Northward migration of Afro-Siberian Knots Calidris canutus canutus : high variability in Red Knot numbers visiting staging sites on the French Atlantic coast, 1979–2009

The Afro–Siberian Red Knot subspecies, Calidris canutus canutus, winters mainly on Banc d’Arguin, Mauritania, West Africa. An International Wader Study Group project carried out in 1979 suggested that during northward migration Red Knots cover their migration between the wintering grounds and the Siberian breeding grounds in two long-distance non-stop flights, stopping only in the Wadden Sea in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Each year Red Knots also visit staging sites along the French Atlantic coast in addition to the German Wadden Sea. Ever since 1979, the French staging sites have been counted on a regular basis and here we present the count data from these 30 years. In some years more than 20% of the population used the French Atlantic coast as a staging site, but numbers are highly variable from one year to the next. We suggest that high numbers in France might occur when birds have to stop short of the Wadden Sea because of head-winds and/or a lack of tail-winds en route from West Africa.

After decolonization: Australia and the emergence of the non-aligned movement in Asia, 1954-55

This article is a study of the response of the Australian government under Robert Menzies to the emergence of the Afro-Asian movement in the mid-1950s, especially the element of the non-aligned nations, which culminated in the Bandung meeting of April 1955. Non-alignment and anti-colonialism posed direct threats to the Menzies government's plans for the defence of Southeast Asia and its foreign policy for the region. The study of the Australian response to the Bandung meeting reveals the different legacies which European imperialism left behind in Australia compared with its neighbours in south and east Asia.

Natural history of hepatitis B in perinatally infected carriers

Objectives: To establish natural seroconversion rates and incidence of hepatic pathology in perinatally infected hepatitis B carriers.

Methods: Seventy three perinatally infected hepatitis B carriers identified through maternal screening were evaluated. Fifty three were born to parents from the Indian subcontinent, nine were Oriental, six were Afro-Caribbean, and five were white. Median follow up was 10.24 (range 2.02–20.16) years.

Results: Only three of the children followed up had cleared hepatitis B surface antigen during this period, and 30% of the children had seroconverted to anti-HBe. Seroconversions to anti-HBe were observed in Asian (18/50) and white (4/5) children, but not in Oriental or Afro-Caribbean children. More girls (40%) than boys (23%) had seroconverted, but the difference was not significant. All children were asymptomatic with normal physical examination, growth, and development. Almost half (48%) of the hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positive children had normal hepatic transaminases and liver function. Thirty five liver biopsies were performed in children with active virus replication (HBeAg or hepatitis B virus DNA positive) who were being considered for antiviral treatment as part of a clinical trial and were scored using the Ishak method. Two thirds (62%) of the children had mild hepatitis, 60% had mild fibrosis, and 18% had moderate to severe fibrosis. There was a weak correlation between histological evidence of hepatitis and hepatic transaminase activity, implying that biochemical monitoring of hepatic disease activity may be ineffective.

Conclusions: These asymptomatic hepatitis B virus carrier children remain infectious in the medium to long term with notable liver pathology. They should receive antiviral treatment to reduce infectivity and to prevent further progression of liver disease. Hepatic transaminases alone are not a reliable marker of liver pathology, and liver histology is essential before consideration for antiviral treatment.

Sovereignty and resistance : India, China and the Asian-African Conference, 1955

This thesis examines the Asian-African Conference at Bandung, Indonesia in 1955 from a broad historical perspective. It presents evidence that the assertion of independent Asian foreign policy - non-aligned and communist led by India and China - signalled a more significant, long-term shift in West-East realtions than has been previously identified.

Fundacion Maquipucuna: an entrepreneurial Ecuadorian non-profit organisation

The purpose of this paper is to describe Fundacion Maquipucuna's community-based entrepreneurship activities. Fundacion Maquipucuna is a unique non-profit organisation in the Choco-Andes region of Ecuador. An ethnographic study and review of the literature is conducted to analyse the cacao, coffee, ecotourism and plastic thatch enterprises of Fundacion Maquipucuna. The enterprises Fundacion Maquipucuna is engaged in support the ongoing sustainability of the biodiverse ecological environment in the Choco-Andes region, which is one of the top five biodiverse hotspots in the world. On a global scale, more emphasis is being placed on promoting sustainability initiatives to preserve the environment. This paper discusses how a litre-government agency Fundacion Maquipucuna is changing from a non-profit to a for-profit structure in order to continue its community engagement projects. This paper integrates the social and community-based entrepreneurship literature to discuss how Fundacion Maquipucuna is engaging in innovative regional development that benefits the whole Choco-Andes community including the large Afro-Ecuadorian population.

Densities of individually marked migrants away from the marking site to estimate population sizes : a test with three wader populations

Capsule Population estimates based on the mark–resighting method can be a useful alternative to population-wide counts.

Aims To investigate whether the mark–resighting method can be used as an alternative to counts to estimate the size of wader populations.

Methods Individual colour-marking and subsequent resightings allowed accurate estimates of annual survival for three populations of waders, on which basis we could estimate the actual number of marked birds alive. Densities of marked birds were determined on sites away (2000–4300 km) from the ringing locations expecting marked birds to be randomly distributed among non-marked conspecifics. Population sizes are estimated by combining these densities with the number of marked birds alive.

Results We found indications that the distribution of marked birds was indeed random in the locations away from the site of marking. The estimated population size of Red Knot Calidris canutus canutus was in accordance with the most recent estimates based on counts. Our estimate of the Calidris c. islandica population was somewhat lower, and that of the Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica taymyrensis population was considerably lower than the latest estimates based on counts.

Conclusion Population estimates based on the mark–resighting method can be a useful alternative for, or addition to, population-wide counts, as long as the assumption of random distribution of marked birds at the reading sites is taken into account. We conclude that the Afro-Siberian Bar-tailed Godwit population has recently decreased in size or has been substantially overestimated during the counts.

‘Retrieving the Bandung Conference … moment by moment’

This review article discusses two publications: Bandung 1955: Little histories (2010) and Making a world after empire: The Bandung moment and its political afterlives (2010). It concludes that, though thesee two texts offer many prisms through which the conference might be understood, the history of the Bandung Conference remains somewhat fragmented.

A 'slow pace of life' in Australian old-endemic passerine birds is not accompanied by low basal metabolic rates

Life history theory suggests that species experiencing high extrinsic mortality rates allocate more resources toward reproduction relative to self-maintenance and reach maturity earlier ('fast pace of life') than those having greater life expectancy and reproducing at a lower rate ('slow pace of life'). Among birds, many studies have shown that tropical species have a slower pace of life than temperate-breeding species. The pace of life has been hypothesized to affect metabolism and, as predicted, tropical birds have lower basal metabolic rates (BMR) than temperate-breeding birds. However, many temperate-breeding Australian passerines belong to lineages that evolved in Australia and share 'slow' life-history traits that are typical of tropical birds. We obtained BMR from 30 of these 'old-endemics' and ten sympatric species of more recently arrived passerine lineages (derived from Afro-Asian origins or introduced by Europeans) with 'faster' life histories. The BMR of 'slow' temperate-breeding old-endemics was indistinguishable from that of new-arrivals and was not lower than the BMR of 'fast' temperate-breeding non-Australian passerines. Old-endemics had substantially smaller clutches and longer maximal life spans in the wild than new arrivals, but neither clutch size nor maximum life span was correlated with BMR. Our results suggest that low BMR in tropical birds is not functionally linked to their 'slow pace of life' and instead may be a consequence of differences in annual thermal conditions experienced by tropical versus temperate species.