Varroa destructor reproduction and cell re-capping in mite-resistant Apis mellifera populations

Globalization has facilitated the spread of emerging pests such as the Varroa destructor mite, resulting in the near global distribution of the pest. In South African and Brazilian honey bees, mite-resistant colonies appeared within a decade; in Europe, mite-resistant colonies are rare, but several of these exhibited high levels of “re-capping” behavior. We studied re-capping in Varroa-naïve (UK/Australia) and Varroa-resistant (South Africa and Brazil) populations and found very low and very high levels, respectively, with the resistant populations targeting mite-infested cells. Furthermore, 54% of artificially infested A. m. capensis worker cells were removed after 10 days and 83% of the remaining infested cells were re-capped. Such targeted re-capping of drone cells did not occur. We propose that cell opening is a fundamental trait in mite-resistant populations and that re-capping is an accurate proxy for this behavior

Fostering human health through ocean sustainability in the 21st century

This is the final version. Available on open access from Wiley via the DOI in this recordThe approach of the Decade of the Ocean for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) provides a time to reflect on what we know about the complex interactions between the seas, oceans, and human health and well‐being. In the past, these interactions have been seen primarily within a risk framework, for example, adverse impacts of extreme weather, chemical pollution and increasingly, climate change. However, new research is expanding our concept of the ‘health’ of the ‘Global Ocean’, with a broader recognition of its essential and beneficial contribution to the current and future health and well‐being of humans. The seas and coasts not only provide an essential source of food, opportunities for trade and access to sustainable energy, but also the chance for people to interact with high‐quality marine environments which can lead to improvements in mental and physical health and well‐being, particularly of socio‐economically deprived individuals. By going beyond this risk framework and a purely extractive anthropocentric point of view, we can capture the true benefits, value and importance of these resources. Articulating a vision of how humans might better interact with marine ecosystems in the future, is a key first step in identifying a range of policy and management actions that can deliver our goals of fostering health and well‐being through the establishment of more sustainable interconnections with the Global Ocean.European Union Horizon 2020Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)UKRI Global Challenges Research FundNational Institute for Health Research (NIHR

Potential changes in disease patterns and pharmaceutical use in response to climate change

This is the final version of the article. Available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record.As climate change alters environmental conditions, the incidence and global patterns of human diseases are changing. These modifications to disease profiles and the effects upon human pharmaceutical usage are discussed. Climate-related environmental changes are associated with a rise in the incidence of chronic diseases already prevalent in the Northern Hemisphere, for example, cardiovascular disease and mental illness, leading to greater use of associated heavily used Western medications. Sufferers of respiratory diseases may exhibit exacerbated symptoms due to altered environmental conditions (e.g., pollen). Respiratory, water-borne, and food-borne toxicants and infections, including those that are vector borne, may become more common in Western countries, central and eastern Asia, and across North America. As new disease threats emerge, substantially higher pharmaceutical use appears inevitable, especially of pharmaceuticals not commonly employed at present (e.g., antiprotozoals). The use of medications for the treatment of general symptoms (e.g., analgesics) will also rise. These developments need to be viewed in the context of other major environmental changes (e.g., industrial chemical pollution, biodiversity loss, reduced water and food security) as well as marked shifts in human demographics, including aging of the population. To identify, prevent, mitigate, and adapt to potential threats, one needs to be aware of the major factors underlying changes in the use of pharmaceuticals and their subsequent release, deliberately or unintentionally, into the environment. This review explores the likely consequences of climate change upon the use of medical pharmaceuticals in the Northern Hemisphere.The European Centre for Environment and Human Health (part of the University of Exeter Medical School) is partly financed by the European Regional Development Fund Programme 2007 to 2013 and European Social Fund Convergence Programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly

Future of the Sea: Health and Wellbeing of Coastal Communities

This is the final version of the report. Available from the Government Office for Science via the link in this recordThis review has been commissioned as part of the UK government’s Foresight Future of the Sea project. The views expressed do not represent policy of any government or organisationApproximately 17 per cent of the UK population live in coastal communities; some are prosperous and commercially successful, others experiencing socio- economic decline. Regardless, evidence suggests growing risks for the health and wellbeing of coastal communities. Communities along the coast are on the front line in facing climate change and marine pollution impacts, furthermore their economies are deeply embedded with coastal and other marine activities, making these communities particularly affected. Sea-level rise and extreme weather events, driven by climate change and ecosystem damage, expose coastal communities to flooding events now and in the future, damaging local economies, and threatening health and wellbeing. Continuing pollution of the sea has been underestimated as a threat to the health of coastal dwellers.Governtment Office for Scienc

Ефективність рофлуміласту у хворих на хронічне обструктивне захворювання легень із ожирінням

Хронічне обструктивне захворювання легень (ХОЗЛ) – проблема, актуальність якої в усьому світі стрімко зростає. ХОЗЛ є четвертою провідною причиною смерті в світі, являє собою важливу проблему охорони здоров'я [19]. Розуміння проблеми ХОЗЛ значно змінилося за останнє десятиліття. Зараз це не просто обмеження швидкості повітряного потоку, а складний і гетерогенний стан зі значними позалегеневими проявами, які включають в себе хвороби серцево-судинної системи, дисфункцію скелетних м'язів, і діабет [27]. Особливої актуальності набуває проблема асоціації ХОЗЛ та ожиріння, яке є складовою метаболічного синдрому (МС) і стало проблемою нашого часу. Зв'язок між МС та ХОЗЛ спостерігається в декількох довготривалих і одномоментних дослідженнях, а також синдром був визначений як незалежний фактор ризику для погіршення респіраторних симптомів, збільшення порушення функції легень, легеневої гіпертензії та бронхіальної астми [3]. 50% пацієнтів з ХОЗЛ мають один або декілька компонентів МС [2]. Одним із актуальних аспектів проблеми поєднання ХОЗЛ та МС є розроблення обґрунтованої патогенетичної терапії. Залишається відкритим питання про лікування ХОЗЛ на тлі МС (глюкокортикостероїдні гормони сприяють підвищенню артеріального тиску та рівня глюкози в крові) [16, 44]. Є дані про сприятливу дію на рівень глюкози інгібітору фосфодіестерази-4 [ФДЕ-4] — рофлуміласту [9]. Встановлено, що даний препарат зменшує вираженість порушення толерантності до глюкози [34]. На тлі лікування рофлуміластом, відзначається зниження маси тіла у пацієнтів з ожирінням, поліпшення глікемічного профілю у хворих на цукровий діабет 2-го типу [70]. За даними подвійного сліпого, рандомізованого дослідження [17] лікування рофлуміластом призводило до значного зниження ваги (-2.0 кг з рофлуміластом, проти 0,1 кг з плацебо), індексу маси тіла (ІМТ) (-0,73 кг/м² з рофлуміластом, проти 0,03 кг/м² з плацебо). Застосування рофлуміласту покращує показники oб’єму фoрсoванoгo видиху за першу секунду (ОФВ1) та позитивно впливає на інші показники функції легень у порівнянні з плацебо [7]. Позитивна дія рофлуміласту на функцію легень пов'язана зі значним зменшенням ваги пацієнтів, в першу чергу за рахунок втрати жирової маси [6]. Мета нашої роботи дослідити ефективність рофлуміласту у хворих на хронічне обструктивне захворювання легень із ожирінням

Effects of Cannabis Use on Human Behavior, Including Cognition, Motivation, and Psychosis: A Review

With a political debate about the potential risks and benefits of cannabis use as a backdrop, the wave of legalization and liberalization initiatives continues to spread. Four states (Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska) and the District of Columbia have passed laws that legalized cannabis for recreational use by adults, and 23 others plus the District of Columbia now regulate cannabis use for medical purposes. These policy changes could trigger a broad range of unintended consequences, with profound and lasting implications for the health and social systems in our country. Cannabis use is emerging as one among many interacting factors that can affect brain development and mental function. To inform the political discourse with scientific evidence, the literature was reviewed to identify what is known and not known about the effects of cannabis use on human behavior, including cognition, motivation, and psychosis

Agnosia for accents in primary progressive aphasia.

As an example of complex auditory signal processing, the analysis of accented speech is potentially vulnerable in the progressive aphasias. However, the brain basis of accent processing and the effects of neurodegenerative disease on this processing are not well understood. Here we undertook a detailed neuropsychological study of a patient, AA with progressive nonfluent aphasia, in whom agnosia for accents was a prominent clinical feature. We designed a battery to assess AA's ability to process accents in relation to other complex auditory signals. AA's performance was compared with a cohort of 12 healthy age and gender matched control participants and with a second patient, PA, who had semantic dementia with phonagnosia and prosopagnosia but no reported difficulties with accent processing. Relative to healthy controls, the patients showed distinct profiles of accent agnosia. AA showed markedly impaired ability to distinguish change in an individual's accent despite being able to discriminate phonemes and voices (apperceptive accent agnosia); and in addition, a severe deficit of accent identification. In contrast, PA was able to perceive changes in accents, phonemes and voices normally, but showed a relatively mild deficit of accent identification (associative accent agnosia). Both patients showed deficits of voice and environmental sound identification, however PA showed an additional deficit of face identification whereas AA was able to identify (though not name) faces normally. These profiles suggest that AA has conjoint (or interacting) deficits involving both apperceptive and semantic processing of accents, while PA has a primary semantic (associative) deficit affecting accents along with other kinds of auditory objects and extending beyond the auditory modality. Brain MRI revealed left peri-Sylvian atrophy in case AA and relatively focal asymmetric (predominantly right sided) temporal lobe atrophy in case PA. These cases provide further evidence for the fractionation of brain mechanisms for complex sound analysis, and for the stratification of progressive aphasia syndromes according to the signature of nonverbal auditory deficits they produce

Outcomes following autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant for patients with relapsed Wilms' tumor: a CIBMTR retrospective analysis.

Despite the marked improvement in the overall survival (OS) for patients diagnosed with Wilms' tumor (WT), the outcomes for those who experience relapse have remained disappointing. We describe the outcomes of 253 patients with relapsed WT who received high-dose chemotherapy (HDT) followed by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HCT) between 1990 and 2013, and were reported to the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplantation Research. The 5-year estimates for event-free survival (EFS) and OS were 36% (95% confidence interval (CI); 29-43%) and 45% (95 CI; 38-51%), respectively. Relapse of primary disease was the cause of death in 81% of the population. EFS, OS, relapse and transplant-related mortality showed no significant differences when broken down by disease status at transplant, time from diagnosis to transplant, year of transplant or conditioning regimen. Our data suggest that HDT followed by autologous HCT for relapsed WT is well tolerated and outcomes are similar to those reported in the literature. As attempts to conduct a randomized trial comparing maintenance chemotherapy with consolidation versus HDT followed by stem cell transplant have failed, one should balance the potential benefits with the yet unknown long-term risks. As disease recurrence continues to be the most common cause of death, future research should focus on the development of consolidation therapies for those patients achieving complete response to therapy

Design of Lipid-Based Nanocarriers via Cation Modulation of Ethanol-Interdigitated Lipid Membranes

Short-chain alcohols (i.e., ethanol) can induce membrane interdigitation in saturated-chain phosphatidylcholines (PCs). In this process, alcohol molecules intercalate between phosphate heads, increasing lateral separation and favoring hydrophobic interactions between opposing acyl chains, which interpenetrate forming an interdigitated phase. Unraveling mechanisms underlying the interactions between ethanol and model lipid membranes has implications for cell biology, biochemistry, and for the formulation of lipid-based nanocarriers. However, investigations of ethanol–lipid membrane systems have been carried out in deionized water, which limits their applicability. Here, using a combination of small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering, small-angle neutron scattering, and all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, we analyzed the effect of varying CaCl2 and NaCl concentrations on ethanol-induced interdigitation. We observed that while ethanol addition leads to the interdigitation of bulk phase 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) bilayers in the presence of CaCl2 and NaCl regardless of the salt concentration, the ethanol-induced interdigitation of vesicular DPPC depends on the choice of cation and its concentration. These findings unravel a key role for cations in the ethanol-induced interdigitation of lipid membranes in either bulk phase or vesicular form