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Species introduced through human-related activities beyond their native range, termed alien species, have various impacts worldwide. The IUCN Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT) is a global standard to assess negative impacts of alien species on native biodiversity. Alien species can also positively affect biodiversity (for instance, through food and habitat provisioning or dispersal facilitation) but there is currently no standardized and evidence-based system to classify positive impacts. We fill this gap by proposing EICAT+, which uses 5 semiquantitative scenarios to categorize the magnitude of positive impacts, and describes underlying mechanisms. EICAT+ can be applied to all alien taxa at different spatial and organizational scales. The application of EICAT+ expands our understanding of the consequences of biological invasions and can inform conservation decisions.

Biological invasions are a global consequence of an increasingly connected world and the rise in human population size. The numbers of invasive alien species – the subset of alien species that spread widely in areas where they are not native, affecting the environment or human livelihoods – are increasing. Synergies with other global changes are exacerbating current invasions and facilitating new ones, thereby escalating the extent and impacts of invaders. Invasions have complex and often immense long-term direct and indirect impacts. In many cases, such impacts become apparent or problematic only when invaders are well established and have large ranges. Invasive alien species break down biogeographic realms, affect native species richness and abundance, increase the risk of native species extinction, affect the genetic composition of native populations, change native animal behaviour, alter phylogenetic diversity across communities, and modify trophic networks. Many invasive alien species also change ecosystem functioning and the delivery of ecosystem services by altering nutrient and contaminant cycling, hydrology, habitat structure, and disturbance regimes. These biodiversity and ecosystem impacts are accelerating and will increase further in the future. Scientific evidence has identified policy strategies to reduce future invasions, but these strategies are often insufficiently implemented. For some nations, notably Australia and New Zealand, biosecurity has become a national priority. There have been long-term successes, such as eradication of rats and cats on increasingly large islands and biological control of weeds across continental areas. However, in many countries, invasions receive little attention. Improved international cooperation is crucial to reduce the impacts of invasive alien species on biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human livelihoods. Countries can strengthen their biosecurity regulations to implement and enforce more effective management

Polyherbal medicines are widely used for the treatment of various diseases in the developing countries. In order to validate their ability in boosting the immune system of tuberculosis patients, the mineral nutrients and vitamins present were determined. Their nutritive properties were analysed using an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer, while the vitamins were determined using standardized methods. The polyherbal preparations were found to be rich in mineral nutrients and vitamins. Calcium was the highest mineral nutrient detected, while the lowest nutrient was phosphorus. Quantitatively, calcium and magnesium contents in the remedies ranged from 973.30 to 6503.30 mg/100g and 80.00 to 406.00 mg/100g respectively. The amount of phosphorus and potassium was between 20.00 and 263.30 mg/100g; 160.00 and 2050.00 mg/100g respectively. Micro nutrients such as iron, manganese, zinc, aluminium and copper were also detected. Iron was the highest nutrient in the majority of the polyherbal preparations while the lowest value was recorded for copper. However, vitamin C was absent in the herbal preparations while vitamin A and E were detected. These findings indicate that these polyherbal formulations contain the essential mineral nutrients and vitamins that could probably be boosting the immune system of tuberculosis patients.

We consider four common defects that appear in an infinite single-layer graphene lattice, i.e. single vacancy V1(5-9), Stone-Wales SW (55-77), and double vacancies V2(5-8-5) and V2(555-777). Investigating the honeycomb pattern of the graphene, we make use of the concept of shortest closed paths (periodic orbits) in the underlying topological structure. Using properties of the shortest closed paths of odd length we present and prove mathematically an algorithm that classifies which one of these defects occurs. © 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC., Funding: The National Research Foundation of South Africa under grant no.s 89147 and 103530.

Malnutrition continues to pose a serious threat to humankind and their animals, and this is inextricably exacerbated by the irrevocable incident of climate change. Due to the latter, adaptation efforts for achieving the first Goal of the eight Millennium Development Goals appear to be unequivocally remote. The first Goal intends to eliminate hunger by ensuring that humankind is provided with nutritional food, thereby eliminating hidden hunger, which is malnutrition. Globally, malnutrition is widespread since best agricultural practices that increase yield do not necessarily correlate with increased nutrition in plant produce. The concept of nutriconclusiotional water productivity (NWP) links the accumulation of certain functional nutrients to the amount of water (m3) used in their bio-accumulation. Due to high nutrient deficiencies in exotic crops that were bred for high yield under best agricultural practices, attention is being redirected to certain indigenous underutilised crops, which had for centuries survived marginal conditions. Such underutilised crops had been, without empirically-based information, viewed as potential candidates for positively contributing towards the achievement of the first Goal of the eight Millennium Development Goals in lieu of biofortification. In the northern region of Limpopo Province, South Africa, one such underutilised crop is wild cucumber (Cucumis myriocarpus), a leaf vegetable indigenous to the northern semi-arid region of South Africa. The plant, due to its short stem, has attributes of a “stolon”, with drought-tolerance and nematode-resistant attributes, and had served as a leaf vegetable with various medicinal uses among the local people. The plant, therefore, has inherent potential benefits of promoting functional nutritional security under various conditions. Due to a lack of empirical information to advance the production of this underutilised crop, a decision was taken to investigate the production of the crop in relat, Land Bank Chair of Agriculture – University of Limpopo, National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF) the Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR) of Belgium and the Agricultural Research Council-Universities Collaboration Centres

Acknowledgments We would like to thank C. Walsh and R. Ochoa-Hueso for advice on bioinformatics and statistical analyses. We also thank M. Martin for revising the English of the manuscript. In addition, we thank J. Owojori for connecting us with our sampling collaborator in Nigeria, A. R. Bamigboye. Funding: M.D.-B. and this project were supported by a 2019 Leonardo Grant for Researchers and Cultural Creators, BBVA Foundation (URBANFUN) and by the BES grant agreement no. LRB17\1019 (MUSGONET). M.D.-B. is also supported by a Ramón y Cajal grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RYC2018-025483-I). N.F. was supported by grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation (DEB1556090 and DEB1542653). L.T. acknowledges support from Norway-Baltic collaboration grant EMP442 and Estonian Science Foundation grant PRG632. B.K.S. acknowledges a research award by the Humboldt Foundation and funding from the Australian Research Council (DP190103714). F.A. is supported by ANID FONDECYT 11180538 and 1170995. S.A. is funded by ANID FONDECYT 1170995 and ANID ANILLO ACT192027. F.B. and J.L.M. acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry and FEDER funds for the project AGL2017-85755-R, the i-LINK+ 2018 (LINKA20069) from CSIC, as well as funds from “Fundación Séneca” from Murcia Province (19896/GERM/15). C.P. acknowledges support from the Spanish State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation (2013–2016), award reference AGL201675762-R (AEI/FEDER, UE). M.B. acknowledges support from a Juan de la Cierva Formación grant from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (FJCI-2018-036520-I). T.P.M. would like to acknowledge contributions from the National Research Foundation of South Africa and cities involved in the South African survey. Slovenian coauthors were supported by the research project J4-1766 “Methodology approaches in genome-based diversity and ecological plasticity study of truffles from their natural distribution areas” and the Resea, The structure and function of the soil microbiome of urban greenspaces remain largely undetermined. We conducted a global field survey in urban greenspaces and neighboring natural ecosystems across 56 cities from six continents, and found that urban soils are important hotspots for soil bacterial, protist and functional gene diversity, but support highly homogenized microbial communities worldwide. Urban greenspaces had a greater proportion of fast-growing bacteria, algae, amoebae, and fungal pathogens, but a lower proportion of ectomycorrhizal fungi than natural ecosystems. These urban ecosystems also showed higher proportions of genes associated with human pathogens, greenhouse gas emissions, faster nutrient cycling, and more intense abiotic stress than natural environments. City affluence, management practices, and climate were fundamental drivers of urban soil communities. Our work paves the way toward a more comprehensive global-scale perspective on urban greenspaces, which is integral to managing the health of these ecosystems and the well-being of human populations., Depto. de Biodiversidad, Ecología y Evolución, Fac. de Ciencias Biológicas, TRUE, pub

Homo naledi es una especie previamente desconocida de homínido extinto descubierta dentro de la Cámara Dinaledi del sistema de cuevas Rising Star, en el Cradle of Humankind, Sudáfrica. Esta especie se caracteriza por tener una masa corporal y estatura similar a las poblaciones humanas de cuerpo pequeño, pero un volumen endocraneal pequeño similar al de los australopitecos. La morfología craneal de H. naledi es única, pero se asemeja más a las especies tempranas de Homo, incluyendo Homo erectus, Homo habilis o Homo rudolfensis. Aunque primitiva, la dentición es generalmente pequeña y simple en su morfología oclusal. H. naledi presenta adaptaciones manipulativas de la mano y la muñeca similares a las humanas. También exhibe un pie y miembro inferior similares a los humanos. Estos aspectos humanos se contrastan en el postcráneo con un tronco, hombro, pelvis y fémur proximal más primitivos o similares a los australopitecos. Representando al menos 15 individuos con la mayoría de los elementos esqueléticos repetidos múltiples veces, esta es la mayor colección de una sola especie de homínidos descubierta en África., National Geographic Society, The National Research Foundation of South Africa (WARF), The Palaeontological Scientific Trust, Lyda Hill Foundation, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), Texas A and M University, Depto. de Biodiversidad, Ecología y Evolución, Fac. de Ciencias Biológicas, TRUE, pub

The creation of truly believable simulated natural environments remains an unsolved problem in Computer Graphics. This is, in part, due to a lack of visual variety. In nature, apart from variation due to abiotic and biotic growth factors, a significant role is played by disturbance events, such as fires, windstorms, disease, and death and decay processes, which give rise to both standing dead trees (snags) and downed woody debris (logs). For instance, snags constitute on average 10% of unmanaged forests by basal area, and logs account for 2 1/2 times this quantity. While previous systems have incorporated individual elements of disturbance (e.g., forest fires) and decay (e.g., the formation of humus), there has been no unifying treatment, perhaps because of the challenge of matching simulation results with generated geometric models. In this paper, we present a framework that combines an ecosystem simulation, which explicitly incorporates disturbance events and decay processes, with a model realization process, which balances the uniqueness arising from life history with the need for instancing due to memory constraints. We tested our hypothesis concerning the visual impact of disturbance and decay with a two-alternative forced-choice experiment (n = 116). Our findings are that the presence of dead wood in various forms, as snags or logs, significantly improves the believability of natural scenes, while, surprisingly, general variation in the number of model instances, with up to 8 models per species, and a focus on disturbance events, does not., This work was funded by the project AMPLI ANR-20-CE23-0001, supported by Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France), by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant Number: 129257) and is also part of a Maria Zambrano fellowship by Ministerio de Universidades (Spain)., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (author's final draft)

Using the metaphor of the elephant and the three blind men, this paper discusses some elements of the scholarly debate on the postcolonial turn in academia, in and of Africa, and in anthropology in particular. It is a part of the context in which anthropology remains unpopular among many African intellectuals. How do local knowledge practices take up existential issues and epistemological perspectives that may interrogate and enrich more global transcultural debates and scholarly reflexivity? Many an anthropologist still resists opening his or her mind up to life-worlds unfolding themselves through the interplay between everyday practice and the manifold actions and messages of humans, ancestors and non-human agents in sites of emerging meaning-production and innovative world-making. African anthropologists seeking recognition find themselves contested or dismissed by fellow anthropologists for doing “native”, “self” or “insider” anthropology, and are sometimes accused of perpetuating colonial epistemologies and subservience by fellow African scholars who are committed to scholarship driven by the need to valorise ways of being and knowing endogenous to Africa. This essay calls on anthropologists studying Africa to reflect creative diversity and reflexivity in the conceptualisation and implementation of research projects, as well as in how they provide for co-production, collaboration and co-implication within anthropology across and beyond disciplines., Unter Rückgriff auf die Fabel vom Elefanten und den drei weisen Männern diskutiert dieser Beitrag einige Elemente der Debatte zur postkolonialen Wende in der Wissenschaft – innerhalb und außerhalb Afrikas und insbesondere in Bezug auf die Ethnologie. Unter vielen afrikanischen Intellektuellen ist die Ethnologie immer noch unbeliebt. Inwieweit greifen lokale Wissenspraktiken existentielle Fragen und epistemologische Perspektiven auf und stellen damit die globale transkulturelle Debatte und wissenschaftliche Reflexion infrage oder bereichern sie? Viele Ethnologen scheuen sich immer noch, sich gegenüber Lebenswelten zu öffnen, in denen die alltägliche Praxis mit den facettenreichen Handlungen und Botschaften von lebenden Menschen, Vorfahren und nicht-menschlichen Wesen verwoben ist – an Orten, an denen zunehmend neue Bedeutungsformen und innovative Welten entstehen. Afrikanische Ethnologen, die sich um Anerkennung bemühen, machen die Erfahrung, dass sie von anderen Ethnologen infrage gestellt oder abgelehnt werden, weil sie angeblich eine selbstbezogene oder Insider-Ethnologie betreiben, oder dass sie von afrikanischen Wissenschaftlern – die selbst auf Stipendien angewiesen sind und sich daher bemühen, spezifisch afrikanische Lebensarten und Wissenswelten aufzuwerten – beschuldigt werden, sich kolonialen Erkenntnisinteressen zu unterwerfen. Der Autor des Beitrags fordert Ethnologen, die zu Afrika forschen, dazu auf, bei der Konzeptionierung und Durchführung von Forschungsprojekten auf kreative Vielfalt und Reflexivität sowie auf Möglichkeiten der Zusammenarbeit innerhalb der Ethnologie und über die Disziplin hinaus zu setzen.