Nectar Yeasts in the Tall Larkspur Delphinium barbeyi (Ranunculaceae) and Effects on Components of Pollinator Foraging Behavior

Microorganisms frequently colonize the nectar of angiosperm species. Though capable of altering a suite of traits important for pollinator attraction, few studies exist that test the degree to which they mediate pollinator foraging behavior. The objective of our study was to fill this gap by assessing the abundance and diversity of yeasts associated with the perennial larkspur Delphinium barbeyi (Ranunculaceae) and testing whether their presence affected components of pollinator foraging behavior. Yeasts frequently colonized D. barbeyi nectar, populating 54–77% of flowers examined depending on site. Though common, the yeast community was species-poor, represented by a single species, Metschnikowia reukaufii. Female-phase flowers of D. barbeyi were more likely to have higher densities of yeasts in comparison to male-phase flowers. Pollinators were likely vectors of yeasts, as virgin (unvisited) flowers rarely contained yeasts compared to flowers open to pollinator visitation, which were frequently colonized. Finally, pollinators responded positively to the presence of yeasts. Bombus foragers both visited and probed more flowers inoculated with yeasts in comparison to uninoculated controls. Taken together, our results suggest that variation in the occurrence and density of nectar-inhabiting yeasts have the potential to alter components of pollinator foraging behavior linked to pollen transfer and plant fitness

Medicinal value of sunflower pollen against bee pathogens

Global declines in pollinators, including bees, can have major consequences for ecosystem services. Bees are dominant pollinators, making it imperative to mitigate declines. Pathogens are strongly implicated in the decline of native and honey bees. Diet affects bee immune responses, suggesting the potential for floral resources to provide natural resistance to pathogens. We discovered that sunflower (Helianthus annuus) pollen dramatically and consistently reduced a protozoan pathogen (Crithidia bombi) infection in bumble bees (Bombus impatiens) and also reduced a microsporidian pathogen (Nosema ceranae) of the European honey bee (Apis mellifera), indicating the potential for broad anti-parasitic effects. In a field survey, bumble bees from farms with more sunflower area had lower Crithidia infection rates. Given consistent effects of sunflower in reducing pathogens, planting sunflower in agroecosystems and native habitat may provide a simple solution to reduce disease and improve the health of economically and ecologically important pollinators

How Americans Feel About Terrorism And Security: Two Years After 9/11

Understanding attitudes, concerns and reactions of individuals and families is critical to emergency planning efforts on all levels. In order to have effective implementation of a disaster plan, people need to be confident in (a) the reliability of information from official sources, (b) the capacity of government to perform effectively in a crisis and (c) the capability of response systems, particularly the health systems and first responders. Absence of confidence in response systems or leadership may undermine the best of crisis plans, leading to unnecessary panic and potential excess loss of life. In August 2003, The National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, in collaboration with The Children's Health Fund, commissioned the Marist Institute for Public Opinion to conduct a survey of adults nearly two years after the multiple terrorist attacks on New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania. The survey included both a national and a New York City representative sample of households contacted by telephone. Questions covered a wide range of issues including people's concern about potential new additional acts of terrorism in the U.S., the government's ability to protect citizens, and the health system's capacity to respond. Throughout, specific questions were asked of a subset of parents of children from four to eighteen years of age. To the extent possible, specific questions were replicated from four previous surveys commissioned by The Children's Health Fund since September 11, 2001 to identify trends in public attitudes and perceptions

Randomized trial of exercise in sedentary middle aged women: effects on quality of life

Increasing physical activity is currently considered to be a possible prevention strategy for cancer, obesity, and cardiovascular disease, either alone or in combination with dietary changes. This paper presents results of a randomized trial of moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise in middle aged, sedentary women; specifically, we report changes in and correlates of quality of life and functional status of this exercise intervention program for both the short (three months) and longer term (12 months). The intervention group showed a significant increase in Mental Health score from baseline to 3 months (p < .01), significantly greater than the change in the control group at 3 months (p < .01). A similar trend among exercisers was observed for the General Health score (p < .01), and this finding was significantly greater than the change in control group at 3 months (p = .01). Change in Social Support – Affection were predictors of the changes in quality of life variables. This study documented improvements in quality of life and general functioning that occurred as a result of participating in an exercise intervention in sedentary middle-aged women

Modeling and characterization of the SPIDER half-wave plate

Spider is a balloon-borne array of six telescopes that will observe the Cosmic Microwave Background. The 2624 antenna-coupled bolometers in the instrument will make a polarization map of the CMB with approximately one-half degree resolution at 145 GHz. Polarization modulation is achieved via a cryogenic sapphire half-wave plate (HWP) skyward of the primary optic. We have measured millimeter-wave transmission spectra of the sapphire at room and cryogenic temperatures. The spectra are consistent with our physical optics model, and the data gives excellent measurements of the indices of A-cut sapphire. We have also taken preliminary spectra of the integrated HWP, optical system, and detectors in the prototype Spider receiver. We calculate the variation in response of the HWP between observing the CMB and foreground spectra, and estimate that it should not limit the Spider constraints on inflation

Pointing control for the SPIDER balloon-borne telescope

We present the technology and control methods developed for the pointing system of the SPIDER experiment. SPIDER is a balloon-borne polarimeter designed to detect the imprint of primordial gravitational waves in the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. We describe the two main components of the telescope's azimuth drive: the reaction wheel and the motorized pivot. A 13 kHz PI control loop runs on a digital signal processor, with feedback from fibre optic rate gyroscopes. This system can control azimuthal speed with < 0.02 deg/s RMS error. To control elevation, SPIDER uses stepper-motor-driven linear actuators to rotate the cryostat, which houses the optical instruments, relative to the outer frame. With the velocity in each axis controlled in this way, higher-level control loops on the onboard flight computers can implement the pointing and scanning observation modes required for the experiment. We have accomplished the non-trivial task of scanning a 5000 lb payload sinusoidally in azimuth at a peak acceleration of 0.8 deg/s$^2$, and a peak speed of 6 deg/s. We can do so while reliably achieving sub-arcminute pointing control accuracy.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, Presented at SPIE Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes V, June 23, 2014. To be published in Proceedings of SPIE Volume 914

Exploring Halo Substructure with Giant Stars XI: The Tidal Tails of the Carina Dwarf Spheroidal and the Discovery of Magellanic Cloud Stars in the Carina Foreground

A new large-area Washington M,T_2+DDO51 filter survey of more than 10 deg^2 around the Carina dSph galaxy reveals a spectroscopically confirmed power law radial density "break" population of Carina giant stars extending several degrees beyond the central King profile. Magellan telescope MIKE spectroscopy establishes the existence of Carina stars to at least 4.5 times its central King limiting radius, r_lim and primarily along Carina's major axis. To keep these stars bound to the dSph would require a global Carina mass-to-light ratio of M/L > 6,300 M/L_sun. The MIKE velocities, supplemented with ~950 additional Carina field velocities from archived VLT+GIRAFFE spectra with r<=r_lim, demonstrate a nearly constant Carina velocity dispersion to just beyond r = r_lim, and both a rising velocity dispersion and a velocity shear at still larger radii. Together, the observational evidence suggests that the discovered extended Carina population represents tidal debris from the dSph. Of 65 giant candidates at large angular radii from the Carina center for which MIKE spectra have been obtained 94% are associated either with Carina or a second, newly discovered diffuse, but strongly radial velocity-coherent (velocity dispersion of 9.8 km s^-1), foreground halo system. The fifteen stars in this second, retrograde velocity population have (1) a mean metallicity ~1 dex higher than that of Carina, and (2) colors and magnitudes consistent with the red clump of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Additional spectroscopy of giant star candidates in fields linking Carina and the LMC shows a smooth velocity gradient between the LMC and the retrograde Carina moving group. We conclude that we have found Magellanic stars almost twice as far (22 deg) from the LMC center than previously known.Comment: ApJ, in pres

Argonaute2 Suppresses Drosophila Fragile X Expression Preventing Neurogenesis and Oogenesis Defects

Fragile X Syndrome is caused by the silencing of the Fragile X Mental Retardation gene (FMR1). Regulating dosage of FMR1 levels is critical for proper development and function of the nervous system and germ line, but the pathways responsible for maintaining normal expression levels are less clearly defined. Loss of Drosophila Fragile X protein (dFMR1) causes several behavioral and developmental defects in the fly, many of which are analogous to those seen in Fragile X patients. Over-expression of dFMR1 also causes specific neuronal and behavioral abnormalities. We have found that Argonaute2 (Ago2), the core component of the small interfering RNA (siRNA) pathway, regulates dfmr1 expression. Previously, the relationship between dFMR1 and Ago2 was defined by their physical interaction and co-regulation of downstream targets. We have found that Ago2 and dFMR1 are also connected through a regulatory relationship. Ago2 mediated repression of dFMR1 prevents axon growth and branching defects of the Drosophila neuromuscular junction (NMJ). Consequently, the neurogenesis defects in larvae mutant for both dfmr1 and Ago2 mirror those in dfmr1 null mutants. The Ago2 null phenotype at the NMJ is rescued in animals carrying an Ago2 genomic rescue construct. However, animals carrying a mutant Ago2 allele that produces Ago2 with significantly reduced endoribonuclease catalytic activity are normal with respect to the NMJ phenotypes examined. dFMR1 regulation by Ago2 is also observed in the germ line causing a multiple oocyte in a single egg chamber mutant phenotype. We have identified Ago2 as a regulator of dfmr1 expression and have clarified an important developmental role for Ago2 in the nervous system and germ line that requires dfmr1 function

Weight Loss and Mortality in Overweight and Obese Cancer Survivors: A Systematic Review

Background Excess adiposity is a risk factor for poorer cancer survival, but there is uncertainty over whether losing weight reduces the risk. We conducted a critical review of the literature examining weight loss and mortality in overweight or obese cancer survivors. Methods We systematically searched PubMed and EMBASE for articles reporting associations between weight loss and mortality (cancer-specific or all-cause) in overweight/obese patients with obesity-related cancers. Where available, data from the same studies on non-overweight patients were compared. Results Five articles describing observational studies in breast cancer survivors were included. Four studies reported a positive association between weight loss and mortality in overweight/obese survivors, and the remaining study observed no significant association. Results were similar for non-overweight survivors. Quality assessment indicated high risk of bias across studies. Conclusions There is currently a lack of observational evidence that weight loss improves survival for overweight and obese cancer survivors. However, the potential for bias in these studies is considerable and the results likely reflect the consequences of disease-related rather than intentional weight loss. There is a need for stronger study designs, incorporating measures of intentionality of weight loss, and extended to other cancers

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: CMB Polarization at 200<ℓ<9000200<\ell<9000

We report on measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and celestial polarization at 146 GHz made with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol) in its first three months of observing. Four regions of sky covering a total of 270 square degrees were mapped with an angular resolution of $1.3'$. The map noise levels in the four regions are between 11 and 17 $\mu$K-arcmin. We present TT, TE, EE, TB, EB, and BB power spectra from three of these regions. The observed E-mode polarization power spectrum, displaying six acoustic peaks in the range $200<\ell<3000$, is an excellent fit to the prediction of the best-fit cosmological models from WMAP9+ACT and Planck data. The polarization power spectrum, which mainly reflects primordial plasma velocity perturbations, provides an independent determination of cosmological parameters consistent with those based on the temperature power spectrum, which results mostly from primordial density perturbations. We find that without masking any point sources in the EE data at $\ell<9000$, the Poisson tail of the EE power spectrum due to polarized point sources has an amplitude less than $2.4$ $\mu$K$^2$ at $\ell = 3000$ at 95\% confidence. Finally, we report that the Crab Nebula, an important polarization calibration source at microwave frequencies, has 8.7\% polarization with an angle of $150.7^\circ \pm 0.6^\circ$ when smoothed with a $5'$ Gaussian beam.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures, 5 table