Sphagnum mosses on the mires of the Altai-Sayan Mountains region

Abstract

Sphagnum mosses are a characteristic component of plant communities in the mountain mires of the Altai-Sayan region. The genus Sphagnum L. ranks first in the species diversity and includes 32 species, accounting for 57.1% of the species diversity of sphagnum mosses of Russia and 62.8% of the species diversity of sphagnum mosses of the Asian part of Russia. Twenty-five species of sphagnum moss are revealed in the mires of the Western Sayan and Altai, listed in this paper; 28 species occur on the Kuznetsky Alatau mires. Rare species are Sphagnum aongstroemii, S. auriculatum, S. contortum, S. platyphyllum, S. pulchrum, S. subfulvum, S. tenellum.     

Genetic diversity of honeybees in different geographical regions of Siberia

Abstract

An assessment of the genetic diversity of nine microsatellite loci in honeybees of different origin (evolutionary lineages M, C, and hybrids) from different geographical regions of Siberia was conducted in order to find the genetic markers of the Siberian ecotype of dark-coloured forest bee (Apis mellifera mellifera). The greatest genetic diversity (both in the number of alleles and the calculated expected heterozygosity) was shown for loci A008, A113, Ap049, and A043 in honeybees from the Tomsk region, as bees from the southern districts had higher genetic diversity than bees from the northern districts. Honeybees from the Eastern region of Siberia (Yenisei population) had the lowest level of genetic diversity on these loci compared to Tomsk bee populations. Allele 162 pb of the locus A008, allele 126 bp of the locus A043, and allele 218 bp of the locus A113 can be considered as genetic markers of the A. m. mellifera Siberian ecotype.     

Conservation categories and rarity types of Siberian Saussurea species

Abstract

The criteria for assessing conservation categories of rare species are not identical in drafting the red lists of Russia and the IUCN. By the example of genus Saussurea (Compositae), we have shown that the conservation measures for some endangered species do not match their state. We conducted indicator analyses on two factors of more than 9000 relevés with Saussurea species with large ranges and determined their rarity types according to D. Rabinowitz. Only 2 Siberian Saussurea species are not characterised by any type of rarity. The other 54 taxa all feature a small range, low abundance or high habitat specificity.     

Relics,liṅgas,and other auspicious material remains in south asian religions

ABSTRACT

This article reconsiders sites, practices, and ideas about the physical remains of the special dead in South Asian religions. Questioning the common notion of “relics” as a point of distinction between “Buddhism” and “Hinduism,” it explores the constellation of ideas and practices surrounding the remains of gods, demons, people, and animals in South Asian religions. Archaeological and literary evidence for li?gas, stūpas, and related sites and structures are used to explore shared discourses and practices among Buddhists and ?aivas in particular. Through such test cases, it shows how bones and other physical remains of the special dead could become areas of engagement, especially when linked to sacred landscape. Attention to these contact zones reveals sharing, borrowing, and competition among ancient and medieval groups that modern scholarship has studied primarily in terms of assumed differences between “Hinduism” and “Buddhism.”     

Book Reviews

Abstract

A recent paper on the origin of crucks (Hill, VA 36) relies on the linguistic roots of the word furca, to suggest that it refers to forked posts rather than cruck blades, and that cruck construction did not appear until c. 1250. This response proposes that Hill's linguistic arguments are untenable. The evidence of both standing buildings and documents is only consistent with crucks having a much earlier origin, probably in the early twelfth century, with base-crucks appearing in about 1200.     

ETHNICITY IN AN IMMIGRANT GATEWAY CITY: THE ASIAN CONDITION IN HOUSTON

The analysis explores the evolving condition of Houston's Chinese community into the early 21st century and its uncertain role within the local economy. Through a historical analysis, it examines Chinese immigration into Houston and the evolving and changing spatial settlements of Chinese immigrants in the city, showing the precarious nature of Houston Chinese neighborhoods. A quantitative analysis then examines whether disparities in economic prosperity are evident between Asian and White growth neighborhoods within Harris County between 1980 and 2000, when ethnic diversity was viewed as an important element of Houston's new economic development strategy. A principal components analysis (PCA) and a k‐means clustering technique are conducted on census tract data to identify neighborhood types and to analyze changes in neighborhood characteristics. The quantitative analysis reveals that the city's promotion and celebration of ethnic diversity, and the extensive investment by Houston's Asians into their neighborhoods, did not translate into improving economic prospects for Asian neighborhoods within Houston.     

Changing conceptions of “mandala” in tang china: ritual and the role of images

ABSTRACT

“Changing Conceptions of ‘Mandala’ in Tang China: Ritual and the Role of Images” is concerned with the intersection of visionary experience with visual forms. The focus of the study is a Buddhist incantation, or Dhāranī, titled the Revered and Victorious Dhāranī of the Buddha's Usnīsa. This particular dhāranī was widely circulated in China during the Tang dynasty (618–907); for this reason, it may be approached as an important case study for studying the conceptualization of mandalas in China prior to their transmission to Japan in the early ninth century. Through a detailed examination of successive translations and ritual manuals associated with the Revered and Victorious Dhāranī of the Buddha's Usnīsa, different conceptions of mandalas and the roles that were played by images may be observed. This, in turn, responds to larger questions in East Asian Buddhism and studies of Buddhist art regarding the functions of painted mandalas during Buddhist rituals. Lastly, this article seeks to shed light on lesser-known aspects of esoteric Buddhist art in Asia, as the scholarship to date on Buddhist mandalas has primarily focused upon studies of Japanese and Himalayan works.     

Designing for Diversity: Implications for Architectural Education in the Twenty-first Century

Abstract

This article reviews literature about the need for diversity in schools of architecture and provides statistics documenting the relative lack of diversity, especially among architectural educators. It stresses the need to go beyond affirmative action requirements in order to promote a climate that values differences and manages diversity. It proposes strategies such as writing a diversity plan, restructuring the design evaluation process, and revising the architectural curriculum. It also suggests mentoring and cross-training programs, more-flexible work environments, exit interviews, and public outreach as ways to promote diversity in architectural schools.     

Simulating Cities: Process,Product, and Prognosis

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Little research examines the effect of diversity on regional economic resilience to natural disasters. We examine whether economic diversity benefits regional economies in typical circumstances and in recovery after a natural disaster, using the case of the 1993 U.S. Midwest flood. By matching counties in the nine states affected by the flood to control counties, we isolate the influence of diversity on employment and income in normal circumstances and after a substantial shock. We found economic diversity to have mixed associations with employment and income in typical circumstances. On average, economically diverse counties tended to experience faster employment gains but slower growth in per capita income than less diverse areas. The effect of economic diversity upon resilience following a natural disaster was unambiguous. Economic diversity aided counties in weathering the downturn following the flood and sped their return to long-term patterns of employment and income growth.

Takeaway for practice: In promoting policies to enhance economic diversity, planners in communities located in areas prone to natural disasters should consider both the goal of disaster resilience and the potential tradeoffs between different aspects of economic performance.

Research support: None.     

ETHNIC RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION BY NATIVITY IN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES

ABSTRACT: This study examines patterns of ethnic residential integration in Great Britain and the United States. Using data from 2000/2001 censuses from these two countries, we compute segregation indexes for comparably defined ethnic groups by nativity and for specific foreign‐born groups. We find that blacks are much less segregated in Great Britain than in the United States, and black segregation patterns by nativity tend to be consistent with spatial assimilation in the former country (the foreign‐born are more segregated than the native‐born) but not in the latter. Among Asian groups, however, segregation tends to be lower in the United States, and segregation patterns by nativity are more consistent with spatial assimilation in the United States but not in Great Britain. These findings suggest that intergenerational minority disadvantage persists among blacks in the United States and among Asians in Great Britain. We caution, however, that there are important differences in levels of segregation among specific foreign‐born Asian groups, suggesting that assimilation trajectories likely differ by country of origin. Finally, the fact that segregation levels are considerably higher in the United States for a majority of groups, including white foreign‐born groups, suggests that factors not solely related to race or physical appearance drive higher levels of ethnic residential segregation in the United States.     

Disaster Recovery Among Multiethnic Immigrants: A Case Study of Southeast Asians in Bayou La Batre (AL) After Hurricane Katrina

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Immigrants suffer disproportionately from disasters because they have limited capacity to prepare for, respond to, or recover from a disaster. Unfortunately, planners and emergency managers are often inadequately trained or educated about the unique sociocultural needs and assets among immigrant groups. Hurricane Katrina exposed challenges to long-term recovery among Southeast Asian immigrants in Bayou La Batre (AL). We employ qualitative research methods, including in-depth interviews, focus groups with immigrants, and site visits, to better understand the barriers to disaster recovery and to inform local, state, federal, and nongovernmental agencies on how to better prepare disaster plans that would improve disaster recovery for multiethnic, multicultural, immigrant populations. We find four significant categories of sociocultural barriers to disaster recovery for Southeast Asian immigrants in Bayou La Batre: 1) language, literacy, and communication; 2) cultural differences in help-seeking; 3) inability to navigate the disaster recovery bureaucracy; and 4) and lack of leadership. Despite these barriers to recovery, immigrant groups can also teach us about resiliency in the face of disaster. The levels of trust, cooperation, and collaboration within the ethnic immigrant community help to buffer the damaging effects during the response and recovery period.

Takeaway for practice: Our study reveals that cultural competency among staff members engaged in preparedness, response, and recovery is essential for an effective disaster recovery process. Furthermore, engaging immigrant groups in long-term recovery requires trust and relationship building prior to a disaster. In doing so, more culturally appropriate and effective disaster recovery plans can be developed.     

Museums and mortality

ABSTRACT

This article applies the idea that culture is a response to human awareness of mortality to museums through the lens of two contrasting approaches to understanding death and dying: Terror management theory (TMT), based on the work of Ernest Becker; and The Social History of Dying by Allan Kellehear. A composite theory is constructed and used to review some aspects of museum history and policy. An important factor in the origin of museums was “death planning” among private collectors who pressured the state to create institutions which could assure their afterlife through the preservation of their collections. While much contemporary theory sees museums primarily as hegemonic institutions, this suggests that they are only effective instruments of power if they carry out the primary cultural task of creating meaning in the face of mortality. Many recent museum policies claim that showing a range of cultures promotes understanding and tolerance. If, however, museums trigger unconscious awareness of death, these displays are as likely to generate intolerance. A recent development in the theory—transcendence management—however, suggests that, depending on how death awareness is triggered, the responses can be creative and open-minded rather than defensive or hostile. An important implication for recent controversies about the social impact and value of museums is that these effects can be the subject of experiment, and not just of speculation.     

Naturalization and the transition to homeownership: an analysis of signalling in the Dutch housing market

Abstract

This article pioneers in investigating a citizenship premium for homeownership of first-generation immigrants, using Dutch register data from Statistics Netherlands (N?=?106,187). I hypothesize that naturalization favourably influences the risk-calculation of lenders through positive signalling among employed migrants, who are likely to meet the basic financial criteria for credit. Results confirm that, all else constant, employed immigrants who have naturalized are 26% more likely to be homeowner. Additional analyses specifically designed to isolate endogeneity bias show that the effect is smaller, but still reveal an increase in the probability of homeownership after naturalization. Citizenship acquisition matters less for migrants with a native-born partner, suggesting that legal status discrimination may be an underlying mechanism. I find no evidence that the relevance of citizenship is conditioned by cultural distance of the origin country or the post-2008 economic crisis. I conclude that naturalization matters in the housing market, but that its relevance cannot be generalized to all migrant groups.     

Current Information: Literature Surveys

Abstract

In eighteenth-century France, François Cointeraux was as an advocate of pisé, a provincial technique that rammed pure earth into artificial stones. Economical and sturdy, pisé could be used for a variety of rural constructions, ranging from sheds to silos. To share this knowledge, Cointeraux founded the “School of Agritecture,” which combined agriculture (“agri-”) with architecture (“-tecture”), and taught students how to work the land for food and shelter. Despite its practical benefits, the hybrid curriculum was not adopted elsewhere, for its agrarian values ultimately proved incompatible with the interests of industrial capitalism.     

Diversity and overlap as measures of environmental quality

It is argued that indices of diversity (information function H) and overlap (percentage similarity PS) can be used together to assess environmental quality. The method is tested using data on demersal fishes from nine Massachusetts estuaries and embayments. Annual diversity ranged from H (log_e) = 0.4–2.4, with low diversities in areas of apparent high pollution and higher diversities in areas of lesser pollution. Where annual diversity is low, little seasonal change is reflected in a high PS from season to season; where annual diversity is high, a relatively lower PS indicates a greater degree of change. For their calculation, both H and PS require the number of individuals in each species in a sample. This data should be considered important in the conduct of faunal surveys that contribute to an environmental impact statement.     

Education for Change: An Experiment

Abstract

When Robert Venturi began writing Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture in 1962, Jane Jacobs's The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) was the subject of dinner-table conversation across the country. Apart from Jacobs's direct influence, among the parallels that emerged from their Townscape affiliations and other interests, the concept of complexity stands out, with Venturi's conception echoing Jacobs's historic introduction of complexity science into architectural and urban theory. While Venturi did not seek to extend the scientific research put forward by Jacobs, favoring instead the complexities suggested by gestalt theory and New Criticism, he cited similar scientific sources and derived similar principles for urbanism, as revealed by his Copley Square project of 1966.     

Objects that speak creole: juxtapositions of shrine devotions at botánicas in washington,dc

ABSTRACT

Devotional objects from diverse sources are arranged in beautiful and efficacious ways at local botánicas, retail stores that sell spiritual goods to a Latino-based, but increasingly diverse clientele. A two-year study of eighteen botánicas in Washington, DC, reveals a complex layering of spiritual traditions from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. While the foundational hybrids of the botánica are of Caribbean origin, new immigrants to Washington from Central America, Africa and Asia are creating stunning juxtapositions of religious meaning and practice. This paper looks at the notion of creolization as a way to understand the power of the spiritual array spatialized in the botánica.     

REP‐PCR tracking of the origin and spread of airborne Staphylococcus aureus in and around chicken house

Abstract Staphylococcus aureus was used as an indicator to study the origin and spread of microbial aerosol in and around chicken houses. Air samples indoor, upwind (10 and 50 m), and downwind (10, 50, 100, 200, and 400 m) of four chicken houses were collected using Andersen‐6 stages sampler. The concentrations of S. aureus were determined for every sample site. Isolation of S. aureus from chicken feces was performed according to the standard method. The genetic relationship among the isolates was determined by profiles of PCR‐amplified repetitive extragenic palindromic (REP‐PCR) elements. The results showed that the concentrations of S. aureus indoor of four chicken houses were higher than those upwind and downwind sites (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01), but there were no significant concentration differences among downwind sites (P > 0.05). The fingerprints and the phylogenetic tree indicated that a part of the S. aureus (55.6%, 10/18) isolates from indoor air had the same REP‐PCR fingerprints as feces isolates. Consequently, most isolates (57.1%, 20/35) from downwind 10, 50, 100, 200, even 400 m had the same REP‐PCR fingerprints as those from indoor or feces. These data indicated that some isolates from downwind and indoor originated from the chicken feces. However, those isolates from upwind had low similarity (similarity index 0.6–0.87) to those from indoor or feces. Therefore, the isolates upwind were not from the chicken feces or indoor. These results suggest that microbes in chicken feces can be aerosolized and spread indoor and outdoor, especially to downwind of the chicken houses. It should have an important epidemiological and public health significance.

Practical Implications

Thus, the use of S. aureus as an indicator to study the origin and spread of airborne pathogens from chicken houses is potentially useful for enhancing public health and understanding the airborne epidemiology of this pathogen. Meanwhile it can provide evidence for studying the spreading model of airborne pathogens.