The sampling efficiency of light trap catches relative to human bait catches in estimating biting rates of the mosquito Anopheles gambiae Giles was investigated in two types of community in southern Sierra Leone: (i) where most of the inhabitants slept under treated bed nets; and (ii) where most of the inhabitants slept without bed nets. The number of female A. gambiae mosquitoes caught in thes...

Abstract Jackson traps baited with male lures or without insecticides are essential components of surveillance and monitoring programmes against pest tephritid fruit flies. The ability a trap to capture fly that enters, sometimes termed ‘trap efficiency’, is dependent on many factors including the trap/lure/toxicant combination. We tested effects three important efficiency two species, using ‘s...

We mobilize both a generating function approach and the theory of finite Markov processes to compute the probability of irreversible absorption of a randomly diffusing species on a lattice with competing reaction centers. We consider an N-site lattice populated by a single deep trap, and N-1 partially absorbing traps (absorption probability 0<s<1). The influence of competing reaction centers on...

Holographic optical traps use the forces exerted by computer-generated holograms to trap, move and otherwise transform mesoscopically textured materials. This article introduces methods for optimizing holographic optical traps' efficiency and accuracy, and an optimal statistical approach for characterizing their performance. This combination makes possible real-time adaptive optimization.

The Venus flytrap digests and absorbs its prey, but how does it coordinate digestion and absorption to maximise the efficiency of this highly evolved mechanism? A new study that combines direct recordings from cells within the trap along with molecular characterization of nutrient transport reveals a complex and coordinated suite of mechanisms that underlie this elegant process.

During a longitudinal study of vector biology and malaria transmission in western Venezuela, adult mosquitoes were collected by different methods and their efficiency was compared with human landing catches. CDC light traps, a double-net, a calf-baited trap and collection of resting mosquitoes on vegetation were tested. These methods did not prove to be effective substitutes for human landing c...