Institutional delivery in rural India: the relative importance of accessibility and economic status.

BACKGROUND: Skilled attendance at delivery is an important indicator in monitoring progress towards Millennium Development Goal 5 to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters between 1990 and 2015. In addition to professional attention, it is important that mothers deliver their babies in an appropriate setting, where life saving equipment and hygienic conditions can also help reduce the risk of complications that may cause death or illness to mother and child. Over the past decade interest has grown in examining influences on care-seeking behavior and this study investigates the determinants of place of delivery in rural India, with a particular focus on assessing the relative importance of community access and economic status. METHODS: A descriptive analysis of trends in place of delivery using data from two national representative sample surveys in 1992 and 1998 is followed by a two-level (child/mother and community) random-effects logistical regression model using the second survey to investigate the determinants. RESULTS: In this investigation of institutional care seeking for child birth in rural India, economic status emerges as a more crucial determinant than access. Economic status is also the strongest influence on the choice between a private-for-profit or public facility amongst institutional births. CONCLUSION: Greater availability of obstetric services will not alone solve the problem of low institutional delivery rates. This is particularly true for the use of private-for-profit institutions, in which the distance to services does not have a significant adjusted effect. In the light of these findings a focus on increasing demand for existing services seems the most rational action. In particular, financial constraints need to be addressed, and results support current trials of demand side financing in India

Community-driven development for computational biology at Sprints, Hackathons and Codefests

Background: Computational biology comprises a wide range of technologies and approaches. Multiple technologies can be combined to create more powerful workflows if the individuals contributing the data or providing tools for its interpretation can find mutual understanding and consensus. Much conversation and joint investigation are required in order to identify and implement the best approaches. Traditionally, scientific conferences feature talks presenting novel technologies or insights, followed up by informal discussions during coffee breaks. In multi-institution collaborations, in order to reach agreement on implementation details or to transfer deeper insights in a technology and practical skills, a representative of one group typically visits the other. However, this does not scale well when the number of technologies or research groups is large. Conferences have responded to this issue by introducing Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) sessions, which offer an opportunity for individuals with common interests to intensify their interaction. However, parallel BoF sessions often make it hard for participants to join multiple BoFs and find common ground between the different technologies, and BoFs are generally too short to allow time for participants to program together. Results: This report summarises our experience with computational biology Codefests, Hackathons and Sprints, which are interactive developer meetings. They are structured to reduce the limitations of traditional scientific meetings described above by strengthening the interaction among peers and letting the participants determine the schedule and topics. These meetings are commonly run as loosely scheduled "unconferences" (self-organized identification of participants and topics for meetings) over at least two days, with early introductory talks to welcome and organize contributors, followed by intensive collaborative coding sessions. We summarise some prominent achievements of those meetings and describe differences in how these are organised, how their audience is addressed, and their outreach to their respective communities. Conclusions: Hackathons, Codefests and Sprints share a stimulating atmosphere that encourages participants to jointly brainstorm and tackle problems of shared interest in a self-driven proactive environment, as well as providing an opportunity for new participants to get involved in collaborative projects

The harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis: global perspectives on invasion history and ecology

The harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis (Pallas) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), is native to Asia but has been intentionally introduced to many countries as a biological control agent of pest insects. In numerous countries, however, it has been introduced unintentionally. The dramatic spread of H. axyridis within many countries has been met with considerable trepidation. It is a generalist top predator, able to thrive in many habitats and across wide climatic conditions. It poses a threat to biodiversity, particularly aphidophagous insects, through competition and predation, and in many countries adverse effects have been reported on other species, particularly coccinellids. However, the patterns are not consistent around the world and seem to be affected by many factors including landscape and climate. Research on H. axyridis has provided detailed insights into invasion biology from broad patterns and processes to approaches in surveillance and monitoring. An impressive number of studies on this alien species have provided mechanistic evidence alongside models explaining large-scale patterns and processes. The involvement of citizens in monitoring this species in a number of countries around the world is inspiring and has provided data on scales that would be otherwise unachievable. Harmonia axyridis has successfully been used as a model invasive alien species and has been the inspiration for global collaborations at various scales. There is considerable scope to expand the research and associated collaborations, particularly to increase the breadth of parallel studies conducted in the native and invaded regions. Indeed a qualitative comparison of biological traits across the native and invaded range suggests that there are differences which ultimately could influence the population dynamics of this invader. Here we provide an overview of the invasion history and ecology of H. axyridis globally with consideration of future research perspectives. We reflect broadly on the contributions of such research to our understanding of invasion biology while also informing policy and people

Atypical phenology of aphids (Aphidoidea) and their ladybird predators arising from fluctuating spring temperatures

April and May 2019 were characterised by strongly fluctuating temperatures in the Dutch provinces of Noord-Brabant and Limburg, which led to changes in aphid populations and the phenology of the ladybirds feeding on them. Aphid species reached high abundances on some herbs and shrubs, but species on some trees were virtually absent. The immediate and reproductive effects on ladybird species were variable. Population sizes at the end of the year suggested that the total reproductive output of generalist ladybirds had been minimally affected, probably due to their broad dietary ranges. However, the fully arboreal Adalia decempunctata was much less abundant, likely due to scarcity of its tree-dwelling prey. In 2021, similar spring conditions again resulted in few aphids and ladybirds on trees, suggesting that some of the changes observed in 2019 might become more permanent

Atypical phenology of aphids (Aphidoidea) and their ladybird predators arising from fluctuating spring temperatures

April and May 2019 were characterised by strongly fluctuating temperatures in the Dutch provinces of Noord-Brabant and Limburg, which led to changes in aphid populations and the phenology of the ladybirds feeding on them. Aphid species reached high abundances on some herbs and shrubs, but species on some trees were virtually absent. The immediate and reproductive effects on ladybird species were variable. Population sizes at the end of the year suggested that the total reproductive output of generalist ladybirds had been minimally affected, probably due to their broad dietary ranges. However, the fully arboreal Adalia decempunctata was much less abundant, likely due to scarcity of its tree-dwelling prey. In 2021, similar spring conditions again resulted in few aphids and ladybirds on trees, suggesting that some of the changes observed in 2019 might become more permanent

<em>Harmonia axyridis</em> (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae): Smelling the rat in native ladybird declines

In the last two decades a huge amount of research has focused on the invasive harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis, particularly on potential or actual deleterious effects that have arisen after it has colonised new regions. A focus of this work has been real or anticipated declines in native ladybird abundance since the introduction of H. axyridis, for which it is deemed responsible. Scientists have generally painted a very bleak picture of the effects of H. axyridis on native species: in this paper I argue that the picture painted is often too bleak. I use the case of the 2-spot ladybird, Adalia bipunctata, the species most often invoked as threatened by H. axyridis, to illustrate my point. While there is little question that H. axyridis has led to a decline in A. bipunctata populations in Europe, it seems likely that prior to the invasive ladybird’s arrival A. bipunctata occurred in artificially high numbers in the urban environments in which it was typically studied. Pollution in towns and cities led to enhanced numbers of prey aphids on plants there which initially favoured A. bipunctata, and later H. axyridis. Thus one species, A. bipunctata, that has benefitted from an association with humans has been replaced by another, H. axyridis, just as brown rats replaced black rats in Europe and North America. Viewed with a longer perspective, A. bipunctata has more likely declined back to pre-industrial levels: the artificially high level from which it has declined recently was not a ‘natural’ one, and thus its decline from this level does not imply that it is now threatened or endangered. More broadly, we need a wider perspective, encompassing other ladybirds, longer timeframes and better comparisons with other (non-ladybird) invasive species to more clearly assess whether H. axyridis really poses as much of a threat as is often proposed

How Diet Leads to Defensive Dynamism:Effect of the Dietary Quality on Autogenous Alkaloid Recovery Rate in a Chemically Defended Beetle

The impact of different diets on chemical defense has been extensively studied in animals that sequester defensive chemicals from food. However, there are fewer studies of diet-mediated variation in autogenously produced defenses. Ladybird beetles, which use autogenously synthesized defensive alkaloids, are used as models in a wide diversity of studies of chemical defense, specifically in studies of intraspecific variation in color pattern and chemical defense. Many aphidophagous ladybirds consume a wide diversity of aphid prey, which vary in quality and thus could affect the synthesis of chemical defense. We measured alkaloid recovery rate after reflex bleeding by the ladybird Adalia bipunctata on two different aphid diets, the high quality Acyrthosiphon pisum and the lower quality Aphis fabae. Alkaloids reaccumulated in ladybirds more slowly when they were fed A. fabae than when they were fed A. pisum and females generally had more alkaloid than males, but reaccumulated alkaloid more slowly. Recovery times were more than 12 days. There appeared to be a weak positive relationship between alkaloid level and time since reflex bleeding for eggs of A. pisum- but not A. fabae-fed females. Our findings on diet and alkaloid synthesis in ladybirds suggest that chemical defense levels are very dynamic, indicating that studies conducted at a single point in time, such as those focused on ladybird color pattern, fail to consider a wide diversity of temporal variation that occurs in the field. This is likely true for many autogenously produced chemical defense systems in a diversity of other organisms