Machine Translation for Nko: Tools, Corpora and Baseline Results

Currently, there is no usable machine translation system for Nko, a language spoken by tens of millions of people across multiple West African countries, which holds significant cultural and educational value. To address this issue, we present a set of tools, resources, and baseline results aimed towards the development of usable machine translation systems for Nko and other languages that do not currently have sufficiently large parallel text corpora available. (1) Fria$\parallel$el: A novel collaborative parallel text curation software that incorporates quality control through copyedit-based workflows. (2) Expansion of the FLoRes-200 and NLLB-Seed corpora with 2,009 and 6,193 high-quality Nko translations in parallel with 204 and 40 other languages. (3) nicolingua-0005: A collection of trilingual and bilingual corpora with 130,850 parallel segments and monolingual corpora containing over 3 million Nko words. (4) Baseline bilingual and multilingual neural machine translation results with the best model scoring 30.83 English-Nko chrF++ on FLoRes-devtest

Long-term effect of forest and landscape restoration practices on soil organic carbon stock in semi-arid Burkina Faso

In semi-arid areas, forest and landscape restoration (FLR) practices are being implemented to reverse the land degradation process. The objective of this study was to investigate the long-term effect of FLR practices on soil organic carbon stock (SOCs) under different land uses in the semi-arid region of Burkina Faso. The study was conducted on degraded land under rehabilitation practices for 45, 27, 18 and 11 years, which were compared to similar land without specific rehabilitation measures. The soil was collected in 2018 in 35 sampling plots of 30 m x 30 m. Soil analysis concerned bulk density, soil particle size, soil pH, soil organic carbon content, and respiratory activity of microorganisms. SOCs increased by 150%, 98% and 29% over 0-10 cm depth in 45-, 27- and 11-year of FLR practices, and decreased by 6% in 18-year of FLR practices compared to their respective control. SOCs were not linearly increased with the duration of the implementation of FLR practices because the variation of SOCs depends on several other parameters such as soil texture, and types of combination of FLR practices. The highest SOCs were recorded for 27 years (9.5 t.ha-1) and 45 years (8.5 t.ha-1) of FLR practices. This study revealed the importance of including Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) as one of the combined FLR practices, for improvement of SOCs

Ethnobotanical Survey of Two Medicinal Plants (Heliotropium indicum L., Abrus precatorius L.,) Used in Traditional Medicine in West Africa

Since the time of our ancestors, natural products issued from plant play a therapeutic crucial role. About 25-30% of all medicines (drugs) available for the treatment of diseases are derived from natural products (from plants, animals, bacteria and fungi) or are derivatives of natural products. The aim of this research was to scientifically identify and supply tangible documentation on these two plants employed in the traditional medicine. From November 2020 to February 2021, an ethnobotanical survey was conducted within four markets at the south of Benin, employing a semistructured questionnaire. Two hundred respondents including 80% of females and 20% of males were interviewed. The 2 studied plants are mainly used for different types of sickness related to infections. Females’ herbalists are the most represented. From this research, it appears that the 2 plants are widely used for the treatment of severe infections. On the market, 95% of the leafy steam are sold against 5% of the roots for both plants. The main preparation way is decoction. Oral use is reported to be common in all region. The value of samples sold varies from 200F CFA (Financial Cooperation of Africa) to 1000F CFA. The decoctions are usually obtained through one of a mix of different types of plants. Traditional knowledge is transmitted from one generation to another by oral education. Till today there was no record found. During our study, we did no record prohibition or side effect related to these plants’ use. These medicinal plants occupy a crucial place within the therapeutic arsenal of west Africa. Our results constitute a vital tool to determine the true potentials of these plants. These results could lead to new improved traditional medicine

Evaluation of mosquito electrocuting traps as a safe alternative to the human landing catch for measuring human exposure to malaria vectors in Burkina Faso

Background: Measuring human exposure to mosquito bites is a crucial component of vector-borne disease surveillance. For malaria vectors, the human landing catch (HLC) remains the gold standard for direct estimation of exposure. This method, however, is controversial since participants risk exposure to potentially infected mosquito bites. Recently an exposure-free mosquito electrocuting trap (MET) was developed to provide a safer alternative to the HLC. Early prototypes of the MET performed well in Tanzania but have yet to be tested in West Africa, where malaria vector species composition, ecology and behaviour are different. The performance of the MET relative to HLC for characterizing mosquito vector population dynamics and biting behaviour in Burkina Faso was evaluated. Methods: A longitudinal study was initiated within 12 villages in Burkina Faso in October 2016. Host-seeking mosquitoes were sampled monthly using HLC and MET collections over 14 months. Collections were made at 4 households on each night, with METs deployed inside and outside at 2 houses, and HLC inside and outside at another two. Malaria vector abundance, species composition, sporozoite rate and location of biting (indoor versus outdoor) were recorded. Results: In total, 41,800 mosquitoes were collected over 324 sampling nights, with the major malaria vector being Anopheles gambiae sensu lato (s.l.) complex. Overall the MET caught fewer An. gambiae s.l. than the HLC (mean predicted number of 0.78 versus 1.82 indoors, and 1.05 versus 2.04 outdoors). However, MET collections gave a consistent representation of seasonal dynamics in vector populations, species composition, biting behaviour (location and time) and malaria infection rates relative to HLC. As the relative performance of the MET was somewhat higher in outdoor versus indoor settings, this trapping method slightly underestimated the proportion of bites preventable by LLINs compared to the HLC (MET = 82.08%; HLC = 87.19%). Conclusions: The MET collected proportionately fewer mosquitoes than the HLC. However, estimates of An. gambiae s.l. density in METs were highly correlated with HLC. Thus, although less sensitive, the MET is a safer alternative than the HLC. Its use is recommended particularly for sampling vectors in outdoor environments where it is most sensitive

Insecticide resistance and behavioural adaptation as a response to long-lasting insecticidal net deployment in malaria vectors in the Cascades region of Burkina Faso

The decline in malaria across Africa has been largely attributed to vector control using long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs). However, this intervention has prompted widespread insecticide resistance (IR) and been associated with changes in mosquito behaviour that reduce their contact with LLINs. The relative importance and rate at which IR and behavioural adaptations emerge are poorly understood. We conducted surveillance of mosquito behaviour and IR at 12 sites in Burkina Faso to assess the magnitude and temporal dynamics of insecticide, biting and resting behaviours in vectors in the 2-year period following mass LLIN distribution. Insecticide resistance was present in all vector populations and increased rapidly over the study period. In contrast, no longitudinal shifts in LLIN-avoidance behaviours (earlier or outdoor biting and resting) were detected. There was a moderate but statistically significant shift in vector species composition from Anopheles coluzzii to Anopheles gambiae which coincided with a reduction in the proportion of bites preventable by LLINs; possibly driven by between-species variation in behaviour. These findings indicate that adaptations based on insecticide resistance arise and intensify more rapidly than behavioural shifts within mosquito vectors. However, longitudinal shifts in mosquito vector species composition were evident within 2 years following a mass LLIN distribution. This ecological shift was characterized by a significant increase in the exophagic species (An. gambiae) and coincided with a predicted decline in the degree of protection expected from LLINs. Although human exposure fell through the study period due to reducing vector densities and infection rates, such ecological shifts in vector species along with insecticide resistance were likely to have eroded the efficacy of LLINs. While both adaptations impact malaria control, the rapid increase of the former indicates this strategy develops more quickly in response to selection from LLINS. However, interventions targeting both resistance strategies will be needed

Mass testing and treatment for malaria followed by weekly fever screening, testing and treatment in Northern Senegal: feasibility, cost and impact.

BACKGROUND NlmCategory: BACKGROUND content: Population-wide interventions using malaria testing and treatment might decrease the reservoir of Plasmodium falciparum infection and accelerate towards elimination. Questions remain about their effectiveness and evidence from different transmission settings is needed. - Label: METHODS NlmCategory: METHODS content: "A pilot quasi-experimental study to evaluate a package of population-wide test and treat interventions was conducted in six health facility catchment areas (HFCA) in the districts of Kanel, Lingu\xC3\xA8re, and Ran\xC3\xA9rou (Senegal). Seven adjacent HFCAs were selected as comparison. Villages within the intervention HFCAs were stratified according to the 2013 incidences of passively detected malaria cases, and those with an incidence\xE2\x80\x89\xE2\x89\xA5\xE2\x80\x8915 cases/1000/year were targeted for a mass test and treat (MTAT) in September 2014. All households were visited, all consenting individuals were tested with a rapid diagnostic test (RDT), and, if positive, treated with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine. This was followed by weekly screening, testing and treatment of fever cases (PECADOM++) until the end of the transmission season in January 2015. Villages with lower incidence received only PECADOM++ or case investigation. To evaluate the impact of the interventions over that transmission season, the incidence of passively detected, RDT-confirmed malaria cases was compared between the intervention and comparison groups with a difference-in-difference analysis using negative binomial regression with random effects on HFCA." - Label: RESULTS NlmCategory: RESULTS content: "During MTAT, 89% (2225/2503) of households were visited and 86% (18,992/22,170) of individuals were tested, for a combined 77% effective coverage. Among those tested, 291 (1.5%) were RDT positive (range 0-10.8 by village), of whom 82% were\xE2\x80\x89<\xE2\x80\x8920\xC2\xA0years old and 70% were afebrile. During the PECADOM++ 40,002 visits were conducted to find 2784 individuals reporting fever, with an RDT positivity of 6.5% (170/2612). The combination of interventions resulted in an estimated 38% larger decrease in malaria case incidence in the intervention compared to the comparison group (adjusted incidence risk ratio\xE2\x80\x89=\xE2\x80\x890.62, 95% CI 0.45-0.84, p\xE2\x80\x89=\xE2\x80\x890.002). The cost of the MTAT was $14.3 per person." - Label: CONCLUSIONS NlmCategory: CONCLUSIONS content: It was operationally feasible to conduct MTAT and PECADOM++ with high coverage, although PECADOM++ was not an efficient strategy to complement MTAT. The modest impact of the intervention package suggests a need for alternative or complementary strategies