Sex and Slander in Tikopia Song: Public Antagonism and Private Intrigue

Tikopia, a small Polynesian island community in the Solomon Islands, has had a great tradition of orally communicated song. This song tradition has had several marked features. It was very largely a choral tradition. Individual singing occurred in the chants of some traditional tales, in a few ritual chants, in laments of emotional release as in farewells or abandonment of mourning, and in practice sessions when a new song was being learned. But such occasions were relatively uncommon; the great mass of Tikopia singing was done in chorus. Correspondingly, there was no virtuoso singing, by a soloist performing for an audience. Nor was any great importance attached to the quality of a voice; memory for songs and vocal power were the criteria of a purotu, an expert

Some modalistic conceptions of the Trinity.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThe purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the position of the early Christian writings regarding the Trinity, to consider some developments in modalistic thought regarding the Trinity, and to present a rational and empirical view of the Trinity. The word "modalism" will be used rather than "Sabellianism" because it is a broader conception and includes certain modifications of Sabellianism. [TRUNCATED

Economic organisation of Polynesian societies: wealth and work of the Maori

This thesis is a study in economic anthropology. Opening with a critical estimate of the work previously done in the subject, it proceeds to an analysis of the economic life of the Maori, the method of functional observation and the correlation being followed. An account is first given of the environmental conditions of the native and the natural resources at his command. The social structure of the Maori community is then analysed and its relation to the economic organisation shown, special consideration being given to the problem of the position of the family in native life. By following the sequence of operation in a typical industry - bird snaring - it is shown how complex is the psychology of the Maori in his work, how motives of pleasure, pride, vanity and ambition round off the more purely utilitarian interests. Reference to other activities again proves that the native is capable of steady and industrious labour, when the proper stimuli are provided. The different forms of organisation in production are next described, with attention to the nature of leadership. The place of magic in economic life is reviewed at length, owing to its vital importance in assisting the stability and organisation of the work. A further set of problems is opened by consideration of the methods and principles of sharing out the product of labour as well as those of the ownership of the property, and the tenure of land. The nature of primitive economic values and of the system of exchange examined, while with the aid of maps the extensive nature of communication in oldern times is revealed. The radical alteration in the Maori economic structure consequent upon the coming of the European is analysed with its phases of initial impact, enthusiastic adoption of new culture forms, reaction, and renewed acceptance of the ways of white man. Finally it is emphasised how economic activity enlists forces of other social types to promote its own efficiency

Bilateral symmetry breaking in a nonlinear Fabry-Perot cavity exhibiting optical tristability

We show the existence of a region in the parameter space that defines the field dynamics in a Fabry-Perot cylindrical cavity, where three output stable stationary states of the light are possible for a given localized incident field. Two of these states do not preserve the bilateral (i.e. left-right) symmetry of the entire system. These broken-symmetry states are the high-transmission nonlinear modes of the system. We also discuss how to excite these states.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Stimulation of stop codon readthrough: frequent presence of an extended 3′ RNA structural element

In Sindbis, Venezuelan equine encephalitis and related alphaviruses, the polymerase is translated as a fusion with other non-structural proteins via readthrough of a UGA stop codon. Surprisingly, earlier work reported that the signal for efficient readthrough comprises a single cytidine residue 3′-adjacent to the UGA. However, analysis of variability at synonymous sites revealed strikingly enhanced conservation within the ∼150 nt 3′-adjacent to the UGA, and RNA folding algorithms revealed the potential for a phylogenetically conserved stem–loop structure in the same region. Mutational analysis of the predicted structure demonstrated that the stem–loop increases readthrough by up to 10-fold. The same computational analysis indicated that similar RNA structures are likely to be relevant to readthrough in certain plant virus genera, notably Furovirus, Pomovirus, Tobravirus, Pecluvirus and Benyvirus, as well as the Drosophilia gene kelch. These results suggest that 3′ RNA stimulatory structures feature in a much larger proportion of readthrough cases than previously anticipated, and provide a new criterion for assessing the large number of cellular readthrough candidates that are currently being revealed by comparative sequence analysis

Gendered endings: Narratives of male and female suicides in the South African Lowveld

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11013-012-9258-y. Copyright @ Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012.Durkheim’s classical theory of suicide rates being a negative index of social solidarity downplays the salience of gendered concerns in suicide. But gendered inequalities have had a negative impact: worldwide significantly more men than women perpetrate fatal suicides. Drawing on narratives of 52 fatal suicides in Bushbuckridge, South Africa, this article suggests that Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘symbolic violence’ and ‘masculine domination’ provide a more appropriate framework for understanding this paradox. I show that the thwarting of investments in dominant masculine positions have been the major precursor to suicides by men. Men tended to take their own lives as a means of escape. By contrast, women perpetrated suicide to protest against the miserable consequences of being dominated by men. However, contra the assumption of Bourdieu’s concept of ‘habitus’, the narrators of suicide stories did reflect critically upon gender constructs

Whole genome sequencing reveals that genetic conditions are frequent in intensively ill children.

PURPOSE: With growing evidence that rare single gene disorders present in the neonatal period, there is a need for rapid, systematic, and comprehensive genomic diagnoses in ICUs to assist acute and long-term clinical decisions. This study aimed to identify genetic conditions in neonatal (NICU) and paediatric (PICU) intensive care populations. METHODS: We performed trio whole genome sequence (WGS) analysis on a prospective cohort of families recruited in NICU and PICU at a single site in the UK. We developed a research pipeline in collaboration with the National Health Service to deliver validated pertinent pathogenic findings within 2-3 weeks of recruitment. RESULTS: A total of 195 families had whole genome analysis performed (567 samples) and 21% received a molecular diagnosis for the underlying genetic condition in the child. The phenotypic description of the child was a poor predictor of the gene identified in 90% of cases, arguing for gene agnostic testing in NICU/PICU. The diagnosis affected clinical management in more than 65% of cases (83% in neonates) including modification of treatments and care pathways and/or informing palliative care decisions. A 2-3 week turnaround was sufficient to impact most clinical decision-making. CONCLUSIONS: The use of WGS in intensively ill children is acceptable and trio analysis facilitates diagnoses. A gene agnostic approach was effective in identifying an underlying genetic condition, with phenotypes and symptomatology being primarily used for data interpretation rather than gene selection. WGS analysis has the potential to be a first-line diagnostic tool for a subset of intensively ill children

Enabling global clinical collaborations on identifiable patient data: The Minerva Initiative

The clinical utility of computational phenotyping for both genetic and rare diseases is increasingly appreciated; however, its true potential is yet to be fully realized. Alongside the growing clinical and research availability of sequencing technologies, precise deep and scalable phenotyping is required to serve unmet need in genetic and rare diseases. To improve the lives of individuals affected with rare diseases through deep phenotyping, global big data interrogation is necessary to aid our understanding of disease biology, assist diagnosis, and develop targeted treatment strategies. This includes the application of cutting-edge machine learning methods to image data. As with most digital tools employed in health care, there are ethical and data governance challenges associated with using identifiable personal image data. There are also risks with failing to deliver on the patient benefits of these new technologies, the biggest of which is posed by data siloing. The Minerva Initiative has been designed to enable the public good of deep phenotyping while mitigating these ethical risks. Its open structure, enabling collaboration and data sharing between individuals, clinicians, researchers and private enterprise, is key for delivering precision public health

Introduction

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67161/2/10.1177_0308275X9301300401.pd