Processes Of Independence Research Articles

Integrated phenotypes: understanding trait covariation in plants and animals.

Integration and modularity refer to the patterns and processes of trait interaction and independence. Both terms have complex histories with respect to both conceptualization and quantification, resulting in a plethora of integration indices in use. We review briefly the divergent definitions, uses and measures of integration and modularity and make conceptual links to allometry. We also discuss how integration and modularity might evolve. Although integration is generally thought to be generated and maintained by correlational selection, theoretical considerations suggest the relationship is not straightforward. We caution here against uncontrolled comparisons of indices across studies. In the absence of controls for trait number, dimensionality, homology, development and function, it is difficult, or even impossible, to compare integration indices across organisms or traits. We suggest that care be invested in relating measurement to underlying theory or hypotheses, and that summative, theory-free descriptors of integration generally be avoided. The papers that follow in this Theme Issue illustrate the diversity of approaches to studying integration and modularity, highlighting strengths and pitfalls that await researchers investigating integration in plants and animals.

Citizenship practices of non-citizens in Slovenia: ‘you cannot fight the system alone’

In the period of state formation (1991–1992), the Slovene Ministry of the Interior erased, that is, excluded from legal status, those immigrants from other parts of the former Yugoslavia who did not become Slovene citizens when citizenship was available under initial simplified criteria. Compared with the processes of independence in Estonia and elsewhere, exclusion in the form of erasure from the register of permanent residents in Slovenia extended beyond the creation of foreigners within the country (i.e. foreign citizens with the right to remain and support themselves); this exclusion created outlaws, legal freaks (Arendt) or homines sacres (Agamben) – bare human beings who were expunged from society and deprived of all former rights and roles. This article discusses the citizenship practices of the victims of the erasure and interprets these practices as emancipation processes: the erased used grass roots and legal means to attempt to obtain the right to dignity, the right to stay and the right to compensation for their ‘lost years’. The effects of their struggle went beyond matters of mere utility: by publicly defining themselves as ‘the erased’ and acting upon injustice; the erased challenged the boundaries of citizenship in terms of membership and content.

Dreams and Nightmares of Nationhood: The Obi Igwara Special Memorial Event to mark 50 Years of Decolonization in Africa, 1960–2010

This section is dedicated to the special event that was organised at the London School of Economics (LSE) by the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN) on Wednesday 2 November 2011 in the context of the fourth bi-annual Obi Igwara Memorial Lecture. The previous year, 2010, before the next Igwara Lecture came round, had been marked by celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of what has come to be called, ‘The Year of Africa’. This was the year 1960, when the processes of independence were accelerated. It was the year that saw seventeen new states being born in Africa, freed from European rule, as the ‘wind of change’ (in the memorable phrase of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan) blew through Europe and its overseas colonies.

Historia de un fracaso: El “himno nacional” en la España del siglo XIX

Music as a vehicle susceptible of moving and transmitting ideological contents has always played a prominent role in social struggle. Particularly relevant in this regard is the role of music in the patriotic or political mobilization of societies and cultures, which is a form of mass mobilization. “National anthems” achieved great importance in Europe and America, coinciding with the processes of revolution and independence, and with the increasing national consciousness in many territories during the nineteenth century. In Spain, however, several attempts to establish a national anthem failed. The “royal march” worked de facto as national march, but it did not have enough social support or the symbolic dimension to constitute a “national anthem”. In the 1830-40’s many voices claimed that the Himno de Riego was declared national anthem. In the 60’s, coinciding with the African War, composers as Chueca or Gabalda wrote national hymns as well; even someone suggested that a cantiga of Alfonso X el Sabio became a hymn. In 1896 there was also an attempt to transform the march of the Zarzuela Cadiz, of Chueca, in a national hymn. And still in the early twentieth century many voices insisted on the need for Spain to have a national anthem. During those years on fashion hymns were very important, and many of them, from different countries, were published in arrangement for piano. This article tries to explore this process, analyzing the causes of the successive failures from the social, political and musical points of view.

From sovereign villages to national states: city, state, and federation in Central America, 1759-1839

The role of the city - as an institution, as a political ideal, as a training ground for politicians - has been neglected in historical studies of Spanish American independence. Connecting the political changes of the Bourbon Reforms (1759-1788) and constitutional monarchy (1808-1821) to those of the independence era (1821-1839), Jordana Dym's analysis of Central America's early nineteenth-century politics shows nation-state formation to be a city-driven process that transformed colonial provinces (weak administrative districts with ambiguous political identities and divided interiors) into enduring states with basic governments and articulated national identities. Dym argues that in Central America, an important aspect of the nineteenth-century political revolution was a shift from European political ideology based on municipal sovereignty (that of the pueblos) to a politics of national sovereignty (that of the pueblo). The tensions in the move from municipal to national sovereignty, she finds, contributed to multiple civil wars and to the difficulty of bringing breakaway regions to respect colonial districts and capitals. This book challenges the received wisdom that states emerged, already formed, from the process of independence. Based on extensive research in national and local archives in Central America, the United States, and Europe, this political history examines a complex process that takes into account cooperation as well as conflict between elites and popular groups. It holds that the contradictory, multifaceted republican processes of independence and subsequent efforts at state formation owed much to and must be analysed within the context of the specific types of political change introduced in the late colonial period, a question of interest to scholars and students of Central America, Mexico, and South America.

Issues of Difference in Contemporary Caribbean Feminism

This paper interrogates Caribbean feminist theory and activism in relation to the Euro-American experience and to challenges emerging from the Third World discourse. The author argues from the standpoint position that second wave Caribbean feminism has been largely Afro-centric and simultaneously interlocked with processes of independence and national identity struggles. She suggests that there is a need for the movement to reflect the experiences of women of other ethnic groups in the region. In this regard, in Trinidad and Tobago the Indo-Caribbean voice has been emerging and broadening the feminist base. In more recent years also the divisions between feminist and non-feminist groups are subsiding, strengthening the ultimate capacity of this movement for change in the region.

Abelson Murine Leukemia Virus Induces Platelet-Derived Growth Factor-Independent Fibroblast Growth: Correlation with Kinase Activity and Dissociation from Full Morphologic Transformation

Abelson murine leukemia virus (A-MuLV) encodes a single protein product, a tyrosine-specific protein kinase, whose activity is necessary for cell transformation by this retrovirus. Using a defined medium culture system, we demonstrate that transformation of NIH 3T3 fibroblasts by A-MuLV abrogates their normal requirement for platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) for cell growth. Analysis of constructed insertional mutant viruses revealed an absolute correlation between A-MuLV-encoded tyrosine kinase activity and PDGF-independent fibroblast growth. Sequences of the provirus not required for kinase activity appeared unnecessary for abrogating the fibroblast requirement for PDGF. Conversely, sequences required for kinase activity appeared necessary, suggesting that induction of PDGF-independent fibroblast growth, like cell transformation, is a function of this tyrosine kinase. Fibroblasts transformed by a partially transformation-defective mutant demonstrated incomplete morphological transformation but were still independent of PDGF for growth. Thus, the processes of full morphological transformation and growth factor independence can be partially dissociated.

Abelson murine leukemia virus induces platelet-derived growth factor-independent fibroblast growth: correlation with kinase activity and dissociation from full morphologic transformation.

Abelson murine leukemia virus (A-MuLV) encodes a single protein product, a tyrosine-specific protein kinase, whose activity is necessary for cell transformation by this retrovirus. Using a defined medium culture system, we demonstrate that transformation of NIH 3T3 fibroblasts by A-MuLV abrogates their normal requirement for platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) for cell growth. Analysis of constructed insertional mutant viruses revealed an absolute correlation between A-MuLV-encoded tyrosine kinase activity and PDGF-independent fibroblast growth. Sequences of the provirus not required for kinase activity appeared unnecessary for abrogating the fibroblast requirement for PDGF. Conversely, sequences required for kinase activity appeared necessary, suggesting that induction of PDGF-independent fibroblast growth, like cell transformation, is a function of this tyrosine kinase. Fibroblasts transformed by a partially transformation-defective mutant demonstrated incomplete morphological transformation but were still independent of PDGF for growth. Thus, the processes of full morphological transformation and growth factor independence can be partially dissociated.