Malaysia’s 2013 election: the nation, and the National Front

If ever an election victory could be interpreted as a humiliation by the winning side, then the Malaysian federal election, held in May this year, was profoundly humiliating for the National Front (Barisan Nasional, or BN). BN won government for the thirteenth time, and extended its uninterrupted hold on federal government in Malaysia. It also continues to hold a majority of states in the federation. In this sense, BN’s political primacy—as the sole government Malaysia has ever known—remains in place, in the nation it argues its predecessors brought in to being in 1957 (Cheah Boon Kheng 2002; Hooker 2003). Aside from remaining in government, however, BN has nevertheless had to reconcile itself to a new political environment, in which its domination of the architecture of ‘the national’ is no longer guaranteed. Berita, Autumn 2013: 14–20

Tropical forests and global atmospheric change: a synthesis

We present a personal perspective on the highlights of the Theme Issue 'Tropical forests and global atmospheric change'. We highlight the key findings on the contemporary rate of climatic change in the tropics, the evidence--gained from field studies--of large-scale and rapid change in the dynamics and biomass of old-growth forests, and evidence of how climate change and fragmentation can interact to increase the vulnerability of plants and animals to fires. A range of opinions exists concerning the possible cause of these observed changes, but examination of the spatial 'fingerprint' of observed change may help to identify the driving mechanism(s). Studies of changes in tropical forest regions since the last glacial maximum show the sensitivity of species composition and ecology to atmospheric changes. Model studies of change in forest vegetation highlight the potential importance of temperature or drought thresholds that could lead to substantial forest decline in the near future. During the coming century, the Earth's remaining tropical forests face the combined pressures of direct human impacts and a climatic and atmospheric situation not experienced for at least 20 million years. Understanding and monitoring of their response to this atmospheric change are essential if we are to maximize their conservation options

Rethinking fuelwood: people, policy and the anatomy of a charcoal supply chain in a decentralizing Peru

In Peru, as in many developing countries, charcoal is an important source of fuel. We examine the commercial charcoal commodity chain from its production in Ucayali, in the Peruvian Amazon, to its sale in the national market. Using a mixed-methods approach, we look at the actors involved in the commodity chain and their relationships, including the distribution of benefits along the chain. We outline the obstacles and opportunities for a more equitable charcoal supply chain within a multi-level governance context. The results show that charcoal provides an important livelihood for most of the actors along the supply chain, including rural poor and women. We find that the decentralisation process in Peru has implications for the formalisation of charcoal supply chains, a traditionally informal, particularly related to multi-level institutional obstacles to equitable commerce. This results in inequity in the supply chain, which persecutes the poorest participants and supports the most powerful actors

Energy and water dynamics of a central Amazonian rain forest

This paper presents measurements of the energy and water budgets of a tropical rain forest near Manaus, Brazil, in central Amazonia, collected between September 1995 and August 1996. Fluxes of sensible and latent heat were measured using a three-dimensional eddy covariance system mounted above the forest canopy. Using a new approach to analysis of eddy covariance data, we found that the measured fluxes increased significantly when turbulent transport on timescales of 1 to 4 hours was taken into account. With this new analysis, the measured turbulent fluxes almost balanced the incoming net radiation, giving increased confidence in the accuracy of the measured fluxes. Of the 5.56 GJ m-2 yr-1 of solar radiation supplied over the year, 11% were reflected, 15% were lost as net thermal emission, 27% were transported through sensible heat convection, 46% used in evapotranspiration, and 0.5% were used; in net carbon fixation. Total annual evapotranspiration was calculated to be 1123 mm; accounting for 54% of total precipitation. Seasohality was an important influence: limited water availability during the dry season caused evapotranspiration to reduce by 50%. Total canopy conductance was linearly correlated to soil moisture content, with typical midday values ranging between 0.8 mol m-2 s-1 in the wet season and 0.3 mol m-2 s-1 in the dry season. Such seasonal behavior is likely to be prevalent in most tropical forest regions, and correct description of dry-season evapotranspiration will require accurate modeling of plant and soil hydraulic properties and knowledge of root distributions. Copyright 2002 by the American Geophysical Union

Evidence for strong seasonality in the carbon storage and carbon use efficiency of an Amazonian forest

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Molecular expression and immunotherapeutic potential of the novel tumour associated antigen T21

The application of immunotherapeutic approaches to target tumour cells by harnessing the body’s most important defence the immune system, could provide opportunities to oppose cancer. A prerequisite of tumour immunotherapy lies in the identification of antigens that are distinctively expressed in cancer and can elicit immune responses in the tumour-bearing host. Testis clone 21 (T21) was first identified as a promising prostate-associated tumour antigen identified using modified SEREX expression cloning showing restricted protein expression to normal testis and prostate, breast, kidney, ovary, melanoma, colon and stomach cancer among others. More recently, T21 was found to share significant sequence similarity with a centrosomal protein called CEP290. This study proposed to address the current understanding of T21 through analysis of gene sequence similarities observed with CEP290 and begin to extrapolate possible functional attributes of T21 and the role it may play in cancer progression. Furthermore this investigation aimed to evaluate T21 as a prospective prognostic indicator of prostate cancer and in addition, investigate T21 as a potential target for immunotherapy. In silico sequence analysis revealed that T21 contained a 93bp region, a consequence of an alternative splicing event resulting in the retention of a CEP290 intronic region making its translation to protein unique. This finding was supported by experimental observations using PCR and northern blotting. Using this T21 “unique region” sequence, T21 mRNA and protein was shown to be expressed in some normal tissues including prostate, stomach and spinal cord when compared to testis therefore T21 cannot be considered a cancer testis antigen as previously suggested

Female Genital Mutilation (International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation Editorial Comment)

International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation Editorial Comment by Dr. Ravneet Malh

Processing Concrete and Abstract Relationships in Word Pairs

Malhi (2015) found a reverse concreteness, or abstractness, effect for word pairs in an iconicity judgment task. Per Vigliocco et al.’s (2009) theory of embodied abstract semantics, Malhi and Buchanan (2017) hypothesized that participants were taking a visualization approach (time-costly) towards the concrete word pairs and an emotional valence approach (time-efficient) towards the abstract word pairs. It was also hypothesized that the abstractness effect emerged not by considering single words in isolation but rather by considering the relationship between them. The goal of the present study was to test these hypotheses and to further investigate this reverse concreteness, or abstractness, effect. Results generally provided support for these hypotheses. An event-related potential (ERP) experiment revealed a dissociation between behavioural abstractness and neural concreteness. The results are interpreted using a proposed theory of flexible abstractness and concreteness effects (FACE)

The Chronic Toxicity of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles to the Freshwater Amphipod Hyalella azteca

There has been an increased use of metal-oxide nanoparticles in both commercial and consumer products. The use of these products and waste generated during manufacture may ultimately be released into the aquatic environment and the potential for these contaminants to cause impacts must be assessed. This study examines the effect of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) on Hyalella azteca. Chronic toxicity exposures were conducted in 400mL of spiked test solution and contained 20 neonates. Samples collected for characterization of Ti in TiO2 NP exposure solutions were digested using ammonium persulfate as an oxidizing agent and dissolved in 2% HNO3, organisms were digested using 70% HNO3 and 30% H202. Dissolved Ti LC50 was 1404 µg Ti/L, all NP exposure’s had LC50 values above 100 mg TiO2/L. The IC50 value of dissolved Ti on growth was 914 µg Ti /L, while uncoated TiO2 NPs P25, PC105, NM101, and NM105 yield IC50 values of 23.4, 31.2, 16 and 14.5 mg TiO2/L respectively. NM103 (hydrophobic) and NM104 (hydrophilic) yielded IC50 values of 36.4 and 6.5 mg TiO2/L respectively. Testing was done to assess the impact dispersion methods of NPs would have on the toxicity to H.azteca. Organisms were exposed to NP solutions that had been dispersed by a 24h spin or were dispersed by a 24h spin and 5 minute sonication step. Organisms exposed to sonicated solutions showed lower dry weight than those exposed to stirred solutions. H.azteca were exposed to a ‘low’ and ‘high’ cadmium concentration in the presence and absence of P25 TiO2 NPs to determine the potential for NPs to acts a ligand to Cd. There was significantly lower bioaccumulation of Cd in organisms exposed in the presence of P25 TiO2 NPs in both concentrations. These results show dissolved Ti has greater impact on H.azteca than TiO2 NPs and it is difficult to relate physical particle characteristics to biological effect. TiO2 NPs with hydrophilic surface modification are more toxic than those with hydrophobic surface modifications. NP solutions dispersed by sonication are more toxic than those that are stirred. TiO2 NPs acted as a negative vector for cadmium, limiting Cd bioavailability