Impacts of climate change, variability and adaptation strategies on agriculture in semi arid areas of Tanzania : the case of Manyoni District in Singida Region, Tanzania

Africa is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change because of factors such as widespread poverty, recurrent droughts, inequitable land distribution and over dependence on rain-fed agriculture. This study explored indigenous knowledge, adaptive capacity and coping strategies, coupled with scientific analysis of prevailing climatic patterns in the areas of study, and identified enhanced adaptations for agricultural systems. It was carried out in Manyoni District in Singida Region, Tanzania where 55% of its populations are living below the food poverty line. A combination of existing strategies to adapt, such as timing of agricultural operations and crop diversification, need further strengthening and support

Prenatal diagnosis of focal dermal hypoplasia: Report of three fetuses and review of the literature

Focal dermal hypoplasia (FDH) is a rare syndrome characterized by pleiotropic features knowing to involve mostly skin and limbs. Although FDH has been described in children and adults, the cardinal signs of the fetal phenotype are not straightforward impacting the quality of the prenatal diagnosis. We describe in depth the ultrasound, radiological, macroscopical, and histological phenotype of three female fetuses with a severe form of FDH, propose a review of the literature and an attempt to delineate minimal and cardinal signs for FDH diagnosis. This report confirms the variability of FDH phenotype, highlights unreported FDH features, and allows delineating evocative clinical associations for prenatal diagnosis, namely intrauterine growth retardation, limbs malformations, anterior wall/diaphragm defects, and eye anomalies. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Self-reported incidence of injuries among ballroom dancers

Ballroom dancing is an increasingly popular sport around the world. However, unlike other forms of dancing such as ballet and modern, very little is known about the incidence, nature and severity of injuries sustained by dancers. The aims of this study were: 1) to quantify the incidence of injuries 2) to identify the nature of injuries; and 3) to identify potential aetiological risk factors of injury retrospectively, by means of a questionnaire, at the 2004 South African national championships. The overall incidence of injury was 0.99 per 1 000 dancer-hours. There was a statistically significant difference (p0.05), whereas a statistically significant difference (p<0.05) was observed among females, where muscle spasms (24%) and blisters (21%) were the most frequently occurring injuries. In conclusion, dancers need to be educated about the necessity to seek medical advice when injured, and should supplement their dance training with core stability strengthening exercises and fitness training that reduce the risk of injuries and improve performance.http://www.ajol.info/journal_index.php?jid=153&ab=ajpher

An in-situ cell for characterization of solids by soft X-rayabsorption

An in-situ cell using ''lab-on-a-chip'' technologies has been designed and tested for characterization of catalysts and environmental materials using soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy and spectromicroscopy at photon energies above 250 eV. The sample compartment is 1.0 mm in diameter with a gas path length of 0.8 mm to minimize X-ray absorption in the gas phase. The sample compartment can be heated to 533 K by an Al resistive heater and gas flows up to 5.0 cm{sup 3} min{sup -1} can be supplied to the sample compartment through microchannels. The performance of the cell was tested by acquiring Cu L{sub 3}-edge XANES data during the reduction and oxidation of a silica-supported Cu catalyst using the beam line 11.0.2 Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscope (STXM) at the Advanced Light Source of LBNL. Two-dimensional images of individual catalyst particles were recorded at photon energies between 926 eV and 937 eV, the energy range in which the Cu(II) and Cu(I) L{sub 3} absorption edges are observed. Oxidation state specific images of the catalyst clearly show the disappearance of Cu(II) species during the exposure of the oxidized sample to 4% CO in He while increasing the temperature from 308 K to 473 K. Reoxidation restores the intensity of the image associated with Cu(II). L-edge XANES spectra obtained from stacks of STXM images show that with increasing temperature the Cu(II) peak intensity decreases as the Cu(I) peak intensity increases

Effective killing of the human pathogen Candida albicans by a specific inhibitor of non-essential mitotic kinesin Kip1p

Kinesins from the bipolar (Kinesin-5) family are conserved in eukaryotic organisms and play critical roles during the earliest stages of mitosis to mediate spindle pole body separation and formation of a bipolar mitotic spindle. To date, genes encoding bipolar kinesins have been reported to be essential in all organisms studied. We report the characterization of CaKip1p, the sole member of this family in the human pathogenic yeast Candida albicans. C. albicans Kip1p appears to localize to the mitotic spindle and loss of CaKip1p function interferes with normal progression through mitosis. Inducible excision of CaKIP1 revealed phenotypes unique to C. albicans, including viable homozygous Cakip1 mutants and an aberrant spindle morphology in which multiple spindle poles accumulate in close proximity to each other. Expression of the C. albicans Kip1 motor domain in Escherichia coli produced a protein with microtubule-stimulated ATPase activity that was inhibited by an aminobenzothiazole (ABT) compound in an ATP-competitive fashion. This inhibition results in ‘rigor-like’, tight association with microtubules in vitro. Upon treatment of C. albicans cells with the ABT compound, cells were killed, and terminal phenotype analysis revealed an aberrant spindle morphology similar to that induced by loss of the CaKIP1 gene. The ABT compound discovered is the first example of a fungal spindle inhibitor targeted to a mitotic kinesin. Our results also show that the non-essential nature and implementation of the bipolar motor in C. albicans differs from that seen in other organisms, and suggest that inhibitors of a non-essential mitotic kinesin may offer promise as cidal agents for antifungal drug discovery

African swine fever : update on Eastern, Central and Southern Africa

Control of African swine fever (ASF) in countries in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa (ECSA) is particularly complex owing to the presence of all three known epidemiological cycles of maintenance of the virus, namely an ancient sylvatic cycle involving the natural hosts and vectors of the disease as well as domestic cycles with and without involvement of natural vectors. While the situation is well documented in some of the countries, for others very little information is available. In spite of the unfavourable ASF situation, the pig population in the sub‐region has grown exponentially in recent decades and is likely to continue to grow in response to rapid urban growth resulting in increasing demand for animal protein by populations that are no longer engaged in livestock production. Better management of ASF will be essential to permit the pig sector to reach its full potential as a supplier of high quality protein and a source of income to improve livelihoods and create wealth. No vaccine is currently available and it is likely that, in the near future, the sub‐region will continue to rely on the implementation of preventive measures, based on the epidemiology of the disease, to avoid both the devastating losses that outbreaks can cause and the risk the sub‐region poses to other parts of Africa and the world. The current situation in the ECSA sub‐region is reviewed and gaps in knowledge are identified in order to support ongoing strategy development for managing ASF in endemic areas.LKD received funding from UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC grant BBS/E/1/00007035. CM’s ASF research is funded by a Wellcome Trust Fellowship (Grant 105684/Z/14/Z) and the African Union Commission (Grant AURG‐II‐1‐196‐2016).http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/tbed2020-07-01hj2019Veterinary Tropical Disease

<i>Gaia</i> Data Release 1. Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties

Context. At about 1000 days after the launch of Gaia we present the first Gaia data release, Gaia DR1, consisting of astrometry and photometry for over 1 billion sources brighter than magnitude 20.7. Aims. A summary of Gaia DR1 is presented along with illustrations of the scientific quality of the data, followed by a discussion of the limitations due to the preliminary nature of this release. Methods. The raw data collected by Gaia during the first 14 months of the mission have been processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) and turned into an astrometric and photometric catalogue. Results. Gaia DR1 consists of three components: a primary astrometric data set which contains the positions, parallaxes, and mean proper motions for about 2 million of the brightest stars in common with the HIPPARCOS and Tycho-2 catalogues – a realisation of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) – and a secondary astrometric data set containing the positions for an additional 1.1 billion sources. The second component is the photometric data set, consisting of mean G-band magnitudes for all sources. The G-band light curves and the characteristics of ∼3000 Cepheid and RR-Lyrae stars, observed at high cadence around the south ecliptic pole, form the third component. For the primary astrometric data set the typical uncertainty is about 0.3 mas for the positions and parallaxes, and about 1 mas yr−1 for the proper motions. A systematic component of ∼0.3 mas should be added to the parallax uncertainties. For the subset of ∼94 000 HIPPARCOS stars in the primary data set, the proper motions are much more precise at about 0.06 mas yr−1. For the secondary astrometric data set, the typical uncertainty of the positions is ∼10 mas. The median uncertainties on the mean G-band magnitudes range from the mmag level to ∼0.03 mag over the magnitude range 5 to 20.7. Conclusions. Gaia DR1 is an important milestone ahead of the next Gaia data release, which will feature five-parameter astrometry for all sources. Extensive validation shows that Gaia DR1 represents a major advance in the mapping of the heavens and the availability of basic stellar data that underpin observational astrophysics. Nevertheless, the very preliminary nature of this first Gaia data release does lead to a number of important limitations to the data quality which should be carefully considered before drawing conclusions from the data

Psychology and aggression

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68264/2/10.1177_002200275900300301.pd

Towards an understanding of neuroscience for science educators

Advances in neuroscience have brought new insights to the development of cognitive functions. These data are of considerable interest to educators concerned with how students learn. This review documents some of the recent findings in neuroscience, which is richer in describing cognitive functions than affective aspects of learning. A brief overview is presented here of the techniques used to generate data from imaging and how these findings have the possibility to inform educators. There are implications for considering the impact of neuroscience at all levels of education – from the classroom teacher and practitioner to policy. This relatively new cross-disciplinary area of research implies a need for educators and scientists to engage with each other. What questions are emerging through such dialogues between educators and scientists are likely to shed light on, for example, reward, motivation, working memory, learning difficulties, bilingualism and child development. The sciences of learning are entering a new paradigm

Refined histopathological predictors of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation status: A large-scale analysis of breast cancer characteristics from the BCAC, CIMBA, and ENIGMA consortia

Introduction: The distribution of histopathological features of invasive breast tumors in BRCA1 or BRCA2 germline mutation carriers differs from that of individuals with no known mutation. Histopathological features thus have utility for mutation prediction, including statistical modeling to assess pathogenicity of BRCA1 or BRCA2 variants of uncertain clinical significance. We analyzed large pathology datasets accrued by the Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1/2 (CIMBA) and the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC) to reassess histopathological predictors of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation status, and provide robust likelihood ratio (LR) estimates for statistical modeling. Methods: Selection criteria for study/center inclusion were estrogen receptor (ER) status or grade data available for invasive breast cancer diagnosed younger than 70 years. The dataset included 4,477 BRCA1 mutation carriers, 2,565 BRCA2 mutation carriers, and 47,565 BCAC breast cancer cases. Country-stratified estimates of the