Competition and habitat quality influence age and sex distribution in wintering rusty blackbirds.

Bird habitat quality is often inferred from species abundance measures during the breeding and non-breeding season and used for conservation management decisions. However, during the non-breeding season age and sex classes often occupy different habitats which suggest a need for more habitat-specific data. Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) is a forested wetland specialist wintering in bottomland hardwood forests in the south-eastern U. S. and belongs to the most steeply declining songbirds in the U.S. Little information is available to support priority birds such as the Rusty Blackbird wintering in this threatened habitat. We assessed age and sex distribution and body condition of Rusty Blackbirds among the three major habitats used by this species in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley and also measured food availability. Overall, pecan groves had the highest biomass mainly driven by the amount of nuts. Invertebrate biomass was highest in forests but contributed only a small percentage to overall biomass. Age and sex classes were unevenly distributed among habitats with adult males primarily occupying pecan groves containing the highest nut biomass, females being found in forests which had the lowest nut biomass and young males primarily staying in forest fragments along creeks which had intermediate nut biomass. Males were in better body condition than females and were in slightly better condition in pecan groves. The results suggest that adult males occupy the highest quality habitat and may competitively exclude the other age and sex classes

Standardizing Operational Vector Sampling Techniques for Measuring Malaria Transmission Intensity: Evaluation of six Mosquito Collection Methods in Western Kenya.

Operational vector sampling methods lack standardization, making quantitative comparisons of malaria transmission across different settings difficult. Human landing catch (HLC) is considered the research gold standard for measuring human-mosquito contact, but is unsuitable for large-scale sampling. This study assessed mosquito catch rates of CDC light trap (CDC-LT), Ifakara tent trap (ITT), window exit trap (WET), pot resting trap (PRT), and box resting trap (BRT) relative to HLC in western Kenya to 1) identify appropriate methods for operational sampling in this region, and 2) contribute to a larger, overarching project comparing standardized evaluations of vector trapping methods across multiple countries. Mosquitoes were collected from June to July 2009 in four districts: Rarieda, Kisumu West, Nyando, and Rachuonyo. In each district, all trapping methods were rotated 10 times through three houses in a 3 × 3 Latin Square design. Anophelines were identified by morphology and females classified as fed or non-fed. Anopheles gambiae s.l. were further identified as Anopheles gambiae s.s. or Anopheles arabiensis by PCR. Relative catch rates were estimated by negative binomial regression. When data were pooled across all four districts, catch rates (relative to HLC indoor) for An. gambiae s.l (95.6% An. arabiensis, 4.4% An. gambiae s.s) were high for HLC outdoor (RR = 1.01), CDC-LT (RR = 1.18), and ITT (RR = 1.39); moderate for WET (RR = 0.52) and PRT outdoor (RR = 0.32); and low for all remaining types of resting traps (PRT indoor, BRT indoor, and BRT outdoor; RR < 0.08 for all). For Anopheles funestus, relative catch rates were high for ITT (RR = 1.21); moderate for HLC outdoor (RR = 0.47), CDC-LT (RR = 0.69), and WET (RR = 0.49); and low for all resting traps (RR < 0.02 for all). At finer geographic scales, however, efficacy of each trap type varied from district to district. ITT, CDC-LT, and WET appear to be effective methods for large-scale vector sampling in western Kenya. Ultimately, choice of collection method for operational surveillance should be driven by trap efficacy and scalability, rather than fine-scale precision with respect to HLC. When compared with recent, similar trap evaluations in Tanzania and Zambia, these data suggest that traps which actively lure host-seeking females will be most useful for surveillance in the face of declining vector densities

Mice Doubly-Deficient in Lysosomal Hexosaminidase A and Neuraminidase 4 Show Epileptic Crises and Rapid Neuronal Loss

Tay-Sachs disease is a severe lysosomal disorder caused by mutations in the HexA gene coding for the α-subunit of lysosomal β-hexosaminidase A, which converts GM2 to GM3 ganglioside. Hexa−/− mice, depleted of β-hexosaminidase A, remain asymptomatic to 1 year of age, because they catabolise GM2 ganglioside via a lysosomal sialidase into glycolipid GA2, which is further processed by β-hexosaminidase B to lactosyl-ceramide, thereby bypassing the β-hexosaminidase A defect. Since this bypass is not effective in humans, infantile Tay-Sachs disease is fatal in the first years of life. Previously, we identified a novel ganglioside metabolizing sialidase, Neu4, abundantly expressed in mouse brain neurons. Now we demonstrate that mice with targeted disruption of both Neu4 and Hexa genes (Neu4−/−;Hexa−/−) show epileptic seizures with 40% penetrance correlating with polyspike discharges on the cortical electrodes of the electroencephalogram. Single knockout Hexa−/− or Neu4−/− siblings do not show such symptoms. Further, double-knockout but not single-knockout mice have multiple degenerating neurons in the cortex and hippocampus and multiple layers of cortical neurons accumulating GM2 ganglioside. Together, our data suggest that the Neu4 block exacerbates the disease in Hexa−/− mice, indicating that Neu4 is a modifier gene in the mouse model of Tay-Sachs disease, reducing the disease severity through the metabolic bypass. However, while disease severity in the double mutant is increased, it is not profound suggesting that Neu4 is not the only sialidase contributing to the metabolic bypass in Hexa−/− mice

Differential cell line susceptibility to the emerging Zika virus: implications for disease pathogenesis, non-vector-borne human transmission and animal reservoirs

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Cognitive and cognitive-motor interventions affecting physical functioning: A systematic review

Background Several types of cognitive or combined cognitive-motor intervention types that might influence physical functions have been proposed in the past: training of dual-tasking abilities, and improving cognitive function through behavioral interventions or the use of computer games. The objective of this systematic review was to examine the literature regarding the use of cognitive and cognitive-motor interventions to improve physical functioning in older adults or people with neurological impairments that are similar to cognitive impairments seen in aging. The aim was to identify potentially promising methods that might be used in future intervention type studies for older adults. Methods A systematic search was conducted for the Medline/Premedline, PsycINFO, CINAHL and EMBASE databases. The search was focused on older adults over the age of 65. To increase the number of articles for review, we also included those discussing adult patients with neurological impairments due to trauma, as these cognitive impairments are similar to those seen in the aging population. The search was restricted to English, German and French language literature without any limitation of publication date or restriction by study design. Cognitive or cognitive-motor interventions were defined as dual-tasking, virtual reality exercise, cognitive exercise, or a combination of these. Results 28 articles met our inclusion criteria. Three articles used an isolated cognitive rehabilitation intervention, seven articles used a dual-task intervention and 19 applied a computerized intervention. There is evidence to suggest that cognitive or motor-cognitive methods positively affects physical functioning, such as postural control, walking abilities and general functions of the upper and lower extremities, respectively. The majority of the included studies resulted in improvements of the assessed functional outcome measures. Conclusions The current evidence on the effectiveness of cognitive or motor-cognitive interventions to improve physical functioning in older adults or people with neurological impairments is limited. The heterogeneity of the studies published so far does not allow defining the training methodology with the greatest effectiveness. This review nevertheless provides important foundational information in order to encourage further development of novel cognitive or cognitive-motor interventions, preferably with a randomized control design. Future research that aims to examine the relation between improvements in cognitive skills and the translation to better performance on selected physical tasks should explicitly take the relation between the cognitive and physical skills into account.ISSN:1471-231

Frequent CEO Turnover and Firm Performance: The Resilience Effect of Workforce Diversity

© 2020, Springer Nature B.V. CEO turnover (or succession) is a critical event in an organization that influences organizational processes and performance. The objective of this study is to investigate whether workforce diversity (i.e., age, gender, and education-level diversity) might have a resilience effect on firm performance under the frequency of CEO turnover. Based on a sample of 409 Korean firms from 2010 to 2015, our results show that firms with more frequent CEO turnover have a lower firm performance. However, firms with more gender and education-level diversity could buffer the disruptive effect of frequent CEO turnover on firm performance to offer a benefit to the organization. Our theory and findings suggest that effectively managing diverse workforce can be a resilience factor in an uncertain organizational environment because diverse workforce has complementary skills and behaviors that can cope better with uncertainty and signals social inclusion of an organization, thus fostering a long-term exchange relationship. These findings contribute to the literature on CEO turnover (or succession) and diversity

Measurements of (tt)over-barH Production and the CP Structure of the Yukawa Interaction between the Higgs Boson and Top Quark in the Diphoton Decay Channel

The first observation of the (tt) over barH process in a single Higgs boson decay channel with the full reconstruction of the final state (H -> gamma gamma) is presented, with a significance of 6.6 standard deviations (sigma). The CP structure of Higgs boson couplings to fermions is measured, resulting in an exclusion of the pure CP-odd structure of the top Yukawa coupling at 3.2 sigma. The measurements are based on a sample of protonproton collisions at a center-of-mass energy root s = 13 TeV collected by the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1). The cross section times branching fraction of the (tt) over barH process is measured to be sigma B-(tt) over barH(gamma gamma) = 1.56(-0.32)(+0.34) th, which is compatible with the standard model prediction of 1.13(-0.11)(+0.08) fb. The fractional contribution of the CP-odd component is measured to be f(CP)(Hu) = 0.00 +/- 0.33.Peer reviewe