Showing papers by "Chaminade University of Honolulu published in 2013"

A microbial clock provides an accurate estimate of the postmortem interval in a mouse model system

Abstract: Our bodies—especially our skin, our saliva, the lining of our mouth and our gastrointestinal tract—are home to a diverse collection of bacteria and other microorganisms called the microbiome. While the roles played by many of these microorganisms have yet to be identified, it is known that they contribute to the health and wellbeing of their host by metabolizing indigestible compounds, producing essential vitamins, and preventing the growth of harmful bacteria. They are important for nutrient and carbon cycling in the environment. The advent of advanced sequencing techniques has made it feasible to study the composition of this microbial community, and to monitor how it changes over time or how it responds to events such as antibiotic treatment. Sequencing studies have been used to highlight the significant differences between microbial communities found in different parts of the body, and to follow the evolution of the gut microbiome from birth. Most of these studies have focused on live animals, so little is known about what happens to the microbiome after its host dies. In particular, it is not known if the changes that occur after death are similar for all individuals. Moreover, the decomposing animal supplies nutrients and carbon to the surrounding ecosystem, but its influence on the microbial community of its immediate environment is not well understood. Now Metcalf et al. have used high-throughput sequencing to study the bacteria and other microorganisms (such as nematodes and fungi) in dead and decomposing mice, and also in the soil beneath them, over the course of 48 days. The changes were significant and also consistent across the corpses, with the microbial communities in the corpses influencing those in the soil, and vice versa. Metcalf et al. also showed that these measurements could be used to estimate the postmortem interval (the time since death) to within approximately 3 days, which suggests that the work could have applications in forensic science.

The race to punish in American schools: class and race predictors of punitive school-crime control

Abstract: Despite the general agreement that US schools have become increasingly punitive since the 1980s, researchers are uncertain about what types of schools use tough-on-crime measures. Some assert that punitive control is concentrated in poor, predominantly ethnic minority schools. Governing-through-crime scholars argue that US schools with mostly middle-class and white students are also punitive, but in less harsh ways using soft surveillance techniques. Relying on data from large, stratified samples of middle and secondary US public schools, we found that high rates of ethnic minority enrollment predicted heavy reliance on law enforcement and security personnel. As rates of student poverty increased, use of soft surveillance techniques as well as reporting students to the police significantly increased. Implications for governing-through-crime, racial control, and reproduction of inequalities theories are discussed.

Seasonal variation of carcass decomposition and gravesoil chemistry in a cold (Dfa) climate.

Abstract: It is well known that temperature significantly affects corpse decomposition. Yet relatively few taphonomy studies investigate the effects of seasonality on decomposition. Here, we propose the use of the Koppen-Geiger climate classification system and describe the decomposition of swine (Sus scrofa domesticus) carcasses during the summer and winter near Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. Decomposition was scored, and gravesoil chemistry (total carbon, total nitrogen, ninhydrin-reactive nitrogen, ammonium, nitrate, and soil pH) was assessed. Gross carcass decomposition in summer was three to seven times greater than in winter. Initial significant changes in gravesoil chemistry occurred following approximately 320 accumulated degree days, regardless of season. Furthermore, significant (p < 0.05) correlations were observed between ammonium and pH (positive correlation) and between nitrate and pH (negative correlation). We hope that future decomposition studies employ the Koppen-Geiger climate classification system to understand the seasonality of corpse decomposition, to validate taphonomic methods, and to facilitate cross-climate comparisons of carcass decomposition.

Genomic analysis reveals key aspects of prokaryotic symbiosis in the phototrophic consortium “Chlorochromatium aggregatum”

Abstract: ‘Chlorochromatium aggregatum’ is a phototrophic consortium, a symbiosis that may represent the highest degree of mutual interdependence between two unrelated bacteria not associated with a eukaryotic host. ‘Chlorochromatium aggregatum’ is a motile, barrel-shaped aggregate formed from a single cell of ‘Candidatus Symbiobacter mobilis”, a polarly flagellated, non-pigmented, heterotrophic bacterium, which is surrounded by approximately 15 epibiont cells of Chlorobium chlorochromatii, a non-motile photolithoautotrophic green sulfur bacterium. We analyzed the complete genome sequences of both organisms to understand the basis for this symbiosis. Chl. chlorochromatii has acquired relatively few symbiosis-specific genes; most acquired genes are predicted to modify the cell wall or function in cell-cell adhesion. In striking contrast, ‘Ca. S. mobilis’ appears to have undergone massive gene loss, is probably no longer capable of independent growth, and thus may only reproduce when consortia divide. A detailed model for the energetic and metabolic bases of the dependency of ‘Ca. S. mobilis’ on Chl. chlorochromatii is described. Genomic analyses suggest that three types of interactions lead to a highly sophisticated relationship between these two organisms. Firstly, extensive metabolic exchange, involving carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur sources as well as vitamins, occurs from the epibiont to the central bacterium. Secondly, ‘Ca. S. mobilis’ can sense and move towards light and sulfide, resources that only directly benefit the epibiont. Thirdly, electron cycling mechanisms, particularly those mediated by quinones and potentially involving shared protonmotive force, could provide an important basis for energy exchange in this and other symbiotic relationships.

Refurbishing State Capitalism: A Policy Analysis of Efforts to Rebalance China’s Political Economy

Abstract: This article provides an analysis of policy initiatives aimed at rebalancing China’s political economy, especially those contained in the 12th Five Year Plan and other recent pronouncements. The objective is to generate a conceptual examination of these policy measures, thereby highlighting their basic intent and purpose. The analysis shows that the Chinese leadership intends to pursue policies that can centralize, standardize and regulate the political economy under continued state guidance. Due to the considerable political obstacles that Chinese policy-makers face in rebalancing the political economy, a more state-centric approach is seen as necessary. China is therefore pursuing a policy package of refurbishing state capitalism. While a degree of liberalization is likely to be undertaken, the major thrust is one of revamping, restructuring and, ultimately, strengthening state control and guidance over the political economy.

Multiple Generations at Work: Current and Future Trends

Abstract: The multi-generational workforce of the past 20 years or so is the focus of this special issue of the Journal of Intergenerational Relationships (JIR). The challenges and realities of having multip...

Rebalancing China's Emergent Capitalism: State Power, Economic Liberalization and Social Upgrading

Abstract: Introduction to Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 4/2013: Rebalancing China's Political Economy

Dioxins: diagnostic and prognostic challenges arising from complex mechanisms.

Abstract: Dioxins are ubiquitous environmental challenges to humans, with a pervasiveness that arises from two hundred years of rapid industrialization and mechanization of Western societies and which is now extending into the developing world. Despite their penetrance of the human biota, these compounds are poorly understood in terms of their true physiological potential for harm, and the mechanisms by which they impact cellular and organ level function are only recently becoming clear. Emerging awareness that chronic exposures to toxins may have generational and subtle effects on the outcomes of diseases such as cancer and diabetes, which are already multifactorial and highly complex, creates the context for the current review paper. Here, we summarize dioxin exposure paradigms and the resulting physiological effects that have been documented in animals and humans. Novel insights into potential endogenous end exogenous ligands, as well as the mechanisms by which these ligands impact acute and chronic cellular processes, are discussed. We develop the idea that the diagnosis of dioxin exposure, the subtleties of the cellular effects of the compounds and prognosis of the long term effects of exposure are problems requiring that researchers leverage the power of genomics and epigenetics. However, the continuation of longitudinal epidemiological studies and development of a firmer basis from which to extrapolate animal studies will be critical in ensuring optimal insight from these resource-intensive techniques.

Biogeography, Biodiversity and Connectivity of Bermuda’s Coral Reefs

Abstract: As the most northern ecoregion within the Tropical Northwestern Atlantic biogeographic province, Bermuda’s reef biodiversity is a reduced complement of that found within the other ecoregions of the TNA. A characteristic of the Bermuda marine fauna is the absence of species otherwise ubiquitous in the TNA province (i.e., Acropora spp.). Notable differences in Bermuda’s species diversity is attributed to both geographic and physical forcing agents that include isolation, temperature, currents, bathymetric or coastal complexity, and environmental seasonality. Pleistocene sea level changes also may have been important to the development of Bermuda’s current diversity. Shallow-water scleractinian and octocorallian species diversity is currently considered well documented, however information is still lacking on the depth limits of many species, including in and extending beyond the mesophotic zone. The shallow-water azooxanthellate coral, Rhizopsammia bermudensis, is the only endemic scleractinian. Bermuda’s Symbiodinium diversity is comparable to the Caribbean in that clades A, B and C predominate in anthozoan hosts, but there is a notable absence of Clade D which has been recorded from several Caribbean conspecifics. In Bermuda, octocorals harbour only clade B. Most fishes in Bermuda have a western Atlantic distribution, but amphi-Atlantic and more widely distributed species are also common. High levels of genetic variation and unique Bermudian haplotypes have been determined for several species, spanning several higher taxa – not just cnidarians and fishes. Studies indicate that Bermuda’s marine populations are panmictic and self-seeding. Population connections with upstream reef systems have been inferred genetically for some but not all of the few species investigated. For Bermuda, population connectivity characteristics are so diverse, even among species with apparently similar reproductive and dispersal patterns, that best practices for management and conservation should be developed on a species by species basis.

Exploring governance issues in family firms

Abstract: Governance is a major area of study that has attracted an increasing level of attention within the privately held small business and family firm domains. This paper uses research frameworks from several financial and management disciplines to enable the identification and analysis of difficulties arising from making simplistic assertions based on large firm considerations about the benefits and prescriptions for good governance activities in family firms. These difficulties exist primarily because governance in most family firms is driven by a different set of structures and processes from those that apply to large firms. While the theoretical perspectives of the large firm governance literature may hold in family firms, the prescriptions need to be viewed with a different outcome in mind. This paper takes a summative approach as a precursor to establishing empirical approaches to evaluation. The analysis indicates the variety of contextual variations that must be considered in determing an approp...

The Millennial Generation: Receiving a Fair Exchange?

Abstract: There are gaps in values, perception, and experience that separate the millennial generation (today's young adults born between 1980 and 2000) from older adults (50+ years of age). These gaps impac...

Sherry Garland. My Father's Boat. Illustrated by Ted Rand; and Ted Lewin The Storytellers

Abstract: Both children's books present the family as a multigenerational workforce that is still in existence in the United States and around the world In these stories, younger generations carry on the tr