Separate Ethnic Groups Research Articles

Comparative ethnoentomology of edible stinkbugs in southern Africa and sustainable management considerations

Insects, such as stinkbugs, are able to produce noxious defence chemicals to ward off predators, nevertheless, some ethnic groups have recipes to render them delicious. We provide an example of edible stinkbugs (Encosternum delegorguei) used by two locally separate ethnic groups in South Africa, the Vhavenda and Mapulana, with a third group, the Bolobedu using them for commercial purposes. Structured interview schedules and observations with 106 harvesters were conducted to determine differences in use, nomenclature and oral history, methods of collection and preparation as well as perceptions pertaining to availability. The stinkbugs’ foul defence chemical and flight response necessitates nocturnal harvesting when the insect is immobilised by cold. The defence chemical stains the skin and affects vision yet protective gear is not worn. Damage to host trees was recorded when harvesters poached from plantations or private land, whereas, in communal-lands, sustainable methods were preferred. The legitimisation of stinkbug harvesting and introduction of a collection funnel could reduce conflicts with managers of plantations and private land. Two methods to remove the defence chemical for increased palatability were used. Preparation methods differed in whether or not water was used and also whether the head was left intact or removed. Stinkbugs have numerous medicinal uses, in particular as a hangover cure. Awareness and optimal use of beneficial insects, such as stinkbugs, in rural areas could lead to a reconsideration of current environmental management strategies, where harvesters act as habitat stewards and clearing, grazing or burning indigenous vegetation is kept to a minimum.

Disparities of incidence and survival in lung cancer: A SEER-based analysis on Asians living in the United States from 1973 to 2007.

1572 Background: Asian population living in the US (US-ASN) comprises 4% of total US population. It is a rapidly growing minority group. Lung cancer (LC) is the second most common cancer in US-ASN reported in SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Result) database from 1973-2007. This is the first study reporting disparities of incidence and survival of LC in US-ASN. Methods: Since 1973, SEER has been reporting data on US-ASN as separate ethnic group. Using the SEER database including patients diagnosed with LC from 1973-2007, we performed frequency & rate analysis on demographics, incidence and treatment, comparing US-ASN, Caucasian (USW), Hispanic, and African-American (AA). Multivariate analyses and survival sessions (Kaplan-Meier, age-adjusted) were also performed. Results: LC accounts about 13% (28,325) of all cancers (213,512) in US-ASN reported in SEER; is more common in male (64% vs. 36%, p < 0.0001) with incidence rate of 41 per 100,000 (less common than USW and AA, p < 0.001). LC is the fifth leading cancer in Asia according to 2010 WHO's data. Median age of diagnosis is significantly less in US-ASN (62 vs. 71 yrs, p < 0.0001), more patients less than 50 years of age at diagnosis (21% vs. 11%, p < 0.0001) with advanced stages (p < 0.001) and grades (p < 0.001) in comparison to other major US ethnicities. But overall, stage and gender specific 1-5 year survival is significantly better (p < 0.01 – 0.02) in US-ASN than other ethnicities. Cox regression analysis showed that age at diagnosis, stages, grades, marital status, and yearof diagnosis were predictors of death. Relative risk of death increased with higher grades, stages and older ages. Conclusions: This is the first study analyzing the epidemiological and survival data of US-ASN with LC. US-ASN change their demographics of LC with migration. It shows clearly and identifies some unique age, stage and biological features of LC in US-ASN. The difference in age of diagnosis and survival are intriguing. It could be due to differences in access to care, tumor biology or other factors. This study has potential implication in screening and therapeutic recommendation in US-ASN population.

Differences In Clinical Characteristics and Prognostic Features Between Patients with Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) From Korea, Japan, and Germany

AbstractAbstract 1882Evidence exists for differences between eastern and western type MDS. However, for the development of the IPSS Score, 6 of the participating study groups were European or US, while only one group originated from Japan.In order to find out more about the differences in MDS patients (pts) from separate ethnic groups we performed an analysis of 1048 pts from Dusseldorf, Germany (G), 242 pts from Seoul, Korea (K), and 143 pts from Saitama, Japan (J). Initially, we compared clinical characteristics. Then we evaluated the influence of important prognostic factors. For all pts included at least the parameters needed to determine the IPSS had to be available. For survival analyses pts who received induction chemotherapy or allogeneic transplantation were excluded.Median age was 66 yrs in Germany, 54 in Korea, and 68 in Japan. The distribution of gender, with a male preponderance, was comparable in all cohorts. Median blast count was <5% in all groups. Median cell counts were significantly lower in the Japanese and Korean, when compared to the German pts. However, although Asian pts tended to have more severe cytopenias regarding all 3 lineages, they also had a significantly higher percentage of refractory cytopenias with unilineage dysplasia (21% (K) and 36% (J) compared to 7% (G)). MDS with del5q was significantly more frequent in German pts (9 vs 0 vs 1%) as well as RCMD (40 vs 22 vs 18%), while the frequency of RAEB I/II was comparable. Due to the high incidence of pancytopenia Asian pts rarely had a low risk IPSS (2% (K), 12% (J) vs 27% (G)), while the int I risk group was larger and int II and high risk groups were of almost the same size. Regarding karyotype (KT) risk according to IPSS, the intermediate risk group was smaller, and the low risk group was larger in Asian pts.To evaluate the relevance of different prognostic factors we first compared the whole cohorts of not intensively treated pts. Since the result was all factors analyzed were important in German while many were not in Asian pts we decided to look at a smaller subgroup of German pts to compare similar sizes. Pts were chosen by chance to avoid any kind of bias by matching. The results are presented in table 1. Already survival was very different in the 3 groups: 31 months (ms) (G) vs 43 ms (K) vs 157 ms (J). In univariate analysis in German pts variables with significant influence on survival were Hb, sex, age, LDH, platelets, blast count, KT, and IPSS, while in the Korean and Japanese pts the 3 different cytopenias and LDH had no influence on survival (except a borderline influence of Hb in Japanese pts). Very striking was the importance of gender in the 2 Asian countries. In both men lived for a median of only about 2 years, comparable to German pts, while women had a very long survival with median not reached. Regarding KT risk, the intermediate risk group had in the Asian countries a significantly longer survival than in Germany (nr vs 24 ms), possibly due to a high frequency of +8. The IPSS divided, again in both Asian countries, 2 different risk groups, but not 4. Multivariate analysis identified Hb, platelets, blasts, LDH, age, and KT as independent risk factors for German pts, compared to ANC, blast count, and age in Korean, and blast count plus KT in Japanese pts.It is established that survival of Asian MDS pts is longer than that of European, but it remains unclear why there is such a strong difference between Korean and Japanese pts although the former are younger and most other features are very comparable between the two. The most striking features of Asian MDS are the strong influence of gender, as well as the lesser importance of cytopenias compared to European pts. This, together with a slight difference in the survival according to KT, leads to an inferior separation of risk groups by the IPSS. The most important factor with equal relevance in all MDS pts remains blast count.Table 1:Germany n = 250Korea n = 224Japan n = 139survival/ms psurvival psurvival pall pts3143157Hemoglobin </≥10 g/dl24 vs 520,0236 vs 73ns145 vs nr0,01Sex m/w24 vs 390,00517 vs nr<0.0000530 vs nr<0.00005Age </≥ 60 years61 vs 240,0004100 vs 16<0.00005207 vs 1010,01LDH </≥ 240 U/l21 vs 520,000116 vs 40ns145 vs 174nsPlatelets </≥ 50000/μl17 vs 47<0.0000533 vs 53ns98 vs 207nsANC </≥1000/μl31 vs 33ns40 vs. 52ns101 vs 174nsKT -risk42 vs 24 vs 10<0.0000553 vs nr vs 120,001207 vs nr vs 22<0.00005Blast count </≥ 5%61 vs 22<0.00005100 vs 16<0.00005207 vs 20<0.00005IPSS82 vs 31 vs 23 vs 8<0.00005nr vs 73 vs 16 vs 12<0.0000598 vs nr vs 21 vs 22<0.00005 Disclosures:No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

National Unity and Ethnic Identity in a Vietnamese University

Debates over the education of ethnic minority populations in postcolonial nation-states have assumed a new life in the current era of globalized educational policy reform. There are many complexities and contradictions in these debates. On the one hand, there are arguments to address the inequitable and often brutal colonial legacies of schooling, to promote education in the service of national political integration, and to position nation-states’ economies competitively within the global economy. On the other hand, there is an affirmation of local identities, languages, and cultures and a desire to promote equal access to education and economic development. In crafting educational policy for ethnic minority groups in postcolonial societies, Rebecca Clothey (2005, 389) tells us, for example, “the challenge facing all school systems is how schools can help minorities to gain access to a social and economic system that is dominated by the values of the majority, while . . . retaining their separate ethnic group cultures and identities.” However, the resulting policies are often frustrated by the national majority’s desire to retain its hold on power through control of language, curriculum, and access to education and by the relative disadvantaged position of the ethnic minorities themselves. Vietnam is one of many postcolonial states in Asia grappling with mixed success with issues of national identity and minority education. Since the 1986 adoption of Doi Moi, the “Renovation” policy to promote Vietnam’s transition to a market economy, the Vietnamese government has focused increased attention on education for ethnic minority students. The Ministry of Education and Training now recognizes ethnic minority students as needing special help and support for education because of their disadvantaged socioeconomic status. Preferential policies for them include the establishment of residential preparatory schools in highland minority areas; scholarships to higher education; waiver of tuition fees; free notebooks, texts, and

Colon cancer disparities: A SEER-based analysis of epidemiologic data on Asian and Pakistani immigrants in the United States.

1603 Background: Asian Indian and Pakistani population living in the US (US-AIP) comprises 1.5% of total US population and is a rapidly growing minority group. Colorectal (CRC) is the third most common cancer in US-AIP reported in SEER database from 1988-2006. This is the first study reporting different epidemiologic and survival parameters of CRC in this population. Methods: Since 1988, SEER has been collecting and reporting data of US-AIP as a separate ethnic and race group. Using the SEER database including patients diagnosed with CRC from 1988-2006, we performed frequency analysis on demographics and treatment, comparing US-AIP, Caucasian (USW), Hispanic, and African- American (AA). Multivariate analyses and survival sessions (Kaplan-Meier, age-adjusted) were undertaken. Results: CRC accounts about 8% (859) of all cancers (10,833) in US-AIP reported in SEER database; is more common in male (59% vs. 41%, p < 0.001) with incidence rate of 39 per 100,000 (less common than USW, Hispanic and AA, p < 0.001). CRC is the fifth and seventh leading cancer in India and Pakistan respectively according to 2009 World Health Organization's data. Median age of diagnosis is significantly less in US-AIP (62 vs. 71 yrs, p < 0.001), more patients less than 50 yrs of age at diagnosis (26% vs. 11%, p < 0.001) with advanced stages (p < 0.001) and grades (p < 0.001) in comparison to other major US ethnicities. But overall, stage and gender specific 1-5 year survival is significantly better (p < 0.01 – 0.03) in US-AIP than other ethnicities in the USA. Cox regression analysis showed that age at diagnosis, stages, grades, marital status, and year of diagnosis were predictors of death. Relative risk (RR) of death increased with higher grades, stages and older ages. Conclusions: This is the first study analyzing the epidemiologic, biological and survival data of US-AIP. US-AIP change their demographics of CRC with migration. It shows clearly and identifies some unique age, stage and biological features of CRC in US-AIP. The difference in survival is intriguing. It could be due to differences in tumor biology, access to care and other factors. This study has potential implication in screening and therapeutic recommendation in US-AIP population. No significant financial relationships to disclose.

Ethnic Self-Identification in Ukraine, 1989–2001: Why More Ukrainians and Fewer Russians?

This paper analyses the changes in ethnic self-identification of the population of Ukraine from the last (January 1989) Soviet census to the first (December 2001) Ukrainian census. It begins with a comparison of the census data and describes the remarkable changes observed. Given the incomplete nature of published data on international migrations and their differentiation by ethnic groups in the inter-census period, the paper applies a method to fill in the gaps and calculate net migration balances for each ethnic group. Also, since no data is available on the net reproductive rates for separate ethnic groups in Ukraine, it sets out a method to estimate net reproduction rates for Ukrainians and Russians in the inter-census period. Using these methods, it establishes that differences in net migration on the one hand and the differences in net reproduction on the other contributed 11.1 and 4.4 percent of the growth in the share of Ukrainians and 6.8 and 5.2 percent in the sizeable decline in the share of Russians. The remaining lion’s share is a shift in identity among members of ethnically mixed (mainly Russian-Ukrainian) families. Mothers of ethnically mixed families, identifying the ethnicity of their newly born, contributed 11.4 percent to the Ukrainian gain and 9.2 percent to the Russian loss. The remaining 73.1 percent of the Ukrainian gain and 78.8 percent of Russian loss resulted from lifetime identity shift from Russian to Ukrainian, the most likely candidates being members of Russian-Ukrainian families.

“The Idumaeans” in Josephus' The Jewish War

Abstract“The Idumaeans” constitute a single, although collective, character in Josephus' The Jewish War. This article discusses whom Josephus meant by “the Idumaeans,” and considers whether, in his mind, they were, as others have suggested, “Jews” from Idumaea or a separate nation or ethnic group. It argues that the character “the Idumaeans” is not in fact a representative picture of Idumaeans of Josephus' time, but may be understood in terms of modern ethnic stereotyping, and that Josephus' stereotype of “the Idumaeans” as bloodthirsty hooligans is ultimately drawn from a continuous Idumaean military tradition. The article concludes by re-reading the War stripped of Josephus' ethnic prejudice against Idumaeans to learn more about the role of Idumaean fighting men in the first war against Rome.

The HBS1L-MYB intergenic region on chromosome 6q23 is a quantitative trait locus controlling fetal haemoglobin level in carriers of β-thalassaemia

Background:Fetal haemoglobin (HbF) level modifies the clinical severity of HBB disorders. Intergenic variants of HBS1L-MYB on chromosome 6q23 have recently been shown to be a major quantitative trait locus (QTL)...

Are pregnant women of non-Northern European descent more anaemic than women of Northern European descent?: A study into the prevalence of anaemia in pregnant women in Amsterdam

Objectives to investigate the prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy according to the cut-off points used in the national clinical guideline ‘Anaemia in Primary Care Midwifery Practice’, and to investigate a possible difference in prevalence between pregnant women of Northern European descent compared with women of non-Northern European descent. The study also investigated whether any difference in prevalence resulted in a higher risk of a transferred home delivery, thus reducing the chance for women to choose the place of birth. Design retrospective cohort study. Setting primary care midwifery practices in a highly urbanised area in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Participants all patients in three midwifery practices over 1 year were selected provided that they met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The practices were selected on the basis of urbanisation, resulting in an adequate ethnic population which was comparable with the ethnic mix in other similarly urbanised areas in the Netherlands. This resulted in a study population of 828 pregnant women of Northern European and non-Northern European descent with low-risk singleton pregnancies during 2003. Analysis mean haemoglobin level and anaemia rate were computed for the total study population as well as separate ethnic groups. Differences between groups were determined using χ 2 tests, and effect sizes were expressed in relative risks including 95% confidence intervals (CI). Findings the prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy was 3.4% ( n=28) at booking (first visit) and 2.7% ( n=22) at approximately 30 weeks of gestation. The relative risk of anaemia at booking was 5.9 (95% CI 2.1–16.7) for pregnant women of non-Northern European descent compared with those of Northern European descent. The relative risk of anaemia at approximately 30 weeks of gestation was 22 (95% CI 3–162) for pregnant women of non-Northern European descent compared with those of Northern European descent. The incidence of transferred home delivery was 3.1% in the study population. The relative risk for transferred home delivery was 24.1 (95% CI 3.3–176.7) for pregnant women of non-Northern European descent compared with those of Northern European descent. Key conclusions and implications for practice pregnant women of non-Northern European descent are a specific group in terms of anaemia and are at high risk of a low haemoglobin level for all cut-off values; they have a higher chance of becoming anaemic in pregnancy than women of Northern European descent. As a result, they have a higher risk of a transferred home delivery, taking away their opportunity to choose the place of birth. Haemoglobinopathies did not explain the higher risk of anaemia in pregnant women of non-Northern European descent. Being of non-Northern European descent should be added as a risk factor for anaemia in pregnancy until more is known about the background of this risk factor.

Partitioning to Peace: Sovereignty, Demography, and Ethnic Civil Wars

Some scholars have proposed partition as a way to solve ethnic civil wars. Partition theorists advocate the demographic separation of ethnic groups into different states, arguing that this is the best chance for an enduring peace. Opponents argue that partition is costly in terms of its human toll and that its advocates have yet to demonstrate its effectiveness beyond a limited number of self-selected case studies. This analysis systematically examines the outcome of partition, highlighting the centrality of demography by introducing an index that measures the degree to which a partition separates ethnic groups. This index is applied to all civil wars ending in partition from 1945 to 2004. Partitions that completely separated the warring groups did not experience a recurrence of war and low-level violence for at least five years, outperforming both partitions that did not separate ethnic groups and other ethnic war outcomes. These results challenge other studies that examine partition as a war outcome. The results also have direct implications for Iraq's civil war, postindependence Kosovo, and other ethnic civil wars.

Narrated Voices of African American Women in Academe

Introduction and Purpose The literature is becoming replete with studies that address the issue of sexism in the lives of women seeking full participation in the academy (Aguirre, 2000; Finkel, Olswang, & She, 1994; LeBlanc, 1993; Sandler, 1993). Volumes upon volumes record the injustices and frustration women have faced in higher education. There have been numerous reports of wage inequities, vague publishing expectations, ambiguous tenure requirements, limited access to certain academic disciplines, lack of mentorship and networking opportunities, and exclusion from strategic decision-making positions (Burgess, 1997; Finkel, et al., 1994; Warner & DeFleur, 1993). In much of this research, women are classified as a singular group not taking into consideration the impact that race may contribute to any one of these variables if the whole group were broken down into separate ethnic groups and investigated. For instance, based upon the long and turbulent history of race relations in the United States, a person would be remiss to assume historical ideologies (inferior vs. superior) created by a White male patriarchal system have no bearing on the experiences of African American and other women of color in higher education today (Amott & Matthaei, 1996). However, this is not to imply that White female academicians have not suffered because of the system in existence; rather, it simply infers that because of their ethnicity, their academic experiences have not been shaped by the intersections of race and gender as have those of women of color. It is precisely these overlapping socio-cultural factors (e.g., race, gender) that require an examination of the experiences of African American women to be placed within the proper social and political contexts in which their realities are constructed (Collins, 1990; Hurtado, Milen, Clayton-Peterson, & Allen, 1999). A number of studies have attempted to explain the status of African American women in higher education. However, what generally occurs in many of these studies is that the experiences of Black women are compared to those of other women, usually White women, to verify whether or not they are meeting some arbitrary standard of normalcy in the academy (Miller & Vaughn, 1997). Naturally, these findings will explain the experiences of some African American women in higher education. However, they are limited in their analysis because they do not take into account the legacy of race and gender relations in shaping the lives of African American women in society in general and in higher education more specifically (Collins, 1990; Gregory, 1995). Furthermore, these studies do not reveal how African American women interpret their experiences in predominantly White institutions, nor do they allow the women to discuss how socio-cultural issues affect their overall academic citizenship. These studies are also limited in their representation because they fail to consider the variation in responses that will be obtained from any two Black women as a result of their individual differences and personal experiences (Collins, 1990; Hurtado et al., 1999), which will ultimately influence how the women respond to interactions in their academic roles (Holmes, 1999). The purpose of this article is to present findings of a qualitative study conducted to investigate the academic experiences of selected African American women faculty employed by four-year predominantly White institutions. I started this line of inquiry as a graduate student attending a large predominantly White institution. As an African American woman, I was concerned with the small number of African American women faculty I encountered during my graduate program. Of equal concern was the lack of literature regarding Black women in the academy, as well as the substance of the available literature. I was particularly interested in examining the women's experiences within the context of race and gender because extant literature suggests that these constructs shape the academic roles of African American people in higher education (Collins, 1990; Thompson & Dey, 1998; Turner, Myers, Creswell, 1999; Miller, & Vaughn, 1997). …

Ethnopsychophysiology. Perspectives of formation

The perspectives of human sciences systems isolation into a separate trend - ethnopsychophysiologies are debated. The timeliness and urgency of the study of psychophysiological peculiarities of people groups, bound by kinship and compactly dwelling under specific conditions in the same territory are determined by three reasons. Firstly, the presence of the hypothesis, needing proof, that the genotype and the national way of life of various ethnic groups define with its complex interaction a set of morphological, physiological and psychological attributes of the concrete person. Secondly, lack of common views about forming, development and preservation of health of the individual within the framework of separate ethnic groups. Thirdly, lack of convincing model conceptions on the mechanisms defining morphofunctional and psychophysiological originality of various ethnic groups.

Türk Kültürünün Farklı Bir Boyutu Olarak Kreşin-Hıristiyan Tatarların Dinî İnançlları

of Turkish Culture. Turkish Community has chosen Islam as a religion in general and Turkishculture has been formed with Islam mostly. However, Christianity has found an opportunity tospread among Turkish groups due to various reasons throughout the history as well. Within thisrespect, Christian Turks (Gagauses, Chuvashes, Kryashens –Baptized-Christian Tatars) have madeup a different dimension of Turkish culture. Kryashen Tatars who live in the Autonomy Republic ofTatarstan of Russian Federation today is of a great significance in terms of being one of the Turkishcommunities converted into Christianity from Islam and of Turkish religion history. AlthoughChristians, they have some common traditional beliefs and applications at the territory of Islamand all Turkish communities in their faith. Having a unity of origin, language and history withMuslim Tatars, Kryashen Tatars are being considered and presented as a separate ethnic group byRussian researchers in particular at the historical process which starts with baptism and carry onup to now. Taking all these mentioned above into consideration, the place, religion, history andbeliefs of Kryashen Tatars in Turkish religion history will be studied in the paper

Untangling the Health Disparities of Teen Pregnancy

The purpose of this secondary analysis is to determine whether a developmental maturity model differentially predicts pregnancy for African American, Puerto Rican, and Mexican inner-city teens. This is a secondary analysis of data from a case control study that tested a model of developmental maturity and teen pregnancy with 183 pregnant and never-pregnant pairs of inner-city teens matched on age, ethnicity, and freshman cohort. The models differentially predict pregnancy for the separate ethnic groups, with sexual behaviors being the most important factors regardless of ethnicity. The health disparities of teen pregnancies may not decrease unless patterns of dating/sexual behaviors are reversed.

:Gender in the Early Medieval World: East and West, 300–900

The early medieval period has been the locus of lively scholarly debates in recent years over issues fundamental to an understanding of how what we know as “Europe,” “Christianity,” and “the Islamic World” came to be—issues like the nature of identity and of political power. This very useful book situates the impact of gender within the context of the latest scholarship on these larger debates. The authors of these sixteen essays, covering Roman, Byzantine, Muslim, and “Germanic” societies, are more interested in what gender can tell us about the early Middle Ages than what the early Middle Ages can tell us about gender. They do not offer new theoretical paradigms, but they do break new ground in our understanding of the period in question. One important theme to emerge from this book, although not singled out in coeditor Julia M. H. Smith's fine introduction, is the interaction between gender and ethnicity. Many groups in this period were concerned with their ethnic (for want of a better word) identities. Walter Pohl, in “Gender and Ethnicity in the Early Middle Ages,” uses stories of Amazons and pseudo-bearded women to examine the ways late antique writers explained difference. By equating fighting women with the Amazons of Greek myth, authors made them a separate ethnic group, casting women who were too strong and aggressive as pagan and “other.” Mary Harlow shows how late Roman ideas of the relation between dress and masculinity changed as they began to adopt “barbarian” styles like leggings. Shaun Tougher's article on the court eunuch points out that while in the late Roman period eunuchs tended to be ethnic outsiders, by the ninth century many Byzantine eunuchs were native, indicating a severing of the link between foreignness and emasculation. Julia Bray's comprehensive overview of Abbasid social structures connects the foreign slave origins of several of the mothers of Abbasid rulers to a new concept of the family in which maternal lineage was no longer as important as it had been. Bonnie Effros challenges traditional methods of determining the ethnicity of burials from the brooches found in women's graves, arguing that this assumes women were passive transmitters of fixed identities, although she does not prescribe a different methodology (which presumably would have to entail radically redefining what we understand by “ethnicity” in the early medieval context, a redefinition scholars have already begun to undertake).

China’s Policies for Minority Nationalities in Higher Education: Negotiating National Values and Ethnic Identities

The last quarter of the twentieth century brought increasing tensions between those who demand local and those who demand national identities. In some cases these tensions led to the dissolution of nation-states along ethnic lines, as in the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Because schools serve not only the economic but also the political integration needs of nation-states, the education system provides an arena within which to view the relations between national and ethnic identities. Political authorities and educators in many nations claim that their public educational systems are meant to provide disadvantaged minorities with educational and economic opportunities equal to those of the majority. Yet the challenge facing all systems is how schools can help minorities to gain access to a social and economic system that is dominated by the values of the majority while, at the same time, retaining their separate ethnic group cultures and identities. China’s approach to the problem of educating its more than 100 million minority nationalities is relevant to this question. With the world’s largest population and up to 100 different mother tongues, China grants numerous preferences to minorities. Since the 1980s preferential policies for minorities have been promoted in China toward decreasing differences in education and living standards as well as reducing tensions between various minority groups and the majority Han. These policies have the ultimate aim of ensuring ethnic stability, national integration, and economic development in minority areas. Such policies include bilingual education and university admissions quotas for minority applicants. This study explores China’s educational policies for ethnic minorities in one particular academic setting, the Central University for Nationalities (CUN) in Beijing, and how these policies are experienced by the students who are supposed to benefit from them. The study takes an emic perspective by looking at the perceptions of minority students at CUN on how these policies shape their social and economic opportunities and at how these

Religion and settlement as preservers of ethnicity

A separate ethnic group living in an isolated settlement could preserve ethnic identity even when surrounded by an alien ethnic environment. This is even more likely to happen if the ethnic group in question has a different religious affiliation than the rest, since the religious affiliation and ethnicity were often equated in the area examined. This paper presents a few cases of ethnicity preservation (sometimes its loss), namely: (1) The Sarakačans group (a Greek speaking ancient Balkan population); that is, its lineage Ašana in Goč (nearby Kraljevo); (2) Serbs in White Krajina (Slovenia) and Zumberka (Croatia); (3) Serbs from former Montenegro settled in the village of Peroj, in Istria; (4) Catholic Albanians, tribe Klimenti settled in Srem' villages Nikinci, Hrtkovci and Jarak, who declare themselves to be Croatians today; (5) A Serbian population from Montenegro and parts of Herzegovina (various tribes from Ceklina, Bjelopavlić, Riječka nahija, Njeguš, Grahovo and Zubac), from Petlovo Selo, in northeast Serbia (6) Torbeša families, from the group Mijaka, an originally Slav-Islamic population in the Crni Drim area, that immigrated in the 1960's to Izmir, in Turkey; (7). Janjevci, Catholics of a mixed Slavic origin, from Janjevo near Priština; in the past they declared themselves natives of Dubrovnik but lately declared themselves Croatians; (8). Slovak Adventists from Gospođinci, in Srem, who declare themselves to be Serbs; and (9). Slovaks Greco-Catholic, from Kučura, Bačka, who declare themselves as Ruthenians although their native language is Slovakian. In conclusion, the author argues that ethnic identity preservation depends on a lot of factors and circumstances, among which the most important are settlement and religious affiliation. Many of the positive experiences of multilingual, multinational and multireligious tolerances in the area could serve as a model in other potentially troubled multicultural environments.

Associations between polymorphisms within the thymidylate synthase gene and spina bifida.

Polymorphisms within the thymidylate synthase (TS) gene that influence enzyme activity may affect plasma folate levels and, indirectly, plasma homocysteine concentrations. We investigated whether TS polymorphisms contribute to spina bifida (SB) risk, given that a reduction in the risk of SB has been linked to folate metabolism. Genomic DNA was extracted from newborn-screening blood spots obtained from case infants with SB, and randomly selected, nonmalformed control infants. Genotype frequencies of two polymorphisms in the TS gene-a 28-bp tandem repeat in the promoter enhancer region (TSER) and a 6-bp deletion in the 3'UTR-were determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) methods. Additionally, all seven exons of the TS gene were sequenced to identify variations within the coding region of the gene. We found that the TSER 2/2 homozygous genotype was associated with a slightly increased risk for SB infants (odds ratio [OR] = 1.4 [0.8-2.4], p = 0.1). When the cohort was divided into separate ethnic groups, this risk increased by 4-fold with the TSER 2/2 homozygous genotype (OR = 4.0 [1.8-8.8], p = 0.001), and by 3-fold with the 3'UTR +/+ homozygous genotype (OR = 3.6 [1.3-10.1], p = 0.02) in non-Hispanic white cases. The combined TSER,3'UTR (2/2,+/+) genotype showed a more than 4-fold increased risk for SB within this specific ethnic group (OR = 4.7 [1.1-19.8], p = 0.04). This study is the first to evaluate how TS polymorphisms contribute to the risk of SB. The current findings indicate that polymorphisms in the untranslated regions of the TS gene are associated with 4-fold or more increased risks of SB in non-Hispanic whites, but not in Hispanic whites, African-Americans, or Asian-Americans.

CREOLES AND CAJUNS: A PORTRAIT IN BLACK AND WHITE

Cajuns are descendants of Acadians from the province of Nova Scotia in Canada who originally settled in Louisiana between 1765 and 1785. They were French-speaking white people who had to struggle economically to survive and culturally to gain acceptance. They maintained their coher- ence as a separate ethnic group until the mid twentieth century, when they began to assimilate into the Anglo dominant culture. Today, their eco- nomic status has improved and the so-called Cajun Renaissance has awak- ened in them a pride in their ancestry and in their contribution to the unique character of Louisiana. The ethnic identity of the black people in our study is in flux—as it has been from the earliest times. Almost all of them nowadays identify as African Americans (Dubois and Melancon 2000), but this ethnicity in- cludes three historically distinct groups of people (Brasseaux, Fontenot, and Oubre 1994, 110). In the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries in Louisiana, persons of African ancestry were divided by skin color, wealth, land ownership, education, and even language, but these distinctions became blurred by the turn of the twentieth century. The first of these three groups were the Colored Creoles. Their ancestors were the offspring of white and black unions, were officially recognized as the children of these unions, and were free before the Civil War. Colored Creoles were socially and economically stratified: a small number were wealthy planters, many were farmers, both landowners and tenants, and many were laborers.

SPINK1 Is a Susceptibility Gene for Fibrocalculous Pancreatic Diabetes in Subjects from the Indian Subcontinent

Fibrocalculous pancreatic diabetes (FCPD) is a secondary cause of diabetes due to chronic pancreatitis. Since the N34S variant of the SPINK1 trypsin inhibitor gene has been found to partially account for genetic susceptibility to chronic pancreatitis, we used a family-based and case-control approach in two separate ethnic groups from the Indian subcontinent, to determine whether N34S was associated with susceptibility to FCPD. Clear excess transmission of SPINK1 N34S to the probands with FCPD in 69 Bangladeshi families was observed (P<.0001; 20 transmissions and 2 nontransmissions). In the total study group (Bangladeshi and southern Indian) the N34S variant was present in 33% of 180 subjects with FCPD, 4.4% of 861 nondiabetic subjects (odds ratio 10.8; P<.0001 compared with FCPD), 3.7% of 219 subjects with type 2 diabetes, and 10.6% of 354 subjects with early-onset diabetes (aged <30 years) (P=.02 compared with the ethnically matched control group). These results suggest that the N34S variant of SPINK1 is a susceptibility gene for FCPD in the Indian subcontinent, although, by itself, it is not sufficient to cause disease.