Distribution and variability of deformed wing virus of honeybees (Apis mellifera) in the Middle East and North Africa.

Three hundred eleven honeybee samples from twelve countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, Palestine and Sudan) were analyzed for the presence of deformed wing virus (DWV). The prevalence of DWV throughout the MENA region was pervasive, but variable. The highest prevalence was found in Lebanon and Syria, with prevalence dropping in Palestine, Jordan and Egypt before increasing slightly moving westwards to Algeria and Morocco Phylogenetic analysis of a 194 nucleotide section of the DWV Lp gene did not identify any significant phylogenetic resolution among the samples, although the sequences did show consistent regional clustering, including an interesting geographic gradient from Morocco through North Africa to Jordan and Syria. The sequences revealed several clear variability hotspots in the deduced amino acid sequence, that furthermore showed some patterns of regional identity. Furthermore, the sequence variants from the Middle East and North Africa appear more numerous and diverse than those from Europe. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Spatial analysis of water body distance and West Nile Virus human cases in Houston, TX

West Nile Virus (WNV) is an arboviral disease that has affected hundreds of residents in Harris County, Texas since its introduction in 2002. Persistent infection, lingering sequelae and other long-term symptoms of patients reaffirm the need for prevention of this important vector-borne disease. This study aimed to determine if living within 400m of a water body increases one’s odds of infection with WNV. Additionally, we wanted to determine if one’s proximity to a particular water type or water body source increased one’s odds of infection with WNV.^ 145 cases’ addresses were abstracted from the initial interview and consent records from a cohort of patients (Epidemiology of Arboviral Encephalitis in Houston study, HSC-SPH-03-039). After applying inclusion criteria, 140 cases were identified for analysis. 140 controls were selected for analysis using a population proportionate to size model and US Census Bureau data. MapMarker USA v14 was used to geocode the cases’ addresses. Both cases’ and controls’ coordinates were uploaded onto a Harris County water shapefile in MapInfo Professional v9.5.1. Distance in meters to the closest water source, closest water source type, and closest water source name were recorded.^ Analysis of Variance (p=0.329, R2 = 0.0034) indicated no association between water body distance and risk of WNV disease. Living near a creek (x2 = 11.79, p < 0.001), or the combined group of creek and gully (x 2 = 14.02, p < 0.001) were found to be strongly associated with infection of WNV. Living near Cypress Creek and its feeders (x2 = 15.2, p < 0.001) was found to be strongly associated with WNV infection. We found that creek and gully habitats, particularly Cypress Creek, were preferential for the local disease transmitting Culex quinquefasciatus and reservoir avian population.^

Age model and Plio-Pleistocene benthic stable oxygen isotope ratios of ODP Site 184-1143 in the Sourh China Sea

Based on benthic foraminiferal delta18O from ODP Site 1143, a 5-Myr astronomical timescale for the West Pacific Plio-Pleistocene was established using an automatic orbital tuning method. The tuned Brunhes/Matuyama paleomagnetic polarity reversal age agrees well with the previously published age of 0.78 Ma. The tuned ages for several planktonic foraminifer bio-events also agree well with published dates, and new ages for some other bio-events in the South China Sea were also estimated. The benthic delta18O from Site 1143 is highly coherent with the Earth's orbit (ETP) both at the obliquity and precession bands for the last 5 Myr, and at the eccentricity band for the last 2 Myr. In general, the 41-kyr cycle was dominant through the Plio-Pleistocene although the 23-kyr cycle was also very strong. The 100-kyr cycle became dominant only during the last 1 Myr. A comparison of the benthic delta18O between the Atlantic (ODP 659) and the East and West Pacific (846 and 1143) reveals that the Atlantic-Pacific benthic oxygen isotope difference ratio (Delta delta18OAtl-Pac) displays an increasing trend in three time intervals: 3.6-2.7 Ma, 2.7-2.1 Ma and 1.5-0.25 Ma. Each of the intervals begins with a rapid negative shift in Delta delta18OAtl-Pac, followed by a long period with an increasing trend, corresponding to the growth of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheet. This means that all three intervals of ice sheet growth in the Northern Hemisphere were accompanied at the beginning by a rapid relative warming of deep water in the Atlantic as compared to that of the Pacific, followed by its gradual relative cooling. This general trend, superimposed on the frequent fluctuations with glacial cycles, should yield insights into the processes leading to the boreal glaciation. Cross-spectral analyses of the Delta delta18OAtl-Pac with the Earth's orbit suggests that after the initiation of Northern Hemisphere glaciation at about 2.5 Ma, obliquity rather than precession had become the dominant force controlling the vertical structure or thermohaline circulation in the paleo-ocean.

Grain-size and bulk and clay mineralogy of ODP Leg 204 sediments

We present grain size, granulometric statistical parameters, and calcium carbonate content of sediment samples from the summit and east and west flanks of southern Hydrate Ridge (Sites 1244-1250). These data are compared with magnetic susceptibility measurements from the same intervals. Bulk and clay mineralogy from Sites 1244 (east flank), 1247 (west flank), and 1250 (summit) are also presented. The integration of these data allows us to characterize the main sedimentary facies and composition of the Quaternary age sediments from southern Hydrate Ridge.

(Table T1) Nd and Sr isotopic compositions, and Nd and Sm concentrations of glasses from ODP Leg 187 sites

The principal objective of Leg 187 was to locate the Indian/Pacific mantle boundary by sampling and analyzing 8- to 28-Ma seafloor basalts to the north of the Australian Antarctic Discordance (AAD). In this paper we present Sr and Nd isotopic data from basaltic glasses recovered from the 13 sites drilled during Leg 187. Our data show that the boundary region is characterized by a gradual east-west increase in 87Sr/86Sr, with a corresponding decrease in 143Nd/144Nd across a 150-km-wide zone located east and west of the 127°E Fracture Zone. The Sr-Nd isotopic composition of glasses therefore confirms the general conclusions derived by the Leg 187 shipboard scientific party in that the mantle boundary follows a west-pointing, V-shaped depth anomaly that stretches across the ocean floor from the Australian to the Antarctic continental margins. We document that two systematic trends of covariation between 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd can be distinguished, suggesting that the basalts sampled during Leg 187 formed through the interaction of three contrasting source components: (1) a component that lies within the broad spectrum of Indian-type mantle compositions, (2) a boundary component, and (3) a Pacific-type mantle component. The variations in elemental and isotopic compositions indicate that the boundary component represents a distinct mantle region that is associated with the boundary between the Pacific and the Indian mid-ocean-ridge basalt (MORB) sources rather than a dispersed mantle heterogeneity that was preferentially extracted in the boundary region. However, the origin of the boundary component remains an open question. The three components are not randomly intermixed. The Indian and the Pacific mantle sources both interacted with the boundary component, but they seem not to have interacted directly with each other. Large local variability in isotopic compositions of lavas from the mantle boundary region demonstrates that magma extraction processes were unable to homogenize the isotopic contrasts present in the mantle source in this region. Systematic variations in rare earth element (REE) concentrations across the depth anomaly cannot be explained solely by variations in source composition. The observed variations may be explained by an eastward increase and westward decrease in the degree of melting toward the mantle boundary region, compatible with a cooling of the Pacific mantle and a heating of the Indian mantle toward the mantle boundary.

Hydroclimate records and radiocarbon dating of sediment cores SO189/2 _39KL, SO189/2 _119KL, and SO189/2 _144KL from the eastern tropical Indian Ocean

The response of the tropical climate in the Indian Ocean realm to abrupt climate change events in the North Atlantic Ocean is contentious. Repositioning of the intertropical convergence zone is thought to have been responsible for changes in tropical hydroclimate during North Atlantic cold spells1, 2, 3, 4, 5, but the dearth of high-resolution records outside the monsoon realm in the Indian Ocean precludes a full understanding of this remote relationship and its underlying mechanisms. Here we show that slowdowns of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation during Heinrich stadials and the Younger Dryas stadial affected the tropical Indian Ocean hydroclimate through changes to the Hadley circulation including a southward shift in the rising branch (the intertropical convergence zone) and an overall weakening over the southern Indian Ocean. Our results are based on new, high-resolution sea surface temperature and seawater oxygen isotope records of well-dated sedimentary archives from the tropical eastern Indian Ocean for the past 45,000 years, combined with climate model simulations of Atlantic circulation slowdown under Marine Isotope Stages 2 and 3 boundary conditions. Similar conditions in the east and west of the basin rule out a zonal dipole structure as the dominant forcing of the tropical Indian Ocean hydroclimate of millennial-scale events. Results from our simulations and proxy data suggest dry conditions in the northern Indian Ocean realm and wet and warm conditions in the southern realm during North Atlantic cold spells.

Tracing an American Yoga: Identity and Cross-Cultural Transaction

This dissertation looks at the creative identity of an American yoga, both rooted in its Indic origins and radically transformed in its U.S. manifestations. It traces the broad historical transactions of yoga in terms of East and West, Secular and Religious, authenticity and idealized conception, as well as provides a critical historical genealogy of Anusara and Sridaiva yoga. Furthermore, the project relates yoga to the identity, power, and knowledge dynamics of pre-modern, modern, and postmodern histories and interpretations of yoga and Tantra, multiple theoretical discourses, and the embodied practices of individuals within Indian and American contexts. I argue that there is a unique and polysemous yogic identity in America, and that this identity has developed from a messy process of transaction between Indian and Western modes of being and knowing. Furthermore, the current Americanized culture of yoga brings along with it narratives of specific value. American yoga displays a particularly consumptive quality of yogic lifestyle that reflects a cultural atmosphere of reinvention and a merging of profit and personal purpose. American yoga’s identity today is entrepreneurial, branded, business oriented, and marketed for consumption. This dissertation shows how the American yogic identity is in flux, continuously fracturing and multiplying into various and novel understandings that relate to yoga’s past and to the market value for today’s American consumer. It examines the moving nature of yoga in the American landscape as what Jared Farmer calls a “center of creativity” and as a display of excess and choice. The discussion of yoga is further located in John Friend’s styles of yoga and/or lifestyle practices, Anusara and Sridaiva, as they both redefine and further remove yoga from established Indian markers of identity. My locations as American yogi, as comparativist, as ethnographer, and as a Bachelor of Science in Advertising and Marketing also situate this analysis.

Relationship between taxocenoses of decapod crustaceans and characteristics of coastal detritic bottoms in the east and southeast of the Spanish coast

Se ha estudiado la composición de las poblaciones de crustáceos decápodos en los fondos detríticos circalitorales del Este y Sureste ibérico, con relación a sus diferentes facies, efectuándose diferentes análisis estadísticos sobre la composición y diversidad. La taxocenosis de crustáceos decápodos muestra elevados valores de abundancia, riqueza y diversidad en las localidades identificadas como fondos detríticos costeros de aspecto típico. Por último, algunos grupos de especies podrían ser utilizados para caracterizar las biocenosis típica de fondos detríticos costeros, tales como: Paguristes eremita, Ebalia edwardsi, E. deshayesi, Eurynome aspera, Galathea intermedia, Parthenope massena, y Anapagurus hyndmani; la biocenosis del detrítico costero enfangada: Ebalia tuberosa, Atelecyclus rotundatus, Ethusa mascarone, y Liocarcinus zariquieyi; y la biocenosis de arenas fangosas: Upogebia deltaura, Goneplax rhomboides.