Economy and Protein Malnutrition Among the Digo

In short, even where protein malnutrition is primarily a result of poor environment, economy, and technology, other, often less obvious, traditional cultural patterns must be taken into account in any development and improvement program. If kwashiorkor is to be eliminated satisfactorily, and if contingent problems are to be kept to a minimum, these other patterns must often also be modified. The importance of traditional cultural patterns is perhaps best illustrated by an example of a people who suffer from protein malnutrition primarily because of them. The Digo tribe of coastal Kenya and Tanganyika, among whom this writer conducted anthropological field research from October, 1958 to May, 1960, provide an excellent case in point. In spite of an adequate food supply perhaps as many as 25 % of Digo infants up to the age of about five or six suffer from kwashiorkor. Few individuals older than six have kwashiorkor, presumably both because of a change in diet at about this age, and because infants seriously afflicted die. In analyzing this situation, let us first briefly survey Digo environment, economy and diet. Then let us examine Digo concepts about and means of dealing with kwashiorkor. In conclusion, let us consider ways of combating kwashiorkor among the Digo

Egr2 and 3 control adaptive immune responses by temporally uncoupling expansion from T cell differentiation

Egr2 and 3 are important for maintaining immune homeostasis. Here we define a fundamental function of Egr2 and 3 operating as a checkpoint that controls the transition between clonal expansion and differentiation of effector T cells. Egr2 and 3 deficiency resulted in defective clonal expansion, but hyper-activation and excessive differentiation of T cells in response to viral infection. Conversely, sustained Egr2 expression enhanced expansion, but severely impaired effector differentiation. Egr2 bound to and controlled the expression of genes regulating proliferation (Myc, Myb) and differentiation repressors (Bcl6, Id3), while repressing transcription factors required for effector function (Zeb2, RORa, RORc, Bhlhe40). Egr2 and 3 expression in T cells was regulated reciprocally by antigen and IFNγ providing a mechanism for adjusting proliferation and differentiation of individual T cells. Thus, Egr2 and 3 are upstream regulators of effector CD4 and CD8 T cells that are essential for optimal responses with limited immunopathology

The Populist Paradox: Interest Group Influence and The Promise of Direct Legislation (1999), by Elisabeth R. Gerber. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Reviewed by Luther P. Gerlach

Photograph of a scene at a tree farm, in Southeast Oklahoma

The social organisation of the Digo of Kenya.

As a result of Islamic and Western influence, Digo matrilineal social organization has been greatly modified, so that matrilineal patterns co-exist with important patrilineal and bilateral patterns. This dissertation is concerned with the ways in which these various, mutually contradictory, patterns combine to form a stable, multilineal, social organization. The introduction presents the background data necessary to understand this organization. It shows how the Digo were influenced by Islam and the West, and it outlines how Digo unilineal organization was replaced by a multilineal system in which each Digo must develop a complex of mutual security and reciprocal aid associations. The first five chapters are concerned with an exposition of the various categories of kin from which such associations are made, and analyze the forces which support each relationship. These chapters show how to nuclear family expands to form ever larger multilineal kin groups, and illustrates how each group is established and maintained by complex of shared rights and duties. Chapter six deals with the former division of Digo society into generation sets, and shows what effect this former division has had upon the current Digo social organization. Chapter seven discusses the organization of adult men into a political and legal body known as the global ngambi, and it shows how this body, in conjunction with the utsi, or community, functions to regulate some aspects of Digo behaviour. It also shows how relationship of kinship, affinity, and friendship are manifested in legal disputes. Chapter eight presents a detailed survey of Digo patterns of marriage and divorce and a discussion of affinal relationship. It indicates how patterns of marriage and divorce are primarily a function of the Digo desire to establish and maintain rewarding mutual security associations. The final chapter shows how relationships of kinship, affinity and friendship are manifested in magico-medical curing ceremonies, and it suggest that such ceremonies are important to the Digo because they reaffirm, dramatize, and test such relationships

Protest movements and the construction of risk

SIGLEUuStB Koeln(38)-881101435 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Aristoteles anlässlich seines 2300. Todestages /

Papers and discussion from the section's yearly colloquium.Includes bibliographical references