Turning the Tables on Humanity

What do we mean by “progress”? And does our incessant pursuit of progress harm our relationship with nature and our fellow creatures, both human and non-human animals, on this planet? This paper explores these questions through an analysis of “Chūmon no ōi ryōriten” (“The Restaurant of Many Orders,” 1924), a short story by Miyazawa Kenji. Written in the modern literary genre of dōwa, this humorous tale features two arrogant young gentlemen from Tokyo who get more than they bargained for when they go hunting deep in the mountains. Despite its initial rejection by the literary establishment, “Chūmon no ōi ryōriten” was rediscovered after World War II, perhaps owing to the resonance of its themes as Japan was seeking to reconfigure its place in the global community.Focusing on the metaphors of food and consumption, I explore this story’s parody of Japan’s “progress” in the early twentieth century, including its critique of the ideological tensions between traditional values and capitalist imperatives, modernization/Westernization as a form of cultural capital, the links between meat and militarization, and the impact of urbanization on the planet. Its “eat or be eaten” theme also bears fruitful comparison with works by the Brothers Grimm, Lewis Carroll, and Richard Connell.What distinguishes “Chūmon no ōi ryōriten,” however, is its lack of a human-centric focus, as the reader is not led to identify with the human protagonists but, rather, becomes attuned to the voices and interconnectedness of the natural world. By questioning the modern myth of progress and positing a more sustainable, holistic, and compassionate relationship for humanity with nature, this story continues to resonate with some of the most pressing ecological, social, political, and ethical concerns of our time

Aspects of social development in new countries: impacts of immigration on nation-building and state formation

Nation-building and state formation have been primary aspects of social development in New Countries; i.e., the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and Canada. Part of the reason for this is sought in the retardation of ethnic and geographic integration, deriving from the fact that these five countries have large territories and relatively short histories of settlement. These two properties in combination distinguish them from the rest of the world, particularly in respect to effects on social development. Moreover, as these countries have received the largest \ volume of immigration recorded in history, the problem of the ethnic and geographic integration involved in nation-building and state formation was reshaped during the mass immigration period of 1880 to 1930. The distinctive characteristics of their social development from settlement colonies to modern states have frequently been referred to in the social science literature and in the historiography of New Countries, but there has been little success in constructing a model of the social development in New Countries. Immigration studies, on the other hand, have been either too general or too specific to differentiate uniqueness from generality in the social effects of immigration in New Countries. In the present study, the process of nation-building and state formation is not analysed in economic or social psychological terms but from a social structural perspective. Social demographic data are analysed in conjunction with qualitative documents in order to explicate the interactive patterns of social classes. The analysis of social demographic data was facilitated by the decomposition of the total societal system into six dimensions of social differentiation: ethnic, regional, urban, family-role, industrial, and occupational. Special emphasis was given to changes in the ethnic, regional and urban dimensions because these three dimensions are directly related to nation-building and .state formation processes. However, changes in the other three dimensions are briefly discussed as well. The analysis of social demographic changes and changes generated by the interaction of social classes showed a parallelism in nation-building and state formation in particular, and social development in general, among these New Countrie

Binocular summation and other forms of non-dominant eye contribution in individuals with strabismic amblyopia during habitual viewing

YesAdults with amblyopia ('lazy eye'), long-standing strabismus (ocular misalignment) or both typically do not experience visual symptoms because the signal from weaker eye is given less weight than the signal from its fellow. Here we examine the contribution of the weaker eye of individuals with strabismus and amblyopia with both eyes open and with the deviating eye in its anomalous motor position. The task consisted of a blue-on-yellow detection task along a horizontal line across the central 50 degrees of the visual field. We compare the results obtained in ten individuals with strabismic amblyopia with ten visual normals. At each field location in each participant, we examined how the sensitivity exhibited under binocular conditions compared with sensitivity from four predictions, (i) a model of binocular summation, (ii) the average of the monocular sensitivities, (iii) dominant-eye sensitivity or (iv) non-dominant-eye sensitivity. The proportion of field locations for which the binocular summation model provided the best description of binocular sensitivity was similar in normals (50.6%) and amblyopes (48.2%). Average monocular sensitivity matched binocular sensitivity in 14.1% of amblyopes' field locations compared to 8.8% of normals'. Dominant-eye sensitivity explained sensitivity at 27.1% of field locations in amblyopes but 21.2% in normals. Non-dominant-eye sensitivity explained sensitivity at 10.6% of field locations in amblyopes but 19.4% in normals. Binocular summation provided the best description of the sensitivity profile in 6/10 amblyopes compared to 7/10 of normals. In three amblyopes, dominant-eye sensitivity most closely reflected binocular sensitivity (compared to two normals) and in the remaining amblyope, binocular sensitivity approximated to an average of the monocular sensitivities. Our results suggest a strong positive contribution in habitual viewing from the non-dominant eye in strabismic amblyopes. This is consistent with evidence from other sources that binocular mechanisms are frequently intact in strabismic and amblyopic individuals

A Limited Role for Suppression in the Central Field of Individuals with Strabismic Amblyopia.

yesBackground: Although their eyes are pointing in different directions, people with long-standing strabismic amblyopia typically do not experience double-vision or indeed any visual symptoms arising from their condition. It is generally believed that the phenomenon of suppression plays a major role in dealing with the consequences of amblyopia and strabismus, by preventing images from the weaker/deviating eye from reaching conscious awareness. Suppression is thus a highly sophisticated coping mechanism. Although suppression has been studied for over 100 years the literature is equivocal in relation to the extent of the retina that is suppressed, though the method used to investigate suppression is crucial to the outcome. There is growing evidence that some measurement methods lead to artefactual claims that suppression exists when it does not. Methodology/Results: Here we present the results of an experiment conducted with a new method to examine the prevalence, depth and extent of suppression in ten individuals with strabismic amblyopia. Seven subjects (70%) showed no evidence whatsoever for suppression and in the three individuals who did (30%), the depth and extent of suppression was small. Conclusions: Suppression may play a much smaller role in dealing with the negative consequences of strabismic amblyopia than previously thought. Whereas recent claims of this nature have been made only in those with micro-strabismus our results show extremely limited evidence for suppression across the central visual field in strabismic amblyopes more generally. Instead of suppressing the image from the weaker/deviating eye, we suggest the visual system of individuals with strabismic amblyopia may act to maximise the possibilities for binocular co-operation. This is consistent with recent evidence from strabismic and amblyopic individuals that their binocular mechanisms are intact, and that, just as in visual normals, performance with two eyes is better than with the better eye alone in these individuals

Morbidity trends in the population of a specialised homeless primary care service

An increasing body of research demonstrates that homelessness is an independent risk factor for morbidity and premature death. This paper compares the frequency of diagnoses between 2003 and 2009 in the computerised records of a specialist practice for homeless people. The changing morbidity trends revealed offer a basis for comparison with other services and suggest benefits from collaborative working, particularly around substance misuse and mental health

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis:Correlations between fluid biomarkers of NfL, TDP-43, and tau, and clinical characteristics

Objectives We previously reported the diagnostic and prognostic performance of neurofilament light chain (NfL), TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43), and total tau (t-tau) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) biomarkers. The present study aimed to elucidate associations between clinical characteristics and the markers as well as mutual associations of the markers in ALS patients using the same dataset. Methods NfL, TDP-43, and t-tau levels in CSF and plasma in 75 ALS patients were analyzed. The associations between those markers and clinical details were investigated by uni- and multivariate analyses. Correlations between the markers were analyzed univariately. Results In multivariate analysis of CSF proteins, the disease progression rate (DPR) was positively correlated with NfL (β: 0.51, p = 0.007) and t-tau (β: 0.37, p = 0.03). Plasma NfL was correlated with age (β: 0.53, p = 0.005) and diagnostic grade (β: -0.42, p = 0.02) in multivariate analysis. Plasma TDP-43 was correlated negatively with split hand index (β: -0.48, p = 0.04) and positively with % vital capacity (β: 0.64, p = 0.03) in multivariate analysis. Regarding mutual biomarker analysis, a negative correlation between CSF-NfL and TDP-43 was identified (r: -0.36, p = 0.002). Conclusions Elevated NfL and t-tau levels in CSF may be biomarkers to predict rapid DPR from onset to sample collection. The negative relationship between CSF NfL and TDP-43 suggests that elevation of CSF TDP-43 in ALS is not a simple consequence of its release into CSF during neurodegeneration. The negative correlation between plasma TDP-43 and split hand index may support the pathophysiological association between plasma TDP-43 and ALS