bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Habitat structure determines the abundance of the Endangered Sharpe’s Longclaw Macronyx sharpei (Aves: Passeriformes: Motacillidae) at Timau montane grasslands in central Kenya
Authors: Dominic Kimani , Muchai Muchane , Kimanzi Johnstone , Mwangi Joseph , Wamiti Wanyoike , Bakari Samuel , Walter Bernhard , Njoroge Peter 
Published: April 2020

Understanding the habitat selection and structure of a species is critical for developing evidence-centered conservation actions. Sharpe’s Longclaw Macronyx sharpei, a passerine bird endemic to Kenya, is threatened by reductions in habitat size and quality that have left it inhabiting a small and highly fragmented range. From January to June 2016 we investigated the abundance and density of Sharpe’s Longclaw in Marania farm located in Meru county in the northern sector of Mt. Kenya, where no previous study had been done. Population abundance and density were determined using the flush and count method. We observed that these birds were exclusively found in grasslands, being most abundant in habitats of short grass with tussocks, and less so in areas with tall grass. This habitat specificity indicates a key requirement for survival of Sharpe’s Longclaw populations in this area. We recommend surveys in and around Marania farm to determine the distribution of suitable habitats for this species, and that the farm be designated an Important Bird Area. Further studies should also focus on determining the intensity of grazing that is compatible with conservation of Sharpe’s Longclaw populations.
Assamese Cat Snake Boiga quincunciata (Wall, 1908) (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae) - new country record for Bhutan
Authors: Chaida Lekey , Das Abhijit , Tshering Ugyen , Wangdi Dorji 
Published: April 2020

We report first country record of Boiga quincunciata (Wall, 1908) (Squamata: Colubridae) from Bhutan. This addition increases the ophidian fauna of Bhutan to 70 species and adds the seventh species of snake within the genus Boiga.
Prey selection and food habits of the Tiger Panthera tigris (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, southern Western Ghats, India
Authors: Krishnakumar Bawa Mothilal , Nagarajan Rajarathinavelu , Muthamizh Selvan Kanagaraj 
Published: April 2020

The Endangered Tiger Panthera tigris is the largest felid, distributed over 1.1 million km2 globally. Conservation of Tigers largely depends on the preservation of its natural prey base and habitats. Therefore, the availability of prey and its selection play a major role in the sustainable future of Tigers in the given landscape. The current study assesses the prey selection patterns by Tigers in tropical evergreen forest of the Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR), southern Western Ghats, India. Density of ungulates was assessed by distance sampling (line transect, N = 21) and diet composition of Tigers was evaluated by analysing their faecal samples (N = 66). The study estimated very low ungulate density (26.87 ± 7.41 individuals km-2) with highest density of Gaur Bos gaurus (9.04 individuals km-2) followed by Wild Boar Sus scrofa (8.79 ± 2.73 individuals km-2), whereas, primate density was quite high (45.89 ± 12.48 individuals km-2), with Nilgiri Langur Semnopithecus johnii having the highest density (38.05 ± 10.22 individuals km-2). About 74.62% of the biomass of Gaur constituted in the Tiger’s diet, consumed lesser than its availability, whereas Sambar constituted 16.73% of the Tiger diet consumed proportionally to its availability. Chital Axis axis, Muntjac Muntiacus muntjak, and Indian Chevrotain Moschiola indica were not represented in the Tiger’s diet. The current study is the first scientific information on prey selection of the Tiger in KMTR landscape, which will serve as a baseline for its conservation planning and management.
Herpetofauna of Shuklaphanta National Park, Nepal
Authors: Rawat Yam Bahadur , Bhattarai Santosh , Poudyal Laxman Prasad , Subedi Naresh 
Published: April 2020

We present 71 herpetofauna species in Shuklaphanta National Park (ShNP) and its buffer zone based on field surveys, rescue records, photo, and literature records. The list comprises 15 currently known species of amphibians and 56 species of reptiles. We recorded Laudanka Vine Snake Ahaetulla laudankia as a new species record for Nepal. Likewise, four frog species, namely, Uperodon globulossus, Polypedates taeniatus, Hoplobatrachus crassus, and Minervarya peirrei; and one skink, Sphaenomorphus maculatus; one agamid, Laudakia tuberculata; one turtle, Pangshura tentoria circumdata; and 10 snakes, Eryx conicus, E. johnii, Coelognathus helena, C. radiatus, Chrysopelea ornata, Dendrelaphis tristis, Lycodon striatus, Oligodon arnensis, Psammophis cf condanarus, and Ophiophagus hannah are new records for ShNP. Unregulated and illegal collection, road mortality, intentional killing are the observed threats to the herpetofauna. Our aim of this study is to compile species richness and advocate for more rigorous inventories in future providing updated information of herpetofauna of ShNP.
Grasses of Kundadri Hills in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, India
Authors: Abhijit Hanchali Udayashankar , Krishnamurthy Yelugere Linganaik 
Published: April 2020

Abstract: The present communication provides a checklist of grass flora in Kundadri Hill of central Western Ghats, Karnataka. During the exploration, a total of 78 species belonging to two sub-families, 12 tribes, and 43 genera of Poaceae have been documented.
Eurylophella karelica Tiensuu, 1935 (Insecta: Ephemeroptera: Ephemerellidae) – an additional species to the mayfly fauna of Ukraine and notes on distribution of the family in the country
Authors: Martynov Alexander V. 
Published: April 2020

A rare European species, Eurylophella karelica Tiensuu, 1935 (Ephemeroptera: Ephemerellidae) is reported for the first time from Ukraine. The larvae of the species were found within Ukrainian Polissya region in the Pripyat’ River basin. Species list of family Ephemerellidae of Ukraine with notes on species distribution within the country is given in the present contribution.
Field friendly method for wild feline semen cryopreservation
Authors: Araujo Gediendson Ribeiro de , Deco-Souza Thyara de , Bergo Letícia Coelho Ferreira , Silva Leanes Cruz da , Morato Ronaldo Gonçalves , Jorge-Neto Pedro Nacib , Silva Maitê Cardoso Coelho da , Macedo Gustavo Guerino , Paula Tarcízio Antônio Rego de 
Published: April 2020

The aim of this study was to develop a field-friendly method for free-living jaguar and cougar semen cryopreservation. Six captive Jaguars Panthera onca and three captive Cougars Puma concolor were chemically restrained with a combination of medetomidine (0.08–0.1 mg/kg) and ketamine (5 mg/kg). Semen was collected through a tomcat urinary catheter with an open end, diluted for a final concentration of 50 x 106 sperm/mL in a TRIS-egg yolk extender and packaged into 0.25 mL straws. We compared two cooling methods: CoolA - in which straws were placed in a glass tube that was placed in a glass bottle containing water (600mL at 38°C) and transferred to a polystyrene container (12L) containing an 11cm column of ice and water at room temperature; CoolB – where the glass bottle – straws kit was transferred to a 4.26L cooler containing nine blocks (81cm3) of Ice Foam recyclable ice, previously frozen in liquid nitrogen. The sperm volume varied from 2 to 720 µl for the jaguars and from 80 to 140 µl for the cougars. Sperm concentration varied from 224 to 5,115 x106 sperm/mL for the jaguars and from 485.7 to 562.5 x 106 sperm/mL for the cougars. Concerning the cooling treatments, there was no difference in frozen-thawed sperm quality between the methods, in both species. Thereby, the cooling method using recyclable ice frozen in liquid nitrogen can be used for semen cryopreservation in wild felines, eliminating the need for electric energy.
Varying colour pattern, yet genetically similar: Pebble Crab Seulocia vittata (Stimpson, 1858) (Brachyura: Leucosiidae) from the southeastern coast of India
Authors: Prakash Sanjeevi , Kumar Amit 
Published: April 2020

Five adult specimens of leucosiid crab Seulocia vittata (Stimpson, 1858) were recently collected off the coast of Palk Bay, southern India. Typical morphological examination revealed the presence of two colour patterns: grey and red. Interestingly, molecular analysis based on the barcoding gene cytochrome oxidase sub unit I (COI) revealed that both grey and red colour patterns in S. vittata showed 0% sequence divergence between the specimens. This indicates a situation of reverse cryptic behavior in this crab. Surprisingly, the evolutionary and ecological processes leading to the absence of genetic divergence and variation in morphology (colour pattern) in S. vittata complex remain to be addressed.
Carotid Artery Stiffness is Associated With Cognitive Performance in Former Smokers With and Without Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Authors: Hoth Karin F. , Moreau Kerrie L. , Weinberger Howard D. , Holm Kristen E. , Meschede Kimberly , Crapo James D. , Make Barry J. , Moser David J. , Kozora Elizabeth , Bowler Russell P. , Pierce Gary L. , Ten Eyck Patrick , Wamboldt Frederick S. 
Published: April 2020

Background
Heavy smokers perform worse on neuropsychological assessment than age‐matched peers. However, traditional pulmonary measures of airflow limitation and hypoxemia explain only a modest amount of variance in cognition. The current objective was to determine whether carotid artery stiffness is associated with cognition in former smokers beyond the effects of amount of smoking and pulmonary function.

Methods and Results

Eighty‐four former smokers including individuals across a spectrum of airflow limitation severity were included: 30 without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease [GOLD] 0 with normal spirometry and lung computed tomography), 31 with mild‐moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (
GOLD
1–2), and 23 with severe‐very severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (
GOLD
3–4). Participants completed questionnaires, spirometry, carotid ultrasonography, and neuropsychological testing. Multiple linear regression was used to determine whether carotid artery stiffness is associated with neuropsychological performance in 4 cognitive domains after adjusting for age, sex, pack‐years of smoking, estimated premorbid intellectual functioning, and airflow limitation. Higher carotid artery β‐stiffness index was associated with reduced executive functioning‐processing speed in the fully adjusted model (β=−0.49,
SE
=0.14;
P
=0.001). Lower premorbid intellectual function, male sex, and presence of airflow limitation (
GOLD
1 or 2 and
GOLD
3 or 4) were also associated with worse executive functioning‐processing speed. β‐Stiffness index was not significantly associated with performance in other cognitive domains.

Conclusions
Carotid artery stiffness is associated with worse performance on executive functioning‐processing speed in former smokers beyond the effects of aging, amount of past smoking, severity of airflow limitation, and hypoxemia. Future research should examine whether carotid stiffness can be used to identify former smokers at risk for subsequent cognitive impairment.
Companion Animals and Religion: A Survey of Attitudes among Omani Students
Authors: Gustafsson Erni , Alawi Nabil , Andersen Per Normann 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
Prompted by the scarcity of studies on the attitudes of people towards pet (companion) animals in most Arab countries and inspired by their previous research on the attitudes towards animals in Palestine and Norway, the researchers conducted this study to measure the attitudes of university students in Oman with reference to religious observance. A total of 217 students at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman responded to the Pet Attitude Scale (PAS) combined with questions regarding religious observance. The findings revealed somewhat less positive attitudes toward companion animals among the Omani students than the Palestinian students. Despite the general high degree of religious observance among Omani students, the study showed no significant correlation between religiosity and attitudes towards animals among Omani students. Some difficulties connected with the use of self-report questionnaires and the possibilities to investigate attitudes versus actual behavior are also discussed.
Capitalist Terminal Crisis and the Rise of China
Authors: Assefa Abye 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
In received convention, “China” and “global south” are either a priori established as discrete categories or a posteriori prognosticated as linked units. As a consequence of the unambiguous antithesis between the two premises, “China” and “global South” are a fortiori synthesized by a formal tenet fabricated through inductive reasoning and supplanting substantive relations and dynamics. In contrast, this paper attempts to uncover the relational processes articulating “the rise of China” and “the rejuvenation of the global south,” previously the Third World. To that end, it makes use of the framework of world-system analysis in order to gain access to a cogent angle of vision that captures the historical context that actualizes and is actualized by China/global South relations and processes. This paper concludes that the capitalist system’s terminal crisis of accumulation, which has ramifications that are global in scope and cultural in scale, engenders the relational ground that transpires in the rise of China and the rejuvenation of the global south.
“Dear Friends”: From People’s Cultural Exchange to People’s Cultural Production
Authors: Huynh T Tu 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
The article explores how the politics of South-South cooperation, namely between Africa and China, play out at the level of cultural subjectivity, implicating modes of affect and identities that are not captured by the more commonly employed binary framework of “friend” or “enemy.” It asks whether it is possible for the Africans and Chinese to imagine each other without the West as its geocultural dominance diminishes; and if so, how is this being made possible? As modes of transmitting and learning, cultural initiatives under the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and “Belt and Road Initiative” provide a window into both people’s understandings of one another. While necessary for building people-to-people relations, the article, relying on an analysis of data collected from Chinese websites, argues that the state-sponsored cultural exchanges largely reify existing racialized ideas of “the African” and Orientalist views of “the Chinese.” However, building on Simbao’s (2019) point about artists’ works that “push back” against dominant discourse, the article further argues and demonstrates through the journey and works of three artists (Chinese, Kenyan, and Ghanaian) that radical imaginaries reflecting the inner states of acting subjects of China-Africa engagements are available in local cultural productions, uncompromising in communicating shared beliefs and posing challenges to power relations on multiple scales.
The People’s Republic of China as Imagined in Taddeo Bwambale Nyondo’s Around China in 300 Days: A Journey Through 30 Cities and Towns (2017)
Authors: Kahyana Danson Sylvester 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
My article contributes to the current debates on travel, with special emphasis on Africans’ travels to China. I theorize travel writing from a South-South perspective, thereby bypassing the European colonial era, which is usually considered the watershed of travel writing. Besides, I interrogate the uncritical praise of China by the Ugandan traveller, Taddeo Bwambale Nyondo, as well as the absence of criticism of the country even when there are moments when this criticism could have come in handy. I argue that Nyondo is a subaltern writer, who visits a highly-industrialized country from which he hopes his country can learn key lessons on development, which makes him similar to Ham Mukasa and Sir Apolo Kagwa who visited England in 1902 and recorded their impressions of the country in Uganda’s first written travelogue, Uganda’s Katikiro in England (1904). By juxtaposing the contemporary writer’s views of China with the earlier travellers’ view of England, I hope to create a dialogic relationship with this earlier travelogue tradition, thereby giving readers the opportunity to see the connections and disjuncture between these two periods (i.e., 1900s and 2000s).
Our World through Our Words: the People and Their Stories through Our Ancestors’ Voices
Authors: Molebatsi Natalia , Huynh T Tu 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
The article aims to give local texture to people’s, specifically Chinese, mobilities in a South African context. Through a retelling of a grandmother’s stories to her granddaughter, we argue that they offer a vision of the world that Black and Chinese South Africans inhabited during apartheid – they disrupted the world built by the all-white government. During the apartheid period, people were forced to see the world in black and white terms, not to mention powerful and powerless. It is this reality of the past that an ancestor’s oral accounts about how her people met and interacted with people from other shores, who had different stories than hers, are important. In this article, one of the authors recalls and further reimagines these stories about people who came from afar to make their own living in South Africa, cross paths with the locals, and leave their own marks. The article also highlights the significance of “Mo-China,” the Chinese fafi gambling game in supplementing Black and Chinese South African urban livelihoods during apartheid. The article concludes by pointing out that these stories, crossing and informing worlds, are prohibited knowledge that requires new attention which debates on the Chinese presence in African contexts have neglected thus far.
A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Zhaocaimao (Lucky Cat) Constructed by the Chinese Communities in South Africa
Authors: Hu Binjun 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
This paper traces how Maneki-Neko becomes appropriated by a specific demographic of people (mostly business owners) in China as Zhaocaimao since the 1980s, and travels with the recent Chinese migrants to South Africa after Apartheid. It aims to demonstrate how the flows of people and cultural symbols were mutually constructed through the ongoing, intersected process of adaptation and appropriation in new territories. A multimodal discourse analysis was performed on texts and images collected from interviews with ten people in Johannesburg’s Chinatowns. The paper arises from the conceptual backdrop of Sanders’s (2015) theory on adaptation and appropriation and Appadurai’s (1990) work on disjunctures in the politics of global culture. It argues that the process of sustained engagement between Maneki-Neko and the Chinese people who have appropriated it is mutually constructed and undergoes constant geopolitically embedded transformations of sinification as Maneki-Neko travels to new circumstances and contexts. Notably, the transnational appropriation and adaption of cultural symbols from folk traditions in a diasporic context create a sense of empowerment and ownership. Zhaocaimao in South Africa has become a symbol of a micro-identity against the backdrop of the disjunctive global economy and culture of today which turns the locality into a discursive field of Chinese identity/Chineseness and a site of ritual economy.
Chinese Green Tea in Mali, Cultural Mobility and African Agency in the Global South
Authors: Röschenthaler Ute 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
The paper offers insights from ethnographic research that reach beyond general assumptions of the working of globalization, especially in the Global South. It examines the ways in which the arrival of products made in China, namely green tea, has influenced the everyday of people in Mali, modifying consumption practices and the business landscape. Chinese green tea, which is known in the Sahel countries of West Africa since the 19th century, has gradually found more and more consumers in Mali, so that from the 2000s onwards tons of green tea arrive every month in the country. Most Malians, the paper shows, consume green tea several times a day and identify with the beverage to such an extent that it has even become their national drink. The paper further shows how, in spite of concerns of product durability and health standard, other industrially manufactured Chinese commodities, too, have replaced locally-made products but, at the same time, enabled people to connect to a global lifestyle. In essence, the insights the paper provides from ethnographic research on the circulation of green tea deepen understanding of how Chinese commodities become culturally appropriated or integrated with local everyday practices.
Historical Perspectives on Relations between Chama Cha Mapinduzi and the Communist Party of China (1965-1985)
Authors: Prah Kwesi Dzapong Lwazi Sarkodee 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
Between the respective anti-colonial movements in mainland China and Tanzania and the independence that followed, the political, economic and scientific development that ensued required systematic planning and implementation. The relationship that developed between Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) of Tanzania and the Communist Party of China (CPC) lay the foundation for what many regard as the proto-typical character and example of Chinese diplomacy and its influence in Africa, as well as how states and political parties interact with each other given certain global, geo-political challenges. This paper briefly outlines the main motivations, ideas, plans and implementation of the various exchanges and activities shared between the two political parties. It argues that the idea of party-to-party relations between China and Tanzania required a practical edge that prepared them for the global challenges they faced, and more importantly, prescribed the developmental nature of their relationship.
Actor, colonus, conductor, procurator in einem Brief des Kaisers Honorius
Authors: Jurewicz Aldona Rita 
Published: April 2020

Summary
In this article the author presents three interpretations of the passage of emperor Honorius’ constitution that has been included in the Theodosian Code under the title quod iussu (CTh 2,31,1). The intention of the author is to prove the thesis that the emperor Honorius accepted a practically existing extension of the use of actio quod iussu to relations between landowners and overseers of the land property. Consequently the actio could be brought against the landowner or possessor of the land (dominus possessionis, cultor terrarum) on the ground that management personnel (servus, actor, conductor, colonus, procurator), regardless of their status libertatis, borrowed money with clear authorisation (iussum). The author does not share the opinion that the background of the emperor’s decision was the economic relation between the landowners and the management personnel.
Failing to observe holy days
Authors: Kirkland Justin Scott 
Published: April 2020

Summary
The implementation of canon law in the medieval ecclesiastical courts is an enigmatic issue. This article focuses on the types of defense arguments made by people accused of failing to observe holy days, as well as how courts judged such excuses. Even though failing to properly observe holy days – nonobservance – was a minor crime, the courts set a high standard when evaluating justifiable excuses for failing to observe holy days. The courts tended to reject most defense arguments. Despite the overall decline of the ecclesiastical courts in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, there was no decline in the high standards demanded by the courts in nonobservance cases.