Cultural Practice

The present study was designed to examine the structure of cultural identity in the United States, both across variables and across persons. An ethnically diverse sample of 349 emerging-adult university students completed measures of orientation toward American and heritage cultural practices, acculturation strategies, individualismcollectivism, independence-interdependence, ethnic identity, and familism. Across variables, results of factor-analytic procedures yielded three dimensions of cultural identity: American-culture identity, heritage-culture identity, and biculturalism. This factor structure was consistent across the three largest ethnic groups in the sample (Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics). Ethnic differences emerged in the associations of these cultural identity factors to familial ethnic socialization, acculturative stress, and perceived ethnic discrimination. Across persons, cluster-analytic procedures revealed two groups of participants-those who endorsed American-culture identity highly and those who endorsed both American and heritage cultures highly. Implications for theory and for further research are discussed.

Globalization of the construction industry has brought unique challenges such as coordination among project participants from different countries. This research attempts to understand cultural differences in international joint-venture (IJV) teams composed of Japanese and American participants, and to develop a prototype computational model-"Cross-Cultural"-Virtual Design Team (CC-VDT)-to seek better organization designs for cross-cultural engineering teams. Based on our case studies, we characterize cultural differences along the dimension of cultural values and cultural practices. Cultural values refer to an individual's preferences in decision making and communication. Cultural practices include the cultural norms for adopting specific coordination mechanisms to control organizations and tasks. CC-VDT incorporates value-practice dimensions based on our observations and a literature survey. The simulated results of the effects of cultural impacts are qualitatively consistent with cultural contingency theory and our observations, validating the reasoning of CC-VDT. These results extend the possibility of using simulation modeling to capture distinguishing cross-cultural phenomena that emerge in global construction projects.

Nitrogen fertilization and winter pruning are commonly used to control crop production in peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] orchards. They are also known to affect the dynamics of Myzus persicae (Sulzer) (Homoptera: Aphididae) aphid populations via bottom-up regulation processes. Interactions between crops and pests can cause complex system behaviour in response to management practices. An integrated approach will therefore improve the understanding of the effects of these two cultural practices on aphid and peach performances.

Nnewi is situated some 30 kilometres South East of Onitsha in Anambra State in the southeastern part of Nigeria. This highly commercial town has undergone rapid urbanisation and industrialisation within the past two decades, since the end of the 1967-1970 Nigerian civil war. The Igbo community of the study area had traditionally employed bioconversion methods and other indigenous technology to process or recycle bio and non-degradable wastes. Industrialisation has enjoyed priority status in this locality as a requirement for modernisation and economic progress. The rapid urbanisation, aggressive industrialisation, and the attendant uncontrolled population growth have had a deleterious impact on the environment. There is now a wide range of industrial wastes that are released daily into the environment. Effects of these activities on the socio-cultural practices of the people, plant genetic resources and the environment are highlighted. In addition to palliative measures suggested here, a call is made to revisit the successful indigenous waste treatment and management technology formerly practised by the Igbo community. The importance of combining modern biotechnological approaches with the indigenous technology, norms and practices of Nwewi people to effect suitable waste treatment and management, as well as improving the living habits and the education of the people about their environment, is recommended.

In the mostly self-regulated arboricultural industry, Louisiana, U.S., is one of a few places where arborists must possess a license to operate. Since 1993, state-licensed arborists in Louisiana have been required to attend at least one continuing education workshop each year to maintain their licenses. In 2002, the State of Louisiana assumed responsibility for providing arborist continuing education, and program planners identified increasing safety and professionalism among licensed arborists as the two primary goals for the training program. The authors collected written questionnaires from 386 licensed arborists who provided baseline data on their levels of safety and professional- ism and demographic information. Analysis suggested that safety and professionalism are not separate variables among respon- dents, but examination of categories of questions describing different aspects of safety and professionalism is revealing. Arborists self-reported good ethical practices in deal...

Researchers in sport and exercise psychology are witnessing a call for culturally relevant practices when they engage in research with individuals and communities at the margins (e.g., . Though cultural sport psychology (CSP) researchers regard their work as culturally focused and hopefully culturally sensitive, few have considered whether, and also how, research (and researchers) can contribute to a culture's decolonization when the culture has been re-located to the margins. Through negotiations (and renegotiations) in terms of subject matter, methods, roles of co-researchers, and proprietary rights, mainstream researchers engaged in such work can support the restoration of power balances (instead of perpetuating imbalances; abStract Within the sport psychology community there is a growing interest regarding how to engage in culturally sensitive (and also relevant) research. A research collaboration among Laurentian University and Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve is reflected through indigenous strategies relevant in the intended community, including negotiation and consensus building, talking circles, culturally relevant analyses, active co-authoring, and overarching considerations that support de-colonization. Within this report we have shared our progressive integration of Wikwemikong's cultural practices in successive multicultural projects. We have also proposed how, from our regional experiences in Near Northern Ontario (Canada), collaborators from other marginalized and mainstream communities might begin engaging in reflective bicultural sport psychology research while developing long-standing positive relations.

This paper builds on the findings of a thermal comfort field study carried out in air conditioned offices in Makati City (Manila), Philippines to investigate the applicability of the universal values of comfort temperatures recommended by international comfort standards. The analyses of the responses of the Filipino office workers indicate that some conventional thinking about comfort preferences is open to question. As a background to explaining the findings, the paper will discuss the transformations, first colonization, and then the introduction of air conditioning, have caused to the social and cultural practices in the Philippines of what people take to be normal and ordinary conditions of comfort. The paper will highlight the variations in definitions, perceptions and expectations of thermal comfort to emphasize the different socio-cultural aspects of interactions between people, technologies and indoor environments. The framework advocating the separation of the technical and social constructions of comfort, on which conventional approaches to thermal comfort are predicated, shape and maintain practices and conventions that have ill-considered consequences on energy use and consumption.

Semi-intensive aquaculture, particularly in the tropics, accounts for nearly 70% of the finfish production of the world. The bulk of this production is based on a handful of species, the most important being the cyprinid species, such as Chinese and Indian major carps, feeding low in the food chain. In the culture practices the endogenous food supply is known to play a major role, and equally the exogenous food supply is very diverse: the latter often ranging from simple mixes of ingredients to pelleted feeds of various forms. The paper reviews the different feeding strategies currently employed within semi-intensive farming systems for warn-water fish species, including on-farm preparation techniques and management practices. Particular emphasis is placed on the important role played by natural food organisms in the overall nutritional budget of pond-raised fish and the need to reduce food and feeding costs through the use of improved pond fertilization, feed formulation, food preparation, and on-farm feed and water management techniques.

famously defined cultural capital as the accumulated cultural knowledge that confers power and status. Their original work explained many of the intangible advantages that allowed the upper class to obtain better status jobs, education, etc. Here we extend this concept to include "computational capital"-the concepts, skills, and other resources that facilitate participation in computing activities, education and careers. We posit that hidden sources of computational capital can be found in some cultural practices of disadvantaged groups, and that a suitable learning environment can make this capital available to its owners. In the study presented here, the cultural practice is cornrow hairstyles, and the learning environment is based on Cornrow Curves, a web applet that allows children to use math and computing principles to simulate the patterns of these braids. This paper analyzes the interactions of African-American children with Cornrow Curves, in particular their reflections on the relationship between their heritage identity and the experience of learning math and computing through cultural resources. We use concept of "design agency" to describe the ways in which the students' creative explorations in this computational geometry converge with their cultural construction of the self.

Nitrogen fertilization and winter pruning are commonly used to control crop production in peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] orchards. They are also known to affect the dynamics of Myzus persicae (Sulzer) (Homoptera: Aphididae) aphid populations via bottom-up regulation processes. Interactions between crops and pests can cause complex system behaviour in response to management practices. An integrated approach will therefore improve the understanding of the effects of these two cultural practices on aphid and peach performances.

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a source of unique individual odors that influence individual recognition, mating preferences, nesting behavior and selective block of pregnancy in animals. Such phenomena have been difficult to study in humans, because the human leukocyte antigen (HLA, human MHC) loci are the most polymorphic loci in the human genome, with the potential to generate millions of unique combinations of genotypes. In addition, high variability in background odors, encoded by the rest of the genome and influenced by cultural practices, contribute to a low signal-to-noise ratio that could mask HLA-based olfactory cues. Here we show that women can detect differences of one HLA allele among male odor donors with different MHC genotypes. Notably, the mechanism for a woman's ability to discriminate and choose odors is based on HLA alleles inherited from her father but not her mother. The parents' HLA alleles that she does not inherit show no relationship with odor choice, despite exposure to these HLA-encoded odors throughout her life. Our data indicate that paternally inherited HLA-associated odors influence odor preference and may serve as social cues.

The present study was designed to examine the structure of cultural identity in the United States, both across variables and across persons. An ethnically diverse sample of 349 emerging-adult university students completed measures of orientation toward American and heritage cultural practices, acculturation strategies, individualismcollectivism, independence-interdependence, ethnic identity, and familism. Across variables, results of factor-analytic procedures yielded three dimensions of cultural identity: American-culture identity, heritage-culture identity, and biculturalism. This factor structure was consistent across the three largest ethnic groups in the sample (Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics). Ethnic differences emerged in the associations of these cultural identity factors to familial ethnic socialization, acculturative stress, and perceived ethnic discrimination. Across persons, cluster-analytic procedures revealed two groups of participants-those who endorsed American-culture identity highly and those who endorsed both American and heritage cultures highly. Implications for theory and for further research are discussed.

The relation of gender and immigrant generation to ethnocultural identity was examined in an ethnically diverse sample of young adults from immigrant families. We hypothesized that gender differences in ethnocultural identity would occur among the second-generation (those born in the receiving society) daughters and sons of parents who were immigrants. Participants completed several measures that assessed identity and self-construal, including ethnocultural identity. As predicted, among participants who were the second-generation children of immigrants, gender differences occurred on ethnic identity achievement (defined as seeking to learn about and understand one's ethnicity) and reported behavioral commitment (e.g., maintaining cultural practices). Women endorsed these 2 components of ethnic identity more strongly than men did. Second-generation women and men whose parents were immigrants did not, however, differ in a third component of ethnocultural identity, namely, pride and attachment to one's ethnocultural group. The implications of this pattern of findings are discussed.

In Continuous Education curricula in Spain, the programs on sciences of the environment are aimed toward understandings of sustainability. Teaching practice rarely leaves the classroom for outdoor field studies. At the same time, teaching practice is generally focused on examples of how human activities are harmful for ecosystems. From a pedagogic point of view, it is less effective to teach environmental science with negative examples such as catastrophe, tragedy, and crisis. Rather, teaching environmental sciences and sustainable development might be focused on positive human-environment relationships, which is both important for the further development of students and educators. Within rural settings, there are many such examples of positive relationships that can be emphasized and integrated into the curriculum. In this article, we propose teaching environmental sciences through immersion in rural cultural life. We discuss how fieldwork serves as a learning methodology. When students are engaged through research with traditional cultural practices of environmental management, which is a part of the real and traditional culture of a region, they better understand how positive pedagogy instead of pedagogy structured around how not-to-do examples, can be used to stimulate the interactions between humans and the environment with their students. In this way, cultural goods serve as teaching resources in science and environmental education. What we present is authentic cases where adults involved in a course of Continuous Education explore 'environmentally-friendly' practices of traditional agriculture in Asturias (north of Spain), employing methodologies of cultural studies.

Common baldness (alopecia) increasingly affects a higher number of individuals at earlier ages, independently of gender. One of the reasons could be lack of knowledge concerning its etiology. The human being has evolved to become a naked monkey, although there is no apparent reason to continue the evolutionary process up to becoming a bald monkey. According to this theory, common baldness is a degenerative process derived from certain inadequate cultural practices, such as excessive hair cutting or certain types of haircuts that prevent contact among hairs themselves and limit outside contact in ways that would alleviate balding. Blocking the flow of sebum towards the base of the hair follicle -and so interfering with the arrival of the stem cells to the dermal papilla with consequent hair miniaturization -ends up being the first negative physiological effect derived from certain cultural habits. As time goes by, other mechanisms become altered, which leads to a less and less reversibility of the process.

This article problematises representations of professional practice. It investigates assumptions behind received accounts of professional practice, including professional standards that purportedly capture what accomplished English teachers “ should ...

List of Figures. List of Tables. Acknowledgments. Acknowledgment of Sources. Introduction. 1. La Migra. 2. Beginning Fieldwork. 3. Norte and Sur: Government, School, and Research Perspectives. 4. Hemispheric Localism: Language, Racialized Nationalism, and the Politicization of Youth. 5. 'Muy Macha': Gendered Performances and the Avoidance of Social Injury. 6. Smile Now Cry Later: Memorializing Practices Linking Language, Materiality, And Embodiment. 7. Icons and Exemplars: Ethnographic Approaches in Variationist Sociolinguistics. 8. Variation in a Community of Practice. 9. 'That's the whole thing [t5iN]!': Discourse Markers and Teenage Speech. 10. Conclusion. References. Appendix. Index

Isolation buffers mediocrity and hides high performers from those who might learn from their modeling, consultation, and coaching. When practice is deprivatized, teachers visit one another's classrooms to observe master teaching, to coach each other, to mentor, and to problem solve in the living laboratory of instructional space. —Garmston and Wellman (1999) Teaching reform efforts in the United States have often shown only short-term effects. Based on an analysis of video data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Stigler and Hiebert (1999) argued that the reason for such limited success is that teaching is embedded in cultural practices whose pervasiveness is too great to overcome through standard professional development activities. They further argued that real change in school culture requires that teachers engage in career-long learning. Long-term collaboration among teachers focused on student thinking and classroom practices is the basis of...

Semi-intensive aquaculture, particularly in the tropics, accounts for nearly 70% of the finfish production of the world. The bulk of this production is based on a handful of species, the most important being the cyprinid species, such as Chinese and Indian major carps, feeding low in the food chain. In the culture practices the endogenous food supply is known to play a major role, and equally the exogenous food supply is very diverse: the latter often ranging from simple mixes of ingredients to pelleted feeds of various forms. The paper reviews the different feeding strategies currently employed within semi-intensive farming systems for warn-water fish species, including on-farm preparation techniques and management practices. Particular emphasis is placed on the important role played by natural food organisms in the overall nutritional budget of pond-raised fish and the need to reduce food and feeding costs through the use of improved pond fertilization, feed formulation, food preparation, and on-farm feed and water management techniques. 0 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. 0 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.

Seventeen years ago Gloria published the landmark article "Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy," giving a coherent theoretical statement for resource pedagogies that had been building throughout the 1970s and 1980s. I, like countless teachers and university-based researchers, have been inspired by what it means to make teaching and learning relevant and responsive to the languages, literacies, and cultural practices of students across categories of difference and (in)equality. Recently, however, I have begun to question if the terms "relevant" and "responsive" are really descriptive of much of the teaching and research founded upon them and, more importantly, if they go far enough in their orientation to the languages and literacies and other cultural practices of communities marginalized by systemic inequalities to ensure the valuing and maintenance of our multiethnic and multilingual society. In this essay, I offer the term and stance of culturally sustaining pedagogy as an alternative that, I believe, embodies some of the best research and practice in the resource pedagogy tradition and as a term that supports the value of our multiethnic and multilingual present and future.

Perception of fruit and vegetable flavor is a composite of sensory responses in the nose and mouth to aroma and taste. A diverse array of fruit and vegetable constituents including acids, sugars, volatiles and many other compounds individually elicit sensory responses that are recognized in total as flavor. Accumulation of these compounds during development as well as dynamic changes during ripening and/or senescence are determined in large part by the genetics of each species as well as developmental stage at harvest. However, other factors that influence development prior to harvest subsequently impact flavor. For horticultural crops, environment, cultural practices, agrichemicals and nutrition are some of the factors impacting flavor through effects on plant development.

. Researchers have developed several indices to estimate the significance of plant species for humans. We build on previous methods in ethnobotany and anthropology to develop a new way to value plant species along three dimensions: cultural, practical, and economic. We used interview and observational data on the use of wild plants by the Tsimane', a foraging-horticultural society in the Bolivian Amazon. We calculated the cultural, practical, economic, and total values of 114 plant species from 46 families. We found a low correlation between the practical and the cultural values of species: some species rarely used were frequently mentioned in interviews, whereas some species frequently used were rarely mentioned in interviews. Indices of cultural, practical, and economic value measure different dimensions of the importance of plant species to society. The combination of the three indices offers a more comprehensive valuation of the significance of plants for humans than the use of only one index.

Capabilities and their underlying knowledge assets represent a major competitive resource for knowledge-intensive organisations such as e-businesses. The research presented in this paper utilises a series of case studies to identify the key knowledge assets for e-businesses. The paper suggests the Knowledge Assets Map as a framework to identify and manage key capabilities and key assets in today's economy. The Knowledge Asset Map identifies the following six areas as critical: stakeholder relationships, human resources, physical infrastructure, culture, practices and routines, and intellectual property. Furthermore, the paper provides managerial guidelines to design knowledge assets metrics.

Light attenuation within a row crop such as maize is in¯uenced by canopy architecture, which has to be de®ned in terms of the size, shape and orientation of shoot components. Cultural practices that improve the ef®ciency of light interception affect canopy architecture by modifying such components. Our objectives were to: (i) determine the nature and timing of leaf growth responses to plant population and row spacing; (ii) analyze light attenuation within fully developed maize canopies. Field experiments were conducted at Pergamino (33856 H S, 60834 H W) and Salto (34833 H S, 60833 H W), Argentina, during 1996/1997 and 1997/1998 on silty clay loam soils (Typic Argiudoll) that were well watered and fertilized. Four maize hybrids of contrasting plant type were grown at three plant populations (3, 9 and 12 plants m À2 ) and two row spacings (0.35 and 0.70 m). Plant population promoted larger changes in shoot organs than did row spacing. As from early stages of crop growth, leaf growth (V 6 ±V 8 ) and azimuthal orientation (V 10 ±V 11 ) were markedly affected by treatments. Modi®cations in shoot size and leaf orientation suggest shade avoidance reactions, probably triggered by a reduction in the red:far-red ratio of light within the canopy. An interaction between hybrid and plant rectangularity on leaf azimuthal distribution was determined, with one hybrid displaying a random azimuthal leaf distribution under most conditions. This type of hybrid was de®ned as rigid. The other hybrids showed modi®ed azimuthal distribution of leaves in response to plant rectangularity, even at very low plant populations. These hybrids were de®ned as plastic. Once maximum leaf area index (LAI) was attained light attenuation did not vary among hybrids and row spacing for plant populations !9 plants m À2 (k coef®cient: 0.55 and 0.65 for 9 and 12 plants m À2 , respectively). A more uniform plant distribution increased light attenuation (k coef®cient: 0.37±0.49) only when crop canopies did not reach the critical LAI. #

Purpose-This paper aims to summarise the author's recent research into what is involved in creating a coaching culture. Design/methodology/approach-Based on a series of organisation cases six dimensions are identified and four sub-dimensions within each, and an instrument is developed that assesses the level of development of organisations across these dimensions. More work remains to be done in validating the instrument, but it has already been found to provide a framework for consideration of the issues in creating a coaching culture in a number of international organisations. Findings-The study finds that addressing the organisational dimension by exploring the agenda for creating a coaching culture is one way to direct attention and energy towards the business benefits. The fuller findings of this study are published as in Making Coaching Work: Creating a Coaching Culture. Practical implications-The article provides an agenda for practitioners-both business leaders and development advisors, and also offers a framework for future research.

Irrigation planning and scheduling require the availability of modeling tools that are accurate, quick and easy to use. The crop coefficient (K c )-reference evapotranspiration (ET) method is a traditional method for estimating ET, but has become relatively complicated with the introduction of the dual K c procedure. The dual crop coefficient approach (K cb + K e ) gives a better estimation of daily crop evapotranspiration because it separately considers soil evaporation and crop transpiration. This approach allows one to plan irrigation schedules properly, especially in the case of crops that do not completely cover the soil, where evaporation from the soil surface may be substantial. The SIMDualKc software application was developed with the purpose of simplifying implementation of the computation of the crop coefficient and crop evapotranspiration using the dual crop coefficient approach over a range of cultural practices and to provide ET information for use in irrigation scheduling and hydrologic water balances. The model performs a soil water balance at the field level using a daily time step. It estimates crop transpiration and soil evaporation as well as soil water dynamics to support irrigation scheduling for full and incomplete cover crops. This paper is the first part of a two-part series, where the second part describes model testing and application for various crops, locations and irrigation management issues. Fig. 2. Flow-chart for computation of actual crop evapotranspiration with the dual Kc approach.

Willems-Braun social objects (Frankenberg and Mani 1993). 'Postcoloniality,' after all, appears quite different when applied to different social groups within now-independent white settler colonies like the US, to the mestizaje of Latin America or to indigenous peoples in Canada or ...

s Abstract The study of youth played a central role in anthropology in the first half of the twentieth century, giving rise to a still-thriving cross-cultural approach to adolescence as a life stage. Yet the emphasis on adolescence as a staging ground for integration into the adult community often obscures young people's own cultural agency or frames it solely in relation to adult concerns. By contrast, sociology has long considered youth cultures as central objects of study, whether as deviant subcultures or as class-based sites of resistance. More recently, a third approach-an anthropology of youth-has begun to take shape, sparked by the stimuli of modernity and globalization and the ambivalent engagement of youth in local contexts. This broad and interdisciplinary approach revisits questions first raised in earlier sociological and anthropological frameworks, while introducing new issues that arise under current economic, political, and cultural conditions. The anthropology of youth is characterized by its attention to the agency of young people, its concern to document not just highly visible youth cultures but the entirety of youth cultural practice, and its interest in how identities emerge in new cultural formations that creatively combine elements of global capitalism, transnationalism, and local culture.

Long before the current age of postcolonial globalization, the Western Indian Ocean served as a maritime highway linking littoral settings in Western India with Arabia, Persia and East Africa. Among the many travellers who crossed the Indian Ocean in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, people from Africa faced a particularly gruelling fate. In contrast to those who willingly journeyed by

China is undergoing economic growth and expansion to a free market economy at a scale and pace that are unprecedented in human history. This is placing great pressure on the country's environment and cultural diversity. This paper examines a number of case histories in China, focusing on the culturally varied and ecologically diverse southwest region of the country. We show how developments in recent Chinese history have devalued and in some cases eliminated indigenous knowledge and practices in the quest to strengthen the centralized state. Despite these changes, more than 30 ethnic minorities live in southwest China. For generations these peoples have maintained landscapes through traditional land use and cultural practices. This indigenous knowledge places a high value on protecting forests, landscapes, and water catchments while preserving biodiversity. These values are maintained through religious beliefs, hunting taboos, and the protection of sacred sites. We advocate a conservation policy for China that includes the indigenous knowledge and values needed to maintain the environment and the traditional cultures themselves. There are seminal signs that the government is beginning to support indigenous cultures in China. The Organic Law of 1998 granted villages the legal right to self-government and gave indigenous communities greater responsibility for land and resource use. Traditional and indigenous cultural products have also developed a market and an economic value within a growing tourism industry. In many cases, however, indigenous people remain isolated from major land-use and conservation decisions that are the result of centrally planned policy. Meanwhile, frequent oscillations in forest policy and land tenure insecurity since the 1950s have led to the erosion of many local institutions and the loss of indigenous knowledge. We suggest that the long-term viability of the environment requires an interactive approach that involves local people as well as governments in the creation of environmental policy. We also suggest that enlightened self-interest can help economic development coexist with the needs of traditional cultures.

Biological sources of nutrients are gaining importance over the chemical and organic sources from the standpoint of environmental safety and quality, and sustainable agriculture. The nutrient input for a growing rice crop can largely be met by promoting the activities of physiologically diverse microorganisms in the aerobic, anaerobic and interface zones in the ecologically important¯ooded soils. Associative bacteria contribute from 10 to 80 kg N per hectare per cropping season depending upon the ecosystem, cultural practices and rice variety grown. In addition to N contribution, these bacterial associations can improve the nutrient transformations and contribute to plant growth-promoting effects. Current improved agronomic and crop production management systems greatly affect the contributions of biological sources to the overall soil nutrient status. Azospirillum and other associative bacterial systems have been intensively researched using various evaluation techniques to understand the diazotrophic rhizocoenosis. Researches clearly indicate that these associations are governed by several soil, water, nutrient, agrochemical, plant genotype and other biological factors. Considerable efforts have been made so far in selecting ef®cient bacterial strains as inoculants and identifying host genotypes which support maximum nitrogenase activity in addition to other bene®cial traits of effective associative relationships. Knowledge gained so far on how the N 2 -®xing system in rice functions suggests the need for providing optimum management practices to ensure greater contribution from the plant-microbe associations. Holistic approaches integrating technological developments and achievements in biological sciences could lead to crop improvement. Research on extending nitrogen-®xing symbiosis to rice using molecular and genetic approaches is underway, albeit at a slow pace. The need for further ®netuning and developing management practices, innovative approaches to improve rice-bacterial systems and the strategies to sustain the bene®ts from associative diazotrophy are discussed.

This article explores how Native American cultural practices were incorporated into the therapeutic activities of a community-controlled substance abuse treatment center on a "First Nations" reserve in the Canadian north. Analysis of open-ended interviews with nineteen staff and clients-as contextualized by participant observation, program records, and existing ethnographic resources-yielded insights concerning local therapeutic practice with outpatients and other community members. Specifically, program staff adopted and promoted a diverse array of both western and Aboriginal approaches that were formally integrated with reference to the Aboriginal symbol of the medicine wheel. Although incorporations of indigenous culture marked Lodge programs as distinctively Aboriginal in character, the subtle but profound influence of western "therapy culture" was centrally evident in healing activities as well. Nuanced explication of these activities illustrated four contributions of cultural analysis for community psychology.

| Researchers from diverse backgrounds are converging on the view that human evolution has been shaped by gene-culture interactions. Theoretical biologists have used population genetic models to demonstrate that cultural processes can have a profound effect on human evolution, and anthropologists are investigating cultural practices that modify current selection. These findings are supported by recent analyses of human genetic variation, which reveal that hundreds of genes have been subject to recent positive selection, often in response to human activities. Here, we collate these data, highlighting the considerable potential for cross-disciplinary exchange to provide novel insights into how culture has shaped the human genome.

Maize crop management involves decision making on several cultural practices aimed to maximize grain yield, like plant population and row spacing. These practices affect the light environment perceived by plants and the post-¯owering source±sink ratio, but there is scarce information on the way they in¯uence plant leaf senescence. The objectives of our research were to: (i) characterize the development of leaf area senescence for contrasting canopy architectures (i.e. plant population  row spacing), and (ii) analyze the response of leaf senescence to changes in the light environment and the post-¯owering source±sink ratio. Field experiments were conducted in Argentina between 1997Argentina between /1998Argentina between and 2000Argentina between /2001. Four hybrids were grown at a wide range of plant populations (3, 9, 10 and 12 plants m À2 ), row spacings (0.35, 0.7 and 1 m) and pollination treatments (natural and restricted pollination). Senescence development was well described (r 2 0:61À0:99; P < 0:05) as a bilinear process, starting always at around 500 8C day (base temperature of 8 8C) before silking. Senescence progressed at a lower rate during the ®rst phase of the process than during the second one ($1.4 vs. $5.5 cm 2 per plant per 8C per day). The second phase always started between silking and 400 8C day after silking. Increased plant population increased senescence rate during the whole plant cycle, but never affected the ontogenic stage when senescence was initiated or accelerated in all hybrids. Increased plant population promoted: (i) an enhanced light attenuation within the canopy (k coefficient 0:43, 0.55, 0.53 and 0.65 for 3, 9, 10 and 12 plants m À2 , respectively), (ii) an augmented post-¯owering source±sink ratio (11.6 cm 2 of green plant leaf area per kernel at 9 and 12 plants m À2 compared to 8.3 cm 2 per kernel at 3 plants m À2 ), and (iii) a decreased grain protein concentration. Senescence was reduced by kernel set restrictions that enhanced post-¯owering assimilate availability, indicating the process was accelerated by assimilate starvation at high plant populations independently of the green leaf area established per growing kernel. Row spacing altered light quality (red:far-red ratio) perceived at the lowermost leaf stratum at the highest plant populations, but had no effect on senescence development. Senescence during grain ®lling was related to the local light quantity perceived by leaves and to N availability for actively growing kernels. Although senesced leaf area was in¯uenced by crop growing conditions, senescence initiation and the onset of increased senescence rate were not. #

Heteronormativity is everywhere. It is always already present in our individual and collective psyches, social institutions, cultural practices, and knowledge systems. In this essay, I provide some sketches for a critical analysis of heteronormativity in the communication discipline. More specifically, I examine the symbolic, discursive, psychological, and material violence of heteronormativity, and begin exploring ways to heal, grow, transform, and contemplate new possibilities in our social world. To accomplish this, this essay is divided into five sections. First, I discuss the study of sexuality in Communication. Next, through the notion of injury, I focus on the violence of heteronormativity. Third, using the concept of healing, I discuss ways of unpacking heteronormativity through a critique of hegemonic heterosexuality. Further, I offer potential ways for queer world-making through the lens of queer theory. I conclude by exploring the need for more sexuality research in the discipline by engaging the productive tensions between constructive and deconstructive impulses.

The most common approach to biological control consists of selecting antagonistic microorganisms, studying their modes of action and developing a biological control product. Despite progress made in the knowledge of the modes of action of these biological control agents (BCAs), practical application often fails to control disease in the fields. One of the reasons explaining this failure is that the bio-control product is used the same way as a chemical product. Being biological these products have to be applied in accordance with their ecological requirements. Another approach consists of induction of plant defence reactions. This can be done by application of natural substances produced by or extracted from microorganisms, plants, or algae. Since they do not aim at killing the pathogens, these methods of disease control are totally different from chemical control. Although promising, these methods have not been sufficiently implemented under field conditions. A third approach consists of choosing cultural practices that might decrease the incidence or severity of diseases. These methods include the choice of an appropriate crop rotation with management of the crop residues, application of organic amendments and the use of new technology such as the biological disinfestation of soils. Biological control practices need an integrative approach, and more knowledge than chemical control.