Chadic

The Chadic family is best known by Hausa and its 45 million speakers, while the other 170 or so languages count between 500,000 and a few thousand. Given their common genetic origin, what does it mean to be a Chadic language, not only in terms of retentions and innovations from their common Afro-Asiatic origin, but also from a typological point of view? The chapter begins by listing and locating the Chadic languages, while making an attempt at estimating their number of speakers. It then characterizes the typical Chadic language, describing its phonology, morphology, sentence structure, and function marking. The next section studies the relationship between Chadic and Afro-Asiatic in terms of retention and innovation. The section after that explores the typology of the Chadic family and its relationship with the Macro-Sudan belt and Africa as a linguistic area. The conclusion presents a brief assessment of the development of Chadic linguistics.

Development of land transport connections between Asia and Europe and their possible impact on vector introductions into European Countries

The possibility of transfer of several organisms – disease vectors by land transportation Asia – Europe corridors into European countries is discussed. In Europe most alien species are of Asiatic origin. Trade and exchange of goods have developed very intensively for the beginning of the XXI century between Asia and European Union countries both by sea and land routes. Road and railway connections shorten the time of goods’ transport from China to Europe to 10,5 – 12 days. Shorter travel time and increased intensity of trade can increase the risk of introducing vector organisms from Asian countries to Europe. Existing legal international regulations (International Health Regulations, IHR) provide procedures to protect goods and persons against the carriage of organisms – vectors at every stage of transport and travel. Mass passenger and car traffic at border crossing points increase the likelihood of vector organisms entering as random stowaways; therefore it is proposed to intensify educational activities to make people aware of the danger posed by the transport of alien species of arthropods and what preventive actions to take. Unloading goods in a transit country (such as Poland) may take place at a transshipment center located near the border or inland. It is postulated to introduce a 400 m vector monitoring zone around both.

Description of Longidorus cheni sp. n. (Nematoda, Longidoridae) from China

Longidoruschenisp. n., an amphimictic species recovered from the rhizosphere ofLarixprincipis-rupprechtiiandPyracanthafortuneanain Shanxi and Beijing, China, is described and illustrated. The taxonomic position ofL.chenisp. n.among other species within the genus was elucidated using morphometric and molecular data, and phylogenetic relationships were inferred using D2–D3 expansion domains of 28S and 18S rRNA genes by Bayesian Inference (BI) method. The new species is characterised by females with a medium body size (L = 4.9–6.6 mm), a lip region slightly expanded, broadly rounded frontally and laterally, the amphidial fovea broad and symmetrically bilobed at base, odontostyle long and slender (143–168 μm), odonthophore slightly swollen at the base, tail short bluntly conoid to rounded. Guide ring located far posterior from the oral aperture (70–93 μm). Males with two ad-cloacal pairs of supplements preceded by a row of 10–14 ventromedian supplements, with robust spicules measuring 111–126 μm along the median line. Three juvenile stages were present, tail shape of J1 elongate conoid while in J2 and J3 the tail gradually becomes bluntly rounded. Codes for identifying the new species are: A6-B3-C5-D2-E2-F3-G1-H1-I2-J2-K2.Longidoruschenisp. n.belongs to a group of species with a guide ring at the mid-odontostyle position that have a predominantly Asiatic origin. It differs from all of them by a combination of morphological characters and unique sequences of partial 18S and D2–D3 region of 28S rRNA genes. The percentage dissimilarities in partial 18S and D2–D3 28S rRNA genes ofL.chenito the closest species (L.litchii,L.fangi,L.jonesiandL.juglans) were 1.5 %–1.8 % and 16.8–18.3 %, respectively.

Yam Breeding in Ghana

CSIR-Crops Research Institute of Ghana is the National Centre of Specialization (NCOs) for Root and Tuber Crops and migrating into a Regional Centre of Excellence (RCOE) in Root and Tuber research in the West African sub-region. Yam is one of the major root and tuber crops of importance in the sub-region and for that matter the NCOS. Even though yams are indigenous to the West African sub-region, with the exception of Dioscorea alata (Asiatic origin), yams are often aptly described as an orphan crop due to the relatively little research effort compared to its significance in the sub-region in particular and the world at large. Breeding of yams therefore can be a challenge due to little literature available on the subject matter. This paper looks at the historic perspective, what can be done presently and projects into future direction of yam breeding in Ghana and the world at large. It also serves as a guide for yam breeding in particular and root and tuber crops in general.

Morphometrical and genetic comparison of two nematode species: H. spumosa and H. dahomensis (Nematoda, Heterakidae)

Heterakis is a genus of parasitic nematodes, the majority of which are found in ground-feeding birds and only rarely in mammals. The best-known species is Heterakis spumosa, a parasite associated with the cosmopolitan invasive rodent Rattus rattus of Asiatic origin. Heterakis dahomensis was described in 1911 as a parasite of the Gambian giant rat (Cricetomys gambianus) from Benin (Africa), subsequently synonymized to H. spumosa by Hall (1916). The study of helminths in African rodents is scarce and patchy. Since the original description of H. dahomensis, there have been only a few reports from Africa of species belonging to the genus Heterakis and the validity of this species has never in fact been confirmed or rejected. In the present study individual Heterakis spp. were collected from C. gambianus from Senegal. The morphological data taken point to differences between Heterakis dahomensis and H. spumosa, specifically in the number of tail papillae in males and in the vulva cuticular processes of females. In addition, molecular data revealed differences between these taxa and so H. dahomensis should be considered as a valid species. Moreover, recent changes in the systematics of the genus Cricetomys mean that it is now necessary to study the morphology and genetics of the Heterakis specimens collected from Cricetomys spp. (previously assigned to C. gambianus) in order to determine their taxonomic status as either H. dahomensis o H. spumosa.

Excavaciones en un cementerio de Palenque

Doctor en Filosofía de la Universidad de Columbia, especializado en arqueología mesoamericana. Profesor de antropología de la Universidad de Mississippi; Investigador del Museo de la Universidad de Pennsylvania. Trabaja con la cerámica de Palenque y Piedras Negras. Obras principales: The Water Lily in Mayan Art: A complex of Alleged Asiatic Origin, Some Manifestations of Water in Mesoarnerican Art, Elaboration and Invention in Ceramic Traditions.

Proto-Afro-Asiatic origin of ‘gum’?

Our European words ‘gum’ go back to one common source, cf. English gum, German Gummi, French gomme, Italian gomma, Russian σýΜΜИ, etc. As is well known, this source is Latin commi ∼ cummi, vulgar Latin gummi ∼ gumma, which was borrowed from Greek κ⋯μμι.