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Oral baiting is used to deliver vaccines to wildlife to prevent, control, and eliminate infectious diseases. A central challenge is how to spatially distribute baits to maximize encounters by target animal populations, particularly in urban and suburban areas where wildlife such as raccoons (Procyon lotor) are abundant and baits are delivered along roads. Methods from movement ecology that quantify movement and habitat selection could help to optimize baiting strategies by more effectively targeting wildlife populations across space. We developed a spatially explicit, individual-based model of raccoon movement and oral rabies vaccine seroconversion to examine whether and when baiting strategies that match raccoon movement patterns perform better than currently used baiting strategies in an oral rabies vaccination zone in greater Burlington, Vermont, USA. Habitat selection patterns estimated from locally radio-collared raccoons were used to parameterize movement simulations. We then used our simulations to estimate raccoon population rabies seroprevalence under currently used baiting strategies (actual baiting) relative to habitat selection-based baiting strategies (habitat baiting). We conducted simulations on the Burlington landscape and artificial landscapes that varied in heterogeneity relative to Burlington in the proportion and patch size of preferred habitats. We found that the benefits of habitat baiting strongly depended on the magnitude and variability of raccoon habitat selection and the degree of landscape heterogeneity within the baiting area. Habitat baiting improved seroprevalence over actual baiting for raccoons characterized as habitat specialists but not for raccoons that displayed weak habitat selection similar to radiocollared individuals, except when baits were delivered off roads where preferred habitat coverage and complexity was more pronounced. In contrast, in artificial landscapes with either more strongly juxtaposed favored habitats and/or higher proportions of favored habitats, habitat baiting performed better than actual baiting, even when raccoons displayed weak habitat preferences and where baiting was constrained to roads. Our results suggest that habitat selection-based baiting could increase raccoon population seroprevalence in urban–suburban areas, where practical, given the heterogeneity and availability of preferred habitat types in those areas. Our novel simulation approach provides a flexible framework to test alternative baiting strategies in multiclass landscapes to optimize bait-distribution strategies.

GetOrganelle is a state-of-the-art toolkit to accurately assemble organelle genomes from whole genome sequencing data. It recruits organelle-associated reads using a modified “baiting and iterative mapping” approach, conducts de novo assembly, filters and disentangles the assembly graph, and produces all possible configurations of circular organelle genomes. For 50 published plant datasets, we are able to reassemble the circular plastomes from 47 datasets using GetOrganelle. GetOrganelle assemblies are more accurate than published and/or NOVOPlasty-reassembled plastomes as assessed by mapping. We also assemble complete mitochondrial genomes using GetOrganelle. GetOrganelle is freely released under a GPL-3 license ( https://github.com/Kinggerm/GetOrganelle ).

Fungus-growing termites (Termitidae: Macrotermitinae) exhibit significant diversity and abundance in tropical and subtropical ecosystems. Fungus-growing termites consume a wide range of materials, including leaf litter, woody debris, agricultural crops, and wooden structures, including houses. Their presence in termite baiting stations can impede the control of other residential termite pests, such as Coptotermes spp. Current control practices for managing fungus-growing termites are both costly and time-consuming, rendering them impractical for large-scale application. In our review, we analyzed recent biological and control studies on fungus-growing termites to identify key challenges and suggest improvements in termite management strategies. We identified 5 primary factors contributing to the low efficacy of current control measures for fungus-growing termites: (i) sporadic foraging behavior, which diminishes consistent bait intake; (ii) naturally small colony sizes; (iii) the nonmolting nature of the worker caste, reducing the effectiveness of chitin synthesis inhibitors; (iv) fungal cultivation, which delays and mitigates pesticide toxicity; and (v) wide-range of feeding niche, which lessens their consumption of cellulose-based baits. These insights are critical for developing more effective termite control strategies.

Orchids normally produce large numbers of dust-like seeds that rely heavily on orchid mycorrhizal fungi (OMFs) for germination and subsequent seedling development. Using OMFs to facilitate orchid proliferation is considered an effective way for orchid conservation, but this requires obtaining optimal sources of fungi, and using fungi appropriately in conservation practices based on understanding the symbiosis between orchids and fungi in nature. In this study, we obtained four fungal isolates belonging to a Tulasnella species (QYM-1-QYM-4) from symbiotically formed protocorms of Dendrobium huoshanense by using ex situ seed baiting, and compared their efficiencies with other sources of OMFs on seed germination and seedling development of D. huoshanense in vitro and in the natural habitat. The four isolates and other two Serendipita fungi originally obtained from other orchid species and soil could promote seeds germinated up to seedlings with different effectiveness in vitro. The isolates QYM-1 and Serendipita indica SI showed high abilities to promote seedling development, and the percentages of seedlings in QYM-1 and SI treatments were 53.53 ± 3.2% and 53.65 ± 2.2% ( P =  0.96) at 90 days after incubation, which were significantly higher than other fungal treatments. However, in natural habitat after 90 days, only 1.33 ± 1.3% seedlings developed in SI treatment while 29.67 ± 4.1% seedlings survived in QYM-1 treatment ( P  < 0.05). Our results revealed that a wide range of fungi could promote seed germination up to seedling in vitro but strong ecological specificity occurred during seedling establishment in the natural habitat of in D. huoshanense . Therefore, we suggest isolating ecologically specific fungi from protocorms/seedlings via seed baiting, and use the obtained fungi to facilitate symbiotic seed germination for orchid reintroduction in the recipient habitats.

We distributed anthelmintic baits on a university campus in Japan inhabited by foxes infected with Echinococcus multilocularis to design an effective baiting protocol for small public areas. High-density baiting can reduce the risk for human exposure to the parasite to near zero. However, monthly baiting is recommended to maintain this effect.

The advancements in digital communication technology have made communication between humans more accessible and instant. However, personal and sensitive information may be available online through social networks and online services that lack the security measures to protect this information. Communication systems are vulnerable and can easily be penetrated by malicious users through social engineering attacks. These attacks aim at tricking individuals or enterprises into accomplishing actions that benefit attackers or providing them with sensitive data such as social security number, health records, and passwords. Social engineering is one of the biggest challenges facing network security because it exploits the natural human tendency to trust. This paper provides an in-depth survey about the social engineering attacks, their classifications, detection strategies, and prevention procedures.

Biological invasions threaten biodiversity globally. In Australia, introduced and invasive European red foxes ( Vulpes vulpes ) are a major predator of native wildlife, and are implicated in numerous species extinctions, prompting large-scale fox population control programs. Lethal control—typically via poison (1080) baiting—is common, but the consistency of its efficacy has been questioned, and the desired outcomes are frequently not measured or evaluated. We aimed to assess the success and impacts of lethal fox control on fox activity, and subsequent effects on a co-occurring, invasive mesopredator (feral cat, Felis catus ), and native and invasive prey species. We surveyed three locations in the Wimmera region of Victoria, each experienced a different baiting regime (no baiting, standard systematic baiting, intensified baiting). Camera traps were deployed from April 2021 to August 2023 to determine predator activity alongside non-target herbivores. Baiting treatment was not associated with differences in fox or cat activity. Nurcoung (no baiting) had the lowest activity of both cats and foxes across the study. Fox activity patterns under standard baiting were higher than intensified baiting. Our results suggest that fox control might destabilise population dynamics of foxes, potentially facilitating increased activity levels through higher emigration rates from the surrounding agricultural environments. Our study highlights the critical importance of appropriately monitoring the outcomes of invasive species control programs to ensure the a priori strategic objectives are achieved. To achieve more effective fox population suppression broader, landscape-scale approaches that take a nil-tenure approach are essential.

Aerially delivered toxic baits have proven effective for landscape-level control of numerous invasive vertebrate populations with major benefits for conservation and ecosystem function, but this technique has not been broadly adapted for control of invasive reptiles. Nonnative brown treesnakes (Boiga irregularis) on the Pacific island of Guam have caused severe ecological and economic damage and pose an invasion risk on other islands, making them a high-profile candidate for application of aerial baiting methods. Although terrestrial applications of traps, toxicants, and hand-removal are standard brown treesnake management practices, these methods are not cost-effective for control in the island’s large tracts of remote, rugged forest. In 2016, the first major in situ evaluation of a helicopter-borne automated aerial bait delivery system applied snake-targeted toxic baits at an effective rate of approximately 120 baits/ha over a 110-ha forested test plot on Guam. We evaluated the extent and duration of the suppressive effect of this toxic bait application on brown treesnakes by measuring nontoxic bait take rates as a proxy index of relative snake abundance before and after toxic bait application in a treatment plot and surrounding reference area. We placed 4,420 nontoxic baits in random transects at georeferenced locations, from 1 month before until nearly 12 months after toxic bait application, allowing temporal analysis of the suppressive effect and spatial analysis of treatment plot reinvasion. Over the first 30 days after toxic bait application, average nontoxic bait take rate in the treatment plot was 41.2% lower than the pre-application rate, and there was no immediate decrease in bait take in the reference area. Reduced snake activity was still evident nearly 12 months after bait application. Roads forming a portion of the treatment boundary appeared to slow snake movement between treated area and surrounding untreated area. Trail cameras monitoring a subset of bait tubes showed that 97.5% of baits removed were taken by snakes rather than nontarget species. We indexed rodent abundance in the treatment plot and reference area, and found no indication of a rodent population increase following toxic bait application. Our results show that automated aerial bait applications can suppress brown treesnake abundance over a large area and that reinvasion from surrounding untreated habitat occurs over several months. We anticipate that repeated bait applications could achieve and maintain greatly reduced brown treesnake abundance on a landscape scale, potentially improving biosecurity and enabling experimental reintroduction of native birds extirpated by brown treesnake predation.

Isolation techniques supplemented by sequencing of DNA from axenic cultures have provided a robust methodology for the study of Phytophthora communities in agricultural and natural ecosystems. Recently, metabarcoding approaches have emerged as new paradigms for the detection of Phytophthora species in environmental samples. In this study, Illumina DNA metabarcoding and a conventional leaf baiting isolation technique were compared to unravel the variability of Phytophthora communities in different environments. Overall, 39 rhizosphere soil samples from a natural, a semi-natural and a horticultural small-scale ecosystem, respectively, were processed by both baiting and metabarcoding. Using both detection techniques, 28 out of 39 samples tested positive for Phytophthora. Overall, 1,406,613 Phytophthora internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) sequences and 155 Phytophthora isolates were obtained, which grouped into 21 taxa, five retrieved exclusively by baiting (P. bilorbang; P. cryptogea; P. gonapodyides; P. parvispora and P. pseudocryptogea), 12 exclusively by metabarcoding (P. asparagi; P. occultans; P. psycrophila; P. syringae; P. aleatoria/P. cactorum; P. castanetorum/P. quercina; P. iranica-like; P. unknown sp. 1; P. unknown sp. 2; P. unknown sp. 3; P. unknown sp. 4; P. unknown sp. 5) and four with both techniques (P. citrophthora, P. multivora, P. nicotianae and P. plurivora). Both techniques complemented each other in describing the variability of Phytophthora communities from natural and managed ecosystems and revealing the presence of rare or undescribed Phytophthora taxa.

Orchid conservation efforts, using seeds and species-specific fungi that support seed germination, require the isolation, identification, and germination enhancement testing of symbiotic fungi. However, few studies have focused on developing such techniques for the epiphytes that constitute the majority of orchids. In this study, conducted in Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Yunnan, China, we used seeds of Dendrobium aphyllum, a locally endangered and medicinally valuable epiphytic orchid, to attract germination promoting fungi. Of the two fungi isolated from seed baiting, Tulasnella spp. and Trichoderma spp., Tulasnella, enhanced seed germination by 13.6 %, protocorm formation by 85.7 %, and seedling development by 45.2 % (all P < 0.0001). Epulorhiza, another seed germination promoting fungi isolated from Cymbidium mannii, also enhanced seed germination (6.5 %; P < 0.05) and protocorm formation (20.3 %; P < 0.0001), but Trichoderma suppressed seed germination by 26.4 % (P < 0.0001). Tulasnella was the only treatment that produced seedlings. Light increased seed imbibition, protocorm formation, and two-leaved seed development of Tulasnella inoculated seeds (P < 0.0001). Because the germination stage success was not dependent on fungi, we recommend that Tulasnella be introduced for facilitating D. aphyllum seed germination at the protocorm formation stage and that light be provided for increasing germination as well as further seedling development. Our findings suggest that in situ seed baiting can be used to isolate seed germination-enhancing fungi for the development of seedling production for conservation and reintroduction efforts of epiphytic orchids such as D. aphyllum.