The Role of the Tuna Fishery in the Economy of the Federated States of Micronesia

The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) inherited an environmentally fragile and somewhat arbitrary base for nationhood that bears little resemblance to its inhabitants’ usual spheres of interaction during millennia of occupation of the region. FSM has a small population scattered across a myriad of islands whose land area is far smaller than the tuna-rich area of ocean encompassed within its territorial waters. It is perhaps not surprising then that FSM’s fisheries have been seen by many as the main hope for its economic future. This issue has become all the more urgent in recent years with the signing of a new agreement that will see funding by the United States gradually diminish until 2023. The search for viable alternatives to its past and current reliance on US funding has now become the central issue in FSM. While fisheries are an important asset for FSM, other economic options offer perhaps greater promise, while the modification of existing Carolinian institutions offers a more effective and possibly less disruptive means of achieving economic independence and modernity and a sustainable fishery than other solution, which seek to ‘fast-track’ the process by grafting modern western institutions onto islander societies. These problems and proposed solutions are not limited to FSM, but have wider applicability across much of Oceania

China in the Pacific: some policy considerations for Australia and New Zealand

"... Opinion remains divided on the consequences of this increased presence and the influence of PRC and Taiwanese interests in the Pacific Islands. Chinese diaspora business elements from Southeast Asia have also become more prominent in the Pacific Islands region in recent years. There is division on whether this recent rise in overall Chinese activity will be sustained. This paper investigates these key issues, highlights areas where information is uncertain or unavailable, then outlines the schools of thought concerned with these matters in the Pacific and elsewhere, before suggesting a variety of regional and national responses that might be appropriate given the evidence available ..." - page 2AusAI

Significant Spaces: The Role of Marine Ecosystems in Pacific Island Cultures

Recent scholarship on the collapse of Rapanui (Easter Island) society as a result of self-inflicted environmental degradation has inadvertently raised the international profile of Pacific islands as small, bounded and vulnerable ecosystems. The history of Rapanui is not typical however. Most of the inhabitants of Remote Oceania were not bound by the sea, but rather embraced it as both habitat and pathway to resources and opportunities beyond their home islands. Academic neglect of the sea as a factor in Pacific history ignores its central role in islander actions and narratives. Before the imposition of colonial rule, islanders spent much time in and on the ocean, drawing sustenance from it, mapping it, fighting over it, and deriving a sense of identity from it. Such a world created a wider sense of community and belonging

The nourishing sea: Partnered guardianship of fishery and seabed mineral resources for the economic viability of small Pacific Island Nations

While island biogeography and modern economics portray Pacific island nations as isolated, ecologically fragile, resource poor and barely viable economies forever dependent on foreign aid, Pacific island history and culture conceives of their islands as

The Lawless Sea? Policy Options for Voluntary Compliance Regimes in Offshore Resource Zones in the Pacific

Pacific open ocean fisheries are classic examples of the tragedy of the commons where a lack of defined ownership results in competitive overexploitation by multiple parties. Such circumstances exist over most Pacific seas beyond site of land due to scarce monitoring resources. Voluntary conservation regimes are not working, as fisheries decline substantially. The Pacific has diverse management regimes and approaches, gaps between recommended principles of management and certain practices, and a need for more comprehensive data on assumptions underlying management regimes, especially marine protected areas. Compliance regimes can be enhanced through greater consultation and incorporation of stakeholders in policy-making and enforcement, devoting more resources to monitoring and enforcement, and integrating sustainable management regimes with national economic development needs. The focus of ocean policy primarily on fisheries issues needs to be broadened to include consideration of the compatible use of seabed minerals and biota with medicinal benefit

The Rise of China in the Pacific

Central to the Australian Government's approach to the Southwest Pacific is the view that Australia has a special role to play in the region. Enhancing Australia's leadership role in contributing to security and stability in the region is at the core of this approach. The perceived withdrawal from the region by the United States has heightened the importance of Australia's role and to a lesser extent New Zealand's, which has been Australia's main partner in regional peacekeeping operations.AusAIDThis briefing note was based on Paul D�Arcy�s paper �Introduction: A New Era in Chinese-Pacific Engagement� and Hank Nelson�s paper �The Chinese in Papua New Guinea�. Nancy Krause compiled the Policy Briefing Note based on this wor

Proposed Allosteric Inhibitors Bind to the ATP Site of CK2α.

CK2α is a ubiquitous, well-studied kinase that is a target for small-molecule inhibition, for treatment of cancers. While many different classes of adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP)-competitive inhibitors have been described for CK2α, they tend to suffer from significant off-target activity and new approaches are needed. A series of inhibitors of CK2α has recently been described as allosteric, acting at a previously unidentified binding site. Given the similarity of these inhibitors to known ATP-competitive inhibitors, we have investigated them further. In our thorough structural and biophysical analyses, we have found no evidence that these inhibitors bind to the proposed allosteric site. Rather, we report crystal structures, competitive isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and NMR, hydrogen-deuterium exchange (HDX) mass spectrometry, and chemoinformatic analyses that all point to these compounds binding in the ATP pocket. Comparisons of our results and experimental approach with the data presented in the original report suggest that the primary reason for the disparity is nonspecific inhibition by aggregation

Book Reviews

Book Reviews: Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change From Hawaii to Iraq by Stephen Kinzer ; Longitude and Empire: How Captain Cook's Voyages Changed the World by Brian W. Richardson ; Pacific Encounters: Art & Diversity in Polynesia 1760-1860 by Steven Hooper ; All Men Are Brothers: The Life & Times of Francis Williams Damon by Paul Berry ; Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement, & Political Manipulation at America's Largest Charitable Trust by Samuel P. King and Randall W. Roth ; Crowning the Nice Girl: Gender, Ethnicity, and Culture in Hawai'i's Cherry Blossom Festival by Christine R. Yano ; Combat Chaplain: The Personal Story of the World War II Chaplain of the Japanese American 100th Battalion by Israel A. S. Yost ; Hawaiian Volcanoes by Clarence Edward Dutton ; Reworking Race: The Making of Hawaii's Interracial Labor Movement by Moon-Kie Jung ; Islands in a Far Sea: The Fate of Nature in Hawai'i by John L. Culliney

Reproducible big data science: A case study in continuous FAIRness

Big biomedical data create exciting opportunities for discovery, but make it difficult to capture analyses and outputs in forms that are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). In response, we describe tools that make it easy to capture, and assign identifiers to, data and code throughout the data lifecycle. We illustrate the use of these tools via a case study involving a multi-step analysis that creates an atlas of putative transcription factor binding sites from terabytes of ENCODE DNase I hypersensitive sites sequencing data. We show how the tools automate routine but complex tasks, capture analysis algorithms in understandable and reusable forms, and harness fast networks and powerful cloud computers to process data rapidly, all without sacrificing usability or reproducibility—thus ensuring that big data are not hard-to-(re)use data. We evaluate our approach via a user study, and show that 91% of participants were able to replicate a complex analysis involving considerable data volumes