Bees, farmers, tourists and hunters: conflict dynamics around Western Tanzania protected areas

Following important donor funding in Tanzania since the 1990s to support community based natural resource management, several cooperation agencies have implemented projects aiming at developing innovative conservation strategies combining protected and sustainable use areas. Based on data gathered in the Katavi Rukwa Lukwati and Ugalla core areas of Western Tanzania, this paper compares and analyses how projects developed their strategy and objectives to address conflicts between local population and conservation agents, and how this led to changes in conservation practices. The projects managed to achieve their objectives in conservation and poverty reduction at various degrees. Enhanced conflict resolution capacity involving private stakeholders, conservation agents and local communities, as well as improved collaboration between projects, helped to solve part of the conflicts. This was the case with the negotiation of rights of access for beekeepers to Rukwa game reserve. However, enduring sector based approaches continue to hinder opportunities for developing multiple use approaches. Contrasted results of the projects can be explained by factors inherent to projects' planning and management, but also by factors that are beyond projects' influence such as the historical and contemporary context in terms of governance of natural resources and more globally, of power relationships between the state, private organisations and the communitie

Conception, Design And Evaluation Of A Graphical User-Interface For A Cloud-Platform For Business Process Management

Due to the high complexity of Business Process Management (BPM) software, in-tensive training periods for users are necessary. Therefore, a lightweight Business Process Management System (BPMS) is designed, in order to reduce the complex-ity of BPMS functionality to a minimum. The aim of this work is to develop a graph-ical user interface for a BPM cloud platform. Particularly, the administration, mod-eling, and execution of process models are combined in one system. Further, it is well-suited for collaborative purposes, such as sharing of process models and col-laborative process modeling and execution. Consequently, the user’s acceptance can be increased. In addition, usability aspects like a consistent interaction are con-sidered. A modern and simple visual design helps to increase the improvement of the BPMS’ usability and leads to ensure the user’s acceptance. During develop-ment, the BPMS’ usability is evaluated by a usability test involving end-users. Par-ticularly, the usability test ensures to identify weaknesses with regard to the BPMS’ usability. Besides the aspect of usability, the emotional factor of the visual design is considered in order to optimize the user experience. This includes innovative solutions, increasing the user’s enthusiasm through satisfying the user’s needs. Therefore, the developed BPMS offers innovative solutions including process filters to reduce process model’s complexity, a store concept with preconfigured pro-cesses, a timeline functionality and the translation of a BPMN process model to a more compact representation

Disentangling Incomplete Lineage Sorting and Introgression to Refine Species-Tree Estimates for Lake Tanganyika Cichlid Fishes

Adaptive radiation is thought to be responsible for the evolution of a great portion of the past and present diversity of life. Instances of adaptive radiation, characterized by the rapid emergence of an array of species as a consequence to their adaptation to distinct ecological niches, are important study systems in evolutionary biology. However, because of the rapid lineage formation in these groups, and occasional gene flow between the participating species, it is often difficult to reconstruct the phylogenetic history of species that underwent an adaptive radiation. In this study, we present a novel approach for species-tree estimation in rapidly diversifying lineages, where introgression is known to occur, and apply it to a multimarker data set containing up to 16 specimens per species for a set of 45 species of East African cichlid fishes (522 individuals in total), with a main focus on the cichlid species flock of Lake Tanganyika. We first identified, using age distributions of most recent common ancestors in individual gene trees, those lineages in our data set that show strong signatures of past introgression. This led us to formulate three hypotheses of introgression between different lineages of Tanganyika cichlids: the ancestor of Boulengerochromini (or of Boulengerochromini and Bathybatini) received genomic material from the derived H-lineage; the common ancestor of Cyprichromini and Perissodini experienced, in turn, introgression from Boulengerochromini and/or Bathybatini; and the Lake Tanganyika Haplochromini and closely related riverine lineages received genetic material from Cyphotilapiini. We then applied the multispecies coalescent model to estimate the species tree of Lake Tanganyika cichlids, but excluded the lineages involved in these introgression events, as the multispecies coalescent model does not incorporate introgression. This resulted in a robust species tree, in which the Lamprologini were placed as sister lineage to the H-lineage (including the Eretmodini), and we identify a series of rapid splitting events at the base of the H-lineage. Divergence ages estimated with the multispecies coalescent model were substantially younger than age estimates based on concatenation, and agree with the geological history of the Great Lakes of East Africa. Finally, we formally tested the three hypotheses of introgression using a likelihood framework, and find strong support for introgression between some of the cichlid tribes of Lake Tanganyika. [Adaptive radiation; Cichlidae; introgression; Lake Tanganyika; species network.]

Carbonate-based Janus micromotors moving in ultra-light acidic environment generated by HeLa cells in situ

Novel approaches to develop naturally-induced drug delivery in tumor environments in a deterministic and controlled manner have become of growing interest in recent years. Different polymeric-based microstructures and other biocompatible substances have been studied taking advantage of lactic acidosis phenomena in tumor cells, which decrease the tumor extracellular pH down to 6.8. Micromotors have recently demonstrated a high performance in living systems, revealing autonomous movement in the acidic environment of the stomach or moving inside living cells by using acoustic waves, opening the doors for implementation of such smart microengines into living entities. The need to develop biocompatible motors which are driven by natural fuel sources inherently created in biological systems has thus become of crucial importance. As a proof of principle, we here demonstrate calcium carbonate Janus particles moving in extremely light acidic environments (pH 6.5), whose motion is induced in conditioned acidic medium generated by HeLa cells in situ. Our system not only obviates the need for an external fuel, but also presents a selective activation of the micromotors which promotes their motion and consequent dissolution in presence of a quickly propagating cell source (i.e. tumor cells), therefore inspiring new micromotor configurations for potential drug delivery systems

Psychometric characterization of incidental feedback sources during grasping with a hand prosthesis

Background A prosthetic system should ideally reinstate the bidirectional communication between the user’s brain and its end effector by restoring both motor and sensory functions lost after an amputation. However, current commercial prostheses generally do not incorporate somatosensory feedback. Even without explicit feedback, grasping using a prosthesis partly relies on sensory information. Indeed, the prosthesis operation is characterized by visual and sound cues that could be exploited by the user to estimate the prosthesis state. However, the quality of this incidental feedback has not been objectively evaluated. Methods In this study, the psychometric properties of the auditory and visual feedback of prosthesis motion were assessed and compared to that of a vibro-tactile interface. Twelve able-bodied subjects passively observed prosthesis closing and grasping an object, and they were asked to discriminate (experiment I) or estimate (experiment II) the closing velocity of the prosthesis using visual (VIS), acoustic (SND), or combined (VIS?+?SND) feedback. In experiment II, the subjects performed the task also with a vibrotactile stimulus (VIB) delivered using a single tactor. The outcome measures for the discrimination and estimation experiments were just noticeable difference (JND) and median absolute estimation error (MAE), respectively. Results The results demonstrated that the incidental sources provided a remarkably good discrimination and estimation of the closing velocity, significantly outperforming the vibrotactile feedback. Using incidental sources, the subjects could discriminate almost the minimum possible increment/decrement in velocity that could be commanded to the prosthesis (median JND?<?2% for SND and VIS?+?SND). Similarly, the median MAE in estimating the prosthesis velocity randomly commanded from the full working range was also low, i.e., approximately 5% in SND and VIS?+?SND. Conclusions Since the closing velocity is proportional to grasping force in state-of-the-art myoelectric prostheses, the results of the present study imply that the incidental feedback, when available, could be usefully exploited for grasping force control. Therefore, the impact of incidental feedback needs to be considered when designing a feedback interface in prosthetics, especially since the quality of estimation using supplemental sources (e.g., vibration) can be worse compared to that of the intrinsic cues

Biomimetic microelectronics for regenerative neuronal cuff implants

Smart biomimetics, a unique class of devices combining the mechanical adaptivity of soft actuators with the imperceptibility of microelectronics, is introduced. Due to their inherent ability to self‐assemble, biomimetic microelectronics can firmly yet gently attach to an inorganic or biological tissue enabling enclosure of, for example, nervous fibers, or guide the growth of neuronal cells during regeneration

Insulin gene polymorphisms in type I diabetes, Addison's disease and the polyglandular autoimmune syndrome type II

Background: Polymorphisms within the insulin gene can influence insulin expression in the pancreas and especially in the thymus, where self-antigens are processed, shaping the T cell repertoire into selftolerance, a process that protects from ß-cell autoimmunity. Methods: We investigated the role of the -2221Msp(C/T) and -23HphI(A/T) polymorphisms within the insulin gene in patients with a monoglandular autoimmune endocrine disease [patients with isolated type 1 diabetes (T1D, n = 317), Addison´s disease (AD, n = 107) or Hashimoto´s thyroiditis (HT, n = 61)], those with a polyglandular autoimmune syndrome type II (combination of T1D and/or AD with HT or GD, n = 62) as well as in healthy controls (HC, n = 275). Results: T1D patients carried significantly more often the homozygous genotype "CC" -2221Msp(C/T) and "AA" -23HphI(A/T) polymorphisms than the HC (78.5% vs. 66.2%, p = 0.0027 and 75.4% vs. 52.4%, p = 3.7 × 10-8, respectively). The distribution of insulin gene polymorphisms did not show significant differences between patients with AD, HT, or APS-II and HC. Conclusion: We demonstrate that the allele "C" of the -2221Msp(C/T) and "A" -23HphI(A/T) insulin gene polymorphisms confer susceptibility to T1D but not to isolated AD, HT or as a part of the APS-II

User-centric Process Modeling and Enactment: The Clavii BPM Platform

The increasing adoption of process-aware information sys- tems (PAISs) has resulted in large process model collections involving different process participants. We present the Clavii BPM platform, which enables end users to participate not only in process model execution, but model creation as well. Clavii offers a modern user interface with a strong focus on ease of use, unifying different aspects of the BPM lifecycle in one tool, i.e., process model editor and process engine. As a result, end users are supported in managing and executing process models

Back to Tanganyika: a case of recent trans-species-flock dispersal in East African haplochromine cichlid fishes

The species flocks of cichlid fishes in the East African Great Lakes are the largest vertebrate adaptive radiations in the world and illustrious textbook examples of convergent evolution between independent species assemblages. Although recent studies suggest some degrees of genetic exchange between riverine taxa and the lake faunas, not a single cichlid species is known from Lakes Tanganyika, Malawi and Victoria that is derived from the radiation associated with another of these lakes. Here, we report the discovery of a haplochromine cichlid species in Lake Tanganyika, which belongs genetically to the species flock of haplochromines of the Lake Victoria region. The new species colonized Lake Tanganyika only recently, suggesting that faunal exchange across watersheds and, hence, between isolated ichthyofaunas, is more common than previously thought