Aerobic intestinal flora of wild-caught African dwarf crocodiles Osteolaemus tetraspis

Intestinal contents were collected from wild-caught African dwarf crocodiles (Osteolaemus tetraspis) in 1993 and 1995 which were slaughtered at urban markets in the Congo Republic. The samples were kept frozen and brought back to Onderstepoort for aerobic culture. Out of 29 specimens, 33 species of bacteria and 20 species of fungi were isolated. The bacteria included three isolates of Salmonella and eight isolates of Escherichia coli, most of the latter being rough strains. The flora of individual specimens contained 1-5 bacterial and 0-5 fungal species. Neither Aeromonas hydrophila nor Edwardsiella tarda were isolated from any of the samples.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. Adobe Acrobat v.9 was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.mn201

A grounded theory of female adolescents' dating experiences and factors influencing safety: the dynamics of the Circle

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This paper describes the nature and characteristics of the dating relationships of adolescent females, including any of their experiences of abuse.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A grounded theory approach was used with 22 theoretically sampled female adolescents ages 15–18.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Several important themes emerged: Seven stages of dating consistently described the relationships of female adolescents. A circle consisting of two interacting same sex peer groups provided structure for each teen as they navigated the dating course. The circle was the central factor affecting a female adolescent's potential for risk or harm in dating relationships. Teens defined abuse as an act where the intention is to hurt. Having once succumbed to sexual pressure, teens felt unable to refuse sex in subsequent situations.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>An awareness of both the stages of dating and the dynamics of the circle will assist health care providers to plan and implement interventions in the female adolescent population. Study findings on factors and influences that support non-abusive versus abusive relationship might help identify female teens at risk and/or support interventions aimed at preventing dating violence.</p

Prototyping Self in Silicon Valley, Deep Diversity as a Framework for Anthropological Inquiry

High-technology work fuels a dynamic global exchange from technopoles throughout the world, but especially between East and South Asia and the northern Californian region of Silicon Valley. This migration drives an expanded number of ancestral identities. Professional and activity-based identities flourish as Silicon Valley’s strong narrative of meritocracy loosens the grip of birth ascription on the creation of identities. These achieved identities proliferate as people experiment on their own sense of self. Traditional conceptual tools related to immigration, and even such contemporary approaches as Appadurai’s ethnoscapes, do not adequately illuminate the ethnographic data on Silicon Valley workers, families, and especially youth. The concept of deep diversity, first posed by philosopher Charles Taylor and reified by anthropologist Clifford Geertz, reinterprets the interactions of traditional ethnic identity categories, providing a powerful framework with which to think

Spontaneous Voice Gender Imitation Abilities in Adult Speakers

Background The frequency components of the human voice play a major role in signalling the gender of the speaker. A voice imitation study was conducted to investigate individuals' ability to make behavioural adjustments to fundamental frequency (F0), and formants (Fi) in order to manipulate their expression of voice gender. Methodology/Principal Findings Thirty-two native British-English adult speakers were asked to read out loud different types of text (words, sentence, passage) using their normal voice and then while sounding as ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ as possible. Overall, the results show that both men and women raised their F0 and Fi when feminising their voice, and lowered their F0 and Fi when masculinising their voice. Conclusions/Significance These observations suggest that adult speakers are capable of spontaneous glottal and vocal tract length adjustments to express masculinity and femininity in their voice. These results point to a “gender code”, where speakers make a conventionalized use of the existing sex dimorphism to vary the expression of their gender and gender-related attributes

GPS-determination of along-strike variation in Cascadia margin kinematics: Implications for relative plate motion, Subduction zone coupling, and permanent deformation

High‐precision GPS geodesy in the Pacific Northwest provides the first synoptic view of the along‐strike variation in Cascadia margin kinematics. These results constrain interfering deformation fields in a region where typical earthquake recurrence intervals are one or more orders of magnitude longer than the decades‐long history of seismic monitoring and where geologic studies are sparse. Interseismic strain accumulation contributes greatly to GPS station velocities along the coast. After correction for a simple elastic dislocation model, important residual motions remain, especially south of the international border. The magnitude of northward forearc motion increases southward from western Washington (3–7 mm/yr) to northern and central Oregon (∼9 mm/yr), consistent with oblique convergence and geologic constraints on permanent deformation. The margin‐parallel strain gradient, concentrated in western Washington across the populated Puget Lowlands, compares in magnitude to shortening across the Los Angeles Basin. Thus crustal faulting also contributes to seismic hazard. Farther south in southern Oregon, north‐westward velocities reflect the influence of Pacific‐North America motion and impingement of the Sierra Nevada block on the Pacific Northwest. In contrast to previous notions, some deformation related to the Eastern California shear zone crosses northernmost California in the vicinity of the Klamath Mountains and feeds out to the Gorda plate margin

The evolution of language: a comparative review

For many years the evolution of language has been seen as a disreputable topic, mired in fanciful &quot;just so stories&quot; about language origins. However, in the last decade a new synthesis of modern linguistics, cognitive neuroscience and neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory has begun to make important contributions to our understanding of the biology and evolution of language. I review some of this recent progress, focusing on the value of the comparative method, which uses data from animal species to draw inferences about language evolution. Discussing speech first, I show how data concerning a wide variety of species, from monkeys to birds, can increase our understanding of the anatomical and neural mechanisms underlying human spoken language, and how bird and whale song provide insights into the ultimate evolutionary function of language. I discuss the ‘‘descended larynx’ ’ of humans, a peculiar adaptation for speech that has received much attention in the past, which despite earlier claims is not uniquely human. Then I will turn to the neural mechanisms underlying spoken language, pointing out the difficulties animals apparently experience in perceiving hierarchical structure in sounds, and stressing the importance of vocal imitation in the evolution of a spoken language. Turning to ultimate function, I suggest that communication among kin (especially between parents and offspring) played a crucial but neglected role in driving language evolution. Finally, I briefly discuss phylogeny, discussing hypotheses that offer plausible routes to human language from a non-linguistic chimp-like ancestor. I conclude that comparative data from living animals will be key to developing a richer, more interdisciplinary understanding of our most distinctively human trait: language

Variation in the provision and practice of implant-based breast reconstruction in the UK: Results from the iBRA national practice questionnaire

Introduction The introduction of biological and synthetic meshes has revolutionised the practice of implant-based breast reconstruction (IBBR) but evidence for effectiveness is lacking. The iBRA (implant Breast Reconstruction evAluation) study is a national trainee-led project that aims to explore the practice and outcomes of IBBR to inform the design of a future trial. We report the results of the iBRA National Practice Questionnaire (NPQ) which aimed to comprehensively describe the provision and practice of IBBR across the UK. Methods A questionnaire investigating local practice and service provision of IBBR developed by the iBRA Steering Group was completed by trainee and consultant leads at breast and plastic surgical units across the UK. Summary data for each survey item were calculated and variation between centres and overall provision of care examined. Results 81 units within 79 NHS-hospitals completed the questionnaire. Units offered a range of reconstructive techniques, with IBBR accounting for 70% (IQR:50–80%) of participating units' immediate procedures. Units on average were staffed by 2.5 breast surgeons (IQR:2.0–3.0) and 2.0 plastic surgeons (IQR:1.0–3.0) performing 35 IBBR cases per year (IQR:20-50). Variation was demonstrated in the provision of novel different techniques for IBBR especially the use of biological (n = 62) and synthetic (n = 25) meshes and in patient selection for these procedures. Conclusions The iBRA-NPQ has demonstrated marked variation in the provision and practice of IBBR in the UK. The prospective audit phase of the iBRA study will determine the safety and effectiveness of different approaches to IBBR and allow evidence-based best practice to be explored

Persistent Place-Making in Prehistory: the Creation, Maintenance, and Transformation of an Epipalaeolithic Landscape

Most archaeological projects today integrate, at least to some degree, how past people engaged with their surroundings, including both how they strategized resource use, organized technological production, or scheduled movements within a physical environment, as well as how they constructed cosmologies around or created symbolic connections to places in the landscape. However, there are a multitude of ways in which archaeologists approach the creation, maintenance, and transformation of human-landscape interrelationships. This paper explores some of these approaches for reconstructing the Epipalaeolithic (ca. 23,000–11,500&nbsp;years BP) landscape of Southwest Asia, using macro- and microscale geoarchaeological approaches to examine how everyday practices leave traces of human-landscape interactions in northern and eastern Jordan. The case studies presented here demonstrate that these Epipalaeolithic groups engaged in complex and far-reaching social landscapes. Examination of the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic (EP) highlights that the notion of “Neolithization” is somewhat misleading as many of the features we use to define this transition were already well-established patterns of behavior by the Neolithic. Instead, these features and practices were enacted within a hunter-gatherer world and worldview