Pollen preferences and factors which influence pollen collection by the honey bee, Apis mellifera L.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1961 I5

Education programs for older adults: A critique

Age-segregated programs perpetuate artificial separation from the general citizenry

Gender Differences in Motor Skills of the Overarm Throw

Gromeier M, Koester D, Schack T. Gender Differences in Motor Skills of the Overarm Throw. Frontiers in Psychology. 2017;8(212):1-12.In this cross-sectional study, the qualitative and quantitative throwing performance of male and female athletes (6 to 16 years of age) was analyzed. The goal of this study was to assess whether there were gender based qualitative and quantitative differences in throwing performance of young athletes, throughout three different age bands (childhood, pubescence, and adolescence). Furthermore, we explored whether all components of the throwing movement are equally affected by gender differences. Focus was placed on five essential components of action: trunk, forearm, humerus, stepping, and backswing. Therefore, children and adolescents (N = 96) were invited to throw three times from three different distances, while aiming at a target placed at shoulder height. The participants were aspiring athletes, competitive in the sport handball. For analyzing the quality of movement the component approach of Halverson and Roberton (1984) was used. The throwing accuracy was noted and used to evaluate the quantitative performance of the throwing movement. Throughout three different age bands, no statistically significant difference was found between genders in throwing accuracy, i.e., quantitative performance. Regarding the qualitative evaluation of the throwing movement, male and female athletes differed significantly. The component approach yielded higher scores for male than for female participants. As expected, with increasing age qualitative and quantitative performance of male and female athletes improved. These results suggest that there are gender-specific differences in qualitative throwing performance, but not necessarily in quantitative throwing performance. Exploration shows that differences in the qualitative throwing performance were seen in specific components of action. Male and female athletes demonstrated similar movement patterns in humerus and forearm actions, but differed in trunk, stepping, and backswing actions

Mosquito Biodiversity Patterns Around Urban Environments in South-Central Okinawa Island, Japan

Okinawa is the largest, most urbanized, and densely populated island in the Ryukyus Archipelago, where mosquito species diversity has been thoroughly studied. However, the south-central Okinawa mosquito fauna has been relatively poorly studied. Here, we present results from a mosquito faunal survey in urban environments of Nishihara city, south-central Okinawa. Mosquitoes were sampled biweekly, from April 2007 to March 2008, at 3 different environments: a forest preserve, an animal farm, and a water reservoir. We employed 4 mosquito collection methods: 1) oviposition traps; 2) light traps; 3) sweep nets; and 4) larval surveys of tree holes, leaf axils, and artificial water containers. We collected a total of 568 adults and 10,270 larvae belonging to 6 genera and 13 species, including 6 species of medical importance: Aedes albopictus, Armigeres subalbatus, Anopheles Hyrcanus group, Culex bitaeniorhynchus, Cx. quinquefasciatus, and Cx. tritaeniorhynchus. Mosquito species composition was similar to data from previous studies in Okinawa Island. The flattening of the species accumulation curve suggests that our diversity sampling was exhaustive with light and oviposition traps, as well as the coincidence between the species richness we found in the field and estimates from the Chao2 index, a theoretical estimator of species richness based on species abundance. This study highlights the importance of combining several sampling techniques to properly characterize regional mosquito fauna and to monitor changes in the presence of mosquito species