Sampling seeds

Problems of sampling carbonized plant material are discussed. Firstly, the problem of actually selecting a sample in the laboratory is considered, and some experiments which investigate various procedures are described. Secondly, the statistical aspects of determining optimal sample sizes are considered. Formulae are given for calculating optimal sample sizes and confidence intervals. Upper bounds, which are independent of the total population size, are provided for the sample size required to achieve any desired accuracy.     

Understanding life through unwanted childlessness: Ethnography and fiction from Ghana,Bangladesh and ‘dystopia’ (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

Drawing on ethnographic work in Ghana and Bangladesh, and on a British dystopian novel, we sketch the social, emotional, and existential consequences of childlessness for women who desperately want a child, as is still common in the two countries where the authors carried out research. For these women, childlessness leads to loneliness and a sense of uselessness. Underlying these emotions is the notion that children constitute and personify continuity; childlessness thus stands for the discontinuation of life.     

Diplomacy in a Global Early Modernity: The Ambiguity of Sovereignty

Abstract

This is a concluding comment on the chapters of this special issue. After a discussion of the articles, we will take a closer look at the new view of European diplomacy and foreign relations. The historiographical change regarding early modern foreign relations has fundamentally altered the way we interpret the roles, the agencies and the loyalties of early modern envoys. Taking the conclusions of this research into account, we ask if diplomatic actors of the ancient regime differed distinctly from their Asian counterparts at all. Then, as a final point, we examine how fundamental changes in the Sattelzeit–particularly in Europe, but also in the context of global power relations–affected intercultural diplomacy.     

HOW CHILDREN PLACE THEMSELVES AND OTHERS IN LOCAL SPACE

This study examines the ways in which children aged 11 to 15 in six adjacent neighbourhoods in a medium-sized Swedish town place themselves and others in local space. Special attention is given to how they discuss a neighbourhood stigmatized in the public discourse and how children who live in this neighbourhood react to the negative representations of the place in which they live. The study is based on group interviews and maps. The study shows that children construct representations of their own neighbourhoods as "quiet" neighbourhoods and place objects of "trouble" and "danger" somewhere else. It is argued that this is done both in relation to their personal knowledge of the neighbourhood and in relation to local and/or media representations of their own and other neighbourhoods. It is shown that the children are influenced by media representations of a stigmatized neighbourhood, but also that they are not passive reproducers of these discourses and that some of them are able to offer counter-discourses. The children living in this neighbourhood experience difficulties in defending it as the quiet place which they perceive it to be to outsiders because of the negative discourses.     

Adult scurvy in skeletal remains of late 19th century mineworkers in Kimberley,South Africa

Throughout history, scurvy has been a well‐known disease which develops due to restricted resources of fresh fruit and vegetables. The condition results from an extended limited intake of vitamin C. Although skeletal lesions associated with infantile scurvy have been well described by many authors, very little literature is available on adult scurvy and the resulting skeletal lesions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the skeletal remains of a 19th century mining population from Kimberley, South Africa, for any skeletal lesions that may be indicative of adult scurvy. Scurvy was well documented as being extremely prevalent in this population. The skeletal remains of 107 individuals, presumed to have died around 1898, were studied. The majority of these individuals were males between 19 and 45 years of age. It is likely that most individuals were migrant workers at the diamond mines. All bones were visually assessed for macroscopic indications of pathological bone alterations associated with healed scurvy. Bone samples were also taken from ambiguous lesions in order to perform histological investigations. Lesions indicative of possible healed adult scurvy were observed in 16 individuals. These lesions included bilateral ossified haematomas, osteoperiostitic bone changes and periodontal disease. Histological investigation confirmed the presence of ossified haematomas on the anterior tibiae of some individuals. Hospital records and historical documents describing the incidence of scurvy in the local hospitals and the daily diet of the black mine workers supported these findings. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.