today regional integration has become the main source of concern for governments. in the era of globalization different parts of the world have formed regional groupings. realizing their geopolitical, geostrategic and geo-economic status, these regions have regional structures with various degrees of regionalism. geopolitical region of the caucasus is considered as one of the geopolitical regio...

The Mariana Islands lie well within the vast "malaria-free" region of the central and south Pacific Ocean. However, Anopheles indefinitus was discovered on Guam in 1948, and an additional four species of Anopheles were collected on the island during 1970-75. Early malaria cases on Guam were diagnosed as relapsing infections with the disease having been contracted in other areas. Small outbreaks...

We present a case of a 71-year-old male Chamorro patient from Guam who presented with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP)-Richardson's syndrome. Considering his strong family history of parkinsonism and a PSP phenotype, he was clinically diagnosed with Guam parkinsonism-dementia complex (PDC). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain revealed prominent midbrain atrophy with preserved pont...

IMPORTANCE High-prevalence foci of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and parkinsonism-dementia complex (PDC) exist in Japanese on the Kii Peninsula of Japan and in the Chamorros of Guam. Clinical and neuropathologic similarities suggest that the disease in these 2 populations may be related. Recent findings showed that some of the Kii Peninsula ALS cases had pathogenic C9orf72 repeat expansio...

Two species of fruit bats are known from Guam in the southern Mariana Islands. Pteropus mariannus mariannus has declined greatly in abundance since the early 1900s. Its numbers decreased from an estimated 3,000 animals in 1958 to fewer than 50 individuals in 1978. However, by 1982, the population of this species increased to about 850 to 1,000 bats, probably through immigration of fruit bats to...

The importance of the Northern Guam aquifer as a source of drinking water for the tropical Pacific island of Guam has stimulated public interest in the impact of forest clearing and conversion to agriculture on the region’s environment. The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of land clearing, tillage, and fertilization of tropical secondary forest on soil organic and organic...

BACKGROUND Members of the predatory gastropod genus Conus use a venom comprised of a cocktail of peptide neurotoxins, termed conotoxins or conopeptides, to paralyze prey and conotoxin gene family members diversify via strong positive selection. Because Conus venoms are used primarily to subdue prey, the evolution of venoms is likely affected by predator-prey interactions. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPA...

Plumatella bushnelli Wood, 2001 is the first reported freshwater bryozoan for Micronesia, and the Guam collections are only the fourth record of this species in the world. In Guam it normally occurs as small colonies on the undersides of duckweed leaves but formed larger colonies on artificial substrate.

The eggplant mealybug, Coccidohystrixinsolita (Green) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), is recorded from the island of Guam in the Mariana Islands for the first time. Factors indicating that this introduced mealybug has the potential to become a pest of economic importance for agriculture and horticulture on Guam are discussed.