Consequences of spring arrival dates for the breeding phenology of migratory warblers

Capsule: Early male arrival on the breeding grounds results in early pairing but not early nesting in Chiffchaffs Phylloscopus collybita, and Chiffchaffs can nest, fail, and re-nest before Willow Warblers Phylloscopus trochilus begin nesting. Aims: To quantify the consequences of timing of arrival for the subsequent timing of pairing, nesting, and re-nesting of short-distance (Chiffchaff) and long-distance (Willow Warbler) migrants. Methods: The arrival dates of 118 Chiffchaffs and 20 Willow Warblers were measured from March to June over 10 weeks in Foxley Wood nature reserve, Norfolk. Colour-ringing of 56 Chiffchaffs (55 males, 1 female) and 11 Willow Warblers (10 males, 1 female) was used to relate individual arrival dates to timing of male pairing, clutch initiation, and re-nesting. Results: Male Chiffchaffs started to arrive in early March and increased rapidly in number until early April, while the arrival of male Willow Warblers began in early April. Early-arriving male Chiffchaffs paired earlier than later-arriving individuals, but timing of clutch initiation was unrelated to male arrival dates. Early nesting by Chiffchaffs allowed replacement clutches following nest loss, the earliest of which occurred 12 days after the first Willow Warbler male had paired. Conclusions: Although early arrival in male Chiffchaffs does not translate into earlier nesting, timing of nesting in Chiffchaffs was sufficiently early to allow time for replacement clutches following nest loss. The later arrival of Willow Warblers is likely to mean fewer opportunities for replacement clutches following nest loss. This difference in breeding phenology could therefore contribute to differences in productivity between the species, especially if nest failure rates are high

Screening mammography uptake within Australia and Scotland in rural and urban populations

Objective. To test the hypothesis that rural populations had lower uptake of screening mammography thanurban populations in the Scottish and Australian setting.Method. Scottish data are based upon information from the Scottish Breast Screening Programme Information System describing uptake among women residing within the NHS Highland Health Board area who were invitedto attend for screening during the 2008 to 2010 round (N = 27,416). Australian data were drawn from the 2010survey of the 1946–51 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (N = 9890 women).Results. Contrary to our hypothesis, results indicated that women living in rural areas were not less likely toattend for screening mammography compared to women living in urban areas in both Scotland (OR for rural =1.17, 95% CI = 1.06–1.29) and Australia (OR for rural = 1.15, 95% CI = 1.01–1.31).Conclusions. The absence of rural–urban differences in attendance at screening mammography demonstratesthat rurality is not necessarily an insurmountable barrier to screening mammograph

Realising the Ambition - Being Me : National Practice Guidance for Early Years in Scotland

Since 2013 there has been a determined focus by the Scottish Government to work towards realising the ambition for Scotland to be the best place for children to grow up in and learn. Changes to the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, have resulted in our youngest children, particularly those from birth to starting school, being at the heart of significant new developments. In 2014 Scottish Government started to increase the number of hours of funded provision to 600 hours for 3 and 4 year olds and some two year olds. The national practice guidance, “Building the Ambition” was commissioned at this time to complement the new policy developments and to support practitioners. The further expansion of funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) to 1140 hours per year for all 3 and 4 year olds, and for around a quarter of 2 year olds will be available from August 2020. This expansion to 1140 hours seeks not only to extend funded places, but to also improve the quality of our ELC provision across Scotland. We know that the earliest years of life are crucial for every child. Evidence tells us that, if our early learning and childcare offer is to help children fulfil their potential and contribute to closing the poverty related gap in children’s outcomes, it has to be high quality. To support the expansion it was decided to refresh the original Building the Ambition, incorporating and updating relevant aspects of the Pre-Birth to Three guidance and extending across the child’s learning journey into the early years of primary school. This new guidance, Realising the Ambition: Being Me, reflects the original principles and philosophy of Building the Ambition and complements the current policy direction of ELC and early primary education. It aspires to support practitioners in delivering what babies and young children need most and how we can most effectively deliver this in Scotland to give children the best start in life. The practice guidance aims to support anyone who works with and for babies and young children across all areas of Scotland. It has been designed to: build confidence and capability of those who work with children and families from pre-birth to starting school and beyond; make links between practice, theory and policy guidance to reinforce aspects of high quality provision and the critical role practitioners play; clarify some aspects of current practice and provide a reference which practitioners can easily use; support improvement and quality by encouraging discussion, self reflection and questioning about relevant practice in each setting, and; provide advice on achieving the highest quality of ELC and early primary provision that will enable young children to experience and to play their own part in Scotland being the best place in the world to grow up

Demographic variation in space and time : implications for conservation targeting

The dynamics of wild populations are governed by demographic rates which vary spatially and/or temporally in response to environmental conditions. Conservation actions for widespread but declining populations could potentially exploit this variation to target locations (or years) in which rates are low, but only if consistent spatial or temporal variation in demographic rates occurs. Using long-term demographic data for wild birds across Europe, we show that productivity tends to vary between sites (consistently across years), while survival rates tend to vary between years (consistently across sites), and that spatial synchrony is more common in survival than productivity. Identifying the conditions associated with low demographic rates could therefore facilitate spatially targeted actions to improve productivity or (less feasibly) forecasting and temporally targeting actions to boost survival. Decomposing spatio-temporal variation in demography can thus be a powerful tool for informing conservation policy and for revealing appropriate scales for actions to influence demographic rates.Peer reviewe

Advanced quantitative evaluation of PET systems using the ACR phantom and NiftyPET software

Purpose: A novel phantom-imaging platform, a set of software tools, for automated and high-precision imaging of the American College of Radiology (ACR) positron emission tomography (PET) phantom for PET/magnetic resonance (PET/MR) and PET/computed tomography (PET/CT) systems is proposed. Methods: The key feature of this platform is the vector graphics design that facilitates the automated measurement of the knife-edge response function and hence image resolution, using composite volume of interest templates in a 0.5 mm resolution grid applied to all inserts of the phantom. Furthermore, the proposed platform enables the generation of an accurate μ -map for PET/MR systems with a robust alignment based on two-stage image registration using specifically designed PET templates. The proposed platform is based on the open-source NiftyPET software package used to generate multiple list-mode data bootstrap realizations and image reconstructions to determine the precision of the two-stage registration and any image-derived statistics. For all the analyses, iterative image reconstruction was employed with and without modeled shift-invariant point spread function and with varying iterations of the ordered subsets expectation maximization (OSEM) algorithm. The impact of the activity outside the field of view (FOV) was assessed using two acquisitions of 30 min each, with and without the activity outside the FOV. Results: The utility of the platform has been demonstrated by providing a standard and an advanced phantom analysis including the estimation of spatial resolution using all cylindrical inserts. In the imaging planes close to the edge of the axial FOV, we observed deterioration in the quantitative accuracy, reduced resolution (FWHM increased by 1–2 mm), reduced contrast, and background uniformity due to the activity outside the FOV. Although it slows convergence, the PSF reconstruction had a positive impact on resolution and contrast recovery, but the degree of improvement depended on the regions. The uncertainty analysis based on bootstrap resampling of raw PET data indicated high precision of the two-stage registration. Conclusions: We demonstrated that phantom imaging using the proposed methodology with the metric of spatial resolution and multiple bootstrap realizations may be helpful in more accurate evaluation of PET systems as well as in facilitating fine tuning for optimal imaging parameters in PET/MR and PET/CT clinical research studies

UK consensus guidelines for the delivery of unexpected news in obstetric ultrasound: The ASCKS framework

Background: Studies indicate there is a need to improve the delivery of unexpected news via obstetric ultrasound, but there have been few advances in this area. One factor preventing improvement has been a lack of consensus regarding the appropriate phrases and behaviours which sonographers and ultrasound practitioners should use in these situations. Aims: To develop consensus guidelines for unexpected news delivery in Early Pregnancy Unit and Fetal Anomaly Screening Programme NHS settings. Methods: A workshop was conducted to identify priorities and reach consensus on areas of contention. Contributors included interdisciplinary healthcare professionals, policy experts, representatives from third-sector organisations, lay experts and academic researchers (n = 28). Written and verbal feedback was used to draft initial guidance which was then circulated amongst the wider writing group (n = 39). Revisions were undertaken until consensus was reached. Results: Consensus guidelines were developed outlining the behaviours and phrases which should be used during scans where unexpected findings are identified. Specific recommendations included that: honest and clear communication should be prioritised, even with uncertain findings; technical terms should be used, but these should be written down together with their lay interpretations; unless expectant parents use other terminology (e.g. ‘foetus’), the term ‘baby’ should be used as a default, even in early pregnancy; at the initial news disclosure, communication should focus on information provision. Expectant parents should not be asked to make decisions during the scan. Conclusions: These recommendations can be used to develop and improve news delivery interventions in obstetric ultrasound settings. The full guidelines can be accessed online as supplemental material and at https://doi.org/10.5518/100/24

Qualitative meta-synthesis of user experience of computerised therapy for depression and anxiety

Objective: Computerised therapies play an integral role in efforts to improve access to psychological treatment for patients with depression and anxiety. However, despite recognised problems with uptake, there has been a lack of investigation into the barriers and facilitators of engagement. We aimed to systematically review and synthesise findings from qualitative studies of computerised therapies, in order to identify factors impacting on engagement.Method: Systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative studies of user experiences of computer delivered therapy for depression and/or anxiety.Results: 8 studies were included in the review. All except one were of desktop based cognitive behavioural treatments. Black and minority ethnic and older participants were underrepresented, and only one study addressed users with a comorbid physical health problem. Through synthesis, we identified two key overarching concepts, regarding the need for treatments to be sensitive to the individual, and the dialectal nature of user experience, with different degrees of support and anonymity experienced as both positive and negative. We propose that these factors can be conceptually understood as the ‘non-specific’ or ‘common’ factors of computerised therapy, analogous to but distinct from the common factors of traditional face-to-face therapies.Conclusion: Experience of computerised therapy could be improved through personalisation and sensitisation of content to individual users, recognising the need for users to experience a sense of ‘self’ in the treatment which is currently absent. Exploiting the common factors of computerised therapy, through enhancing perceived connection and collaboration, could offer a way of reconciling tensions due to the dialectal nature of user experience. Future research should explore whether the findings are generalisable to other patient groups, to other delivery formats (such as mobile technology) and other treatment modalities beyond cognitive behaviour therapy. The proposed model could aid the development of enhancements to current packages to improve uptake and support engagement

Covariation in population trends and demography reveals targets for conservation action

Wildlife conservation policies directed at common and widespread, but declining, species are difficult to design and implement effectively, as multiple environmental changes are likely to contribute to population declines. Conservation actions ultimately aim to influence demographic rates, but targeting actions towards feasible improvements in these is challenging in widespread species with ranges that encompass a wide range of environmental conditions. Across Europe, sharp declines in the abundance of migratory landbirds have driven international calls for action, but actions that could feasibly contribute to population recovery have yet to be identified. Targeted actions to improve conditions on poor-quality sites could be an effective approach, but only if local conditions consistently influence local demography and hence population trends. Using long-term measures of abundance and demography of breeding birds at survey sites across Europe, we show that co-occurring species with differing migration behaviours have similar directions of local population trends and magnitudes of productivity, but not survival rates. Targeted actions to boost local productivity within Europe, alongside large-scale (non-targeted) environmental protection across non-breeding ranges, could therefore help address the urgent need to halt migrant landbird declines. Such demographic routes to recovery are likely to be increasingly needed to address global wildlife declines.Peer reviewe

Lung directed antibody gene transfer confers protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic continues to be a worldwide threat and effective antiviral drugs and vaccines are being developed in a joint global effort. However, some elderly and immune-compromised populations are unable to raise an effective immune response against traditional vaccines. We hypothesised that passive immunity engineered by the in vivo expression of anti SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), an approach termed vectored immunoprophylaxis (VIP), could offer sustained protection against COVID-19 in all populations irrespective of their immune status or age. We developed three key reagents to evaluate VIP for SARS-CoV-2: (i) we engineered standard laboratory mice to express human ACE2 via rAAV9 in vivo gene transfer, to allow in vivo assessment of SARS-CoV-2 infection, (ii) to simplify in vivo challenge studies, we generated SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein pseudotyped lentiviral vectors as a simple mimic of authentic SARS-CoV-2 that could be used under standard laboratory containment conditions; and (iii) we developed in vivo gene transfer vectors to express anti-SARS-CoV-2 mAbs. A single intranasal dose of rAAV9 or rSIV.F/HN vectors expressing anti-SARS-CoV 2 mAbs significantly reduced SARS-CoV-2 mimic infection in the lower respiratory tract of hACE2-expressing mice. If translated, the VIP approach could potentially offer a highly effective, long-term protection against COVID-19 for highly vulnerable populations; especially immune-deficient/senescent individuals, who fail to respond to conventional SARS-CoV 2 vaccines. The in vivo expression of multiple anti-SARS71 CoV-2 mAbs could enhance protection and prevent rapid mutational escape