Occurrence of the Sinus Nematode Skrjabingylus sp. (Nematoda: Metastrongyloidea) Inferred from Sinus Lesions in Arkansas Mustelidae and Mephitidae, with review of relevant literature

Nasal nematodes of the genus Skrjabingylus occur in the mammalian families Mustelidae and Mephitidae, and have been found from Canada to Costa Rica. Ingestion of infected snails, frogs, snakes, or mice can lead to infection of these mammalian hosts. Infection often causes pathology to bones in the sinus region, which may lead to discoloration, enlargement, and fenestrations of the bone. Examination of museum specimens for bone lesions or other evidence of infection has been used to evidence prior infection, but prevalence and intensity cannot be interpreted without actually recovering the parasite. We examined Mustelids and Mephitids in collections of mammals housed at Arkansas State University (ASU), Henderson State University (HSU), and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) to evaluate the possible occurrence of nasal nematodes in Arkansas mammals. Evidence of infection was found in skulls of the Striped Skunk (Mephitis mephitis), Spotted Skunk (Spilogale putorius), Mink (Neovison vison), Long-tailed Weasel (Mustela frenata), and North American River Otter (Lontra canadensis) from Arkansas. We report for the first time evidence of the presence and distribution of Skrjabingylus sp. infecting mammals in Arkansas

Implementing Structured Participation for Regional Level Waste Management Planning

The authors present a case study example of a well-structured public participation project that was incorporated into the formal decision-making process in Germany

Guidelines for fish production in long term refugee situations in Africa

These guidelines provide general advice on potential benefits and implications of promoting aquaculture in refugee settlements and local host communities, specifically in Africa. In particular, they seek to highlight issues critical for translating aquaculture support in refugee situations into sustainable benefits for target populations. Aquaculture can help improve food and nutrition security and contribute to household incomes among refugees and neighbouring communities in sites with viable supplies of inputs (seed and feed) and service provisioning (training and technical extension).

Sex-ratio of Miridae (Hemiptera) taken via UV light-traps in Arkansas, USA.

We determined the sex-ratio of 1,095 plant bugs (Hemiptera: Miridae) taken from 60 individual UV light-trap samples in Clark County, Arkansas over a two year period. We found that of the 21 taxa in which a sex-ratio determination could be made, 61.9% of them (13 of 21) contained a majority (over 50%) of males. Three taxa were exclusively represented by males, while two taxa were exclusively represented by females. Although taxa dependent, our data indicate that male mirids are, in general, more frequently encountered in UV light-traps. However, contrary to the notion that sparked this study (see herein) light-trap content was not represented vastly to exclusively by male individuals as the sex-ratio of the cumulative data was 62.47% males (684) and 37.53% females (411)

Comments on Estimating Population Rate of Increase from Age Frequency Data

Although many papers have described assumptions and calculations of r from different kinds of data, none has compared estimates of r for the same real data set under different assumptions. We used the age distributions of gray foxes collected during six trapping seasons to estimate and compare r and lₓ series derived under different assumptions. Because trapped foxes are killed, they are believed by some to represent death history data. We found this treatment underestimates mortality so overestimates survivorship and leads to erroneous conclusions about the population. Use of a projection matrix allowed prediction of population size and thus allowed us to predict observed rate of increase. Use of projection matrices also resulted in the most conservative estimated of r