An abstract of not more than 250 words should be included at the beginning of the manuscript, in the following

The root-knot nematode Meloidogyne ulmi is synonymised with Meloidogyne mali based on morphological and morphometric similarities, common hosts, as well as biochemical similarities at both protein and DNA levels. M. mali was first described in Japan on Malus prunifolia Borkh.; and M. ulmi in Italy on Ulmus chenmoui W.C. Cheng. Morphological and morphometric studies of their holo- and paratypes ...

Laboratoire Central Vétérinaire, Km 8, Route de Koulikoro, B. P. 2295, Bamako, Mali. African Union, Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources, Kenindia Business Park, Museum Hill, Westlands Rd, P. O. Box 30786-00100 Nairobi, Kenya. PACE-Mali, B. P. E1459, Bamako, Mali. FAO-ECTAD (Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases) Unit, Regional Animal Health Center (RAHC), Africa Union Building...

This study investigates to what extent West-African French accents can be distinguished, based on recordings made in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal. First, a perceptual experiment was conducted, suggesting that these accents are well identified by West-African listeners (especially the Senegal and Ivory Coast accents). Second, prosodic and segmental cues were studied by using speec...

This paper investigates the output gap between the formal and informal sectors in three Western African countries: Benin, Mali and Senegal. Using original matched employer-employee databases, we find evidence of low physical and human capital returns in these countries when considering the informal sector. There is also evidence that these economies are deeply cleaved between productive and non...

Rain Use Efficiency (RUE), defined as Aboveground Net Primary Production (ANPP) divided by rainfall, is increasingly used to diagnose land degradation. Yet, the outcome of RUE monitoring has been much debated since opposite results were found about land degradation in the Sahel region. The debate is fueled by methodological issues, especially when using satellite remote sensing data to estimate...

There are an estimated 234,000 cases of measles and 13,851 measles-related deaths per year in Mali. In 1998 and 1999, 548,309 children aged 9-59 months were vaccinated against measles during mass campaigns in urban centers across Mali. After the first campaign, measles incidence decreased by 95% in districts encompassing vaccinated urban centers and by 41% in nonvaccinated districts. There was ...

Cover: A convective thunderstorm arrives near the small town of Hombori (Mali) during the AMMA field campaign (August 2005). This region is located in the Sahel, a transition zone between the Sahara and the Sudanian Savannas and stretches across the African continent. In this region, the spatial distribution of soil moisture affects the regional climate system including the spatial distribution...