populist Backlash Culture in Australia1
Authors: Nicholas Lucy
Published: February 2019

This article analyzes backlashes to queer and Indigenous diversity-affirmative practices in Australia that entail perceived loss of dominance by the majority culture. The case studies outlined here demonstrate how whiteness, nationhood, and (gendered) heterosexuality are playing out in parallel ways through populist backlashes that have the purpose of containing queerness and indigeneity in “respectable” modes that do not challenge the default neutrality of a constructed “Australian” subject. The rhetorical and political strategies of erasing the queer and Indigenous others so as to reify the norm will be analyzed.
The Search for Common Origin: Homology Revisited
Authors: Ochoterena Helga , Vrijdaghs Alexander , Smets Erik , Claßen-Bockhoff Regine
Published: February 2019

Understanding the evolution of biodiversity on Earth is a central aim in biology. Currently, various disciplines of science contribute to unravel evolution at all levels of life, from individual organisms to species and higher ranks, using different approaches and specific terminologies. The search for common origin, traditionally called homology, is a connecting paradigm of all studies related to evolution. However, it is not always sufficiently taken into account that defining homology depends on the hierarchical level studied (organism, population, and species), which can cause confusion. Therefore, we propose a framework to define homologies making use of existing terms, which refer to homology in different fields, but restricting them to an unambiguous meaning and a particular hierarchical level. We propose to use the overarching term “homology” only when “morphological homology,” “vertical gene transfer,” and “phylogenetic homology” are confirmed. Consequently, neither phylogenetic nor morphological homology is equal to homology. This article is intended for readers with different research backgrounds. We challenge their traditional approaches, inviting them to consider the proposed framework and offering them a new perspective for their own research.
Microbulbifer flavimaris sp. nov., a halophilic Gammaproteobacteria isolated from marine sediment of the Yellow Sea, China
Authors: Xiong Qin , Wang Dandan , Dong Xiaoyan , Liu Di , Liu Yunpeng , Li Pan , Wu Gengwei , Luo Yu , Zhang Ruifu , Liu Shengbing , Zhang Guishan
Published: February 2019

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-flagellated, non-motile bacterium, designated strain WRN-8T, was isolated from marine sediment of the Yellow Sea, China (36° 5′ 33′′ N, 121° 20′ 37′′ E). Colonies of strain WRN-8T were 0.2–0.3 µm wide, 2.1–2.8 µm long, catalase-positive and oxidase-positive. Colonies on marine agar solid media were circular, wet, smooth, light yellow and approximately 1.3 mm in diameter. Growth occurred optimally at 33–37 °C, pH 7.0–7.5 and in the presence of 2–4 % NaCl (w/v). Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene indicated that strain WRN-8T is a member of the genus

Microbulbifer

within the family

Microbulbiferaceae

, and the closest described neighbour in terms of 16S rRNA gene sequence identity is

Microbulbifer aestuariivivens

KCTC 52569T (98.1 %). The major respiratory quinone of strain WRN-8T is Q-8, its predominant fatty acids are iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 0, C16 : 0, iso-C11 : 03-OH and summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω6c and/or C16 : 1ω7c), and its major polar lipids are phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, glycolipid, an unidentified phospholipid and an unidentified lipid. The draft genome obtained in this study was 3 643 020 bp, and the G+C content was 59.2 mol%. DNA–DNA hybridization (<46.3 %) and average nucleotide identity (<86.7 %) values between strain WRN-8T and the closest-related recognized

Microbulbifer

species confirmed the novelty of this new species. Therefore, we propose a novel species in the genus

Microbulbifer

to accommodate the novel isolate:

Microbulbifer
flavimaris sp. nov. (type strain WRN-8T=KCTC 42989T=ACCC 19926T).
Actinomadura craniellae sp. nov., isolated from a marine sponge in the South China Sea
Authors: Li Lei , Xu Qi-hang , Wang Xiao-tian , Lin Hou-wen , Lu Yan-hua
Published: February 2019

A novel marine actinomycete, designated LHW63021T, was isolated from a marine sponge, genus Craniella, collected in the South China Sea. A polyphasic approach was applied to characterize the taxonomic position of this strain. The strain was found to have scarce aerial mycelia that differentiated into spore chains. The cell-wall hydrolysates contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. Glucose, galactose, mannose and madurose were found in the whole-cell hydrolysates. The dominant polar lipids were phosphatidylinositol and diphosphatidylglycerol. MK-9(H6) and MK-9(H8) were the predominant menaquinones. The major fatty acids were iso-C16 : 0, iso-C18 : 0, 10-methyl C17 : 0 and C18 : 1 ω9c. The DNA G+C content based on the draft genome sequence was 72.0 mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that strain LHW63021T was a member of the genus

Actinomadura

and had the highest similarity to

Actinomadura echinospora

DSM 43163T (97.3 %). Phylogenetic trees supported their close relationship. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between the whole genome sequences of strain LHW63021T and

A. echinospora

DSM 43163T were 79.13 and 23.20 %, respectively. The evidence from the polyphasic study shows that strain LHW63021T represents a novel species of the genus

Actinomadura

, for which the name

Actinomadura
craniellae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LHW63021T (=DSM 106125T=CCTCC AA 2018015T).
Genomic correlates of extraintestinal infection are linked with changes in cell morphology in Campylobacter jejuni
Authors: Wheeler Nicole E. , Blackmore Timothy , Reynolds Angela D. , Midwinter Anne C. , Marshall Jonathan , French Nigel P. , Savoian Matthew S. , Gardner Paul P. , Biggs Patrick J.
Published: February 2019

Campylobacter jejuni

is the most common cause of bacterial diarrheal disease in the world. Clinical outcomes of infection can range from asymptomatic infection to life-threatening extraintestinal infections. This variability in outcomes for infected patients has raised questions as to whether genetic differences between

C. jejuni

isolates contribute to their likelihood of causing severe disease. In this study, we compare the genomes of ten

C. jejuni

isolates that were implicated in extraintestinal infections with reference gastrointestinal isolates, in order to identify unusual patterns of sequence variation associated with infection outcome. We identified a collection of genes that display a higher burden of uncommon mutations in invasive isolates compared with gastrointestinal close relatives, including some that have been previously linked to virulence and invasiveness in

C. jejuni

. Among the top genes identified were mreB and pgp1, which are both involved in determining cell shape. Electron microscopy confirmed morphological differences in isolates carrying unusual sequence variants of these genes, indicating a possible relationship between extraintestinal infection and changes in cell morphology.