Mosquito community composition and abundance at contrasting sites in northern South Africa, 2014–2017

Most data on species associations and vector potential of mosquitoes in relation to arboviral infections in South Africa date back from the 1940s to late 1990s. Contextual information crucial for disease risk management and control, such as the sampling effort, diversity, abundance, and distribution of mosquitoes in large parts of South Africa still remains limited. Adult mosquitoes were collected routinely from two horse farms in Gauteng Province; two wildlife reserves in Limpopo Province, at Orpen Gate in Kruger National Park (KNP) and Mnisi Area in Mpumalanga Province between 2014–2017, using carbon dioxide‐baited light and tent traps. Mosquito diversity and richness are greater in untransformed natural and mixed rural settings. In untransformed wilderness areas, the most dominant species were Culex poicilipes, Anopheles coustani, and Aedes mcintoshi, while in mixed rural settings such as the Mnisi area, the two most abundant species were Cx. poicilipes and Mansonia uniformis. However, in peri‐urban areas, Cx. theileri, Cx. univittatus, and Cx. pipiens sensu lato were the most dominant. Aedes aegypti, Ae. mcintoshi, Ae. metallicus, Ae. vittatus, Cx. pipiens s.l., Cx. theileri, and Cx. univittatus had the widest geographical distribution in northern South Africa. Also collected were Anopheles arabiensis and An. vaneedeni, both known malaria vectors in South Africa. Arbovirus surveillance and vector control programs should be augmented in mixed rural and peri‐urban areas where the risk for mosquito‐borne disease transmission to humans and domestic stock is greater.     

The impact of interventions in the global land and agri‐food sectors on Nature’s Contributions to People and the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Interlocked challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation require transformative interventions in the land management and food production sectors to reduce carbon emissions, strengthen adaptive capacity, and increase food security. However, deciding which interventions to pursue and understanding their relative co‐benefits with and trade‐offs against different social and environmental goals have been difficult without comparisons across a range of possible actions. This study examined 40 different options, implemented through land management, value chains, or risk management, for their relative impacts across 18 Nature's Contributions to People (NCPs) and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We find that a relatively small number of interventions show positive synergies with both SDGs and NCPs with no significant adverse trade‐offs; these include improved cropland management, improved grazing land management, improved livestock management, agroforestry, integrated water management, increased soil organic carbon content, reduced soil erosion, salinization, and compaction, fire management, reduced landslides and hazards, reduced pollution, reduced post‐harvest losses, improved energy use in food systems, and disaster risk management. Several interventions show potentially significant negative impacts on both SDGs and NCPs; these include bioenergy and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, afforestation, and some risk sharing measures, like commercial crop insurance. Our results demonstrate that a better understanding of co‐benefits and trade‐offs of different policy approaches can help decision‐makers choose the more effective, or at the very minimum, more benign interventions for implementation.     

Use of sound to guide the movement of eels and other fishes within rivers: a critical review

Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries - Downstream movements of some freshwater fishes, including eels, are adversely affected by the presence of hydroelectric structures and other anthropic...     

Analysis of chemometric models applied to Raman spectroscopy for monitoring key metabolites of cell culture

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initiative of Process Analytical Technology (PAT) encourages the monitoring of biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes by innovative solutions. Raman spectroscopy and the chemometric modeling tool partial least squares (PLS) have been applied to this aim for monitoring cell culture process variables. This study compares the chemometric modeling methods of Support Vector Machine radial (SVMr), Random Forests (RF), and Cubist to the commonly used linear PLS model for predicting cell culture components—glucose, lactate, and ammonia. This research is performed to assess whether the use of PLS as standard practice is justified for chemometric modeling of Raman spectroscopy and cell culture data. Model development data from five small-scale bioreactors (2 × 1 L and 3 × 5 L) using two Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines were used to predict against a manufacturing scale bioreactor (2,000 L). Analysis demonstrated that Cubist predictive models were better for average performance over PLS, SVMr, and RF for glucose, lactate, and ammonia. The root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of Cubist modeling was acceptable for the process concentration ranges of glucose (1.437 mM), lactate (2.0 mM), and ammonia (0.819 mM). Interpretation of variable importance (VI) results theorizes the potential advantages of Cubist modeling in avoiding interference of Raman spectral peaks. Predictors/Raman wavenumbers (cm⁻¹) of interest for individual variables are X1139–X1141 for glucose, X846–X849 for lactate, and X2941–X2943 for ammonia. These results demonstrate that other beneficial chemometric models are available for use in monitoring cell culture with Raman spectroscopy.     

First partial cranium of Togocetus from Kpogamé (Togo) and the protocetid diversity in the Togolese phosphate basin

Earliest cetaceans (whales) originated from the early Eocene of Indo-Pakistan, but the group dispersed through most of the oceans of the planet by the late middle to late Eocene. This late Eocene global distribution indicates that important dispersal events took place during the middle Eocene (Lutetian), a globally undersampled time interval that is well documented in the Togolese phosphate series. We report here the first discovery of a partial cetacean cranium from middle Eocene deposits of Togo (West Africa). A 3D model of the cranium and teeth was reconstructed in order to reveal hidden anatomical features. The dental and cranial characteristics of the Togolese specimen recall those of protocetid taxa described in Africa, Asia, and North America, but also display significant differences. In particular, we show that the new specimen shares a number of morphological features with the Togolese taxon Togocetus. Such a hypothesis is further supported by a cladistic analysis including 45 taxa and 167 morphological characters, which recovers the new specimen close to Togocetus as the first offshoot of protocetids. Phylogenetic analysis including all the protocetids remains of Kpogamé confirms the singular diversity of the Togolese phosphate basin, and enables to examine potential connections with faunas from contemporaneous localities in Africa.     

Stejneger's beaked whale strandings in Alaska, 1995–2020

Presented here is the first comprehensive and updated compilation of history, distribution, and findings of Stejneger's beaked whales (Mesoplodon stejnegeri) in Alaska. Stejneger's beaked whales are a poorly understood, elusive, deep-diving cetacean species found in the North Pacific Ocean. Since Stejneger's beaked whale strandings data in Alaska through 1994 were last published, 35 additional strandings have been documented. Twenty-seven animals stranded in the Aleutian Islands, seven stranded in Southcentral Alaska, and one animal stranded on St. Lawrence Island. Twenty-two carcasses were necropsied, but only four were fresh. Seventeen of the 22 died during mass stranding events and cause of death could not be definitively determined. Barotrauma was suspected in three cases and infectious disease possibly complicated by barotrauma occurred in two cases. We documented an expansion of strandings into the northern Bering Sea, characterized a sex bias, examined stomach contents that included macroplastic, and identified parasites not previously associated with Stejneger's beaked whales. Also included are data on the largest known mass stranding of Stejneger's beaked whales, which occurred on Adak Island in 2018. The history, distribution, and findings presented here are central to further our understanding of this species.