Morphological Tools Research Articles

From marine park to future genomic observatory? Enhancing marine biodiversity assessments using a biocode approach.

Few tropical marine sites have been thoroughly characterised for their animal species, even though they constitute the largest proportion of multicellular diversity. A number of focused biodiversity sampling programmes have amassed immense collections to address this shortfall, but obstacles remain due to the lack of identification tools and large proportion of undescribed species globally. These problems can be partially addressed with DNA barcodes (“biocodes”), which have the potential to facilitate the estimation of species diversity and identify animals to named species via barcode databases. Here, we present the first results of what is intended to be a sustained, systematic study of the marine fauna of Singapore’s first marine park, reporting more than 365 animal species, determined based on DNA barcodes and/or morphology represented by 931 specimens (367 zooplankton, 564 macrofauna including 36 fish). Due to the lack of morphological and molecular identification tools, only a small proportion could be identified to species solely based on either morphology (24.5%) or barcodes (24.6%). Estimation of species numbers for some taxa was difficult because of the lack of sufficiently clear barcoding gaps. The specimens were imaged and added to “Biodiversity of Singapore” (http://singapore.biodiversity.online), which now contains images for > 13,000 species occurring in the country.

An automated method for segmentation and quantification of blood vessels in histology images

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic neuro-degenerative disease that adversely affect many people on a global scale. Despite different diagnostic and therapeutic treatment, there is no cure for AD. The brain is one of the most complex organ and researchers are still trying to understand so as to find a cure. Objective: To complement the efforts of clinical researchers engaged in research in alzheimer's disease, accurate segmentation and quantification of blood vessels in brain images is required. Method: For robust segmentation of blood vessels even in the presence of colour variation, we introduce a fully automated morphological tool that can extract and quantify vessels from haematoxylin and diaminobenzidine stained histology brain image. The method, exploits saturation channel of stained image slides, ISODATA threshold method is applied to obtain a binary image. This helps in eliminating background and remaining with only blood vessels. A one-stage procedure that includes eliminating small artefacts is performed on the binary mask. The intensity of the image is transformed. Joining is performed to deal with fragmentation of intact blood vessels on the images, and artefactual appearance of the blood vessel structures. The artefactual fragments based on measured incoherence with neighbouring tissue are removed. The vessels are then labelled to facilitate quantification. Morphometric measurements are used during the vessel quantification assess both vessels with lumen and vessels without lumen. We have quantified the diameter of blood vessels. Results: The image processing technique is developed in close collaboration with neuroscientist experts to help clinician. We have evaluated our proposed approach qualitatively. The method was validated against their manual quantification results. Qualitative results show that the method can indeed segment the blood vessels in the presence of colour variations and artefacts. The quantitative method produces fairly better results.

Effects of macroalgal morphology on marine epifaunal diversity

AbstractMacroalgae play important ecological roles, including as hosts for a wide range of epifauna. However, the diversity relationships between macroalgae and epifauna are poorly understood for most tropical host species and algal morphologies. This study aims to characterize and analyse the diversity of invertebrates present amongst macroalgae with three distinct morphologies (three-dimensional, filamentous and foliose) across different tropical intertidal sites in Singapore. Morphological and DNA barcoding tools were employed for epifaunal species identification, and ordination statistics and multiple linear regression were used to test the effects of algal morphology, species and site on community structure and diversity of epiphytic invertebrates. Overall, epifaunal communities were distinct among sites and algal morphologies, and diversity was affected significantly by algal morphology. In particular, filamentous macroalgae hosted the highest abundance of epifauna dominated mainly by amphipods, which were able to take advantage of the high surface area to volume ratio in filamentous algal mats as a consequence of their thinner forms. Foliose species showed a significantly negative effect on invertebrate diversity. Our findings highlight the diverse associations between intertidal macroalgae and invertebrates with high turnover between algal morphology and sites that contribute to the high biodiversity of tropical shores. Future studies should consider the effects of the host habitat, seasonality and more algal species on epifaunal diversity.

Ptychographic modulation engine: a low-cost DIY microscope add-on for coherent super-resolution imaging

Imaging of biological cells and tissues often relies on fluorescent labels, which offer high contrast with molecular specificity. The use of exogenous labeling agents, however, may alter the normal physiology of the bio-specimens. Complementary to the established fluorescence microscopy, label-free quantitative phase imaging provides an objective morphological measurement tool for bio-specimens and is free of variability introduced by contrast agents. Here, we report a simple and low-cost microscope add-on, termed ptychographic modulation engine (PME), for super-resolution quantitative phase imaging. In this microscope add-on module, we attach a diffuser to a 3D-printed holder that can be mechanically moved to different x-y positions. We then use two vibrational motors to introduce random positional shifts to the diffuser. The add-on module can be placed between the objective lens and the specimen in most existing microscope platforms. Thanks to the diffuser modulation process, the otherwise inaccessible high-resolution object information can now be encoded into the captured images. In the ptychographic phase retrieval process, we jointly recover the complex object wavefront, the complex diffuser profile, and the unknown positional shifts of the diffuser. We demonstrate a four-fold resolution gain over the diffraction limit of the employed 2× objective lens. We also test our approach for in vitro cell imaging, where we are able to adjust the focus after the data has been captured. The reported microscope add-on provides a turnkey solution for super-resolution quantitative phase imaging. It may find applications in label-free bio-imaging where both large field-of-view and high resolution are needed.

Design and assessment of a novel poly(urethane-semicarbazides) containing thiadiazoles on the backbone of the polymers as inhibitors for steel pipelines corrosion in CO2-saturated oilfield water

Abstract In this investigation, a novel class of poly(urethane-semicarbazides) containing thiadiazoles on the backbone of the polymers (SR-16 and SR-17) was synthesized and characterized by different spectroscopic methods (FTIR, 1H NMR, and 13C NMR). The inhibition action of the synthesized polymers on steel pipelines in carbon dioxide-containing oilfield formation water has been studied using electrochemical measurements namely, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), potentiodynamic polarization (PDP), and surface morphology tools such as energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDX) and a field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The findings indicate that the fabricated polymers SR-16 and SR-17 exhibits superior corrosion performance on steel in oilfield formation water saturated with CO2. The protection capacity is found to increase by increasing the polymer concentration up to maximum values 92.12 and 96.52% for 150 ppm at 50 °C in the presence of SR-16 and SR-17, respectively. The FE-SEM and EDX measurements indicate that the steel surface is protected by studied polymers. The current study provides very significative data in fabricating and designing novel polymer inhibitors with high protection efficiency.

Cytological diagnosis of thyroid disease

Cytological diagnosis of various human diseases is widely used in modern medicine, especially for early preoperative diagnosis of tumors of different organs and tissues. A fine-needle aspiration puncture biopsy followed by microscopic examination of its cytogram is one of the integral parts of diagnostic cytology, including the diagnosis of thyroid diseases (thyroid gland). The methods used to verify various thyroid pathology options (palpation, ultrasound - ultrasound, scintigraphy, biochemical and immunological tests, etc.) do not always allow us to clarify the nature of pathological changes in the thyroid gland. For example, cold nodes (according to the scan) only in some cases turn out to be malignant neoplasms of the thyroid gland, like the bulk of nodular goiter in patients from regions endemic to goiter; in most cases there is no need for their prompt removal. And only a microscopic examination of thyroid puncture points, especially its nodular formations, allows you to clarify the diagnosis and make an adequate decision on the nature of the treatment measures. Thin-needle aspiration puncture biopsy of the thyroid gland is a non-invasive morphological diagnostic tool that allows you to make a correct diagnosis with almost 100% probability. At the same time, since the thyroid gland is an epithelial organ, in the structures of which the cells are closely “fused” with each other, cellular connections are broken with difficulty, which makes it extremely difficult to obtain informative material for subsequent microscopic examination. To facilitate the process of obtaining material on the needle, which is performed by puncture biopsy, in the Endocrinology Research Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, notches were started at a distance of about 0.5-0.7 cm from the sharp end of the needle (Candidate of Medical Sciences A.V. Antonov), which allows you to take material like a harpoon, without aspiration and receive a plentiful punctate. With ischemia of the punctured area of the gland, it is possible to obtain abundant punctate with virtually no impurity of peripheral blood (Ph.D. I.V. Panteleev). The material thus obtained is applied to a fat-free glass slide and a smear is obtained using a polished glass slide (similar to a blood smear). Air-dried strokes are stained according to May — Grunwald — Giemsa. Every year we examine from 1.5 to 2.5 thousand puncture biopsies from patients with various pathologies. The information content of the obtained material largely depends on the experience and skill of the surgeon. Scanty punctate, as a rule, is uninformative and can only describe the punctate without an opinion on the nature of pathological changes in the thyroid gland. Abundant cellular punctate from different points of the gland, especially if there is a suspicion of diffuse and / or combined pathology, makes it possible to make a final diagnosis.

A revision of the French Trichobranchidae (Polychaeta), with descriptions of nine new species.

Trichobranchidae from French waters are revised based on material available in French marine stations and newly collected specimens. This research is the first part of the "Spaghetti Project" aiming to revise French species of terebellids and trichobranchids. It confirms the absence of the so-called cosmopolitan species Terebellides stroemii from French waters, and describes eight new species of Terebellides: T. bonifi n. sp., T. ceneresi n. sp., T. europaea n. sp., T. gentili n. sp., T. gralli n. sp., T. lilasae n. sp., T. parapari n. sp. and T. resomari n. sp. and one species of Trichobranchus: T. demontaudouini n. sp. using both morphological and molecular tools. An identification key for all European species of Trichobranchidae is provided.

Description of a yellow morel from Egypt using morphological and molecular tools

Description of a yellow morel from Egypt using morphological and molecular tools

Diversity and Distribution of Meroplanktonic Larvae in the Pacific Arctic and Connectivity With Adult Benthic Invertebrate Communities

Pelagic larval stages (meroplankton) of benthic invertebrates seasonally make up a significant proportion of planktonic communities, as well as determine the distribution of their benthic adult stages, yet are frequently overlooked by both plankton and benthic studies. Within the Arctic, the role of meroplanktonic larvae may be particularly important in regions of inflow from sub-Arctic regions, where they can serve as vectors of advection of temperate species into the Arctic. In this study, we describe the links between the distribution of larvae and adult benthic communities of bivalves, echinoderms, select decapods and cnidarians on the Pacific-influenced Chukchi Sea shelf during August-September in the time period 2004-2015 using traditional morphological and molecular tools to resolve taxonomic diversity. For most taxa, we observed little regional overlap between the distribution of larvae and adults of the same taxon; however, larvae of some organisms (e.g., the burrowing anemone Cerianthus sp., the sand dollar Echinarachnius parma) were only observed near populations of adult organisms. Larval stages of species not commonly observed in the Chukchi Sea benthos were also observed in the plankton; overall, shelf meroplanktonic communities were numerically dominated by larvae of coastal hard-bottom taxa, rather than local soft-bottom shelf species. Our results suggest that most larvae that we observe on the shelf are advected from other areas rather than produced locally, and most likely will not successfully settle to the benthos. Seasonality and distribution of water masses were the most important parameters shaping meroplankton communities. We discuss the implications of changing oceanographic and climatic conditions on the potential of range extensions by temperate species into the Arctic Ocean.

Morphometric and colourimetric tools to dissect morphological diversity: an application in sweet potato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.

The genetic diversity of sweet potato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.] and its wild relatives has been collected and conserved in germplasm collections worldwide and explored employing several tools. The characterization of crops diversity through morphological tools produce useful information. However, the use of conventional morphological descriptions exhibits limitations due to the use of subjective and categorical parameters that affect phenotypic description and diversity estimation. In order to increase the efficiency to discriminate different phenotypes not detected by conventional morphological descriptors, new phenomic approaches were used. Seventy sweet potato accessions collected in the northern coast of Colombia were characterized by forty-nine parameters from conventional sweet potato descriptors and data obtained by RGB imaging and colourimetry. Field descriptions, RGB imaging-colourimetry and both databases integrated were analysed using Gower’s general similarity coefficient for clustering. Estimation of genotype similarity was significantly improved when quantitative data obtained by RGB imaging and colourimetry analysis were included. Variations in traits such as flesh and periderm colour in roots, leaves, vein colour and leaf shape that were not detected by field descriptors, were efficiently discriminated by measuring pixel values from images, estimation of shape descriptors (circularity, solidity, area) and colourimetry data. Expected high correlations were found for field parameters (number of lobes, lobe type, and central lobe shape) and image data (circularity, roundness and solidity). The combination of RGB imaging and colourimetry benefits the quality of morphological characterizations, resulting in a cost-effective process that is able to identify polymorphisms and target traits for diversity estimation and breeding.

Updates on the distribution and diversity of sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in Romania

BackgroundPhlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) are haematophagous insects that transmit the protozoan parasite Leishmania infantum (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae), the main causative agent of both zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and canine leishmaniasis (CanL) in the Mediterranean basin. Eight species of sand flies have been previously recorded in Romania: Phlebotomus papatasi, Phlebotomus alexandri, Phlebotomus sergenti, Phlebotomus perfiliewi, Phlebotomus neglectus, Phlebotomus longiductus, Phlebotomus balcanicus and Sergentomyia minuta. Three of them (P. perfiliewi, P. neglectus and P. balcanicus) were incriminated as vectors of L. infantum. Recent reports of autochthonous CanL in Romania require updates on sand fly distribution and diversity in this country.MethodsBetween 2013–2014 and 2016–2018, CDC light traps and mouth aspirators were used to collect sand flies in 132 locations from Romania, indoors and around various animal species shelters. Species identification of collected specimens was done using morphological keys, genetic tools and MALDI-TOF protein profiling.ResultsSand flies were present in seven localities (5.3%): Eibenthal, Baia Nouă, Gura Văii (south-western Romania, Mehedinţi County); Fundătura, Pâhneşti, Epureni (eastern Romania, Vaslui County); and Schitu (southern Romania, Giurgiu County). Of the total number of collected sand flies (n = 251), 209 (83.27%) were Phlebotomus neglectus, 39 (15.53%) P. perfiliewi, 1 (0.40%) P. papatasi, 1 (0.40%) P. balcanicus and 1 (0.40%) P. sergenti (sensu lato).ConclusionsWe confirmed the presence of five sand fly species previously recorded in Romania. However, their updated distribution differs from historical data. The diversity of sand fly species in Romania and their presence in areas with Mediterranean climatic influences constitutes a threat for the reemergence of vector-borne diseases. In the context of CanL and VL reemergence in Romania, but also due to imported cases of the diseases in both humans and dogs, updates on vector distribution are imperative.

Catalytic Investigation of Ag Nanostructures Loaded on Porous Hematite Cubes: Infiltrated versus Exteriors

AbstractAg Nanostructures (NSs) were successfully infiltrated on porous Hematite (α‐Fe2O3) Cubes and exteriorly deposited on Prussian blue (PB) Cubes to derive two different types (Infiltrated–Ag and Exterior/Ag) of metal loaded semiconductor composites. In the Infiltrated–Ag, Ag NSs were infiltrated through the pores of Hematite Cubes whereas; it was exteriorly deposited with Exterior/Ag catalyst. Both infiltrated and exteriorly deposited Ag NSs were carefully characterized by morphological and physiological characterization tools and the prepared catalysts were applied toward reduction reaction of p‐nitrophenol (PNP) in the presence of NaBH4 by UV‐vis spectroscopy. It was found that “Infiltrated–Ag” exhibited bi‐functional properties with specific surface area and high catalytic activity toward PNP reduction. Such catalytic activity of the “Infiltrated–Ag” might be attributed to the electron enriched Hematite/Ag interface and its efficient contribution to the electron transfer between Hematite/Ag and PNP.

형태 분석 말뭉치 구축을 위한 한국어 구어 분석

In this study, I discussed various problems that can occur when constructing a POS Tagged corpus of Korean spoken. The morphological analysis corpus is the most basic annotation corpus, while the study and construction work on the annotation of written corpus is done in various angles, but the research on the spoken corpus has hardly been done. First, I introduce the corpus and the morphological analysis tool, Utagger, which will be used in the analysis. Then, I have examined the construction process of the spoken corpus. Then, I summarized the characteristics of Korean spoken language, especially the contraction which is the most characteristic feature of colloquialism. And I discussed why information about the contraction phenomenon is important in the POS Tagged corpus of spoken language. In this paper, I tried to analyze the various sentences including the spoken variation by using the Utagger used in constructing the large corpus. However, due to the limitations of the tools developed around written language, about half of them did not show correct results. Especially, the contracted forms were rarely processed. Finally, I describe the differences in the distribution of parts of speech that are revealed through comparison with the written corpus for the analyzing of spoken corpus. In this paper, I deal only with morphological analysis, which is the most basic annotation, but I think it is also necessary to study how the distribution of homophonic words in written and spoken corpus differs for the constructing of a annotation corpus separated by lexical meaning.

Diversity in species composition and fungicide resistance profiles in Colletotrichum isolates from apples

Outbreaks of bitter rot were observed in three commercial apple orchards in Illinois despite best management efforts during the 2018 production season. Three isolates from symptomatic fruit from these orchards and two isolates from an orchard in South Carolina were identified to the species level using morphological tools and calmodulin, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, and beta-tubulin gene sequences. The isolates from Illinois were identified as Colletotrichum siamense of the Colletotrichum gloeosporioides species complex and the ones from South Carolina as Colletotrichum fioriniae and Colletotrichum fructicola of the Colletotrichum acutatum and the C. gloeosporioides species complex, respectively. Two of the three C. siamense isolates from Illinois were resistant to azoxystrobin and thiophanate-methyl as determined in mycelial growth tests in vitro. EC50 values were >100 μg/ml for both fungicides. One isolate was only resistant to azoxystrobin. None of the isolates from South Carolina was resistant to either of the two compounds. All five isolates were sensitive to fludioxonil (EC50 values <0.1 μg/ml), propiconazole (EC50 values ranged from 0.15 to 0.36 μg/ml), and benzovindiflupyr (EC50 values ranged from <0.1 to 0.33 μg/ml). Resistance in C. siamense to azoxystrobin and thiophanate-methyl was confirmed in detached fruit studies using apples treated with label rates of registered product. Resistance to thiophanate-methyl in C. siamense was based on E198A mutation in b-tubulin gene, whereas resistance to azoxystrobin was based on G143A in cytochrome b (CYTB). One isolate resistant to azoxystrobin possessed no amino acid variation in CYTB. This study shows that quinone outside inhibitor fungicide resistance in Colletotrichum from apple has emerged and is being selected for in Illinois apple orchards by current spray strategies. Resistance monitoring may alert growers to potential threats, but the employment of molecular tools based on current knowledge of resistance mechanisms will provide incomplete results.

Best cut-off point of the cervical facet joint area as a new morphological measurement tool to predict cervical foraminal stenosis.

Purpose: One of the main factor of cervical foraminal stenosis (CFS) is the hypertrophic change of the cervical facet joint. In order to analyze the connection between CFS and the facet joint hypertrophy, we devised a new morphological parameter, called the cervical facet joint cross-sectional area (CFJA). The CFJA has not yet been investigated for its association with CFS. We hypothesized that the CFJA is an important morphologic parameter in the diagnosis of CFS.Patients and methods: All patients over 50 years of age were included. Data regarding the CFJA were collected from 160 subjects with CFS. A total of 162 control individuals underwent cervical spine magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI) as part of a routine medical examination. Axial T2-weighted CMRI images were acquired from all subjects. We used a picture archiving system to analyze the cross-sectional area of the bone margin of the cervical facet joint at the level of the most stenotic cervical spine in the axial plane.Results: The average CFJA was 109.07±20.91 mm2 in the control group, and 126.75±22.59 mm2 in the CFS group. The CFS group was found to have significantly higher levels of the CFJA (p<0.001) than the control group. ROC curve estimation was used to verify the validity of the CFJA as a new predictor of CFS. In the CFS group, the best cut off-point was 113.14 mm2, with sensitivity =70.6%, specificity =68.6%, and AUC =0.72 (95% CI, 0.66–0.77).Conclusions: CFJA high values were closely associated with a possibility of CFS. We concluded CFJA is easy to use, fast, and useful new morphological parameter to predict CFS.

An Algorithmic Scheme for Statistical Thesaurus Construction in a Morphologically Rich Language

ABSTRACTCorpus-based automatic thesaurus construction uses linguistic methods, such as Part-of-Speech taggers and parsers, which often perform poorly on MRLs. Therefore, in this paper, we focused on the complex task of adapting corpus-based thesaurus construction methods for MRLs. We investigated two statistical approaches for thesaurus construction; a) a first-order co-occurrence-based approach and b) a second-order distributional-based approach. We explored alternative levels of morphological term representations complemented by grouping the morphological variants. We then introduced and adopted a generic algorithmic scheme for thesaurus construction in MRLs for both first-order and second-order approaches. Our scheme investigated alternative representation levels and offered alternative configurations. We demonstrated the empirical benefits of our methodology for a diachronic Hebrew thesaurus construction. We used morphological analysis tools, defined and applied a new annotation scheme, and demonstrated its optimal configuration, which outperforms the baseline for both first and second order corpus-based thesaurus construction approaches.

A co-infection case report of Taenia saginata in a patient with subclinical clonorchiasis confirmed by the combination of diagnostic tools

BackgroundClonorchiasis is the common parasitic infection in the general population of the Republic of Korea, however, taeniasis is scarcely reported recently. Here, we describe a case of co-infection with the cestode T. saginata in a patient with subclinical clonorchiasis diagnosed by a combination of diagnostic tools in Korea.Case presentationA 56-year-old man visited the hospital having passed proglottids in his stool for the past two months and brought a stool sample with segments to our hospital. He had no abdominal symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, or constipation. He used to consume raw beef and fish frequently. We could not find evidence of gravid proglottids which contain fully developed uteri filled with ova or branched uterine structures, within the submitted sample. To identify the tapeworm species, we carried out molecular analyses on the proglottids. The cox1 and ef1a sequences had a 100% match with those of T. saginata and differed from the sequences of the other Taenia species. Upon examination of stool samples fixed by formalin-ether concentration method, no Taenia species ova were observed in 10 slides. Instead, C. sinensis ova were observed, despite the level of IgG specific to C. sinensis being within the normal range. The patient was treated with praziquantel (25 mg/kg, three times a day) for 3 days, and subsequently C. sinensis ova were not found in his stool.ConclusionOur case indicates that a combination of morphological, serological, and molecular diagnostic tools should be used for the accurate diagnosis of subclinical parasitic infections.

Implications of range overlap in the commercially important pan-tropical sea urchin genus Tripneustes (Echinoidea: Toxopneustidae)

Sea urchins of the genus Tripneustes are among the most abundant and ecologically important pan-tropical marine invertebrates. Recognized as potent ecosystem engineers due to their intense grazing of macroalgae and sea grass and highly valued for their gonads, wild populations of Tripneustes are commercially exploited for fisheries and aquaculture. Recently, a new species, Tripneustes kermadecensis (Bronstein et al. 2017), was described from the southern Pacific Ocean, off the Kermadec Islands, near the tropical/sub-tropical transition zone. Here, we explore the range of Tripneustes and, in particular, T. kermadecensis by morphological and genetic tools to determine whether it also occurs in Australia. We report, for the first time, the presence of a second Tripneustes species, T. kermadecensis, from Australia. We show that T. kermadecensis is in fact highly abundant throughout most of sub-tropical eastern Australia, where it occurs in association with coral and temperate reefs and has been recognized for decades as the ‘lamington sea urchin’. As commercial exploitation and stock-release programs of Tripneustes are rapidly expanding, and as global warming causes tropicalization of eastern Australia, driving the southern expansion of its congener T. gratilla, we call for re-evaluation of the conservation vulnerability of T. kermadecensis along the Australian continent and action by the aquaculture industry to genetically confirm the species identity of stocks in their facilities.

Potential factors influencing lymphatic filariasis transmission in \u201chotspot\u201d and \u201ccontrol\u201d areas in Ghana: the importance of vectors

BackgroundMass drug administration (MDA) programmes for the control of lymphatic filariasis in Ghana, have been ongoing in some endemic districts for 16 years. The current study aimed to assess factors that govern the success of MDA programmes for breaking transmission of lymphatic filariasis in Ghana.MethodsThe study was undertaken in two “hotspot” districts (Ahanta West and Kassena Nankana West) and two control districts (Mpohor and Bongo) in Ghana. Mosquitoes were collected and identified using morphological and molecular tools. A proportion of the cibarial armatures of each species was examined. Dissections were performed on Anopheles gambiae for filarial worm detection. A questionnaire was administered to obtain information on MDA compliance and vector control activities. Data were compared between districts to determine factors that might explain persistent transmission of lymphatic filariasis.ResultsHigh numbers of mosquitoes were sampled in Ahanta West district compared to Mpohor district (F = 16.09, P = 0.002). There was no significant difference between the numbers of mosquitoes collected in Kassena Nankana West and Bongo districts (F = 2.16, P = 0.185). Mansonia species were predominant in Ahanta West district. An. coluzzii mosquitoes were prevalent in all districts. An. melas with infected and infective filarial worms was found only in Ahanta West district. No differences were found in cibarial teeth numbers and shape for mosquito species in the surveyed districts. Reported MDA coverage was high in all districts. The average use of bednet and indoor residual spraying was 82.4 and 66.2%, respectively. There was high compliance in the five preceding MDA rounds in Ahanta West and Kassena Nankana West districts, both considered hotspots of lymphatic filariasis transmission.ConclusionsThe study on persistent transmission of lymphatic filariasis in the two areas in Ghana present information that shows the importance of local understanding of factors affecting control and elimination of lymphatic filariasis. Unlike Kassena Nankana West district where transmission dynamics could be explained by initial infection prevalence and low vector densities, ongoing lymphatic filariasis transmission in Ahanta West district might be explained by high biting rates of An. gambiae and initial infection prevalence, coupled with high densities of An. melas and Mansonia vector species that have low or no teeth and exhibiting limitation.

A lexicon of Albanian for natural language processing

AbstractFor many applications in the field of natural language processing, a lexicon is needed. For the Albanian language a lexicon that can be used for these purposes is presented below. The lexicon contains around 75,000 entries, including proper names such as personal, geographical and other names. Each entry includes grammatical information such as parts of speech and other specific information, e.g. inflection classes for nouns, adjectives and verbs. The lexicon is part of a morphological tool, but can also be used as an independent resource for other tasks and applications or can be adapted for them. Sources for the creation and the extension of the presented lexicon include both information from traditional dictionaries, e.g. spelling dictionaries, and a balanced linguistic corpus using corpus-driven methods and tools. The lexicon is still work in progress, but aims to cover basic information for most frequent tasks of natural language processing.