C9orf72 poly(PR) mediated neurodegeneration is associated with nucleolar stress

The ALS/FTD-linked intronic hexanucleotide repeat expansion in the C9orf72 gene is translated into dipeptide repeat proteins, among which poly-proline-arginine (PR) displays the most aggressive neurotoxicity in-vitro and in-vivo . PR partitions to the nucleus when expressed in neurons and other cell types. Using drosophila and primary rat cortical neurons as model systems, we show that by lessening the nuclear accumulation of PR, we can drastically reduce its neurotoxicity. PR accumulates in the nucleolus, a site of ribosome biogenesis that regulates the cell stress response. We examined the effect of nucleolar PR accumulation and its impact on nucleolar function and determined that PR caused nucleolar stress and increased levels of the transcription factor p53. Downregulating p53 levels, either genetically or by increasing its degradation, also prevented PR-mediated neurotoxic phenotypes both in in-vitro and in-vivo models. We also investigated whether PR could cause the senescence phenotype in neurons but observed none. Instead, we found induction of apoptosis via caspase-3 activation. In summary, we uncovered the central role of nucleolar dysfunction upon PR expression in the context of C9-ALS/FTD.

The Great Fossil Enigma: The Search for the Conodont Animal

Review of The Great Fossil Enigma: The Search for the Conodont Animal. Simon J. Knell. 2012. Indiana University Press, Bloomington. Pp. 440. $45.00 (cloth), 25 b & w illustrations. ISBN 9780253006042.

The Banana Tree at the Gate: A History of Marginal Peoples and Global Markets in Borneo

Review of The Banana Tree at the Gate: A History of Marginal Peoples and Global Markets in Borneo. Michael R. Dove. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011. Xix, 332 pp. Illus. Bibliography, indexes. ISBN 978‐0‐300‐15321‐7 (hardcover). $55.00.

Feeding the People, Feeding the Spirit: Revitalizing Northwest Coastal Indian Food

Review of Feeding the People, Feeding the Spirit:  Revitalizing Northwest Coastal Indian Food. Elise Krohn and Valerie Segrest. 2010. Northwest Indian College, Bellingham, WA.  Pp. x + 158, copiously illustrated, tables, bibliography. 

Indigenous Knowledge, Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology

Review of Indigenous Knowledge, Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology. Raymond Pierotti. 2011. Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group), New York.  Pp. Xv + 264, Bibliography, index.  ISBN13: 978-0-415-87924-8 (hbk), 978-0-203-84711-4 (ebk).

Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct and Science

Review of Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct and Science. Carol Kaesuk Yoon. 2009. W.W. Norton, New York. Pp. 344, index, bibliography, illustrations. $27.95 (cloth). ISBN 9780393‐061970.

Spirits of the Air: Birds and American Indians in the South

Review of Spirits of the Air: Birds and American Indians in the South. Shepard Krech III. 2009. University of Georgia Press, Athens. Pp. 245, copiously illustrated. $44.95 (hardbound). ISBN-13 978-0-8203-2815-7.

Trying Leviathan: The Nineteenth-Century New York Court Case that Put the Whale and Challenged the Order of Nature

Review of Trying Leviathan: The Nineteenth-Century New York Court Case that Put the Whale and Challenged the Order of Nature. D. Graham Burnett. 2007. Princeton University Press. Pp. 304 color plates, halftones, bibliography, index. $29.95(cloth). ISBN 9780691129501.

Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art

Review of Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art. Dale Rosengarten, Theodore Rosengarten, and Enid Schildkrout, eds. 2008. Museum for African Art, New York. Distributed by University of Washington Press, Seattle. Pp. 269, copiously illustrated in black-and-white and color. ISBN (cloth) 978-0-945802-50-1, (paper) 978-0-945802-51-8.

Material Choices: Refashioning Bast and Leaf Fibers in Asia and the Pacific

Review of Material Choices: Refashioning Bast and Leaf Fibers in Asia and the Pacific. Roy W. Hamilton and B. Lynne Milgram, eds. 2008. Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles. Pp. 187, bibliography, index, copious color illustrations. $30.00 (paper). ISBN-13 9780974872988.

Pathways of decision making among Yucatan Mayan traditional birth attendants

In rural, developing world communities, women are often isolated from biomedical services. Frequently, traditional birth attendants (TBAs) are the only caregivers during childbirth, both normal and complicated. Women trust their TBAs to manage their births. Globally, government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have sought to upgrade TBAs' skills and to encourage them to refer complications. However, most training programs have failed to change TBAs' practice substantially. Logistical barriers in reaching biomedical services in a timely manner are a key issue. Another is the difference between biomedical and traditional practitioners in the cognitive frameworks that shape decision making and management behaviors. The purpose of this study, conducted in Quintana Roo State, Mexico, was to listen to the voices of practicing Yucatec Maya TBAs (parteras) as they described decision making and management of complicated births. In-depth interviews with six practicing parteras in rural, isolated communities revealed that the parteras used traditional Maya ethnomedicine while valuing biomedical approaches. We isolated themes in decision making and mapped management of birth complications. Integrating TBAs' traditional knowledge into biomedical training programs is one way to honor their knowledge and make training relevant.

Why is humoral medicine so popular?

The hot/cold system is perhaps the most widely known medical belief system in the world. I propose that the wide acceptance of hot/cold ideas is due to the fact that they provide a particularly simple, economic coding for common human experience, such as hypothermia, heatstroke, and fevers. Coding of foods as heating or cooling can be understood in terms of a system of sensory cues that make the foods appear hot or cold. This paper deals primarily with data from Chinese culture.

Urinary Diversion in Mongrel Dogs: Using Isolated Loops of Ileum for Replacing the Ureter and/or Bladder

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