Identification of Indian Crocodile Species Through DNA Barcodes

The biodiversity of India includes three crocodile species, Crocodylus palustris, Crocodylus porosus, and Gavialis gangeticus, whose status is threatened due to bushmeat crisis and illegal hunting. The crocodilian conservation management requires novel techniques to help forensic analysts to reveal species identity. DNA barcoding is a species identification technique, where a partial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene is used as a marker for species identification. Herein, the DNA barcoding technique is evaluated for three Indian crocodiles by analyzing an approximately 750‐bp barcode region. The alignment result shows interspecific variations between sequences for discrimination of the three Indian crocodiles leading to species identification. The phylogenetic analyses also substantiate the established crocodilian relationships, which add further advantage to use this DNA barcoding approach for Indian crocodiles. This study provides preliminary evidences for the use of DNA barcoding technique in the identification of Indian crocodile species.     

India 2014: Facebook ‘Like’ as a Predictor of Election Outcomes

Michael Hill and Lian Kwen Fee The Politics of Nation Building and Citizenship in Singapore (London and New York: Routledge, 1995) 285 pp.

Junko Kato, The Problem of Bureaucratic Rationality: Tax Politics In Japan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994).

Joachim Glaubitz, Between Tokyo and Moscow: The History of an Uneasy Relationship, 1972 to the 1990s. (London: Hurst and Company, 1995), pp. XII, 308.

A. Jeyaratnam Wilson, S.J.V. Chelvanayagam and the Crisis of Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism, 1947–1977 (London: Hurst and Company, 1994).

James Manor (ed.), Nehru to the Nineties : The Changing Office of Prime Minister in India (London : Hurst and Company, 1994), pp. 261.

Shimon Peres, The New Middle East. (Longmead: Element Books Limited, 1993), pp. 224.

R.B. Jain and Heinz Bongartz (eds.), Structural Adjustment, Public Policy and Bureaucracy in Developing Societies. (New Delhi: Har‐Anand Publications, 1994), pp. xvi, 424.

Hendri Supriyatmono, Nasution: Dwifungsi ABRI dan Kontribusi Ke Arah Reformasi Politik (Surakarta: Sebelas Maret University Press, 1994), 190 pp.     

How to Win a Lost Election: Malapportionment and Malaysia’s 2013 General Election

Abstract

Allegations of electoral irregularities loomed large prior to and following Malaysia’s 13th general election in May 2013. Yet while these irregularities elicited strong reactions domestically and internationally, they are unlikely to have played a significant role in shaping the election’s outcome. Rather than how the game was played, it was the very rules of the game itself that were responsible for returning the United Malays National Organization and its Barisan Nasional coalition to power for the 13th consecutive time, as Malaysia’s electoral institutions quietly transformed the incumbent coalition’s 4% deficit in the popular vote into a 20% winning margin of parliamentary seats. This is largely the result of substantial variation in the size of electoral districts, which had the effect of delivering parliamentary seats to Barisan Nasional with significantly fewer votes than were required by the opposition to secure its seats. This article has two primary aims. First, it seeks to understand better malapportionment in Malaysia by examining the degree of distortions at multiple institutional levels. It demonstrates these distortions to be exceptionally high from a comparative perspective. Second, it seeks to understand better the factors responsible for the size variation of electoral districts, specifically the extent to which the non-partisan factors stipulated in the constitution can explain the variation. Several tests are conducted using new data on the density of voters in electoral districts. The results strongly indicate a partisan element to malapportionment. This creates an institutionalized bias against the opposition and risks increasing polarization in the Malaysian polity.     

Haplotype diversity of 16 Y-chromosomal STRs in three main ethnic populations (Malays, Chinese and Indians) in Malaysia

We have analyzed 16 Y-STR loci (DYS456, DYS389I, DYS390, DYS389II, DYS458, DYS19, DYS385a/b, DYS393, DYS391, DYS439, DYS635 or Y-GATA C4, DYS392, Y-GATA H4, DYS437, DYS438 and DYS448) from the non-recombining region of the human Y-chromosome in 980 male individuals from three main ethnic populations in Malaysia (Malay, Chinese, Indian) using the AmpFlSTR((R)) Y-filertrade mark (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA). The observed 17-loci haplotypes and the individual allele frequencies for each locus were estimated, whilst the locus diversity, haplotype diversity and discrimination capacity were calculated in the three ethnic populations. Analysis of molecular variance indicated that 88.7% of the haplotypic variation is found within population and 11.3% is between populations (fixation index F(ST)=0.113, p=0.000). This study has revealed Y-chromosomes with null alleles at several Y-loci, namely DYS458, DYS392, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS439, DYS448 and Y-GATA H4; and several occurrences of duplications at the highly polymorphic DYS385 loci. Some of these deleted loci were in regions of the Y(q) arm that have been implicated in the occurrence of male infertility.     

香港高官问责制:成效、问题与对策

高官问责制自从 2 0 0 2年 7月 1日在香港特别行政区实施以来 ,引起了各方面的关注 ,它取得了一定的成效 ,也存在不少的问题。本文对香港高官问责制的背景、成效、问题及其成因进行了较为深入的分析 ,并对其完善进行了初步的探讨     

实事求是与中央苏区时期马克思主义中国化

中央苏区史,就是一部马克思主义中国化史。期间,有胜利,也遭遇过挫折和失败。我党依靠实事求是,努力推动着马克思主义中国化的历史进程。总的来看,坚持实事求是,为推进中央苏区时期马克思主义中国化提供了强大精神动力;坚持实事求是,推进马克思主义中国化,使之成为解决革命重大现实问题的指导理论;坚持实事求是,通过群众喜闻乐见的方式普及、教育、宣传马克思主义,使马克思主义成为中央苏区广大群众的共同信仰。总之,在我党的不懈努力下,坚持独立自主,一切从实际出发,使马克思主义在中央苏区得到普及,推动了中央苏区时期马克思主义中国化的历史进程。     

中越边境云南段＂三非＂人员问题的原因及对策

为维护中国边境地区的国家利益和安全稳定,需要加强对边境地区执法管理。边境地区“三非人员”的管理和研究是一项重要的工作。在中越边境地区,中国警务部门应强化对“三非人员”形成的原因和影响进行分析,结合实际,采取区别性原则,强化对“新三非人员”的管理。     

Latvian sandstone caves as cultural phenomena

This article examines academic cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region. Academic networks are being discussed as indicators of regionalization, but research on the empirical basis is scarce. In the article, the regional networks of 70 higher education institutions in the Baltic States and the German federal state Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania are analyzed. The analysis shows a heterogeneous pattern for the regional higher education area. Regional embedding depends on the focus of an academy and its participation in regional networks. The article concludes with a discussion of options to be considered by regional organizations in order to strengthen regional academic cooperation.     

人民币区域化：广西的着力点

人民币区域化是人民币国际化和东亚货币一体化的突破口，其首先在东盟地区实施的条件正在成熟。鉴于广西北部湾经济区正成为中国－东盟次区域合作发展的重要引擎，为人民币区域化提供了动力，因此，以泛北部湾次区域经贸一体化和金融合作推动人民币区域化，广西的区位优势尤为明显。广西的着力点在于以泛北部湾金融改革与合作为重心、以泛北部湾经贸一体化为载体推动人民币区域化。侧重点包括推进广西货物贸易人民币结算试点工作，加快中资金融机构国际化进程，建设良好的金融合作机制等。     

Unraveling the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Kāvyaprakāśa</Emphasis>: Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa’s idiosyncratic sequence of topics in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Candrāloka</Emphasis>

In his twelfth century alaṃkāraśāstra, the Candrāloka, Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa reverses the sequence of topics found in Mammaṭa’s Kāvyapr-akāśa, an earlier and immensely popular work. With such a structural revisionism, Jayadeva asserts the autonomy of his own work and puts forth an ambitious critique of earlier approaches to literary analysis. Jayadeva investigates the technical and aesthetic components of poetry in the first part of the Candrāloka, prior to his formal semantic investigations in the latter half of the text, thus suggesting that aesthetic evaluations of poetry beneficially inform scientific investigations of language. Jayadeva’s organization of his chapters on the semantic operations, moreover, intimates that the study of suggestive and metaphoric functions of language clarifies our understanding of denotation, which is conventionally understood to be the primary and direct path of verbal designation.