Dating apps as digital flyovers: Mobile media and global intimacies in a postcolonial city

This chapter is about middle-class millennial Filipino women and their experiences of mediated global intimacies in the Philippines postcolonial capital of Manila. It focuses on their use of mobile technologies in exploring relationships with foreign men, and Westerners particularly. Drawing on an 18-month ethnographic research, this chapter sheds light on how the women use mobile apps to enact a distinct and temporary resolution to the challenges of experiencing global intimacies in a postcolonial city. Specifically, they construct what we call ‘digital flyovers’, that is, digital infrastructures borne out of dating apps and other mobile media that allow them to bypass what they think to be ‘uncosmopolitan’ Filipino men and to connect with foreign romantic prospects who share their own ‘globalised’ backgrounds and sensibilities. We show that, on one hand, these digital flyovers demonstrate how the women do have the privilege of accessing spaces conducive to cosmopolitan global intimacies, something that is elusive for most people in the Philippines. We also underscore, on the other hand, that these digital flyovers do nothing to change the ‘foundations’ of the society beneath them, which means that middle-class Manila’s distinct social dynamics continue to persist in their romantic and sexual lives

A 2500-yr late holocenemulti-proxy record of vegetation and hydrologic changes from a cave guano-clay sequence in SW Romania

We provide sedimentological, geochemical, mineral magnetic, stable carbon isotope, charcoal, and pollen-based evidence froma guano/clay sequence in Gaura cuMuscă Cave (SWRomania), fromwhichwe deduced that from ~1230 BC to ~AD 1240 climate oscillated betweenwet and dry. From ~1230 BC to AD 1000 the climate was wetter than the present, prompting flooding of the cave, preventing bats fromroosting, and resulting in a slowrate of clay accumulation. The second half of the MedievalWarm Period (MWP) was generally drier; the cave experienced occasional flash flooding in between which maternity bat roosts established in the cave. One extremely wet event occurred around AD 1170, when Fe/Mn and Ti/Zr ratios show the highest values coincident with a substantial increase of sediment load in the underground stream. The mineral magnetic characteristics for the second part of the MWP indicate the partial input of surface-sourced sediments reflecting agricultural development and forest clearance in the area. Pollen and microcharcoal studies confirm that the overall vegetation cover and human land use have not changed much in this region since the medieval times

Diasporic Encounters, Sacred Journeys: Ritual, Normativity and the Religious Imagination Among International Asian Migrant Women

This issue highlights recent ethnographic work that discloses migrant women’s creative engagements with the people and landscapes in the places they migrate to. We challenge a dominant view that construes women international migrants from Asia as docile bodies shaped and constrained by their transnational (re)productive labours. And we reject simplistic contemporary formulations of transnational migration that posit a singular, homogeneous ‘transnational social field’. Three key processes, relatively ignored and under theorised are interrogated: diaspora formation, ritual performance and changing normativities. A focus on diaspora encourages us to move beyond a political and economic analysis to consider cultural practices, continuities and discontinuities in migrants’ relationships with the people and places they travel to, as well as those left behind. A focus on ritual emphasises the significance of religious performance in the making of place and convivial sociality. A focus on normativity foregrounds the ways that people’s affective relationships are performatively reworked and transgressed within and across discrepant diasporic spaces

A Novel Lineage of Cile-Like Viruses Discloses the Phylogenetic Continuum Across the Family Kitaviridae

An increasing number of plant species have been recognized or considered likely reservoirs of viruses transmitted by Brevipalpus mites. A tiny fraction of these viruses, primarily those causing severe economic burden to prominent crops, have been fully characterized. In this study, based on high-throughput sequencing, transmission electron microscopy analyses of virions in plant-infected tissues, viral transmission experiments, and the morphoanatomical identification of the involved Brevipalpus mites, we describe molecular and biological features of viruses representing three new tentative species of the family Kitaviridae. The genomes of Solanum violifolium ringspot virus (SvRSV, previously partially characterized), Ligustrum chlorotic spot virus (LigCSV), and Ligustrum leprosis virus (LigLV) have five open reading frames (ORFs) &amp;gt; 500 nts, two distributed in RNA1 and three in RNA2. RNA1 of these three viruses display the same genomic organization found in RNA1 of typical cileviruses, while their RNA2 are shorter, possessing only orthologs of genes p61, p32, and p24. LigCSV and LigLV are more closely related to each other than to SvRSV, but the identities between their genomic RNAs were lower than 70%. In gene-by-gene comparisons, ORFs from LigCSV and LigLV had the highest sequence identity values (nt sequences: 70–76% and deduced amino acid sequences: 74–83%). The next higher identity values were with ORFs from typical cileviruses, with values below 66%. Virions of LigLV (≈ 40 nm × 55 nm) and LigCSV (≈ 54 nm × 66 nm) appear almost spherical, contrasting with the bacilliform shape of SvRSV virions (≈ 47 nm × 101 nm). Mites collected from the virus-infected plants were identified as Brevipalpus papayensis, B. tucuman, and B. obovatus. Viruliferous B. papayensis mites successfully transmitted LigCSV to Arabidopsis thaliana. SvRSV, LigCSV, and LigLV seem to represent novel sub-lineages of kitaviruses that descent on parallel evolutionary branches from a common ancestor shared with the tentative cile-like virus hibiscus yellow blotch virus and typical cileviruses. Biological and molecular data, notably, the phylogenetic reconstruction based on the RdRp proteins in which strong support for monophyly of the family Kitaviridae is observed, mark an advance in the understanding of kitavirids.</jats:p

Data_Sheet_1_A Novel Lineage of Cile-Like Viruses Discloses the Phylogenetic Continuum Across the Family Kitaviridae.PDF

An increasing number of plant species have been recognized or considered likely reservoirs of viruses transmitted by Brevipalpus mites. A tiny fraction of these viruses, primarily those causing severe economic burden to prominent crops, have been fully characterized. In this study, based on high-throughput sequencing, transmission electron microscopy analyses of virions in plant-infected tissues, viral transmission experiments, and the morphoanatomical identification of the involved Brevipalpus mites, we describe molecular and biological features of viruses representing three new tentative species of the family Kitaviridae. The genomes of Solanum violifolium ringspot virus (SvRSV, previously partially characterized), Ligustrum chlorotic spot virus (LigCSV), and Ligustrum leprosis virus (LigLV) have five open reading frames (ORFs) > 500 nts, two distributed in RNA1 and three in RNA2. RNA1 of these three viruses display the same genomic organization found in RNA1 of typical cileviruses, while their RNA2 are shorter, possessing only orthologs of genes p61, p32, and p24. LigCSV and LigLV are more closely related to each other than to SvRSV, but the identities between their genomic RNAs were lower than 70%. In gene-by-gene comparisons, ORFs from LigCSV and LigLV had the highest sequence identity values (nt sequences: 70–76% and deduced amino acid sequences: 74–83%). The next higher identity values were with ORFs from typical cileviruses, with values below 66%. Virions of LigLV (≈ 40 nm × 55 nm) and LigCSV (≈ 54 nm × 66 nm) appear almost spherical, contrasting with the bacilliform shape of SvRSV virions (≈ 47 nm × 101 nm). Mites collected from the virus-infected plants were identified as Brevipalpus papayensis, B. tucuman, and B. obovatus. Viruliferous B. papayensis mites successfully transmitted LigCSV to Arabidopsis thaliana. SvRSV, LigCSV, and LigLV seem to represent novel sub-lineages of kitaviruses that descent on parallel evolutionary branches from a common ancestor shared with the tentative cile-like virus hibiscus yellow blotch virus and typical cileviruses. Biological and molecular data, notably, the phylogenetic reconstruction based on the RdRp proteins in which strong support for monophyly of the family Kitaviridae is observed, mark an advance in the understanding of kitavirids.</p

Data_Sheet_2_A Novel Lineage of Cile-Like Viruses Discloses the Phylogenetic Continuum Across the Family Kitaviridae.PDF

An increasing number of plant species have been recognized or considered likely reservoirs of viruses transmitted by Brevipalpus mites. A tiny fraction of these viruses, primarily those causing severe economic burden to prominent crops, have been fully characterized. In this study, based on high-throughput sequencing, transmission electron microscopy analyses of virions in plant-infected tissues, viral transmission experiments, and the morphoanatomical identification of the involved Brevipalpus mites, we describe molecular and biological features of viruses representing three new tentative species of the family Kitaviridae. The genomes of Solanum violifolium ringspot virus (SvRSV, previously partially characterized), Ligustrum chlorotic spot virus (LigCSV), and Ligustrum leprosis virus (LigLV) have five open reading frames (ORFs) > 500 nts, two distributed in RNA1 and three in RNA2. RNA1 of these three viruses display the same genomic organization found in RNA1 of typical cileviruses, while their RNA2 are shorter, possessing only orthologs of genes p61, p32, and p24. LigCSV and LigLV are more closely related to each other than to SvRSV, but the identities between their genomic RNAs were lower than 70%. In gene-by-gene comparisons, ORFs from LigCSV and LigLV had the highest sequence identity values (nt sequences: 70–76% and deduced amino acid sequences: 74–83%). The next higher identity values were with ORFs from typical cileviruses, with values below 66%. Virions of LigLV (≈ 40 nm × 55 nm) and LigCSV (≈ 54 nm × 66 nm) appear almost spherical, contrasting with the bacilliform shape of SvRSV virions (≈ 47 nm × 101 nm). Mites collected from the virus-infected plants were identified as Brevipalpus papayensis, B. tucuman, and B. obovatus. Viruliferous B. papayensis mites successfully transmitted LigCSV to Arabidopsis thaliana. SvRSV, LigCSV, and LigLV seem to represent novel sub-lineages of kitaviruses that descent on parallel evolutionary branches from a common ancestor shared with the tentative cile-like virus hibiscus yellow blotch virus and typical cileviruses. Biological and molecular data, notably, the phylogenetic reconstruction based on the RdRp proteins in which strong support for monophyly of the family Kitaviridae is observed, mark an advance in the understanding of kitavirids.</p

Data_Sheet_3_A Novel Lineage of Cile-Like Viruses Discloses the Phylogenetic Continuum Across the Family Kitaviridae.docx

An increasing number of plant species have been recognized or considered likely reservoirs of viruses transmitted by Brevipalpus mites. A tiny fraction of these viruses, primarily those causing severe economic burden to prominent crops, have been fully characterized. In this study, based on high-throughput sequencing, transmission electron microscopy analyses of virions in plant-infected tissues, viral transmission experiments, and the morphoanatomical identification of the involved Brevipalpus mites, we describe molecular and biological features of viruses representing three new tentative species of the family Kitaviridae. The genomes of Solanum violifolium ringspot virus (SvRSV, previously partially characterized), Ligustrum chlorotic spot virus (LigCSV), and Ligustrum leprosis virus (LigLV) have five open reading frames (ORFs) > 500 nts, two distributed in RNA1 and three in RNA2. RNA1 of these three viruses display the same genomic organization found in RNA1 of typical cileviruses, while their RNA2 are shorter, possessing only orthologs of genes p61, p32, and p24. LigCSV and LigLV are more closely related to each other than to SvRSV, but the identities between their genomic RNAs were lower than 70%. In gene-by-gene comparisons, ORFs from LigCSV and LigLV had the highest sequence identity values (nt sequences: 70–76% and deduced amino acid sequences: 74–83%). The next higher identity values were with ORFs from typical cileviruses, with values below 66%. Virions of LigLV (≈ 40 nm × 55 nm) and LigCSV (≈ 54 nm × 66 nm) appear almost spherical, contrasting with the bacilliform shape of SvRSV virions (≈ 47 nm × 101 nm). Mites collected from the virus-infected plants were identified as Brevipalpus papayensis, B. tucuman, and B. obovatus. Viruliferous B. papayensis mites successfully transmitted LigCSV to Arabidopsis thaliana. SvRSV, LigCSV, and LigLV seem to represent novel sub-lineages of kitaviruses that descent on parallel evolutionary branches from a common ancestor shared with the tentative cile-like virus hibiscus yellow blotch virus and typical cileviruses. Biological and molecular data, notably, the phylogenetic reconstruction based on the RdRp proteins in which strong support for monophyly of the family Kitaviridae is observed, mark an advance in the understanding of kitavirids.</p