Caribbean Island Of Guadeloupe Research Articles

34th Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics

PREFACEThese are the proceedings of the 34th edition of the Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics, which was held on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. As in previous years the unique character of this conference series has allowed us to bring scientists from various fields of nuclear physics together to discuss their scientific achievements.At the high-energy frontier very exciting results not only from the heavy-ion collisions but also smaller systems at the LHC were shown. At the lower energies the RHIC beam energy scan is underway to span the gap between the SPS and RHIC and search for critical phenomena in the nuclear matter phase diagram. This program is complemented by spin and small systems measurements at the highest RHIC energies. The future programs of sPHENIX and the planned electron-ion collider (EIC) were represented as well.

Further evidence for a distinctive atypical degenerative parkinsonism in the Caribbean: A new cluster in the French West Indian Island of Martinique

BackgroundA high prevalence of an atypical levodopa-resistant parkinsonism has been reported in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. These seminal observations have not been replicated or extended to neighbouring populations who share genetic and environmental characteristics. MethodsTo further characterise this atypical parkinsonism we prospectively investigated 305 consecutive patients with neurodegenerative parkinsonism in a community-based population from Guadeloupe and Martinique, a neighbouring French Caribbean island where the population has similar environmental and genetic backgrounds. The aims of this study were to confirm the frequency of atypical parkinsonism within this cohort and to precisely define its clinical phenotype. ResultsA high frequency (66%) of atypical parkinsonism was identified in both Guadeloupe and Martinique. The clinical phenotype consisted of a levodopa-resistant parkinsonism with postural instability (72%), early dementia (58%), dysautonomia (58%), rapid-eye-movement sleep behavioural disorder (53%), hallucinations (43%), and supranuclear gaze palsy (29%). A low educational level was identified as a major risk factor for developing atypical parkinsonism (p < .001). ConclusionOur findings support the existence of a distinctive atypical parkinsonism – Caribbean Parkinsonism – within the French Caribbean Islands. This could either correspond to a single entity or reflect a propensity for developing more widespread and rapidly progressive lesions in Caribbean patients with parkinsonism. In both cases, genetic susceptibility and/or environmental exposure may be involved.

Varietal Dynamics and Yam Agro-Diversity Demonstrate Complex Trajectories Intersecting Farmers' Strategies, Networks, and Disease Experience.

Loss of varietal diversity is a worldwide challenge to crop species at risk for genetic erosion, while the loss of biological resources may hinder future breeding objectives. Loss of varieties has been mostly investigated in traditional agricultural systems where variety numbers are dramatically high, or for most economically important crop species for which comparison between pre-intensive and modern agriculture was possible. Varietal dynamics, i.e., turnover, or gains and losses of varieties by farmers, is nevertheless more rarely studied and while we currently have good estimates of genetic or varietal diversity for most crop species, we have less information as to how on farm agro-diversity changes and what cause its dynamics. We therefore investigated varietal dynamics in the agricultural yam system in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. We interviewed producers about varieties they cultivated in the past compared to their current varieties, in addition to characterizing yam cropping characteristics and both farm level and producers socio-economic features. We then used regression tree analyses to investigate the components of yam agro-diversity, varietal dynamics and impact of anthracnose on varieties. Our data demonstrated that no dramatic loss of varieties occurred within the last decades. Cultivation changes mostly affected widespread cultivars while frequency of uncommon varieties stayed relatively stable. Varietal dynamics nevertheless followed sub-regional patterns, and socio-economic influences such as producer age or farm crop diversity. Recurrent anthracnose epidemics since the 1970s did not alter varietal dynamics strongly, but sometimes translated into transition from Dioscorea alata to less susceptible species or into a decrease of yam cultivation. Factors affecting changes in agro-diversity were not relating to agronomy in our study, and surprisingly there were different processes delineating short term from long term varietal dynamics, independently of disease risk. Our results highlighted the importance of understanding varietal dynamics, an often overlooked component of agriculture sustainability, in addition to evolutionary forces shaping agro-diversity and genetic diversity distribution within crops. It is also crucial to understand how processes involved do scale up worldwide and for different crop species, so as not to mislead on-farm conservation efforts and efficacy of agro-diversity preservation.

Clinical varieties and epidemiological aspects of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe: A new focus of ALS associated with Parkinsonism

Our objective was to evaluate the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, using a retrospective study covering 15 years (1996–2011). Sixty-three cases of ALS were reported, with a frequency of 0.93/100,000/year. The incidence was 4.5-fold higher (3.73/100,00/year) on Marie-Galante, a small island in the Guadeloupe archipelago. ALS was associated with Parkinsonism in 23.8% of the cases. Other phenotypes were typical ALS (47.6%), bulbar forms (20.6%), limb-onset variants (6.3%) and ALS associated with frontotemporal dementia (1.6%). Onset of ALS-Parkinsonism was significantly later than in typical forms of ALS (68 vs. 54 years; p = 0.012) and affected males more frequently than did bulbar ALS (80% vs. 23.2%; p = 0.003). After one year of disease duration, the clinical profile of ALS-Parkinsonism included a symmetric akineto-rigid Parkinsonian syndrome unresponsive to levodopa, supranuclear oculomotor palsy (50%), dementia (66.7%) and signs of both lower (100%) and upper (86%) motor neuron involvement, including bulbar signs (100%). In conclusion, a new cluster of ALS-Parkinsonism and a geographical area with a high frequency of ALS were identified in Guadeloupe, suggesting that they result from environmental or genetic factors. Further studies are needed to explore these hypotheses.

Mosaic origins of Bradyrhizobium legume symbionts on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe

To analyze geographic affinities of Bradyrhizobium sp. symbionts associated with the diverse legume flora on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, 39 isolates from 18 legume genera were compared to a reference set of 269 Bradyrhizobium strains from North America, Central America, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. A multilocus sequence analysis (4192bp) showed that nucleotide diversity in Guadeloupe equaled or exceeded that found in all other regional Bradyrhizobium populations examined. Bayesian phylogenetic tree analysis grouped the Guadeloupe Bradyrhizobium strains into clades with at least 20 distinct sets of non-Guadeloupe relatives, implying that the island was colonized numerous times from multiple source regions. However, for 18% of the Guadeloupe isolates, inferred geographic affinities for the nifD locus, in the symbiosis island region of the Bradyrhizobium chromosome, conflicted with the source region deduced from a tree based on six concatenated housekeeping genes. Geographic mosaic ancestry was therefore evident among Guadeloupe bradyrhizobia. Horizontal gene transfer subsequent to island colonization appears to have generated strains that carry combinations of genes from disparate source regions.

Helmut Schmidt and the Shaping of Western Security in the Late 1970s: the Guadeloupe Summit of 1979

On 5 and 6 January 1979, US President Jimmy Carter, British Prime Minister James Callaghan, French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, and German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt met on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. These secret talks à quatre were intended to be a relaxed frank and free exchange on the current state of global politics, though Western security issues lay at the discussions’ heart. As we now know, it had been Schmidt who, behind the scenes, had been pressing the Carter administration to pursue informal (transatlantic) summitry - the Chancellor's preferred modus operandi. In view of growing Euro-strategic imbalances due to Soviet arms build-up, he sought to achieve political co-ordination among the key North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) players on the theatre-nuclear-forces-modernisation-cum-arms-control issue. Schmidt's pushiness reflected West Germany's new political assertiveness, but also the Chancellor's desire to personally promote national interests in nuclear politics at the top table (similar to his approach as a shaper of international economic and energy policies). This article will explore why this ‘parley at the summit’ mattered, how within this intimate forum Schmidt pursued his goals, what diplomatic tactics and methods he employed, and to what extent he managed to control and shape proceedings and outcomes.

Spatial and Temporal Variation in a Caribbean Herbivorous Fish Assemblage

The present work analyses the spatial and temporal variations of the herbivorous fish assemblage on 10 coral reef sites in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe (French West Indies). The herbivorous fish assemblage was assessed by visual census along band transects; environmental data were collected to determine the relationship between environmental conditions and temporal and spatial variations in herbivorous fish abundance and distribution. Spatial variation in species abundance was related to variation of the benthic cover (e.g., coral and algae), depth, and protection status among sites. Short-term fluctuations of herbivorous fishes on the reef flats were linked to tide, swell, and wind, whereas long-term variations were seasonal and highly correlated to annual water temperature oscillations.

Juvenile Fish Assemblages in Caribbean Seagrass Beds: Does Nearby Habitat Matter?

Seagrass beds, mangroves, and coral reefs are often located adjacent to one another, but few studies have focused on the influence that their proximity may have on their fish assemblages. Juvenile fish assemblages of seagrass beds, differing according to their adjacent habitats, were investigated in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. We tested whether adjacent habitats influence (i) the structure and composition of juvenile fish assemblages and (ii) the size class distribution of fishes using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate permutation tests. Significant differences in species richness, abundance, and size were identified between the two types of seagrass beds. Close to the reef, daytime fish assemblages were constituted of seagrass beds resident species, while at night, indicator species of seagrass beds belong to reef families. Near coastal mangroves, the shift between day and night is less evident. Fish size class distributions confirm the sequential use of the two types of seagrass beds by juvenile fishes.

Magnetic resonance imaging lesion pattern in Guadeloupean parkinsonism is distinct from progressive supranuclear palsy

In the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, patients with atypical parkinsonism develop a progressive supranuclear palsy-like syndrome, named Guadeloupean parkinsonism. Unlike the classical forms of progressive supranuclear palsy, they develop hallucinations and myoclonus. As lesions associated with Guadeloupean parkinsonism are poorly characterized, it is not known to what extent they differ from progressive supranuclear palsy. The aim of the present study was to determine the structural and metabolic profiles of Guadeloupean parkinsonism compared with progressive supranuclear palsy and controls using combined structural and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopy. We included 9 patients with Guadeloupean parkinsonism, 10 with progressive supranuclear palsy and 9 age-matched controls. Magnetic resonance imaging examination was performed at 1.5 T and included 3D T(1)-weighted and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images, diffusion tensor imaging and single voxel magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the lenticular nucleus. Images were analysed using voxel-based morphometry, voxel-based diffusion tensor imaging and brainstem region of interest measurements. In patients with Guadeloupean parkinsonism, structural and diffusion changes predominated in the temporal and occipital lobes, the limbic areas (medial temporal, orbitofrontal and cingulate cortices) and the cerebellum. In contrast to patients with progressive supranuclear palsy, structural changes predominated in the midbrain and the basal ganglia and diffusion abnormalities predominated in the frontocentral white matter, the basal ganglia and the brainstem. Compared with controls, the N-acetylaspartate to creatinine ratio was decreased in patients with progressive supranuclear palsy and to a lesser extent in patients with Guadeloupean parkinsonism. The pattern of structural and diffusion abnormalities differed between progressive supranuclear palsy and Guadeloupean parkinsonism. Widespread cortical atrophy was observed in patients with Guadeloupean parkinsonism who presented marked cognitive changes and hallucinations, whereas midbrain lesions were less severe than in progressive supranuclear palsy. Midbrain (progressive supranuclear palsy) or cortical (Guadeloupean parkinsonism) atrophy was a distinctive neuroimaging feature for differential diagnosis.

Atypical parkinsonism in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe: Etiological role of the mitochondrial complex I inhibitor annonacin

On the French West Indian island of Guadeloupe, atypical parkinsonian patients represent two-thirds of all cases of parkinsonism, which is exceptionally frequent compared to epidemiological data from European countries where atypical parkinsonism accounts for only approximately 5% of all cases. The clinical entity was a unique combination of levodopa-resistant parkinsonism, tremor, myoclonus, hallucinations, REM sleep behavior disorder and fronto-subcortical dementia. Based on the presence or the absence of supranuclear gaze palsy, two subgroups of patients were distinguished. In patients with oculomotor signs that came to autopsy, neuronal loss was found to predominate in the substantia nigra and the striatum but other brain areas were also affected, including the frontal cortex. In addition, tau-containing lesions were detected throughout the brain. Epidemiological data suggested a close association of the disease with the regular consumption of soursop, a tropical annonaceous plant. Experimental studies performed in midbrain cell cultures identified annonacin, a selective mitochondrial complex I inhibitor contained in the fruit and leaves of soursop, as a probable etiological factor. Consistent with this view, chronic administration of annonacin to rats through Alzet osmotic minipumps showed that annonacin was able to reproduce the brain lesions characteristic of the human disease.

ELECTROPHORETIC SEPARATION OF GILL PROTEINS OF THE CLAM CODAKIA ORBICULARIS

ABSTRACT Marine organisms inhabiting the coastal environment of the Caribbean islands have attracted the attention of a number of research scientists. These organisms generally live in areas of high environmental stress and may, therefore, contain specialized proteins and enzymes which exhibit valuable biotechnological applications. Among them, a small number of clams have been studied. Our work relates to the clam Codakia orbicularis. This bivalve lives in areas of high hydrogen sulfide concentrations on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. Its enzymatic system must, therefore, have evolved to allow its adaptation to this high-stress environment. C. orbicularis also contains endosymbiotic bacteria which are housed in the bacteriocytes of the gills. Its protein content can, therefore, be expected to have an impact on this symbiotic relationship. We have analysed gill protein extracts of this clam by various biochemical techniques: SDS-PAGE, IEF, PAS, and Western blotting using a panel of lectins, in order to establish its protein and glycoprotein profiles. This biochemical analysis, the first of its kind, constitutes an important step in separating and characterizing the proteins involved in the biochemical pathways of this organism whose stock is in decline in Guadeloupe. Our results show the presence of three major proteins whose molecular weights vary between 14,000 and 24,000 Daltons, and some of which are glycoproteins with predominantly α-mannose and N-acetylgalactosamine moieties. Their pI values are in the range between 4.5 and 5.6. These protein profiles are different from those observed for Lucina pectinata, a clam which has been the subject of earlier studies in the literature.

Description of a novel Mycobacterium simiae allelic variant isolated from Caribbean AIDS patients by PCR-restriction enzyme analysis and sequencing of hsp 65 gene

A sudden upsurge in the isolation of Mycobacterium simiae from terminally ill AIDS patients was recently reported on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. Identification of these M. simiae isolates was achieved using biochemical tests and further confirmed by PCR-restriction analysis (PRA) of a 439-bp fragment of hsp 65. A novel PRA profile III (three Bst EII fragments of 240/125/80 bp and four Hae III fragments of 145/125/40/25 bp) was observed in four blood isolates from two patients. The 16 S rRNA gene sequencing of the hypervariable A region confirmed that all the pattern III isolates were indeed M. simiae species, and the hsp 65 sequencing confirmed the existence of a new hsp 65 allele in these caribbean isolates. A hsp 65 sequence-based phylogenetic tree was also created for 39 species including M. simiae and related mycobacterial species as well as other rapid and slow growing mycobacteria, and may serve as an useful tool for identification of mycobacteria to species level.

Distribution and origin of hydrocarbons in sediments from lagoons with fringing mangrove communities

The distribution and origin of non-aromatic hydrocarbons (NAH) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) were investigated in surface sediments from the lagoons of ‘Grand Cul-de-Sac Marin’ and ‘Petit Cul-de-Sac Marin’ in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe (61°30′W, 16°N). Both are surrounded by a mangrove ecosystem. Hydrocarbons extracted from sediments were fractioned by chromatography adsorption and analysed by gas chromatography. NAH concentrations ranged from 28.2–4104.4 μg g −1 of dry sediment and from 103–1656.5 ng g −1 for PAH. We founded that naturally occurring hydrocarbons predominated along the coastline. The harbour zone's sediment is polluted by petroleum hydrocarbons. PAHs in sediments are medium and high molecular weight residues with a pyrolytic origin.

ASYNCHRONY OF INFECTION TIMING, HABITAT PREFERENCE, AND SYMPATRIC SPECIATION OF SCHISTOSOME PARASITES.

Sympatric speciation, which has been the subject of many theoretical studies based on principally genetic models, requires at least two fundamental conditions; (1) the establishment, through disruptive selection, of a stable polymorphism in a heterogeneous environment; and (2) the of reproductive isolation between the morphs (Maynard Smith 1966; Rice 1984, 1987). Studies of natural biological systems, however, remained restricted to a few taxonomically different groups, predominantly insects. Divergent host races in monophagous insects (Bush 1969; Tauber and Tauber 1989), where habitat diversification and asynchrony in seasonal timing of reproduction was implicated in the restriction of gene flow, have provided the best evidence for nonallopatric speciation. Considering that sympatric speciation was closely linked with a process of habitat (-host) shifts, Price (1980, p. 41) and others emphasized the potential applicability of this process to populations of parasites and stated that if host race formation can lead to speciation of phytophagous insects, it can also be important among animal parasites. It is now well accepted that coevolution of lineages of hosts and parasites (phylogenetic or parallel speciation), where host speciation has been accompanied by divergence of their parasites, is not the only pattern for the of hostparasite associations. Parasites, particularly those whose life cycle involves active dispersion (Combes 1991a), have the opportunity of lateral transfer to unrelated host species, a major feature of parasite evolution (Futuyma and Kim 1987, p. 441). Natural metazoan parasite populations, independently and sympatrically maintained by two or more different hosts, diverging to host-adapted populations have been little studied. Such a situation exists for the trematode Schistosoma mansoni on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe (1528 kM2), where two species of vertebrate hosts (human and rat) are involved in the transmission dynamics of the parasite.

A cloned DNA probe for Cowdria ruminantium hybridizes with eight heartwater strains and detects infected sheep.

The DNA probe pCS20, which was cloned from the DNA of the Crystal Springs heartwater strain from Zimbabwe, cross-reacted with DNAs of heartwater strains from all endemic areas, including four heartwater strains from Zimbabwe, two strains from South Africa, one strain from Nigeria, and the Gardel strain from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. By nucleic acid hybridization, the pCS20 DNA probe detected Cowdria ruminantium DNA in all DNA preparations made from plasma samples from infected sheep before and during the febrile reaction. Synthetic oligonucleotides were prepared for amplification of specific C. ruminantium DNA sequences by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Amplification of two DNA products (181 and 279 bp) from pCS20 DNA and C. ruminantium genomic DNA of heartwater strains was demonstrated. In contrast, amplification of these products or any other products was not possible from genomic DNAs of Anaplasma marginale, Babesia bigemina, Trypanosoma brucei brucei, Escherichia coli, and bovine endothelial cells. The cross-reactivities of the 32P-labeled PCR products with genomic DNAs from several heartwater strains were similar to those with the pCS20 DNA probe. A nucleic acid-based test that uses hybridization assays and PCR provides a sensitive method for the detection of heartwater in both animals and ticks and has applications in epidemiological studies for the disease, which may allow for improved disease control.