Economies of care: Market women in the highlands of Papua New Guinea By OliviaBarnett‐Naghshineh. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. 248 pp.

To conduct an in-depth investigation of the epidemiology of malaria in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) highlands and provide a basis for evidence-based planning and monitoring of intensified malaria control activities. Between December 2000 and July 2005, 153 household-based, rapid malaria population surveys were conducted in 112 villages throughout the central PNG highlands. The presence of malaria infections was determined by light microscopy and risk factors assessed using a structured questionnaire.The combined dataset from all individually published surveys was reanalysed. The prevalence of malaria infections in the different surveys ranged from 0.0% to 41.8%(median 4.3%) in non-epidemic surveys and 6.6% to 63.2% (median 21.2%, P < 0.001) during epidemics. Plasmodium falciparum was the predominant infection below 1400 m and during epidemics, Plasmodium vivax at altitudes >1600 m. Outside epidemics, prevalence decreased significantly with altitude, was reduced in people using bed nets [odds ratio (OR) = 0.8, P < 0.001] but increased in those sleeping in garden houses (OR = 1.34, P < 0.001) and travelling to highly endemic lowlands (OR = 1.80, P < 0.001). Below 1400 m, malaria was a significant source of febrile illness. At higher altitudes, malaria was only a significant source of febrile illness during epidemic outbreaks, but asymptomatic malaria infections were common in non-epidemic times. Malaria is once again endemic throughout the PNG highlands in areas below 1400–1500 m of altitude with a significant risk of seasonal malaria outbreaks in most area between 1400–1650 m. Ongoing control efforts are likely to result in a substantial reduction in malaria transmission and may even result in local elimination of malaria in higher lying areas.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA HIGHLANDS JAMES WEINER, ABBY MCLEOD & CHARLES YALA To the foreign observer, Papua New Guinea is readily associated with violent gang crime, tribal fighting and electoral violence. In the Highlands region, high-powered weapons render tribal fighting increasingly problematic, particularly in provinces hosting large-scale resource extraction operations such as Southern Highlands Province and Enga. This discussion paper, based on presentations made to an AusAID seminar, provides an overview of aspects of conflict in the contemporary Papua New Guinea Highlands. Beginning in the Southern Highlands, Weiner explores the nature of conflict in areas surrounding the Kutubu Oil Project, examining not only contemporary land disputes, but also the cultural milieu in which they occur. Moving to Enga, Yala investigates the similarities and differences between ‘traditional’ and contemporary conflict in the Highlands, drawing primarily upon his personal experiences of conflict in Enga. McLeod then provides perspectives on conflict in Simbu Province, with a particular focus upon the nature of ‘social rules’ in that area. Collectively, these essays, all of which are based upon the authors’ extensive experiences in Papua New Guinea, seek to provide an insight into the nature of contemporary conflict in the Papua New Guinea Highlands. CONFLICT IN THE SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS, PNG

Adequate amount of proteins from foods are normally needed to maintain muscle mass of the human body. Although protein intakes of Papua New Guinea (PNG) highlanders are less than biologically adequate, protein deficiency related disorders have rarely been reported. It has been postulated that gut microbiota play a role in such low-protein-adaptation. To explore underlying biological mechanisms of low-protein adaptation among PNG highlanders by investigating metabolomic profiles of faecal water and urine. We performed metabolome analysis using faecal water extracted from faecal samples of PNG highlanders, PNG non-highlanders and Japanese subjects. We paid special attention to amino acids and other metabolites produced by gut microbiota, as well as to metabolites involved in nitrogen recycling in the human gut. Our results indicated that amino acid levels were higher in faecal water from PNG highlanders than PNG non-highlanders, but amino acid levels did not differ between PNG highlanders and Japanese subjects. Among PNG highlander samples, amino acid levels tended to be higher in those who consumed less protein. We speculated that a greater proportion of urea was excreted to the intestine among the PNG highlanders than other groups, and that the urea was used for nitrogen salvage. Intestinal bacteria are essential for producing ammonia from urea and also for producing amino acids from ammonia, which is a key process in low-protein adaptation. Profiling the gut microbiota of PNG highlanders is an important avenue for further research into the mechanisms of low-protein adaptation.

Ability to utilize urea nitrogen for body protein synthesis was examined with Papua New Guinea (PNG) highlanders and Japanese (JPN). Eight male PNG highlanders and 8 male JPN were fed on a low protein diet containing 0.55 g protein/kg or an adequate protein diet containing 1.34 g protein/kg for 1 or 2 weeks. The fate of 15N was measured after oral administration of 15N-labelled urea. There was no difference in 15N incorporation into serum protein between PNG highlanders and JPN receiving low protein diets. On the other hand, on the adequate protein diet, 15N incorporation in PNG highlanders was similar to that on the low protein diet, in contrast to that in JPN which was hardly detected in the adequate protein diet. When PNG highlanders take more protein than protein in their usual diet, they effectively incorporate ingested protein into their body protein and urea nitrogen is utilized for synthesis of body protein.

The increase in movement of people both within the highlands of New Guinea and also to and fro between holo- and hyperendemic lowland areas and the highlands by policemen and semi-skilled personnel in one direction and by labourers in the other, together with a great increase in potential breeding sites, were virtually inevitable consequences of the development process as the intense communalism and geographical isolation of the highland people was broken down. Prior to the "opening up" of the highlands, evidence suggests that malaria had existed in an endemic and very unstable form in only a few lower altitude areas and in the populations of the perimeter villages who had contact with lowland areas. This paper traces the changes in the distribution and determinants of malaria that occurred pari passu with the development process in the highlands of Papua New Guinea between 1930 and 1970.

The distributions of HLA-A alleles in six Pacific/Asian populations, Malay, Papua New Guinea (PNG) Highlands, two Indonesian groups, and two PNG Lowland groups, as well as the distribution of the HLA-B alleles in the PNG Highlands population, were determined using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) immobilized sequence-specific oligonucleotide (SSO) probe typing methods. The allele frequency distributions at the HLA class II loci, DRB1, DQB1 and DPB1 were also determined by PCR/SSO methods in an additional study of the same populations. In most of these populations, the HLA-A*2402 allele was the most frequent, attaining a frequency of 0.78 in the PNG Highlands. A*1101 was the next most frequent allele, followed in frequency by the *3401 allele. The HLA-B*1506, *4001, *5601 and *5602 alleles comprised 73% of the allele diversity at the B-locus in the PNG Highlands. Two previously unreported HLA-A alleles were identified in Indonesians and Malays, based on novel probe reactivity patterns. Cloning and sequencing identified these as A*1104 and *2410. Sequence comparisons show that these new alleles differ at codon 187 from their putative parental alleles (*1101 and *2403) by dinucleotide changes in the first two codon positions. These changes involve a Thr to Arg (CG to AC) and an Arg to Thr substitution (AC to CG) at position 187; residues at this position participate in pocket A of the peptide binding groove. Comparison of the HLA-A allele frequency distributions indicate that Malays are the most diverse (heterozygosity (h)=0.88) and the PNG Highlanders are, by far, the least diverse (h=0.37) of the groups studied. However, the diversity of B-locus alleles in the PNG Highlanders (h=0.91) was greater than that observed at the A-locus of any of the populations reported here. The remarkably high allele frequency of A*2402 in the PNG Highlands could reflect founder effects and population bottlenecks, genetic drift, or positive directional selection. The distribution of the HLA-B locus alleles and class II alleles, as well as mtDNA sequence data in the PNG Highlands indicates a reasonably high level of diversity at other loci, arguing that the high frequency of A*2402 cannot be attributed entirely to founder effects, bottlenecks, or drift and suggests the operation of positive selection for the A*2402 allele in this population.

Albian-Cenomanian foraminiferids are recorded from a tuffaceous sandstonemudstone unit (Kondaku Tuff and Chim Formation), which is exposed on the northern limb of the Kubor Anticline in the Central Highlands of Papua New Guinea. During the Cretaceous, this region was at the northern edge of the Australian continent. The fauna is dated by planktic species: Ticinella cf. primula of the middle and late Albian; Planomalina buxtorfi of the latest Albian to earliest Cenomanian; and Rotalipora aff. greenhornensis and R. aff. deeckei of the Cenomanian. Variation in relative abundance of siliceous textulariines is considered to be largely the result of dissolution of calcareous shells during sediment diagenesis. The original fauna apparently contained diverse textulariine-rotaliine assemblages which reflect warm, open-sea conditions perhaps on the upper continental slope. The benthic species are representative of the Marssonella Association and include many forms widely distributed in both Southern and Northern Hemispheres. Mid-Cretaceous foraminiferids from the Wahgi Valley, Central Highlands of Papua New Guinea

The palaeoenvironments of Kuk Swamp from the beginnings of agriculture in the highlands of Papua New Guinea

The allele frequency distributions for the HLA class II loci, DRB1, DQB1 and DPB1, in eight Pacific/Asian populations: Hawaiian, Samoan, Malay, Papua New Guinea (PNG) Highlands, and two Indonesian and PNG Lowland groups, were determined using high-resolution polymerase chain reaction/sequence-specific oligonucleotide probe (PCR/SSOP) typing methods. The allele frequency distributions for the HLA-DRB1 locus were determined for a third Indonesian population as well as for an additional Filipino population. DRB1 alleles in the DR2 serogroup (or allelic lineage) are very common in this region; in some populations, more than 50% of the alleles belong to this serogroup. The DRB1*1502 allele is frequent in nine of the ten populations studied, reaching a frequency of 0.48 in one Indonesian population and among Filipinos. Extensive DR-DQ haplotype diversity was detected in these populations. Seven different DR2-DQB1 haplotypes were observed in the Indonesian and PNG Lowland populations, eight in the PNG Highlands and ten in Malays and Filipinos. The DRB1*0410 allele, commonly observed in Australia, is observed in the PNG Highlands at a low frequency (f=0.03) and is absent in the other populations. Two additional DRB1 alleles commonly observed in Australia, DRB1*0405 and *1407, are also observed in the PNG Highlands at high frequencies (f=0.132 and 0.126), while they are rare in the PNG Lowlands (f=0.039 and 0.013). These alleles are generally rare or absent in the other populations. The DPB1*0501 allele, common in Chinese and Japanese populations, is most frequent in the Samoan, Hawaiian, Indonesian, and Malay populations, and the *0401 allele is the most frequent DPB1 allele in the PNG Lowlands. Both of these alleles have the same very high frequency (f=0.34) in the PNG Highlands. Analyses of homozygosity (the Ewens-Watterson F statistic) in these and other populations indicate that, while most allele frequency distributions are consistent with balancing selection, values of F for the Indonesian and Javan populations may reflect positive directional selection. Phylogenetic trees constructed using the allele frequencies at the DRB1 locus of the populations reported here, as well as those for additional Pacific, Asian, and Australian populations, indicate that the PNG Highland population is more closely related to Australian populations than to PNG Lowland populations, while the PNG Lowlands are more closely related to other Melanesian populations.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and determine their risk factors/markers among a rural population of women in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. METHODS: Community...

Where rates of sedimentation in lakes can be measured accurately for well dated time intervals, estimates of rates of erosion from the catchment can sometimes be derived. This chapter uses evidence from small lakes in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. The many environmental and logistic limitations placed on the work mean that the reliability and degree of detail of the estimated rates necessarily vary between sites as well as between time intervals for any single site. All estimates should be regarded as tentative and subject to large and poorly quantified errors. The primary aim of this work in the New Guinea highland lakes has been to reconstruct changes through time in total sediment input to each lake. Accurate whole-lake/whole-catchment sediment budgeting places demands on the study which are rarely satisfied either by the environmental context or by the repertoire of techniques available.

The haplotype HLA-A11, B27 is present in significantly increased numbers in arthritis patients, over and above the numbers expected from its relative proportion in B27-positive healthy controls, from the highlands of Papua New Guinea.

Studies on bronchial hyperreactivity, allergic responsiveness, and asthma in rural and urban children of the highlands of Papua New Guinea

Enteropathogens and clinical features associated with diarrhoea were investigated in 1526 children admitted over a 5-year period to the paediatric ward of a hospital in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Overall, a recognized pathogen was isolated from 39 per cent of the children admitted with diarrhoea. The most commonly isolated agents were rotavirus (23 per cent), Shigella spp. (13 per cent), Campylobacter spp. (12 per cent), Cryptosporidium parvum (10 per cent) and enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (8 per cent). The clearest clinical associations were rotavirus with vomiting, and Shigella with blood and pus in the stool. A control series of children admitted with other complaints was also included, and the odds ratios for diarrhoea for the above five pathogens were 18.2, 9.6, 3.7, 2.2, and 1.6, respectively.

Soil fertility and sweet potato production on volcanic ash soils in the highlands of Papua New Guinea