BACKGROUND The domestic pig currently indigenous to the Tibetan highlands is supposed to have been introduced during a continuous period of colonization by the ancestors of modern Tibetans. However, there is no direct genetic evidence of either the local origin or exotic migration of the Tibetan pig. METHODS AND FINDINGS We analyzed mtDNA hypervariable segment I (HVI) variation of 218 individ...

The highlands and mountains of Iceland are one of the largest remaining wilderness areas in Europe. This study aimed to provide comprehensive and up-to-date data on non-native plant species in these areas and to answer the following questions: (1) How many non-native vascular plant species inhabit highland and mountainous environments in Iceland? (2) Do temporal trends in the immigration of ali...

A new set of time-of-day-dependent global maps of the lunar near-infrared water/hydroxyl (H2O/OH) absorption band strength near 2.8 to 3.0 μm constructed on the basis of Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) data is presented. The analyzed absorption band near 2.8 to 3.0 μm indicates the presence of surficial H2O/OH. To remove the thermal emission component from the M3 reflectance spectra, a reliable and...

Many of the first European settlers in Africa sought refuge from the heat and diseases of the plains by moving to the cool and salubrious highlands. Although many of the highlands were originally malaria free, there has been a progressive rise in the incidence of the disease over the last 50 years, largely as a consequence of agroforestry development, and it has been exacerbated by scarce healt...

Malaria epidemics in the highlands of East Africa garner significant research attention, due, in part, to their proposed sensitivity to climate change. In a recent article, Zhou et al. claim that increases in climate variance, rather than simple increases in climate mean values, have had an important role in the resurgence of malaria epidemics in the East African highlands since the early 1980s...

SMASHED: CEREMONIAL INTOXICANTS AND INTENTIONAL TOOLDESTRUCTION IN THE NORTHERN HIGHLANDS OF PRE-COLUMBIANECUADOR

Two new black fly species, Simulium (Gomphostilbia) brinchangense and S. (G.) tanahrataense, are described on the basis of reared adult females, males, pupae and larvae from Cameron's Highlands, Peninsular Malaysia. These new species are assigned to the asakoae species-group within Simulium (Gomphostilbia) and taxonomic notes are given to distinguish each new species from six known species in M...

This paper focuses on examining the key factors that affect poor households in the Central Highlands by using the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) methods to analyze the Vietnam Living Standard Survey (VLSS) in 2008 panel dataset. In the 597 surveyed households in the Central Highlands, we selected 95 poor households to make research group. The empirical findings indicate that income per capita of p...

BACKGROUND In Sub-Sahara Africa, malaria due to Plasmodium falciparum is the main cause of ill health. Evaluation of malaria interventions, such as drugs and vaccines depends on clinical definition of the disease, which is still a challenge due to lack of distinct malaria specific clinical features. Parasite threshold is used in definition of clinical malaria in evaluation of interventions. Thi...

Loss and fragmentation of natural habitats caused by human land uses have subdivided several formerly contiguous large carnivore populations into multiple small and often isolated subpopulations, which can reduce genetic variation and lead to precipitous population declines. Substantial habitat loss and fragmentation from urban development and agriculture expansion relegated the Highlands-Glade...