Dyslexia: cultural diversity and biological unity

The recognition of dyslexia as a neurodevelopmental disorder has been hampered by the belief that it is not a specific diagnostic entity because it has variable and culture-specific manifestations. In line with this belief, we found that Italian dyslexics, using a shallow orthography which facilitates reading, performed better on reading tasks than did English and French dyslexics. However, all dyslexics were equally impaired relative to their controls on reading and phonological tasks. Positron emission tomography scans during explicit and implicit reading showed the same reduced activity in a region of the left hemisphere in dyslexics from all three countries, with the maximum peak in the middle temporal gyrus and additional peaks in the inferior and superior temporal gyri and middle occipital gyrus. We conclude that there is a universal neurocognitive basis for dyslexia and that differences in reading performance among dyslexics of different countries are due to different orthographies.     

当前我国文化多样性的形成、表现及其特征

当前我国文化多样性的形成是全球化、市场化、信息网络化3大趋势在我国社会发展进程中相互作用的必然结果。它表现为多种异质文化的冲突、碰撞、共生、交融与争锋。与一般意义上的文化多样性所不同的是,我国文化多样性呈现出鲜明的时代特征,即文化从形式上的多样走向实质性的多样,从地域性走向超越地域性,并且日渐凸显其意识形态性。     

A cultural economy model for studying food systems

In 1984, William Friedland proposed a Commodity Systems Analysis framework for describing the stages through which a commodity is transformed and how it acquires value. He challenged us to think of commodities as entities with a social as well as a physical presence. Friedland's argument enriched the concept of commodity production, but it remains essentially a supply side perspective.Since then, many commentators have argued that power is shifting from producers to consumers. Furthermore, some are claiming that, contrary to much traditional Marxist thinking about how individuals find meaning through their productive capacities, it is now through consumption that individuals are identifying themselves. Given the significance of this view, it seems timely to extend Friedland's framework to incorporate the consumption perspective.In light of other claims that the distance between production and consumption is increasing, it is equally important to acknowledge the processes that structure the relationship between the two spheres. This entails using new retail geographical and cultural studies to explore further what takes place in distribution and exchange.This article describes a new model for understanding power in commodity systems, one that acknowledges the input and interests of a range of actors beyond the agricultural sector. The proposed cultural economy model also emphasizes a range of value adding processes that are wider than those that apply to commodity production.     

The ghosts of taste: food and the cultural politics of authenticity

We add a political culture dimension to the debate over the politics of food. Central to food politics is the cultural granting of authenticity, experienced through the conjuring of relational presences of authorship. These presences derive from the faces and the places of relationality, what we term the ghosts of taste, by which food narratives articulate claims of the authorship of food by people and environments, and thus claim of authenticity. In this paper, we trace the often-conflicting presences of authenticating ghosts in food along a prominent axis of current debate: the local versus the global. The three cases outlined here—Greek food, Thousand Island dressing, and wild rice—illustrate the recovery and suppression of the lingering spirits of both local and global faces and places in what we taste, and show the mutually interdependent consequence of culture and economics in food politics.     

Reconsidering diversity in agriculture and food systems: An ecofeminist approach

The concept of diversity is at the center of environmental and social movements. This paper discusses four aspects of diversity related to agriculture: biological, social, cultural, and product and suggests that viewing diversity solely as difference skirts the issues of redistribution of power and shifting social relations. Ecofeminist conceptions of diversity are discussed with a focus on seeds, forests, and sustainable agriculture. Women's activities at the grassroots level provides new insights and pathways to diversity that combine social, agricultural, and biological issues.     

Rural Africa: modernization, equity, and long-term development

Prospects for rural development in sub-Saharan Africa appear to be much poorer than in the rest of the developing world, especially since the oil price increases. If present trends continue, African dependence on food imports will increase. Despite the rhetorical acknowledgment of the importance of the agricultural and rural sector, most African countries are not giving that sector the needed priority in their policies and budgets. Indeed, the rural sector is heavily taxed for the support of urban modernization. Large investments by foreign donors in the rural sector have had little overall effect. Donors need to adopt a longer perspective on development and to make greater efforts to promote indigenous capacities for policy, planning, and administration. Their investments need to be geared more to broad-based higher education and training and to transport and communications.     

Influence of socio-economic and cultural factors in rice varietal diversity management on-farm in Nepal

A questionnaire survey of 408 households explored the role of socio-economic and cultural factors in rice (Oryza sativa L.) varietal diversity management on-farm in two contrasting eco-sites in Nepal. Multiple regression outputs suggest that number of parcels of land, livestock number, number of rice ecosystems, agro-ecology (altitude), and use of chemical fertilizer have a significant positive influence on landrace diversity on-farm, while membership in farmers’ groups linked to extension services has significant but negative influence on landrace diversity. Factors with significant positive influence on diversity of modern varieties on-farm were number of parcels of land and of rice ecosystems, access to irrigation, membership in farmers’ groups, and use of insecticide. Within communities, resource-endowed households maintain significantly higher varietal diversity on-farm than resource-poor households and play a significant role in conserving landraces that are vulnerable to genetic erosion and those with socio-cultural and market-preferred traits. Resource-poor households also contribute to local diversity conservation but at lower richness and area coverage levels than resource-endowed households. Households where a female had assumed the role of head of household due to death or migrant work of her husband had less diversity due to lower labor availability. Landraces with socio-cultural and market-preferred traits are few in number but have potential to be conserved on-farm.

西藏东南部生物多样性和生态环境脆弱性分析

根据西藏东南部墨脱、察隅和米林三县的动物资源,分别统计了这三个地区哺乳类、鸟类、两栖爬行类、鱼类以及无脊椎动物的蛛形类的属和种的数量;列出了每个地区的珍稀和特有物种,分析这些地区生物区系的复杂性和物种的多样性。此外,作者还对该地区生态环境的脆弱性进行了讨论,并对该地区的保护和利用提出建议,呼吁开展国际合作,共同保护这一独特的自然遗产。     

魔芋与粮食作物间套高产高效栽培模式

结合十堰市示范魔 -粮间套高产高效栽培模式的实际 ,阐述了低山窄带“魔 -麦 -玉”、中山中带“魔 -玉”、高山宽带“魔 -玉”3种优化模式的内容、产量、经济效益及其优势     

生物多样性及其价值

生物多样性是自然赐予人类的财富，然而人类的不合理开发及利用极大地破坏了世界的生物多样性，人类也因此受到了大自然的报复及惩罚。本文简介了生物多样性的主要内容及现状，自在提高人们对生物多样性价值的认识。     

生物多样性与绿色城市

为了说明生物多样性,我们先举两个极端例子。生物多样性最丰富的地方,当然数热带雨林,巴西、印尼,还有我国的云南西双版纳、海南三亚,都是生物多样性很丰富的地方,每平方公里的植物、动物种数多在2000种以上。再举生物多样性最贫乏的地方,可能包括沙漠、戈壁,盐碱地,还有我们人工造的纯林。这两种地方,那种好?那个地方更适合人居?答案只有一     

Zuni farming and united states government policy: The politics of biological and cultural diversity in agriculture

Indigenous Zuni farming, including cultural values, ecological and biological diversity, and land distribution and tenure, appears to have been quite productive and sustainable for at least 2000 before United States influence began in the later half of the 18th century. United States Government Indian agriculture policy has been based on assimilation of Indians and taking of their resources, and continues in more subtle ways today. At Zuni this policy has resulted in the degradation and loss of natural resources for farming, reduction in the number of Zuni farmers and their control over farming resources, individualization of rights in farmland, consolidation of farm fields, and declining biological diversity in agriculture. The Zuni Sustainable Agriculture Project with the Zuni Irrigation Association and the Zuni community, are now working to revitalize sustainable Zuni farming, based on traditional values, knowledge, and technology, combined with modern knowledge and technology where appropriate. The United States government can support these efforts through appreciation of the need for Zuni control and the potential value of cultural and biological diversity.     

生物多样性与害虫持续控制

由于生物多样性受到严重破坏,造成害虫为害不断加重,因此通过保护生物多样性减轻害虫的为害受到人们的极大关注。文中概括了保护生物多样性和害虫持续控制的多种措施,探讨了生物多样性在害虫持续控制中的作用。     

Biological diversity, soils, and economics

Terrestrial biological diversity is supported by solar energy captured by plants growing in soil. This soil-based plant productivity also provides the foundation for human societies through production of food and renewable forms of energy. Variations in plant productivity, resulting from differences in inherent soil fertility, variations in climate and weather, and differences in chemical inputs and agricultural practices, produce patterns of biological diversity that are associated with the agricultural component of economic productivity. Ecological processes lead to a generally negative relation between the diversity of plant species and potential agricultural productivity at both local and global scales. One implication of this negative relation is that preservation of areas of high plant biodiversity does not require the sacrifice of productive agricultural lands.     

有机农业和土壤生物多样性

论述了有机农业与土壤生态系统、有机管理对土壤和土壤微生物的关系,探讨了有机土壤管理对土壤生物体的生态效益,提出了有机农业土壤管理的措施。     

生物多样性的丧失及其保护

生物是地球上最宝贵的自然资源,为人类生存和工业发展提供了丰富的原材料。随着人口的增长和人类经济活动的加剧,生物多样性受到了严重威胁。阐述了生物多样性的概念、价值和现状,分析了生物多样性丧失的主要原因,并针对当前的实际情况提出了相关保护措施。     

Biodiversity assessment and conservation strategies

The efficient representation of all species in conservation planning is problematic. Often, species distribution is assessed by dividing the land into a grid; complementary sets of grids, in which each taxon is represented at least once, are then sought. To determine if this approach provides useful surrogate information, species and higher taxon data for South African plants and animals were analyzed. Complementary species sets did not coincide and overlapped little with higher taxon sets. Survey extent and taxonomic knowledge did not affect this overlap. Thus, the assumptions of surrogacy, on which so much conservation planning is based, are not supported.