Impact of controlled neonicotinoid exposure on bumblebees in a realistic field setting

1. Pesticide exposure has been implicated as a contributor to insect pollinator declines. In social bees, which are crucial pollination service providers, the effect of low-level chronic exposure is typically non-lethal leading researchers to consider whether exposure induces sub-lethal effects on behaviour and whether such impairment can affect colony development. 2. Studies under laboratory conditions can control levels of pesticide exposure and elucidate causative effects, but are often criticised for being unrealistic. In contrast, field studies can monitor bee responses under a more realistic pesticide exposure landscape; yet typically such findings are limited to correlative results, and can lack true controls or sufficient replication. We attempt to bridge this gap by exposing bumblebees to known amounts of pesticides when colonies are placed in the field. 3. Using 20 bumblebee colonies, we assess the consequences of exposure to the neonicotinoid clothianidin, provided in sucrose at a concentration of five parts per billion, over five weeks. We monitored foraging patterns and pollen collecting performance from 3282 bouts using either a non-invasive photographic assessment, or by extracting the pollen from returning foragers. We also conducted a full colony census at the beginning and end of the experiment. 4. In contrast to studies on other neonicotinoids, showing clear impairment to foraging behaviours, we detected only subtle changes to patterns of foraging activity and pollen foraging during the course of the experiment. However, our colony census measures showed a more pronounced effect of exposure, with fewer adult workers and sexuals in treated colonies after five weeks. 5. Synthesis and applications. Pesticide induced impairments on colony development and foraging could impact on the pollination service that bees provide. Therefore our findings, that bees show subtle changes in foraging behaviour and reductions in colony size after exposure to a common pesticide, has important implications and helps to inform the debate over whether the benefits of systemic pesticide application to flowering crops outweigh the costs. We propose that our methodology is an important advance to previous semi-field methods and should be considered when considering improvements to current ecotoxicological guidelines for pesticide risk assessment

Quick Reference Guide, Best Practice Statement for Screening, Assessment and Management of Vision Problems in the First 30 Days After an Acute Stroke

No abstract available

Quick Reference Guide, Best Practice Statement for Screening, Assessment and Management of Vision Problems in the First 30 Days After an Acute Stroke

No abstract available

The Contribution of Emotional Partners to Sexual Risk Taking and Violence among Female Sex Workers in Mombasa, Kenya: A Cohort Study

Objectives: To assess sexual risk-taking of female sex workers (FSWs) with emotional partners (boyfriends and husbands), compared to regular and casual clients. Experiences of violence and the degree of relationship control that FSWs have with emotional partners are also described. Design: Cohort study with quarterly follow-up visit over 12-months. Methods: Four hundred HIV-uninfected FSWs older than 16 years were recruited from their homes and guesthouses in Mombasa, Kenya. A structured questionnaire assessed participant characteristics and study outcomes at each visit, and women received risk-reduction counselling, male and female condoms, and HIV testing. Results: Four or more unprotected sex acts in the past week were reported by 21.3% of women during sex with emotional partners, compared to 5.8% with regular and 4.8% with casual clients (P,0.001). Total number of unprotected sex acts per week was 5–6-fold higher with emotional partners (603 acts with 259 partners) than with regular or casual clients (125 acts with 456, and 98 acts with 632 clients, respectively; P,0.001). Mostly, perceptions of ‘‘trust’’ underscored unprotected sex with emotional partners. Low control over these relationships, common to many women (36.9%), was linked with higher partner numbers, inconsistent condom use, and being physically forced to have sex by their emotional partners. Half experienced sexual or physical violence in the past year, similarly associated with partner numbers and inconsistent condom use. Conclusions: High-risk sexual behaviour, low control and frequent violence in relationships with emotional partners heighten FSWs’ vulnerability and high HIV risk, requiring targeted interventions that also encompass emotional partners

Neonicotinoid pesticide limits improvement in buzz pollination by bumblebees

Neonicotinoid pesticides have been linked to global declines of beneficial insects such as bumblebees. Exposure to trace levels of these chemicals causes sub-lethal effects, such as reduced learning and foraging efficiency. Complex behaviours may be particularly vulnerable to the neurotoxic effects of neonicotinoids. Such behaviours may include buzz pollination (sonication), in which pollinators, usually bees, use innate and learned behaviours to generate high-frequency vibrations to release pollen from flowers with specialised anther morphologies. This study assesses the effect of field-realistic, chronic exposure to the widely-used neonicotinoid thiamethoxam on the development of sonication buzz characteristics over time, as well as the collection of pollen from buzz-pollinated flowers. We found that the pollen collection of exposed bees improved less with increasing experience than that of unexposed bees, with exposed bees collecting between 47% and 56% less pollen by the end of 10 trials. We also found evidence of two distinct strategies for maximising pollen collection: (1) extensions to the duration of individual buzzes and (2) extensions of the overall time spent buzzing. We find new complexities in buzz pollination, and conclude that the impacts of field-realistic exposure to a neonicotinoid pesticide may seriously compromise this important ecosystem service

Validation of the Edinburgh Claudication Questionnaire in 1st generation Black African-Caribbean and South Asian UK migrants: A sub-study to the Ethnic-Echocardiographic Heart of England Screening (E-ECHOES) study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We determined the diagnostic accuracy of the Edinburgh Claudication Questionnaire (ECQ) in 1^stgeneration Black African-Caribbean UK migrants as previous diagnostic questionnaires have been found to be less accurate in this population. We also determined the diagnostic accuracy of translated versions of the ECQ in 1^stgeneration South Asian UK migrants, as this has not been investigated before.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Subjects were recruited from the Ethnic-Echocardiographic Heart of England Screening (E-ECHOES) study, a community based screening survey for heart failure in minority ethnic groups. Translated versions of the ECQ were prepared following a recognised protocol. All participants attending screening between October 2007 and February 2009 were asked to complete the ECQ in the language of their choice (English, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Hindi or Gujarati). Subjects answering positively to experiencing leg pain or discomfort on walking were asked to return to have Ankle Brachial Pressure Index (ABPI) measured.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>154 out of 2831 subjects participating in E-ECHOES (5.4%) were eligible to participate in this sub-study, for which 74.3% returned for ABPI assessment. Non-responders were younger than participants (59[9] vs. 65[11] years; p = 0.015). Punjabi, English and Bengali questionnaires identified participants with Intermittent Claudication, so these questionnaires were assessed. The sensitivities (SN), specificities (SP), positive (PPV) and negative (NPV) predictive values were calculated. English: SN: 50%; SP: 68%; PPV: 43%; NPV: 74%. Punjabi: SN: 50%; SP: 87%; PPV: 43%; NPV: 90%. Bengali: SN: 33%; SP: 50%; PPV: 13%; NPV: 73%. There were significant differences in diagnostic accuracy between the 3 versions (Punjabi: 83.8%; Bengali: 45%; English: 62.2%; p < 0.0001). No significant differences were found in sensitivity and specificity between illiterate and literate participants in any of the questionnaires and there was no significant different difference between those under and over 60 years of age.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings suggest that the ECQ is not as sensitive or specific a diagnostic tool in 1^stgeneration Black African-Caribbean and South Asian UK migrants than in the Edinburgh Artery Study, reflecting the findings of other diagnostic questionnaires in these minority ethnic groups. However this study is limited by sample size so conclusions should be interpreted with caution.</p

Childhood-Diagnosed ADHD, Symptom Progression, and Reversal Learning in Adulthood

Objective: ADHD persists in up to 60% into adulthood, and the reasons for persistence are not fully understood. The objective of this study was to characterize the neurofunctional basis of decision making in those with a childhood diagnosis of ADHD with either persistent or remitted symptoms in adulthood versus healthy control participants. Method: Thirty-two adults diagnosed with ADHD as children were split into persistent (n = 18) or remitted (n = 14) ADHD groups. Their neural activity and neurofunctional connectivity during a probabilistic reversal learning task were compared with 32 healthy controls. Results: Remitters showed significantly higher neural connectivity in final reversal error and probabilistic error conditions, and persisters depict higher neural connectivity in reversal errors than controls at a family-wise error (FWE) corrected whole-brain corrected threshold. Conclusion: Remitters may have utilized higher neural connectivity than controls to make successful decisions. Also, remitters may have utilized compensatory strategies to override any potential underlying ADHD deficits

A practical solution: the Anthropocene is a geological event, not a formal epoch

The Anthropocene has yet to be defined in a way that is functional both to the international geological community and to the broader fields of environmental and social sciences. Formally defining the Anthropocene as a chronostratigraphical series and geochronological epoch with a precise global start date would drastically reduce the Anthropocene’s utility across disciplines. Instead, we propose the Anthropocene be defined as a geological event, thereby facilitating a robust geological definition linked with a scholarly framework more useful to and congruent with the many disciplines engaging with human-environment interactions. Unlike formal epochal definitions, geological events can recognize the spatial and temporal heterogeneity and diverse social and environmental processes that interact to produce anthropogenic global environmental changes. Consequently, an Anthropocene Event would incorporate a far broader range of transformative human cultural practices and would be more readily applicable across academic fields than an Anthropocene Epoch, while still enabling a robust stratigraphic characterization