Search results for "west Africa"
showing 10 items of 77 documents
Impact of internal variability on projections of Sahel precipitation change.
2017
12 pages; International audience; The impact of the increase of greenhouse gases on Sahelian precipitation is very uncertain in both its spatial pattern and magnitude. In particular, the relative importance of internal variability versus external forcings depends on the time horizon considered in the climate projection. In this study we address the respective roles of the internal climate variability versus external forcings on Sahelian precipitation by using the data from the CESM Large Ensemble Project, which consists of a 40 member ensemble performed with the CESM1-CAM5 coupled model for the period 1920–2100. We show that CESM1-CAM5 is able to simulate the mean and interannual variabilit…
Impact de la variabilité climatique et du barrage de Nangbéto sur l'hydrologie du système Mono-Couffo (Afrique de l'Ouest)
2012
Resume En Afrique tropicale, de nombreuses etudes sur la variabilite climatique montrent qu'une tendance a la secheresse s'est manifestee a partir de la fin des annees 1960. Cette secheresse a affecte aussi l'hydrosysteme Mono-Couffo, en Afrique de l'Ouest, avec une persistance remarquable qui s'est repercutee sur les ecoulements. Depuis 1988, avec la mise en eau du barrage de Nangbeto, qui coincide avec une legere reprise pluviometrique dans les annees 1990, on assiste a une modification du regime hydrologique du Mono a Athieme. Les methodes statistiques appliquees aux donnees mensuelles de pluie et debit de la periode 1961–2000 ont permis de constater que les deficits pluviometriques des …
Simulating future trends in hydrological regime of a large Sudano-Sahelian catchment under climate change
2012
Summary This paper assesses the future variability of water resources in the short, medium and long terms over a large Sudano-Sahelian catchment in West Africa. Flow simulations were performed with a daily conceptual model. A period of nearly 50 years (1952–2000) was chosen to capture long-term hydro-climatic variability. Calibration and validation were performed on the basis of a multi-objective function that aggregates a variety of goodness-of-fit indices. The climate models HadCM3 and MPI-M under SRES-A2 were used to provide future climate scenarios over the catchment. Outputs from these models were used to generate daily rainfall and temperature series for the 21st century according to:…
Alu insertion polymorphisms in the African Sahel and the origin of Fulani pastoralists.
2017
The origin of Western African pastoralism, represented today by the Fulani nomads, has been a highly debated issue for the past decades, and has not yet been conclusively resolved.This study focused on Alu polymorphisms in sedentary and nomadic populations across the African Sahel to investigate patterns of diversity that can complement the existing results and contribute to resolving issues concerning the origin of West African pastoralism.A new dataset of 21 Alu biallelic markers covering a substantial part of the African Sahel has been analysed jointly with several published North African populations.Interestingly, with regard to Alu variation, the relationship of Fulani pastoralists to …
Revision of the Afrotropical genus Leiodontocercus (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Phaneropterinae) with a description of four new species
2020
Specimens belonging to the genus Leiodontocercus are rare or even absent in natural history museum collections; this is likely due to at least two reasons, notably, their relatively small size, and, the sheer difficulty in finding them in dense Afrotropical forests. Until recently, three species from less than fifteen specimens were known from this genus, whose identification relied on a singular diagnostic character, that is, the shape of the male cerci. The present contribution is based on the examination of thirty specimens collected from various countries, ranging from central to west Africa; apart from the male cerci, a second diagnostic character – the stridulatory file – is used to d…
Revision of the west african species of scyllarus fabricius, 1775 (Decapoda: Achelata: Scyllaridae), with the description of three phyllosoma stages …
2020
West African species of Scyllarus Fabricius, 1775 (Achelata, Scyllaridae) are poorly known, mostly due to the difficulties of sampling Eastern Atlantic tropical waters. Recent expeditions carried out by the Universidad de Cádiz and the Instituto Español de Oceanografía collected phyllosoma larvae from Cape Verde Islands (CVI) and fresh Scyllarus adults from continental West Africa. Larval stages VII, IX, and X (final stage) of S. caparti Holthuis, 1952 are analyzed using DNA barcoding methods and described for the first time. A comprehensive identification key is provided, summarizing our current knowledge on the phyllosomas of Scyllarus. Together with a revision of museum collections, the …
The Recent Development of a Sweet-Tasting Brazzein and its Potential Industrial Applications
2016
International audience; Brazzein is a small heat- and pH-stable sweet-tasting protein isolated from the West African plant, Pentadiplandra brazzeana. Brazzein combines a highly sweet potency, a long history of human consumption, and a remarkable stability, giving it great potential as a natural sweetener. Due to the difficulties of obtaining brazzein from its natural source, several efforts have been made to express brazzein using various heterologous expression systems. This chapter describes the biochemical, structural, sensory, and physiological properties of brazzein. We will summarize the current knowledge of the structure-activity relationship of brazzein. The biotechnological product…
Errors and uncertainties introduced by a regional climate model in climate impact assessments: example of crop yield simulations in West Africa
2015
16 pages; International audience; The challenge of estimating the potential impacts of climate change has led to an increasing use of dynamical downscaling to produce fine spatial-scale climate projections for impact assessments. In this work, we analyze if and to what extent the bias in the simulated crop yield can be reduced by using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional climate model to downscale ERA-Interim (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Re-Analysis) rainfall and radiation data. Then, we evaluate the uncertainties resulting from both the choice of the physical parameterizations of the WRF model and its internal variability. Impact assessments w…
PTCH-1 and MDM2 expression in ameloblastoma from a West African sub-population: implication for chemotherapeutics
2015
INTRODUCTION: ameloblastoma is a slow growing, painless odontogenic swelling which can attain sizes that result in severe deformities of the craniofacial complex. It is the most commonly encountered odontogenic tumor in Nigeria. Surgical intervention is currently the method of treatment; however identification of altered molecular pathways may inform chemotherapeutic potential. The Protein Patched homolog 1 (PTCH-1) is overexpressed in ameloblastoma. Also, mutation in the MDM2 gene can reduce the tumor suppressor function of p53 and promote ameloblastoma growth. No study however has characterized the molecular profile of African cases of ameloblastoma with a view to developing chemotherapeu…
XRF and LA-ICP-MS studies of gold and silver artefacts from a 12–13th century CE tumulus in Senegal: Implications for the medieval African gold trade
2019
Abstract Silver and gold artefacts from a 12–13th c. CE tumulus in Senegal were recently analysed by means of XRF and LA-ICP-MS. The identification of major, minor and trace elements allowed gaining a rare insight into the composition of precious metals circulating in that part of Africa in medieval times. The results show that all objects were made of polymetallic alloys. Comparisons with analyses from other West African as well as North African and European silver and gold artefacts suggest that the metal from the studied objects most probably originate from outside West Africa. At least in the case of the gold artefacts, this is quite surprising, as we expected to come across pure West A…