Systematics and evolution of predatory flower flies (Diptera Syrphidae) based on exon-capture sequencing

Flower flies (Diptera: Syrphidae) are one of the most species-rich dipteran families and provide important ecosystem services such as pollination, biological control of pests, recycling of organic matter and redistributions of essential nutrients. Flower fly adults generally feed on pollen and nectar, but their larval feeding habits are strikingly diverse. In the present study, high-throughput sequencing was used to capture and enrich phylogenetically and evolutionary informative exonic regions. With the help of the baitfisher software, we developed a new bait kit (SYRPHIDAE1.0) to target 1945 CDS regions belonging to 1312 orthologous genes. This new bait kit was successfully used to exon capture the targeted loci in 121 flower fly species across the different subfamilies of Syrphidae. We analysed different amino acid and nucleotide data sets (1302 loci and 154 loci) with maximum likelihood and multispecies coalescent models. Our analyses yielded highly supported similar topologies, although the degree of the SRH (global stationarity, reversibility and homogeneity) conditions varied greatly between amino acid and nucleotide data sets. The sisterhood of subfamilies Pipizinae and Syrphinae is supported in all our analyses, confirming a common origin of taxa feeding on soft-bodied arthropods. Based on our results, we define Syrphini stat.rev. to include the genera Toxomerus and Paragus. Our divergence estimate analyses with beast inferred the origin of the Syrphidae in the Lower Cretaceous (125.5-98.5 Ma) and the diversification of predatory flower flies around the K-Pg boundary (70.61-54.4 Ma), coinciding with the rise and diversification of their prey.Peer reviewe

National records of 3000 European bee and hoverfly species: A contribution to pollinator conservation

Pollinators play a crucial role in ecosystems globally, ensuring the seed production of most flowering plants. They are threatened by global changes and knowledge of their distribution at the national and continental levels is needed to implement efficient conservation actions, but this knowledge is still fragmented and/or difficult to access. As a step forward, we provide an updated list of around 3000 European bee and hoverfly species, reflecting their current distributional status at the national level (in the form of present, absent, regionally extinct, possibly extinct or non-native). This work was attainable by incorporating both published and unpublished data, as well as knowledge from a large set of taxonomists and ecologists in both groups. After providing the first National species lists for bees and hoverflies for many countries, we examine the current distributional patterns of these species and designate the countries with highest levels of species richness. We also show that many species are recorded in a single European country, highlighting the importance of articulating European and national conservation strategies. Finally, we discuss how the data provided here can be combined with future trait and Red List data to implement research that will further advance pollinator conservation

Identification and reconstruction of low-energy electrons in the ProtoDUNE-SP detector

Measurements of electrons from $\nu_e$ interactions are crucial for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) neutrino oscillation program, as well as searches for physics beyond the standard model, supernova neutrino detection, and solar neutrino measurements. This article describes the selection and reconstruction of low-energy (Michel) electrons in the ProtoDUNE-SP detector. ProtoDUNE-SP is one of the prototypes for the DUNE far detector, built and operated at CERN as a charged particle test beam experiment. A sample of low-energy electrons produced by the decay of cosmic muons is selected with a purity of 95%. This sample is used to calibrate the low-energy electron energy scale with two techniques. An electron energy calibration based on a cosmic ray muon sample uses calibration constants derived from measured and simulated cosmic ray muon events. Another calibration technique makes use of the theoretically well-understood Michel electron energy spectrum to convert reconstructed charge to electron energy. In addition, the effects of detector response to low-energy electron energy scale and its resolution including readout electronics threshold effects are quantified. Finally, the relation between the theoretical and reconstructed low-energy electron energy spectrum is derived and the energy resolution is characterized. The low-energy electron selection presented here accounts for about 75% of the total electron deposited energy. After the addition of lost energy using a Monte Carlo simulation, the energy resolution improves from about 40% to 25% at 50~MeV. These results are used to validate the expected capabilities of the DUNE far detector to reconstruct low-energy electrons.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figure

Demand and experiences with financial products and services in climate smart villages

This study ‘Demand for and experiences with financial products and services’ describes and discusses the results of a survey to provide a first insight into the financial services that the smallholder farmers from climate smart villages use and to explore how these are related to climate smart agricultural technologies & practices. The study is one of three preliminary studies of a multi-year international research project (2016-2022) on ‘Business models, incentives and innovative finance for scaling climate smart agriculture (CSA)’. The knowledge and insights developed are used to further support ongoing and emerging climate smart projects in which CCAFS is involved. A survey was conducted to identify smallholder farmers and the small to medium enterprises (in different stages of the value chain) and their demand for and experiences with financial products and services. There were 148 respondents from 24 villages from Latin America, West Africa, East Africa, Southeast Asia and South Asia. The targeted number of female respondents (50%) was nog met in all regions, for example in India where the role of female farmers in irrigated agriculture would be limited. A limitation to the results is that in different regions a different number of villages was involved, making it more difficult to generalise results. Sometimes it would prove challenging to make conclusions about the reasoning behind the answers. The study is about adoption climate smart agriculture, but does not define the extent of adoption. .

Impact of cross-section uncertainties on supernova neutrino spectral parameter fitting in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment

A primary goal of the upcoming Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is to measure the $\mathcal{O}(10)$ MeV neutrinos produced by a Galactic core-collapse supernova if one should occur during the lifetime of the experiment. The liquid-argon-based detectors planned for DUNE are expected to be uniquely sensitive to the $\nu_e$ component of the supernova flux, enabling a wide variety of physics and astrophysics measurements. A key requirement for a correct interpretation of these measurements is a good understanding of the energy-dependent total cross section $\sigma(E_\nu)$ for charged-current $\nu_e$ absorption on argon. In the context of a simulated extraction of supernova $\nu_e$ spectral parameters from a toy analysis, we investigate the impact of $\sigma(E_\nu)$ modeling uncertainties on DUNE's supernova neutrino physics sensitivity for the first time. We find that the currently large theoretical uncertainties on $\sigma(E_\nu)$ must be substantially reduced before the $\nu_e$ flux parameters can be extracted reliably: in the absence of external constraints, a measurement of the integrated neutrino luminosity with less than 10\% bias with DUNE requires $\sigma(E_\nu)$ to be known to about 5%. The neutrino spectral shape parameters can be known to better than 10% for a 20% uncertainty on the cross-section scale, although they will be sensitive to uncertainties on the shape of $\sigma(E_\nu)$. A direct measurement of low-energy $\nu_e$-argon scattering would be invaluable for improving the theoretical precision to the needed level.Comment: 25 pages, 21 figure

Highly-parallelized simulation of a pixelated LArTPC on a GPU

The rapid development of general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) is allowing the implementation of highly-parallelized Monte Carlo simulation chains for particle physics experiments. This technique is particularly suitable for the simulation of a pixelated charge readout for time projection chambers, given the large number of channels that this technology employs. Here we present the first implementation of a full microphysical simulator of a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) equipped with light readout and pixelated charge readout, developed for the DUNE Near Detector. The software is implemented with an end-to-end set of GPU-optimized algorithms. The algorithms have been written in Python and translated into CUDA kernels using Numba, a just-in-time compiler for a subset of Python and NumPy instructions. The GPU implementation achieves a speed up of four orders of magnitude compared with the equivalent CPU version. The simulation of the current induced on 10^3 pixels takes around 1 ms on the GPU, compared with approximately 10 s on the CPU. The results of the simulation are compared against data from a pixel-readout LArTPC prototype

Online Membrane Sampling for the Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Oil Sands Process Affected Water-Derived Naphthenic Acids in Real-World Samples

Large volumes of oil sands process-affected waters (OSPW) result from heavy oil extraction in Alberta, Canada. Currently, a toxic legacy of ca. 500 Mm3 is stored in tailings ponds under a zero-discharge policy. OSPW is a complex mixture of suspended and dissolved materials including a wide range of inorganic and organic contaminants. Classically defined naphthenic acids (NAs; CnH2n+ZO2) are one of the primary toxic fractions in OSPW and have therefore been the subject of considerable research interest. Most studies employ considerable sample cleanup followed by liquid chromatography and/or high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) for the characterization of these complex mixtures. However, these strategies can be time- and cost-intensive, limiting the scope of research and adoption for regulatory purposes. Condensed phase membrane introduction mass spectrometry (CP-MIMS) is emerging as a “fit-for-purpose” approach for the analysis of NAs. This technique directly interfaces the mass spectrometer with an aqueous sample using a hydrophobic semi-permeable membrane, requiring only pH adjustment to convert NAs to a membrane-permeable form. Here, we examine the perm-selectivity of classical NAs (O2) relative to their more oxidized counterparts (O3–O7) and heteroatomic (N, S) species collectively termed naphthenic acid fraction compounds (NAFCs). The investigation of 14 model compounds revealed that classically defined NAs are greater than 50-fold more membrane permeable than their oxidized/heteroatomic analogs. HRMS analysis of real OSPW extracts with and without membrane clean-up further supported selectivity towards the toxic O2 class of NAs, with >85% of the overall signal intensity attributable to O2 NAs in the membrane permeate despite as little as 34.7 ± 0.6% O2 NAs observed in the directly infused mixture. The information collected with HRMS is leveraged to refine our method for analysis of NAs at unit mass resolution. This new method is applied to 28 archived real-world samples containing NAs/NAFCs from constructed wetlands, OSPW, and environmental monitoring campaigns. Concentrations ranged from 0–25 mg/L O2 NAs and the results measured by CP-MIMS (unit mass) and SPE-HRMS (Orbitrap) showed good agreement (slope = 0.80; R2 = 0.76)