Identity in nineteenth-century British imperial port cities throughout East and Southeast Asia was imprecise and fluid, shifting according to socio-political, cultural, and racial exigencies. Such port cities have historically been understood as contact zones, nodes within or on the edge of imperial networks, or else as “in-between spaces,” “bridges” between the maritime world of commerce and migration and the coastal hinterlands, across which goods, ideas, and people flowed.1 In line with recent scholastic shifts, the papers collected here revisit these paradigms by examining semi-colonial and colonial port cities connected to the British Empire through the experiences of understudied communities living and working far from their purported homelands.2 Building upon scholarly shifts away from analyses of East-meets-West encounters and towards explorations of the “multidirectionality” of interactions in colonial port cities, the case studies in this issue are grounded in the lived realities of distinct populations and their particular interactions with other port-city communities and (semi)colonial authorities.3 The transient, mobile, and interconnected nature of these colonial and semi-colonial littoral spaces allowed engagement and encounter to erode not just geopolitical borders through the forging of expansive and wide-reaching networks, but also the boundaries that governed the positionality of various ethnic and national communities.4

In 2020, an outbreak of Salmonella Hadar illnesses was linked to contact with non-commercial, privately owned (backyard) poultry including live chickens, turkeys, and ducks, resulting in 848 illnesses. From late 2020 to 2021, this Salmonella Hadar strain caused an outbreak that was linked to ground turkey consumption. Core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST) analysis determined that the Salmonella Hadar isolates detected during the outbreak linked to backyard poultry and the outbreak linked to ground turkey were closely related genetically (within 0–16 alleles). Epidemiological and traceback investigations were unable to determine how Salmonella Hadar detected in backyard poultry and ground turkey were linked, despite this genetic relatedness. Enhanced molecular characterization methods, such as analysis of the pangenome of Salmonella isolates, might be necessary to understand the relationship between these two outbreaks. Similarly, enhanced data collection during outbreak investigations and further research could potentially aid in determining whether these transmission vehicles are truly linked by a common source and what reservoirs exist across the poultry industries that allow Salmonella Hadar to persist. Further work combining epidemiological data collection, more detailed traceback information, and genomic analysis tools will be important for monitoring and investigating future enteric disease outbreaks.

Precision Medicine is an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle. Autoimmune diseases are those in which the body’s natural defense system loses discriminating power between its own cells and foreign cells, causing the body to mistakenly attack healthy tissues. These conditions are very heterogeneous in their presentation and therefore difficult to diagnose and treat. Achieving precision medicine in autoimmune diseases has been challenging due to the complex etiologies of these conditions, involving an interplay between genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors. However, recent technological and computational advances in molecular profiling have helped identify patient subtypes and molecular pathways which can be used to improve diagnostics and therapeutics. This review discusses the current understanding of the disease mechanisms, heterogeneity, and pathogenic autoantigens in autoimmune diseases gained from genomic and transcriptomic studies and highlights how these findings can be applied to better understand disease heterogeneity in the context of disease diagnostics and therapeutics.

As urbanization increases in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), urban populations will be increasingly exposed to a range of environmental risk factors for non-communicable diseases. Inadequate living conditions in urban settings may influence mechanisms that regulate gene expression, leading to the development of non-communicable respiratory diseases. We conducted a systematic review of the literature to assess the relationship between respiratory health and epigenetic factors to urban environmental exposures observed in LMICs using MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, and Google Scholar searching a combination of the terms: epigenetics, chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs), lung development, chronic obstructive airway disease, and asthma. A total of 2835 articles were obtained, and 48 articles were included in this review. We found that environmental factors during early development are related to epigenetic effects that may be associated with a higher risk of CRDs. Epigenetic dysregulation of gene expression of the histone deacetylase (HDAC) and histone acetyltransferase gene families was likely involved in lung health of slum dwellers. Respiratory-related environmental exposures influence HDAC function and deoxyribonucleic acid methylation and are important risk factors in the development of CRD. Additional epigenetic research is needed to improve our understanding of associations between environmental exposures and non-communicable respiratory diseases.

This article argues that the modern American partisan gender gap – the tendency of men to identify more as Republicans and less as Democrats than women – emerged largely because of mass-level ideological party sorting. As the two major US political parties ideologically polarized at the elite level, the public gradually perceived this polarization and better sorted themselves into the parties that matched their policy preferences. Stable pre-existing policy differences between men and women caused this sorting to generate the modern US partisan gender gap. Because education is positively associated with awareness of elite party polarization, the partisan gender gap developed earlier and is consistently larger among those with college degrees. The study finds support for this argument from decades of American National Election Studies data and a new large dataset of decades of pooled individual-level Gallup survey responses.

The effect of oxidised fatty acids on atherosclerosis progression is controversial. Thus, our objective was to evaluate the effect of long-term consumption of weakly oxidised PUFA from flaxseed oil on oxidative stress biomarkers of LDL-receptor(−/−) mice. To test our hypothesis, mice were separated into three groups. The first group received a high-fat diet containing fresh flaxseed oil (CONT−), the second was fed the same diet prepared using heated flaxseed oil (OXID), and the third group received the same diet containing fresh flaxseed oil and had diabetes induced by streptozotocin (CONT+). Oxidative stress, aortic parameters and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease were assessed. After 3 months, plasma lipid profile, glucose levels, body weight, energy intake and dietary intake did not differ among groups. Likewise, oxidative stress, plasma malondialdehyde (MDA), hepatic MDA expressed as nmol/mg portion (ptn) and antioxidant enzymes did not differ among the groups. Hepatic linoleic acid, α-linolenic acid, arachidonic acid and EPA acid declined in the OXID and CONT+ groups. Aortic wall thickness, lumen and diameter increased only in the OXID group. OXID and CONT+ groups exhibited higher concentrations of MDA, expressed as μmol/mg ptn per %PUFA, when compared with the CONT− group. Our results suggest that ingestion of oxidised flaxseed oil increases hepatic MDA concentration and is potentially pro-atherogenic. In addition, the mean MDA value observed in all groups was similar to those reported in other studies that used xenobiotics as oxidative stress inducers. Thus, the diet applied in this study represents an interesting model for further research involving antioxidants.

The host range of a mixture of Choristoneura fumiferana (Clemens) nucleopolyhedroviruses (CfMNPV and CfDefNPV) was investigated using a per os bioassay of larvae of 29 species of Lepidoptera and adult males of Megachile rotundata (F.) (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae). Using a whole-genomic DNA probe, positive results were obtained in 8 of 10 Tortricidae: Archips cerasivorana (Fitch), Choristoneura fractivittana (Clemens), C. fumiferana, Choristoneura occidentalis Freeman, Choristoneura pinus pinus Freeman, Choristoneura rosaceana (Harris), Clepsis persicana (Fitch), and Cydia pomonella (L.); one Crambidae: Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner); one arctiine Erebidae: Estigmene acrea (Drury); and two Noctuidae: Oligia illocata (Walker) and Pyrrhia exprimens (Walker). Mortality rates were highest among C. fumiferana, C. occidentalis, C. pinus pinus, A. cerasivorana, and C. pomonella. Sequenced polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplicons from infected individuals from several species confirmed that the primer sets amplified the target viruses. CfMNPV was consistently found in virus-fed C. fumiferana; whereas, CfDefNPV was present only occasionally. The presence of CfMNPV and CfDefNPV in A. cerasivorana was confirmed by PCR and DNA sequencing. Significant treatment-mortality rates were induced in the noctuids P. exprimens and Acronicta impleta Walker; PCR determined that both viruses were present in treated P. exprimens but only CfMNPV was present in A. impleta. No virus was detected in M. rotundata.

Nanoporous MgAl2O4 particulates with high porosities were successfully prepared from sol-gel reactions, solvent exchange with castor oil and subsequent combustion and calcination at 700 °C. The products were crystalline and semitransparent. Changes in the metal precursor concentrations allowed control of pore volumes from 0.7 to 1.1 cm3/g and average pore sizes from 14 to 19 nm. The specific surface areas are about 200 m2/g regardless of the precursor concentrations. After heating at 1000 °C for 10 hours, the products kept about 70% of their original pore volume and about 60% of the original surface area. Heating at 1100 °C caused a drastic reduction of pore volume and surface area to 40 and 36%, respectively, as the average particle size increased to 23 nm.

Locally applicable information about climate and soil properties can help farmers identify opportunities and reduce risks associated with changing to new land uses. This article describes techniques for preparing high-resolution regional maps and GIS surfaces of agriculturally relevant climate parameters. Ways of combining these climate surfaces with soil data and information about the physical requirements of crops to identify areas likely to be the most suitable for new high-value crops are then outlined. Innovative features include methods for merging observations from temporary climate stations installed for one to two years in conjunction with longer-term climate station observations to improve input data for the maps, and techniques for mapping quantiles of climatic factors that may constrain agricultural operations. Examples are the expected ‘one-in-five year’ first and last frost dates, and the ‘one-in-five year’ lowest and highest seasonal rainfalls. The use of night-time satellite infrared observations to improve spatial resolution of frost hazard maps is also described. Typical standard errors of these climate mapping techniques are summarised. The benefits of ongoing consultation with local farmers and local government staff during the design and implementation of climate/soil/crop potential studies are described. These include optimising products to meet local needs, quality control of the resulting maps and GIS surfaces through local knowledge, and improved uptake of information by users. Further applications of techniques described in this paper include products useful to the energy sector, preparation of daily gridded climate data estimates for use in water quality and plant growth modelling, and development of regional climate change scenarios.

Increasing evidence supports the view that the interaction of perinatal exposure to adversity with individual genetic liabilities may increase an individual's vulnerability to the expression of psycho- and physiopathology throughout life. The early environment appears to program some aspects of neurobiological development and, in turn, behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and physiological development. Several rodent and primate models of early adverse experience have been analyzed in this review, including those that “model” maternal separation or loss, abuse or neglect, and social deprivation. Accumulating evidence shows that these early traumatic experiences are associated with long-term alterations in coping style, emotional and behavioral regulation, neuroendocrine responsiveness to stress, social “fitness,” cognitive function, brain morphology, neurochemistry, and expression levels of central nervous system genes that have been related to anxiety and mood disorders. Studies are underway to identify important aspects of adverse early experience, such as (a) the existence of “sensitive periods” during development associated with alterations in particular output systems, (b) the presence of “windows of opportunity” during which targeted interventions (e.g., nurturant parenting or supportive–enriching environment) may prevent or reverse dysfunction, (c) the identity of gene polymorphisms contributing to the individual's variability in vulnerability, and (d) a means to translate the timing of these developmental “sensitive periods” across species.

In the Philippines a qualified system of centralism prevails today whereby most formal and all real power resides at the national level of government, though local units possess. some attributes of autonomy. Some local officials are elected but others are appointed by, and responsible to, the central government. Moreover it directs most local services and tightly controls local finances. Any explanation of this system must he sought on more than constitutional grounds. It becomes essential to examine the theory and practice of previous periods as regards central-local relations – for the interaction of these beliefs and practices are the historical antecedents of, and helped shape, this system.