A Khoekhoegowab Dictionary with an English–Khoekhoegowab Index

Wilfrid H.G. Haacke and Eliphas Eiseb. A Khoekhoegowab Dictionary with an English–Khoekhoegowab Index. 2002, xiv + 740 pp. ISBN 99916- 0-401-4. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan. Price: N$175.00 (Hard-cover), N$150.00 (Soft-cover)

Really a “secondary gill under the skin”? Unveiling “dorsal vessels” in freshwater slugs (Mollusca, Panpulmonata, Acochlidimorpha)

The freshwater slugs of the genus Acochlidium (Heterobranchia, Gastropoda, and Acochlidimorpha) are peculiar, one to two centimeter sized animals found only in small coastal rivers and streams of Southeast Asian and Western Pacific islands. When first described by Bücking, the author observed a branching “net of dendritic vessels connected to the heart,” which he assumed to have replaced the original gastropod gill. In the present study, we compare the renopericardial systems of four Acochlidium species in microanatomical, histological and ultrastructural detail and identify where exactly the enigmatic, subepidermal “dorsal vessels” connect to the renopericardial system to examine if they can really function as a gill. Acochlidium have elaborate renopericardial systems compared to their ancestrally marine and also freshwater relatives. The primary site of ultrafiltration is the epicardium of the atrium with podocytes as usual for gastropods. The “dorsal vessels” in Acochlidium are extensions of the outer epithelium of the pericardial cavity and represent true vessels, that is, coelomatic channels, having an endothelium with podocytes. Hence, they considerably enlarge the site of ultrafiltration increasing the pericardial surface. “Dorsal vessels” in Acochlidium are therefore not homologous to externally similar morphological structures in Sacoglossa (marine panpulmonate slugs and snails). The multiplication of renopericardioducts in Acochlidium is a unique feature within Mollusca that enhances the negative pressure necessary for ultrafiltration in the thin, tube-like dorsal vessels and as a consequence the transport of primary urine from the pericardium to the kidney. The circulatory and excretory systems in Acochlidium are adaptations to a lifestyle in their freshwater environment in which snail bodies are hyposmotic and accrue considerable influx of surplus water into the body, which needs to be expelled

Assessment of mitochondrial genomes for heterobranch gastropod phylogenetics

Background Heterobranchia is a diverse clade of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial gastropod molluscs. It includes such disparate taxa as nudibranchs, sea hares, bubble snails, pulmonate land snails and slugs, and a number of (mostly small-bodied) poorly known snails and slugs collectively referred to as the “lower heterobranchs”. Evolutionary relationships within Heterobranchia have been challenging to resolve and the group has been subject to frequent and significant taxonomic revision. Mitochondrial (mt) genomes can be a useful molecular marker for phylogenetics but, to date, sequences have been available for only a relatively small subset of Heterobranchia. Results To assess the utility of mitochondrial genomes for resolving evolutionary relationships within this clade, eleven new mt genomes were sequenced including representatives of several groups of “lower heterobranchs”. Maximum likelihood analyses of concatenated matrices of the thirteen protein coding genes found weak support for most higher-level relationships even after several taxa with extremely high rates of evolution were excluded. Bayesian inference with the CAT + GTR model resulted in a reconstruction that is much more consistent with the current understanding of heterobranch phylogeny. Notably, this analysis recovered Valvatoidea and Orbitestelloidea in a polytomy with a clade including all other heterobranchs, highlighting these taxa as important to understanding early heterobranch evolution. Also, dramatic gene rearrangements were detected within and between multiple clades. However, a single gene order is conserved across the majority of heterobranch clades. Conclusions Analysis of mitochondrial genomes in a Bayesian framework with the site heterogeneous CAT + GTR model resulted in a topology largely consistent with the current understanding of heterobranch phylogeny. However, mitochondrial genomes appear to be too variable to serve as good phylogenetic markers for robustly resolving a number of deeper splits within this clade.publishedVersio

The Role of Muslim Devotional Practices in the Reversal of Language Shift

Fishman’s 1991 scale for evaluating language vitality proposes a stage in language shift where exclusively the older generation takes part in ‘rituals’, ‘concerts’ and ‘songfests’ in the minority language. Once this generation dies away, according to the scale, these cultural practices disappear with them. Within certain Muslim youth communities in the UK counter examples exist where the younger generation leads the way in reviving, performing and extending the repertoire of this religio-cultural heritage. Although this emerging expanded repertoire of song and poetry is clearly multilingual in nature, recitation and performance of the community heritage languages, Urdu and Punjabi, feature strongly. What remains to discover is whether such increasing familiarity with poetic language and form can impact positively on reversing the language shift these communities are experiencing in their third and fourth generations. Although there is evidence (Ostler & Lintinger 2015) that singing and reciting in other minority language settings, secular and religious, are not infrequent pursuits of youth, it is argued in this article that an accompanying religious revival provides an important extra, galvanising, boost to the process of possible reversing language shift. It is suggested that available scales for evaluating language vitality are inadequate in the face of complex diasporic minority language settings

The dynamics of language and ethnicity in Mauritius

The link between ethnicity and language has been well established in research but its contextual, perspectual and variable nature demands that this connection be re-examined in each attempt to understand a nation. This paper is about Mauritius, a postcolonial context where French and British colonisation has left salient features which continue to influence the dynamics around language and ethnicity in the country. By describing its demographic characteristics and its linguistic and political situation, I retrieve some of the key facets of this multi-ethnic and multi-lingual nation which evidence resistance by both the state and the populace against the established colonial languages. To compensate for the lack of appropriate theoretical framework in existing research on Mauritius, I use Homi Bhabha’s postcolonial theoretical framework to uncover the realities faced by both the state and the people of this country and the impacts these may have in the workplace

Global distribution and drivers of language extinction risk

Many of the world's languages face serious risk of extinction. Efforts to prevent this cultural loss are severely constrained by a poor understanding of the geographical patterns and drivers of extinction risk. We quantify the global distribution of language extinction risk—represented by small range and speaker population sizes and rapid declines in the number of speakers—and identify the underlying environmental and socioeconomic drivers. We show that both small range and speaker population sizes are associated with rapid declines in speaker numbers, causing 25% of existing languages to be threatened based on criteria used for species. Language range and population sizes are small in tropical and arctic regions, particularly in areas with high rainfall, high topographic heterogeneity and/or rapidly growing human populations. By contrast, recent speaker declines have mainly occurred at high latitudes and are strongly linked to high economic growth. Threatened languages are numerous in the tropics, the Himalayas and northwestern North America. These results indicate that small-population languages remaining in economically developed regions are seriously threatened by continued speaker declines. However, risks of future language losses are especially high in the tropics and in the Himalayas, as these regions harbour many small-population languages and are undergoing rapid economic growth

New Speakers and Language Revitalisation: Arpitan and Community (Re)formation

Today, it is uncontroversial to claim that France’s regional (minority) languages (RLs) are in decline. However, revitalisation movements have nonetheless continued to surface, and this chapter considers one by-product of such efforts: the emergence of new speakers in RL contexts. The term ‘new speaker’ refers to individuals who acquire the target language not through traditional transmission contexts (e.g. home, family), but instead as adults through language revitalisation initiatives. The chapter focuses on revitalisation efforts in the context of Francoprovençal, a severely endangered and understudied RL spoken transnationally across French, Italian and Swiss borders. A critical examination of current studies supplemented with recently collected empirical data shows new speakers to be central agents in a movement championing proto-nation-statehood across national borders, reorienting the region’s traditional sociolinguistic field

α-Synuclein impairs macroautophagy: implications for Parkinson’s disease

α-Synuclein impairs autophagosome formation and mislocalizes Atg9 by inhibiting Rab1a

Review of electricity sector reform in five large, oil- and gas-exporting MENA countries: Current status and outlook

Since the early 80s, numerous developed and also developing countries on all continents have embarked on reforms of their national electricity sectors with varying degrees of ambition. The reforms were associated with hopes for accelerated innovation, enhanced customer service and, most importantly, efficiency gains in the operation of the sector and thus lower electricity costs for the consumers.Sector reform legislation in the five analyzed countries (Algeria, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) has been enacted rather late, commencing at the end of the 90s. The countries' abundant and cheap energy resources mitigated pressures for reforms and delayed the introduction of market principles in the sector's organization. All five countries have since adopted more market-oriented sector structures, though none have as yet implemented their target sector models. This study reviews past reform efforts, analyzes the different approaches and provides an outlook for the countries' future reform agendas. Keywords: Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Electricity sector, Power sector, Liberalization, Deregulation, Refor