Chimpanzee identification and social network construction through an online citizen science platform

Abstract Citizen science has grown rapidly in popularity in recent years due to its potential to educate and engage the public while providing a means to address a myriad of scientific questions. However, the rise in popularity of citizen science has also been accompanied by concerns about the quality of data emerging from citizen science research projects. We assessed data quality in the online citizen scientist platform Chimp&See, which hosts camera trap videos of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and other species across Equatorial Africa. In particular, we compared detection and identification of individual chimpanzees by citizen scientists with that of experts with years of experience studying those chimpanzees. We found that citizen scientists typically detected the same number of individual chimpanzees as experts, but assigned far fewer identifications (IDs) to those individuals. Those IDs assigned, however, were nearly always in agreement with the IDs provided by experts. We applied the data sets of citizen scientists and experts by constructing social networks from each. We found that both social networks were relatively robust and shared a similar structure, as well as having positively correlated individual network positions. Our findings demonstrate that, although citizen scientists produced a smaller data set based on fewer confirmed IDs, the data strongly reflect expert classifications and can be used for meaningful assessments of group structure and dynamics. This approach expands opportunities for social research and conservation monitoring in great apes and many other individually identifiable species

Belle II Technical Design Report

The Belle detector at the KEKB electron-positron collider has collected almost 1 billion Y(4S) events in its decade of operation. Super-KEKB, an upgrade of KEKB is under construction, to increase the luminosity by two orders of magnitude during a three-year shutdown, with an ultimate goal of 8E35 /cm^2 /s luminosity. To exploit the increased luminosity, an upgrade of the Belle detector has been proposed. A new international collaboration Belle-II, is being formed. The Technical Design Report presents physics motivation, basic methods of the accelerator upgrade, as well as key improvements of the detector.Comment: Edited by: Z. Dole\v{z}al and S. Un

Effects of monosodium-L-glutamate administration on serum levels of reproductive hormones and cholesterol, epididymal sperm reserves and testicular histomorphology of male albino rats

This study investigated the effects of administration of monosodium L-glutamate (MSG) on serum gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH), luteinising hormone (LH), testosterone and total cholesterol (TC), cauda epididymal sperm reserves (CESR) and testicular histomorphology of adult male albino rats. Eighty-four rats, randomly assigned to 7 groups of 12 rats each, were used for the study. Varying low doses (0.25, 0.50 or 1.00 g/kg body weight) of MSG were administered orally or subcutaneously at 48-h intervals for six weeks. Serum GnRH, LH, testosterone and TC, and CESR were evaluated on days 14, 28 and 42 of MSG administration. Testicular histomorphology was evaluated on day 42. The results showed that the mean serum GnRH, LH and testosterone levels, and the CESR of all the treated groups were significantly (P < 0.05) lower than those of the untreated control on days 14, 28 and 42 of MSG administration. The mean serum TC levels of all the treated groups were also significantly (P < 0.05) lower than those of the control group on days 14 and 28. No lesions were observed on sections of the testes. It was concluded that MSG administration for 14, 28 and 42 days led to significantly lower serum levels of GnRH, LH, testosterone and TC, and significantly lower CESR

Comparison of Extensive Protein Fractionation and Repetitive LC-MS/MS Analyses on Depth of Analysis for Complex Proteomes

In-depth, reproducible coverage of complex proteomes is challenging because the complexity of tryptic digests subjected to LC-MS/MS analysis frequently exceeds mass spectrometer analytical capacity, which results in undersampling of data. In this study, we used cancer cell lysates to systematically compare the commonly used GeLC-MS/MS (1-D protein + 1-D peptide separation) method using four repetitive injections (2-D/repetitive) with a 3-D method that included solution isoelectric focusing and involved an equal number of LC-MS/MS runs. The 3-D method detected substantially more unique peptides and proteins, including higher numbers of unique peptides from low-abundance proteins, demonstrating that additional fractionation at the protein level is more effective than repetitive analyses at overcoming LC-MS/MS undersampling. Importantly, more than 90 % of the 2-D/repetitive protein identifications were found in the 3-D method data in a direct protein level comparison, and the reproducibility between data sets increased to greater than 96 % when factors such as database redundancy and use of rigid scoring thresholds were considered. Hence, high reproducibility of complex proteomes, such as human cancer cell lysates, readily can be achieved when using multidimensional separation methods with good depth of analysis

Persistent anthrax as a major driver of wildlife mortality in a tropical rainforest

Anthrax is a globally important animal disease and zoonosis. Despite this, our current knowledge of anthrax ecology is largely limited to arid ecosystems, where outbreaks are most commonly reported. Here we show that the dynamics of an anthrax-causing agent, Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis, in a tropical rainforest have severe consequences for local wildlife communities. Using data and samples collected over three decades, we show that rainforest anthrax is a persistent and widespread cause of death for a broad range of mammalian hosts. We predict that this pathogen will accelerate the decline and possibly result in the extirpation of local chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) populations. We present the epidemiology of a cryptic pathogen and show that its presence has important implications for conservation

Discovery of novel herpes simplexviruses in wild gorillas, bonobos, and chimpanzees supports zoonotic origin of HSV-2

Viruses closely related to human pathogens can reveal the origins of human infectious diseases. Human herpes simplexvirus type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2) are hypothesized to have arisen via host-virus codivergence and cross-species transmission. We report the discovery of novel herpes simplexviruses during a large-scale screening of fecal samples from wild gorillas, bonobos, and chimpanzees. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that, contrary to expectation, simplexviruses from these African apes are all more closely related to HSV-2 than to HSV-1. Molecular clock-based hypothesis testing suggests the divergence between HSV-1 and the African great ape simplexviruses likely represents a codivergence event between humans and gorillas. The simplexviruses infecting African great apes subsequently experienced multiple cross-species transmission events over the past 3 My, the most recent of which occurred between humans and bonobos around 1 Ma. These findings revise our understanding of the origins of human herpes simplexviruses and suggest that HSV-2 is one of the earliest zoonotic pathogens

Prevalence of Same-Sex Sexual Behavior and Associated Characteristics among Low-Income Urban Males in Peru

Peru has a concentrated HIV epidemic in which men who have sex with men are particularly vulnerable. We describe the lifetime prevalence of same-sex sexual contact and associated risk behaviors of men in Peru's general population, regardless of their sexual identity.A probability sample of males from low-income households in three Peruvian cities completed an epidemiologic survey addressing their sexual risk behavior, including sex with other men. Serum was tested for HSV-2, HIV, and syphilis. Urine was tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea. A total of 2,271 18-30 year old men and women were contacted, of whom 1,645 (72.4%) agreed to participate in the study. Among the sexually experienced men surveyed, 15.2% (85/558, 95% CI: 12.2%-18.2%) reported a history of sex with other men. Men ever reporting sex with men (MESM) had a lower educational level, had greater numbers of sex partners, and were more likely to engage in risk behaviors including unprotected sex with casual partners, paying for or providing compensated sex, and using illegal drugs. MESM were also more likely to have had previous STI symptoms or a prior STI diagnosis, and had a greater prevalence of HSV-2 seropositivity.Many low-income Peruvian men have engaged in same-sex sexual contact and maintain greater behavioral and biological risk factors for HIV/STI transmission than non-MESM. Improved surveillance strategies for HIV and STIs among MESM are necessary to better understand the epidemiology of HIV in Latin America and to prevent its further spread

Finding needles in haystacks: linking scientific names, reference specimens and molecular data for Fungi

DNA phylogenetic comparisons have shown that morphology-based species recognition often underestimates fungal diversity. Therefore, the need for accurate DNA sequence data, tied to both correct taxonomic names and clearly annotated specimen data, has never been greater. Furthermore, the growing number of molecular ecology and microbiome projects using high-throughput sequencing require fast and effective methods for en masse species assignments. In this article, we focus on selecting and re-annotating a set of marker reference sequences that represent each currently accepted order of Fungi. The particular focus is on sequences from the internal transcribed spacer region in the nuclear ribosomal cistron, derived from type specimens and/or ex-type cultures. Re-annotated and verified sequences were deposited in a curated public database at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), namely the RefSeq Targeted Loci (RTL) database, and will be visible during routine sequence similarity searches with NR_prefixed accession numbers. A set of standards and protocols is proposed to improve the data quality of new sequences, and we suggest how type and other reference sequences can be used to improve identification of Fungi