Pride in ethnic language and numerical dominance: A case study of the Iban in Sarawak, Malaysia

Indigenous speech communities usually experience language shift because of their smaller population in relation to other ethnic groups, who may hold more political power and whose languages may have official language status. Past research has indicated that smaller groups tend to experience hastened shift away from their ethnic languages compared to bigger groups. If the indigenous group is living in an area where they are the dominant group such as the Iban in Song, a rural town in Sarawak, Malaysia, then their language is still somewhat a lingua franca. Ting, Tinggang, and Metom (2021) found that Iban is still widely used in these six domains: family, friendship, transactions, religious, employment, and education (when it involves informal interactions). The Iban people have positive attitudes but are speaking more Malay than the older generation. The question is whether the Iban people living among other ethnic groups outside of their home-ground have strong positive attitudes that can motivate them to extensively speak their language. The study investigated how pride in the Iban language is influenced by the numerical dominance of the Iban community in in Sarawak, Malaysia. The Iban is the largest ethnic group in Sarawak, accounting for 28.6% of the 2.79 million population (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2017). The other major ethnic groups are Malay (22.92%), Chinese (22.36%), Bidayuh (7.81%) and Melanau (5.10%). The Iban language is distinctively different from other indigenous languages but there is little regional variation which enables Iban speakers from different areas in Sarawak to communicate in Iban with intelligibility. The Iban language has been standardised and taught as a subject in primary schools since 1968, formalised as part of national curriculum and included in lower secondary syllabus in 1988, and offered as elective subject in the Malaysian Certificate of Education (SPM) in 2008 (Ting & Tensing, 2010). Iban is now also offered as a minor subject in some universities. Outside of the Iban community, people from other ethnic groups can speak Iban only if they have extended contact with Iban speakers. This descriptive study on Iban language attitudes was conducted in Sarawak, Malaysia. The questionnaire data were from 84 Iban respondents who reside in various parts of the state, some in areas where the Iban population is larger than other ethnic groups (24 in Iban-dominant areas) and others in areas where the percentage of Iban people is low (60 in non-Iban dominant areas). The 87-item questionnaire was developed based on the assessment tool proposed by UNESCO for measuring the vitality of languages (Brenzinger et al., 2003). In this paper, the results for the 16 items on language attitudes towards language and ethnic group membership, reasons for the importance of the Iban language, and intergenerational transmission of the Iban language are reported. Collection of data was done in October 2020, whereby potential respondents were contacted by the first researcher via phone, email, and WhatsApp messages. Percentages were computed for the results. The results on attitudes towards language and ethnic group membership revealed that a majority of the Iban respondents believed that Iban parentage is a stronger factor than speaking the Iban language to claim membership in the ethnic community. They believed that speaking Iban is part of being an Iban since they are born as Ibans. Nevertheless, they strongly agreed that speaking Iban is part of being an Iban because it symbolises their culture, heritage, and identity. They speak Iban to show that they belong to the Iban ethnic group, and they feel proud because they can speak Iban. However, for the item on whether they feel superior to others when they speak Iban, there were differences in results between respondents who reside in Iban and non-Iban dominant areas. A majority of the respondents from Iban dominant areas felt superior but those from non-Iban dominant areas did not. This is probably because they live among other ethnic groups and are inclined to think of other ethnic groups as more superior due to their larger numbers. The Iban respondents agreed that Iban is an important language because there are a lot of Iban speakers. The fact that the Iban is the largest indigenous group in Sarawak is often publicised in the mass media. However, beliefs on whether the importance of the Iban language is derived from the social status of Iban speakers differed between those who reside in Iban and non-Iban dominant areas. A majority of those residing in Iban dominant areas such as Sibu and Sri Aman believed that Iban is an important language because Iban speakers are a powerful group in politics but those living in non-Iban dominant areas like Kuching do not share this view. Historically, one of the deputy chief ministers in Sarawak has been Iban and there are many Iban politicians. The Iban respondents valued their ethnic language, and wanted it to be transmitted to the younger generation through formal and informal means. It is the language they cherish the most. They believed that it is important for the Iban students to learn the language in school. The respondents also believed that it is important for the Iban speakers to speak the language to the young generation. To them, Iban people should speak Iban well although they acknowledged that English is the most useful language for their career and studies. While English has its instrumental value, Iban has its heritage value. The respondents believed that their future generations will still speak Iban in 20 years. This study shows that the Iban respondents are inclined towards the paternity dimension of Fishman’s (1977) model on language and ethnicity, whereby ethnicity is inherited. This is an interesting finding because other studies such as Puah and Ting (2017) have found that the Chinese are inclined to believe in the patrimony dimension of the language-ethnicity relationship. The Malay in Malaysia have been inculcated to believe in the patrimony dimension of ethnicity because the Federal Constitution (Article 160) defines a “Malay” as a person who professes the religion of Islam, habitually speaks the Malay language, and conforms to Malay custom. For the Iban, the patrimony beliefs are not as strong in comparison although they also believe that the Iban language is a symbol of their membership in the Iban community and want their language to be passed on to future generations. Their pride in the Iban language is derived from the numerical dominance of the Iban group in Sarawak. What is most insightful from the study is that Iban respondents who live among large numbers of people from other ethnic groups are less likely to feel superior about speaking Iban or about the high social status of Iban speakers in the political arena. The study suggests that as communities become more cosmopolitan, ethnic language pride may decrease. References Brenzinger, M., Dwyer, A. M., Graaf, T., Grinevald, C., Krauss, M., Miyaoka, O., Ostler, N., Sakiyama, O., Villalón, M. E., Yamamoto, A. Y., & Zapeda, O. (2003, March 10-12). Language vitality and endangerment. International Expert Meeting on UNESCO Programme Safeguarding of Endangered Languages; Paris, France. https://pure.mpg.de/rest/items/item_1468187/component/file_1468185/content DOSM (Department of Statistics, Malaysia). (2017). Sarawak population by district 2017. https://data.sarawak.gov.my/home/data/resource_download/709 Fishman, J. (1977). Language and ethnicity. In H. Giles (Ed.), Language, ethnicity, and intergroup relations (pp. 15-57). London: Academic Press. Puah, Y. Y., & Ting, S. H. (2017). Influence of gender on language attitudes of Hokkien speakers of Sarawak. In A. Omar & N. Norahim (Eds.), Linguistic minorities: Their existence & identity within larger communities (pp. 209-245). Kota Samarahan, Malaysia: Penerbit Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Ting, S. H., & Tensing, F. (2010, July 5-7). Focal points of grammar teaching in secondary school Iban textbooks [Paper presentation]. 10th Biennial Borneo Research Council (BRC 2010) International Conference, Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia. Ting, S. H., Tinggang, A., & Metom, L. (2021). Language use and attitudes as indicators of subjective vitality: The Iban of Sarawak, Malaysia. Language Documentation and Conservation, 15, 190-218. https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/24973/ting_et_al.pd

A novel di-acidic motif facilitates ER export of the syntaxin SYP31

It is generally accepted that ER protein export is largely influenced by the transmembrane domain (TMD). The situation is unclear for membrane-anchored proteins such as SNAREs, which are anchored to the membrane by their TMD at the C-terminus. For example, in plants, Sec22 and SYP31 (a yeast Sed5 homologue) have a 17 aa TMD but different locations (ER/Golgi and Golgi), indicating that TMD length alone is not sufficient to explain their targeting. To establish the identity of factors that influence SNARE targeting, mutagenesis and live cell imaging experiments were performed on SYP31. It was found that deletion of the entire N-terminus domain of SYP31 blocked the protein in the ER. Several deletion mutants of different parts of this N-terminus domain indicated that a region between the SNARE helices Hb and Hc is required for Golgi targeting. In this region, replacement of the aa sequence MELAD by GAGAG or MALAG retained the protein in the ER, suggesting that MELAD may function as a di-acidic ER export motif EXXD. This suggestion was further verified by replacing the established di-acidic ER export motif DLE of a type II Golgi protein AtCASP and a membrane-anchored type I chimaera, TMcCCASP, by MELAD or GAGAG. The MELAD motif allowed the proteins to reach the Golgi, whereas the motif GAGAG was found to be insufficient to facilitate ER protein export. Our analyses indicate that we have identified a novel and transplantable di-acidic motif that facilitates ER export of SYP31 and may function for type I and type II proteins in plants

The Iban of Sarawak, Malaysia: Ethnic Language Losing Ground to English and Sarawak Malay

Abstract Language use by the Iban people in Sarawak, Malaysia, was studied and the focus was on the following specific objectives: (a) to describe the language use patterns of the Iban people in Iban dominant and non-Iban dominant areas in nine domains and (b) to identify the stable domains of language use for the Iban language. The data were from 84 Iban respondents, elicited using a questionnaire designed based on the UNESCO framework. The percentage of Iban usage was higher in Iban-dominant areas (30%–70%) than in non-Iban dominant areas (10%–60%). The results revealed that there was intergenerational language transmission but English was encroaching into family communications involving spouse and children. Furthermore, the usage of Iban was dwindling outside the family domain. In particular, Iban was losing ground to English in four domains (friends, classmates, workmates, and prayers) and to Sarawak Malay in two domains (public places, and market). In non-Iban dominant areas, the results on languages used in public places and in new domains (social media communication) indicate that domains of language use currently occupied by Iban may be taken over by English and Malay in the future with more ethnically-mixed family, friendship, work, and public spaces

Current Management Guidelines on Hyperlipidemia: The Silent Killer

Given the high incidence of cardiovascular events in the United States, strict control of modifiable risk factors is important. Pharmacotherapy is helpful in maintaining control of modifiable risk factors such as elevated lipids or hypercholesterolemia. Hypercholesterolemia can lead to atherosclerotic disease which may increase the risk of acute coronary events. Statin therapy has long been a mainstay in the treatment of hypercholesterolemia, but while highly regarded, statin therapy also has side effects that may lead to patient noncompliance. Therefore, various medicines are being developed to manage hypercholesterolemia. This paper will discuss the role that lipids play in the pathophysiology of atherosclerotic disease, review the current lipid management guidelines, and discuss new treatment options that are alternatives to statin therapy

Possible composite-fermion liquid as a crossover from Wigner crystal to bubble phase in higher Landau level

The ground state cohesive energies per electron of the composite fermion (CF) Fermi sea, the Laughlin state and the charge density wave (CDW) at higher Landau levels (LLs) are computed. It is shown that whereas for $n\geq 2$ LL, the CDW state is generally more energetically preferable than those of the CF liquid and the Laughlin liquid, the $\nu =4+1/6$ CF liquid state unexpectedly has lower ground state energy than that of the CDW state. We suggest this CF liquid between the Wigner crystal and the bubble phase may lead to the crossover from the normal integer quantum Hall liquid to the novel re-entrant integer quantum Hall state observed in the recent magneto-transport experiments

The One Health Approach to Toxoplasmosis: Epidemiology, Control, and Prevention Strategies

One Health is a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort that seeks optimal health for people, animals, plants, and the environment. Toxoplasmosis, caused by Toxoplasma gondii, is an intracellular protozoan infection distributed worldwide, with a heteroxenous life cycle that practically affects all homeotherms and in which felines act as definitive reservoirs. Herein, we review the natural history of T. gondii, its transmission and impacts in humans, domestic animals, wildlife both terrestrial and aquatic, and ecosystems. The epidemiology, prevention, and control strategies are reviewed, with the objective of facilitating awareness of this disease and promoting transdisciplinary collaborations, integrative research, and capacity building among universities, government agencies, NGOs, policy makers, practicing physicians, veterinarians, and the general public

Quantum liquid-crystal order in resonant atomic gases

I review recent studies that predict quantum liquid-crystalline orders in resonant atomic gases. As examples of such putative systems I will discuss an s-wave resonant imbalanced Fermi gas and a p-wave resonant Bose gas. In the former, the liquid-crystalline smectic, nematic and rich variety of other descendant states emerge from strongly quantum- and thermally- fluctuating Fulde-Ferrell and Larkin-Ovchinnikov states, driven by a competition between resonant pairing and Fermi-surface mismatch. In the latter, at intermediate detuning the p-wave resonant interaction generically drives Bose-condensation at a finite momentum, set by a competition between atomic kinetic energy and atom-molecule hybridization. Because of the underlying rotationally-invariant environment of the atomic gas trapped isotropically, the putative striped superfluid is a realization of a quantum superfluid smectic, that can melt into a variety of interesting phases, such as a quantum nematic. I will discuss the corresponding rich phase diagrams and transitions, as well the low-energy properties of the phases and fractional topological defects generic to striped superfluids and their fluctuation-driven descendants.Comment: Invited Review, 25 pages, 17 figure

Silencing Nociceptor Neurons Reduces Allergic Airway Inflammation

Lung nociceptors initiate cough and bronchoconstriction. To elucidate if these fibers also contribute to allergic airway inflammation, we stimulated lung nociceptors with capsaicin and observed increased neuropeptide release and immune cell infiltration. In contrast, ablating Nav1.8(+) sensory neurons or silencing them with QX-314, a charged sodium channel inhibitor that enters via large-pore ion channels to specifically block nociceptors, substantially reduced ovalbumin- or house-dust-mite-induced airway inflammation and bronchial hyperresponsiveness. We also discovered that IL-5, a cytokine produced by activated immune cells, acts directly on nociceptors to induce the release of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). VIP then stimulates CD4(+) and resident innate lymphoid type 2 cells, creating an inflammatory signaling loop that promotes allergic inflammation. Our results indicate that nociceptors amplify pathological adaptive immune responses and that silencing these neurons with QX-314 interrupts this neuro-immune interplay, revealing a potential new therapeutic strategy for asthma