Contraceptive use and associated factors among adolescents on Santiago Island - Cape Verde - Western Africa

OBJECTIVE: to estimate the prevalence of contraceptive use and associated factors among adolescents attending public schools on Santiago Island, Cape Verde. METHODS: a cross-sectional study was carried out with 368 sexually active adolescents aged 13-17years attending eight public elementary and high schools, randomly selected, on Santiago Island, Cape Verde, between January and March 2007. Poisson regression with robust variance was used for the multiple analysis of risk factors, at a 5% level of significance. RESULTS: among 368 adolescents, 69.3% reported having used a contraceptive method during the last act of sexual intercourse. The most frequently used method were condom (94.9%) and pill (26.4%). Factors significantly and positively associated with contraceptive use were: living in the capital (PR=1.23; CI95%: 1.07; 1.39); having dated and had sexual intercourse (PR =1.53; CI95%: 1.14;2.06); and having more than nine years of schooling (PR=1.19; CI95%: 1.02; 1.38). CONCLUSIONS: more educated adolescents who studied in Praia (the capital city) and were dating at the time of the study were more likely to use contraception. The high prevalence of condom use and the association between contraception use and years of schooling among adolescents may indicate that sexual and reproductive health policies have produced positive outcomes that may account for the decrease in HIV infection.

Bronchial Asthma in Children: Clinical and Epidemiologic Approach in Different Portuguese Speaking Countries

BACKGROUND: Geographical differences in asthma prevalence are currently accepted, but evidence is sparse due to the lack of multicentre studies using the same protocol. OBJECTIVES: To compare the prevalence of asthma and atopy among schoolchildren from Portuguese speaking countries (ISAAC and Portuguese Study) and evaluate some environmental variables, such as house dust mite exposure. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Significant random samples of schoolchildren studied with standard validated methods--questionnaires, skin prick tests, methacholine bronchial challenge tests; dust bed sampling for analysis of mite antigens. RESULTS: In the ISAAC study, in the 13-14 year-old age group, statistical significant differences were found, with higher wheezing prevalence in Brazil than in Portugal (two-fold). In the Portuguese Study, atopy prevalence ranged between 6.0 and 11.9% in Sal and S. Vicente (Cape Verde), up to 48.6 and 54.1% in Macau and Madeira. Active asthma had the higher values in Madeira (14.6%), and the lower in Macau (1.3%). Cape Verde had intermediate asthma prevalence (10.6 and 7.0%). The bronchial challenge test was positive in 25, 66 and 70% of asthmatic children from Sal, S. Vicente and Madeira respectively. Significant HDM antigen concentrations (Der p1) were found in Cape Verde and Madeira. CONCLUSIONS: There are significant variations in asthma and atopy prevalence between these pediatric populations. The reasons remain under discussion, but genetics linked to race, seem to play a central role, modulated by environmental and lifestyle variables.

Contribution à la cytotaxonomie des Soricidés (Mammalia, Insectivora) de l'Afrique occidentale.

Chromosomes analysis of 28 shrews belonging to the genus Crocidura from West Africa allowed the detection of five new karyotypes: C. wimmeri (2n = 50, NF = 84), C. cf. gracilipes (56/86), C. cf. nimbae (46/68), and C. cf. planiceps (44/72). Among the individuals identified morphologically as C. poensis (52/70) a distinct species was recognized on the basis of its chromosome complement, C. nigeriae (50/76). The karyotype of C. occidentalis was confirmed with the study of another subspecies, C. occidentalis manni (50/66). An identical chromosome set characterizes C. odorata giffardi and provides evidence for its relationship with C. occidentalis.

Invasive populations of Senecio pterophorus are neither more productive nor more plastic than the native populations

Successful plant invaders may have specific morphological and physiological traits that promote invasion in a new habitat. The Evolution of Increased Competitive Ability (EICA) hypothesis predicts that plants released from natural enemies in the introduced habitats are more competitive and perform better than plants from the native populations. An increased phenotypic plasticity may also favour invasion because it allows plants to function under a wider range of environments. In this study we used Senecio pterophorus (Asteraceae) to test whether introduced plant populations are 1)more competitive and 2) more plastic compared with the native populations. We conducted a common garden experiment using plants from the native range (South Africa, Eastern Cape), an expanded range (South Africa, Western Cape) and two introduced ranges (Australia and Europe) under different conditions of water availability. Contrary to the EICA and the increased plasticity hypotheses, plants from the invasive and expanded populations grew less and responded less to watering than those from their native range. These results may be caused by a depleted competition as well as the presence of genetic bottlenecks in the newly invaded areas.

L'excision comme révélateur identitaire : l'expérience des Égyptiens ayant migré à Montréal

L’Égypte est l’un des pays où la prévalence de femmes excisées est parmi les plus élevées au monde (DHS, 2009). Depuis les années 1940, plusieurs Égyptiens se sont installés au Canada (Hayani, 1999) et un grand nombre à Montréal (Gouvernement du Québec, 2014). Cette recherche se veut donc un travail exploratoire portant sur l’évolution, ou non, des conceptions de l’excision chez les Égyptiens, avant et après leur migration à Montréal. Pour ce faire, quatre hommes et quatre femmes, nés en Égypte, ont participé à une entrevue semi-structurée où il était question de leurs parcours migratoires et de leur expérience relative à l’excision. On constate diverses prises de position par rapport à cette pratique qui seront mises en relation avec certaines données sociodémographiques et avec les liens que les participants entretiennent avec leur pays d’origine. Ces derniers se sont dissociés de l’excision par différents clivages afin de préserver leur groupe d’appartenance religieux ou socio-économique. De plus, la maîtrise de la langue française, en Égypte, semble être un facteur ayant influencé leur choix de destination migratoire et est utilisée pour exprimer des différences entre eux et certains Égyptiens.

World agriculture outlook & situation /

Title varies slightly.

Codium papenfussii; Codiaceae

Codium papenfussii P.C.Silva

Catalogue of Greek coins in the Hunterian collection, University of Glasgow /

v.1. Italy, Sicily, Macedon, Trace and Thessaly.--v.2. North Western Greece, Central Greece, Southern Greece, and Asia Minor.--v.3. Further Asia, Northern Africa, Western Europe.

Tropical lowland mosses disjunct between Africa and the Americas, including Calyptothecium planifrons (Ren. & Par.) Argent, new to the Western Hemisphere

Calyptothecium planifrons (Ren. & Par.) Argent is reported new to the Western Hemisphere based on two recent collections from Brazilian Amazonia, in Pará and Rondônia; C. planifrons was originally described from Madagascar. Forteen Other species of mosses with apparently disjunct distributions between tropical Africa and tropical America are also discussed. It is likely that mos or all of this species discussed will prove to have wider distributions in the tropics when world-wide revisions are carried out.

Genesis and Evolution of Brittle Structures In Southwestern Finland and Western South Africa. Insights into Fault Reactivation, Fluid Flow and Structural Maturity in Precambrian Cratons

The bedrock of old crystalline cratons is characteristically saturated with brittle structures formed during successive superimposed episodes of deformation and under varying stress regimes. As a result, the crust effectively deforms through the reactivation of pre-existing structures rather than by through the activation, or generation, of new ones, and is said to be in a state of 'structural maturity'. By combining data from Olkiluoto Island, southwestern Finland, which has been investigated as the potential site of a deep geological repository for high-level nuclear waste, with observations from southern Sweden, it can be concluded that the southern part of the Svecofennian shield had already attained structural maturity during the Mesoproterozoic era. This indicates that the phase of activation of the crust, i.e. the time interval during which new fractures were generated, was brief in comparison to the subsequent reactivation phase. Structural maturity of the bedrock was also attained relatively rapidly in Namaqualand, western South Africa, after the formation of first brittle structures during Neoproterozoic time. Subsequent brittle deformation in Namaqualand was controlled by the reactivation of pre-existing strike-slip faults.In such settings, seismic events are likely to occur through reactivation of pre-existing zones that are favourably oriented with respect to prevailing stresses. In Namaqualand, this is shown for present day seismicity by slip tendency analysis, and at Olkiluoto, for a Neoproterozoic earthquake reactivating a Mesoproterozoic fault. By combining detailed field observations with the results of paleostress inversions and relative and absolute time constraints, seven distinctm superimposed paleostress regimes have been recognized in the Olkiluoto region. From oldest to youngest these are: (1) NW-SE to NNW-SSE transpression, which prevailed soon after 1.75 Ga, when the crust had sufficiently cooled down to allow brittle deformation to occur. During this phase conjugate NNW-SSE and NE-SW striking strike-slip faults were active simultaneous with reactivation of SE-dipping low-angle shear zones and foliation planes. This was followed by (2) N-S to NE-SW transpression, which caused partial reactivation of structures formed in the first event; (3) NW-SE extension during the Gothian orogeny and at the time of rapakivi magmatism and intrusion of diabase dikes; (4) NE-SW transtension that occurred between 1.60 and 1.30 Ga and which also formed the NW-SE-trending Satakunta graben located some 20 km north of Olkiluoto. Greisen-type veins also formed during this phase. (5) NE-SW compression that postdates both the formation of the 1.56 Ga rapakivi granites and 1.27 Ga olivine diabases of the region; (6) E-W transpression during the early stages of the Mesoproterozoic Sveconorwegian orogeny and which also predated (7) almost coaxial E-W extension attributed to the collapse of the Sveconorwegian orogeny. The kinematic analysis of fracture systems in crystalline bedrock also provides a robust framework for evaluating fluid-rock interaction in the brittle regime; this is essential in assessment of bedrock integrity for numerous geo-engineering applications, including groundwater management, transient or permanent CO2 storage and site investigations for permanent waste disposal. Investigations at Olkiluoto revealed that fluid flow along fractures is coupled with low normal tractions due to in-situ stresses and thus deviates from the generally accepted critically stressed fracture concept, where fluid flow is concentrated on fractures on the verge of failure. The difference is linked to the shallow conditions of Olkiluoto - due to the low differential stresses inherent at shallow depths, fracture activation and fluid flow is controlled by dilation due to low normal tractions. At deeper settings, however, fluid flow is controlled by fracture criticality caused by large differential stress, which drives shear deformation instead of dilation.

North-western Africa-North-eastern Brazil. Major tectonic links and correlation problems

The establishment of a geological correlation between northwest Africa and northeast Brazil faces a series of problems of both a virtual and a real nature. Several aspects are summarised in this work that include pre-Mesozoic and Mesozoic features on both continental sides. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.