The monologue of the dove : reflections on life and death in an oral tradition of the Kwami People in northern Nigeria

The tale portrays the unhappy life of a dove. Constantly surrounded by enemies, hunted by human beings and animals, disappointed by friends and separated from her family, the dove despairs of her life. She ponders over her unjust fate in this world and in a monologue she begins to consider, whether it would not be better to end her own life. This tragic theme forms the climax of several episodes, in which the tension between life and death is described. The elaborate development of dramatic acts demonstrates the intertwining of guilt and innocence in human existence

Language and migration : the impact of the Jukun on Chadic speaking groups in the Benue-Gongola basin

Our paper deals with the problems of migration, culture and language in the wider Benue-Gongola basin. Here are mainly concerned the West-Chadic speaking groups Kwami, Kupto, Kushi and Piya as well as the Jukun who speak a language belonging to the Benue-Congo family. We try to point out the possible reasons for their historical migrations and in particular the consequences of ethnic expansion of the Jukun in the middle Benue region. History shows that contacts of ethnic groups - being peaceful or by force - had always led to mutual influences and changes in culture and language, which finally resulted in cultural fusion of various aspects. Our study, based mainly on oral traditions as well as on linguistic comparisons, focusses especially on the history of the above mentioned Chadic groups, who are considered - according to our hypothesis - to have come in close contact with the Jukun. Subsequently the warlike expansion of the Jukun caused a strong turmoil which led to the scattering of the various ethnic units

The concept of Pulaaku mirrored in fulfulde proverbs of the Gombe dialect

The paper gives a brief history of the Fulçe people who are found all over West and Central Africa. Since no study of a people is complete without mentioning their language, the paper also gives a very brief account of Fulfulde, the language of the Fulçe people. However, the central focus of the paper is the concept of pulaaku, that unique attribute of the Fulçe that serves as an unwritten code of conduct for all ‘true’ Fulçe. Pulaaku is Fulçe’s guiding principle in their dealings with their fellow Fulçe as well as with all other people. Rather than talk about pulaaku in isolation, however, the paper tries to mirror it through Fulfulde proverbs. Coded or loaded messages called wise-sayings or proverbs are widely used in all languages. Fulfulde is particularly rich in this, which is why the paper explores this reservoir of knowledge in trying to portray the rich culture of the Fulçe people. The corpus of proverbs from which the selected proverbs come, was compiled in and around Gombe with the help of Mallam Bappayo Bappa Yerima Djibril. Since the Fulçe are easily the most dispersed people in Africa, no single study can do real justice to all of them. This is why this study narrows its scope to cover just the Fulçe of Gombe area of the northeastern of Nigeria

Takarda daga Kaltungo : ein Brief von Mr. Fada Feson aus Kaltungo

Ein ungewöhnlicher Zufall wollte es, daß mir vor einiger Zeit beim Durchblättern eines Buches ein Brief in die Hände fiel, welcher sogleich meine Aufmerksamkeit erregte. Zum einen war es das übergroße Format der Briefbögen, sodann eine klare ebenmäßige Schrift, vor allem aber war es der Absendeort "Kaltungo", der mich veranlaßte, die einzelnen Seiten genauer in Augenschein zu nehmen. Der sechs Seiten lange Brief wurde am 1. August 1961 von Mr. FADA FESON, einem Lehrer der "Junior Primary School Ture", an Herrn ARND RUF in Feldberg, Bärental geschrieben und ist bis auf die Anrede, einige kurze Zitate sowie einen fünfzeiligen Absatz am Ende auf Hausa verfaßt. Der Anlaß des Schreibens ist ganz offensichtlich in mehreren historisch-ethnographischen Fragen des Adressaten zu sehen, um deren Beantwortung sich der Schreiber bemühte. Dieser Brief schien mir allein schon deshalb einer Veröffentlichung wert, weil hier verschiedene kulturgeschichtliche Themenbereiche eines Volkes und eines Gebietes angesprochen werden, die heute kaum mehr bekannt, vielleicht sogar schon vergessen sind

The SARS algorithm: detrending CoRoT light curves with Sysrem using simultaneous external parameters

Surveys for exoplanetary transits are usually limited not by photon noise but rather by the amount of red noise in their data. In particular, although the CoRoT spacebased survey data are being carefully scrutinized, significant new sources of systematic noises are still being discovered. Recently, a magnitude-dependant systematic effect was discovered in the CoRoT data by Mazeh & Guterman et al. and a phenomenological correction was proposed. Here we tie the observed effect a particular type of effect, and in the process generalize the popular Sysrem algorithm to include external parameters in a simultaneous solution with the unknown effects. We show that a post-processing scheme based on this algorithm performs well and indeed allows for the detection of new transit-like signals that were not previously detected.Comment: MNRAS accepted. 5 pages, 3 figure

Road Traffic Noise and Incident Myocardial Infarction: A Prospective Cohort Study

BACKGROUND Both road traffic noise and ambient air pollution have been associated with risk for ischemic heart disease, but only few inconsistent studies include both exposures. METHODS In a population-based cohort of 57 053 people aged 50 to 64 years at enrolment in 1993-1997, we identified 1600 cases of first-ever MI between enrolment and 2006. The mean follow-up time was 9.8 years. Exposure to road traffic noise and air pollution from 1988 to 2006 was estimated for all cohort members from residential address history. Associations between exposure to road traffic noise and incident MI were analysed in a Cox regression model with adjustment for air pollution (NO(x)) and other potential confounders: age, sex, education, lifestyle confounders, railway and airport noise. RESULTS We found that residential exposure to road traffic noise (L(den)) was significantly associated with MI, with an incidence rate ratio IRR of 1.12 per 10 dB for both of the two exposure windows: yearly exposure at the time of diagnosis (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.02-1.22) and 5-years time-weighted mean (95% CI: 1.02-1.23) preceding the diagnosis. Visualizing of the results using restricted cubic splines showed a linear dose-response relationship. CONCLUSIONS Exposure to long-term residential road traffic noise was associated with a higher risk for MI, in a dose-dependent manner

On the origin of Fe/S cluster biosynthesis in eukaryotes

Iron and sulfur are indispensable elements of every living cell, but on their own these elements are toxic and require dedicated machineries for the formation of Fe/S clusters. In eukaryotes, proteins requiring Fe/S clusters (Fe/S proteins) are found in or associated with various organelles including the mitochondrion, endoplasmic reticulum, cytosol and the nucleus. These proteins are involved in several pathways indispensable for the viability of each living cell including DNA maintenance, protein translation and metabolic pathways. Thus, the formation of Fe/S clusters and their delivery to these proteins has a fundamental role in the functions and the evolution of the eukaryotic cell. Currently, most eukaryotes harbor two (located in cytosol and mitochondrion) or three (located in plastid) machineries for the assembly of Fe/S clusters, but certain anaerobic microbial eukaryotes contain Sulfur Mobilization (SUF) machineries that were previously thought to be present only in archaeal linages. These machineries could not only stipulate which pathway was present in the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA), but they could also provide clues regarding presence of an Fe/S cluster machinery in the proto-eukaryote and evolution of Fe/S cluster assembly machineries in all eukaryotes