Differences in male coloration are predicted by divergent sexual selection between populations of a cichlid fish

Female mating preferences can influence both intraspecific sexual selection and interspecific reproductive isolation, and have therefore been proposed to play a central role in speciation. Here, we investigate experimentally in the African cichlid fish Pundamilia nyererei if differences in male coloration between three para-allopatric populations (i.e. island populations with gene flow) of P. nyererei are predicted by differences in sexual selection by female mate choice between populations. Second, we investigate if female mating preferences are based on the same components of male coloration and go in the same direction when females choose among males of their own population, their own and other conspecific populations and a closely related para-allopatric sister-species, P. igneopinnis. Mate-choice experiments revealed that females of the three populations mated species-assortatively, that populations varied in their extent of population-assortative mating and that females chose among males of their own population based on different male colours. Females of different populations exerted directional intrapopulation sexual selection on different male colours, and these differences corresponded in two of the populations to the observed differences in male coloration between the populations. Our results suggest that differences in male coloration between populations of P. nyererei can be explained by divergent sexual selection and that population-assortative mating may directly result from intrapopulation sexual selection.

HIV infection, viral hepatitis and liver fibrosis among prison inmates in West Africa.

BACKGROUND Prisoners represent a vulnerable population for blood-borne and sexually transmitted infections which can potentially lead to liver fibrosis and ultimately cirrhosis. However, little is known about the prevalence of liver fibrosis and associated risk factors among inmates in sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS Screening of liver fibrosis was undertaken in a randomly selected sample of male inmates incarcerated in Lome, Togo and in Dakar, Senegal using transient elastography. A liver stiffness measurement ≥9.5 KPa was retained to define the presence of a severe liver fibrosis. All included inmates were also screened for HIV, Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection. Substances abuse including alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use were assessed during face-to-face interviews. Odds Ratio (OR) estimates were computed with their 95 % Confidence Interval (CI) to identify factors associated with severe liver fibrosis. RESULTS Overall, 680 inmates were included with a median age of 30 years [interquartile range: 24-35]. The prevalence of severe fibrosis was 3.1 % (4.9 % in Lome and 1.2 % in Dakar). Infections with HIV, HBV and HCV were identified in 2.6 %, 12.5 % and 0.5 % of inmates, respectively. Factors associated with a severe liver fibrosis were HIV infection (OR = 7.6; CI 1.8-32.1), HBV infection (OR = 4.8; CI 1.8-12.8), HCV infection (OR = 52.6; CI 4.1-673.8), use of traditional medicines (OR = 3.7; CI 1.4-10.1) and being incarcerated in Lome (OR = 3.3; CI 1.1-9.8) compared to Dakar. CONCLUSIONS HIV infection and viral hepatitis infections were identified as important and independent determinants of severe liver fibrosis. While access to active antiviral therapies against HIV and viral hepatitis expands in Africa, adapted strategies for the monitoring of liver disease need to be explored, especially in vulnerable populations such as inmates.

Pollen abundance in Late Quaternary sediment cores off West Africa

The pollen record of three marine late Quaternary cores off Senegal shows a juxtaposition of Mediterranean, Northern Saharan, Central Saharan elements, which are considered transported by the trade winds from a winter-rainfall area, and Sahelian, Soudanese, Soudano-Guinean elements, considered transported both by winds and mostly by the Senegal River, and coming from the monsoonal, summer tropical rainfall area of southern West Africa. Littoral vegetation is either the edaphically dry and saline Chenopodiaceae from sebkhas at the time of the main regression, or the warm tropical humid mangrove with Rhizophora during the humid optimum period. Four stratigraphic zones reflect, from basis to top: Zone 4. A semi-arid period with a balanced pollen input. Zone 3. A very arid period with the disappearance of monsoonal pollen, probably from the disappearance of the Senegal River, a very saline littoral plain with Chenopodiaceae, a larger input of northern Saharan pollen from intensified trade winds. Zone 2. A quite humid period, much more so than today, very suddenly established, with a northward extension of the monsoonal areas, a rich littoral mangrove, and weakening of the trade winds. Zone l. A slow and steady evolution toward the present semi-humid conditions with regression of the mangrove, and of the monsoonal areas toward the south. Tentative datations and correlations with the Tchad area suggested: zone 4: 22,500 to 19,000 years BP; zone 3: 19,000 to 12,500 years BP; zone 2: 12,500 to 5,500 years BP; zone 1: 5,500 years BP to top of core. Dinoflagellate cysts display a tropical assemblage with mostly estuarine neritic elements and also a weak oceanic component, mostly in the lower slope core 47. Cosmopolitan taxa dominate the assemblage and only a few species point to more specialized environments. Quantitative variations of the assemblage are the basis of stratigraphy which is not similar to the pollen stratigraphy, and an inshore-outshore gradient has to be taken into account to correlate the three cores.

Cretaceous nannofossils from the Northwest African Margin

Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 79 recovered Cretaceous nannofossils at two localities, Sites 545 and 547. Species diversity of the Cretaceous coccoliths is high, and the assemblages range in age from early Valanginian-early Hauterivian to latest Maestrichtian. Site 545 and portions of Site 547 can be combined to form a composite section ranging from the upper Aptian-lower Albian to the middle to upper Cenomanian. As defined by nannofossil events, this section represents a complete record of sedimentary deposition. The interval appears to be the most extensive and complete Cretaceous section yet drilled off the Northwest African margin. The Campanian and Maestrichtian sediments found at Site 547 (Hole 547A) are the youngest Cretaceous strata found on the Northwest African margin. Like the middle Cretaceous sections, the uppermost Maestrichtian of this interval also represents a complete record of sedimentation.

Description of recent sediments of the East African continental margin

Recent sediments off East Africa coast show 5 fades, parallel the coast: biogene carbonate sand, olivgrey mud, foraminiferal sand, globigerine ooze, and deep sea clay. These sediments decrease progressively in grain size, carbonate content and shell debris away from the coast. They differ in the primary and biogenetic structures, degree of bioturbation, lebensspuren and content of fecal pellets.

The West Bend cook book /

Includes household hints and home remedies; recipes for Norwegian, Mexican, German, South African, French, English, Jewish, and Russian dishes. Sample recipes: Eier kuchen and sour gravy, Potato salad, Chocolate cake.

Proposals for the formation of a West India free labour company, for effecting the abolition of slavery, and affording equitable protection to the holders of colonial property, without imposing a burthen upon the nation /

Goldsmiths'-Kress no. 28312.

Comparative handbook of Congo languages; being a comparative grammar of the eight principal languages spoken along the banks of the Congo river from the west coast of Africa to Stanley Falls, a distance of 1300 miles, and of Swahili, the "lingua franca" of the country stretching thence to the east coast, with a comparative vocabulary giving 800 selected words from these languages, with their English equivalents, followed by appendices on six other dialects;

Mode of access: Internet.

Maryland in Liberia : a history of the colony planted by the Maryland State Colonization Society under the auspices of the State of Maryland, U.S., at Cape Palmas on the south-west coast of Africa, 1833-1853 : a paper read before the Maryland Historical Society, March 9th, 1885 /

Includes index.

Lack of intraspecific biological variation between two geographical populations of Oomyzus sokolowskii (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), a gregarious larval–pupal parasitioid of Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae)

The chalcid, Oomyzus sokolowskii Kurdjumov has been recorded in many parts of the world as a major larval-pupal, gregarious endoparasitoid of the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (Linnaeus), a serious pest of brassica vegetable crops worldwide. This study investigated intraspecific variation between two populations of O. sokiolowskii, one from Cape Verde Islands, West Africa and the other from Hangzhou, China. In all crosses and backcrosses between the two geographical populations, the numbers of progeny and sex ratio of progeny were similar to those obtained within each of the populations, demonstrating complete reproductive compatibility between the two populations. The two populations showed similar responses to temperature with respect to development time and survival of immature stages. Observations on the interactions between the two O. sokolowskii populations and Cotesia plutellae (Kurdjumov), another major parasitoid of P. xylostella, showed that neither population could achieve successful parasitism of P. xylostella larvae already parasitized by C. plutellac. However, both O. sokolowskii populations could achieve hyperparasitism by ovipositing into a mid-late stage larva of C. plutellae developing inside the primary host. Contrary to earlier reports, no evidence of intraspecific variations in ability to hyperparasitize between these two populations of O. sokolowskii was found.

The responsibility to protect and the crisis in Darfur

Governments that have endorsed the 'sovereignty as responsibility' approach have shown little inclination to protect civilians suffering at the hands of their own government in the Sudanese province of Darfur. After providing an overview of Darfur's crisis and international society's feeble response, we explore why the strongest advocates of 'sovereignty as responsibility', the NATO and EU states, failed to seriously contemplate military intervention. We suggest that three main factors help explain the West's unwillingness to intervene in Darfur: increased scepticism about the West's humanitarian interventionism, especially after the invasion of Iraq; Western strategic interests in Sudan; and the relationship between the crisis in Darfur and Sudan's other civil wars. We conclude that the emerging norm of humanitarian intervention remains weak and strongly contested, and that advocates of the 'responsibility to protect' approach have yet to persuade their governments to help save populations in danger.

Understanding Isolation and Change in Island Human Populations through a study of Indigenous Cultural Patterns in the Gulf of Carpentaria

This paper presents a set of hypotheses to explain the cultural differences between Aboriginal people of the North and South Wellesley Islands, Gulf of Carpentaria and to characterise the relative degree and nature of their isolation and cultural change over a 10,000-year time-scale. This opportunity to study parallelisms and divergences in the cultural and demographic histories of fisher-hunter-gatherers arises from the comparison of three distinct cultural groupings: (a) the Ganggalida of the mainland, (b) the Lardil and Yangkaal of the North Wellesley Islands, and (c) the Kaiadilt of the South Wellesley Islands. Despite occupying similar island environments and despite their languages being as closely related as for example, the West Germanic languages, there are some major differences in cultural, economic and social organization as well as striking genetic differences between the North and South Wellesley populations. This paper synthesizes data from linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, genetics and environmental science to present hypotheses of how these intriguing differences were generated, and what we might learn about early processes of marine colonization and cultural change from the Wellesley situation.

Genetic characterization of clinical isolates of Clostridium difficile using an optimized RAPD protocol and PCR ribotyping reveals strain diversity between two tertiary referral Trusts in the West Midlands, UK

Epidemiological investigations of Clostridium difficile often focus on differences between separate geographical areas. In this investigation, two populations of C. difficile recovered from separate tertiary referral Trusts within the West Midlands, UK, were characterized using both PCR ribotyping and an optimized RAPD (random amplification of polymorphic DNA) protocol. The PCR ribotyping and RAPD methodologies identified differences between the two C. difficile populations, in both the prevalence and the diversity of types identified. The use of PCR ribotyping in conjunction with RAPD further categorized different types within defined PCR ribotypes, identifying different types within the same PCR ribotype and therefore providing a greater discriminatory power than either of the methods when used alone. The differences observed in this study between the two Trusts in the distribution of both RAPD 'type' and PCR ribotype demonstrate the diversity that is present amongst isolates of C. difficile within a relatively small geographical area and warrants a need for further investigation into the local epidemiology of C. difficile.