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A diverse group of academics, activists, officials and rebels contribute chapters about different aspects of conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. These chapters discuss the origins and evolution of the conflict, the various ways in which the conflict has been understood and misperceived (both locally and internationally), the profoundly gendered nature of the conflict, the status of those involved with regard to the Sudanese and international law, and the ongoing struggle for peace in the region. A substantial appendix reproduces UN, ICC, and (many for the first time in English translation) Arabic-language documents to trace the history of the conflict. The book also includes a chronology of major events in Sudan.

Ray goes beyond the well-documented ways in which management of interracial sexual relations was critical to the formation of empire to show how colonized populations' own concerns about race mixing and their political uses of those concerns are implicated in the dissolution of empire. Drawing on rare newspaper commentaries penned by elite and newly literate Gold Coast men in the immediate post-World War I period, Ray demonstrates how this group of politically marginalized actors transformed their anxieties over interracial sexual relations into anticolonial nationalist rhetoric. At a time when press reports in diverse corners of the globe were rile with lurid tales of the sexual threat that black men posed to white women--the proverbial Black Peril--Gold Coast Africans turned this dominant narrative about colonial sexual danger on its head by asserting that white men were the real sexual menace.

Based on archival research in Ghana and England, this dissertation examines a series of interventions made by British colonial and metropolitan authorities during the first half of the twentieth century that sought to impose sexual boundaries between Africans and Europeans in the Gold Coast, as colonial Ghana was then known. The delineation of these boundaries reflected and reinforced, yet often complicated and contradicted the racial politics that underpinned the colonial project in the Gold Coast. The need for these interventionist policies and their unintended and often paradoxical consequences, point to the fact that control over sexual relations in the Gold Coast, while central to the colonial project, was never firmly in the hands of Europeans. Rather, these interventions were very much a response to the considerable control over sexual relations wielded by Gold Coasters. Moreover, the ability of Gold Coasters to exploit the disjuncture between official policies on interracial sexual relations and the realities on the ground often allowed them to exercise even greater agency in contesting their subordinate positions within the colonial hierarchy. Thus, whereas the majority of studies on colonial interracial sexual relations tend to focus on the myriad meanings of interracial sex for the colonizer to the exclusion of the colonized, this dissertation breaks away from this one-sided approach by showing how the domain of interracial sexual relations was shaped to a far greater extent than is generally recognized by the social practices and interests of the colonized. This study also moves across the Atlantic to look at interracial sexual relations between Africans and Europeans in the metropole. This shift reveals the great extent to which colonial and metropolitan histories of race mixture were intertwined and mutually shaped by one another. Significantly, these tangled histories offer new insights into the role that interracial sexual relations played in the development of anti-colonial sentiments amongst West Africans. Ultimately, this dissertation demonstrates that the domain of interracial sexual relations in colonial Ghana became a space in which racial, administrative, gendered and indigenous hierarchies were being constructed, contested and reordered by a broad range of social actors, both African and European.

Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) is a worldwide health issue that is potentially preventable with vaccination. In view of its sporadic nature and the high diversity of Neisseria meningitidis, epidemiological surveillance incorporating detailed isolate characterisation is crucial for effective control and understanding the evolving epidemiology of IMD. The Meningitis Research Foundation Meningococcus Genome Library (MRF-MGL) exploits whole-genome sequencing (WGS) for this purpose and presents data on a comprehensive and coherent IMD isolate collection from England and Wales via the internet. We assessed the contribution of these data to investigating IMD epidemiology. WGS data were obtained for all 899 IMD isolates available for England and Wales in epidemiological years 2010–11 and 2011–12. The data had been annotated at 1720 loci, analysed, and disseminated online. Information was also available on meningococcal population structure and vaccine (Bexsero, GlaxoSmithKline, Brentford, Middlesex, UK) antigen variants, which enabled the investigation of IMD-associated genotypes over time and by patients' age groups. Population genomic analyses were done with a hierarchical gene-by-gene approach. The methods used by MRF-MGL efficiently characterised IMD isolates and information was provided in plain language. At least 20 meningococcal lineages were identified, three of which (hyperinvasive clonal complexes 41/44 [lineage 3], 269 [lineage 2], and 23 [lineage 23]) were responsible for 528 (59%) of IMD isolates. Lineages were highly diverse and showed evidence of extensive recombination. Specific lineages were associated with IMD in particular age groups, with notable diversity in the youngest and oldest individuals. The increased incidence of IMD from 1984 to 2010 in England and Wales was due to successive and concurrent epidemics of different lineages. Genetically, 74% of isolates were characterised as encoding group B capsules: 16% group Y, 6% group W, and 3% group C. Exact peptide matches for individual Bexsero vaccine antigens were present in up to 26% of isolates. The MRF-MGL represents an effective, broadly applicable model for the storage, analysis, and dissemination of WGS data that can facilitate real-time genomic pathogen surveillance. The data revealed information crucial to effective deployment and assessment of vaccines against N meningitidis. Meningitis Research Foundation, Wellcome Trust, Public Health England, European Union.

•Surveillance using meningococcal genome-based Bexsero® Antigen Sequence Typing (BAST).•Temporal and geographical associations of BASTs and meningococcal clonal complexes.•BASTs allow real time studies of antigen diversity and estimates of vaccine coverage. Serogroup B is the only major disease-associated capsular group of Neisseria meningitidis for which no protein-polysaccharide conjugate vaccine is available. This has led to the development of multi-component protein-based vaccines that target serogroup B invasive meningococcal disease (IMD), including Bexsero®, which was implemented for UK infants in 2015, and Trumenba®. Given the diversity of meningococcal protein antigens, post-implementation surveillance of IMD isolates, including characterisation of vaccine antigens, is essential for assessing the effectiveness of such vaccines. Whole genome sequencing (WGS), as realised in the Meningitis Research Foundation Meningococcus Genome Library (MRF-MGL), provides a rapid, comprehensive, and cost-effective approach to this. To facilitate the surveillance of the antigen targets included in Bexsero® (fHbp, PorA, NHBA and NadA) for protective immunity, a Bexsero® Antigen Sequence Type (BAST) scheme, based on deduced peptide sequence variants, was implemented in the PubMLST.org/neisseria database, which includes the MRF-MGL and other isolate collections. This scheme enabled the characterisation of vaccine antigen variants and here the invasive meningococci isolated in Great Britain and Ireland in the epidemiological years 2010/11 to 2013/14 are analysed. Many unique BASTs (647) were present, but nine of these accounted for 39% (775/1966) of isolates, with some temporal and geographic differences in BAST distribution. BASTs were strongly associated with other characteristics, such as serogroup and clonal complex (cc), and a significant increase in BAST-2 was associated with increased prevalence of serogroup W clonal complex 11 meningococci. Potential coverage was assessed by the examination of the antigen peptide sequences present in the vaccine and epidemiological dataset. There were 22.8–30.8% exact peptide matches to Bexsero® components and predicted coverage of 66.1%, based on genotype-phenotype modelling for 63.7% of serogroup B isolates from 2010/14 in UK and Ireland. While there are many caveats to this estimate, it lies within the range of other published estimates.

In September, 2015, the meningococcal group B vaccine (Bexsero, GlaxoSmithKline) was introduced into the UK childhood immunisation schedule. Prelicensure coverage estimates used Meningococcal Antigen Typing System (MATS) to determine phenotype and function of circulating meningococci. Using whole-genome sequencing, we aimed to perform rapid, scalable, high-resolution analysis of peptide vaccine antigens in disease-causing meningococci before and after vaccine implementation. All culture-confirmed invasive meningococcal disease isolates from July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2016, from the UK underwent whole-genome sequencing (n=2994), representing 56·7% of cases reported to Public Health England. Genomes were hosted on the PubMLST database. The Bexsero Antigen Sequence Type (BAST) scheme was used to catalogue antigenic variants for comparison with the Bexsero type, BAST-1 (fHbp:1, NHBA:2, NadA:8, PorA VR1:7-2, PorA VR2:4). Statistical analysis was performed with R software (v3.2.4). Complete BASTs were obtained for 2915 isolates (97·4%). Within the fHbp family 1, variant 1 was only present in 105 (3·5%) of 2994 isolates. Variant 4 dominated since 2010–11 in BASTs 220, 226, and 229. From 2013–14 onwards, family 2 variants were more frequent than family 1 variants. NHBA variant 2 decreased from 373 (15·3%) of 2441 prevaccine isolates to 45 (9·4%) of 479 postvaccine isolates (p=0·001). The most common variant was 29 (557/2994). NadA was absent in 2049 (70·1%) of 2921 isolates. PorA VR2 had 106 variants, most frequently variants 2 (n=542), 9 (350), and 4 (333). Genotypic matches to BAST-1 (≥1 antigen) decreased from 30·4% (167/550) to 15·5% (83/536) over a 6 year period. Coverage including cross-reactive antigens was 60·2–69·0%. Genotype–phenotype modelling estimated coverage of 62·1% (95% CI 60·9–63·3), with no significant change before or after vaccine implementation. Recent clonal expansion of South American/UK serogroup W strain accounts for many antigenic changes, such as the increase in family 2 fHbp and NHBA variant 29. Cross-reactivity within the fHbp family 1 is a key determinant of vaccine immunogenicity. MATS coverage estimates of 73% (95% CI 57–87) were key to policy decisions for introduction of the vaccine in the UK. Analysis of recent disease isolates with genomic and genotype–phenotype correlations suggests that coverage estimates are lower but within the limits of previous MATS studies. Wellcome Trust.