Socio-psychological factors, beyond knowledge, predict people’s engagement with pollinator conservation (dataset)

A questionnaire about people’s perceptions, knowledge and behaviour relating to pollinators was distributed from March-June 2018, primarily via social media and email. The survey received 1,275 responses, which are provided here, in a single csv data file.The article associated with this dataset is located in ORE at: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/123383This is the dataset used for the Knapp et al. (2020) article "Socio-psychological factors, beyond knowledge, predict people’s engagement with pollinator conservation" published in People and Nature.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)Halpin TrustEuropean Regional Development Fund (ERDF)Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) UnitCornwall CouncilWelsh Assembly Governmen

Effect of height and colour of bee bricks on nesting occupancy of bees and wasps in SW England

This is the final version. Available on open access from Conservation Evidence via the DOI in this recordBee bricks are a novel solitary-bee nesting habitat made from reclaimed concrete, designed to be built into walls to provide nest sites in urban areas. We tested if cavity-nesting bees and wasps used bee bricks, and if they showed any preference for nesting in bricks of different colours or at different heights. We carried out surveys of solitary bees in 15 private urban gardens and eight rural public gardens, where the bee bricks were then placed for two years (2016-2017). Bee bricks were placed on structures that were either 1 m in height with 4 bricks (red, yellow, white and wooden control) or with three platforms where white bricks were placed at 0 m, 0.6 m or 1.0 m above the ground. The number of occupied nest holes was counted at the end of each summer. Nesting holes that were capped with mud were more common than those capped with chewed or cut leaves. The average % of holes capped with either mud or chewed leaf was greatest in red bricks and lowest in wooden controls. Only one brick out of 39 placed at ground level had capped holes, although the difference in the % of holes capped between heights was not statistically significant. Cavity-nesting bees and wasps use solitary-bee bricks for nests, but population level impacts are still untested.University of Exete

Socio-psychological factors, beyond knowledge, predict people’s engagement with pollinator conservation (article)

This is the final version. Available on open access from Wiley via the DOI in this recordThe dataset associated with this article is located in ORE at: https://doi.org/10.24378/exe.2783Nature conservation often depends on the behaviour of individuals, which can be driven by socio-psychological factors such as a person’s attitude, knowledge and identity. Despite extensive ecological research about pollinator declines, there has been almost no social research assessing the drivers of people’s engagement in pollinator conservation behaviour. To address this gap, we used a large-scale, online questionnaire in the UK, broadly framed around the Theory of Planned Behaviour. We received a total of 1,275 responses from a wide range of ages, incomes and education levels, despite a selection bias towards people with a pre-existing interest in pollinators. A range of socio-psychological factors predicted people’s pollinator conservation actions and explained 45% of the variation. Respondents’ diversity of nature interactions and perceived behavioural control (feeling able to help pollinators) were consistently important predictors of people’s pollinator conservation actions, whilst the importance of other socio-psychological factors depended on the particular action. Notably, knowledge was far less important overall than people’s perceptions and other socio-psychological factors, highlighting a knowledge-action gap. Further unexplained variation in people’s behaviour can partly be explained by structural and contextual factors, particularly regarding social norms around tidiness. From a practical perspective, our findings reveal three main insights: (i) Several simple, low-cost pollinator conservation actions (reduced mowing, leaving areas unmown and creating patches of bare ground for ground-nesting bees) are currently under-utilised so should be priorities for pollinator conservation programmes. (ii) Strategies are needed to overcome reported practical barriers, for example by providing free resources (e.g. seeds of pollen- and nectar-rich plants) and communicating simple beneficial actions that can be carried out with limited time, space and money. (iii) Knowledge is just one (relatively less important) factor that predicts pollinator conservation behaviour – othersocio-psychological factors provide potential pathways for increasing uptake, and structural and contextual limitations also need to be considered. In practice, this could be achieved by engaging, inspiring and empowering the public to help pollinators and to take responsibility for their local environment, for example through environmental education and community programmes facilitating public interest and involvement in the management of greenspace.Halpin TrustNatural Environment Research Council (NERC)Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty unitEconomic and Social Research Council (ESRC)Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)European Regional Development Fund (ERDF

Quantum Correlations in Multipartite Quantum Systems

We review some concepts and properties of quantum correlations, in particular multipartite measures, geometric measures and monogamy relations. We also discuss the relation between classical and total correlationsComment: to be published as a chapter of the book "Lectures on general quantum correlations and their applications" edited by F. Fanchini, D. Soares-Pinto, and G. Adesso (Springer, 2017

Macro-Climatic Distribution Limits Show Both Niche Expansion and Niche Specialization among C4 Panicoids

Grasses are ancestrally tropical understory species whose current dominance in warm open habitats is linked to the evolution of C4 photosynthesis. C4 grasses maintain high rates of photosynthesis in warm and water stressed environments, and the syndrome is considered to induce niche shifts into these habitats while adaptation to cold ones may be compromised. Global biogeographic analyses of C4 grasses have, however, concentrated on diversity patterns, while paying little attention to distributional limits. Using phylogenetic contrast analyses, we compared macro-climatic distribution limits among ~1300 grasses from the subfamily Panicoideae, which includes 4/5 of the known photosynthetic transitions in grasses. We explored whether evolution of C4 photosynthesis correlates with niche expansions, niche changes, or stasis at subfamily level and within the two tribes Paniceae and Paspaleae. We compared the climatic extremes of growing season temperatures, aridity, and mean temperatures of the coldest months. We found support for all the known biogeographic distribution patterns of C4 species, these patterns were, however, formed both by niche expansion and niche changes. The only ubiquitous response to a change in the photosynthetic pathway within Panicoideae was a niche expansion of the C4 species into regions with higher growing season temperatures, but without a withdrawal from the inherited climate niche. Other patterns varied among the tribes, as macro-climatic niche evolution in the American tribe Paspaleae differed from the pattern supported in the globally distributed tribe Paniceae and at family level.Fil: Aagesen, Lone. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion. Academia Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion; ArgentinaFil: Biganzoli, Fernando. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Métodos Cuantitativos y Sistemas de Información; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Bena, María Julia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion. Academia Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion; ArgentinaFil: Godoy Bürki, Ana Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion. Academia Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion; ArgentinaFil: Reinheimer, Renata. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología del Litoral. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología del Litoral; ArgentinaFil: Zuloaga, Fernando Omar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion. Academia Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion; Argentin

Mass-flowering crops have a greater impact than semi-natural habitat on crop pollinators and pollen deposition

This is the final version. Available from Springer via the DOI in this record. Datasets available in the NERC Environmental Information Data Centre repository https://doi.org/10.5285/6128a4f7-d2ac-43c5-b492-af4c654e89b8.Context: Maximising insect pollination of mass-flowering crops is a widely-discussed approach to sustainable agriculture. Management actions can target landscape-scale semi-natural habitat, cropping patterns or field-scale features, but little is known about their relative effectiveness. Objective: To test how landscape composition (area of mass-flowering crops and semi-natural habitat) and field-scale habitat (margins and hedges) affect pollinator species richness, abundance, and pollen deposition within crop fields. Methods: We surveyed all flower visitors (Diptera, Coleoptera and Hymenoptera) in oilseed rape fields and related them to landscape composition and field features. Flower visitors were classified as bees, non-bee pollinators and brassica specialists. Total pollen deposition by individual taxa was estimated using single visit pollen deposition on stigmas combined with insect abundance. Results: The area of mass-flowering crop had a negative effect on the species richness and abundance of bees in fields, but not other flower visitors. The area of semi-natural habitat in the surrounding landscape had a positive effect on bees, but was not as important as the area of mass-flowering crop. Taxonomic richness and abundance varied significantly between years for non-bee pollinators. Greater cover of mass-flowering crops surrounding fields had a negative effect on pollen deposition, but only when non-bee pollinator numbers were reduced. Conclusions: Management choices that result in landscape homogenisation, such as large areas of mass-flowering crops, may reduce pollination services by reducing the numbers of bees visiting fields. Non-bee insect pollinators may buffer these landscape effects on pollen deposition, and management to support their populations should be considered.Natural Environment Research Counci

Candidate target genes for loss of heterozygosity on human chromosome 17q21

Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) on chromosome 17q21 has been detected in 30% of primary human breast tumours. The smallest common region deleted occurred in an interval between the D17S746 and D17S846 polymorphic sequences tagged sites that are located on two recombinant PI-bacteriophage clones of chromosome 17q21: 122F4 and 50H1, respectively. To identify the target gene for LOH, we defined a map of this chromosomal region. We found the following genes: JUP, FK506BP10, SC65, Gastrin (GAS) and HAP1. Of the genes that have been identified in this study, only JUP is located between D17S746 and D17S846. This was of interest since earlier studies have shown that JUP expression is altered in breast, lung and thyroid tumours as well as cell lines having LOH in chromosome 17q21. However, no mutations were detected in JUP using single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis of primary breast tumour DNAs having LOH at 17q21. We could find no evidence that the transcription promoter for JUP is methylated in tumour DNAs having LOH at 17q21. We suspect that the target gene for LOH in primary human breast tumours on chromosome 17q21 is either JUP and results in a haploinsufficiency for expression or may be an unidentified gene located in the interval between D17S846 and JUP. © 2004 Cancer Research UK

Habitat and forage associations of a naturally colonising insect pollinator, the Tree Bumblebee Bombus hypnorum

Bumblebees (Bombus species) are major pollinators of commercial crops and wildflowers but factors affecting their abundance, including causes of recent population declines, remain unclear. Investigating the ecology of species with expanding ranges provides a potentially powerful means of elucidating these factors. Such species may also bring novel pollination services to their new ranges. We therefore investigated landscape-scale habitat use and foraging preferences of the Tree Bumblebee, B. hypnorum, a recent natural colonist that has rapidly expanded its range in the UK over the past decade. Counts of B. hypnorum and six other Bombus species were made in March-June 2012 within a mixed landscape in south-eastern Norfolk, UK. The extent of different landscape elements around each transect was quantified at three scales (250 m, 500 m and 1500 m). We then identified the landscape elements that best predicted the density of B. hypnorum and other Bombus species. At the best fitting scale (250 m), B. hypnorum density was significantly positively associated with extent of both urban and woodland cover and significantly negatively associated with extent of oilseed rape cover. This combination of landscape predictors was unique to B. hypnorum. Urban and woodland cover were associated with B. hypnorum density at three and two, respectively, of the three scales studied. Relative to other Bombus species, B. hypnorum exhibited a significantly higher foraging preference for two flowering trees, Crataegus monogyna and Prunus spinosa, and significantly lower preferences for Brassica napus, Glechoma hederacea and Lamium album. Our study provides novel, quantitative support for an association of B. hypnorum with urban and woodland landscape elements. Range expansion in B. hypnorum appears to depend, on exploitation of widespread habitats underutilised by native Bombus species, suggesting B. hypnorum will readily co-exist with these species. These findings suggest that management could target bumblebee species with distinctive habitat requirements to help maintain pollination service

Results of a United Kingdom real-world study of polatuzumab vedotin, bendamustine, and rituximab for relapsed/refractory DLBCL

The addition of polatuzumab vedotin to bendamustine and rituximab (Pola-BR) has been shown to improve overall survival (OS) in stem cell transplant (SCT)-ineligible patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). It is also increasingly used as bridging to CAR T-cell therapy (CAR-T). We retrospectively analysed the efficacy of Pola-BR in 133 patients at 28 UK institutions. Treatment intent was bridging to CAR-T for N=40, re-induction with planned SCT for N=13 and stand-alone treatment for N=78. The overall response rate (ORR) was 57.0% (complete response (CR) 32.8%). After median 7.7 months follow-up, median PFS and OS were 4.8 months and 8.2 months respectively. For stand-alone treatment shortened PFS was associated with bulk disease (>7.5cm) (HR 2.32 (95% CI 1.23-4.38), p=0.009), >1 prior treatment (HR 2.17 (95% CI 1.19-3.95), p=0.01) and refractoriness to the last treatment (HR 3.48 (95% CI 1.79-6.76), p<0.001). For CAR-T bridging the ORR was 42.1% (CR 18.4%) and for treatment after CAR-T failure the ORR was 43.8% (CR 18.8%). These data demonstrate efficacy for Pola-BR as a treatment for SCT-ineligible patients with R/R DLBCL, help to delineate which patients may benefit most, and provide preliminary evidence of efficacy as bridging to CAR-T and after CAR-T failure

Alternative splicing of the maize Ac transposase transcript in transgenic sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.)

The maize Activator/Dissociation (Ac/Ds) transposable element system was introduced into sugar beet. The autonomous Ac and non-autonomous Ds element excise from the T-DNA vector and integrate at novel positions in the sugar beet genome. Ac and Ds excisions generate footprints in the donor T-DNA that support the hairpin model for transposon excision. Two complete integration events into genomic sugar beet DNA were obtained by IPCR. Integration of Ac leads to an eight bp duplication, while integration of Ds in a homologue of a sugar beet flowering locus gene did not induce a duplication. The molecular structure of the target site indicates Ds integration into a double strand break. Analyses of transposase transcription using RT–PCR revealed low amounts of alternatively spliced mRNAs. The fourth intron of the transposase was found to be partially misspliced. Four different splice products were identified. In addition, the second and third exon were found to harbour two and three novel introns, respectively. These utilize each the same splice donor but several alternative splice acceptor sites. Using the SplicePredictor online tool, one of the two introns within exon two is predicted to be efficiently spliced in maize. Most interestingly, splicing of this intron together with the four major introns of Ac would generate a transposase that lacks the DNA binding domain and two of its three nuclear localization signals, but still harbours the dimerization domain