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We examine recent research across countries and cultures in regard to the issues related to the formation of gifted and talented education perspectives, policies, and practices. Many modern cultures and subcultures have developed formal and informal definitions of what it means to be gifted and talented, and when we compare the perceptions, policies, and practices across nations, we discover very different constructs of intelligence and ability. These understandings of giftedness and gifted and talented education can be grouped into four binary dimensions, scholarly versus co-curricular capabilities, aptitude versus achievement, nature versus nurture, and individualistic versus collective, that have significant implications for policy and practice. These constructs can serve as a foundation for countries that are looking to formalize or expand their gifted and talented education models or can be used to challenge the norms of established systems. We put forward recommendations to address some of the challenges in advancing gifted education cross-nationally, an area that is often assumed to introduce risks of enlarging social inequity. We also provide a cross-national matrix that captures known elements of gifted education policies and programs from over 20 subnational jurisdictions, countries, and world regions.

Since the discovery of the Pleurocordyceps/ "Polycephalomyces" clade unaffiliated with the clades of Clavicipitaceae s. str., Ophiocordycipitaceae, and Cordycipitaceae of clavicipitaceous fungi, some taxa have been published and more fungal material relevant to the group have become available for further study. Here, a multigene phylogeny using nrSSU, nrLSU, tef1, rpb1, and rpb2 was constructed with some of the recently discovered additional taxa using maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses (BI) to test and refine the current phylogenetic framework for Cordyceps s. lat. and other clavicipitaceous fungi. In addition to the well supported major Pleurocordyceps/"Polycephalomyces" clade revealed previously, another clade with newly added taxa referred to as "Polycephalomyces formosus‐like" from Japan was found to be sister to the Pleurocordyceps/"Polycephalomyces" clade. Extensive investigation revealed that strains named "P. formosus‐like" grouped in this new clade and do indeed represent the true P. formosus and that species previously included in the genus Polycephalomyces required a new generic name. Based on the phylogenetic analyses and morphological characteristics, including both sexual and asexual morphs when available, the new generic name Pleurocordyceps is introduced and relevant new combinations are made. A newly designated lectotype and a supporting epitype for P. formosus is selected and the circumscription of Polycephalomyces is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soon after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese war, the Five Minister's Conference held in Tokyo in 1938 decided that Japan would pursue "work on the Hui-Muslims," so as to defeat China as soon as possible. Japan then undertook a series of activities, including setting up secret service organizations in Muslim-inhabited areas, rallying the support of local Muslim warlords, and establishing various "Hui-Muslim" agencies. Funded by the Japanese government, these agencies were under the direct control of the Japanese secret service in each area; their top personnel were mainly Japanese, and they were closely associated with Japan's military and foreign affairs systems. Although this work initially looked threatening, it did not yield great results, but it did impel the Chinese government to accelerate progress toward building a nation-state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A hepcidin gene was amplified from the liver of Lateolabrax japonicus challenged with a mixed bacterial suspension. Using RT-PCR and RACE, a full length cDNA sequence of the hepcidin like antimicrobial peptide was determined (GenBank accession number AY604195). The complete hepcidin cDNA Hepc2 is 581 bases and contains an ORF of 258 bases with a coding capacity of 86 amino acids. The deduced amino acid sequence, which shares eight cysteines at the identical conserved positions, and gene organisation are conserved between Japan sea bass and other fish species. The predicted molecular weight of the peptide is 9.4kDa. The 3′-untranslated region is composed of 225bp with a polyadenylation signal AATAAA sequence appearing at 189 nt and the poly(A) tail at 212 nt downstream of stop codon TGA. The predicted signal peptide cleavage site of its deduced peptide is between codons 24 and 25. Japan sea bass hepcidin-like genomic DNA hepc2 sequence including upstream and downstream regions (GenBank accession number AY864813) was composed of two introns and three exons. The cloned 173-bp upstream sequence of Japan sea bass hepcidin-like gene contains putative regulatory elements and several binding motifs for transcription factors. High homologies with hepcidin cDNAs and peptides of white bass (Morone chrysops), human and other fish were shown. Hepc2 of Lateolabrax japonicus is a new member of the hepcidin gene family. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Climate change during the Holocene is thought to have had a significant impact on human migration and development. In Japan, the earliest prehistoric culture based on hunting and gathering began about 16,000 years ago (the Jomon era). At least 3000 years ago, people with paddy rice cultivation skills started to migrate from mainland China, causing an explosion of population growth, lifestyle changes, and changes to the level of civilisation (Yayoi era). To clarify the climatic changes that potentially led to the movement of the Yayoi people to Japan, we analysed the palaeotemperature changes recorded in coastal marine sediment cores obtained from the Zhejiang coast in China, where the first paddy rice cultivation occurred, and northern Kyushu Island, where it was introduced to Japan. The reconstructed temperature fluctuations over the past 7000 years from both sites were similar on the scale of hundreds to thousands of years. The cold periods that occurred approximately 300 and 4200 years ago, which are related to the Little Ice Age and 4.2 ka events, respectively, may have been caused by modulations of the East Asian summer monsoon. Our study suggests that enhanced coastal upwelling may have amplified the cold climate of the 4.2 ka event on the Zhejiang coast. Our results support the recently proposed hypothesis that climate change prompted the collapse of the Yangtze civilisation and the migration of paddy rice farmers to other parts of Asia, including Japan. In contrast, the Jomon people, who still survived mainly based on hunting and gathering at that time, might have avoided a major population collapse. • Palaeotemperatures for the past 7000 years recorded for Hakata Bay and Zhejiang coast. • Significant cold spells found relating to the 4.2 ka event. • Climatic differences between the sites likely influenced human population dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deep population history of East Asia remains poorly understood owing to a lack of ancient DNA data and sparse sampling of present-day people 1,2 . Here we report genome-wide data from 166 East Asian individuals dating to between 6000 BC and AD 1000 and 46 present-day groups. Hunter-gatherers from Japan, the Amur River Basin, and people of Neolithic and Iron Age Taiwan and the Tibetan Plateau are linked by a deeply splitting lineage that probably reflects a coastal migration during the Late Pleistocene epoch. We also follow expansions during the subsequent Holocene epoch from four regions. First, hunter-gatherers from Mongolia and the Amur River Basin have ancestry shared by individuals who speak Mongolic and Tungusic languages, but do not carry ancestry characteristic of farmers from the West Liao River region (around 3000 BC), which contradicts theories that the expansion of these farmers spread the Mongolic and Tungusic proto-languages. Second, farmers from the Yellow River Basin (around 3000 BC) probably spread Sino-Tibetan languages, as their ancestry dispersed both to Tibet-where it forms approximately 84% of the gene pool in some groups-and to the Central Plain, where it has contributed around 59-84% to modern Han Chinese groups. Third, people from Taiwan from around 1300 BC to AD 800 derived approximately 75% of their ancestry from a lineage that is widespread in modern individuals who speak Austronesian, Tai-Kadai and Austroasiatic languages, and that we hypothesize derives from farmers of the Yangtze River Valley. Ancient people from Taiwan also derived about 25% of their ancestry from a northern lineage that is related to, but different from, farmers of the Yellow River Basin, which suggests an additional north-to-south expansion. Fourth, ancestry from Yamnaya Steppe pastoralists arrived in western Mongolia after around 3000 BC but was displaced by previously established lineages even while it persisted in western China, as would be expected if this ancestry was associated with the spread of proto-Tocharian Indo-European languages. Two later gene flows affected western Mongolia: migrants after around 2000 BC with Yamnaya and European farmer ancestry, and episodic influences of later groups with ancestry from Turan.

Background: Single-stranded non-protein coding small RNAs, 18-25 nucleotides in length, are ubiquitous throughout plants genomes and are involved in post-transcriptional gene regulation. Several types of DNA markers have been reported for the detection of genetic diversity or sequence variation in soybean, one of the most important legume crops in worldwide for seed protein and oil content. Recently, with the available of public genomic databases, there has been a shift from the labor-intensive development of PCR-based markers to sequence-based genotyping and the development of functional markers within genes, often coupled with the use of RNA information. But thus far miRNA-based markers have been only developed in rice and tobacco. Here we report the first functional molecular miRNA marker, miR1511-InDel, in soybean for a specific single copy locus used to assess genetic variation in domesticated soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr) and its wild progenitor (Glycine soja Sieb. & Zucc.)., Results: We genotyped a total of 1,669 accessions of domesticated soybean (G. max) and its wild progenitor G. soja which are native throughout the China and parts of Korea, Japan and Russia. The results indicate that the miR1511 locus is distributed in cultivated soybean and has three alleles in annual wild soybean. Based on this result, we proposed that miR-InDel marker technology can be used to assess genetic variation. The inclusion of geo-reference data with miR1511-InDel marker data corroborated that accessions from the Yellow River basin (Huanghuai) exhibited high genetic diversity which provides more molecular evidence for gene diversity in annual wild soybean and domestication of soybean., Conclusions: These results provide evidence for the use of RNA marker, miRNA1511-InDel, as a soybean-specific functional maker for the study of genetic diversity, genotyping of germplasm and evolution studies. This is also the first report of functional marker developed from soybean miRNA located within the functional region of pre-miRNA1511.