Observations were made on one eye from a Longman’s beaked whale Indopacetus pacificus, which was probably one of the least known extant cetaceans. The whale died shortly after swimming aground on the coast in the Nis...Observations were made on one eye from a Longman’s beaked whale Indopacetus pacificus, which was probably one of the least known extant cetaceans. The whale died shortly after swimming aground on the coast in the Nishikata Beach, Sendai-shi, Kagoshima-ken Prefecture, Japan, on July 26, 2002. It was a mature female with body length 6.45 m. This paper documented the basic structural characteristics of her visual organ of the whale in order to better understand this animal.展开更多
This study presents the fact that the relationship between the white colonialists and the black indigenous population threw up a myriad of socio-political cross fertilization in Africa. The way and manner the Whites r...This study presents the fact that the relationship between the white colonialists and the black indigenous population threw up a myriad of socio-political cross fertilization in Africa. The way and manner the Whites related with the Black people, the levels of reactions and response of the black population to the invading socio-political values and standards during the colonial era has been the subject of interesting writings in Africa. Of significance in this class of writing in Kenya is Ngugi Wa Thiong＇O＇s works. His profound sympathy with his people in their weaknesses, their poverty in the socio-political development in Kenya, and particularly his hatred of exploitation, cruelty, and injustice are noteworthy. It is the thrust of this work to critically look at the socio-political change in postcolonial Kenya through the literary eyes of Ngugi in his remarkable and compelling work, Petals of Blood （1977）, with a view to establish the contributions of the work to real socio-political development in Kenya through the approaches of textual criticism, interpretation, and post-colonial theory. Thus, the study examines the socio-political development in postcolonial Kenyan society, the lifestyle of people, and the relationships that exist among Kenyan citizens, especially between the rich and the poor, the government （ruling class）, and the governed （masses）. It also establishes the basis for the continued prevalence of the themes of violence, corruption, injustice, disillusionment, decadence, and disintegration in contemporary Kenyan literature, in spite of the transformation and change in the socio-political setting of the State.展开更多
This research involves discovering the male western perspective toward the female oriental character Cleopatra the Queen of Egypt by comparing two literary works Antony ＆ Cleopatra by Shakespeare verses Caesar and Cl...This research involves discovering the male western perspective toward the female oriental character Cleopatra the Queen of Egypt by comparing two literary works Antony ＆ Cleopatra by Shakespeare verses Caesar and Cleopatra by Bernard Shaw. Also this research gives a glimpse of the history of how Cleopatra was viewed from Roman point of view. The goal is to show how the western masculine frame of mind looked at the oriental femininity depicted by Cleopatra also; the research will discuss the way both authors displayed the oriental Queen of Egypt Cleopatra in their literary works. Cleopatra was presented as a mystery to all the male figures who wrote about her. In Caesar and Cleopatra, George Bernard Shaw uses his legendary wit to turn ancient history on its head--and to challenge Shakespeare＇s view of his two famous protagonists. Political drama meets sparkling comedy as veteran strategist Julius Caesar becomes mentor to the enchanting teenage queen of Roman-occupied Egypt. To conclude, Bernard Show portrayed the character of Caeser and Cleopatra unlike Shakespeare＇s weak representation of Julius Caeser展开更多
Toni Morrison has a unique status in American literature. She is the winner of the National Book Critic Circle Award, the Pulitzer for Fiction and many other literary awards. She was granted the Nobel Prize for litera...Toni Morrison has a unique status in American literature. She is the winner of the National Book Critic Circle Award, the Pulitzer for Fiction and many other literary awards. She was granted the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993, thus becoming the first A^can-American writer to receive this honor. Her first novel The Bluest Eye （1970） tells the story of the bitter and tragic experience suffered by Pecola, a little black girl, and loss of black people＇s self-respect, confidence, value, and culture. The present paper, first of all, gives a brief introduction of the story Then the paper explores the root causes of Pecola＇s tragedy from two aspects： The cause of racial oppression and self-hatred, and the cause of the loss in her independent consciousness. The paper concludes that Pecola is the victim and scapegoat of racial oppression, self-hatred and the loss of her independent consciousness existing in the black community展开更多
The diversity of anti-predator adaptations in the natural world has long been an active area of research in evolutionary and behavioural biology. A common visually-obvious feature found on prey are ＇eyespots＇, being...The diversity of anti-predator adaptations in the natural world has long been an active area of research in evolutionary and behavioural biology. A common visually-obvious feature found on prey are ＇eyespots＇, being approximately circular mark- ings often with concentric rings and conspicuous colours. These are found on a range of animals, especially adult and larval Lepidoptera and fish. One of the most widespread functions of eyespots seems to be to intimidate or startle predators： delaying, preventing or halting an attack. However, while the fact that they can influence predators in this way is tmcuntroversial, the mechanism（s） behind why they are effective is debated. Traditionally, they have been assumed to work by mimicking the eyes of the predator＇s own enemies, and much research in this field is conducted under the implicit or explicit assumption that this theory is correct. However, eyespots might work simply by being highly salient stimuli that promote sensory overload, biases, or neo- phobic reactions in predators. A range of recent studies has aimed to test these alternatives. Here, we critically evaluate this work and what it tells us about the mechanisms underlying eyespot function. We conclude that although eye mimicry is plausible, there remains a lack of evidence to support it and most observations are at least equally consistent with alternative mechanisms. Finally we also discuss how the debate can be resolved展开更多
Purpose： Ocular trauma is one of the most common causes of acquired blindness in children. It measures about 8%-14% of total childhood injuries. This study aims to determine the epidemiological profile of ocular trau...Purpose： Ocular trauma is one of the most common causes of acquired blindness in children. It measures about 8%-14% of total childhood injuries. This study aims to determine the epidemiological profile of ocular trauma in the pediatric age group attending a tertiary hospital in northern India. Methods： A retrospective study was conducted in our hospital between June 2014 to July 2015 and all the children aged 0-16 years presenting with ocular trauma in eye outpatient department and emergency were enrolled in the study. Various epidemiological parameters like age, sex distribution, duration of presentation, mode of injury, type of injury and final visual outcome were analyzed. Results： Of total 357 patients, 271 （76%） were below the age of 12 years： 41.1% of children with ocular trauma belonged to age group 2-6 years. The male to female ratio was 2.9：1. Out of total patients, 242 （67.8%） presented with closed globe injury. Among the closed globe injury, the history of fall was present in about 35% of children, followed by trauma while playing with bat/ball （15.7%） and finger nail trauma （13.2%）. Among open globe injury, trauma with needle, knife, glass and pen were common causes. Home was the most common place of injury （47.8%）, followed by streets （17.9%） and playground （14.9%）. Conclusion： Children are vulnerable to ocular trauma and need more supervision. Sharp objects like needles, knives, household chemicals like acids should be out of reach of children.展开更多
Although males are generally less discriminating than females when it comes to choosing a mate, they still benefit from distinguishing between mates that are receptive to courtship and those that are not, in order to ...Although males are generally less discriminating than females when it comes to choosing a mate, they still benefit from distinguishing between mates that are receptive to courtship and those that are not, in order to avoid wasting time and ener- gy. It is known that males of Drosophila melanogaster are able to learn to associate olfactory and gustatory cues with female re- ceptivity, but the role of more arbitrary, visual cues in mate choice learning has been overlooked to date in this species. We there- fore carried out a series of experiments to determine： 1） whether males had a baseline preference for female eye color （red versus brown）, 2） if males could learn to associate an eye color cue with female receptivity, and 3） whether this association disappeared when the males were unable to use this visual cue in the dark. We found that naive males had no baseline preference for females of either eye color, but that males which were trained with sexually receptive females of a given eye color showed a preference for that color during a standard binary choice experiment. The learned cue was indeed likely to be truly visual, since the prefe- rence disappeared when the binary choice phase of the experiment was carried out in darkness.This is, to our knowledge l） the first evidence that male D. melanogaster can use more arbitrary cues and 2） the first evidence that males use visual cues during mate choice learning. Our findings suggest that that D. melanogaster has untapped potential as a model system for mate choice learning.展开更多
基金the National Science Museum,Tokyo 169-0073,JapanNNSF of China (No.40376042)Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No.Y2007D75)
文摘Observations were made on one eye from a Longman’s beaked whale Indopacetus pacificus, which was probably one of the least known extant cetaceans. The whale died shortly after swimming aground on the coast in the Nishikata Beach, Sendai-shi, Kagoshima-ken Prefecture, Japan, on July 26, 2002. It was a mature female with body length 6.45 m. This paper documented the basic structural characteristics of her visual organ of the whale in order to better understand this animal.
文摘This study presents the fact that the relationship between the white colonialists and the black indigenous population threw up a myriad of socio-political cross fertilization in Africa. The way and manner the Whites related with the Black people, the levels of reactions and response of the black population to the invading socio-political values and standards during the colonial era has been the subject of interesting writings in Africa. Of significance in this class of writing in Kenya is Ngugi Wa Thiong＇O＇s works. His profound sympathy with his people in their weaknesses, their poverty in the socio-political development in Kenya, and particularly his hatred of exploitation, cruelty, and injustice are noteworthy. It is the thrust of this work to critically look at the socio-political change in postcolonial Kenya through the literary eyes of Ngugi in his remarkable and compelling work, Petals of Blood （1977）, with a view to establish the contributions of the work to real socio-political development in Kenya through the approaches of textual criticism, interpretation, and post-colonial theory. Thus, the study examines the socio-political development in postcolonial Kenyan society, the lifestyle of people, and the relationships that exist among Kenyan citizens, especially between the rich and the poor, the government （ruling class）, and the governed （masses）. It also establishes the basis for the continued prevalence of the themes of violence, corruption, injustice, disillusionment, decadence, and disintegration in contemporary Kenyan literature, in spite of the transformation and change in the socio-political setting of the State.
文摘This research involves discovering the male western perspective toward the female oriental character Cleopatra the Queen of Egypt by comparing two literary works Antony ＆ Cleopatra by Shakespeare verses Caesar and Cleopatra by Bernard Shaw. Also this research gives a glimpse of the history of how Cleopatra was viewed from Roman point of view. The goal is to show how the western masculine frame of mind looked at the oriental femininity depicted by Cleopatra also; the research will discuss the way both authors displayed the oriental Queen of Egypt Cleopatra in their literary works. Cleopatra was presented as a mystery to all the male figures who wrote about her. In Caesar and Cleopatra, George Bernard Shaw uses his legendary wit to turn ancient history on its head--and to challenge Shakespeare＇s view of his two famous protagonists. Political drama meets sparkling comedy as veteran strategist Julius Caesar becomes mentor to the enchanting teenage queen of Roman-occupied Egypt. To conclude, Bernard Show portrayed the character of Caeser and Cleopatra unlike Shakespeare＇s weak representation of Julius Caeser
文摘Toni Morrison has a unique status in American literature. She is the winner of the National Book Critic Circle Award, the Pulitzer for Fiction and many other literary awards. She was granted the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993, thus becoming the first A^can-American writer to receive this honor. Her first novel The Bluest Eye （1970） tells the story of the bitter and tragic experience suffered by Pecola, a little black girl, and loss of black people＇s self-respect, confidence, value, and culture. The present paper, first of all, gives a brief introduction of the story Then the paper explores the root causes of Pecola＇s tragedy from two aspects： The cause of racial oppression and self-hatred, and the cause of the loss in her independent consciousness. The paper concludes that Pecola is the victim and scapegoat of racial oppression, self-hatred and the loss of her independent consciousness existing in the black community
文摘The diversity of anti-predator adaptations in the natural world has long been an active area of research in evolutionary and behavioural biology. A common visually-obvious feature found on prey are ＇eyespots＇, being approximately circular mark- ings often with concentric rings and conspicuous colours. These are found on a range of animals, especially adult and larval Lepidoptera and fish. One of the most widespread functions of eyespots seems to be to intimidate or startle predators： delaying, preventing or halting an attack. However, while the fact that they can influence predators in this way is tmcuntroversial, the mechanism（s） behind why they are effective is debated. Traditionally, they have been assumed to work by mimicking the eyes of the predator＇s own enemies, and much research in this field is conducted under the implicit or explicit assumption that this theory is correct. However, eyespots might work simply by being highly salient stimuli that promote sensory overload, biases, or neo- phobic reactions in predators. A range of recent studies has aimed to test these alternatives. Here, we critically evaluate this work and what it tells us about the mechanisms underlying eyespot function. We conclude that although eye mimicry is plausible, there remains a lack of evidence to support it and most observations are at least equally consistent with alternative mechanisms. Finally we also discuss how the debate can be resolved
文摘Purpose： Ocular trauma is one of the most common causes of acquired blindness in children. It measures about 8%-14% of total childhood injuries. This study aims to determine the epidemiological profile of ocular trauma in the pediatric age group attending a tertiary hospital in northern India. Methods： A retrospective study was conducted in our hospital between June 2014 to July 2015 and all the children aged 0-16 years presenting with ocular trauma in eye outpatient department and emergency were enrolled in the study. Various epidemiological parameters like age, sex distribution, duration of presentation, mode of injury, type of injury and final visual outcome were analyzed. Results： Of total 357 patients, 271 （76%） were below the age of 12 years： 41.1% of children with ocular trauma belonged to age group 2-6 years. The male to female ratio was 2.9：1. Out of total patients, 242 （67.8%） presented with closed globe injury. Among the closed globe injury, the history of fall was present in about 35% of children, followed by trauma while playing with bat/ball （15.7%） and finger nail trauma （13.2%）. Among open globe injury, trauma with needle, knife, glass and pen were common causes. Home was the most common place of injury （47.8%）, followed by streets （17.9%） and playground （14.9%）. Conclusion： Children are vulnerable to ocular trauma and need more supervision. Sharp objects like needles, knives, household chemicals like acids should be out of reach of children.
文摘Although males are generally less discriminating than females when it comes to choosing a mate, they still benefit from distinguishing between mates that are receptive to courtship and those that are not, in order to avoid wasting time and ener- gy. It is known that males of Drosophila melanogaster are able to learn to associate olfactory and gustatory cues with female re- ceptivity, but the role of more arbitrary, visual cues in mate choice learning has been overlooked to date in this species. We there- fore carried out a series of experiments to determine： 1） whether males had a baseline preference for female eye color （red versus brown）, 2） if males could learn to associate an eye color cue with female receptivity, and 3） whether this association disappeared when the males were unable to use this visual cue in the dark. We found that naive males had no baseline preference for females of either eye color, but that males which were trained with sexually receptive females of a given eye color showed a preference for that color during a standard binary choice experiment. The learned cue was indeed likely to be truly visual, since the prefe- rence disappeared when the binary choice phase of the experiment was carried out in darkness.This is, to our knowledge l） the first evidence that male D. melanogaster can use more arbitrary cues and 2） the first evidence that males use visual cues during mate choice learning. Our findings suggest that that D. melanogaster has untapped potential as a model system for mate choice learning.
