Cichlid fishes in Lake Victoria are model organisms for studying rapid radiation and speciation. On the way to examine the molecular basis of how these cichlid fishes achieved such a remarkable morphological diversification, we constructed a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library derived from a cichlid species, Haplochromis chilotes, from Lake Victoria. The library includes 157,056 clone...

With an estimated 3000 species, distributed from Central and South America, across Africa to Madagascar, the Middle East, and southern India, cichlid fishes (Cichlidae) represent the most species-rich family of vertebrates. In total they account for about 10% of extant teleost diversity. Throughout their distributional range, cichlids have repeatedly demonstrated their capacity for undergoing a...

Lake Victoria cichlid fishes are excellent examples of explosive adaptive radiation. Although Lake Victoria cichlids are believed to have arisen during a short period (approximately 14,000 years), they have various species-specific phenotypes. One important phenotype that distinguishes each species is the shape of the jaw, which has diverged to adapt to the wide variety of trophic habitats pres...

We reconstruct the historical biogeography of cichlid fishes endemic to the trans-Andean region of NW South America. DNA sequences were used to study historical biogeography of the cichlid genera Andinoacara (Cichlasomatini) and Mesoheros (Heroini). Two eventbased methodological approaches, parsimony-based Statistical Dispersal-Vicariance Analysis (S-DIVA) and likelihood-based DispersalExtincti...

This paper puts forward the potential for designing a parrot-inspired robot and an indirect teaching technique, the adapted model-rival method (AMRM), to help improve learning and social interaction abilities of children with autism spectrum disorder. The AMRM was formulated by adapting two popular conventional approaches, namely, model-rival method and label-training procedure. In our validati...

[1] We present an electrodynamic model of a dust devil applying a similar methodology as performed previously for charging in terrestrial thunderstorms. While thunderstorm processes focus on inductive charging between large graupel and smaller ice and water droplets, we tailor the model to focus on the electric charge transfer between dust grains of different sizes and compositions. We specific...

This study aims to evaluate the effects of supplementing golden apple snail (Pomacea canaliculata) eggs powder (EP) in the diet as a source of natural carotenoids on survival, pigmentation and antioxidant activity of Blood parrot. A total of 90 fish were divided into three treatment groups with three replicates per treatment. Blood parrot were fed with diets containing 0 (control), 5 % (EP 5 %)...