Introduction: rethinking the frontier in Amazonia and Siberia: extractive economies, indigenous politics and social transformations

none3siThe adage that anthropology is comparative if it is anything at all has been tested in recent years to great effect, particularly on the theme of the body (Gregor & Tuzin 2001; Lambeck & Strathern 1998), and with greater confidence than a decade previously (Holy 1987). The body provides a useful starting point for cross-cultural comparison because there can at some level be said to be a common factor: the physically existing, universal human body. While this apparent universality and constancy of the body may be questioned in the light of ethnographic evidence, and the body can be politicised in differing ways, when politics and history themselves are made into the points of comparison a new and somewhat different challenge is set. To compare frontiers, as the theatres in which cultural difference is played out, constitutes a doubly comparative scenario, as each case being compared involves the meeting of social groups and their own mutual comparison as an exploration of mutual similarity and difference. The comparison of frontiers thus involves the comparison of sets of political relationships, as the variable ways in which subjects relate to others.openBrightman, Marc; GROTTI, VANESSA; Ulturgasheva, OlgaBrightman, Marc; GROTTI, VANESSA; Ulturgasheva, Olg

The Rise of a Latin Model? : family and fertility consequences of employment instability in Italy and Spain

This paper analyses how unstable employment influences becoming a mother in Italy and Spain. Results suggest that institutional factors foster dynamics of social inequality and hinder family formation. We show that in southern Europe (Italy and Spain), but not in other institutional contexts, the lack of employment stability produces a delay in fertility decision. We attribute this impact of the employment situation on demographic decisions to the sub-protective southern European welfare systems and the insider\u2013outsider labor market configuration, as enhanced by the partial and targeted labor market deregulations of recent decades. In the context of low levels of welfare, unstable employment often comes with persistently reduced entitlement to social and welfare rights, and, therefore, with notable social and demographic consequences. We provide support for this institutional argument by showing that fertility decisions are independent of employment stability in other contexts. Analyses are based on longitudinal data using event history analysis and simultaneous equation models

High resolution chemical stratigraphies of atmospheric depositions from a 4 m depth snow pit at dome C (East Antarctica)

In this work, we present chemical stratigraphies of two sampling lines collected within a 4 m depth snow pit dug in Dome C during the Antarctic summer Campaign 2017/2018, 12 years after the last reported snow pit. The first sampling line was analyzed for nine anionic and cationic species using Ion Chromatography (IC); the second sampling line was analyzed for seven major elements in an innovative way with Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) after sample pre-concentration, allowing the study of deposition processes of new markers especially related to crustal source. This coupled analysis, besides confirming previous studies, allowed us to investigate the depositions of the last decades at Dome C, enriching the number of the detected chemical markers, and yielding these two techniques complementary for the study of different markers in this kind of matrix. As a result of the dating, the snow layers analyzed covered the last 50 years of snow depositions. The assessment of the accumulation rate, estimated about 9 cm yr−1, was accomplished only for the period 1992–2016, as the eruption of 1992 constituted the only tie-point found in nssSO42− depth profile. Na, the reliable sea salt marker, together with Mg and Sr, mainly arose from marine sources, whereas Ca, Al and Fe originated from crustal inputs. Post-depositional processes occurred on Cl− as well as on NO3− and methanesulfonic acid (MSA); compared to the latter, Cl− had a more gradual decrease, reporting a threshold at 2.5 m for the post-depositional process completion. For NO3− and MSA, instead, the threshold was shallower, at about 1 m depth, with a loss of 87% for NO3− and of 50% for MSA

Arsenic movement and fractionation in agricultural soils which received wastewater from an adjacent industrial site for 50 years

Arsenic (As) is an element with important environmental and human health implications due to its toxic properties. It is naturally occurring since it is contained in minerals, but it can also be enriched and distributed in the environment by anthropogenic activities. This paper reports on the historic As contamination of agricultural soils in one of the most important national relevance site for contamination in Italy, the so-called SIN Brescia-Caffaro, in the city of Brescia, northern Italy. These agricultural areas received As through the use of irrigation waters from wastewater coming from a factory of As-based pesticides (lead and calcium arsenates, sodium arsenite). Pesticide production started in 1920 and ended in the '70. Concentrations in the areas are generally beyond the legal threshold values for different soil uses and are up to >200 mg/kg. Arsenic contamination was studied to assess the long-time trend and the dynamics related to the vertical movement of As down to 1 m depth and its horizontal diffusion with surface irrigation in the entire field. Arsenic fractionation analysis (solid phase speciation by sequential extraction procedure) was also performed on samples collected from these areas and employed in greenhouse experiments with several plant species to evaluate the long-term contamination and the role of plant species in modifying As availability in soil. The results of this work can help in the evaluation of the conditions controlling the vertical transfer of As towards surface aquifers, the bioaccumulation likelihood in the agricultural food chain and the selection of sustainable remediation techniques such as phytoextraction

Contribution of the lung to the genesis of cheyne-stokes respiration in heart failure: Plant gain beyond chemoreflex gain and circulation time

Background-The contribution of the lung or the plant gain (PG; ie, change in blood gases per unit change in ventilation) to Cheyne-Stokes respiration (CSR) in heart failure has only been hypothesized by mathematical models, but never been directly evaluated.Methods and Results-Twenty patients with systolic heart failure (age, 72.4 +/- 6.4 years; left ventricular ejection fraction, 31.5 +/- 5.8%), 10 with relevant CSR (24-hour apnea-hypopnea index [AHI] >= 10 events/h) and 10 without (AHI <10 events/h) at 24-hour cardiorespiratory monitoring underwent evaluation of chemoreflex gain (CG) to hypoxia (CG(O2)) and hypercapnia (CG(CO2)) by rebreathing technique, lung-to-finger circulation time, and PG assessment through a visual system. PG test was feasible and reproducible (intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.91-0.99); the best-fitting curve to express the PG was a hyperbola (R-2 >= 0.98). Patients with CSR showed increased PG, CG(CO2) (but not CG(O2)), and lung-to-finger circulation time, compared with patients without CSR (all P<0.05). PG was the only predictor of the daytime AHI (R=0.56, P=0.01) and together with the CG(CO2) also predicted the nighttime AHI (R=0.81, P=0.0003) and the 24-hour AHI (R=0.71, P=0.001). Lung-to-finger circulation time was the only predictor of CSR cycle length (R=0.82, P=0.00006).Conclusions-PG is a powerful contributor of CSR and should be evaluated together with the CG and circulation time to individualize treatments aimed at stabilizing breathing in heart failure