Sympatric woodland Myotis bats form tight-knit social groups with exclusive roost home ranges (dataset)

The article relating to this dataset is available in ORE: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/15799Dataset associated with the PLOS journal article with the same title. The two sets of data in the Excel file were used to create the networks in the Tiff file.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC

Public Housing Relocations and Relationships of Changes in Neighborhood Disadvantage and Transportation Access to Unmet Need for Medical Care

Cross-sectional research suggests that neighborhood characteristics and transportation access shape unmet need for medical care. This longitudinal analysis explores relationships of changes in neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and transportation access to unmet need for medical care

Public Housing Relocations and Partnership Dynamics in Areas With High Prevalences of Sexually Transmitted Infections

We investigated the implications of one structural intervention—public housing relocations—for partnership dynamics among individuals living areas with high sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevalence. High-prevalence areas fuel STI endemicity and are perpetuated by spatially assortative partnerships

Senescence of the cellular immune response in Drosophila melanogaster

Immune system effectiveness generally declines as animals age, compromising disease resistance. In Drosophila, expression of a variety of immune-related genes elevates during ageing; however how this is linked to increasing pathogen susceptibility in older flies has remained unclear. We investigated whether changes in the Drosophila cellular immune response might contribute to immunosenescence. Experiments studied fly cohorts of different ages and compared the numbers and activity of the circulating haemocytes involved in pathogen defence. In female wildtype Samarkand and Oregon R flies the haemocyte population fell by 31.8% and 10.2% respectively during the first four weeks of adulthood. Interestingly we detected no such decline in male flies. The impact of ageing on the phagocytic activity of haemocytes was investigated by injecting flies with fluorescently labelled microbes or latex beads and assessing the ability of haemocytes to engulf them. For all immune challenges the proportion of actively phagocytosing haemocytes decreased as flies aged. Whilst 24.3% ± 1.15% of haemocytes in one-week-old flies phagocytosed Escherichia coli bacteria or Beauveria bassiana fungal spores, this decreased to 16.7% ± 0.99% in four-week-old flies. This clear senescence of the Drosophila cellular immune response may underpin increased disease susceptibility in older flies

Impact of Public Housing Relocations: Are Changes in Neighborhood Conditions Related to STIs Among Relocaters?

Cross-sectional and ecologic studies suggest that place characteristics influence sexual behaviors and sexually-transmitted infections (STIs). Using data from a predominately substance-misusing cohort of African-American adults relocating from US public housing complexes, this multilevel longitudinal study tested the hypothesis that participants who experienced greater post-relocation improvements in neighborhood conditions (i.e., socioeconomic disadvantage, social disorder, STI prevalence, male:female sex ratios) would have reduced odds of testing positive for an STI over time

Changes in Exposure to Neighborhood Characteristics are Associated with Sexual Network Characteristics in a Cohort of Adults Relocating from Public Housing

Ecologic and cross-sectional multilevel analyses suggest that characteristics of the places where people live influence their vulnerability to HIV and other sexually-transmitted infections (STIs). Using data from a predominately substance-misusing cohort of African-American adults relocating from US public housing complexes, this multilevel longitudinal study tested the hypothesis that participants who experienced greater post-relocation improvements in economic disadvantage, violent crime, and male:female sex ratios would experience greater reductions in perceived partner risk and in the odds of having a partner who had another partner (i.e., indirect concurrency). Baseline data were collected from 172 public housing residents before relocations occurred; three waves of post-relocation data were collected every nine months. Participants who experienced greater improvements in community violence and in economic conditions experienced greater reductions in partner risk. Reduced community violence was associated with reduced indirect concurrency. Structural interventions that decrease exposure to violence and economic disadvantage may reduce vulnerability to HIV/STIs

Sympatric woodland Myotis bats form tight-knit social groups with exclusive roost home ranges

Background: The structuring of wild animal populations can influence population dynamics, disease spread, and information transfer. Social network analysis potentially offers insights into these processes but is rarely, if ever, used to investigate more than one species in a community. We therefore compared the social, temporal and spatial networks of sympatric Myotis bats (M. nattereri (Natterer's bats) and M. daubentonii (Daubenton's bats)), and asked: (1) are there long-lasting social associations within species? (2) do the ranges occupied by roosting social groups overlap within or between species? (3) are M. daubentonii bachelor colonies excluded from roosting in areas used by maternity groups? Results: Using data on 490 ringed M. nattereri and 978 M. daubentonii from 379 colonies, we found that both species formed stable social groups encompassing multiple colonies. M. nattereri formed 11 mixed-sex social groups with few (4.3%) inter-group associations. Approximately half of all M. nattereri were associated with the same individuals when recaptured, with many associations being long-term (>100 days). In contrast, M. daubentonii were sexually segregated; only a quarter of pairs were associated at recapture after a few days, and inter-sex associations were not long-lasting. Social groups of M. nattereri and female M. daubentonii had small roost home ranges (mean 0.2 km2 in each case). Intra-specific overlap was low, but inter-specific overlap was high, suggesting territoriality within but not between species. M. daubentonii bachelor colonies did not appear to be excluded from roosting areas used by females. Conclusions: Our data suggest marked species- and sex-specific patterns of disease and information transmission are likely between bats of the same genus despite sharing a common habitat. The clear partitioning of the woodland amongst social groups, and their apparent reliance on small patches of habitat for roosting, means that localised woodland management may be more important to bat conservation than previously recognised

The clinical course of low back pain: a meta-analysis comparing outcomes in randomised clinical trials (RCTs) and observational studies.

BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that the course of low back pain (LBP) symptoms in randomised clinical trials (RCTs) follows a pattern of large improvement regardless of the type of treatment. A similar pattern was independently observed in observational studies. However, there is an assumption that the clinical course of symptoms is particularly influenced in RCTs by mere participation in the trials. To test this assumption, the aim of our study was to compare the course of LBP in RCTs and observational studies. METHODS: Source of studies CENTRAL database for RCTs and MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE and hand search of systematic reviews for cohort studies. Studies include individuals aged 18 or over, and concern non-specific LBP. Trials had to concern primary care treatments. Data were extracted on pain intensity. Meta-regression analysis was used to compare the pooled within-group change in pain in RCTs with that in cohort studies calculated as the standardised mean change (SMC). RESULTS: 70 RCTs and 19 cohort studies were included, out of 1134 and 653 identified respectively. LBP symptoms followed a similar course in RCTs and cohort studies: a rapid improvement in the first 6 weeks followed by a smaller further improvement until 52 weeks. There was no statistically significant difference in pooled SMC between RCTs and cohort studies at any time point:- 6 weeks: RCTs: SMC 1.0 (95% CI 0.9 to 1.0) and cohorts 1.2 (0.7to 1.7); 13 weeks: RCTs 1.2 (1.1 to 1.3) and cohorts 1.0 (0.8 to 1.3); 27 weeks: RCTs 1.1 (1.0 to 1.2) and cohorts 1.2 (0.8 to 1.7); 52 weeks: RCTs 0.9 (0.8 to 1.0) and cohorts 1.1 (0.8 to 1.6). CONCLUSIONS: The clinical course of LBP symptoms followed a pattern that was similar in RCTs and cohort observational studies. In addition to a shared 'natural history', enrolment of LBP patients in clinical studies is likely to provoke responses that reflect the nonspecific effects of seeking and receiving care, independent of the study design

Bat ecology ;conservation in lowland farmland

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Linton_DM_Macdonald_DW_J_Animal_Ecology_2018

Data Archive includes R code (.R file) and data (.txt files) to replicate model outputs and reproduce figures from the article