A strange modernity : On the contradictions of the neoliberal university

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Religious Relationships with the Environment in a Tibetan Rural Community : Interactions and Contrasts with Popular Notions of Indigenous Environmentalism

Acknowledgments: We thank Beijing Forestry University, our field assistants Tashi Rabden, Pema Dechin, Tsewang Chomtso and Gele Chopel for their invaluable help, the Forest Bureau of Daocheng county for permission and support, and the people of Samdo for their hospitality and participation. The research was funded by the ESRC and the World Pheasant Association. This paper is a contribution to Imperial College’s Grand Challenges in Ecosystems and the Environment initiative. Two anonymous reviewers gave valuable comments on the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Going down in flames: Self-immolation in China, Tibet and India

Over the last twenty years, Tibetan protest against Chinese rule has transformed markedly, shifting in particular from the monastic protests by inmates of the great monasteries of Lhasa and Central Tibet to popular protest throughout the region and in particular throughout the Eastern Tibetan regions of Kham and Amdo, outside what is administratively called the Tibetan Autonomous Region. In the last three years in particular, the wide-scale protests and riots of Spring 2008 have been followed by a growing lineage of personal self-immolations, increasingly attended by the writing of personal testaments, the moral authority of which is gaining rapid ground both in Tibetan regions and amongst Tibetan exiles in India. These testaments call both for Tibetan independence and the return of the Dalai Lama, and for Tibetans across the region to come together in patriotic unity. Self-immolation is very much a novelty in Tibet, and it’s place in the established post-1970s discourse of non-violence set up in exile by the Dalai Lama has led it to have a powerfully contested quality, with the Tibetan Government-in-Exile discouraging its use as ‘extreme’ (especially when carried out in democratic states like India, where several have also occurred) while celebrating the heroism of self-immolators themselves; by contrast, groups such as the Tibetan Youth Congress argue for the universal applicability of such protests because of a world political order, whether democratic or not, that colludes in the destruction of Tibetan culture and language within Tibet. This presentation for the South Asian Anthropologist’s Group’s 2012 workshop in Edinburgh is primarily an augmented briefing paper written for the Scottish Parliament’s Cross Party Group on Tibet in summer 2012, which describes for parliamentarians the basic features of the self-immolations as described above. It also has a short introduction discussing particular aspects of the process by which such papers get written, and the kinds of argument and discussion that get left out

The Perils of Exchange : Karma, Kingship and Templecraft in Tibet

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Influence of oxidative stress, diaphragm fatigue, and inspiratory muscle training on the plasma cytokine response to maximum sustainable voluntary ventilation

The influence of oxidative stress, diaphragm fatigue, and inspiratory muscle training (IMT) on the cytokine response to maximum sustainable voluntary ventilation (MSVV) is unknown. Twelve healthy males were divided equally into an IMT or placebo (PLA) group, and before and after a 6-wk intervention they undertook, on separate days, 1h of (1) passive rest and (2) MSVV, whereby participants undertook volitional hyperpnea at rest that mimicked the breathing and respiratory muscle recruitment patterns commensurate with heavy cycling exercise. Plasma cytokines remained unchanged during passive rest. There was a main effect of time (P < 0.01) for plasma interleukin-1 (IL-1) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) concentrations and a strong trend (P = 0.067) for plasma interleukin-1 receptor antagonist concentration during MSVV. Plasma IL-6 concentration was reduced after IMT by 27 + 18% (main effect of intervention, P = 0.029), whereas there was no change after PLA (P = 0.753). There was no increase in a systemic marker of oxidative stress [DNA damage in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC)], and diaphragm fatigue was not related to the increases in plasma IL-1 and IL-6 concentrations. A dose-response relationship was observed between respiratory muscle work and minute ventilation and increases in plasma IL-6 concentration. In conclusion, increases in plasma IL-1 and IL-6 concentrations during MSVV were not due to diaphragm fatigue or DNA damage in PBMC. Increases in plasma IL-6 concentration during MSVV are attenuated following IMT, and the plasma IL-6 response is dependent upon the level of respiratory muscle work and minute ventilation

Zone center phonons of the orthorhombic RMnO3 (R = Pr, Eu, Tb, Dy, Ho) perovskites

A short range force constant model (SRFCM) has been applied for the first time to investigate the phonons in RMnO3 (R = Pr, Eu, Tb, Dy, Ho) perovskites in their orthorhombic phase. The calculations with 17 stretching and bending force constants provide good agreement for the observed Raman frequencies. The infrared frequencies have been assigned for the first time. PACS Codes: 36.20.Ng, 33.20.Fb, 34.20.CfComment: 8 pages, 1 figur

Questioning the rise of gelatinous zooplankton in the World's oceans

During the past several decades, high numbers of gelatinous zooplankton species have been reported in many estuarine and coastal ecosystems. Coupled with media-driven public perception, a paradigm has evolved in which the global ocean ecosystems are thought to be heading toward being dominated by “nuisance” jellyfish. We question this current paradigm by presenting a broad overview of gelatinous zooplankton in a historicalcontext to develop the hypothesis that population changes reflect the human-mediated alteration of global ocean ecosystems. To this end, we synthesize information related to the evolutionary context of contemporary gelatinous zooplankton blooms, the human frame of reference forchanges in gelatinous zooplankton populations, and whether sufficient data are available to have established the paradigm. We conclude that the current paradigm in which it is believed that there has been a global increase in gelatinous zooplankton is unsubstantiated, and we develop a strategy for addressing the critical questions about long-term, human-related changes in the sea as they relate to gelatinous zooplankton blooms