Search

The African Book Publishing Record compiles listings of books, pamphlets, reports, and series published in Africa, covering a wide range of subjects and genres. The listings include books in English, French, and some in Portuguese, as well as new titles in African languages. The entries are classified by subject and country of publication, and provide bibliographic data such as author, title, series, number of pages, and publisher. The record also includes a table of currency exchange rates for various African countries, a list of publishers and their contact information, and information on specific books and exhibitions related to African art. [Extracted from the article]

Water erosion provides major links in global cycles of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Although significant research on erosion mechanisms has been done, there is still little knowledge on C, N and P fluxes across landscapes to the ocean and their controlling factors in subtropical climates. A four-year study quantifying and comparing particulate and dissolved C, N and P from multiple scales (microplot, plot, microcatchment, subcatchment, catchment, sub-basin and basin) was performed in Thukela basin (≈30 000 km2), South Africa. The basin climate was largely subtropical-humid [mean annual precipitation (MAP) > 980 mm yr-1], but temperate (MAP >2000 mm yr-1) on the highlands. Open grassland, cropland and bushland were the major land uses. On average, 65, 24 and 4 g m-2 yr-1 C, N and P were displaced from original topsoil positions, but only 0.33, 0.005 and 0.002 mg m-2 yr-1 were, respectively, exported to the ocean. The fluxes decreased by 95, 97 and 84%, respectively, from plot to microcatchment outlet; and decreased further in downstream direction by >99% from microcatchment to basin outlet. The hillslope (microplot to microcatchment) fluxes correlated strongly with rainfall parameters. Particulate contributions dominated hillslope fluxes at 73, 81 and 76% of total annual C, N and P, respectively. Although particulate C dominated in the microcatchment-catchment reach (55%), N (54%) and P (69%) were dominated by dissolved forms. The lower basin zone was dominated by dissolved flux contributions at 93, 81 and 78% for C, N and P for the sub-basin outlet. These results suggested spatially varying drivers of C, N and P losses from the landscape to the ocean, via the river network. Deposition was envisaged the dominant hillslope level loss process, which gradually gave way to mineralization and biotic uptake in the river network as flux contributions shifted from being predominantly particulate to dissolved forms. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the editorial policies of the journal along with the publisher Index, subject Index and country Index.

A bibliography on the subject of African studies is presented.

The article presents the journal's introduction as well as index on subject, authors and publishers on African books.

A index on the publishers in Africa is presented.

A publisher index for the Vol. 37 of the March 2011 issue of the journal "African Book Publishing Record" (ABPR) is presented.

A publisher index for the April 2010 issue of "African Book Publishing Record," is presented.

The establishment of a catchment monitoring network is a process, from the inception of the idea to its implementation, the latter being the construction of relevant gauging structures and installation of the various instruments. It is useful that the local communities and other stakeholders are involved and participate in such a process as was 5 realised during the establishment of the hydrological monitoring network in the Potshini catchment in the Bergville district in the KwaZulu-Natal Province in South Africa. The paper illustrates the participatory application of various methods and techniques for establishing a hydrological monitoring network, in a small rural inhabited catchment, to monitor hydrological processes at both field and catchment scale for research purposes in water resources management. The authors conclude that the participation of the local community and other stakeholders in catchment monitoring and instilling the sense of ownership and management of natural resources to the local communities needs to be encouraged at all times. Success stories in water resources management by local communities can be realized if such a process is integrated with other development plans in the catchment at all forums with due recognition of the social dynamics of the communities living in the catchment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the greatest difficulties associated with controlling competitive vegetation during the establishment of eucalypts relates to the timing and planning of `weeding'' operations. This may be due to site related variability in vegetation species distribution and abundance, climatic conditions and methods of site preparation. Using data from 33 eucalypt vegetation management trials, multivariate statistical techniques were used to determine whether any climatic, physiographic or management related variables could be related to the time taken for competition-induced tree growth suppression to occur. Altitude, the method of site preparation (burning versus not burning) and the interaction between these two factors were significantly related to the timing of tree growth suppression. Regardless of the method of site preparation, the onset of competition-induced tree growth suppression occurred earlier at lower altitudes, where the vegetation was more diverse and vigorous. At higher altitudes, burning appears to stimulate the earlier growth of vegetation, reducing the time for competition-induced tree growth suppression to occur. Une analyse int?gr?e de 33 essais avec des eucalyptus reliant le d?but de la baisse de croissance due ? la comp?tition avec la gestion des peuplements, les facteurs physiographiques et climatiques. Une des grandes difficult?s pour obtenir un contr?le de la v?g?tation concurrentielle pendant l''installation de plantations d''eucalyptus est li?e ? la planification des op?rations de d?sherbage. La difficult? provient de la variabilit? de distribution et d''abondance des esp?ces qui constituent la v?g?tation, des conditions climatiques et des m?thodes de pr?paration du terrain. Des donn?es de 33 essais de gestion de la v?g?tation concurrente en plantation d''Eucalyptus ont ?t? analys?es avec des techniques statistiques multivari?es pour identifier les variables climatiques, physiographiques ou de gestion susceptibles d''influencer l''apparition du ralentissement de croissance par la comp?tition herbac?e. L''altitude, la m?thode de pr?paration du terrain (br?lis ou non br?lis) et l''interaction entre ces deux facteurs ont eu un effet significatif sur ce ralentissement. Ind?pendamment de la m?thode de pr?paration du terrain, le ralentissement de croissance se produisait plus pr?cocement ? basse altitude, l? o? la v?g?tation ?tait plus vari?e et plus vigoureuse. ? plus haute altitude, le br?lis semble stimuler une croissance plus pr?coce de la v?g?tation herbac?e, en favorisant ainsi le ralentissement de la croissance des arbres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Annals of Forest Science (BioMed Central) is the property of BioMed Central and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

It has been suggested that climatic variation has the effect on the dynamics of arid and semi-arid grazing systems of reducing animal numbers below the level at which they have much impact on vegetation or soils, and that spatial heterogeneity in resource availability serves to buffer herbivores against climatic variation. Modelling was used to test these hypotheses and to examine the interacting effects of temporal and spatial variability in plant production on animal population dynamics and defoliation intensity. The model distinguishes areas of the range that are accessible during wet and dry seasons, and examines the effect of seasonal restrictions in foraging area. It was established that the animal population is in long-term equilibrium with dry-season resources, on which it depends for survival; that dry season resource areas and outlying areas thus operate in a source-sink manner; and that the ratio of these areas determines the strength of consumer-resource coupling outside the dry-season range. A high ratio of dry season to wet season resources may support a sufficiently large animal population to impose non-trivial defoliation impacts on the outlying range. Increasing degrees of variability in primary production on areas used by animals for surviving the dry season increased the annual variation in animal abundance and reduced the mean. By comparison with a stable environment, for which the model predicts virtually stable animal numbers and constant, low defoliation intensity, variation in annual rainfall causes wide fluctuations in animal numbers and defoliation intensity. Under climatic variation, animal numbers can build up enough to impose much higher defoliation intensities than under a constant regime. Periodic intense defoliation is a consequence of climatic variability which is likely to make these environments more, not less, prone to ecological change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories of certain electromagnetic effects, such as chiral phenomena in fluids and crystals and gyrotropic birefringence in antiferromagnetic crystals, require the inclusion of electric quadrupole contributions for a full description of the effect. In a number of these theories the electric quadrupole moment is defined to be traceless, as indeed is the general practice for such moments in nuclear physics. It is shown that, when the traceless quadrupole moment is used in the derivation of the wave equation that describes light propagation through an optically active uniaxial medium, this equation and properties derived from it, in particular refractive index, depend in general on the arbitrary origin used to specify the quadrupole moment. This is physically unacceptable for an observable property of a substance. By contrast, this defect does not occur if the definition of the primitive quadrupole moment is adopted, namely qr r . beta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fluid polarized by an electrostatic field E may exhibit reflection effects linear in E that cannot be observed in either transmission or light scattering. Fresnel reflection amplitudes are derived by means of a multipole theory, to the order of electric quadrupoles and magnetic dipoles, for light incident at a vacuum-fluid interface when the applied field E is either normal to the boundary or parallel to it. These Fresnel amplitudes are expressed in terms of the angle of incidence and the properties of the fluid which are induced both by the electrostatic field and the light wave fields. Experiments based on the differential reflection of orthogonal polarizations of the incident light beam are described for measuring the induced property linear in E for a fluid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two members of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) family have been previously characterized inPlasmodium falciparum, butin vitroattempts at identifying MAP kinase kinase (MAPKK) homologues have failed. Here we report the characterization of a novel plasmodial protein kinase, PfPK7, whose top scores inblastpanalysis belong to the MAPKK3/6 subgroup of MAPKKs. However, homology to MAPKKs is restricted to regions of the C-terminal lobe of the kinase domain, whereas the N-terminal region is closer to fungal protein kinase A enzymes (PKA, members of the AGC group of protein kinases). Hence, PfPK7 is a‘composite’ enzyme displaying regions of similarity to more than one protein kinase family, similar to a few other plasmodial protein kinases. PfPK7 is expressed in several developmental stages of the parasite, both in the mosquito vector and in the human host. Recombinant PfPK7 displayed kinase activity towards a variety of substrates, but was unable to phosphorylate the twoP. falciparumMAPK homologuesin vitro, and was insensitive to PKA and MEK inhibitors. Together with the absence of a typical MAPKK activation site in its T-loop, this suggests that PfPK7 is not a MAPKK orthologue, despite the fact that this enzyme is the most‘MAPKK-like’ enzyme encoded in theP. falciparumgenome. This is consistent with recent observations that the plasmodial MAPKs are not true orthologues of the ERK1/2, p38 or JNK MAPKs, and strengthens the evidence that classical three-component module-dependent MAPK signalling pathways do not operate in malaria parasites, a feature that has not been described in any other eukaryote. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beside insects, sengis also consume plant material such as leaves, fruits, seeds and floral nectar. It is known that they use olfaction for foraging, but little is known about their vision and visual learning capabilities. Colour vision has been tested in two species, showing that they are likely dichromats (green- and blue-sensitive retinal cone-photoreceptors, meaning red-green colour blind). Our aim was to examine the learning and colour discrimination abilities of another species, Elephantulus edwardii. Using training procedures and choice experiments, we tested the hypotheses that the animals can associate a reward with trained colours and that they can discriminate between different colour hues. The sengis preferred the trained colours over the others, indicating associative learning. They could discriminate between all tested colours (blue, red, green, yellow). The sengis' colour choice behaviour indicates that the animals can use also colour features to find food plant material. Additionally, learning abilities most likely are essential for the sengis' foraging activities, for instance by associating floral or fruit shape, colour or scent with nectar or ripe fruit, to increase the efficiency to locate food sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antibodies against primaquine, pyrimethamine, dapsone, tetracycline, and doxycycline were raised in chickens inoculated with each drug conjugated to a rabbit albumin carrier. Antibody titres against drug and carrier were highest during week 6 postinoculation. Affinity purified anti-primaquine antibodies did not recognise other drugs, but affinity purified anti-doxycycline and anti-tetracycline antibodies recognised both tetracycline and doxycycline in addition to primaquine. Primaquine was detected in urine from 6 to 12 hours after ingestion of therapeutic doses of the drug by anti- primaquine antibodies in a competitive ELISA. Affinity purified anti-primaquine antibodies detected primaquine in the cytoplasm and localised in organelles in monocytes that had been incubated with therapeutic concentrations of the drug. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Atmospheric carbon stored in soils for thousands of years. • Causes of agriculture impact on soil C stocks depletion are uncertain. • New evidences show plant mine nutrients in soil organic matter. • Nutrient mining appears as major cause of land degradation, climate change. • Need for new multidisciplinary research. Atmospheric carbon has been stored in soils for thousands of years in the form of organic matter which associates carbon to key plant nutrients. Recent analysis reveals that when facing nutrient deficiency, plants decompose soil organic matter to mine nutrients and carbon is released into the atmosphere which causes land degradation and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract. The dynamics of arid and semiarid grazing systems are prone to the effects of highly variable rainfall, with droughts causing frequent episodic mortality in herbivore populations. This has led [...]