Assessing the role of dispersed floralresources for managed bees in providingsupporting ecosystem services for croppollination

Most pollination ecosystem services studies have focussed on wild pollinators and their dependence on natural floral resources adjacent to crop fields. However, managed pollinators depend on a mixture of floral resources that are spatially separated from the crop field. Here, we consider the supporting role these resources play as an ecosystem services provider to quantify the use and availability of floral resources, and to estimate their relative contribution to support pollination services of managed honeybees. Beekeepers supplying pollination services to the Western Cape deciduous fruit industry were interviewed to obtain information on their use of floral resources. For 120 apiary sites, we also analysed floral resources within a two km radius of each site based on geographic data. The relative availability of floral resources at sites was compared to regional availability. The relative contribution of floral resources-types to sustain managed honeybees was estimated. Beekeepers showed a strong preference for eucalypts and canola. Beekeepers selectively placed more hives at sites with eucalypt and canola and less with natural vegetation. However, at the landscape-scale, eucalypt was the least available resource, whereas natural vegetation was most common. Based on analysis of apiary sites, we estimated that 700,818 ha of natural vegetation, 73,910 ha of canola fields, and 10,485 ha of eucalypt are used to support the managed honeybee industry in the Western Cape. Whereas the Cape managed honeybee system uses a bee native to the region, alien plant species appear disproportionately important among the floral resources being exploited. We suggest that an integrated approach, including evidence from interview and landscape data, and fine-scale biological data is needed to study floral resources supporting managed honeybees

Multidimensional apathy in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, primary progressive aphasia and Alzheimer’s disease

Apathy is prevalent in dementia, such as behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), primary progressive aphasia (PPA), and Alzheimer disease (AD). As a multidimensional construct, it can be assessed and subsumed under a Dimensional Apathy Framework. A consistent apathy profile in bvFTD and PPA has yet to be established. The aim was to explore apathy profiles and awareness in bvFTD, PPA, and AD. A total of 12 patients with bvFTD, 12 patients with PPA, 28 patients with AD, and 20 matched controls, as well as their informants/carers, were recruited. All participants completed the Dimensional Apathy Scale (DAS), assessing executive, emotional, and initiation apathy subtypes, a 1-dimensional apathy measure, depression measure, and functional and cognitive screens. Apathy subtype awareness was determined through DAS informant/carer and self-rating discrepancy. Apathy profile comparison showed patients with bvFTD had significantly higher emotional apathy than patients with AD (P <.01) and significantly higher apathy over all subtypes than patients with PPA (Ps <.05). Additionally, patients with bvFTD had significantly lower awareness for emotional apathy (P <.01) when compared to patients with AD and PPA. All patient groups had significant global apathy over all subtypes compared to controls. The emergent apathy profile for bvFTD seems to be emotional apathy (indifference or emotional/affective neutrality), with lower self-awareness in this subtype. Further, lower self-awareness for executive apathy (lack of motivation for planning, organization, or attention) differentiates bvFTD from PPA. Future research should investigate the cognitive and neural correlates as well as the practical impact of apathy subtypes

From Tent City to Tiny House Villages: Exploring Non-traditional Transitional Housing Models for New Haven

Homelessness is a pressing issue in New Haven and has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, in the summer of 2020, Amistad Catholic Worker acted as a catalyst in establishing a tent encampment––Tent City––on unoccupied land along the West River in New Haven. This study aims to explore alternative models to transitional housing for Tent City through semi-structured interviews with seven representatives from established village-type housing models across the country, twelve New Haven stakeholders, and nine Tent City residents. Through qualitative rapid analysis, six main themes emerged: 1) There is a mismatch between the structure of New Haven’s shelter system and the realities of those it is meant to serve, 2) Tent encampments have existed in New Haven and will continue to exist for the foreseeable future, 3) New Haven made strides in improving the shelter system during the COVID-19 pandemic and should build on this momentum, 4) A city-sanctioned tent encampment or tiny house village will require supportive services, 5) A village model of housing is cost-effective, promotes harm reduction, and provides benefits that are absent from traditional shelter systems, and 6) Transitional village models are ultimately not the answer to homelessness; more low-income housing is. Given our findings, we recommend the following to the city of New Haven:1. Formally recognize and support Tent City as an immediate response to the reality of the shelter system.2. Phase out congregate shelters and learn from the experience with hotel shelters to make them accessible to a wider spectrum of people. 3. Build a village model of housing, such as a tiny house village, that is transitional and targeted towards individuals who do not fit within New Haven’s shelter system. 4. Invest more resources in wrap-around supportive services to get people into housing and help them maintain their housing. 5. Investing in low-income housing is key.https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/ysph_pbchrr/1056/thumbnail.jp

Clear lens phacoemulsification in the anterior lenticonus due to Alport Syndrome: two case reports

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Alport Syndrome has a prevalence of 1 case per 5,000 people and 85% of patients have the X-linked form, where affected males develop renal failure and usually have high-tone sensorineural deafness by age 20. The main abnormality is deficient synthesis of type IV collagen, the main component of basement membranes. Common ocular abnormalities of this syndrome consist of dot-and-fleck retinopathy, posterior polymorphous corneal dystrophy, and anterior lenticonus, but other ocular defects such as cataracts, posterior lenticonus, and retinal detachments have also been reported.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report two cases of anterior lenticonus due to Alport Syndrome and describe clear lens phacoemulsification and foldable intraocular lens implantation as an effective and safe refractive procedure in the four eyes of these two patients.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>All four eyes of the two patients were in good condition after surgery and achieved satisfactory optical and visual results and had no remarkable complications at six-months follow-up. Clear lens phacoemulsification with foldable intraocular lens implantation can be used as an efficient and safe procedure for vision disorders in these patients.</p

The allometry of proboscis length in Melittidae (Hymenoptera: Apoidae) and an estimate of their foraging distance using museum collections

An appreciation of body size allometry is central for understanding insect pollination ecology. A recent model utilises allometric coefficients for five of the seven extant bee families (Apoidea: Anthophila) to include crucial but difficult-to-measure traits, such as proboscis length, in ecological and evolutionary studies. Melittidae were not included although they are important pollinators in South Africa where they comprise an especially rich and morphologically diverse fauna. We measured intertegular distance (correlated with body size) and proboscis length of 179 specimens of 11 species from three genera of Melittidae. With the inclusion of Melittidae, we tested the between family differences in the allometric scaling coefficients. AIC model selection was used to establish which factors provide the best estimate of proboscis length. We explored a hypothesis that has been proposed in the literature, but which has not been tested, whereby body and range sizes of bees are correlated with rainfall regions. We tested this by using body size measurements of 2109 museum specimens from 56 species of Melittidae and applied the model coefficients to estimate proboscis length and foraging distance. Our results show that with the addition of Melittidae, we retained the overall pattern of significant differences in the scaling coefficient among Apoidea, with our model explaining 98% of the variance in species-level means for proboscis length. When testing the relationship between body size and rainfall region we found no relationship for South African Melittidae. Overall, this study has added allometric scaling coefficients for an important bee family and shown the applicability of using these coefficients when linked with museum specimens to test ecological hypothesi

The brief Dimensional Apathy Scale: A short clinical assessment of apathy

Objective: Apathy is a prominent syndrome across neurodegenerative diseases. The Dimensional Apathy Scale (DAS) assesses three apathy subtypes—executive, emotional, and initiation—and is sensitive and valid in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and Parkinson’s disease. This study describes the development of the brief DAS (b-DAS), which will enable apathy to be swiftly detected in the clinic. Method: 102 ALS and 102 AD patients’ previously collected data were used. Mokken analyses were performed on item-level data of each informant/carer-rated DAS subscale (executive, emotional, and initiation) for the initial scale reduction. Item-total correlational analyses against standard apathy (convergent validity criteria) and depression (divergent validity criteria) measures and qualitative examination of items aided final item selection. Receiver operating curve analysis determined optimal cutoffs for the reduced subscales. Results: Mokken analyses suggested unidimensionality of each DAS subscale. Three items were removed that failed to satisfy monotone homogeneity model requirements, three items were removed due to validity criteria not being met, and six items were removed due to a combination of lower item scalability and item-total correlations. Item-theme examination further reduced the b-DAS to nine items, three per subscale, with a supplemental awareness deficit assessment being added. Sensitivity- and specificity-based optimal cutoffs were calculated for each b-DAS subscale. Conclusions: This study presents the b-DAS, an informant/carer-based robust yet short multidimensional apathy instrument with good convergent and divergent validity, with recommended clinical cutoffs. The b-DAS is appropriate for use in the clinic and for research to quickly and comprehensively screen for apathy subtype impairments

The relationship between 18F-FDG-PETCT-derived tumour metabolic activity, nutritional risk, body composition, systemic inflammation and survival in patients with lung cancer

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between PET-CT derived tumour glucose uptake as measured by maximum standard glucose uptake (SUVmax) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG), nutritional risk as measured by the malnutrition universal screening tool (MUST), CT derived body composition as measured by skeletal muscle index (SMI) and skeletal muscle radiodensity (SMD), the systemic inflammatory response as measured by the modified Glasgow prognostic score (mGPS) and the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and survival in patients with lung cancer, treated with radiotherapy. In a retrospective cohort study, 119 patients were included in final analyses. The majority of patients were over 65 (86%), female (52%), had a performance status (ECOG-PS) of 0 or 1 (57%), were at nutritional risk (57%), were overweight (53%), had visceral obesity (62%), had a normal SMI (51%), had a low SMD (62%) and were systemically inflammed (mGPS 1/2, 51%). An elevated TLG was associated with sex (p &lt; 0.05), TNM stage (p &lt; 0.001), MUST (p &lt; 0.01) and mGPS (p &lt; 0.01). An elevated mGPS was associated with age (p &lt; 0.05), NLR (p &lt; 0.01), MUST (p &lt; 0.01), and TLG (p &lt; 0.01). On univariate survival analysis, TNM stage (p &lt; 0.01), mGPS (p &lt; 0.05), NLR (p &lt; 0.01), MUST (p ≤ 0.001), Low SMD (p &lt; 0.05), SUVmax (p ≤ 0.001) and TLG (p &lt; 0.001) were associated with overall survival. On multivariate survival analysis MUST (HR: 1.49 95%CI 1.12–01.98 p &lt; 0.01) and TLG (HR: 2.02 95%CI 1.34–3.04 p = 0.001) remained independently associated with survival. In conclusion, elevated tumour metabolic activity was associated with more advanced stage, greater nutritional risk, the systemic inflammatory response and poorer survival but not body composition analysis in patients with lung cancer. These results suggest that detrimental body composition is not directly determined by tumour metabolic activity but rather an ongoing systemic inflammatory response

Corrigendum: Delivery of crop pollination services is an insufficient argument for wild pollinator conservation

There is compelling evidence that more diverse ecosystems deliver greater benefits to people, and these ecosystem services have become a key argument for biodiversity conservation. However, it is unclear how much biodiversity is needed to deliver ecosystem services in a cost-effective way. Here we show that, while the contribution of wild bees to crop production is significant, service delivery is restricted to a limited subset of all known bee species. Across crops, years and biogeographical regions, crop-visiting wild bee communities are dominated by a small number of common species, and threatened species are rarely observed on crops. Dominant crop pollinators persist under agricultural expansion and many are easily enhanced by simple conservation measures, suggesting that cost-effective management strategies to promote crop pollination should target a different set of species than management strategies to promote threatened bees. Conserving the biological diversity of bees therefore requires more than just ecosystem-service-based arguments