Exploring the context and elements of local environmental stewardship: An embedded case study of the Niagara Region,Canada

Environmental stewardship—a concept that describes the relationships between humans and the environment—is gaining increased attention as an approach that can address planetary sustainability issues. In-depth empirical investigations of local environmental stewardship are needed to understand how social-ecological context influences stewardship, as well as the arrangement of conceptual elements in applied settings. This study addresses these needs by conducting an in-depth exploration of environmental stewardship in the Niagara Region of Canada. A single embedded case study design is employed, with environmental stewardship initiatives constituting the individual units of analysis with the case. Analysis of the spatial arrangement of a total of 89 initiatives indicated that initiatives tended to cluster closer to the Niagara River and in more populous municipalities. The significance of collaboration, tensions between the environment and economic development, and concerns about political impacts emerged as themes across contextual factors. The configuration of stewardship elements reveals interesting discrepancies between initiatives and previous stewardship research focused on larger scales, individuals, and organizations. Further analysis is encouraged to illuminate environmental stewardship in other settings as well as advance relational understanding of conceptual elements.     

Sexual citizenship in ‘the New Tasmania’

The state of Tasmania, the smallest in the Commonwealth of Australia, has recently reformed its law relating to relationships by amending over 100 pieces of legislation to include a range of relationships, including lesbian and gay partnerships, among those given recognition and legal entitlement. This government-sponsored legislation is represented as central to the program of economic revival, social reform and branding described as ‘the New Tasmania’. This article locates the relationship reform in this discourse of Tasmania's newness and in the context of neo-liberal approaches to globalisation. It argues that sexual citizenship takes a multitude of forms and its value, like the value of relationship reform legislation, cannot be easily determined. Indeed, it asks whether sexual citizenship as a form of belonging can ever be disentangled from the various contexts where it is performed. It concludes by privileging the desires and performances of sexual citizenship over the constitution of sexual citizenship in rights or recognition.     

Essentials in the use of mycolic acid biomarkers for tuberculosis detection: response to “High-throughput mass spectrometric analysis of 1400-year-old mycolic acids as biomarkers for ancient tuberculosis infection” by

High molecular weight long-chain mycolic acids are key structural components of the cell envelope of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and they are established as biomarkers for the identification of both ancient and modern tuberculosis. Mycolic acids from M. tuberculosis have a characteristic profile, reflecting contributions from five major distinct homologous series of mycolate structural types. Diagnosis of tuberculosis in archaeological material, using mycolic acid biomarkers, depends on objective recognition of the key characteristic mycolic acid components. A recent article in this journal claimed that tuberculosis could be confirmed in ancient bones by high throughput mass spectrometric analysis of mycolic acids. Scrutiny of the data presented reveals no convincing evidence for the presence of mycolic acids, characteristic of the M. tuberculosis complex, in the skeletal remains examined. This communication reviews the essential criteria necessary for positive tuberculosis diagnosis, using mycolic acids.     

THE VALUE OF HISTORICAL FIELD WORK

Born in Oklahoma City in 1939, educated at George Washington University, the University of Central Oklahoma, and the University of Oklahoma, Baird taught for a decade at the University of Arkansas, Fayettmille, and for another ten years at Oklahoma State University before accepting in 1989 the Howard A. White Professorship of History at Pepperdine University. He and his wife, Jane, are the parents of a daughter and a son. In addition to numerous articles, Baird has published eight books on the history of Native American peoples in Oklahoma and two on the history of medicine in Arkansas. He has been president of the Western History Association and chair of the Oklahoma Foundation for the Humanities. From 1989 to 1991 he served as president of Phi Alpha Theta, whose advisory council he now chairs. Bairds presidential address was delivered in December 1991 at the 70th Anniversary Phi Alpha Theta convention held in Chicago.     

Trends in African Agricultural Trade

Sub-Saharan agriculture, with few exceptions, has stagnated despite official goals of achieving self-sufficiency and increasing export earnings. African agriculture has suffered deteriorating terms of trade, inadequate technology and infrastructure, and policies which severely discourage agricultural enterprise. In some countries structural adjustment and policy reform are occurring, and there remains great potential for agricultural development due in part to prospective advantages in natural resources and abundant labor. Discussed here are a specific set of institutional reforms needed to mobilize agricultural entrepreneurship.