Integration into the Market among Indigenous Peoples: A Cross‐Cultural Perspective from the Ecuadorian Amazon

The integration of indigenous peoples into the market economy has received attention in the literature because of its implications for both human well-being and ecological viability. Previous studies that have examined the impacts of market participation on variables such as forest clearance, health, and ecological knowledge vary greatly in their measures of market involvement and often use only one or a few measures. Examination of data from five indigenous populations in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon shows little correlation between various measures of integration into the market and points to the importance of using a diversity of measures of both household production and consumption

Crude, Cash and Culture Change: The Huaorani of Amazonian Ecuador

The idea of indigenous populations around the world as “noble savages” dominated literature for much of the 20th century. Further research into different tribes’ environmental practices as well as their integration into the market economy has begun to change this view. In Ecuadorian Amazon, the Huaorani are the most recently assimilated group, with some sub-groups still resisting contact with the outside. With vast reserves of oil present under Huaorani land, this indigenous group has quickly become integrated into national and international markets. The focus of this study is on one Huaorani community, Gareno, which is located along an oil road within the Amazon. Community members were interviewed in order to better understand why they lived along the oil road and how they felt it impacted their daily lives. Responses showed that the residents have chosen to live and stay in Gareno because of the health and education opportunities and ease of transport, but also because this area is ancestral territory. In addition, they left former villages, which were deep inside the forest, due to social conflict. It is notable that these push and pull factors complicate the notion of “noble savages” (who either continue to be isolated from the market or are unable to cope with it) and highlight indigenous agency and decision-making during a period of rapid cultural, economic, and ecological change. As the people of Gareno look to further improve their quality of life through development, it is important to foster more nuanced views of indigenous peoples to not only devise appropriate conservation and development policies but also to prevent a backlash when they do not conform to idealized Western images

Computationally Designed Bispecific Antibodies using Negative State Repertoires

A challenge in the structure-based design of specificity is modeling the negative states, i.e., the complexes that you do not want to form. This is a difficult problem because mutations predicted to destabilize the negative state might be accommodated by small conformational rearrangements. To overcome this challenge, we employ an iterative strategy that cycles between sequence design and protein docking in order to build up an ensemble of alternative negative state conformations for use in specificity prediction. We have applied our technique to the design of heterodimeric CH3 interfaces in the Fc region of antibodies. Combining computationally and rationally designed mutations produced unique designs with heterodimer purities greater than 90%. Asymmetric Fc crystallization was able to resolve the interface mutations; the heterodimer structures confirmed that the interfaces formed as designed. With these CH3 mutations, and those made at the heavy-/light-chain interface, we demonstrate one-step synthesis of four fully IgG-bispecific antibodies

TOURIST SATISFACTION AND REVISIT INTENTION: THE ROLE OF ATTRACTION, ACCESSIBILITY, AND FACILITIES OF WATER PARK TOURISM

Although it is crucial to investigate the effect of tourism components on satisfaction and revisit intention, there has not been any similar study that specifically explores the perception of young tourists visiting water parks. This study aims to investigate the effect of attraction, accessibility, and facilities on satisfaction and revisit intention. Using quantitative research methods with 269 young water park tourists, the data were analyzed by using SEM-PLS modeling. The results reveal that attraction, accessibility, and main facilities are significant predictors of satisfaction and revisit intention of young wate r park tourists. Meanwhile, the role of supporting facilities is not as important as the main ones. Support facilities do not impact revisit intention through young tourist satisfaction, even though tourists are satisfied with the support facilities, these supporting facilities do not make them intend to revisit. This study also discovers an interesting finding, that support facilities, both directly and indirectly, had no effect on revisit intention, and satisfaction does not mediate the effect of support facilities on revisit intention. These findings provide a meaningful insight for water park managers to provide tourism components that satisfy visitors so they have a strong intention to revisit

The effects of market integration on childhood growth and nutritional status: The dual burden of under- and over-nutrition in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon: Indigenous Childhood Nutritional Status

Market integration is an important source of cultural change exposing indigenous populations to epidemiologic and nutrition transitions. As children and adolescents are biologically sensitive to the health effects of market integration, we examine community variation of anthropometric indicators of nutritional status and growth among a cross-cultural sample of Kichwa, Shuar, Huaorani and Cofán indigenous groups in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon

Contrasting Colonist and Indigenous Impacts on Amazonian Forests: Colonist versus Indigenous Deforestation

To examine differences in land use and environmental impacts between colonist and indigenous populations in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon, we combined data from household surveys and remotely sensed imagery that was collected from 778 colonist households in 64 colonization sectors, and 499 households from five indigenous groups in 36 communities. Overall, measures of deforestation and forest fragmentation were significantly greater for colonists than indigenous peoples. On average, colonist households had approximately double the area in agriculture and cash crops and 5.5 times the area in pasture as indigenous households. Nevertheless, substantial variation in land-use patterns existed among the five indigenous groups in measures such as cattle ownership and use of hired agricultural labor. These findings support the potential conservation value of indigenous lands while cautioning against uniform policies that homogenize indigenous ethnic groups

Assessment of the growth in social groups for sustainable agriculture and land management

Non-technical summary Until the past half-century, all agriculture and land management was framed by local institutions strong in social capital. But neoliberal forms of development came to undermine existing structures, thus reducing sustainability and equity. The past 20 years, though, have seen the deliberate establishment of more than 8 million new social groups across the world. This restructuring and growth of rural social capital within specific territories is leading to increased productivity of agricultural and land management systems, with particular benefits for those previously excluded. Further growth would occur with more national and regional policy support. Technical summary For agriculture and land management to improve natural capital over whole landscapes, social cooperation has long been required. The political economy of the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries prioritized unfettered individual action over the collective, and many rural institutions were harmed or destroyed. Since then, a wide range of social movements, networks and federations have emerged to support transitions towards sustainability and equity. Here, we focus on social capital manifested as intentionally formed collaborative groups within specific geographic territories. These groups focus on: (1) integrated pest management; (2) forests; (3) land; (4) water; (5) pastures; (6) support services; (7) innovation platforms; and (8) small-scale systems. We show across 122 initiatives in 55 countries that the number of groups has grown from 0.50 million (in 2000) to 8.54 million (in 2020). The area of land transformed by the 170–255 million group members is 300 Mha, mostly in less-developed countries (98% groups; 94% area). Farmers and land managers working with scientists and extensionists in these groups have improved both environmental outcomes and agricultural productivity. In some cases, changes to national or regional policy supported this growth in groups. Together with other movements, these social groups could now support further transitions towards policies and behaviours for global sustainability. Social media summary Millions of geographically based new social groups are leading to more sustainable agriculture and forestry worldwide. © The Author(s), 2020

Protective effects of selenium on oxidative damage and oxidative stress related gene expression in rat liver under chronic poisoning of arsenic

Arsenic (As) is a toxic metalloid existing widely in the environment, and chronic exposure to it through contaminated drinking water has become a global problem of public health. The present study focused on the protective effects of selenium on oxidative damage of chronic arsenic poisoning in rat liver. Rats were divided into four groups at random and given designed treatments for 20 weeks. The oxidative damage of liver tissue was evaluated by lipid peroxidation and antioxidant enzymes. Oxidative stress related genes were detected to reflect the liver stress state at the molecular level. Compared to the control and Na2SeO3 groups, the MDA content in liver tissue was decreased and the activities of antioxidant enzymes were increased in the Na2SeO3 intervention group. The mRNA levels of SOD1, CAT, GPx and Txnrd1 were increased significantly (P < 0.05) in the combined Na2SeO3 + NaAsO2 treatment group. The expressions of HSP70 and HO-1 were significantly (P < 0.05) increased in the NaAsO2 group and reduced in the combined treatment group. The results indicate that long-term intake of NaAsO2 causes oxidative damage in the rat liver, and Na2SeO3 protects liver cells by adjusting the expression of oxidative stress related genes to improve the activities of antioxidant enzymes. Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Antioxidant intervention of smoking-induced lung tumor in mice by vitamin E and quercetin

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Epidemiological and in vitro studies suggest that antioxidants such as quercetin and vitamin E (VE) can prevent lung tumor caused by smoking; however, there is limited evidence from animal studies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In the present study, Swiss mouse was used to examine the potential of quercetin and VE for prevention lung tumor induced by smoking.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our results suggest that the incidence of lung tumor and tumor multiplicity were 43.5% and 1.00 ± 0.29 in smoking group; Quercetin has limited effects on lung tumor prevention in this in vivo model, as measured by assays for free radical scavenging, reduction of smoke-induced DNA damage and inhibition of apoptosis. On the other hand, vitamin E drastically decreased the incidence of lung tumor and tumor multiplicity which were 17.0% and 0.32 ± 0.16, respectively (p < 0.05); and demonstrated prominent antioxidant effects, reduction of DNA damage and decreased cell apoptosis (p < 0.05). Combined treatment with quercetin and VE in this animal model did not demonstrate any effect greater than that due to vitamin E alone. In addition, gender differences in the occurrence of smoke induced-lung tumor and antioxidant intervention were also observed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We conclude that VE might prevent lung tumor induced by smoking in Swiss mice.</p

Submicron Structures Technology and Research

Contains table of contents for Part I, table of contents for Section 1 and reports on thirteen research projects.Joint Services Electronics Program Contract DAAL03-89-C-0001National Science Foundation Grant ECS 87-09806Semiconductor Research Corporation Contract 87-SP-080Hampshire Instruments CorporationNational Science Foundation Grant ECS-85-03443U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Grant AFOSR-88-0304U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Grant AFOSR-85-0154X-Opt., IncorporatedNational Aeronautics and Space Administration Contract NAS8-36748AT&T Bell Laboratorie