Building the future one health workforce in eastern and southern Africa: Gaps and opportunities

The Quadripartite comprised of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO), World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), and the One Health High Level Expert Panel collectively support enhancing the One Health (OH) capacities of the workforce addressing OH issues; however, competencies for this workforce are not generally agreed upon, applied uniformly, or always relevant in the global South. The objectives of this study were to (1) develop an inventory of OH education offered by higher education institutes in Eastern and Southern Africa, and (2) define OH competencies relevant for OH training in Eastern and Southern Africa. A survey in 11 Eastern and Southern African countries was conducted with OH key informants purposively selected from higher education institutes offering OH education (n = 1–3/higher education institutes). Snowball sampling was used to identify additional higher education institutes/individuals. Results were validated by OH country representatives. Data were collected using questionnaires, and descriptive statistics were used to present the results. Forty-two questionnaires were completed from 29 higher education institutes, and 166 OH education interventions were reported with 69% being courses contributing to a degree, 21% as degree/diploma awarding, and the remainder were missing data (n = 16). Masters were the most common OH degree program of which the highest number of students taught were from public health/OH, food safety, and applied epidemiology. There are many OH educational courses and activities on offer in Eastern and Southern Africa; however, their total breadth is difficult to assess due to limited awareness of the availability of OH education not only between higher education institutes in a country but also even within a higher education institute between faculties. Numerous cross-cutting and technical competencies were considered essential to work in OH; however, this level of expertise is rarely logistically possible to provide in any single degree program. For OH education to be consistently applied, competency frameworks that are relevant to a region are necessary. Technical competencies are important from a disciplinary context; however, necessary cross-cutting competencies should be a focus in developing the future OH workforce

Trace of change: How stigmergy maps social learning loops in Companion Modeling through participatory simulation

This study explored integrating stigmergy in Companion Modeling (ComMod) to enhance social learning loops (SLL) in participatory natural resource management. Taking a case study from the Ferlo region of Senegal, the research focuses on how stigmergy – a concept derived from biology involving indirect coordination through environmental traces – stimulates and documents cognitive, normative, and relational changes among stakeholders. By leaving digital traces during the iterative development of an Agent-Based Model (ABM), stigmergy support participants in co-constructing the model representing local agro-sylvo-pastoral dynamics. The paper highlights the role of stigmergy in fostering trust, knowledge sharing, and collaboration among diverse stakeholders and research team in a ComMod process, helping to refine the collective strategies aimed at sustainable land management. This research showed that stigmergic imprints can be used as a tool for monitor how learning and model development evolve during iterative modeling workshops, contributing to more adaptive and resilient resource governance strategies

Sequence Demarcation Tool (SDT), a free user-friendly computer program using pairwise genetic identity calculations to classify nucleotide or amino acid sequences

Sequence Demarcation Tool (SDT) is a free user-friendly computer program that has been adopted by many geminivirologists as a means of robustly and reproducibly using pairwise genetic identity calculations to classify geminivirus whole genome sequences. As input SDT takes unaligned sequences and it outputs publication quality pairwise identity plots and color-coded distance matrices. Whereas the distance plots are useful for guiding the establishment of strain, species or genus demarcation thresholds that will yield minimal classification conflicts, the distance matrices aid the classification of sequences according to the taxonomic demarcation criteria of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. Accordingly, over the past 10 years, SDT has been extensively used for the establishment of new genera in the family Geminiviridae and for the classification of hundreds of new species within individual geminivirus genera

Fruitlet core rot disease in 'Queen Victoria' pineapple infructescence triggers local and systemic metabolome reconfigurations

We studied the metabolomes of 'Queen Victoria' pineapples subjected to the fungi-induced fruitlet core rot (FCR) disease, a major quality issue in the pineapple industry. Analyses were carried out on the pulp and skin of individual fruitlets within healthy or black spotted infructescences, in order to profile three types of samples: healthy, infected and asymptomatic fruitlets. Our results reveal distinct responses to FCR in pulp and skin of infected fruitlets, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The pulp displayed much stronger and diverse changes, including the implementation of a local phenolic-based defense reflecting both antimicrobial activity and cell wall turnover. Evidence of strong redox regulation linked to the presence of the pathogen was observed through variations in proline and glutathione-conjugated compounds. Moreover, among the numerous sugar variations, a particular trehalose pattern emerged as an antagonistic issue between the plant and the fungus. The activation of signaling pathways following the fungal attack was also revealed, with the accumulation of pipecolate and alpha-aminobutyrate, involved in defense priming and systemic acquired resistance. Interestingly, we also found significant metabolic changes in asymptomatic fruitlets, similar in nature but smaller in magnitude, demonstrating the existence of a systemic response to infection. This work opens the way to a better understanding of the infection and defense mechanisms involved in FCR and their consequences on organoleptic quality

Effect of bin width on variogram model accuracy: A case study of teak tree volume specific to Solomon clone in Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia

The volume of teak trees (Tectona grandis Linn. f.) was analyzed using data from a teak plantation managed by the research and development team at Sabah Softwood Berhad in Brumas Camp, Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia. To fit the exponential model to the experimental variogram, various bin widths were used to obtain different variogram models. These models were plotted for comparison, and the root mean square error (RMSE) was calculated. Additionally, cross-validation was performed to assess the predictive accuracy of each model for the unseen data. The analysis indicated that a bin width of 0.003—that was approximately 333 m apart—was ideal for fitting the exponential model. This width demonstrated the lowest RMSE and ideal graphical observations. This study confirms that selecting the optimal bin width significantly affects the accuracy of model predictions, regardless of the sample size

Prendre de la hauteur pour caractériser et analyser les paysages agricoles: Application de la télédétection à l'agriculture familiale africaine

A l'interface entre sciences géographiques et sciences agronomiques, mes recherches contribuent à répondre à la problématique générale de l'évaluation spatio-temporelle des performances agronomiques, environnementales et socio-économiques de l'agriculture familiale africaine, en réponse aux changements globaux. Mes recherches s'inscrivent dans un contexte de profondes mutations technologiques parmi lesquelles les outils de télédétection jouent un rôle central. Les données satellitaires ou aéroportées, données d'enquête, d'inventaire ou d'expérimentation sont les fondements de mes recherches, les nouvelles méthodes d'analyses issues de l'intelligence artificielle en sont le ciment. Les travaux présentés ici font la synthèse d'une dizaine d'années de recherche, s'articulant autour de trois composantes : la télédétection comme outil de description, avec un focus particulier sur la cartographie des paysages agricoles et leur diversité; la télédétection comme outil d'évaluation, notamment pour mesurer la production de végétation des paysages agricoles et enfin, la télédétection comme outil de compréhension, au travers notamment d'études portant sur l'analyse des relations entre composantes des paysages agricoles, production de végétation et sécurité alimentaire. Je conduis mes recherches à différentes échelles spatiales, de la parcelle cultivée à la région, et temporelles, du ponctuel aux tendances sur le long terme. Ces différents thèmes de recherche sont illustrés principalement par des exemples d'étude sur des systèmes de cultures annuelles en Afrique de l'Ouest, en condition pluviale, avec un focus particulier sur les systèmes agroforestiers de type parc agroforestier

Mycorrhizal symbioses and tree diversity in global forest communities

Unraveling the mechanisms underlying the maintenance of species diversity is a central pursuit in ecology. It has been hypothesized that ectomycorrhizal (EcM) in contrast to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi can reduce tree species diversity in local communities, which remains to be tested at the global scale. To address this gap, we analyzed global forest inventory data and revealed that the relationship between tree species richness and EcM tree proportion varied along environmental gradients. Specifically, the relationship is more negative at low latitudes and in moist conditions but is unimodal at high latitudes and in arid conditions. The negative association of EcM tree proportion on species diversity at low latitudes and in humid conditions is likely due to more negative plant-soil microbial interactions in these regions. These findings extend our knowledge on the mechanisms shaping global patterns in plant species diversity from a belowground view