Search

This study investigated the leaching yields of Mo, Ni and Co from a mineral sludge of a metal recycling plant generated by rainfalls. The investigated mineral sludge had a complex heterogeneous composition, consisting of particles of settled soil combined with metal-bearing particles (produced by catalysts, metallic oxides and battery recycling). The leaching potential of different leaching reagents (stand-alone strong acids (HNO3(68%), H2SO4(98%) and HCl (36%)) and acid mixtures (aqua regia(nitric + hydrochloric (1:3)), nitric + sulphuric (1:1) and nitric + sulphuric + hydrochloric (2:1:1)) was investigated at changing operational parameters (solid−liquid (S/L) ratio, leaching time and temperature), in order to select the leaching reagent which achieves the highest metal leaching yields. Sulphuric acid (98% H2SO4) was found to be the leachant with the highest metal leaching potential. The optimal leaching conditions were a three-stage successive leaching at 80°C with a leaching time of 2 h and S/L ratio of 0.25 g L−1. Under these conditions, the achieved mineral sludge sample leaching yields were 85.5%, 40.5% and 93.8% for Mo, Ni and Co, respectively. The higher metal leaching potential of H2SO4in comparison with the other strong acids/acid mixtures is attributed to the fact that H2SO4is a diacidic compound, thus it has more H+ions, resulting in its stronger oxidizing power and corrosiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Intermittent claudication (IC) occurs in patients with peripheral occlusive arterial disease and results in leg pain after walking a certain distance - the claudication distance. Until recently, no specific questionnaire has been available to measure quality of life in patients with IC.Objectives: To validate the Claudication Scale (CLAU-S) questionnaire in patients in France, the UK, Germany and Belgium.Methods: Patients completed the CLAU-S questionnaire and provided demographic and clinical data. Pooled data were examined for psychometric and structural validity and test-retest reliability. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to confirm that the questionnaire was measuring the causal relationships involved in IC in each of the language groups studied.Results: Cross-sectional and factor analysis confirmed the validity of the questionnaire in the pooled patient population. Item convergent and discriminant coefficients and internal consistency reliability coefficients met or exceeded standard criteria. Principal component analysis confirmed the factorial structure. The underlying causal relationships in IC were identified using SEM and were consistent in all language groups studied.Conclusions: The CLAU-S questionnaire has undergone validation in English, French, German and Flemish and has a very satisfactory validity in these languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A computer model was developed with decision analysis software to explore the long-term clinical and economic outcomes of alcohol abstinence maintenance with either standard counselling therapy or standard therapy plus 48 weeks of adjuvant acamprosate in detoxified alcoholic patients. Important complications of alcoholism were modelled using Markov processes, and included relapse (return to drinking), alcohol-related hepatic disease, acute and chronic pancreatitis, acute and chronic gastritis, oropharyngeal carcinoma, oesophageal carcinoma, alcoholic cardiomyopathy, alcohol-related peripheral neuropathy, alcoholic psychosis, accidental death, and suicide. Probabilities of developing complications were dependent on whether the patients within the cohort remained abstinent or had relapsed. Relapse rates, probabilities, and costs for acamprosate therapy and treatment of complications were taken from published literature. The analysis was performed from the German health insurance perspective. Life expectancy and total lifetime costs (costs of initial abstinence maintenance therapy plus costs of complications) were calculated for a typical male cohort with average age of 41 years, 80% with fatty liver, 15% with cirrhosis, 22% with chronic pancreatitis, and 1% with alcoholic cardiomyopathy at baseline. Life expectancy with and without acamprosate therapy was 15.90 and 14.70 years respectively, and discounted (5% per annum) average total lifetime costs per patient were DEM 46 448 and DEM 49 549 respectively. We conclude that, despite the acquisition costs of DEM 2177, adjuvant acamprosate therapy was both clinically and economically attractive under conservative assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The main purpose of this study, carried out in 1995, was to determine, using available sources, the cost of peripheral arterial obliterative disease (PAOD) in France over a 1-year period. This cost-of-illness study was based on a retrospective analysis of the available literature and databases. It involved a description of epidemiological data and a cost estimate of the different medical resources consumed over 1 year. For this latter purpose, a payer perspective was chosen. Data were extracted from national representative surveys and databases with respect to morbidity and mortality [from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale; INSERM) and the National Sickness Insurance Fund for Salaried People (Caisse Nationale dAssurance Maladie des Travailleurs Salariés; CNAMTS)], consultations, examination tests and drug prescriptions [from the French Medical Audit conducted by Intercontinental Medical Statistics (IMS)], hospitalisations [from the Statistical Unit of the Department of Health - Service des Statistiques, des Etudes et des Systemes dInformation (SESI) and the National Public Research Centre in Health Economics (Centre de Recherche dEtude et de Documentation en Economie de la Santé; CREDES)] and related health expenditure from CNAMTS. In France, the prevalence of stage II PAOD (Leriche and Fontaine classification) in 1992 was estimated to be 675 000; 53% of these patients had undergone vascular or bypass surgery. The total annual cost of healthcare (including consultations, drugs, laboratory tests, hospitalisation and hydrotherapy) for the management of patients with PAOD ranged from 3.9 billion French francs (F) to F4.6 billion (1995 values), depending on the type of hospital considered. 50% of this cost was related to hospitalisations and 75% was covered by the CNAMTS. Although this study was only a partial evaluation and did not take into account indirect costs or nonmedical direct costs, such as transport and care by healthcare assistants and paramedics, these results may help to establish public health priorities and modify clinical practice to favour an earlier diagnosis of PAOD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Camera traps are widely used in wildlife research and monitoring, so it is imperative to understand their strengths, limitations, and potential for increasing impact. We investigated a decade of use of wildlife cameras (2012-2022) with a case study on Australian terrestrial vertebrates using a multifaceted approach. We (i) synthesised information from a literature review; (ii) conducted an online questionnaire of 132 professionals; (iii) hosted an in-person workshop of 28 leading experts representing academia, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and government; and (iv) mapped camera trap usage based on all sources. We predicted that the last decade would have shown: (i) exponentially increasing sampling effort, a continuation of camera usage trends up to 2012; (ii) analytics to have shifted from naive presence/absence and capture rates towards hierarchical modelling that accounts for imperfect detection, thereby improving the quality of outputs and inferences on occupancy, abundance, and density; and (iii) broader research scales in terms of multi-species, multi-site and multi-year studies. However, the results showed that the sampling effort has reached a plateau, with publication rates increasing only modestly. Users reported reaching a saturation point in terms of images that could be processed by humans and time for complex analyses and academic writing. There were strong taxonomic and geographic biases towards medium-large mammals (>500 g) in forests along Australia's southeastern coastlines, reflecting proximity to major cities. Regarding analytical choices, bias-prone indices still accounted for ~50% of outputs and this was consistent across user groups. Multi-species, multi-site and multiple-year studies were rare, largely driven by hesitancy around collaboration and data sharing. There is no widely used repository for wildlife camera images and the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) is the dominant repository for sharing tabular occurrence records. However, the ALA is presence-only and thus is unsuitable for creating detection histories with absences, inhibiting hierarchical modelling. Workshop discussions identified a pressing need for collaboration to enhance the efficiency, quality and scale of research and management outcomes, leading to the proposal of a Wildlife Observatory of Australia (WildObs). To encourage data standards and sharing, WildObs should (i) promote a metadata collection app; (ii) create a tagged image repository to facilitate artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) computer vision research in this space; (iii) address the image identification bottleneck via the use of AI/ML-powered image-processing platforms; (iv) create data commons for detection histories that are suitable for hierarchical modelling; and (v) provide capacity building and tools for hierarchical modelling. Our review highlights that while Australia's investments in monitoring biodiversity with cameras position it to be a global leader in this context, realising that potential requires a paradigm shift towards best practices for collecting, curating, sharing and analysing 'Big Data'. Our findings and framework have broad applicability outside Australia to enhance camera usage to meet conservation and management objectives ranging from local to global scales. This review articulates a country/continental observatory approach that is also suitable for international collaborative wildlife research networks., (© 2025 The Author(s). Biological Reviews published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Cambridge Philosophical Society.)

Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) not only cause catastrophic declines in wildlife populations but also generate selective pressures that may result in rapid evolutionary responses. One such EID is devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) in the Tasmanian devil. DFTD is almost always fatal and has reduced the average lifespan of individuals by around 2 years, likely causing strong selection for traits that reduce susceptibility to the disease, but population decline has also left Tasmanian devils vulnerable to inbreeding depression. We analysed 22 years of data from an ongoing study of a population of Tasmanian devils on Freycinet Peninsula, Tasmania, to (1) identify whether DFTD may be causing selection on body size, by estimating phenotypic and genetic correlations between DFTD and size traits, (2) estimate the additive genetic variance of susceptibility to DFTD, and (3) investigate whether size traits or susceptibility to DFTD were under inbreeding depression. We found a positive phenotypic relationship between head width and susceptibility to DFTD, but this was not underpinned by a genetic correlation. Conversely, we found a negative phenotypic relationship between body weight and susceptibility to DFTD, and there was evidence for a negative genetic correlation between susceptibility to DFTD and body weight. There was additive genetic variance in susceptibility to DFTD, head width and body weight, but there was no evidence for inbreeding depression in any of these traits. These results suggest that Tasmanian devils have the potential to respond adaptively to DFTD, although the realised evolutionary response will critically further depend on the evolution of DFTD itself., (© 2024 The Author(s). Molecular Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Shifts in life history traits, such as timing of reproduction, can help mediate population declines following perturbations, and early reproduction should be favoured when adult survival is impacted more than juvenile survival. In Tasmanian devils, following the emergence of a fatal transmissible cancer, females started to breed precocially (i.e., at age one instead of typically age two) and the same time as populations started to decline following disease emergence. Here, we focus on a diseased site (Freycinet Peninsula, Tasmania, Australia) with 18 years of continuous mark-recapture data to test: (1) whether rates of precocial breeding in females continued to increase after the initial rise after the emergence of the disease, (2) whether there was a relationship between body size and breeding success for either one-year-olds or adult females (i.e., at least two-years-old), and (3) whether there was inbreeding depression in breeding success for either age category. We show that rates of precocial breeding did not continue to rise, and that the proportion of precocially breeding females has plateaued at around 50%. We also show that there was no effect of body size on the probability of breeding for either one-year-old or for adult females. Finally, we show that there was no evidence for inbreeding depression in breeding success for either age class. We discuss possible constraints that may have inhibited further rise in rates of precocial breeding in the context of limitations to growth in the offspring of precocially breeding (and therefore smaller) females.

Top carnivores can influence the structure of ecological communities, primarily through competition and predation; however, communities are also influenced by bottom-up forces such as anthropogenic habitat disturbance. Top carnivore declines will likely alter competitive dynamics within and amongst sympatric carnivore species. Increasing intraspecific competition is generally predicted to drive niche expansion and/or individual specialisation, while interspecific competition tends to constrain niches. Using stable isotope analysis of whiskers, we studied the effects of Tasmanian devil Sarcophilus harrisii declines upon the population- and individual-level isotopic niches of Tasmanian devils and sympatric spotted-tailed quolls Dasyurus maculatus subsp. maculatus. We investigated whether time since the onset of devil decline (a proxy for severity of decline) and landscape characteristics affected the isotopic niche breadth and overlap of devil and quoll populations. We quantified individual isotopic niche breadth for a subset of Tasmanian devils and spotted-tailed quolls and assessed whether between-site population niche variation was driven by individual-level specialisation. Tasmanian devils and spotted-tailed quolls demonstrated smaller population-level isotopic niche breadths with increasing human-modified habitat, while time since the onset of devil decline had no effect on population-level niche breadth or interspecific niche overlap. Individual isotopic niche breadths of Tasmanian devils and spotted-tailed quolls were narrower in human-modified landscapes, likely driving population isotopic niche contraction, however, the degree of individuals' specialisation relative to one another remained constant. Our results suggest that across varied landscapes, mammalian carnivore niches can be more sensitive to the bottom-up forces of anthropogenic habitat disturbance than to the top-down effects of top carnivore decline., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Coevolution is common and frequently governs host-pathogen interaction outcomes. Phenotypes underlying these interactions often manifest as the combined products of the genomes of interacting species, yet traditional quantitative trait mapping approaches ignore these intergenomic interactions. Devil facial tumor disease (DFTD), an infectious cancer afflicting Tasmanian devils ( Sarcophilus harrisii ), has decimated devil populations due to universal host susceptibility and a fatality rate approaching 100%. Here, we used a recently developed joint genome-wide association study (i.e., co-GWAS) approach, 15 y of mark-recapture data, and 960 genomes to identify intergenomic signatures of coevolution between devils and DFTD. Using a traditional GWA approach, we found that both devil and DFTD genomes explained a substantial proportion of variance in how quickly susceptible devils became infected, although genomic architectures differed across devils and DFTD; the devil genome had fewer loci of large effect whereas the DFTD genome had a more polygenic architecture. Using a co-GWA approach, devil-DFTD intergenomic interactions explained ~3× more variation in how quickly susceptible devils became infected than either genome alone, and the top genotype-by-genotype interactions were significantly enriched for cancer genes and signatures of selection. A devil regulatory mutation was associated with differential expression of a candidate cancer gene and showed putative allele matching effects with two DFTD coding sequence variants. Our results highlight the need to account for intergenomic interactions when investigating host-pathogen (co)evolution and emphasize the importance of such interactions when considering devil management strategies., Competing Interests: Competing interests statement:The authors declare no competing interest.

This paper proposes two ways to improve pressure measurement in air-blast experimentations, mostly for close-in detonations defined by a small-scaled distance below 0.4 m.kg -1/3 . Firstly, a new kind of custom-made pressure probe sensor is presented. The transducer is a piezoelectric commercial, but the tip material has been modified. The dynamic response of this prototype is established in terms of time and frequency responses, both in a laboratory environment, on a shock tube, and in free-field experiments. The experimental results show that the modified probe can meet the measurement requirements of high-frequency pressure signals. Secondly, this paper presents the initial results of a deconvolution method, using the pencil probe transfer function determination with a shock tube. We demonstrate the method on experimental results and draw conclusions and prospects.

In this paper, a neural network approach is applied for solving an electromagnetic inverse problem involving solid dielectric materials subjected to shock impacts and interrogated by a millimeter-wave interferometer. Under mechanical impact, a shock wave is generated in the material and modifies the refractive index. It was recently demonstrated that the shock wavefront velocity and the particle velocity as well as the modified index in a shocked material can be remotely derived from measuring two characteristic Doppler frequencies in the waveform delivered by a millimeter-wave interferometer. We show here that a more accurate estimation of the shock wavefront and particle velocities can be obtained from training an appropriate convolutional neural network, especially in the important case of short-duration waveforms of few microseconds.

Tasmanian devils have spawned two transmissible cancer lineages, named devil facial tumor 1 (DFT1) and devil facial tumor 2 (DFT2). We investigated the genetic diversity and evolution of these clones by analyzing 78 DFT1 and 41 DFT2 genomes relative to a newly assembled, chromosome-level reference. Time-resolved phylogenetic trees reveal that DFT1 first emerged in 1986 (1982 to 1989) and DFT2 in 2011 (2009 to 2012). Subclone analysis documents transmission of heterogeneous cell populations. DFT2 has faster mutation rates than DFT1 across all variant classes, including substitutions, indels, rearrangements, transposable element insertions, and copy number alterations, and we identify a hypermutated DFT1 lineage with defective DNA mismatch repair. Several loci show plausible evidence of positive selection in DFT1 or DFT2, including loss of chromosome Y and inactivation of MGA , but none are common to both cancers. This study reveals the parallel long-term evolution of two transmissible cancers inhabiting a common niche in Tasmanian devils.

Although the home range and habitat selection of animal species is among the fundamental pieces of biological information collected by research projects during recent decades, published information on the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) home range is limited. The Altai Mountains of central Asia contain some of the largest and most important remaining conservation landscapes for snow leopards globally, but there is a limited understanding of the species' ecology in this region. First, we used the data from 5 snow leopards equipped with GPS collars at four study sites in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia to broadly characterize patterns of home range use between 2013 and 2019. The data was used to calculate home range size from a 10 month period using three different estimators: minimum convex polygons (MCP), kernel density distributions (KDE), and local convex hulls (LoCoH). Second, ten data sets from 8 individual snow leopards were combined to cover all 12 months of a year and to generate a general additive mixed model of seasonal home range use and seasonal resource use. We found 1) large variation in home ranges between sites during the monitoring period ranging minimally between 26.1 and 395.3km2 (MCP); 2) Local convex hull home ranges were smaller compared to home ranges based on minimum convex polygons and kernels and yielded more biologically appropriate home range estimates; 3) monthly home ranges of males were larger than females; 4) female monthly home ranges decreased in summer, while male monthly range use remained stable throughout the year; and, 5) while both sexes shared similar habitat preference in winter (steep south-western slopes at high elevation), our data suggest different habitat preferences between sexes in summer. Knowledge of the space use of threatened species is crucial for their conservation, and this is especially true for apex predators who often provide benefits for an entire ecosystem. Our study provides a preliminary understanding of the spatial ecology of this important species in an area of critical conservation concern., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Rosenbaum et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Globally, many wild deer populations are actively studied or managed for conservation, hunting, or damage mitigation purposes. These studies require reliable estimates of population state parameters, such as density or abundance, with a level of precision that is fit for purpose. Such estimates can be difficult to attain for many populations that occur in situations that are poorly suited to common survey methods. We evaluated the utility of combining camera trap survey data, in which a small proportion of the sample is individually recognizable using natural markings, with spatial mark-resight (SMR) models to estimate deer density in a variety of situations. We surveyed 13 deer populations comprising four deer species ( Cervus unicolor, C. timorensis, C. elaphus, Dama dama ) at nine widely separated sites, and used Bayesian SMR models to estimate population densities and abundances. Twelve surveys provided sufficient data for analysis and seven produced density estimates with coefficients of variation (CVs) ≤ 0.25. Estimated densities ranged from 0.3 to 24.6 deer km -2 . Camera trap surveys and SMR models provided a powerful and flexible approach for estimating deer densities in populations in which many detections were not individually identifiable, and they should provide useful density estimates under a wide range of conditions that are not amenable to more widely used methods. In the absence of specific local information on deer detectability and movement patterns, we recommend that at least 30 cameras be spaced at 500-1,000 m and set for 90 days. This approach could also be applied to large mammals other than deer., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Mammalogists.)

Movements that extend beyond the usual space use of an animal have been documented in a range of species and are particularly prevalent in arid areas. We present long-distance movement data on five feral cats ( Felis catus ) GPS/VHF-collared during two different research projects in arid and semi-arid Australia. We compare these movements with data from other feral cat studies. Over a study period of three months in the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, 4 out of 19 collared cats moved to sites that were 31, 41, 53 and 86 km away. Three of the cats were males, one female; their weight was between 2.1 and 4.1 kg. Two of the cats returned to the area of capture after three and six weeks. During the other study at Arid Recovery, one collared male cat (2.5 kg) was relocated after two years at a distance of 369 km from the area of collar deployment to the relocation area. The movements occurred following three years of record low rainfall. Our results build on the knowledge base of long-distance movements of feral cats reported at arid study sites and support the assertion that landscape-scale cat control programs in arid and semi-arid areas need to be of a sufficiently large scale to avoid rapid reinvasion and to effectively reduce cat density. Locally, cat control strategies need to be adjusted to improve coverage of areas highly used by cats to increase the efficiency of control operations.