OBJECTIVES To estimate the prevalence of active trachoma (TF) in children aged one to nine years and potentially blinding trachoma (TT) in adults aged 15 years and older in six known trachoma-endemic districts in Kenya. DESIGN Community based survey. SETTING Six known trachoma endemic districts in Kenya (Samburu, Narok, West Pokot, Kajiado Baringo and Meru North). SUBJECTS A total of 6,98...

Whether taxometrics yields inferential knowledge to something latent is partly but not wholly a semantic question. Although the single variables are manifest indicator scores of individuals, the statistics computed from them via postulates of the formalism are not mere data summaries and will be incorrect or meaningless if the structural conjectures are false. The unidirectional derivability fr...

BACKGROUND A common perception is that DNA barcode datamatrices have limited phylogenetic signal due to the small number of characters available per taxon. However, another school of thought suggests that the massively increased taxon sampling afforded through the use of DNA barcodes may considerably increase the phylogenetic signal present in a datamatrix. Here I test this hypothesis using a l...

The Hawaiian Drosophila offer a unique opportunity to examine evolutionary questions because of the known ages of the Hawaiian Islands and the large number of species endemic to this archipelago. One of the more well studied groups of Hawaiian Drosophila is the planitibia species group, a long-standing population genetic model system. Here we present a molecular phylogenetic hypothesis of all 1...

Both chloroplast trnL (UAA) intron and nuclear ribosomal ITS sequences highly confirmed the monophyly of the tribes of the Gentianaceae defined by the recent classification, and revealed the tribe Exaceae as a basal clade just next to the basal-most lineage, the tribe Saccifolieae. Within the tribe Exaceae, Sebaea (except Sebaea madagascariensis) appeared as the most basal clade as the sister g...

Leuciscine fishes represent an important component of freshwater ichthyofauna endemic to northern Mediterranean areas. This lineage shows high intra-specific morphological variability and exhibits high levels of hybridization, two characteristics that contribute to systematic uncertainties, misclassification of taxa and, potentially, the mismanagement of biodiversity. This study focused on broo...

Aim Forest composition and distribution are determined by a myriad of factors, including climate. As models tropical rain forest, palms often used as indicator taxa, particularly the Mauritiinae. We question, what characterizes Mauritiinae pollen in global fossil record? And when did become endemic to South America? Location Global tropics. Taxon (Arecaceae: Lepidocaryeae). Methods Pollen trait...

Most freshwater diversity is arguably located in networks of rivers and streams, but, in contrast to lacustrine systems riverine radiations, are largely understudied. The extensive rapids of the lower Congo River is one of the few river stretches inhabited by a locally endemic cichlid species flock as well as several species pairs, for which we provide evidence that they have radiated in situ. ...

Traditional systematic relations within the Passeriformes, perching birds, have recently been re-shuZed in a major review of the “largest avian radiation” (Barker et al., 2004). This includes now recognising Wve basal oscine passerine lineages, rather than the traditional view of two major groups, the Passerida and Corvida (Sibley and Ahlquist, 1990). The avian fauna of New Zealand provide key ...

Microsatellite alleles were used to delimit the genetic boundaries and divergence of the two relictual endemic Pyrenean taxa Borde rea chouardii and B. pyrenaica (Dioscoreaceae ), and to infer the different life histories followed by each species. Our study was conducted on the same populations previously analyzed with allozymes and RAPD markers. The three studied data sets were congruent in th...