Biodiversity on Broadway - Enigmatic Diversity of the Societies of Ants (Formicidae) on the Streets of New York City

Each year, a larger proportion of the Earth's surface is urbanized, and a larger proportion of the people on Earth lives in those urban areas. The everyday nature, however, that humans encounter in cities remains poorly understood. Here, we consider perhaps the most urban green habitat, street medians. We sampled ants from forty-four medians along three boulevards in New York City and examined how median properties affect the abundance and species richness of native and introduced ants found on them. Ant species richness varied among streets and increased with area but was independent of the other median attributes measured. Ant assemblages were highly nested, with three numerically dominant species present at all medians and additional species present at a subset of medians. The most common ant species were the introduced Pavement ant (Tetramorium caespitum) and the native Thief ant (Solenopsis molesta) and Cornfield ant (Lasius neoniger). The common introduced species on the medians responded differently to natural and disturbed elements of medians. Tetramorium caespitum was most abundant in small medians, with the greatest edge/area ratio, particularly if those medians had few trees, whereas Nylanderia flavipes was most abundant in the largest medians, particularly if they had more trees. Many of the species encountered in Manhattan were similar to those found in other large North American cities, such that a relatively small subset of ant species probably represent most of the encounters humans have with ants in North America

Sleeping in an Inclined Position to Reduce Snoring and Improve Sleep: In-home Product Intervention Study

BackgroundAccurately and unobtrusively testing the effects of snoring and sleep interventions at home has become possible with recent advances in digital measurement technologies. ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of using an adjustable bed base to sleep with the upper body in an inclined position to reduce snoring and improve sleep, measured at home using commercially available trackers. MethodsSelf-reported snorers (N=25) monitored their snoring and sleep nightly and completed questionnaires daily for 8 weeks. They slept flat for the first 4 weeks, then used an adjustable bed base to sleep with the upper body at a 12-degree incline for the next 4 weeks. ResultsOver 1000 nights of data were analyzed. Objective snoring data showed a 7% relative reduction in snoring duration (P=.001) in the inclined position. Objective sleep data showed 4% fewer awakenings (P=.04) and a 5% increase in the proportion of time spent in deep sleep (P=.02) in the inclined position. Consistent with these objective findings, snoring and sleep measured by self-report improved. ConclusionsNew measurement technologies allow intervention studies to be conducted in the comfort of research participants’ own bedrooms. This study showed that sleeping at an incline has potential as a nonobtrusive means of reducing snoring and improving sleep in a nonclinical snoring population

Factors contributing to anxious driving behavior: The role of stress history and accident severity

Although fear and travel avoidance among anxious drivers are well documented, relatively little is known about the behavior of anxious individuals who continue to drive. Previous research has identified three broad domains of anxious driving behavior: exaggerated safety/caution behaviors, anxiety-based performance deficits, and hostile/aggressive driving behaviors. In an effort to explicate factors associated with the development of anxious driving behavior, associations with objective accident severity, accident-related distress, and life stress history were explored among individuals reporting accident involvement (N = 317). Interactive effects of accident distress and self-reported stress history were noted across all three domains of anxious driving behavior. Examination of these effects indicates unique associations between accident distress and anxious behavior only in those reporting more severe life stress. Consistent with contemporary models of anxiety, these data suggest stress history may serve as a general vulnerability factor for development of anxious driving behavior following accident involvement. © 2011