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South African (south + african)
Terms modified by South African Selected AbstractsFunctional regeneration of the olfactory bulb requires reconnection to the olfactory nerve in Xenopus larvaeDEVELOPMENT GROWTH & DIFFERENTIATION, Issue 1 2006Jun Yoshino Larvae of the South African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) can regenerate the telencephalon, which consists of the olfactory bulb and the cerebrum, after it has been partially removed. Some authors have argued that the telencephalon, once removed, must be reconnected to the olfactory nerve in order to regenerate. However, considerable regeneration has been observed before reconnection. Therefore, we have conducted several experiments to learn whether or not reconnection is a prerequisite for regeneration. We found that the olfactory bulb did not regenerate without reconnection, while the cerebrum regenerated by itself. On the other hand, when the brain was reconnected by the olfactory nerve, both the cerebrum and the olfactory bulb regenerated. Morphological and histological investigation showed that the regenerated telencephalon was identical to the intact one in morphology, types and distributions of cells, and connections between neurons. Froglets with a regenerated telencephalon also recovered olfaction, the primary function of the frog telencephalon. These results suggest that the Xenopus larva requires reconnection of the regenerating brain to the olfactory nerve in order to regenerate the olfactory bulb, and thus the regenerated brain functions, in order to process olfactory information. [source] Selection of preadapted populations allowed Senecio inaequidens to invade Central EuropeDIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS, Issue 4 2008Oliver Bossdorf ABSTRACT Invasive species often evolve rapidly in response to the novel biotic and abiotic conditions in their introduced range. Such adaptive evolutionary changes might play an important role in the success of some invasive species. Here, we investigated whether introduced European populations of the South African ragwort Senecio inaequidens (Asteraceae) have genetically diverged from native populations. We carried out a greenhouse experiment where 12 South African and 11 European populations were for several months grown at two levels of nutrient availability, as well as in the presence or absence of a generalist insect herbivore. We found that, in contrast to a current hypothesis, plants from introduced populations had a significantly lower reproductive output, but higher allocation to root biomass, and they were more tolerant to insect herbivory. Moreover, introduced populations were less genetically variable, but displayed greater plasticity in response to fertilization. Finally, introduced populations were phenotypically most similar to a subset of native populations from mountainous regions in southern Africa. Taking into account the species' likely history of introduction, our data support the idea that the invasion success of Senecio inaequidens in Central Europe is based on selective introduction of specific preadapted and plastic genotypes rather than on adaptive evolution in the introduced range. [source] Recognition of Indigenous Interests in Australian Water Resource Management, with Particular Reference to Environmental Flow AssessmentGEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2008Sue Jackson Australia's new national water policy represents a substantial change from the previous approach, because it recognises a potential need for allocations to meet particular indigenous requirements, which will have to be quantitatively defined in water allocation plans. However, indigenous values associated with rivers and water are presently poorly understood by decision-makers, and some are difficult to quantify or otherwise articulate in allocation decisions. This article describes the range of Australian indigenous values associated with water, and the way they have been defined in contemporary water resource policy and discourse. It argues that the heavy reliance of indigenous values on healthy river systems indicates that, theoretically at least, they are logically suited for consideration in environmental flow assessments. However, where indigenous interests have been considered for assessment planning purposes indigenous values have tended to be overlooked in a scientific process that leaves little room for different world views relating to nature, intangible environmental qualities and human relationships with river systems that are not readily amenable to quantification. There is often an implicit but untested assumption that indigenous interests will be protected through the provision of environmental flows to meet aquatic ecosystem requirements, but the South African and New Zealand approaches to environmental flow assessment, for example, demonstrate different riverine uses potentially can be accommodated. Debate with indigenous land-holders and experimentation will show how suited different environment flow assessment techniques are to addressing indigenous environmental philosophies and values. [source] The Concentration Camps of the South African (Anglo-Boer) War, 1900,1902HISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2009Elizabeth Van Heyningen The concentration camps of the South African War or Anglo-Boer War, where Boer women and children, as well as many black families, were interned as a result of the British military sweeps to clear the veld, incited controversy from their inception. The high mortality, primarily from measles, caused much bitterness but the history of the camps has never been properly investigated. Instead, a mythology was created by emergent Afrikaner nationalists who deployed the women's testimonies, in particular, to establish a ,paradigm of suffering'. Recently a number of historians have demonstrated the way in which commemoration of the concentration camps in South Africa has also been politicised. This article surveys the literature on the camps, highlighting some of the omissions. [source] Transglutaminase-1 gene mutations in autosomal recessive congenital ichthyosis: Summary of mutations (including 23 novel) and modeling of TGase-1,HUMAN MUTATION, Issue 4 2009Matthew L. Herman Abstract Autosomal recessive congenital ichthyosis (ARCI) is a heterogeneous group of rare cornification diseases. Germline mutations in TGM1 are the most common cause of ARCI in the United States. TGM1 encodes for the TGase-1 enzyme that functions in the formation of the cornified cell envelope. Structurally defective or attenuated cornified cell envelop have been shown in epidermal scales and appendages of ARCI patients with TGM1 mutations. We review the clinical manifestations as well as the molecular genetics of ARCI. In addition, we characterized 115 TGM1 mutations reported in 234 patients from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds (Caucasion Americans, Norwegians, Swedish, Finnish, German, Swiss, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Hispanics, Iranian, Tunisian, Moroccan, Egyptian, Afghani, Hungarian, African Americans, Korean, Japanese and South African). We report 23 novel mutations: 71 (62%) missense; 20 (17%) nonsense; 9 (8%) deletion; 8 (7%) splice-site, and 7 (6%) insertion. The c.877-2A>G was the most commonly reported TGM1 mutation accounting for 34% (147 of 435) of all TGM1 mutant alleles reported to date. It had been shown that this mutation is common among North American and Norwegian patients due to a founder effect. Thirty-one percent (36 of 115) of all mutations and 41% (29 of 71) of missense mutations occurred in arginine residues in TGase-1. Forty-nine percent (35 of 71) of missense mutations were within CpG dinucleotides, and 74% (26/35) of these mutations were C>T or G>A transitions. We constructed a model of human TGase-1 and showed that all mutated arginines that reside in the two beta-barrel domains and two (R142 and R143) in the beta-sandwich are located at domain interfaces. In conclusion, this study expands the TGM1 mutation spectrum and summarizes the current knowledge of TGM1 mutations. The high frequency of mutated arginine codons in TGM1 may be due to the deamination of 5, methylated CpG dinucleotides. Hum Mutat 0, 1,12, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Psychological essentialism and cultural variation: children's beliefs about aggression in the United States and South AfricaINFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2008Jessica W. Giles Abstract The present study compared indigenous South African versus African-American schoolchildren's beliefs about aggression. Eighty 7,9 year olds (40 from each country) participated in interviews in which they were asked to make inferences about the stability, malleability, and causal origins of aggressive behaviour. Although a minority of participants from both countries endorsed essentialist beliefs about aggression, South African children were more likely than American children to do so. Results also revealed some degree of coherence in children's patterns of beliefs about aggression, such that children responded across superficially different measures in ways that appear theoretically consistent. The authors consider these findings in light of debates concerning the role of cultural forces in shaping person perception. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Silicon-mediated resistance of sugarcane to Eldana saccharina Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae): effects of silicon source and cultivarJOURNAL OF APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 8 2006M. G. Keeping Abstract:, The effects of four silicon sources , a USA calcium silicate, a local (South African) calcium silicate, Slagment® and fly ash , on the resistance of sugarcane cultivars (two resistant and two susceptible) to Eldana saccharina Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) were studied in a potted sugarcane trial. Silicon sources were applied at 5000 or 10 000 kg/ha for the calcium silicates and Slagment; fly ash was applied at 15 000 or 30 000 kg/ha. The greatest increase in plant silicon content (particularly in stalks) was recorded for plants treated with local calcium silicate. Silicon uptake did not vary significantly between the susceptible and resistant cultivars, although the resistant cultivars had inherently higher silicon content than the susceptible ones. Treatment with silicon significantly reduced borer damage and borer performance at the higher treatment level. In general, borer damage and performance decreased with increasing rates of applied silicon and both variables were inversely related with per cent stalk silicon. On average, the higher silicon rate reduced damage by 34% in the susceptible cultivars and by 26% in the resistant cultivars, supporting the argument that susceptible cultivars benefit more from silicon treatments than resistant ones. We propose that calcium silicate amendments could be employed in the integrated, area-wide management of E. saccharina and in the management of soil acidity, both of which are widespread problems in the South African sugar industry. [source] The labour market and household income inequality in South Africa: existing evidence and new panel dataJOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 6 2001Murray Leibbrandt South Africa's very high Gini coefficient has always served as the starkest indicator of the country's extreme inequality. The racial legacy has always been highlighted in explaining this inequality. This paper presents evidence that between race contributions to inequality have declined from the early 1970s to the mid 1990s. However, they are still considerably higher than comparative international figures. The racially rigged labour market has always been assumed to operate as the key force underlying these changing inequality patterns and the paper presents findings for more formal decompositions of the linkage between the labour market and household inequality. This work confirms the dominance of the labour market in driving total South African, African and even KwaZulu-Natal inequality. However, the contribution of wage income is uneven across these different levels of aggregation and across time; suggesting complex patterns of inequality generation. The following lengthy section of the paper uses a panel data set to measure and explain the mobility patterns of a sample of African households in Kwazulu-Natal. It is found that there was less income mobility at the top and the bottom of the distribution than in the middle and overall there was an increase in income differentiation. Simple mobility profiling and more complex modelling confirm the importance of labour market changes in influencing movement of real adult equivalent income of households as well as mobility across deciles, across poverty lines. Demographic changes are also seen to be very important. The paper concludes with a summary and some suggestions for further work. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF THE GENUS SPONGITES (CORALLINALES, RHODOPHYTA) FROM CHILE,JOURNAL OF PHYCOLOGY, Issue 1 2008Rodrigo Vidal Both the records and the descriptions of the crustose species of coralline algae on the southeastern coast of South America are from the early 1900s. Unlike other algae species on the coast of Chile, the biogeography and distribution of crustose corallines have not been studied despite their abundance. Through recent studies, it has been determined that the genus Spongites is the most conspicuous genus along the rocky intertidal of the Chilean coasts. It is also common to the entire coast of the Southern Hemisphere; however, the relationship between species and the possible reasons for their distribution is unknown. We used nuclear and mitochondrial genetic markers and SEM observations of morphological characters to examine Spongites samples from the Southern Hemisphere and to establish the phylogeographic relationships of Chilean Spongites with specimens from other southern coasts. The combination of these analyses revealed the following: (i) a monophyletic clade that represents the Chilean Spongites and (ii) a paraphyletic clade for South African, New Zealand, and Argentine samples. Consequently, we postulate two nonexclusive hypotheses regarding the relationship of Spongites species in the Southern Hemisphere: (i) a complex history of extinction, speciation, and recolonization that might have erased original Gondwanan split patterns, and (ii) an Antarctic Peninsula origin for the Chilean Spongites species. [source] Successfully Translating Language and Culture when Adapting Assessment MeasuresJOURNAL OF POLICY AND PRACTICE IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES, Issue 2 2010Juan Bornman Abstract A need exists for culturally valid and reliable developmental assessment tools for children with disabilities that are able to accommodate multiple languages. One way in which this goal can be achieved is through test translations. The purpose of this preliminary study was to examine the use of translations of select developmental assessment instruments from English to Afrikaans and from one cultural context to another (Western to South African). Specifically, we examined children's performance on two measures of development: the Mullen Scales of Early Learning and the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ). Both measures were completed for 47 typically developing South African preschool children between 3 and 6 years of age. The Mullen was completed by a speech and language therapist and the ASQ by a parent. Both of the measures used yielded similar results, and compared favorably with the existing norms. The procedures provide a framework for expanding such adaptations in other applications. [source] Towards a material ethnography of linguistic landscape: Multilingualism, mobility and space in a South African township1JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 3 2009Christopher Stroud The study of multilingual landscapes promises to introduce a new perspective into theories and policies of multilingualism, and to provide essential data for a politics of language. However, the theorization of space and language underlying the notion of linguistic landscape is not able to capture the manifold complexities of (transnational) multilingual mobility that is characteristic of many late-modern multilingual societies. Basing our argument on signage data from a contemporary South Africa in a dynamic phase of social transformation, we argue that more refined notions of space coupled to a material ethnography of multilingualism could provide a theoretically more relevant and methodologically refocused notion of (multilingual) linguistic landscape. Specifically, we take an approach to landscapes as semiotic moments in the social circulation of discourses (in multiple languages), and view signs as re-semiotized, socially invested distributions of multilingual resources, the material, symbolic and interactional artifacts of a sociolinguistics of mobility. [source] Evaluation and standardisation of small-scale canning methods for small white beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) canned in tomato sauceJOURNAL OF THE SCIENCE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE, Issue 7 2006Daleen van der Merwe Abstract Canning and evaluation procedures should be standardised to ensure that beans selected, based on canning quality, meet the requirements set by the market and processors. For the purpose of evaluating the canning qualities of small white beans in tomato sauce, three small-scale canning techniques were evaluated, one of which was found to deliver a product with quality parameters similar to those of international standards. Using South African small white bean cultivars and the selected method, Teebus, the cultivar used by industry as the standard to indicate acceptable canning quality, displayed better visual appearance and less split beans than with the other two methods. The percentage washed drained weight and texture values of Teebus were also in agreement with international standards. The evaluation procedure for the small white beans after canning was also optimised, by comparing two procedures, which identified texture, visual appearance (scale 1 to 10), splits (scale 1 to 10), hydration coefficient, clumping, size and colour as the statistically most suitable quality parameters. With the aid of the developed method, it was possible to define standard values for South African ,choice' and ,standard' grade beans, which previously was based only on ,visual inspection' by a trained inspection panel. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry [source] Determination of the oral susceptibility of South African livestock-associated biting midges, Culicoides species, to bovine ephemeral fever virusMEDICAL AND VETERINARY ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 2 2003G. J. Venter Abstract., A total of 10 607 Culicoides midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) were fed on either sheep or horse blood containing not less than 6.5 log10 TCID50/ml of bovine ephemeral fever virus (BEFV). Insects were collected during two consecutive summers from two distinct climatic areas. Two seed viruses, originating from either South Africa or Australia, were used separately in the feeding trials. Blood-engorged females were incubated at 23.5°C for 10 days and then individually assayed in microplate BHK-21 cell cultures. Of the 4110 Culicoides that survived, 43% were C. (Avaritia) imicola Kieffer and 27% were C. (A.) bolitinos Meiswinkel. The remainder represented 18 other livestock-associated Culicoides species. Although BEFV was detected in 18.9% of midges assayed immediately after feeding, no virus could be detected after incubation. The absence of evidence of either virus maintenance or measurable replication suggests that most of the abundant livestock-associated Culicoides species found in South Africa are refractory to oral infection with BEFV. Future studies should be carried out using species of mosquitoes that are associated with cattle in the BEF endemic areas. [source] Development and characterization of polymorphic markers for the sap-stain fungus Ophiostoma quercusMOLECULAR ECOLOGY RESOURCES, Issue 1 2009J. W. GROBBELAAR Abstract Eight polymorphic markers were developed from South African isolates of Ophiostoma quercus. The genome was screened for repeat regions using the fast isolation by amplified fragment length polymorphism of sequences containing repeats protocol and 20 de novo primer pairs flanking putative microsatellite regions were designed. Eight loci were optimized and their polymorphisms evaluated by sequencing. The repeat and flanking regions were highly polymorphic containing both indels and base-pair substitutions revealing a total of 46 alleles in 14 isolates and an average heterozygosity of 0.68. Substantial sequence variability makes these markers useful for genotyping populations in order to calculate diversity and monitor global movement of O. quercus. [source] Wheat leaf rust resistance gene Lr59 derived from Aegilops peregrinaPLANT BREEDING, Issue 4 2008G. F. Marais Abstract An Aegilops peregrina (Hackel in J. Fraser) Maire & Weiller accession that showed resistance to mixed leaf rust (Puccinia triticina Eriks.) inoculum was crossed with, and backcrossed to, hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). During backcrossing a chromosome segment containing a leaf rust resistance gene (here designated Lr59) was spontaneously translocated to wheat chromosome 1A. Meiotic, monosomic and microsatellite analyses suggested that the translocated segment replaced most of, or the complete, 1AL arm, and probably resulted from centromeric breaks and fusion. The translocation, of which hexaploid wheat line 0306 is the appropriate source material, provided seedling leaf rust resistance against a wide range of South African and Canadian pathotypes. [source] The Contributions of Political Life Events to Psychological Distress Among South AfricanPOLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2000Michelle Slone The psychological consequences of adverse political experiences among South African youth were studied in a sample of 540 black and white adolescents from two age groups, evenly divided by gender. Three questionnaires were administered, measuring exposure to political life events, the presence of symptoms of psychopathology, and stressful personal life events during the previous 5 years. The first hypothesis, predicting a substantial contribution of stressful political experiences to psychopathology, was strongly supported; when stressful personal life events were partialed out, a significant effect for political life events remained both on general distress and symptomatology indices. The second hypothesis of a linear relation between exposure to political life events and severity of distress was also confirmed. The findings underscore the enduring impact on children's mental health of past apartheid policies in South Africa specifically, and adverse political environments in general. [source] Descriptions of Protospathidium serpens (Kahl, 1930) and P. fraterculum n. sp. (Ciliophora, Haptoria), Two Species Based on Different Resting Cyst MorphologyTHE JOURNAL OF EUKARYOTIC MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 4 2005KUIDONG XU Abstract. Protospathidium serpens (Kahl, 1930) is frequent in semiterrestrial and terrestrial habitats worldwide. Conventionally, all populations are considered as conspecific because they have very similar overall morphologies and morphometrics. We studied in detail not only the morphology of the vegetative cells but also the resting cysts using live observation, protargol impregnation, and scanning electron microscopy. These revealed a cryptic diversity and biogeographic pattern in details of the dorsal brush and cyst wall morphology. The cyst wall is spiny in the Austrian specimens, while smooth in the South African and Antarctic populations. Accordingly, P. serpens consists of at least two species: P. serpens (with spiny cyst wall) and P. fraterculum n. sp. (with smooth cyst wall); the latter is probably composed of two distinct taxa differing by the absence (South African)/presence (Antarctic) of a monokinetidal bristle tail in brush row 3, the number of dikinetids comprising brush row 1 (seven versus three), and the total number of brush dikinetids (29 versus 17). Protospathidium serpens is neotypified with the new population from Austria. The significance of resting cyst morphology is discussed with respect to alpha-taxonomy and overall ciliate diversity. [source] Front and Back Covers, Volume 26, Number 5.ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 5 2010October 2010 Front and back cover caption, volume 26 issue 5 Front cover RETHINKING SUICIDE BOMBING The body is a key focus for anthropological research and analysis. The cover photographs highlight the way multiple aspects of life, including political life, are mapped onto the body, and the emergence of a collective, as well as individual, identity through these experiences. The front cover shows a young Palestinian boy staring at an Israeli guard's gun, inches from his face, while waiting at the Abu Dis checkpoint in East Jerusalem. Although the scene is calm, the photograph captures an implicit violence (any step out of line can and will be punished) and reveals the daily reality of political and structural violence in the lives of Palestinians. In this image, the child can be seen as an individual who may experience personal trauma as a result of these daily encounters with violence. But he can also be seen as representing a collective Palestinian body which, under the occupation, is humiliated and forced into a childlike position, with daily decisions, including over movement, entirely in the control of Israeli forces. In her article in this issue, Natalia Linos calls on anthropology to offer a critical analysis of suicide bombing and examine the central role of the body in this act. She posits that in a context of political and structural violence that encroaches on both individual and group identity, suicide attacks may be considered an extreme form of reclaiming the violated body through self-directed violence. Through suicide attacks in public spaces, the body may be used to contest physical barriers imposed by an oppressor, resist power imbalances, and reclaim authority over one's body as well as geographical space. Back cover ASSEMBLING BODIES The back cover shows a South African ,body map', on display at the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) until 6 November 2010 as part of the exhibition ,Assembling bodies: Art, science and imagination', reviewed in this issue. This self-portrait by Babalwa depicts her life as an activist and epitomizes the ethical and political negotiations that surround definition and treatment of particular bodies in contemporary South Africa. Babalwa was a member of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), which successfully campaigned for the widespread availability of antiretroviral treatment therapies. Her self-portrait is one of a series of life-sized body maps made by members of the Bambanani Womens Group in 2003, as part of a project documenting the lives of women with HIV/AIDS. The body maps and associated narratives trace the co-existence of multiple ways of understanding and experiencing bodies and disease in these women's lives. The imagery , referring to family and friends, political life, biomedical science, anatomical details, moral pollution and religious beliefs , suggests many bodies existing within a single corporeal form. In addition to revealing individual subjectivities, the body maps also highlight the shifting dynamics of sociality. Behind each self-portrait is the outline of another shadowy form, a reminder of the help received and the potential for future support. [source] Front and Back Covers, Volume 24, Number 4.ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 4 2008August 200 Front cover and back cover caption, volume 24 issue 4 Front cover Front cover: Front cover The front cover of this issue illustrates Vasiliki P. Neofotistos' article on the 2006 film Borat: Cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan. In the film, British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen plays Borat Sagdiyev, a Kazakh journalist, who leaves his country on a project funded by the Ministry of Information to travel with his film producer to ,US and A, the greatest country in the world' and make a ,movie film' about American culture, with the putative aim of gaining insights into what makes America great and applying them to Kazakhstan. The film has generated contrasting reactions, ranging from CNN's praise of it as ,most excellent comedy' to lawsuits filed by, among others, residents of the Romanian village in which part of the film was shot. Borat has been condemned as deeply offensive to women, Kazakhs, fraternity brothers and Jews alike. In this issue Neofotistos focuses on some of the lessons that Western audiences could potentially take away from the film, using the notion of the grotesque as a tool to read Borat as an allegory of America that invites us to revisit aspects of our own culture and hence as a highly appropriate film for our times. Back cover Back cover: ,FORTRESS' SOUTH AFRICA? A South African and a foreigner find common ground in Islam. The two men are about to enter a mosque in downtown Pretoria for Friday prayers. Prayers at this mosque provide a meeting ground for Muslim men and women from all over Africa, and from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Foreigners attending the mosque range from diplomats to illegal immigrants. Significant numbers of black South Africans from all walks of life have converted to Islam in recent years. In this issue John Sharp shows that there are many circumstances in which - as in this photograph - South Africans and foreigners from elsewhere in Africa pursue shared interests peacefully. Anthropological field research points to the range of these contexts, which have largely been ignored by commentators attempting to explain the episode of mass ,xenophobic' violence that wracked South African cities and towns in May 2008. Explanations focus on the xenophobic attitudes of ordinary South Africans, and link these attitudes to competition for resources between locals who are poor and their equally poor counterparts from further north. Recent research indicates, however, not only that relationships between poor South Africans and poor foreigners are more complex than most commentators allow, but also that South African xenophobia begins at the top, among the leaders of the ANC government and the black and white elites whose interests it serves. Sharp argues that a newly-issued report on the xenophobic violence by a government-orientated think tank reproduces the dominant xenophobic discourse in its recommendation that the state should construct a ,Fortress SA' with impenetrable borders, while seeking to mask its adherence to official discourse by representing its proposals as a response to the xenophobic attitudes of poor South Africans. As Sharp suggests, anthropological research might offer a more nuanced response to the issues. [source] Modeling Maternal,Infant HIV Transmission in the Presence of Breastfeeding with an Imperfect TestBIOMETRICS, Issue 4 2007N. Gupte Summary An important public health question is to determine the probabilities of perinatal HIV transmission and when it occurs, whether antepartum, intrapartum, or postpartum through breastfeeding. However, this is a difficult problem because the presence of HIV infection in an infant can only be ascertained through viral assays in the postpartum period. We propose a model that simultaneously estimates the risks of antepartum, intrapartum, and postpartum transmissions together with the sensitivity of the screening tests for HIV infection. The model allows estimating of infectivity through breast milk during postpartum periods. The methods are illustrated on a South African randomized clinical trial of extended AZT versus a short course of nevirapine in infants whose mothers had no access to antenatal antiretroviral therapy. [source] Polyploidy and new chromosome counts in Helichrysum (Asteraceae, Gnaphalieae)BOTANICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, Issue 3 2008MERCÈ GALBANY-CASALS Mitotic chromosome numbers are reported for 31 populations representing 28 taxa of Helichrysum. Twelve are new and eight others provide confirmation of a unique previous reference. A new chromosome number, 2n = 42, is reported for H. odoratissimum. Polyploidy is confirmed as the most significant evolutionary trend in chromosome number within the genus. Chromosome data agree with trends observed in phylogenetic studies: a South African and diploid origin of the genus, followed by a radiation and diversification in southern Africa and several migrations towards the north of the African continent, the Mediterranean basin and Asia. Expansion and diversification of the genus have been accompanied by several genome duplications which have led to the acquisition of the tetraploid, hexaploid and octoploid levels, all in several independent events. Both autopolyploidy and allopolyploidy are suggested as probable speciation agents within the genus. © 2008 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2008, 158, 511,521. [source] Substantial regional differences in human herpesvirus 8 seroprevalence in sub-Saharan Africa: Insights on the origin of the "Kaposi's sarcoma belt",,INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CANCER, Issue 10 2010Sheila C. Dollard Abstract Equatorial Africa has among the highest incidences of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) in the world, thus earning the name "KS Belt." This was the case even before the HIV epidemic. To date, there is no clear evidence that HHV-8 seroprevalence is higher in this region but interpretation of the available literature is tempered by differences in serologic assays used across studies. We examined representatively sampled ambulatory adults in Uganda, which is in the "KS Belt," and in Zimbabwe and South Africa which are outside the Belt, for HHV-8 antibodies. All serologic assays were uniformly performed in the same reference laboratory by the same personnel. In the base-case serologic algorithm, seropositivity was defined by reactivity in an immunofluorescence assay or in 2 enzyme immunoassays. A total of 2,375 participants were examined. In Uganda, HHV-8 seroprevalence was high early in adulthood (35.5% by age 21) without significant change thereafter. In contrast, HHV-8 seroprevalence early in adulthood was lower in Zimbabwe and South Africa (13.7 and 10.8%, respectively) but increased with age. After age adjustment, Ugandans had 3.24-fold greater odds of being HHV-8 infected than South Africans (p < 0.001) and 2.22-fold greater odds than Zimbabweans (p < 0.001). Inferences were unchanged using all other serologic algorithms evaluated. In conclusion, HHV-8 infection is substantially more common in Uganda than in Zimbabwe and South Africa. These findings help to explain the high KS incidence in the "KS Belt" and underscore the importance of a uniform approach to HHV-8 antibody testing. [source] Postcolonial Transitions in Africa: Decolonization in West Africa and Present Day South AfricaJOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 5 2010Stephanie Decker abstract Black Economic Empowerment is a highly debated issue in contemporary South Africa. Yet few South Africans realize that they are following a postcolonial trajectory already experienced by other countries. This paper presents a case study of British firms during decolonization in Ghana and Nigeria in the 1950s and 1960s, which saw a parallel development in business and society to that which occurred in South Africa in the 1990s and 2000s. Despite fundamental differences between these states, all have had to empower a majority of black citizens who had previously suffered discrimination on the basis of race. The paper employs concepts from social capital theory to show that the process of postcolonial transition in African economies has been more politically and socially disruptive than empowerment in Western countries. Historical research contributes to our understanding of the nature of institutional shocks in emerging economies. [source] Racial Reconciliation in South Africa:Interracial Contact and Changes over TimeJOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES, Issue 2 2010James L. Gibson Relying upon,Gibson's (2004),theory equating lack of prejudice with interracial "reconciliation," we investigate racial attitudes based on a 2004 nationally representative survey of South Africans. We begin by documenting substantial group-based differences in intergroup prejudice, with Blacks being considerably less reconciled with Whites as compared to the three racial minorities' levels of reconciliation with Blacks. We also discover that the Black majority has become less reconciled with Whites over the period from Gibson's survey (in 2001) to the current survey (in 2004). Improvement in racial attitudes is observed among the other three groups. We next investigate intergroup contact as an explanation of differences in attitudes, finding some effects of mere contact and powerful effects of intimate contact. However, the consequences of contact differ across the various racial groups. [source] Criminal justice, cultural justice: The limits of liberalism and the pragmatics of difference in the new south africaAMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Issue 2 2004John L. Comaroff ABSTRACT What are the limits of liberalism in accommodating the growing demands of difference? Can a Euromodernist nation-state, founded on One Law, infuse itself with another, with an African jurisprudence? And how is it to deal with cultural practices deemed "dangerous" by the canons of enlightenment reason? These questions are especially urgent in postcolonies like South Africa, with highly diverse populations whose traditional ways and means are accorded constitutional protection. Here we examine how South Africans are dealing with such "dangerous" practices in an era in which their nation is becoming ever more policultural; how, in the process, an Afromodernity is taking organic shape in the interstices between new democratic institutions and the kingdom of custom; how the confrontation between Culture, in the upper case, and a state founded on liberal universalism is beginning to reconfigure the political landscape of this postcolony,as it is, we argue, in many places across the planet. [source] "Unsightly Huts": Shanties and the Divestment Movement of the 1980sPEACE & CHANGE, Issue 3 2007Bradford Martin This article analyzes students' efforts to pressure American colleges and universities to divest their South African investments during the 1980s, focusing on the movement's most visible feature, the shantytowns students built to express solidarity with black South Africans and to oppose their institutions' investment policies. I argue that the shanties were constructed in spaces chosen to achieve maximum symbolic power and often succeeded in spatially transforming campuses into public forums that heightened students' capacity to affect the institutional decision-making process. Not surprisingly, the shanties evoked fervent responses. Shantytown residents identified with the plight of black South Africans under apartheid, while opponents called them "eyesores," and, as in the notorious case at Dartmouth, even forcibly destroyed them. When set against the conservative tenor of the Reagan/Bush 1980s, the varying responses to campus shantytowns, at both elite private institutions as well as large public ones, raise important questions about the cultural constructedness of "vision" and aesthetics and about the efficacy and the limits of using public space for symbolic oppositional politics. [source] The Magic of the Populace: An Ethnography of Illegibility in the South African Immigration BureaucracyPOLAR: POLITICAL AND LEGAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW, Issue 1 2010Colin Hoag Recent anthropological accounts of the state have demonstrated the potential for danger or illegibility in the public's encounter with the state. Much of this work has taken the perspective of the public, however, and less has been said about how functionaries of the state perceive their interactions with the public. This perspectival bias needs to be overcome through ethnographies of the state and of state bureaucracies in everyday practice. This article examines the Immigration Services Branch of the South African Department of Home Affairs, a state bureaucracy widely deemed "illegible" by South Africans and non-South Africans alike. It documents some of the factors that inform the actions of street-level bureaucrats, illustrating how bureaucrats develop systems of meaning to help them mitigate the challenges posed by an unpredictable populace and management hierarchy. These systems serve to stabilize these two unstable entities, but they also enable officials to act in ways that might run counter to official discourse while simultaneously upholding its legitimacy. Their stabilization efforts therefore incite a destabilization of the state, leading it to appear as "magical" or "illegible" to the public. [source] Redeeming Apartheid's Legacy: Collective Guilt, Political Ideology, and CompensationPOLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2008Bert Klandermans This paper reports two studies among white South African students on feelings of collective guilt about apartheid and attitudes to affirmative action. Study 1 reports on 21 in-depth interviews, Study 2 on results from 180 survey questionnaires. Substantial proportions of the participants in both studies displayed feelings of collective guilt. Among participants in both studies who identified strongly with white South Africans, some displayed strong feelings of collective guilt while others displayed no such feelings. Our survey data suggest that political ideology functions as a moderator. Strong feelings of guilt were found among students who identified strongly with white South Africans and defined themselves as liberals. If they defined themselves as conservatives then no feelings of collective guilt were observed. Strong feelings of collective guilt were accompanied by positive attitudes toward affirmative action. The influence of political ideology on attitudes toward affirmative action was mediated by collective guilt. [source] International migration and the Rainbow NationPOPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 1 2006David Lucas Abstract Recent statistics suggest that emigration from South Africa is accelerating while documented immigration remains at low levels. Primary analysis of a 10% sample of the overseas-born in South Africa from the 1996 census confirmed that Black immigrants to South Africa were shown to be predominantly unskilled males, who were no better qualified than the Black population in general. This contrasts with the apartheid era when South Africa built up a stock of overseas-born skilled workers, mostly Whites, which was not replenished in the 1990s, partly because of restrictive immigration policies. The UK is the major destination for South Africans but lacks detailed data on the characteristics of the immigrants. The second destination is Australia and New Zealand combined. Comparisons are made with published census data on the South Africa-born in Australia and New Zealand. A majority of emigrants have post-school qualifications and professional occupations, reflecting the selective immigration criteria of Australia and New Zealand. The analysis confirms the importance of human capital to potential emigrants even though they may wish to move for non-economic reasons. It also supports the view that South Africa had moved from a brain exchange of Whites to a brain drain, thus compounding a national shortage of skilled workers. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Does Truth Lead to Reconciliation?AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2004Reconciliation Process, Testing the Causal Assumptions of the South African Truth Throughout the world, truth commissions have been created under the assumption that getting people to understand the past will somehow contribute to reconciliation between those who were enemies under the ancien regime. In South Africa, the truth and reconciliation process is explicitly based on the hypothesis that knowledge of the past will lead to acceptance, tolerance, and reconciliation in the future. My purpose here is to test that hypothesis, based on data collected in a 2001 survey of over 3,700 South Africans. My most important finding is that those who accept the "truth" about the country's apartheid past are more likely to hold reconciled racial attitudes. Racial reconciliation also depends to a considerable degree on interracial contact, evidence that adds weight to the "contact hypothesis" investigated by western social scientists. Ultimately, these findings are hopeful for South Africa's democratic transition, since racial attitudes seem not to be intransigent. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||