Worldwide occurrence of feline hemoplasma infections in wild felid species

While hemoplasma infections in domestic cats are well studied, almost no information is available on their occurrence in wild felids. The aims of the present study were to investigate wild felid species as possible reservoirs of feline hemoplasmas and the molecular characterization of the hemoplasma isolates. Blood samples from the following 257 wild felids were analyzed: 35 Iberian lynxes from Spain, 36 Eurasian lynxes from Switzerland, 31 European wildcats from France, 45 lions from Tanzania, and 110 Brazilian wild felids, including 12 wild felid species kept in zoos and one free-ranging ocelot. Using real-time PCR, feline hemoplasmas were detected in samples of the following species: Iberian lynx, Eurasian lynx, European wildcat, lion, puma, oncilla, Geoffroy's cat, margay, and ocelot. "Candidatus Mycoplasma haemominutum" was the most common feline hemoplasma in Iberian lynxes, Eurasian lynxes, Serengeti lions, and Brazilian wild felids, whereas "Candidatus Mycoplasma turicensis" was the most prevalent in European wildcats; hemoplasma coinfections were frequently observed. Hemoplasma infection was associated with species and free-ranging status of the felids in all animals and with feline leukemia virus provirus-positive status in European wildcats. Phylogenetic analyses of the 16S rRNA and the partial RNase P gene revealed that most hemoplasma isolates exhibit high sequence identities to domestic cat-derived isolates, although some isolates form different subclusters within the phylogenetic tree. In conclusion, 9 out of 15 wild felid species from three different continents were found to be infected with feline hemoplasmas. The effect of feline hemoplasma infections on wild felid populations needs to be further investigated.

Identification of Francisella tularensis cluster in central and western Europe

We conducted a molecular analysis of Francisella tularensis strains isolated in Switzerland and identified a specific subpopulation belonging to a cluster of F. tularensis subsp. holarctica that is widely dispersed in central and western continental Europe. This subpopulation was present before the tularemia epidemics on the Iberian Peninsula.

New data on the Lateglacial period of SW Europe: a high resolution multiproxy record from Laguna de la Roya (NW Iberia)

High-resolution multiproxy analyses were performed on a 128 cm section of organic sediments accumulated in a small mountain lake in NW Iberia (Laguna de la Roya, 1608 m asl). The pollen stratigraphy together with radiocarbon dating provided the basis for a chronology ranging from 15,600 to 10,500 cal yr BP. Chironomid-inferred July air temperatures suggest a temperature range from 7 to 13 degrees C, also evidencing two well-established cold periods which may be equivalent to the INTIMATE stages GS-2a and GS-1. Furthermore, a number of short cold events (with summer temperatures dropping about 0.5-1 degrees C) appear intercalated within the Lateglacial Interstadial (possibly equivalent to the INTIMATE cold events GI-1d, GI-1c2 and GI-1b) and the early Holocene (possibly equivalent to the 11.2 k event). The temperature variations predicted by our reconstruction allow explaining the changes in local conditions and productivity of the lake inferred from the biological record of the same sediment core. Furthermore, they also agree with the local and regional vegetation dynamics, and the main oscillations deduced for the vegetation belts. Based on its chronology our multiproxy record indicates a similar temperature development in NW Iberia as inferred by the Greenland delta O-18 record, the marine deep-sea records off the Atlantic Iberian Margin, and other chironomid-based Lateglacial temperature reconstructions from Europe. Nevertheless, the impact of most of the less intense Lateglacial/early Holocene cold events in NW Iberia was most probably limited to very sensitive sites that were very close to ecotonal situations. Particularly, our new pollen record indicates that they were represented as three minor environmental crises occurring during the Lateglacial Interestadial in this area. The Older Dryas event (in our usage corresponding to the Aegelsee Oscillation in Central Europe and event GI-1d in central Greenland) has previously been described in this region, but its age and duration (ca 14,250-14050 cal yr BP) is now better constrained. The two subsequent stages, La Roya I (ca 13,600-13,400 cal yr BP) and La Roya II (ca 13,300-12,900 cal yr BP) have been described for first time in NW Iberia. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Splitting of a prevalent Mycobacterium bovis spoligotype by variable-number tandem-repeat typing reveals high heterogeneity in an evolving clonal group

Mycobacterium bovis populations in countries with persistent bovine tuberculosis usually show a prevalent spoligotype with a wide geographical distribution. This study applied mycobacterial interspersed repetitive-unit-variable-number tandem-repeat (MIRU-VNTR) typing to a random panel of 115 M. bovis isolates that are representative of the most frequent spoligotype in the Iberian Peninsula, SB0121. VNTR typing targeted nine loci: ETR-A (alias VNTR2165), ETR-B (VNTR2461), ETR-D (MIRU4, VNTR580), ETR-E (MIRU31, VNTR3192), MIRU26 (VNTR2996), QUB11a (VNTR2163a), QUB11b (VNTR2163b), QUB26 (VNTR4052), and QUB3232 (VNTR3232). We found a high degree of diversity among the studied isolates (discriminatory index [D] = 0.9856), which were split into 65 different MIRU-VNTR types. An alternative short-format MIRU-VNTR typing targeting only the four loci with the highest variability values was found to offer an equivalent discriminatory index. Minimum spanning trees using the MIRU-VNTR data showed the hypothetical evolution of an apparent clonal group. MIRU-VNTR analysis was also applied to the isolates of 176 animals from 15 farms infected by M. bovis SB0121; in 10 farms, the analysis revealed the coexistence of two to five different MIRU types differing in one to six loci, which highlights the frequency of undetected heterogeneity.

Die Odyssee der Pygmäen. Eine prekäre Figur auf den neuzeitlichen Spieltischen anthropologischer Differenz

Due to the impacts of postcolonialism, social and cultural anthropology has been dealing intensively with the possibilities and limits of representing "other” human beings and their meaningful worlds. Scholars such as George Marcus, James Clifford or Clifford Geertz have discussed ways of improving anthropological methods of representation without, however, fully raising questions about the quality and validity of the objects represented and the very idea, that they could be “represented”. Thus, despite attempts to purify classical anthropological categories, substantialized presences (“Humans”, “Others”, “Pygmies” etc.), various forms of binary oppositions (us–them, culture–nature, human–animal) as well as certain epistemological modes/ logoi (representation, interpretation) have been rehearsed until today. The research aims to dissect and challenge the metaphysical outputs of the “anthropological machine” (Giorgio Agamben). I intended to solve these from their apparent familiarity as representable identities or differences in order to investigate their genealogy. In Derrida’s and Foucault’s understanding, genealogy becomes manifest mainly in the “blind spots” (Derrida) or “anomalies” (Foucault) between differences, at the borders of identities. As an analytical guideline, the research uses on one concrete metonym for the Derridean blind spot, one incorporation of a Foucauldian Other, namely pygmy narratives within early modern and 19th century imaginings. “Pygmies” have been part of both Western mythology and anthropological reflection since the antiquity and finally became “ethnographical facts” within an evolutionary anthropology in the 19th century during the European exploration of Africa. Throughout this veritable Odyssey, they were mostly precarious “category-jammers” (Timothy Beal), occupying the impossible middle grounds within (proto)anthropological classification. Thus, along with the early modern wild men, enfants sauvages or the apes of proto-primatology, the pygmies of the Homeric myth, as a catalyst for the negotiation of categories, played a decisive role in early modern and 19th century conceptions of the human. Through the precarious Pygmies, concrete socio-historical materializations of Identities (human, European), differences (human–animal etc.), as well as the accompanying logoi which vindicate these as pseudo-entities, appear evident. The research aims to read and write the history of early modern and 19th Century anthropology through one of its many classificatory constituting Others. It thus contributes to a discipline that for a long time has examined concrete systems of knowledge and the genealogy of classification in general. One might call it an “anthropologization” of anthropology.

Anmerkungen zu den (spät)persischen Samaria-Bullen aus dem Wadi ed-Dalije. Hellenisches, Persisches und Lokaltraditionen im Grenzgebiet der Provinz Jehud

The present article deals exemplarily with the remarkable iconographic attestations connected with the Wadi ed-Daliye (WD) findings. The discussed bullae were attached to papyri which provide a clear dating of the hoard between 375-335 BCE. Considering style and convention the preserved motives are to be classified as Persian, Greek or Greco-Persian. A major goal of the following presentation is the contextualization of the very material; this is achieved by taking into account local parallels as well as relevant attestations of the dominant / “imperial” cultures of Persia and Greece. The correlation of motives with the (often more complex, more detailed or more contoured) examples stemming from the “source-cultures” follows a clear agenda: It is methodologically based on the approach that was employed by Silvia Schroer and Othmar Keel throughout the project „Die Ikonographie Palästinas/Israels und der Alte Orient (IPIAO). Eine Religionsgeschichte in Bildern” (2005, 23ff). The WD-findings demand a careful analysis since the influencing cultures behind the imagery are deeply rooted in the field of Greek mythology and iconography. Special attention has to be drawn to the bullae, as far as excavated, from a huge Punic temple archive of Carthago (Berges 1997 and 2002) as well as those from the archive of the satrap seat in Daskyleion in the Northwest of Asia Minor (Kaptan 2002), which are chronologically close (end 5th and 4th century BCE) to the WD-finds. Not each and every single motive and artifact of the WD-corpus comprising more than 120 items can be dealt with in detail throughout the following pages. We refer to the editio princeps by Leith (1990, 1997) respectively to the concerning chapter in Keel’s Corpus volume II (Keel 2010, 340-379). The article gives a brief history of research (2.), some basic remarks on the development of style (3.) and a selection of detail-studies (4.). A crosscheck with other relevant corpora of stamp-seals (5.) as well as a compressed synthesis (6.) are contributions in order to characterize and classify the unique iconographic assemblage. There are rather few references to the late Persian coins from Samaria (Meshorer/Qedar 1999), which have been impressed about contemporaneous with the WD-bullae (372-333 BCE), as there is an article by Patrick Wyssmann in this volume about that specific corpus. Through the perspective of the late Persian iconography, Samaria appears as a dazzling metropolis at the crossroads of Greek and Persian culture, which is far away from a strict and revolutionary religious orthodoxy

Declining pine growth in Central Spain coincides with increasing diurnal temperature range since the 1970s

Growing evidence suggests environmental change to be most severe across the semi-arid subtropics, with past, present and projected drying of the Mediterranean Basin posing a key multidisciplinary challenge. Consideration of a single climatic factor, however, often fails to explain spatiotemporal growth dynamics of drought-prone ecosystems. Here, we present annually resolved and absolutely dated ring width measurements of 871 Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris) from 18 individual plot sites in the Central Spanish Pinar Grande forest reserve. Although comprising tree ages from 6 to 175 years, this network correlates surprisingly well with the inverse May–July diurnal temperature range (r = 0.84; p < 0.00011956–2011). Ring width extremes were triggered by pressure anomalies of the North Atlantic Oscillation, and the long-term growth decline coincided with Iberian-wide drying since the mid-1970s. Climate model simulations not only confirm this negative trend over the last decades but also project drought to continuously increase over the 21st century. Associated ecological effects and socio-economic consequences should be considered to improve adaptation strategies of agricultural and forest management, as well as biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service.

Local formation of varved sediments in a karstic collapse depression of Lake Banyoles (NE Spain)

Banyoles is the largest and deepest lake of karstic-tectonic origin in the Iberian Peninsula. The lake comprises several circular sub-basins characteri- zed by different oxygenation conditions at their hypolimnions. The multiproxy analysis of a > 5 m long sediment core combined with high resolution seis- mic stratigraphy (3.5 kHz pinger and multi-frequency Chirp surveys), allow a precise reconstruction of the evolution of a karstic depression (named B3) until present times. Local meromictic conditions in this sub-basin have been conducive to deposition and preservation of ca. 85 cm of varved sediments since the late 19th century. The onset of these conditions is likely related to lake waters eutrophication caused by increasing farming activities in the wa- tershed. Increasing clastic input and organic productivity during the second half of the 20th century have also been recorded within the laminated sedi- ments, revealing an intensification of human impact and warmer water tem- peratures.

Climate sensitivity of Mediterranean pine growth reveals distinct east-west dipole

The European Mediterranean region is governed by a characteristic climate of summer drought that is likely to increase in duration and intensity under predicted climate change. However, large-scale network analyses investigating spatial aspects of pre-instrumental drought variability for this biogeographic zone are still scarce. In this study we introduce 54 mid- to high-elevation tree-ring width (TRW) chronologies comprising 2186 individual series from pine trees (Pinus spp.). This compilation spans a 4000-km east–west transect from Spain to Turkey, and was subjected to quality control and standardization prior to the development of site chronologies. A principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to identify spatial growth patterns during the network's common period 1862–1976, and new composite TRW chronologies were developed and investigated. The PCA reveals a common variance of 19.7% over the 54 Mediterranean pine chronologies. More interestingly, a dipole pattern in growth variability is found between the western (15% explained variance) and eastern (9.6%) sites, persisting back to 1330 AD. Pine growth on the Iberian Peninsula and Italy favours warm early growing seasons, but summer drought is most critical for ring width formation in the eastern Mediterranean region. Synoptic climate dynamics that have been in operation for the last seven centuries have been identified as the driving mechanism of a distinct east–west dipole in the growth variability of Mediterranean pines.

Pinus nigra (European black pine) as the dominant species of the last glacial pinewoods in south-western to central Iberia: a morphological study of modern and fossil pollen

Aim Our aim was to discriminate different species of Pinus via pollen analysis in order to assess the responses of particular pine species to orbital and millennial-scale climate changes, particularly during the last glacial period. Location Modern pollen grains were collected from current pine populations along transects from the Pyrenees to southern Iberia and the Balearic Islands. Fossil pine pollen was recovered from the south-western Iberian margin core MD95-2042. Methods We measured a set of morphological traits of modern pollen from the Iberian pine species Pinus nigra, P. sylvestris, P. halepensis, P. pinea and P. pinaster and of fossil pine pollen from selected samples of the last glacial period and the early to mid-Holocene. Classification and regression tree (CART) analysis was used to establish a model from the modern dataset that discriminates pollen from the different pine species and allows identification of fossil pine pollen at the species level. Results The CART model was effective in separating pollen of P. nigra and P. sylvestris from that of the Mediterranean pine group (P. halepensis, P. pinea and P. pinaster). The pollen of Pinus nigra diverged from that of P. sylvestris by having a more flattened corpus. Predictions using this model suggested that fossil pine pollen is mainly from P. nigra in all the samples analysed. Pinus sylvestris was more abundant in samples from Greenland stadials than Heinrich stadials, whereas Mediterranean pines increased in samples from Greenland interstadials and during the early to mid-Holocene. Main conclusions Morphological parameters can be successfully used to increase the taxonomic resolution of fossil pine pollen at the species level for the highland pines (P. nigra and P. sylvestris) and at the group of species level for the Mediterranean pines. Our study indicates that P. nigra was the dominant component of the last glacial south-western/central Iberian pinewoods, although the species composition of these woodlands varied in response to abrupt climate changes.

The Almost Person: Myth, Narrative and The Doctor

Paul Ricœur describes selfhood as the product of a communal narrative. Communal narratives structured as symbolic myths provide a narrative identity and an ethic of selfhood. The psychologist Jerome Bruner, for instance, places the source of such a narrative identity in the family, where ‘canonical stories’ are formed. ‘Home’ becomes a mode of discourse, a way of recognizing ourselves in the narratives given to us by others. This paper will draw on these concepts of narrative identity in order to investigate the problems to selfhood which face the character of The Doctor in the BBC series Doctor Who. I will identify The Doctor as a character who acts within a self-constructed narrative vacuum, reading the character by contrasting two types of personal myth-making, one ‘real’, as in a lived narrative, and one ‘counterfeit’; a conjured myth to replace and obscure the lived self. The paper will pay particular attention to the twenty-first century reincarnations of Doctor Who. I will argue that the writing of Russell T. Davis and later Steven Moffat in particular directly address this tension of myth and selfhood, as The Doctor struggles between his self-imposed role as a modern Prometheus and the insistent haunting and return of his own story. In these incarnations, his companions become mirrors to The Doctor, bringing with them their own narrative and ethical identities. In turn, it is through his companions that The Doctor is able to build his own lived narrative of sorts, which challenges his self-created ‘mythology’. In contrast to the weeping angels, whose horrific agency manifests only when not apprehended, the Doctor’s story continues to become more real the more he is ‘perceived’, both by the human race and by the viewer.

Prometheus on Mars: Nineteenth-Century Science Fiction and the Language of Romanticism

The development of astrophysics in the nineteenth century drew mankind closer to the planets. For the first time, it was possible to give serious scientific consideration to the possibilities for life on other planets. The greatest leap, however, was in recognizing what was not known, and acknowledging the limits of human intuition. ‘Ideas,’ wrote Agnes M. Clerke, ‘have all at once become plastic’. As the scientific community tested the limits of scientific understanding, it became the role of science-fiction writers to imagine the universe beyond these limits. This paper will examine the ways in which nineteenth-century science fiction used the inheritance of the poetic language of Romanticism to reinstate the centrality of human being in the universe. I will explore the ways in which writers such as Edward Bulwer-Lytton (The Coming Race, 1871) and W. S. Lach-Szyrma (Aleriel, 1883) extended the Byronic hero to envisage extra-terrestrial utopias. The Hegelian systematic mythology described by Byron and Shelley had reimagined paradise and redemption on earth. Through science fiction, this mythology extended out towards the stars. A discourse on the possibilities of extra-terrestrial life became a Romantic discourse on the possibilities of being. The Byronic hero could now find a home not by escaping the shackles of religion, but as an angelic citizen of Venus or Mars. In this way, the paper will explore how science-fiction writers appropriated the language of Romantic poetry to build a bridge between the framework of scientific knowledge and the extent of human imagination.

Study of mineral dust entrainment in the planetary boundary layer by lidar depolarisation technique

Measurements on 27 June 2011 were performed over the Southern Iberian Peninsula at Granada EARLINET station, using active and passive remote sensing and airborne and surface in-situ data in order to study the entrainment processes between aerosols in the free troposphere and those in the planetary boundary layer (PBL). To this aim the temporal evolution of the lidar depolarisation, backscatter-related Angström exponent and potential temperature profiles were used in combination with the PBL contribution to the aerosol optical depth (AOD). Our results show that the mineral dust entrainment in the PBL was caused by the convective processes which ‘trapped’ the lofted mineral dust layer, distributing the mineral dust particles within the PBL. The temporal evolution of ground-based in-situ data evidenced the impact of this process at surface level. Finally, the amount of mineral dust in the atmospheric column available to be dispersed into the PBL was estimated by means of POLIPHON (Polarizing Lidar Photometer Networking). The dust mass concentration derived from POLIPHON was compared with the coarse-mode mass concentration retrieved with airborne in-situ measurements. Comparison shows differences below 50 µg/m³ (30% relative difference) indicating a relative good agreement between both techniques.

Future water quality monitoring--adapting tools to deal with mixtures of pollutants in water resource management.

Environmental quality monitoring of water resources is challenged with providing the basis for safeguarding the environment against adverse biological effects of anthropogenic chemical contamination from diffuse and point sources. While current regulatory efforts focus on monitoring and assessing a few legacy chemicals, many more anthropogenic chemicals can be detected simultaneously in our aquatic resources. However, exposure to chemical mixtures does not necessarily translate into adverse biological effects nor clearly shows whether mitigation measures are needed. Thus, the question which mixtures are present and which have associated combined effects becomes central for defining adequate monitoring and assessment strategies. Here we describe the vision of the international, EU-funded project SOLUTIONS, where three routes are explored to link the occurrence of chemical mixtures at specific sites to the assessment of adverse biological combination effects. First of all, multi-residue target and non-target screening techniques covering a broader range of anticipated chemicals co-occurring in the environment are being developed. By improving sensitivity and detection limits for known bioactive compounds of concern, new analytical chemistry data for multiple components can be obtained and used to characterise priority mixtures. This information on chemical occurrence will be used to predict mixture toxicity and to derive combined effect estimates suitable for advancing environmental quality standards. Secondly, bioanalytical tools will be explored to provide aggregate bioactivity measures integrating all components that produce common (adverse) outcomes even for mixtures of varying compositions. The ambition is to provide comprehensive arrays of effect-based tools and trait-based field observations that link multiple chemical exposures to various environmental protection goals more directly and to provide improved in situ observations for impact assessment of mixtures. Thirdly, effect-directed analysis (EDA) will be applied to identify major drivers of mixture toxicity. Refinements of EDA include the use of statistical approaches with monitoring information for guidance of experimental EDA studies. These three approaches will be explored using case studies at the Danube and Rhine river basins as well as rivers of the Iberian Peninsula. The synthesis of findings will be organised to provide guidance for future solution-oriented environmental monitoring and explore more systematic ways to assess mixture exposures and combination effects in future water quality monitoring.