International education: a force for peace and cross-cultural understanding?

This paper discusses the notion that the international sojourn has the potential to transform sojourners into cultural mediators who carry the power to improve global relations. A year-long ethnographic study of the adjustment experiences of international postgraduate students in England revealed a universal early enthusiasm for cross-cultural contact that was matched by a widespread adoption of segregated patterns of interacting. The most common friendship networks were described by bonds with conationals, and yet all students attested to an increase in their cultural learning and mindfulness by the end of the sojourn. Nevertheless, intercultural competence was maximised only in those few students who pursued a multicultural strategy of interaction, leading the researcher to call on Higher Education Institutions to instigate policies to encourage lasting cross-cultural contact

Evidence for Reductive Genome Evolution and Lateral Acquisition of Virulence Functions in Two Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis Strains

Ruiz JC, D'Afonseca V, Silva A, et al. Evidence for Reductive Genome Evolution and Lateral Acquisition of Virulence Functions in Two Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis Strains. PLoS ONE. 2011;6(4): e18551.Background: Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis, a Gram-positive, facultative intracellular pathogen, is the etiologic agent of the disease known as caseous lymphadenitis (CL). CL mainly affects small ruminants, such as goats and sheep; it also causes infections in humans, though rarely. This species is distributed worldwide, but it has the most serious economic impact in Oceania, Africa and South America. Although C. pseudotuberculosis causes major health and productivity problems for livestock, little is known about the molecular basis of its pathogenicity. Methodology and Findings: We characterized two C. pseudotuberculosis genomes (Cp1002, isolated from goats; and CpC231, isolated from sheep). Analysis of the predicted genomes showed high similarity in genomic architecture, gene content and genetic order. When C. pseudotuberculosis was compared with other Corynebacterium species, it became evident that this pathogenic species has lost numerous genes, resulting in one of the smallest genomes in the genus. Other differences that could be part of the adaptation to pathogenicity include a lower GC content, of about 52%, and a reduced gene repertoire. The C. pseudotuberculosis genome also includes seven putative pathogenicity islands, which contain several classical virulence factors, including genes for fimbrial subunits, adhesion factors, iron uptake and secreted toxins. Additionally, all of the virulence factors in the islands have characteristics that indicate horizontal transfer. Conclusions: These particular genome characteristics of C. pseudotuberculosis, as well as its acquired virulence factors in pathogenicity islands, provide evidence of its lifestyle and of the pathogenicity pathways used by this pathogen in the infection process. All genomes cited in this study are available in the NCBI Genbank database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/) under accession numbers CP001809 and CP001829

Profiles of acculturation among Hispanics in the United States: links with discrimination and substance use

PURPOSE: Recent research suggests that acculturation is a multifaceted construct with implications for substance use among Hispanics. However, few, if any, studies examining profiles of acculturation have been conducted using national samples. Moreover, no cluster-based studies have examined how acculturation relates to discrimination and substance use disorders among Hispanics in the United States. METHODS: The present study, employing Wave 2 data on Hispanics (n = 6,359) from the National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions, aims to address these gaps. We use latent profile analysis to identify profiles of acculturation among Hispanics in the United States and, in turn, examine the relationships between membership in these profiles and experiences of discrimination and the prevalence of substance use disorders. RESULTS: A five-class solution was the optimal modeling of the data. Classes were identified as Class 1: Spanish-dominant/strongly separated (17 %), Class 2: Spanish-dominant/separated (18 %), Class 3: bilingual/bicultural (33 %), Class 4: English-dominant/bicultural (16 %), and Class 5: English-dominant/assimilated (16 %). Bilingual/bicultural Hispanics (Class 3) reported the highest prevalence of discrimination (31 %). Spanish-language dominant Hispanics (Classes 1 and 2) reported the lowest prevalence of substance use disorders. Significant differences in the prevalence of substance use disorders were observed between the bilingual/bicultural (Class 3) and English-dominant/assimilated classes (Class 5), but no differences were noted between the two English-dominant classes (Classes 4 and 5). CONCLUSIONS: Study findings indicate that acculturation is heterogeneous in its expression among Hispanics and suggest that Hispanics who maintain their Spanish-language capacity are at a substantially lower risk for a variety of substance use disorders

Stereotypes in social psychology: The “West-East“ differentiation as a reflection of western traditions of thought

Notwithstanding the fact that stereotypes and ethnocentrism constitute central topics of social psychology a cultural psychological question has almost been completely neglected in the discipline’s reflections on its own scientific endeavors: How has Western psychology’s construction of the “Indian“ and the “Eastern psyche“ been influenced by stereotypes that are embedded in culture-specific traditions of European scholarly and non-scholarly thinking? The problems tackled in this article are related to current social and cross-cultural psychological perspectives on the Indian context. In addition, they are related to social and cross-cultural psychological contributions to the well-established differentiation between the “West“ and the “East,“ which many psychologists have become used to and which are the foundation of current psychological theories about so-called “West-East differences.