Abstract Background Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is the most lethal and disabling form of tuberculosis (TB), particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Current anti-TB treatment is poorly effective since TBM mortality reaches 40% in HIV-negative patients and up to 70% in HIV-co-infected patients. To reduce TBM-induced morbidity and mortality, the INTENSE-TBM trial evaluates two interventions in both HIV-infected and uninfected patients: an anti-TB treatment intensification using oral high-dose rifampicin (35 mg/kg daily) and linezolid (1200 mg daily and...

Data comprise location (zone of interest, village name, site code, longitude, latitude, altitude and slope), local tree species name, tree code and tree diameter class of trees selected for direct measurements in the Ankeniheny Zahamena forest corridor, the remains of the evergreen forest of eastern Madagascar. Data were collected as part of a project funded by the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme under work package 4, P4GES project, grant references: NE/K008692/1, NE/K010115/1, and...

Human-mediated biological exchange has had global social and ecological impacts. In sub-Saharan Africa, several domestic and commensal animals were introduced from Asia in the pre-modern period; however, the timing and nature of these introductions remain contentious. One model supports introduction to the eastern African coast after the mid-first millennium CE, while another posits introduction dating back to 3000 BCE. These distinct scenarios have implications for understanding the emergence of long-distance maritime connectivity, and the ecological...

Land-use change is the most important driver of biodiversity loss worldwide and particularly so in the tropics, where natural habitats are transformed into large-scale monocultures or heterogeneous landscape mosaics of largely unknown conservation value. Using birds as an indicator taxon, we evaluated the conservation value of a landscape mosaic in north-eastern Madagascar, a biodiversity hotspot and the center of global vanilla production. We assessed bird species richness and composition by conducting point counts across seven...

Species delimitation is ever more critical for assessing biodiversity in threatened regions of the world, especially when undescribed lineages may be at risk from habitat loss. Mouse lemurs (Microcebus) are an example of a rapid radiation of morphologically cryptic species that are distributed throughout Madagascar in its rapidly vanishing forested habitats. Here, we focus on two pairs of sister lineages that occur in a region in northeastern Madagascar that shows high levels of microendemism. We...

Microhabitat preference among primates, which provides them with the niche they need to survive, often conditions primate diversity, abundance, and coexistence. Vegetation alteration and recovery have built heterogeneous forest landscapes that may influence primates’ microhabitat preference. We compared the diversity and size of trees/shrubs and the presence of lianas in 132 sites where we captured the rufous mouse lemur (Microcebus rufus), with that of 240 sites where we did not capture this species, to investigate...

Variable tree cover characterizes tropical grassy biomes. Light availability in the ground layer becomes increasingly limited as tree cover increases while open canopy environments are associated with a flammable grassy ground layer. Grass species dominating the ground layer of these ecosystems have adopted strategies to persist and proliferate with frequent fire. However, there is limited understanding of how grass growth and flammability traits respond to changes in light availability. We experimentally grew 14 grass species...

The extinction of all Madagascar’s megafrugivores ca. 1000 years ago, may have left its signature on the current distribution of vertebrate-dispersed plants across the island, due to the loss of effective seed dispersal. In this study, we dissect the roles of extinct and extant frugivore distributions, abiotic variables, human impact and spatial predictors on the compositional turnover, or beta-diversity, of palm (Arecaceae) species and their fruit sizes across 40 assemblages on Madagascar. Variation partitioning showed...

With 178 species, the palm subtribe Dypsidinae is one of the largest plant radiations on Madagascar. A well-resolved species-level phylogeny is required not only to unpick the drivers of this spectacular radiation but also to define natural and useful generic limits in this taxonomically difficult group. The only recent taxonomic revision of Dypsidinae recognized just four genera, including the large genus Dypsis (currently with 172 species), which was considered impossible to divide further based on...

Additional file 1. Location of sites in Ethiopia [1A], Ghana [1B] and Madagascar [1C]. Notes: The location of each site is indicated as a black dot and the site’s name in red font; Ethiopia (Figure 1A): nine regional states (black italic, capital letters) and two chartered cities (black italic, lower letters) are shown;SNNPR=Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Region; Ghana (Figure 1B): ten regions (black italic, capital letters) are shown; Madagascar (Figure 1C): six provinces (black...

Implementation of the coalescent model in a Bayesian framework is an emerging strength in genetically based species delimitation studies. By providing an objective measure of species diagnosis, these methods represent a quantitative enhancement to the analysis of multilocus data, and complement more traditional methods based on phenotypic and ecological characteristics. Recognized as two species 20 years ago, mouse lemurs (genus Microcebus) now comprise more than 20 species, largely diagnosed from mtDNA sequence data. With each...

The products represent biomass estimates for four areas of interest in the Corridor Ankeniheny Zahamena (CAZ), Madagascar, generated using very high resolution imagery and based on field-collected plot information. The study extent aims to capture the drivers of deforestation in the Corridor Ankeniheny-Zahamena (CAZ). Multiple variables were incorporated into the sampling design, including elevation, slope, bioclimate zone, length of dry season, soil type, deforestation history (by epoch and elevation), and access. Based on these criteria,...

Parental provisioning of offspring with physiological products (nursing) occurs in many animals, yet little is known about the neuroendocrine basis of nursing in non-mammalian species. Within amphibians, maternal provisioning has evolved multiple times, with mothers of some species feeding unfertilized eggs to their developing offspring until tadpoles complete metamorphosis. We conducted field studies in Ecuador and Madagascar to ask whether convergence at the behavioral level provides similar benefits to offspring and relies on shared neural...

Adaptive radiation is a key topic at the intersection of ecology and evolutionary biology. Yet the definition and identification of adaptive radiation both remain contentious. Here, we introduce a new approach for identifying adaptive radiations which combines key aspects of two widely used definitions. Our approach compares evolutionary rates in morphology, performance, and diversification between the candidate radiation and other clades. We then apply this approach to a putative adaptive radiation of frogs from Madagascar...

No endemic Madagascar animal with body mass >10 kg survived a relatively recent wave of extinction on the island. From morphological and isotopic analyses of skeletal ‘subfossil’ remains we can reconstruct some of the biology and behavioral ecology of giant lemurs (primates; up to ~160 kg), elephant birds (up to ~860 kg), and other extraordinary Malagasy megafauna that survived well into the past millennium. Yet much about the evolutionary biology of these now extinct species...

Mesozoic birds display considerable diversity in size, flight adaptations and feather organization, but exhibit relatively conserved patterns of beak shape and development. Although Neornithine (that is, crown group) birds also exhibit constraint on facial development, they have comparatively diverse beak morphologies associated with a range of feeding and behavioural ecologies, in contrast to Mesozoic birds. Here we describe a crow-sized stem bird, Falcatakely forsterae gen. et sp. nov., from the Late Cretaceous epoch of Madagascar...

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Flowchart of the households and individuals included on the survey from the baseline. Figure S2. Comparison of malaria incidence and positivity in the intervention area during March-October 2017 with average values for Mananjary District. Figure S3. Comparison of malaria community case management in the intervention and control arms during pro-CCM implementation and during the two years prior. Figure S4. Map of Mananjary district and the fokontany included in the intervention...

Additional file 2. Table S1. Distribution of positive RDT results in the 22 fokontany. Table S2. Impact of Pro-CCM and IRS on malaria prevalence, per-protocol analyses. Table S3. Comparison of observed proportion of parasite prevalence by RDT by age group between intervention and control arms. Table S4. Comparison of reported bed net use (LLIN) by age group between baseline and endline surveys.

Additional file 2. Distribution of ELISA OD values by antigen.

Additional file 1. Location of sites in Ethiopia [1A], Ghana [1B] and Madagascar [1C]. Notes: The location of each site is indicated as a black dot and the site’s name in red font; Ethiopia (Figure 1A): nine regional states (black italic, capital letters) and two chartered cities (black italic, lower letters) are shown;SNNPR=Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Region; Ghana (Figure 1B): ten regions (black italic, capital letters) are shown; Madagascar (Figure 1C): six provinces (black...

Speciation rates vary substantially over the tree of life. These rates should be linked to the rate at which population structure forms if a continuum between micro and macroevolutionary processes exists. Previous studies examining the link between speciation rates and the degree of population formation in clades have shown both correlation and no correlation. No study has examined the relationship between speciation rates and population structure in a young group endemic to an island. We...

Additional file 1. Modified MARAIS Score (modified from Marais et al. [27]).

Abstract Background Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is the most lethal and disabling form of tuberculosis (TB), particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Current anti-TB treatment is poorly effective since TBM mortality reaches 40% in HIV-negative patients and up to 70% in HIV-co-infected patients. To reduce TBM-induced morbidity and mortality, the INTENSE-TBM trial evaluates two interventions in both HIV-infected and uninfected patients: an anti-TB treatment intensification using oral high-dose rifampicin (35 mg/kg daily) and linezolid (1200 mg daily and...

Additional file 1: ASAQ dosage.

Additional file 2: AL dosage.