scholarly journals Seasonal challenges of tropical bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) in temperate zones

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya Weinberg ◽  
Omer Mazar ◽  
Sohpie Goutnik ◽  
Lee Harten ◽  
Michal Handel ◽  
...  

Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) manage to survive and flourish in a large geographic range despite the variability of natural and anthropogenic conditions in this range. To examine the challenges faced by free-ranging R. aegyptiacus living at the northern edge of their distribution, we performed a retrospective analysis of ~1500 clinical cases reported by a bat rescue NGO over 25 months, from all over Israel. All cases of injured or stranded bats were evaluated and categorized according to date, place, sex, age, and etiology of the morbidity. The analysis of the data showed an increase in all types of morbidity during the wintertime, with more than twice the number of cases in comparison with the summertime, over two consecutive years. Moreover, we found that the number of abandoned pups peaks during spring till autumn when adult morbidity is minimal. We characterize two prominent types of previously undescribed morbidity in R. aegyptiacus, one in the form of bacterial illness, and the other associated with feet deformation which affects bats in addition to major anthropogenic-related threats related to synanthropic predators. We analyze the reasons driving winter morbidity and conclude that winter weather and specifically low temperature best explains this morbidity. We hypothesize that R. aegyptiacus, a fruit-bat of tropical origin is facing major seasonal difficulties near the northern edge of its distribution, probably limiting its further spread northward.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelsey R. Moreno ◽  
Maya Weinberg ◽  
Lee Harten ◽  
Valeria B. Salinas Ramos ◽  
L. Gerardo Herrera M. ◽  
...  

AbstractAlong with its many advantages, social roosting imposes a major risk of pathogen transmission. How social animals, and especially free-ranging mammals, reduce this risk is poorly documented. We used lipopolysaccharide injection to imitate bacterial sickness in both a captive and a free-ranging colony of an extremely social, long lived mammal – the Egyptian fruit bat. We monitored behavioral and physiological responses using an arsenal of methods, including on-board GPS and acceleration, video, temperature and weight measurements, and blood samples. Sick-like bats exhibited an increased immune response, as well as classical illness symptoms including fever, weight loss, anorexia, and lethargy. Notably, they also isolated themselves from the group by leaving the social cluster and avoiding contact. Free-ranging individuals ceased foraging outdoors for at least two nights. Together, these sickness behaviors demonstrate a strong, integrative immune response which promotes recovery of infected individuals while protecting their group members from transmission of pathogens, and at the same time, reducing spillover events outside the roost.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claude Kwe Yinda ◽  
Mark Zeller ◽  
Nádia Conceição-Neto ◽  
Piet Maes ◽  
Ward Deboutte ◽  
...  

AbstractBats are an important reservoir for pathogenic human respiratory and hemorrhagic viruses but only little is known about bat viruses causing gastroenteritis in humans, including rotavirus A strains (RVA). Only three RVA strains have been reported in bats in Kenya (straw-colored fruit bat) and in China (lesser horseshoe and a stoliczka’s trident bat), being highly divergent from each other. To further elucidate the potential of bat RVAs to cause gastroenteritis in humans we started by investigating the genetic diversity of RVAs in fecal samples from 87 straw-colored fruit bats living in close contact with humans in Cameroon using metagenomics. Five samples contained significant numbers of RVA Illumina reads, sufficient to obtain their (near) complete genomes. A single RVA strain showed a close phylogenetic relationship with the Kenyan bat RVA strain in six gene segments, including VP7 (G25), whereas the other gene segments represented novel genotypes as ratified by the RCWG. The 4 other RVA strains were highly divergent from known strains (but very similar among each other) possessing all novel genotypes. Only the VP7 and VP4 genes showed a significant variability representing multiple novel G and P genotypes, indicating the frequent occurrence of reassortment events.Comparing these bat RVA strains with currently used human RVA screening primers indicated that several of the novel VP7 and VP4 segments would not be detected in routine epidemiological screening studies. Therefore, novel VP6 based screening primers matching both human and bat RVAs were developed and used to screen samples from 25 infants with gastroenteritis living in close proximity with the studied bat population. Although RVA infections were identified in 36% of the infants, Sanger sequencing did not indicate evidence of interspecies transmissions.This study identified multiple novel bat RVA strains, but further epidemiological studies in humans will have to assess if these viruses have the potential to cause gastroenteritis in humans.


2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1599) ◽  
pp. 2108-2118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Barrett ◽  
S. Peter Henzi ◽  
David Lusseau

Understanding human cognitive evolution, and that of the other primates, means taking sociality very seriously. For humans, this requires the recognition of the sociocultural and historical means by which human minds and selves are constructed, and how this gives rise to the reflexivity and ability to respond to novelty that characterize our species. For other, non-linguistic, primates we can answer some interesting questions by viewing social life as a feedback process, drawing on cybernetics and systems approaches and using social network neo-theory to test these ideas. Specifically, we show how social networks can be formalized as multi-dimensional objects, and use entropy measures to assess how networks respond to perturbation. We use simulations and natural ‘knock-outs’ in a free-ranging baboon troop to demonstrate that changes in interactions after social perturbations lead to a more certain social network, in which the outcomes of interactions are easier for members to predict. This new formalization of social networks provides a framework within which to predict network dynamics and evolution, helps us highlight how human and non-human social networks differ and has implications for theories of cognitive evolution.


2003 ◽  
Vol 56 (9) ◽  
pp. 903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin E. Collis ◽  
Dieter Wege

Addition of 2-diazopropane to 1,4-naphthoquinone at low temperature, followed by in situ enolization and acetylation or silylation gave 3,3-dimethyl-1H-benz[f]indazol-4,9-diyl diacetate and 3,3-dimethyl-9-(t-butyl-dimethylsilyloxy)-1H-benz[f]indazol-4-ol, respectively. Functional group manipulation of the latter compound provided a number of other 4,9-disubstituted 3,3-dimethyl-3H-benz[f]indazoles. Irradiation of the diacetate led to clean extrusion of nitrogen to give the naphtho[b]cycloproparene and an alkene. Attempts to elaborate the cycloproparene into the derived cyclopropanaphthoquinone were unsuccessful. Of the other 4,9-disubstituted 3,3-dimethyl-3H-benz[f]indazoles examined, only the compound possessing an acetoxy group at C9 was photoactive, and afforded the expected cycloproparene and alkene. Compounds bearing a hydroxy or alkoxy group at C9 were photochemically inert.


2011 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. L. XAPLANTERIS ◽  
E. D. FILIPPAKI ◽  
I. S. MISTAKIDIS ◽  
L. C. XAPLANTERIS

AbstractMany experimental data along with their theoretical interpretations on the rf low-temperature cylindrical plasma have been issued until today. Our Laboratory has contributed to that research by publishing results and interpretative mathematical models. With the present paper, two issues are being examined; firstly, the estimation of electron drift caused by the rf field gradient, which is the initial reason for the plasma behaviour, and secondly, many new experimental results, especially the electron-neutral collision frequency effect on the other plasma parameters and quantities. Up till now, only the plasma steady state was taken into consideration when a theoretical elaboration was carried out, regardless of the cause and the effect. This indicates the plasma's complicated and chaotic configuration and the need to simplify the problem. In the present work, a classification about the causality of the phenomena is attempted; the rf field gradient electron drift is proved to be the initial cause.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavel Mostovoy ◽  
Ildar Safarov ◽  
Evgeniy Tumanov ◽  
Maria Zaytseva ◽  
Maksim Aksenov ◽  
...  

Abstract Oil and gas companies’ future production profile is shaped by their exploration strategy and resource base development. Gazprom Neft's production profile will include 40% of current exploration projects by 2030. Geological exploration, on the other hand, is a high-risk business because it involves a lot of uncertainty due to the geological complexity of the targets being explored, as well as a lot of risky capital. Taking these factors into account, the Company will need to expand its exploration function as well as its approaches to managing exploration projects in order to meet its lofty aims. To determine the key areas of growth and a strategy for the exploration function development in the coming years, it was decided to first analyze the geological exploration activity in the Company in 2010 – 2020 period. The knowledge of achievements, success stories, and development areas is the fulcrum for future victories. Therefore, retrospective analysis is an important tool for the development of any system of activity - individual, organization, or state.


Phytotaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 522 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-37
Author(s):  
DANIEL F. BRUNTON ◽  
MICHAEL GARRETT ◽  
PAUL C. SOKOLOFF ◽  
GINTARAS KANTVILAS

Isoetes jarmaniae sp. nov. is described as a new lycophyte endemic to Tasmania, Australia, where it is confined to peat-bound karstic wetlands in several river valleys in the south-west wilderness. While seemingly morphologically closest to I. drummondii, this quillwort has features that are globally uncommon in Isoetes and unknown in other Australasian taxa. Most notable are its markedly flattened, strongly recurved leaves and disproportionately large sporangium ligules that are more suggestive of South American than Australian taxa. As well, the exceptionally thin and wide (alate) megaspore equatorial ridge is swollen at suture intersections, presenting a slightly triangular shape suggestive of the Indian taxon I. udupiensis. The microspores of I. jarmaniae exhibit exceptionally, perhaps uniquely, fine-papillate ornamentation. An original key placing I. jarmaniae in context with the other Tasmanian Isoetes species is provided. This diminutive, apparently diploid species is evidently maintaining a self-sustaining population within a regionally unique habitat and small geographic range.


1878 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 571-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Crum Brown ◽  
E. A. Letts

The analogies existing between elements belonging to one “family,” such, for instance, as the nitrogen family or the sulphur family, have long been recognised, and are pointed out and insisted upon even in elementary textbooks; but the very important analogies existing between substances of different quantivalence are apt to be forgotten or overlooked. For illustrations of such analogies we may point to boron and silicon, elements closely resembling one another in themselves and also in their compounds,—differing, indeed, in little else but that the one is triad and the other tetrad. A similar relation exists between gold and platinum.The elementary substances, sulphur and phosphorus, have many points of similarity: both fuse at a comparatively low temperature, both are transformed by heat into amorphous insoluble modifications, and both have anomalous vapour densities.


2005 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 543-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael José Navas da Silva ◽  
Eduardo Rossini Guimarães ◽  
José Francisco Garcia ◽  
Paulo Sérgio Machado Botelho ◽  
Maria Inês Tiraboschi Ferro ◽  
...  

The increased rate of sugarcane harvest without previous burn has provided a very favorable environment to the froghopper Mahanarva fimbriolata (Stal, 1854), with high moisture and low temperature variation. Few works have studied the response of sugarcane to this pest, so little is known about resistant cultivars. Plant phenolics are widely studied compounds because of their known antiherbivore effect. This research aims to determine if the attack of M. fimbriolata nymphs stimulates the accumulation of total phenolics in sugarcane. The experiment was carried out in greenhouse and arranged in completely randomized design, in a 3 X 2 X 4 factorial with three replications. Second instar nymphs of M. fimbriolata were infested at the following rates: control, 2-4 and 4-8 nymphs per pot (first-second infestations, respectively). Pots were covered with nylon net and monitored daily to isolate the effect of leaf sucking adults. Leaf and root samples were collected and kept frozen in liquid nitrogen until analyses. Infested plants showed higher levels of phenolics in both root and leaf tissues. In roots, the cultivar SP80-1816 accumulated more phenolic compounds in response to the infestation of M. fimbriolata. On the other hand, higher levels were found in leaves and roots of control plants of SP86-42, which might be an indication of a non-preference mechanism. The increase of total phenolics in sugarcane infested with root-sucking froghopper nymphs does not seem to be useful to detect the resistance to this pest.


1927 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 987-1005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Pertzoff

1. The preparation and purification of paracasein was described and certain criteria for the absence of free enzyme provided for. 2. The solubility of purified paracasein in water at low temperature was studied, and found practically identical with the solubility of casein. 3. The capacity of paracasein to bind base was investigated by means of its solubility in NaOH at 5° and at 23° ± 2°C., and found to be distinctly different from that of casein. 4. At these two temperature levels paracasein had a 1.5 greater capacity to bind base than casein. The equivalent combining weights of paracasein and casein were found to stand each to the other, apapproximately, as 2 to 3. 5. This relationship suggested that the temperature coefficients of the solubility of paracasein and casein in NaOH are identical. 6. This evidence indicates that paracasein is a modification of casein, distinguishable by physicochemical means.


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