Diversity of lactase persistence in African milk drinkers

The genetic trait of lactase persistence is attributable to allelic variants in an enhancer region upstream of the lactase gene, LCT. To date, five different functional alleles, -13910*T, -13907*G, -13915*G, -14009*G and -14010*C, have been identified. The co-occurrence of several of these alleles in Ethiopian lactose digesters leads to a pattern of sequence diversity characteristic of a 'soft selective sweep'. Here we hypothesise that throughout Africa, where multiple functional alleles co-exist, the enhancer diversity will be greater in groups who are traditional milk drinkers than in non-milk drinkers, as the result of this sort of parallel selection. Samples from 23 distinct groups from 10 different countries were examined. Each group was classified 'Yes 'or 'No' for milk-drinking, and ethnicity, language spoken and geographic location were recorded. Predicted lactase persistence frequency and enhancer diversity were, as hypothesised, higher in the milk drinkers than the non-milk-drinkers, but this was almost entirely accounted for by the Afro-Asiatic language speaking peoples of east Africa. The other groups, including the 'Nilo-Saharan language speaking' milk-drinkers, show lower frequencies of LP and lower diversity, and there was a north-east to south-west decline in overall diversity. Amongst the Afro-Asiatic (Cushitic) language speaking Oromo, however, the geographic cline was not evident and the southern pastoralist Borana showed much higher LP frequency and enhancer diversity than the other groups. Together these results reflect the effects of parallel selection, the stochastic processes of the occurrence and spread of the mutations, and time depth of milk drinking tradition

Opportunities and challenges for monitoring terrestrial biodiversity in the robotics age

\ua9 The Author(s) 2025.With biodiversity loss escalating globally, a step change is needed in our capacity to accurately monitor species populations across ecosystems. Robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) offer technological solutions that may substantially advance terrestrial biodiversity monitoring, but this potential is yet to be considered systematically. We used a modified Delphi technique to synthesize knowledge from 98 biodiversity experts and 31 RAS experts, who identified the major methodological barriers that currently hinder monitoring, and explored the opportunities and challenges that RAS offer in overcoming these barriers. Biodiversity experts identified four barrier categories: site access, species and individual identification, data handling and storage, and power and network availability. Robotics experts highlighted technologies that could overcome these barriers and identified the developments needed to facilitate RAS-based autonomous biodiversity monitoring. Some existing RAS could be optimized relatively easily to survey species but would require development to be suitable for monitoring of more ‘difficult’ taxa and robust enough to work under uncontrolled conditions within ecosystems. Other nascent technologies (for instance, new sensors and biodegradable robots) need accelerated research. Overall, it was felt that RAS could lead to major progress in monitoring of terrestrial biodiversity by supplementing rather than supplanting existing methods. Transdisciplinarity needs to be fostered between biodiversity and RAS experts so that future ideas and technologies can be codeveloped effectively

Opportunities and challenges for monitoring terrestrial biodiversity in the robotics age

With biodiversity loss escalating globally, a step change is needed in our capacity to accurately monitor species populations across ecosystems. Robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) offer technological solutions that may substantially advance terrestrial biodiversity monitoring, but this potential is yet to be considered systematically. We used a modified Delphi technique to synthesize knowledge from 98 biodiversity experts and 31 RAS experts, who identified the major methodological barriers that currently hinder monitoring, and explored the opportunities and challenges that RAS offer in overcoming these barriers. Biodiversity experts identified four barrier categories: site access, species and individual identification, data handling and storage, and power and network availability. Robotics experts highlighted technologies that could overcome these barriers and identified the developments needed to facilitate RAS-based autonomous biodiversity monitoring. Some existing RAS could be optimized relatively easily to survey species but would require development to be suitable for monitoring of more ‘difficult’ taxa and robust enough to work under uncontrolled conditions within ecosystems. Other nascent technologies (for instance, new sensors and biodegradable robots) need accelerated research. Overall, it was felt that RAS could lead to major progress in monitoring of terrestrial biodiversity by supplementing rather than supplanting existing methods. Transdisciplinarity needs to be fostered between biodiversity and RAS experts so that future ideas and technologies can be codeveloped effectively

Opportunities and challenges for monitoring terrestrial biodiversity in the robotics age

With biodiversity loss escalating globally, a step change is needed in our capacity to accurately monitor species populations across ecosystems. Robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) offer technological solutions that may substantially advance terrestrial biodiversity monitoring, but this potential is yet to be considered systematically. We used a modified Delphi technique to synthesize knowledge from 98 biodiversity experts and 31 RAS experts, who identified the major methodological barriers that currently hinder monitoring, and explored the opportunities and challenges that RAS offer in overcoming these barriers. Biodiversity experts identified four barrier categories: site access, species and individual identification, data handling and storage, and power and network availability. Robotics experts highlighted technologies that could overcome these barriers and identified the developments needed to facilitate RAS-based autonomous biodiversity monitoring. Some existing RAS could be optimized relatively easily to survey species but would require development to be suitable for monitoring of more ‘difficult’ taxa and robust enough to work under uncontrolled conditions within ecosystems. Other nascent technologies (for instance, new sensors and biodegradable robots) need accelerated research. Overall, it was felt that RAS could lead to major progress in monitoring of terrestrial biodiversity by supplementing rather than supplanting existing methods. Transdisciplinarity needs to be fostered between biodiversity and RAS experts so that future ideas and technologies can be codeveloped effectively

Opportunities and challenges for monitoring terrestrial biodiversity in the robotics age

With biodiversity loss escalating globally, a step-change is needed in our capacity to accurately monitor species populations across ecosystems. Robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) offer technological solutions that may significantly advance terrestrial biodiversity monitoring, but this potential is yet to be considered systematically. We used a modified Delphi technique to synthesise knowledge from 98 biodiversity and 31 RAS experts who identified the major methodological barriers that currently hinder monitoring, and explored the opportunities and challenges that RAS offer to overcome these barriers. Biodiversity experts identified four barrier categories: site access, species/individual identification, data handling/storage and power/network availability. Robotics experts highlighted technologies that could overcome these barriers and identified the developments needed to facilitate RAS-based autonomous biodiversity monitoring. Some existing RAS could be optimised relatively easily to survey species, but would require development to monitor more ‘difficult’ taxa and be robust enough to work in uncontrolled conditions within ecosystems. Other nascent technologies (e.g., novel sensors, biodegradable robots) need accelerated research. Overall, it was felt that RAS could lead to major progress in monitoring terrestrial biodiversity by supplementing, rather than supplanting, existing methods. Transdisciplinarity needs to be fostered between biodiversity and RAS experts, so future ideas and technologies can be co-developed effectively

Opportunities and challenges for monitoring terrestrial biodiversity in the robotics age

With biodiversity loss escalating globally, a step change is needed in our capacity to accurately monitor species populations across ecosystems. Robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) offer technological solutions that may substantially advance terrestrial biodiversity monitoring, but this potential is yet to be considered systematically. We used a modified Delphi technique to synthesize knowledge from 98 biodiversity experts and 31 RAS experts, who identified the major methodological barriers that currently hinder monitoring, and explored the opportunities and challenges that RAS offer in overcoming these barriers. Biodiversity experts identified four barrier categories: site access, species and individual identification, data handling and storage, and power and network availability. Robotics experts highlighted technologies that could overcome these barriers and identified the developments needed to facilitate RAS-based autonomous biodiversity monitoring. Some existing RAS could be optimized relatively easily to survey species but would require development to be suitable for monitoring of more ‘difficult’ taxa and robust enough to work under uncontrolled conditions within ecosystems. Other nascent technologies (for instance, new sensors and biodegradable robots) need accelerated research. Overall, it was felt that RAS could lead to major progress in monitoring of terrestrial biodiversity by supplementing rather than supplanting existing methods. Transdisciplinarity needs to be fostered between biodiversity and RAS experts so that future ideas and technologies can be codeveloped effectively

Assesment of norway spruce health using multispectral images acquired from unmanned aerial vehicle with non-metric cameras

W pracy oceniono przydatność zdjęć w zakresie bliskiej podczerwieni. Zdjęcia wykonano zmodyfikowanymi aparatami cyfrowymi (Sigma DP2) zamontowanymi na bezzałogowym statku latającym AVI-1. Dla wybranego obiektu badawczego o pow. 284 ha, wykonano 930 zdjęć o rozdzielczości terenowej 0,15 m. Zdjęcia zostały przetworzone do postaci ortomozaik w barwach naturalnych oraz zbliżonych do spektrostrefowych. W terenie wykonano obserwacje koron świerków rosnących w ok. 40-letnim, jednogatunkowym drzewostanie. Określono gęstość igliwia, jego kolor oraz inne symptomy świadczące o kondycji drzew. Te same drzewa zidentyfikowano na ortomozaikach i poddano klasyfikacji, której wyniki porównano z danymi uzyskanymi w terenie. Ocenę stanu zdrowotnego świerka (Picea bies) na ortomozaikach wykonano analizując udział barwy czerwonej związanej z różnymi objawami chorobowymi i uszkodzeń koron. Obserwacje wykonało niezależnie od siebie dwóch obserwatorów, każdy w dwóch seriach. Ocenę jednolitości rozpoznawania barw przez obserwatorów oparto na porównaniu uzyskanych wartości. Stwierdzono, że jest możliwe podzielenie obserwowanych drzew na kilka klas zdrowotności.Several tests were carried out of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) equipped with customer cameras to take pictures of forest areas. Based on this a special own UAV was built which can carry a set of non-metric digital cameras recording images in RGB and near-IR channels. Approximately 1000 aerial images with a ground resolution of 0.15 m were taken for the selected research facility with an area of approximately 250 ha. These images were used to produce an orthomosaic in natural and multispectral bands. It was decided to find out whether it is possible to evaluate the health condition of spruce (Picea abies). The field observations were made of the crowns of spruces growing in about 40-year-old single-species stand. Information on the density of pine needles, its color, and other symptoms of the tree condition were recorded. The same trees were identified on orthomosaic and classified. Results of classification from the field and orthomosaic were compared. It was concluded, that it is possible to divide the observed number of trees into several health condition classes