ERA - Humanities & Creative Arts 2009 (restricted)

I La Galigo by Robert Wilson

Margaret M. Hamilton — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:37:02 PDT

Frampton Elegy (trio for bass clarinet, cello and piano)

S. F. Ingham — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:35:54 PDT

Verfranzt (trio for clarinet, cello and piano)

S. F. Ingham — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:34:42 PDT

Wind, Water, Work: Ancient and Medieval Milling Technology: Volume 8 Technology and Change in History

A. R. Lucas — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:33:00 PDT

This book is the most comprehensive empirical study to date of the social and technical aspects of milling during the ancient and medieval periods.Drawing on the latest archaeological evidence and historical studies, the book examines the chronological development and technical details of handmills, beast mills, watermills and windmills from the first millennium BCE to c. 1500. It discusses the many and varied uses to which mills were turned in the civilisations of Rome, China, Islam and Europe, and the many types of mill that existed.The book also includes comparative regional studies of the social and economic signifance of milling, and tackles several important historiographical issues, such as whether technological stagnation was a characteristic of late Antiquity, whether there was an "industrial revolution" in the European Middle Ages based on waterpower, and how contemporary studies in the social shaping of technology can shed light on the study of pre-modern technology.

Molecular activity of the sodium pumps in the kidney of mammals and birds

N. Turner — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:31:41 PDT

Smaller animals and birds have an increased metabolic intensity compared with their larger counterparts, with the basal metabolism / body mass relationship being proportional to mass -0.25. These differences in metabolism appear to result largely from changes at the cellular level, and the goal of this study was to examine whether molecular activity (MA) of sodium pumps from the kidney of these homeotherms reflected their differences in metabolism.

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) content of membranes determines molecular activity of the sodium pump: Implications for disease states and metabolism

N. Turner — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:30:01 PDT

The omega-3 polyunsaturate, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), plays a number of biologically important roles, particularly in the nervous system, where it is found in very high concentrations in cell membranes. In infants DHA is required for the growth and functional development of the brain, with a deficiency resulting in a variety of learning and cognitive disorders. During adulthood DHA maintains normal brain function and recent evidence suggests that reduced DHA intake in adults is linked with a number of neurological disorders including schizophrenia and depression. Here we report a high positive correlation between the molecular activity (ATP min1) of individual Na+K+ATPase units and the content of DHA in the surrounding membrane bilayer. This represents a fundamental relationship underlying metabolic activity, but may also represent a link between reduced levels of DHA and neurological dysfunction, as up to 60% of energy consumption in the brain is linked to the Na+K+ATPase enzyme.

Retirement planning and expectations of Australian babyboomers: are they ready to retire?

W. Hunter — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:28:19 PDT

The “babyboomer” generation, those who were born between 1946 and 1965, account for over30%of the population inAustralia, and it is no surprise that the government is concerned about the financial implications for future healthcare costs. While many babyboomers are more financially secure than previous generations have been on account of compulsory superannuation contributions made over the past 15 years, there are still some who are financially vulnerable and expect to rely on government pensions and welfare assistance. Changes to family structures and job security also mean that those who are less financially secure will need social support. Using an ecological framework model,we explored the retirement expectations and experiences of some Australian babyboomers through focus groups and individual interviews to identify key issues and their plans to address these issues. Four main themes are reported in this paper: retirement attitudes and expectations, finances, health, and food. The results suggested that for many persons retirement equated freedom. Little future planning was undertaken for retirement other than contributing to superannuation schemes, and expectations were reported in general terms, such as wanting to remain independent and healthy and to have time to socialize and travel.

The brain of LB1, Homo floresiensis

D. Falk — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:26:27 PDT

The brain of Homo floresiensis was assessed by comparing a virtual endocast from the type specimen (LB1) with endocasts from great apes, Homo erectus, Homo sapiens, a human pygmy, a human microcephalic, specimen number Sts 5 (Australopithecus africanus), and specimen number WT 17000 (Paranthropus aethiopicus). Morphometric, allometric, and shape data indicate that LB1 is not a microcephalic or pygmy. LB1’s brain/body size ratio scales like that of an australopithecine, but its endocast shape resembles that of Homo erectus. LB1 has derived frontal and temporal lobes and a lunate sulcus in a derived position, which are consistent with capabilities for higher cognitive processing.

Early stone technology on Flores and its implications for Homo Floresiensis

A. Brumm — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:25:02 PDT

In the Soa Basin of central Flores, eastern Indonesia, stratified archaeological sites, including MataMenge, Boa Lesa and Kobatuwa, contain stone artefacts associated with the fossilized remains of Stegodon florensis, Komodo dragon, rat and various other taxa. These sites have been dated to 840–700 kyr BP (thousand years before present). The authenticity of the Soa Basin artefacts and their provenance have been demonstrated by previous work, but to quell lingering doubts7, here we describe the context, attributes and production modes of 507 artefacts excavated at Mata Menge. We also note specific similarities, and apparent technological continuity, between the Mata Menge stone artefacts and those excavated from Late Pleistocene levels at Liang Bua cave, 50km to the west. The latter artefacts, dated to between 95–74 and 12 kyr ago, are associated with the remains of a dwarfed descendent of S. florensis, Komodo dragon, rat and a small-bodied hominin species, Homo floresiensis, which had a brain size of about 400 cubic centimetres. TheMataMenge evidence negates claims that stone artefacts associated with H. floresiensis are so complex that they must have been made by modern humans (Homo sapiens).

A new small bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia

P. Brown — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:22:39 PDT

Currently, it is widely accepted that only one hominin genus, Homo, was present in Pleistocene Asia, represented by two species, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. Both species are characterized by greater brain size, increased body height and smaller teeth relative to Pliocene Australopithecus in Africa. Here we report the discovery, from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia, of an adult hominin with stature and endocranial volume approximating 1m and 380 cm3, respectively—equal to the smallest-known australopithecines. The combination of primitive and derived features assigns this hominin to a new species, Homo floresiensis. The most likely explanation for its existence on Flores is long-term isolation, with subsequent endemic dwarfing, of an ancestral H. erectus population. Importantly, H. floresiensis shows that the genus Homo is morphologically more varied and flexible in its adaptive responses than previously thought.

Further evidence for small-bodied hominins from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia

M. J. Morwood — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:20:04 PDT

Homo floresiensis was recovered from Late Pleistocene deposits on the island of Flores in eastern Indonesia, but has the stature, limb proportions and endocranial volume of African Pliocene Australopithecus1. The holotype of the species (LB1), excavated in 2003 from Liang Bua, consisted of a partial skeleton minus the arms. Here we describe additional H. floresiensis remains excavated from the cave in 2004. These include armbones belonging to the holotype skeleton, a second adult mandible, and postcranial material from other individuals.We can now reconstruct the body proportions of H. floresiensis with some certainty. The finds further demonstrate that LB1 is not just an aberrant or pathological individual, but is representative of a long-term population that was present during the interval 95–74 to 12 thousand years ago. The excavation also yielded more evidence for the depositional history of the cave and for the behavioural capabilities of H. floresiensis, including the butchery of Stegodon and use of fire.

New ages for human occupation and climatic change at Lake Mungo, Australia

J. M. Bowler — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:04:47 PDT

Australia’s oldest human remains, found at Lake Mungo, include the world’s oldest ritual ochre burial (Mungo III) and the first recorded cremation (Mungo I). Until now, the importance of these finds has been constrained by limited chronologies and palaeoenvironmental information. Mungo III, the source of the world’s oldest human mitochondrial DNA4, has been variously estimated at 30 thousand years (kyr) old, 42–45 kyr old and 62 6 6 kyr old, while radiocarbon estimates placed theMungo I cremation near 20–26 kyr ago. Here we report a new series of 25 optical ages showing that both burials occurred at 40 +- 2 kyr ago and that humans were present at Lake Mungo by 50–46 kyr ago, synchronously with, or soon after, initial occupation of northern and western Australia. Stratigraphic evidence indicates fluctuations between lake-full and drier conditions from 50 to 40 kyr ago, simultaneously with increased dust deposition, human arrival and continent-wide extinction of the megafauna. This was followed by sustained aridity between 40 and 30 kyr ago. This new chronology corrects previous estimates for human burials at this important site and provides a new picture of Homo sapiens adapting to deteriorating climate in the world’s driest inhabited continent.

Molecular activity of Na+,K+-ATPase relates to the packing of membrane lipids

B. J. Wu — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:59:37 PDT

The activity of the ubiquitous Na+/K+-ATPase represents a substantial portion of the resting metabolic activity of cells, and the molecular activity of this enzyme from tissues of different vertebrates can vary several-fold. Microsomes were prepared from the kidney and brain of the rat (Rattus norvegicus) and the cane toad (Bufo marinus), and Na+/K+-ATPase molecular activity was determined. The membrane lipids surrounding this enzyme were isolated and phospholipids prepared. ‘Surface pressure/area’ isotherms were measured in monolayers for both membrane lipids and phospholipids using classic Langmuir trough techniques. Microsomal lipid composition was also measured. Whilst significant correlations were observed between membrane composition and Na+/K+-ATPase molecular activity, the strongest correlations were found between the molecular activity and parameters describing the packing of the surrounding membrane lipids and phospholipids. The influence of membrane lipid composition, especially membrane acyl composition, on the activity of a membrane protein mediated by physical properties of the lipids may represent a fundamental principle applicable to other membrane proteins.

Important role of hypothalamic Y2 receptors in bodyweight regulation revealed in conditional knockout mice

A. Sainsbury — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:49:51 PDT

Neuropeptide Y is implicated in energy homeostasis, and contributes to obesity when hypothalamic levels remain chronically elevated. To investigate the specific role of hypothalamic Y2 receptors in this process, we used a conditional Y2 knockout model, using the Cre-lox system and adenoviral delivery of Cre-recombinase. Hypothalamus-specific Y2-deleted mice showed a significant decrease in body weight and a significant increase in food intake that was associated with increased mRNA levels for the orexigenic NPY and AgRP, as well as the anorexic proopiomelanocortin (POMC) and cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) in the arcuate nucleus. These hypothalamic changes persisted until at least 34 days after Y2 deletion, yet the effect on body weight and food intake subsided within this time. Plasma concentrations of pancreatic polypeptide and corticosterone were 3- to 5-fold increased in hypothalamus-specific Y2 knockout mice. Germ-line Y2 receptor knockout also produced a significant increase in plasma levels of pancreatic polypeptide. However, these mice differed from conditional knockout mice in that they showed a sustained reduction in body weight and adiposity associated with increased NPY and AgRP but decreased POMC and CART mRNA levels in the arcuate nucleus. The transience of the observed effects on food intake and body weight in the hypothalamus-specific Y2 knockout mice, and the difference of this model from germ-line Y2 knockout mice, underline the importance of conditional models of gene deletion, because developmental, secondary, or extrahypothalamic mechanisms may mask such effects in germ-line knockouts.

Tough ghosts: Modes of cultural belonging in diaspora

W. Ommundsen — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:34:41 PDT

The murder of the Dutch far-right political leader Pim Fortuyn on 7 May 2002, only a week before the election that took his party to second place in the national parliament, popularised a term that had previously been the preserve of the academy: culturalism.1 A self-confessed culturalist, the sociologist-turnedpolitician refused to identify with the more overtly racist policies of Jean-Marie Le Pen in France and Jorg Haider in Austria. He argued instead that his opposition to non-Western (predominantly Muslim) immigration was based on cultural incompatibility. For Fortuyn, liberal Western values such as gender and sexual equality, individualism, and the separation of state and church could not co-exist with the "backward" cultural views espoused by the immigrants. Fortuyn's particular blend of liberal and reactionary ideas may have been unique, but the borderline between culturalism and racism is more blurred than he cared to acknowledge, and his arguments concerning cultural incompatibility are not fundamentally different from those of politicians he classified as racist. Versions of his culturalist (or neo-racist, as Etienne Balibar calls it) argument have echoed across Western Europe, Australia, and the West in general in recent years, destabilising the political balance of the postwar period and leading to a noticeable shift to the right. Indeed, as Stuart Hall has recently argued, far from being mutually exclusive, multiculturalism and racism seem to be symbiotically linked: it is worth identifying with one of the most difficult things to comprehend nowadays about this society—the absolute coincidence of multiculturalism and racism. Far from being the opposite ends of a pole so that one can trade the rise of one against the decline of the other, it seems to be absolutely dead central to society that both multiculturalism and racism are increasing at one and the same time (Hall and Maharaj 2001, 48-49).

Recent reforms and the development of the securities market in Bangladesh

S. M. Solaiman — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:33:13 PDT

The Bangladesh securities market has failed to achieve any significant growth since its inception in 1954. This stagnation is attributable to a number of factors that include, inter alia, the existence of weak legal and regulatory frameworks, the absence of active market professionals, the predominance of individual investors, and a serious dearth of foreign and institutional investors. Legal and regulatory weaknesses are considered to have critically hindered the market’s potential growth. Some important laws are outdated, and the regulator has introduced some unrealistic reforms over the years. Most of the reforms accomplished thus far concentrate on incentives to investors and issuers alike, but nothing significant has been done for investor protection. This article argues that effective legal protection to investors is indispensable for the development of, and the restoration of public confidence in, the infant securities market of Bangladesh.

From the Stage to the Clinic: Changing Transgender Identities in Post-War Japan

Mark J. McLelland — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:30:46 PDT

This paper looks at the transformation of male-to-female transgender identities in Japan since the Second World War. The development of print media aimed at a transgender readership is outlined, as is the development of bars, clubs and sex venues where transgendered men sought both partners and commercial opportunities. The origin of various transgender ‘folk categories’ such as okama , gei bo¯i , buru¯ bo¯i and nyu¯ ha¯fu is discussed and their dependence upon and relationship to the entertainment world is outlined. Finally, the paper looks at how the resumption of sex-change operations in Japan in 1998 has led to a new public discourse about transgender phenomena that utilizes a range of medical terminology. While the recent establishment in Japan of clinics for individuals who consider themselves to be transsexual is an important development, it is argued that other transgenders who identify with indigenous categories are sceptical about the new medical model which they regard as both reductionist and pathologizing, and that their experience should not be overlooked when giving an account of constructions of transgender experience in contemporary Japan.

Systematization of Film Censorship in Colonial Korea: Profiteering from Hollywood's First Golden Age, 1926-1936

B. Yecies — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:29:24 PDT

Between 1926 and 1936, cinema in colonial Korea was a vibrant business, involving the production of domestic films and the distribution and exhibition of American, British, Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Russian films. During this decade, the first golden age of American cinema in Korea, Hollywood films overwhelmingly dominated the Korean market. Korea was an important territory that Hollywood used in its overall global expansion campaign. Amid this globalization operation, the Government-General of Chosen’s film censorship apparatus was a financially self-sustaining operation. It paid for its operation by profiteering from the application of more than 6,700 American and 630 other countries’ feature and non-feature films, a vast majority of which were approved with minor, if any, censorship changes. The Government-General’s systematization of film censorship policies was intended to obstruct Communist, revolutionary, and later, socialist themes rather than “Western” themes—at least until the late 1930s, when the Japanese Department of Home Affairs began banning the import of American films and the Government-General intensified the suppression of Korean culture.

Illuminating southeast Asian prehistory: new archaeological and paleoanthropological frontiers for luminescence dating

Richard G. Roberts — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:28:05 PDT

Robust chronologies for the extinction of Homo erectus, the arrival of modern humans (Homo sapiens), and the dispersal of Neolithic peoples throught Southeast Asia and Oceania are needed to assess general models of human evolution and dispersal worldwide. At present, the lack of adequate age controls has crated a deadlock between proponents of the "multiregional" hypothesis of modern evolution, who argue that modern humans arose by evolutionary changes in earlier hominid populations in many parts of the Old Word, and advocates of the "out of Africa" hypothesis, who hold the view that modern humans first appeared in Africa less than 200,000 years ago and then dispersed acress the world, eclipsing all earlier hominid populations.

The devil you know: Malaysian perceptions of foreign workers

V. D. Crinis — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:23:12 PDT

Labour migration into Malaysia has a long pre-colonial and colonial history. In the colonial period, Chinese, Indian and Indonesian labourers were recruited to work in the tin and rubber industry. These migrants were mainly transient workers but many also settled in Malaysia. The immigration of Chinese labour was stopped after the Aliens Ordinance was introduced in 1931 but Indonesian migrants continued to migrate to Malaysia. Unlike the Chinese and Indian immigrants they were largely invisible because of their 'Malayness'. After independence in 1957, the flow of Indonesian workers continued, but stopped during the Confrontation between Indonesia and Malaysia in 1963-6. But since the New Economic Policy (NEP) was introduced in 1971 migration patterns and flows have been constant. In modern Malaysia cross border migration mainly comes from the Philippines (especially the southern island of Mindanao where the peoples are Muslim) and Kalimantan, Indonesia, to Sabah and Sarawak; from Sumatra to Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore; from Southern Thailand to the northern states in Malaysia (Lim 1996:322).