African and European perception of African female attractiveness

Majority of research on attractiveness is restricted to faces of European origin. The perception of attractiveness may, however, vary across communities due to variations in both facial morphology and local standards of beauty. We investigated the relative contribution of four facial markers of attractiveness based on 101 female facial portraits (standardized, non-manipulated) from Cameroon and Namibia, which were assessed by local male raters and by raters from a distant European population, the Czech Republic. Images from Cameroon include only women of Bantu origin, while Namibians are represented by women of both Bantu (Owambo/Herero) and Nama origin. While controlling for age and BMI, we explored the relationship between female attractiveness and a set of facial traits: fluctuating asymmetry, averageness, shape sexual dimorphism, and skin color (rated and measured in CIELab color space).In the Cameroonian sample, local male raters favored lighter-skinned female faces with morphology closer to average. The attractiveness of Nama women as rated by Nama men positively correlated with lighter complexion, but this did not extend to rating by Cameroonian men. The attractiveness of Namibian Owambo/Herero women was positively associated with facial femininity and lighter complexion when judged by both Cameroonian and Nama male raters. In all samples, the attractiveness as rated by Czech men was predicted by age and BMI, but not by skin color. We found no significant association between attractiveness and fluctuating asymmetry in any of the tested samples. When controlling for age, the effect of skin color on attractiveness turned to be non-significant in the Owambo/Herrero and Nama sample, but remained significant in the Cameroonian sample. Variations in skin color thus represent an important factor of African female attractiveness within the African context, but they do not seem to affect judgements made by European raters. Sensitivity to some facial markers of female attractiveness thus seems to be restricted to regional populations and/or constrained by shared ethnicity.     

Characterizing the admixed African ancestry of African Americans

Background

Accurate, high-throughput genotyping allows the fine characterization of genetic ancestry. Here we applied recently developed statistical and computational techniques to the question of African ancestry in African Americans by using data on more than 450,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) genotyped in 94 Africans of diverse geographic origins included in the HGDP, as well as 136 African Americans and 38 European Americans participating in the Atherosclerotic Disease Vascular Function and Genetic Epidemiology (ADVANCE) study. To focus on African ancestry, we reduced the data to include only those genotypes in each African American determined statistically to be African in origin.

Results

From cluster analysis, we found that all the African Americans are admixed in their African components of ancestry, with the majority contributions being from West and West-Central Africa, and only modest variation in these African-ancestry proportions among individuals. Furthermore, by principal components analysis, we found little evidence of genetic structure within the African component of ancestry in African Americans.

Conclusions

These results are consistent with historic mating patterns among African Americans that are largely uncorrelated to African ancestral origins, and they cast doubt on the general utility of mtDNA or Y-chromosome markers alone to delineate the full African ancestry of African Americans. Our results also indicate that the genetic architecture of African Americans is distinct from that of Africans, and that the greatest source of potential genetic stratification bias in case-control studies of African Americans derives from the proportion of European ancestry.     

African Negro

Abstract

Roger L. Stevens is Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., which he championed and funded in its infant stage. Successful in the real estate business (he sold the Empire State Building at a fair profit) Mr. Stevens segued into the theatre, producing such Broadway shows as A Man For All Seasons, Tea and Sympathy, Annie and Deathtrap. He came to Washington as assistant to Lyndon B. Johnson and stayed to build the Kennedy Center and to develop a program which continues to be strong and diverse. Design's Executive Editor Jack Morrison, president of the American Theatre Association, recently interviewed Roger Stevens for our readers.     

African Fractals

This article examines the visual essay as a special verbal/visual mode of expression that is practised both by social scientists and social documentarians, although still on a very limited scale. Examining some of their commonalities and differences sheds light on the particularities of the scientific versus the social documentary approach more generally. To conclude, a photo‐essay from a social documentary photographer is discussed, as it comes close to what could be termed a sociological approach. This borderline application allows elaboration of some of the specifics of the visual essay as a mode of visual anthropology/sociology.     

African Hepatics

Abstract

Lophocolea bispinosa, new to the British Isles, is described in detail. This small dioecious species, which may have been introduced from New Zealand, is well established in the Isles of Scilly, especially in and around the Abbey Gardens in Tresco.     

African Hepatics

Abstract

A new species of Amphicephalozia, A. africana Váňa &; M. Wigginton from Mt Karisimbi, Rwanda is described and illustrated. This is the third species to be recognised from the genus.     

Prevalence of African DNA RELP alleles in neotropical African honeybees

A few queens of the honeybee, Apis mellifera scutellata, were imported from Africa and released in Brazil in 1957. Progeny of these bees have now largely colonized the American tropics. Their imminent arrival in the United States poses a serious threat to the beekeeping industry and to agriculture dependent on honeybee pollination. African and European bees are morphologically very similar. DNA restriction fragment length polymorphisms are proving successful in distinguishing between the two. Several DNA markers specific to European honeybees have been described previously. Reported here are three cloned honeybee DNA probes that reveal polymorphisms that appear to be either African or European specific. Of fourteen alleles or haplotypes identified, five were present only in African and neotropical (Venezuelan and Mexican) African bees but absent in European-derived bees, two were present only in European-derived bees but absent in samples from South Africa. Another allele showed apparent frequency differences among populations. Such markers are useful in studying the genetics of neotropical African bee populations. Venezuelan and Mexican honeybee colonies show a preponderance of the African alleles with low levels of the European alleles. These observations of nuclear DNA, revealing limited paternal European introgression, together with previous mitochondrial DNA findings showing negligible European maternal gene flow into feral African populations, indicate that neotropical African bees are primarily African.     

African ancestry is associated with asthma risk in African Americans

Background

Asthma is a common complex condition with clear racial and ethnic differences in both prevalence and severity. Asthma consultation rates, mortality, and severe symptoms are greatly increased in African descent populations of developed countries. African ancestry has been associated with asthma, total serum IgE and lower pulmonary function in African-admixed populations. To replicate previous findings, here we aimed to examine whether African ancestry was associated with asthma susceptibility in African Americans. In addition, we examined for the first time whether African ancestry was associated with asthma exacerbations.

Methodology/Principal Findings

After filtering for self-reported ancestry and genotype data quality, samples from 1,117 self-reported African-American individuals from New York and Baltimore (394 cases, 481 controls), and Chicago (321 cases followed for asthma exacerbations) were analyzed. Genetic ancestry was estimated based on ancestry informative markers (AIMs) selected for being highly divergent among European and West African populations (95 AIMs for New York and Baltimore, and 66 independent AIMs for Chicago). Among case-control samples, the mean African ancestry was significantly higher in asthmatics than in non-asthmatics (82.0±14.0% vs. 77.8±18.1%, mean difference 4.2% [95% confidence interval (CI):2.0–6.4], p<0.0001). This association remained significant after adjusting for potential confounders (odds ratio: 4.55, 95% CI: 1.69–12.29, p = 0.003). African ancestry failed to show an association with asthma exacerbations (p = 0.965) using a model based on longitudinal data of the number of exacerbations followed over 1.5 years.

Conclusions/Significance

These data replicate previous findings indicating that African ancestry constitutes a risk factor for asthma and suggest that elevated asthma rates in African Americans can be partially attributed to African genetic ancestry.     

African Elephants Loxodonta africana Amplify Browse Heterogeneity in African Savanna

There is a growing concern that the feeding habits of the African elephant, which include pushing over, uprooting and snapping trees, may have a negative impact on other herbivores. Browsed trees are known to respond by either increasing production (shoots and leaves) or defence (secondary compounds). It is not clear, however, what proportion of the browsed biomass can be made available at lower feeding heights after a tree is pushed over or snapped; thus, it is also unclear how the forage quality is affected. In a field survey in Kruger National Park, South Africa, 708 Mopane trees were measured over four elephant utilization categories: snapped trees, pushed‐over trees, uprooted trees and control trees. The elephants' impact on the leaf biomass distribution was quantified, and the forage quality (Ca, P, K and Mg, N, digestibility and condensed tannin [CT] concentrations) were analyzed. Pushed‐over and uprooted trees had the maximum leaf biomass at lower heights (<1 m), snapped trees at medium heights (1–2 m) and control trees at higher heights (>2 m). In all three utilization categories, the minimum leaf biomass was seven times higher than it was for control trees at a height of below 1 m. Leaf nitrogen content increased in all three categories and was significantly higher in snapped trees. CT concentrations increased slightly in all trees that were utilized by elephants, especially on granitic soils in the dry season. The results provide the insight that elephants facilitate the redistribution and availability of browse and improve the quality, which may positively affect small browsing herbivores.     

African ape ancestry

It is commonly believed that the australopithecines are more closely related to humans than to African apes. This view is hardly compatible with the biomolecular data which place theHomo/Pan split at the beginning of the australopithecine period. Nothing in the fossil hominid morphology precludes the possibility that some australopithecines were ancestral to gorillas or chimpanzees and others to humans.