The Role of Pollen as a Reward for Learning in Bees

In contrast to the wealth of knowledge concerning sucrose-rewarded learning mechanisms, the question of what bees learn when they collect pollen from flowers has been little addressed. Pollen-rewarded learning is of interest not only in furthering our understanding of associative conditioning pathways in the insect brain, it may also shed light on the role that cognitive processes may have played in shaping the early evolutionary relationship between plants and their pollinators, given that pollen is thought to have been the ancestral reward for flower visitors. Thus the central aim of this thesis was to demonstrate the conditions under which pollen may reinforce learning of floral features in two model species, the honeybee (Apis mellifera) and bumblebee (Bombus terrestris). Having developed a number of paradigms for the study of pollen-rewarded learning, here I ask what bees might learn during pollen collection, both in terms of the sensory characteristics of pollen itself and additional cues paired with this reward. Freely flying bees were shown to be sensitive to differences in the type of pollen offered for collection and were able to associate the presence of a coloured stimulus with both the availability and quality of the pollen reward. The sensory pathways involved in the evaluation of pollen were also investigated. When bees were restrained, in order to more tightly control exposure to the reward, pollen was not found to support learning in an olfactory conditioning task. Furthermore, when delivered in solution with sucrose, pollen was found to inhibit learning relative to bees rewarded with sucrose alone. It seems that pollen contains compounds which are perceived as distasteful by bees and that through the contamination of nectar, pollen may influence bees foraging decisions via differential learning and recognition of floral cues

How Modes of Interviewing Affect Self-Disclosure

This study examined how different modes of interviewing affect the self-disclosure of sensitive information in emerging adults. Participants included 61 students ages 18 to 22 years old who attended a Western New York university. Internalizing behaviors such as feelings of depression and anxiety were measured using three questionnaire formats: face-to-face, computer, and paper/pencil. Results showed that participants answered significantly different between the interview modes on 6 of the 21 questions. Those in the computer group were significantly more likely to endorse No on questions pertaining to feelings of depression and anxiety. These results suggest that the computer mode may be considered less personable and that face-to-face interviews may elicit more self-disclosure on internalizing behaviors

Grape Expectations: A Survey of British Vineyard Land Management Practices From an Environmental Perspective

Traditional vineyard landscapes are generally intensively managed with heavy reliance on synthetic pesticides. Viticulture is one of the fastest-growing sectors of English agriculture and information on land management is essential to secure a sustainable future. We surveyed viticulturists to ascertain vineyard pest presence, pest control, inter-row ground cover and wildflower use. The majority of viticulturists reported the presence of vineyard pests and relied heavily on pesticides, with 74% using synthetic pest control, 40% using herbicides, 40% using fungicides. Inter-row, 66% of vineyards have grass-only cover and frequent summer mowing, with only 6% sowing wildflowers. However, 60% use natural pest control, 80% reported existence of wildflowers in headlands, and 29% mentioned reduced mowing. We discuss spontaneous and sown wildflowers and benefits for biodiversity, integrated pest management and the commonly perceived barriers to adaptation. We conclude there is huge variation in management styles and more evidence-based environmental advice for viticulturists is needed

Differences in colour learning between pollen- and sucrose-rewarded bees

Rapid Communication"This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Communicative & Integrative Biology on 08 August 2015, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/19420889.2015.1052921]."Open access articleWhat bees learn during pollen collection, and how they might discriminate between flowers on the basis of the quality of this reward, is not well understood. Recently we showed that bees learn to associate colours with differences in pollen rewards. Extending these findings, we present here additional evidence to suggest that the strength and time-course of memory formation may differ between pollen- and sucrose-rewarded bees. Colour-naïve honeybees, trained with pollen or sucrose rewards to discriminate coloured stimuli, were found to differ in their responses when recalling learnt information after reversal training. Such differences could affect the decision-making and foraging dynamics of individual bees when collecting different types of floral rewards

Psychological Functioning in Children and Adolescents living with Spinal Cord Lesions and their Caregivers in Colombia, South America

Objective: Spinal cord lesions resulting from spinal cord injury (SCI) and spina bifida (SB) are permanent and cause significant functional impairment. High rates of impaired psychological function and lower health-related quality of life (HRQOL) have been documented in children with SB and their caregivers, but few studies have examined these issues in the pediatric SCI population. Moreover, no research has investigated mental health or HRQOL among children living with spinal cord lesions, or their caregivers, in the developing world. There is reason to suspect that lack of access to medical, rehabilitative, and psychological resources places these individuals at particular risk for compromised psychological functioning. Therefore, the goals of the present study are: 1) to compare psychological functioning and HRQOL of children with SCI or SB to an age-matched comparison group; 2) to compare the psychological functioning, HRQOL, and level of burden in caregivers of children with SCI /SB to that of caregivers of healthy age-matched children; and, 3) to determine the influence of hopefulness on anxious and depressive symptomatology and HRQOL in children with SCI or SB. Participants: Thirty children with spinal cord lesions; 30 age-matched comparison group children; 30 caregivers of children with spinal cord lesions, and 30 caregivers of comparison group children. Methods: Children and caregivers completed a series of questionnaires assessing depressive and anxious symptomatology and HRQOL. Children also completed a questionnaire assessing hopefulness, and caregivers completed a questionnaire assessing levels of burden. Results: Contrary to hypotheses, significant between-group differences were not observed in terms of depressive and anxious symptoms in either children or their caregivers. However, significant differences in HRQOL were observed between children with spinal cord lesions and the comparison group. Finally, results revealed significant differences between caregiver groups on measures of HRQOL and burden. Conclusions: Results therefore highlight the need service delivery in Colombia to children with spinal cord lesions and their caregivers. Access to improved medical, rehabilitative, and psychological care could profoundly impact quality of life in the spinal cord lesion child and caregiver population, particularly with regard to respite services and resources to improve children's ability to attend school and participate in the community. In addition, parents of Colombian children with permanent physical disabilities may not expect their children to achieve normative levels of participation as compared to their healthy peers; psychoeducation would likely assist parents to understand that their children can live full lives despite their different abilities.Ph.D., Psychology -- Drexel University, 201

Severity and progression of hand pain and functional difficulty: a prospective cohort study in community-dwelling older adults with hand pain

Background Hand problems are common in older adults causing pain and disruption to daily living. Understanding prognosis of such problems is therefore important to provide information on likely symptom course and to target treatment to those in most need. The aim of this thesis was to investigate prognosis of hand pain and functional difficulty in communitydwelling older adults with hand pain. Methods The majority of data analysis was based on a cohort of adults aged 50 years and over reporting hand pain in the last 12-months at baseline (N=623). The Australian/Canadian Hand Osteoarthritis Index (AUSCAN) was the primary measure of hand pain (0-10) and function (0-10), measured at baseline and four follow-up time-points (1.5, 3, 5, and 7.5-years). Random effect models, latent class growth models, parallel process growth models and parallel process growth mixture models were used to model longitudinal trajectories of AUSCAN pain and functional difficulty over time. Results Trajectories of hand pain and functional difficulty were shown to be relatively stable for the majority of participants over the 7.5-year follow-up period with an overall mean change per year of 0.05 (95% confidence interval: 0.02, 0.07) and 0.07 (95% confidence interval 0.05, 0.09) points for AUSCAN pain and function respectively. Although combinations of predictors were identified that predicted symptom course, the strongest predictor was the baseline measure for the outcome of interest, with model fit not greatly improved by adding three further predictors to the model e.g. Nagelkerke’s pseudo R-square: Hand pain, baseline only 0.64; with additional predictors 0.70; Hand function, 0.80 and 0.83 respectively. A group of participants with hand pain trajectories that differed greatly from their hand function trajectories was not identified suggesting that changes in hand pain are linked to changes in hand function over time. Conclusions Progression of hand symptoms was not inevitable for all participants when assessed over a 7.5 year time-period. Baseline symptom severity may be the single most important predictor to identify those with an unfavourable symptom course and where early onward referral/treatment may be useful. This work remains exploratory however until findings are replicated in an external dataset

Comparison of Theoretical Starburst Photoionisation Models for Optical Diagnostics

We study and compare different examples of stellar evolutionary synthesis input parameters used to produce photoionisation model grids using the MAPPINGS V modelling code. The aim of this study is to (a) explore the systematic effects of various stellar evolutionary synthesis model parameters on the interpretation of emission lines in optical strong-line diagnostic diagrams, (b) characterise the combination of parameters able to reproduce the spread of local galaxies located in the star-forming region in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and (c) investigate the emission from extremely metal-poor galaxies using photoionisation models. We explore and compare the stellar input ionising spectrum (stellar population synthesis code [Starburst99, SLUG, BPASS], stellar evolutionary tracks, stellar atmospheres, star-formation history, sampling of the initial mass function) as well as parameters intrinsic to the H II region (metallicity, ionisation parameter, pressure, H II region boundedness). We also perform a comparison of the photoionisation codes MAPPINGS and CLOUDY. On the variations in the ionising spectrum model parameters, we find that the differences in strong emission-line ratios between varying models for a given input model parameter are small, on average ~0.1 dex. An average difference of ~0.1 dex in emission-line ratio is also found between models produced with MAPPINGS and CLOUDY. Large differences between the emission-line ratios are found when comparing intrinsic H II region parameters. We find that low-metallicity galaxies are better explained by a density-bounded H II region and higher pressures better encompass the spread of galaxies at high redshift.Comment: 33 pages, 26 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Relationships between Parent Social Problem-Solving and Child and Parent Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms after Pediatric Injury

Objective: Post-traumatic Stress Symptoms (PTSS) are common among injured children and their parents and can result in significant psychosocial impairment. Because parents can influence children’s reactions to a traumatic event, potentially malleable factors associated with parents’ development of PTSS may represent a key area for early risk assessment and intervention in both parents and children. Social Problem-Solving (SPS) theory posits that deficits in an individual’s ability to identify, discover, and evaluate effective solutions for specific problems give rise to psychological morbidity, including PTSS. However, the role of parent SPS abilities in the development of PTSS symptomatology in injured children or the parents themselves has not been investigated. Therefore, the present study aimed to: 1) examine relationships between parent/guardian problem-solving abilities and level and change in parent/guardian PTSS at 6 and 12 weeks post-injury; 2) examine relationships between parent/guardian problem-solving abilities and level and change in child PTSS at 6 and 12 weeks post-injury; 3) investigate relationships between negative parent/guardian problem-solving orientation (NPO) at baseline and level and change in PTSS in children and parents/guardians over time; 4) investigate relationships between parent/guardian rational problem-solving (RPS) abilities at baseline and level and change in child PTSS over time; and 5) explore changes in parents/guardians’ problem-solving abilities between baseline, 6, and 12 weeks post-injury. Participants (target): 48 injured children (ages 8-17) and their parents or legal guardians. Methods: Children and parents/guardians completed questionnaires at baseline (within two weeks of injury), 6 weeks post-injury, and 12 weeks post-injury. At each time point, parents completed a measure of Social Problem-Solving ability, while both children and parents completed assessments of PTSS. Results: Parents’ baseline total Social Problem Solving-Revised-Short Form (SPSI-RSF) Scores and NPO scale scores were significantly related to parent PTSS at baseline and six weeks post-injury. Although parents with worse baseline SPS/NPO initially reported higher PTSS, they demonstrated a greater decrease in symptoms as compared to parents with better baseline SPS/NPO over the course of the study. By 12 weeks postinjury, parents’ total scores on the SPSI-R-SF and the NPO subscale were no longer associated with parent PTSS. RPS scores were not significantly associated with parent PTSS at any time point. With respect to child PTSS, contrary to hypotheses, parents’ baseline total scores on the SPSI-R-SF, NPO, and RPS scales were not associated with level and change in child-reported PTSS over time. Parents evidenced a small, but statistically significant, improvement in overall SPSI-R-SF scores over time. Conclusions: Results suggest that parents with poor problem-solving abilities may benefit from targeted problem-solving therapy during the peri-trauma period and immediate aftermath of a child’s injury. This therapy may be most helpful if designed to specifically address negative problem orientation. Although no significant associations between parent SPS and child PTSS were identified, this may be due to the complex nature of relationships between these variables.Ph.D., Clinical Psychology -- Drexel University, 201