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A new species of verrucid barnacle, Gibbosaverruca weijiai sp. nov., is described and illustrated based on specimens collected from a deep-sea seamount, Weijia Guyot, in the West Pacific. This is the third barnacle species reported from Weijia Guyot. The new species is distinguished from its congeners by its extremely long caudal appendage. In terms of shell morphology, G. weijiai sp. nov. is most similar to G. gibbosa and G. sulcata but differs from them by the intermediate articular ridges of its movable tergum and scutum, which are distinctly wider than the axial ridges. The COI and 16S rRNA sequences of the holotype of G. weijiai sp. nov. are presented to support future research, and a key to extant species of the genus Gibbosaverruca Young, 2002 is provided.
The actual prevalence and diversity of the elusive Asian ant genus Rhopalomastix Forel, 1900 in Southeast Asia are largely unknown; only two named species were previously known from Thailand. Following substantial newly-collected museum material made available, we used a combined approach based on morphology and complementary DNA evidence to revise the genus in Thailand. Specimens were sorted to putative species by objective clustering of short fragment (313 bp) COI barcodes, after which specimens of each molecular cluster were morphologically examined. With morphology and supporting genetic evidence, we recognize five species of Rhopalomastix in Thailand, including three species new to science: R. impithuksai Wang & Jaitrong sp. nov., R. parva Wang & Jaitrong sp. nov., and R. robusta Wang & Jaitrong sp. nov. Different castes and sexes are described for most species where available. Descriptions of the two extant described species – R. javana Wheeler, 1929 and R. johorensis Wheeler, 1929 – are also revised, taking into account observations from the additional material. A key to Thai species based on the worker caste, with the three new species included, is further provided.
Commonly reported as a household pest throughout the northern hemisphere, Willowsia nigromaculata (Lubbock) is among the most abundant and widely distributed springtails. However, taxonomic uncertainty due to incomplete morphological descriptions based on specimens from different continents may lead to incorrect identifications and/or prevent the recognition of distinct lineages within this morphospecies. Here, we perform the first comprehensive morphological and genetic comparison between W. nigromaculata specimens collected from North America and Europe. Morphological and genetic evidence reveals that populations in the United States and France represent two distinct nigromaculata-like species, but a phylogenetic analysis indicates both species may also be present in Canada. Based on these results, we redescribe W. nigromaculata from France, provide a description for Willowsia neonigromaculata sp. nov. from the United States, and propose new diagnostic characters for their separation, including the number of inner appendages on the maxillary sublobal plate. We also highlight the need for morphological and molecular investigations of additional populations to better understand the diversity and distribution of W. nigromaculata and related species.
All species of Odontoscelio Kieffer, 1905 are imaged, with keys provided to all known males and females in this genus. Two new species, O. agnieleae sp. nov. and O. spinosus sp. nov., are described from India. The generic concept of the genus Odontoscelio is discussed. The presence of axillular spines differentiates this genus from other teleasines such as Dvivarnus Rajmohana & Veenakumari, 2011, Gryonoides Dodd, 1920 and the Trimorus carus (Nixon, 1936) species group, which possess lateral mesoscutellar spines.
The Afrotropical scarab beetle genus Cerhomalus Quedenfeldt, 1884 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) is revised. Two new species are described: C. quedenfeldti sp. nov. and C. petrovitzi sp. nov. A new combination, Cerhomalus absconditus (Petrovitz, 1971) comb. nov., is established. The genus occurs in Central and West Africa with the majority of records from the Congo Basin. Keys, descriptions, illustrations of habitus and male genitalia, and distributional record map are given.
The genus Onychelmis Hinton, 1941 was for a long time regarded as a small taxon with only three known species distributed in the Andes. A study of new material from Ecuador, using morphological and molecular data, has resulted in the discovery of five new species: Onychelmis lenkae sp. nov., O. lobata sp. nov., O. minor sp. nov., O. onorei sp. nov. and O. splendida sp. nov. We also revised the entire genus and redescribed the three known species, O. longicollis (Sharp, 1882), O. leleupi Delève, 1968 and O. whiteheadi Spangler & Santiago, 1991. Habitus photographs of adults are provided, together with line drawings of male and female genitalia, and schematic illustrations of the distribution of femoral tomentum for each species. DNA sequences for barcoding the COI mtDNA fragment were used to support species delimitation and to suggest possible relationships among species. The revision includes a key to adults of all species of Onychelmis and notes on the biogeography of the genus, with an updated distribution map.
The genus Chassalia (Gentianales: Rubiaceae-Palicoureeae) in Borneo is revised based on a morphological survey of herbarium specimens using classical taxonomic methods. The tribal placement and probable paraphyly of Chassalia as currently delimited is reviewed. Previously, four described species of Chassalia were known from Borneo, with only one endemic species, Chassalia psychotriformis I.M.Turner nom. nov. (≡ Cephaelis psychotrioides Valeton). A key is given to the 18 species of the genus recognised from Borneo in this study. In total, 14 new species are described, all of them endemic to Borneo. These are: Chassalia atropurpurea T.Y.Yu sp. nov., Chassalia beamanii T.Y.Yu sp. nov., Chassalia calamus T.Y.Yu sp. nov., Chassalia chewii T.Y.Yu sp. nov., Chassalia involucrata T.Y.Yu sp. nov., Chassalia kinabaluensis T.Y.Yu sp. nov., Chassalia lancifolia T.Y.Yu sp. nov., Chassalia lancifolioides T.Y.Yu sp. nov., Chassalia longipes T.Y.Yu sp. nov., Chassalia macrocarpa T.Y.Yu sp. nov., Chassalia muluensis T.Y.Yu sp. nov., Chassalia muscicola T.Y.Yu sp. nov., Chassalia northiana T.Y.Yu sp. nov. and Chassalia ramosa T.Y.Yu sp. nov. Circumscriptions and discussions are given for all Bornean species recognised. A morphological glossary for Asian species of Chassalia is provided. Three separate species groups are recognised, the Chassalia curviflora and C. javanica groups, represented by a single species each in Borneo, and a new informal group, the ‘Involucrate group’, which is proposed and circumscribed to encompass the majority (16) of the Bornean species. Proposals for further work on Asian Chassalia are given.
Organismic aging is known to be controlled by genetic and environmental traits. Pathways involved in the control of cellular metabolism play a crucial role. Previously, we identified a role of PaCLPP, a mitochondrial matrix protease, in the control of the mitochondrial energy metabolism, aging, and lifespan of the fungal aging model Podospora anserina. Most surprisingly, we made the counterintuitive observation that the ablation of this component of the mitochondrial quality control network leads to lifespan extension. In the current study, we investigated the role of energy metabolism of P. anserina. An age-dependent metabolome analysis of the wild type and a PaClpP deletion strain verified differences and changes of various metabolites in cultures of the PaClpP mutant and the wild type. Based on these data, we generated and analyzed a PaSnf1 deletion mutant and a ΔPaSnf1/ΔPaClpP double mutant. In both mutants PaSNF1, the catalytic α-subunit of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is ablated. PaSNF1 was found to be required for the development of fruiting bodies and ascospores and the progeny of sexual reproduction of this ascomycete and impact mitochondrial dynamics and autophagy. Most interestingly, while the single PaSnf1 deletion mutant is characterized by a slight lifespan increase, simultaneous deletion of PaSnf1 and PaClpP leads to a pronounced lifespan extension. This synergistic effect is strongly reinforced in the presence of the mating-type “minus”-linked allele of the rmp1 gene. Compared to the wild type, culture temperature of 35°C instead of the standard laboratory temperature of 27°C leads to a short-lived phenotype of the ΔPaSnf1/ΔPaClpP double mutant. Overall, our study provides novel evidence for complex interactions of different molecular pathways involved in mitochondrial quality control, gene expression, and energy metabolism in the control of organismic aging.
Objective: To investigate temporal trends in prostate cancer (PCa) radical prostatectomy (RP) candidates.
Materials and Methods: Patients who underwent RP for PCa between January 2014 and December 2019 were identified form our institutional database. Trend analysis and logistic regression models assessed RP trends after stratification of PCa patients according to D'Amico classification and Gleason score. Patients with neoadjuvant androgen deprivation or radiotherapy prior to RP were excluded from the analysis.
Results: Overall, 528 PCa patients that underwent RP were identified. Temporal trend analysis revealed a significant decrease in low-risk PCa patients from 17 to 9% (EAPC: −14.6%, p < 0.05) and GS6 PCa patients from 30 to 14% (EAPC: −17.6%, p < 0.01). This remained significant even after multivariable adjustment [low-risk PCa: (OR): 0.85, p < 0.05 and GS6 PCa: (OR): 0.79, p < 0.001]. Furthermore, a trend toward a higher proportion of intermediate-risk PCa undergoing RP was recorded.
Conclusion: Our results confirm that inverse stage migration represents an ongoing phenomenon in a contemporary RP cohort in a European tertiary care PCa center. Our results demonstrate a significant decrease in the proportion of low-risk and GS6 PCa undergoing RP and a trend toward a higher proportion of intermediate-risk PCa patients undergoing RP. This indicates a more precise patient selection when it comes to selecting suitable candidates for definite surgical treatment with RP.
Objective: To investigate the value of standard [digital rectal examination (DRE), PSA] and advanced (mpMRI, prostate biopsy) clinical evaluation for prostate cancer (PCa) detection in contemporary patients with clinical bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) scheduled for Holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP).
Material and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 397 patients, who were referred to our tertiary care laser center for HoLEP due to BOO between 11/2017 and 07/2020. Of those, 83 (20.7%) underwent further advanced clinical PCa evaluation with mpMRI and/or prostate biopsy due to elevated PSA and/or lowered PSA ratio and/or suspicious DRE. Logistic regression and binary regression tree models were applied to identify PCa in BOO patients.
Results: An mpMRI was conducted in 56 (66%) of 83 patients and revealed PIRADS 4/5 lesions in 14 (25%) patients. Subsequently, a combined systematic randomized and MRI-fusion biopsy was performed in 19 (23%) patients and revealed in PCa detection in four patients (5%). A randomized prostate biopsy was performed in 31 (37%) patients and revealed in PCa detection in three patients (4%). All seven patients (9%) with PCa detection underwent radical prostatectomy with 29% exhibiting non-organ confined disease. Incidental PCa after HoLEP (n = 76) was found in nine patients (12%) with advanced clinical PCa evaluation preoperatively. In univariable logistic regression analyses, PSA, fPSA ratio, and PSA density failed to identify patients with PCa detection. Conversely, patients with a lower International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) and PIRADs 4/5 lesion in mpMRI were at higher risk for PCa detection. In multivariable adjusted analyses, PIRADS 4/5 lesions were confirmed as an independent risk factor (OR 9.91, p = 0.04), while IPSS did not reach significance (p = 0.052).
Conclusion: In advanced clinical PCa evaluation mpMRI should be considered in patients with elevated total PSA or low fPSA ratio scheduled for BOO treatment with HoLEP. Patients with low IPSS or PIRADS 4/5 lesions in mpMRI are at highest risk for PCa detection. In patients with a history of two or more sets of negative prostate biopsies, advanced clinical PCa evaluation might be omitted.
Objective: Research on visual working memory has shown that individual stimulus features are processed in both specialized sensory regions and higher cortical areas. Much less evidence exists for auditory working memory. Here, a main distinction has been proposed between the processing of spatial and non-spatial sound features. Our aim was to examine feature-specific activation patterns in auditory working memory.
Methods: We collected fMRI data while 28 healthy adults performed an auditory delayed match-to-sample task. Stimuli were abstract sounds characterized by both spatial and non-spatial information, i.e., interaural time delay and central frequency, respectively. In separate recording blocks, subjects had to memorize either the spatial or non-spatial feature, which had to be compared with a probe sound presented after a short delay. We performed both univariate and multivariate comparisons between spatial and non-spatial task blocks.
Results: Processing of spatial sound features elicited a higher activity in a small cluster in the superior parietal lobe than did sound pattern processing, whereas there was no significant activation difference for the opposite contrast. The multivariate analysis was applied using a whole-brain searchlight approach to identify feature-selective processing. The task-relevant auditory feature could be decoded from multiple brain regions including the auditory cortex, posterior temporal cortex, middle occipital gyrus, and extended parietal and frontal regions.
Conclusion: In summary, the lack of large univariate activation differences between spatial and non-spatial processing could be attributable to the identical stimulation in both tasks. In contrast, the whole-brain multivariate analysis identified feature-specific activation patterns in widespread cortical regions. This suggests that areas beyond the auditory dorsal and ventral streams contribute to working memory processing of auditory stimulus features.
Cephalization is a major innovation of animal evolution and implies a synchronization of nervous system, mouth, and foregut polarization to align alimentary tract and sensomotoric system for effective foraging. However, the underlying integration of morphogenetic programs is poorly understood. Here, we show that invagination of neuroectoderm through de novo polarization and apical constriction creates the mouth opening in the Caenorhabditis elegans embryo. Simultaneously, all 18 juxta-oral sensory organ dendritic tips become symmetrically positioned around the mouth: While the two bilaterally symmetric amphid sensilla endings are towed to the mouth opening, labial and cephalic sensilla become positioned independently. Dendrite towing is enabled by the pre-polarized sensory amphid pores intercalating into the leading edge of the anteriorly migrating epidermal sheet, while apical constriction-mediated cell–cell re-arrangements mediate positioning of all other sensory organs. These two processes can be separated by gradual inactivation of the 26S proteasome activator, RPN-6.1. Moreover, RPN- 6.1 also shows a dose-dependent requirement for maintenance of coordinated apical polarization of other organs with apical lumen, the pharynx, and the intestine. Thus, our data unveil integration of morphogenetic programs during the coordination of alimentary tract and sensory organ formation and suggest that this process requires tight control of ubiquitin-dependent protein degradation.
This book questions colonial and apartheid ideologies on being human and being African, ideologies that continue to shape how research is conceptualised, taught and practiced in universities across Africa. Africans immersed in popular traditions of meaning-making are denied the right, by those who police the borders of knowledge, to think and represent their realities in accordance with the civilisations and universes they know best. Often, the ways of life they cherish are labelled and dismissed too eagerly as traditional knowledge by some of the very African intellectual elite they look to for protection. The book makes a case for sidestepped traditions of knowledge. It draws attention to Africa's possibilities, prospects and emergent capacities for being and becoming in tune with its creativity and imagination. It speaks to the nimble-footed flexible-minded 'frontier African' at the crossroads and junctions of encounters, facilitating creative conversations and challenging regressive logics of exclusionary identities. The book uses Amos Tutuola's stories to question dualistic assumptions about reality and scholarship, and to call for conviviality, interconnections and interdependence between competing knowledge traditions in Africa.
Marginality does not mean isolation. In Africa where people are permanently on the move in search, inter alia, of a 'better elsewhere', marginality means disconnection to obvious possibilities and the invisibility of the myriad connections that make life possible for the ordinarily sidestepped. This book is about the workings of networks of the mobile in Africa, a continent usually associated with the 'global shadows' of the world. How do changes in the possibilities for communication, with the recent hype of mobile technology, influence the social and economic dynamics in Africa's mobile margins? To what extent is the freedom associated with new Information and Communication Technologies reality or disillusion for people dwelling in the margins? Are ordinary Africans increasingly Side@Ways? How social are these emergent Side@Ways? Contributions to answering these and related questions are harvested from ethnographic insights by team members of the WOTRO funded 'Mobile Africa revisited' research programme hosted by the African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands.
This rich conversational auto-biography tells the story of the political life of Ndeh Ntumazah who was born in Mankon in 1926, spent the best part of his life suffering and sacrificing for the freedom of Cameroon, and died in London on January 21, 2010, at the age of 83, as President of the Union of the Populations of Cameroon (UPC). Ntumazah was a political activist for nearly 60 years. He joined the UPC around 1950 and remained a militant of the party until his demise. When the UPC was banned in French Cameroon in 1955, he was advised by his comrades to create another party in the Southern Cameroons, which would be the UPC in disguise. The party was called 'One Kamerun Movement - OK', with Ndeh Ntumazah as its President. Following its banning, the UPC started a war of liberation in French Cameoon, so Ntumazah from the safety of Southern Cameroons, liaised with his comrades in French Cameroon to carry out their underground operations. Ndeh Ntumazah left Cameroon to seek political asylum abroad in 1962. He stayed in Ghana, Guinea, Algeria and finally in Britain where he spent most of his time sensitising the world about the plight of Cameroon using various avenues like writing, conferences and deputations. Ntumazah is dead, but he lives on because his life stands out as a point of focus.
The volume draws from René Devischs encounters with groups in southsaharan Africa, primarily. The author had the privilege to immerse himself, around the clock, in the Yakaphones activities and thoughts in southwest DR Congo from 1972 to 1974, and intermittently in Kinshasas shanty towns, from 1986 to 2003. The author first examines what sparked his choice to come to Congo, and then to pursue research among the Yakaphones in the borderland with Angola. He then invites us to follow the trajectory of his plural anthropological view on todays multicentric world. It leads us to his praise for honorary doctor Jean-Marc Elas work. He then examines the proletarian outbursts of violence that rocked Congos major cities in 1991 and 1993. These can be read as a settling of scores with the disillusioning colonial and missionary modernisation, along with president Mobutus millenarian Popular Movement of the Revolution. Furthermore, after considering the morose reduction of a major Yaka dancing mask into a mere museum-bound curio in Antwerp, the book unravels the Yakaphones perspectives on spirits and sorcerys threat. It also analyses their commitment to classical Bantu-African healing cults, along with their parallel consulting physicians and healers. By sharing the Yakaphones life-world, the analysis highlights their body-group-world weave, interlaced by the principle of co-resonance. A phenomenological and perspectivist look unfolds the local actors views, thereby disclosing the Bantu-African genius and setting for a major reversal of perspectives. Indeed, seeing 'here' from 'there' allows the author to uncover some alienating dynamics at work in his native Belgian Flemish-speaking culture. To better grasp the realm of life beyond the speakable and factual reasoning, the approach occasionally turns to the later Lacans focus on the unconscious desire, the body and its affects. The book addresses students and researchers in the humanities and, more broadly, all those immersed in the heat of the encounter with the culturally different.
In a tribute to Hon. Justice Iorhemen Hwande CFR, Chief Judge of Benue State this book includes contributions from a variety of scholars from Nigeria. 14 essays cover a wide range of topics such as: Insider Dealing by Company Directors and the Nigerian Capital Market; United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea as a Tool for the Resolution of Climate Change Disputes; Is a Practicing Christian Lawyer/Judge in Nigeria an Anachronism?; The Justiciability and Enforcement of Social Rights; and International Economic Law and Development.
Vestiges
(2013)
The poems in this collection are adequate, with great lines. The rhythm is stimulating to all the five senses thanks to the use of multiple images. A lot of imagery in Vestiges gives a picture of a war front after a ferocious battle. The objects, animals, and images in the poems disorient and lead the reader to focusing on putting flesh to the bones than just getting the juice of the poems... The rhythm more than anything else carries the reader through this chaotic tableau painted in Vestiges. In a way, this comes across as a substantiation of the poet's vision of our world and an explanation as to why he considers this collection as a skeleton; and precisely skeletons left by the ravages of war. Is the poet's world and ours a field of ruins and topsy-turvydom to which we are all blind? The answer is yours.
Captive of Fate
(2007)
Captive of Fate is the moving story of Ann, a victim of her own need for genuine love, and her gullibility in falling head over heels into the traps of lust set up by clever men. As Ann's biographic narrative unfolds, the reader is faced again and again with the haunting question: 'Do all men want only one thing from a woman?' Hidden between the lines and yet hammering constantly at the reader's conscience are issues pertaining to gender violence and the plight of women in Africa.
This thesis reports three experiments on structural choices during grammatical encoding in monolingual adult speakers of German. Conceptual accessibility, one of the most central notions in language production research, as well as the phenomena of structural and perceptual priming are investigated.
In the first two experiments, a manipulation in terms of inherent conceptual accessibility which has shown universal influences on language production - the factor animacy - is combined with a manipulation making the non-canonical passive structure itself more accessible via structural priming.
Results show that, in addition to a preference for animate entities preceding inanimate entities, speakers can be structurally primed. Structural priming of passive structures led to significantly more passive responses compared to (intransitive) baseline structures.
This holds for monologue settings (Experiment 1) as well as dialogue settings (Experiment 2).
The structural priming effect was stronger in the dialogue setting compared to the monologue setting.
The third experiment combines contexts manipulating the derived conceptual accessibility of one of two entities to be described with a visual cueing manipulation increasing the perceptual accessibility of one of the referents.
Whereas a comprehensive literature review as well as the experimental work conducted within this thesis suggest that animacy and topicalization may exert universal influences on structural choices during language production, perceptual accessibility does not seem to have this potential.
In line with previous cross-linguistic work, perceptual priming in form of an implicit visual cueing manipulation did not show significant effects on speakers' structural choices in German.
These findings contrast with findings obtained for English, suggesting that language-specific characteristics in terms of word order flexibility may influence effcts on grammatical encoding during language production.
Increasing the derived accessibility of one of two referents, however, once again showed significant influences on speakers' structural choices with the topicalization of a patient referent leading to an enhanced production of passive responses.