Micronutrient deficiency and the prevalence of mothers' overweight/obesity in Egypt.

I examine the relationship between micronutrient deficiency and the prevalence of mothers' overweight/obesity in Egypt using the 1997 Egyptian Integrated Household Survey. The ordered logit results show an overlap between micronutrient deficiency and the prevalence of mothers' overweight/obesity in Egypt. The odds of being overweight/obese are 80.8% higher for micronutrient deficient mothers than for non-deficient mothers, keeping all other variables constant. These results have at least two interesting policy implications. First, as the potential impact of the interaction between micronutrient deficiency and chronic diseases is not well known, the coexistence of micronutrient deficient and overweight/obese women can raise new and serious public health problems in the country. Second, the Egyptian food subsidy program, which lowers the relative prices of energy-dense, nutrient-poor food items, can be one of the major factors for the emergence of overweight/obese and micronutrient deficient mothers in the country. Changing the orientation of the food subsidy program may help to simultaneously address this double burden of mothers' malnutrition.     

Response of soil δ15N and nutrients to eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) encroachment into a relict calcareous prairie

The calcareous prairies of Louisiana have been threatened by the encroachment of woody plants, primarily eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana). The restoration and management of these rare plant communities require a thorough understanding of the soils supporting them. The knowledge of whether eastern red cedar encroachment has altered these soils is also of interest. We studied the depth distribution, at contrasting vegetation types (prairie, transition, forest) and landscape positions, of ¹⁵N, total N, organic C, C/N ratio, Ca, Mg, K and pH of three relict prairie-forest associations in north central Louisiana, USA. The effect of vegetation type was significant for soil ¹⁵N and Ca. Plant leaf samples from prairie, transition, and forest showed similar ¹⁵N signals, and mean values ranged between –1.6 and –1.1. The order of soil ¹⁵N enrichment of the 0–10cm depth relative to corresponding leaves was forest soil> transition soil>prairie soil. The forest soil was significantly enriched with ¹⁵N compared with the prairie soil and transition soil. Except for C/N ratio, all the soil properties significantly decreased with depth while ¹⁵N increased with depth. Significant differences in C/N ratio, Ca and Mg were associated with landscape position. The change in soil pH due to woody encroachment was restricted to the 0–10cm depth. The results suggest that the prairie soil was distinctly different from the forest soil and that the vegetation at transition (encroaching woody plants) was altering the surface soil pH towards forest-like conditions.     

Seasonal abundance and habitat use of bird species in and around Wondo Genet Forest,south‐central Ethiopia

The habitat use and seasonal migratory pattern of birds in Ethiopia is less explored as compared to diversity studies. To this end, this study aimed at investigating the patterns of distribution related to seasonality and the effect of habitat characteristics (elevation, slope, and average vegetation height) on habitat use of birds of Wondo Genet Forest Patch. A stratified random sampling design was used to assess the avian fauna across the four dominant habitat types found in the study area: natural forest, wooded grassland, grassland, and agroforestry land. A point transect count was employed to investigate avian species richness and abundance per habitat type per season. Ancillary data, such as elevation above sea level, latitude and longitude, average vegetation height, and percent slope inclination, were recorded with a GPS and clinometers per plot. A total of 33 migratory bird species were recorded from the area, of which 20 species were northern (Palearctic) migrants while 13 were inter‐African migrants. There was a significant difference in the mean abundance of migratory bird species between dry and wet seasons (t = 2.13, p = .038, df = 44). The variation in mean abundance per plot between the dry and wet seasons in the grassland habitat was significant (t = 2.35, p = .051, df = 7). In most habitat types during both dry and wet seasons, omnivore birds were the most abundant. While slope was a good predictor for bird species abundance in the dry season, altitude and average vegetation height accounted more in the wet season. The patch of forest and its surrounding is an important bird area for migratory, endemic, and global threatened species. Hence, it is conservation priority area, and the study suggests that conservation coupled with ecotourism development is needed for its sustainability.     

The Belohdelie frontal: new evidence of early hominid cranial morphology from the Afar of Ethiopia

Study of the Belohdelie frontal has demonstrated that this four-million-year-old specimen belongs to a very generalized hominid that may be close to the divergence point of the hominid and African ape clades. Features associated with the temporalis muscle in the Belohdelie frontal and other new hominids from Hadar (AL 333-125) and West Turkana (KNM-ER 17000) suggest that the earliest hominids shared a large anterior component of this muscle relative to the extinct and extant apes. Results of this study support the phylogenetic hypothesis put forward by many workers that A. afarensis gave rise to the “robust” Australopithecus and A. africanus clades.     

Quantitative trait loci for rooting pattern traits of common beans grown under drought stress versus non-stress conditions

Drought is the major abiotic constraint contributing to yield reduction in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) worldwide. An increasing scarcity of water in the future will make improving adaptation to drought stress a major objective of most crop breeding efforts. Drought avoidance by increased extraction of soil moisture from greater depth under drought conditions is an adaptive mechanism of common bean. A recombinant inbred line population of DOR364?×?BAT477 was evaluated for rooting pattern traits in soil cylinder tubes under soil drying (progressive water stress) and non-stress (well-watered with 80% of field capacity) treatments in a greenhouse. One of the parents, BAT 477, is a deep-rooting genotype while the other parent, DOR 364, is a commercial cultivar in Central America. The recombinant inbred line population expressed quantitative variation and transgressive segregation for ten rooting pattern traits as well as five shoot traits of 48-day-old plants. A mixed model quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping analysis was carried out using a genetic map constructed with 165 genetic markers that covered 11 linkage groups of the common bean genome. Genotype estimates were calculated from best design and spatial effects model for each trait. A total of 15 putative QTL were identified for seven rooting pattern traits and four shoot traits. The QTL detected were scattered over five of the 11 linkage groups. The QTL detected for all the root traits except total root length and fine root length were main effect QTL and did not interact with the level of water supply. The total root length and fine root length QTL with significant QTL?×?environment interaction only differed in magnitude of effect, and interaction was of a non-crossover type. Other QTL for total root length, fine roots, thick roots, root volume and root biomass were co-localized and also explained relatively more genetic variance. This suggests that the QTL affecting root traits in common beans are based on constitutive expression of genes and that drought avoidance based on deep rooting, longer root length, thicker roots, increasing root length distribution with depth, root volume and root biomass can be used in molecular breeding. The positive alleles for most of the QTL detected in this study were derived from the paternal parent BAT477. The results from the present analyses highlighted the feasibility of marker-aided selection as an alternative to conventional labor-intensive, phenotypic screening of drought avoidance root traits.