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This statistical compendium provides an interesting quantitative history of Australia's wine evolution and a model for how to write such a history.

Tourism has been embraced as a source of post-industrial employment and foreign currency to promote development. Given Nepal’s geography and state of underdevelopment, its attractive natural scenery has yielded adventure tourism as a viable economic activity to develop remote areas. However, the industry faces many hurdles; the most problematic being the ongoing Maoist war and September 11 impacts, along with its dependency on foreign capital. Additionally, the industry’s uneven growth, monopolistic class character, and neglect of rural impoverishment are all preventing it from taking off. Given this scenario, regionally-based religious pilgrimage, especially oriented towards Asian markets, could be more promising than Western-oriented adventure tourism.

The African American consumer has been studied since the 1960s. Now a major segment of the national economy, this consumer group represented more than $631 billion of buying power in 2002. Prior research has shown that this market segment has distinct product and service preferences and that the African American consumer responds more favorably to advertisements containing African American models as opposed to white models. In focus groups comprised of African Americans and conducted by Ketchum Public Relations (KPR) in 1998, several companies were identified, some as mosttrusted and others as least-respected. When queried about the advertisement outlets, Black Enterprise, Ebony and Essence were among those named as mosttrusted black print media. In light of this finding, we advance the proposition that the advertisements in these media sources should reflect the spending patterns and other consumer preferences of African Ameri Ashanti Y. Ragoonan is an MBA student, School of Business & Industry,...

Paralemanea annulata, a member of Lemaneaceae (Batrachospermales, Rhodophyta) was investigated in a field study to monitor its seasonality and determine environmental parameters that play a role in its phenology. Macroscopic gametophytes were present during the months of December–August, and percent cover dropped precipitously from June to July. Thalli had spermatangia present in all months except December and carposporophytes were observed in May and June. Audouinella hermannii thickly colonized the thalli March–June. Lack of thalli from September–November corresponded with low water and increased water temperature. New growth of gametophytes was first observed in December. Gametophyte percent cover showed a positive correlation with both current velocity and light intensity. A laboratory study was conducted in the winter and spring, which investigated growth in relation to temperature, daylength and light intensity. Thalli grew more slowly in the 5 °C treatments than the 15 °C treatments and no clear trends could be determined among the daylength and light intensity treatments. For all treatments, thalli grew more in the winter than the spring experiment.

African American consumers, totaling 35 million and with an annual income of $601 billion in 2001, constitutes a huge target market in the United States. Given the growing practice of target marketing, the consumer behavior of African Americans has attracted a great deal of research attention. Some of the studies have explored the question of their social sensitivity when making purchasing decisions. But the research has invariably been framed narrowly to examine, for example, the response of African American consumers to marketing variables such as type of ad or media representation. Such studies are largely devoid of sociohistorically-grounded conceptual analysis. Consequently, the marketing literature is generally missing historically-based research, research which examines the critical role of the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) in developing the African American consumer market and in engendering a collective sense of social sensitivity in their consumer behavior. The present study represents an...

The history of Black migration is a story of continuity and change, a paradoxical story of hopes and despairs. Situating migration as a labour process within the general framework of labour–capital relations, this study examines the role of south-to-north migration in Black Americans' upward mobility and human capital accumulation for the period 1910–1970. The conceptual argument advanced is that labour market distortions, based on the historical legacy of colour as a marker of one's ability, affect the way capitalist forces use (underutilise) Black migrants, leading to the underdevelopment of their human capital. An analysis of IPUMS data samples showed: (1) Black migrants were far more likely to experience unemployment in the labour markets of the Midwest than their White counterparts; (2) the unemployment rate of more-educated Black migrants was higher than that for less-educated Black migrants; (3) race was revealed by regression analysis to be an important variable in explaining why Blacks were far more likely to be found in low-wage, least upwardly mobile occupations than their White counterparts, whose proportionate employment share of the high-end occupations was much greater than that of Blacks; and (4) geographically, the early advantage that Black migrants enjoyed from locating in the central city lost much of its value over time. This may reflect how, while Blacks remained trapped in central cities because of residential segregation, jobs – especially those in the private sector – have increasingly moved out of the city, thus creating a mismatch between their residence and the location(s) of jobs. Overall, the data analysis suggests that race still matters, as the colour of labour remains a source of discrimination in terms of both the extent to which Black labour was used (unemployment rate) and how it was used (occupation). The result was that capitalist forces in the American labour market systematically undervalued or suppressed Black migrants' pre-existing human capital, thus denying them an opportunity fully to harness their potential and enhance their human capital accumulation. Copyright­© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Twenty-three stream segments (seven on O‘ahu, eight on Kaua‘i, and eight on Hawai‘i) were sampled for macroalgae in the Hawaiian Islands. Stream segments ranged greatly in size from 1.2 to 40 m in width. Water temperature was uniformly warm (17–24°C), but other chemical parameters differed from site to site (pH 5.5–8.9, specific conductance 20–200 mS · cm-1). Mean species richness per site was 3.9 with one to eight species collected per stream segment. Ninety populations of 42 infrageneric taxa were identified from the Cyanobacteria (19), Chlorophyta (17), Rhodophyta (3), and Chrysophyta (3). The most abundant taxa were Spirogyra sp. 1, Audouinella pygmaea, and Phormidium retzii. All three of these taxa are widespread among the Islands. Other species collected on all three islands were Cloniophora plumosa and Hildenbrandia angolensis. Eighteen taxa are new records for streams and 15 of these for aquatic habitats. Ten of the new records for the Hawaiian Islands were collected on Kaua‘i, six on O‘ahu, and one on Hawai‘i (two new records shared for Kaua‘i and O‘ahu). The large percentage (36%) of new taxa reported in this study suggests that more research is needed to fully catalog the Hawaiian stream macroalgal diversity. This study extends the number of micro- and macroalgal taxa known from streams in the Hawaiian Islands to 299 infrageneric taxa.

The history of Nepalese forestry reveals that very little progress has been made in effectively integrating people's needs with forest management objectives through forestry policy mandates and practices. This paper critically examines Nepal's forestry policies and use practices during the pre-unification period (pre-1769), the Rana regime (1846–1950), planned development (the 1950s), the Panchayat regime (1960–90) and post-democracy (1990 to the present). This historical critique finds that political posturing, rhetoric and personal profiteering have taken precedence over public duty, regardless of whether autocratic or pseudo-democratic regimes were in power. Thus far, forest policy studies have focused on the hill zone of Nepal. This paper focuses on Tarai forestry, and exposes the geopolitical and political economic forces in play. It concludes that a lack of fiscal transparency and accountability on the part of the government, and the monopolistic control of the sale of forest produce by the Timber C...

The ‘population–environment nexus’ debate emphasizes the impact of population and development on forest and agricultural resources and specifically focuses on small farmers in tropical regimes, on their adaptabilities, and on the reasons why they differ in their management of resources. Recent ‘bottom-up’ perspectives pay close attention to farmers' own practices and suggest that population growth can be accompanied by environmental enhancement and recovery as well as destruction. During the last 30 years, the densely forested frontier of the Tarai in Nepal has been the target for government-sponsored resettlement and spontaneous land-occupation of Hill migrants, paharis. The indigenous occupants of the Tarai, tharus, were sometimes displaced, often disadvantaged, and rarely considered allies, either to the new settler communities or the central authorities and the elite classes. This paper traces the converging paths of the paharis and tharus in their common struggles for survival and sustenance at the frontier. The forested environment is one common resource base, the political allegiances communities embrace is another resource strategy. Both quantitative and qualitative data depicting the comparative situation of paharis and tharus in the Tarai district of Bardiya in Western Nepal are used to uncover contemporary strategies of forest use, indigenous and settler survival strategies, and local ‘grassroots’ political organization. Generalizations are sought to better understand the population–environment nexus of relations in such South Asian tropical forest ecosystems.

Autosomal recessive childhood onset spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a leading cause of infant mortality caused by mutations in the survival motor neuron (SMN) gene. The SMN protein is involved in RNA processing and is localised in structures called GEMs in the nucleus. Nothing is yet understood about why mutations in SMN gene result in the selective motor neuron loss observed in patients. The SMN protein domains conserved across several species may indicate functionally significant regions. Exon 3 of SMN contains homology to a tudor domain, where a Type I SMA patient has been reported to harbour a missense mutation. We have generated missense mutants in this region of SMN and have tested their ability to form GEMs when transfected into HeLa cells. Our results show such mutant SMN proteins still localise to GEMs. Furthermore, exon 7 deleted SMN protein appears to exert a dominant negative effect on localisation of endogenous SMN protein. However, exon 3 mutant protein and exon 5 deleted protein exert no such effect.

Childhood-onset autosomal recessive spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is associated with absence of the telomeric survival motor neuron gene (SMNt) in most patients, and deletion of the neuronal apoptosis inhibitory protein (NAIP) gene in the majority of severely affected patients. Analysis of SMNt has been complicated by the existence of a centromeric copy, SMNc, which is almost identical to SMNt but which can be distinguished from it by restriction enzyme analysis. In this study 143 SMA patients have been genotyped for the presence or absence of the SMNt, SMNc and NAIP genes, and the data correlated with quantifiable clinical variables. Although a significant correlation was observed between the presence or absence of the NAIP gene and the severity of the clinical phenotype in SMA patients generally, there was no difference in age of onset or survival in type I patients with the NAIP+ or NAIP- genotype. Fluorimetric PCR analysis of SMNc gene dosage in 57 patients homozygous for the absence of the SMNt gene but in whom the NAIP gene was present showed a highly significant correlation between SMNc copy number and SMA subtype, and between SMNc copy number and both age of onset and length of survival. The data provide strong statistical support for the emerging consensus that the clinical phenotype in SMA is directed primarily by the level of functional SMN protein. The lower SMNc copy number in type I patients in whom the NAIP gene is present suggests that the SMNt gene is removed by deletion in the majority of such patients, rather than by gene conversion as is the case in SMA types II and III.

In human and mouse, most imprinted genes are arranged in chromosomal clusters. Their linked organization suggests co-ordinated mechanisms controlling imprinting and gene expression. The identification of local and regional elements responsible for the epigenetic control of imprinted gene expression will be important in understanding the molecular basis of diseases associated with imprinting such as Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome. We have established a complete contig of clones along the murine imprinting cluster on distal chromosome 7 syntenic with the human imprinting region at 11p15.5 associated with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome. The cluster comprises approximately 1 Mb of DNA, contains at least eight imprinted genes and is demarcated by the two maternally expressed genes Tssc3 (Ipl) and H19 which are directly flanked by the non-imprinted genes Nap1l4 (Nap2) and Rpl23l (L23mrp), respectively. We also localized Kcnq1 (Kvlqt1) and Cd81 (Tapa-1) between Cdkn1c (p57(Kip2)) and Mash2. The mouse Kcnq1 gene is maternally expressed in most fetal but biallelically transcribed in most neonatal tissues, suggesting relaxation of imprinting during development. Our findings indicate conserved control mechanisms between mouse and human, but also reveal some structural and functional differences. Our study opens the way for a systematic analysis of the cluster by genetic manipulation in the mouse which will lead to animal models of Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome and childhood tumours.

We have reported recently that the dual specificity mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase-3 (MKP-3) elicits highly selective inactivation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) class of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases (Muda, M., Theodosiou, A., Rodrigues, N., Boschert, U., Camps, M., Gillieron, C., Davies, K., Ashworth, A., and Arkinstall, S. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 27205-27208). We now show that MKP-3 enzymatic specificity is paralleled by tight binding to both ERK1 and ERK2 while, in contrast, little or no interaction with either c-Jun N-terminal kinase/stress activated protein kinase (JNK/SAPK) or p38 MAP kinases was detected. Further study revealed that the N-terminal noncatalytic domain of MKP-3 (MKP-3DeltaC) binds both ERK1 and ERK2, while the C-terminal MKP-3 catalytic core (MKP-3DeltaN) fails to precipitate either of these MAP kinases. A chimera consisting of the N-terminal half of MKP-3 with the C-terminal catalytic core of M3-6 also bound tightly to ERK1 but not to JNK3/SAPKbeta. Consistent with a role for N-terminal binding in determining MKP-3 specificity, at least 10-fold higher concentrations of purified MKP-3DeltaN than full-length MKP-3 is required to inhibit ERK2 activity. In contrast, both MKP-3DeltaN and full-length MKP-3 inactivate JNK/SAPK and p38 MAP kinases at similarly high concentrations. Also, a chimera of the M3-6 N terminus with the MKP-3 catalytic core which fails to bind ERK elicits non selective inactivation of ERK1 and JNK3/SAPKbeta. Together, these observations suggest that the physiological specificity of MKP-3 for inactivation of ERK family MAP kinases reflects tight substrate binding by its N-terminal domain.

Mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatases (MKPs) play a central role in a variety of signaling pathways. We recently described a novel murine MKP, M3/6, which is uniquely specific for c-Jun N-terminal kinase/stress-activated protein kinase and p38 kinase. Here we report the localization of the human orthologue of this gene, HB5, to within 150 kb of H19 on human chromosome 11p15.5. The gene consists of six exons. Two of the introns in HB5 are not found in other genes of this family, suggesting an evolutionary split between MKPs displaying specificity toward different MAP kinases. An intronless pseudogene is present on chromosome 10q11.2. Although 11p15.5 is an imprinted region, HB5 is almost entirely unmethylated on both alleles in lymphocytes. Chromosome 11p15 has been implicated in the development of a number of tumor types, including lung, a tissue known to express this gene. Loss of heterozygosity was found in one of eight informative lung tumors studied.

Autosomal recessive proximal spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a disease of motor neuron death and a common cause of morbidity in childhood. It has been mapped to 5q13 and shown to be associated with deletions in a gene which has been called the survival motor neuron (SMN) gene. SMN exists in two copies in 5q13 and deletions in exon 7 and 8 of the telomeric copy (SMN tel ) occur in over 90% of patients regardless of disease severity. In contrast, deletion of exon 7 and 8 of the centromeric copy of SMN is present in 3–5% of the normal population. In a minority of patients, exon 7 but not exon 8 of SMN tel appears deleted. The purpose of this study was to analyse this latter type of deletion in more detail. In all patients where there was absence of PCR amplification of exon 7 but not exon 8 of SMN tel this was found to be due to replacement with the homologous copy of SMN cen by a possible gene conversion event. This type of mutation occurred in all grades of severity of SMA.

"In Nepal, the drama of human and environmental ills is increasingly being played out in the form of peasants' ecopolitical battles over common land access and control, such as in the Tarai frontier, a region bordering the Gangetic Plain of India. This is a complex battle, pitting peasants' day-to-day survival against environmental security on one front, and against the Nepalese State and its dominant class interests on the other. This article critically dissects this raging battle to gain a clear understanding of its complexities as well as its diverse roots."

Two candidate genes (NAIP and SMN) have recently been reported for childhood onset spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Although affected subjects show deletions of these genes, these deletions can lead to either a very mild or a severe phenotype. We have analysed a large number of clinically well defined patients, carriers, and normal controls to assess the frequency and extent of deletions encompassing both of these genes. A genotype analysis indicates that more extensive deletions are seen in the severe form of SMA than in the milder forms. In addition, 1 center dot 9% of phenotypically normal carriers are deleted for the NAIP gene; no carriers were deleted for the SMN gene. Our data suggest that deletions in both of these genes, using the currently available assays, are associated with both a severe and very mild phenotype.