Academic literature on the topic 'Sex role. Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea'

SUMMARYHookworms infect approximately 740 million humans worldwide and are an important cause of morbidity. The present study examines the role of additive genetic effects in determining the intensity of hookworm infection in humans, and whether these effects vary according to the sex of the host. Parasitological and epidemiological data for a population of 704 subjects in Papua New Guinea were used in variance components analysis. The ‘narrow-sense’ heritability of hookworm infection was estimated as 0·15±0·04 (P<0·001), and remained significant when controlling for shared environmental (household) effects. Allowing the variance components to vary between the sexes of the human host consistently revealed larger additive genetic effects in females than in males, reflected by heritabilities of 0·18 in females and 0·08 in males in a conservative model. Household effects were also higher in females than males, although the overall household effect was not significant. The results indicate that additive genetic effects are an important determinant of the intensity of human hookworm infection in this population. However, despite similar mean and variance of intensity in each sex, the factors responsible for generating variation in intensity differ markedly between males and females.

Abstract An analysis of cultural change and generation gaps in the local community of the Nungon ethnic group in the state of Papua New Guinea will be the subject of the study. This ethnic group came into contact with Europeans for the first time in the mid-1930s. The pace of cultural changes within the community has been gradually increasing. For example, the local animistic cult has been replaced with Christianity, school attendance has been introduced in the villages of Nungon, travel opportunities have become more accessible, and as the mobile signal has recently been introduced, Nungon residents can now connect to the internet and access information about the globalised world. Those who remember the colonial period still live in the community and many of them are still illiterate, with only limited knowledge of Pidgin English, the lingua franca of Papua New Guinea. On the other hand, the youngest generation can study in cities or experiment with social media and share information there. The aim of the paper is not only to show intergenerational differences, but also to document the local history and its ties to particular generations and show the role the generational memory played in illiterate societies with unwritten history. The only existing written and photographic documents were created by colonial officers. The study will show the transformation of the Nungon community from the time of photographs kept in boxes to the youngest generation, which keeps photographs in mobile phones and shares them on social media.

Scapanes australis is a major insect pest of coconut palms in Papua New Guinea. Field observations showed that on host plants like coconuts, male Scapanes always attracted females and other male members. Bucket traps were developed to lure Scapanes beetles using live males as attractant (bait). Live males feeding on sugarcane were placed singly in an inner bucket within a 10 litres bucket container with rectangular holes at the side for insect entry and soapy water inside for drowning the insects. Scapanes populations were continuously monitored by traps and results indicated a gradual decline in the Scapanes population over time. Traps were also placed in the field to see if losses to coconuts used by Scapanes can be reduced. Results indicated that the reduction in trap catches was not consistent. Further studies are required to study the physiological behavior of male Scapanes and to improve the technique of trapping of Scapanes with male member alone. The role of trapping Scapanes in pest management is discussed.

Crustin is a type of antimicrobial peptide and plays an important role in the innate immunity of arthropods. We report here the identification and characterization of a crustin (named Crus1) from the shrimp Rimicaris sp. inhabiting the deep-sea hydrothermal vent in Manus Basin (Papua New Guinea). Crus1 shares the highest identity (51.76%) with a Type I crustin of Penaeus vannamei and possesses a whey acidic protein (WAP) domain, which contains eight cysteine residues that form the conserved ‘four-disulfide core’ structure. Recombinant Crus1 (rCrus1) bound to peptidoglycan and lipoteichoic acid, and effectively killed Gram-positive bacteria in a manner that was dependent on pH, temperature, and disulfide linkage. rCrus1 induced membrane leakage and structure damage in the target bacteria, but had no effect on bacterial protoplasts. Serine substitution of each of the 8 Cys residues in the WAP domain did not affect the bacterial binding capacity but completely abolished the bactericidal activity of rCrus1. These results provide new insights into the characteristic and mechanism of the antimicrobial activity of deep sea crustins.

This paper describes structural and distributional properties of alienable and inalienable nouns in Wano, a Trans-New Guinea language spoken in Papua by about 7,000 native speakers. I define differences between alienable and inalienable nouns in §2, where it will be apparent that they can be distinguished in terms of their (i) nominal generalisation (§2.1), (ii) lexical forms (§2.2), (iii) plurality coding (§2.3), (iv) possessive constructions (§2.4), and (v) head-role in a clause (§2.5). Alienable nouns are described in §3. Then in §4, I will demonstrate that inalienable nouns are: (i) restricted on vowel-initial words, and (ii) there is a clear morphosyntax-semantics-pragmatics interface reflected in kin terminologies. The kin term for 'child', for instance, is distinguished with respect to the sex of parents. In expressing the ownership of a child, a father will use the word nabut for the English 'my child' (inflection of: {n-abut} \1s-child.of.male\) and a mother will use nayak 'my child' (inflection of: {n-ajak} \1s-child.of.female\). Terms for kinship relations, body parts, cultural items, and experiential events are inalienably coded. Finally, words that are inalienably marked will be presented in §5.

Depth profiling investigation plays an important role in studying the dynamic processes of the ocean. In this paper, a newly developed hyphenated underwater system based on multi-optical spectrometry is introduced and used to measure seawater spectra at different depths with the aid of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). The hyphenated system consists of two independent compact deep-sea spectral instruments, a deep ocean compact autonomous Raman spectrometer and a compact underwater laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy system for sea applications (LIBSea). The former was used to take both Raman scattering and fluorescence of seawater, and the LIBS signal could be recorded with the LIBSea. The first sea trial of the developed system was taken place in the Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea, in June 2015. Over 4000 multi-optical spectra had been captured up to the diving depth about 1800 m at maximum. The depth profiles of some ocean parameters were extracted from the captured joint Raman–fluorescence and LIBS spectra with a depth resolution of 1 m. The concentrations of [Formula: see text] and the water temperatures were measured using Raman spectra. The fluorescence intensities from both colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) and chlorophyll were found to be varied in the euphotic zone. With LIBS spectra, the depth profiles of metallic elements were also obtained. The normalized intensity of atomic line Ca(I) extracted from LIBS spectra raised around the depth of 1600 m, similar to the depth profile of CDOM. This phenomenon might be caused by the nonbuoyant hydrothermal plumes. It is worth mentioning that this is the first time Raman and LIBS spectroscopy have been applied simultaneously to the deep-sea in situ investigations.

Papua New Guinea is famous for its religious diversity, innovation, and role as the intellectual home of the “cargo-cult.” Contrary to the dominant contemporary trend toward localized and syncretized forms of Christianity, one of the fastest-growing new religious movements in Papua New Guinea is the not so “new” religion of Islam. From 2000–2012, the Muslim convert population grew more than 1,000 percent, and data from fieldwork between 2007 and 2011 suggests that globalization factors, especially missionaries and media, are contributing to increased conversion rates. Transition from traditional life to modernity is sparking a range of social and personal crises leading people to search for new religions more closely aligned with traditional, local, cultural and material dimensions. This makes future conversion growth in Papua New Guinea likely.

SUMMARYReinfection with hookworm (Necator americanus) following chemotherapy was studied over 2 years in a rural village in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. The prevalence of hookworm infection had returned to pre-treatment levels after 2 years, and the geometric mean hookworm burden had returned to 58 % of the pre-treatment value. The rate of acquisition of adult worms was independent of host age, and was estimated as a geometric mean of 2·9–3·3 worms/host/year (arithmetic mean 7·9–8·9 worms/host/year). There was significant predisposition to hookworm infection; the strength of this predisposition did not vary significantly between age or sex classes.

The size and structure of social groups of animals can be governed by a range of ecological factors and behavioral interactions. In small, highly site-attached coral reef fishes, group size is often constrained by the size of the habitat patch they are restricted to. However, group size may also be influenced by changes in abundance along important environmental gradients, such as depth or distance offshore. In addition, the body size and sex structure within social groups can be determined by the size of the habitat patch and the dominance relationships among group members. Here we examined the roles of ecological factors and behavioral interactions in governing group size and structure in the orange clownfish, Amphiprion percula, on inshore reefs in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea. We quantified relationships between ecological variables (anemone size, depth, and distance from shore) and social group variables (group size, and total body length of the three largest individuals (ranks 1, 2, and 3)). Anemone size explained the greatest amount of variation in group variables, with strong, positive relationships between anemone surface area and group size, and total length of individuals ranked 1, 2, and 3. Group structure was also weakly correlated with increasing depth and distance from shore, most likely through the indirect effects of these environmental gradients on anemone size. Variation in group size and the lengths of ranks 2 and 3 were all closely related to the length of rank 1. Path analysis indicated that anemone size has a strong direct effect on the length of rank 1. In turn, the length of rank 1 directly affects the size of the subordinate individuals and indirectly affects the group size through its influence on subordinates. Hence, anemone size directly and indirectly controls social group size and structure in this space-limited fish species. It is also likely that anemonefish have feedback effects on anemone size, although this could not be differentiated in the path analysis.