The genetic diversity, relationships, and potential for biological control of the lobate lac scale, Paratachardina pseudolobata Kondo & Gullan (Hemiptera: Coccoidea: Kerriidae)

The lobate lac scale Paratachardina pseudolobata Kondo & Gullan (Kerriidae) is a polyphagous pest of woody plants in Florida (U.S.A.) the Bahamas, Christmas Island (Australia) and it has been reported from Cuba. Its recent appearance as a pest in these places indicates that this scale is introduced; however, its native range is unknown. Until 2006, this pest species was identified mistakenly as Paratachardina lobata (Chamberlin) [now P. silvestri (Mahdihassan)], which is native to India and Sri Lanka. Quarantine laboratory acceptance trials with Indian P. silvestri parasitoids indicated a strong immune response from P. pseudolobata. Gregarious development of encyrtid wasps was the only observed parasitism, but parasitization levels were below 3%. Identification of the native range of P. pseudolobata would facilitate the search for natural enemies better adapted to the scale. Sequence data from the D2–D3 region of the nuclear large subunit ribosomal RNA gene (LSU rRNA, 28S) and the mitochondrial gene cytochrome oxidase I (COI) distinguished P. pseudolobata from the morphologically similar species P. silvestri and P. mahdihassani Kondo & Gullan, and showed P. pseudolobata to be more closely related to these Indotropical species than to an Australian species of Paratachardina Balachowsky. Paratachardina pseudolobata was genetically uniform throughout its exotic range, consistent with a single geographic origin, although lack of variation in these genes is not unusual for scale insects. Molecular identification of morphologically similar Paratachardina species was possible using the D2–D3 region of 28S, despite its length variation, suggesting that this gene region might be suitable as a non-COI barcoding gene for scale insects

Impact of community-based chronic obstructive pulmonary disease service, a multidisciplinary intervention in an area of high deprivation: A longitudinal matched controlled study

Objective: To examine the effects of a consultant-led, community-based chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) service, based in a highly deprived area on emergency hospital admissions. Design: A longitudinal matched controlled study using difference-in-differences analysis to compare the change in outcomes in the intervention population to a matched comparison population, five years before and after implementation. Setting: A deprived district in the North West of England between 2005 and 2016. Intervention: A community-based, consultant-led COPD service providing diagnostics, treatment and rehabilitation from 2011–2016. Main outcome measures: Emergency hospital admissions, length of stay per emergency admission, and emergency re-admissions for COPD. Results: The intervention was associated with 24 fewer emergency COPD admissions per 100,000 population per year (95%CI -10.6 to 58.8, p=0.17) in the post-intervention period, relative to the control group. There were significantly fewer emergency admissions in populations with medium levels of deprivation (64 per 100,000 per year; 95%CI 1.8 to 126.9) and amongst men (60 per 100,000 per year; 95%CI 12.3 to 107.3). Conclusion: We found limited evidence that the service reduced emergency hospital admissions, after an initial decline the effect was not sustained. The service, however, may have been more effective in some subgroups

The Quantified Outpatient - Challenges and Opportunities in 24hr Patient Monitoring

Patient monitoring systems capable of accurate recording in the real-world, during the activities of everyday living, can provide rich objective accounts of patient well-being that have broad application in clinical decision support. Combining physiological, environmental and actigraphy sensing together with a quantified subjective patient report and activity log, provides new opportunities and new challenges in big data analysis, data mining and visual analytics

Intraspecific Geographic Variation of Fragrances Acquired by Orchid Bees in Native and Introduced Populations

Male orchid bees collect volatiles, from both floral and non-floral sources, that they expose as pheromone analogues (perfumes) during courtship display. The chemical profile of these perfumes, which includes terpenes and aromatic compounds, is both species-specific and divergent among closely related lineages. Thus, fragrance composition is thought to play an important role in prezygotic reproductive isolation in euglossine bees. However, because orchid bees acquire fragrances entirely from exogenous sources, the chemical composition of male perfumes is prone to variation due to environmental heterogeneity across habitats. We used Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) to characterize the perfumes of 114 individuals of the green orchid bee (Euglossa aff. viridissima) sampled from five native populations in Mesoamerica and two naturalized populations in the southeastern United States. We recorded a total of 292 fragrance compounds from hind-leg extracts, and found that overall perfume composition was different for each population. We detected a pronounced chemical dissimilarity between native (Mesoamerica) and naturalized (U.S.) populations that was driven both by proportional differences of common compounds as well as the presence of a few chemicals unique to each population group. Despite these differences, our data also revealed remarkable qualitative consistency in the presence of several major fragrance compounds across distant populations from dissimilar habitats. In addition, we demonstrate that naturalized bees are attracted to and collect large quantities of triclopyr 2-butoxyethyl ester, the active ingredient of several commercially available herbicides. By comparing incidence values and consistency indices across populations, we identify putative functional compounds that may play an important role in courtship signaling in this species of orchid bee

The crafting of an (un)enterprising community: context and the social practice of talk

YesThis article examines a ‘deprived’ UK community to identify how (dis)connections between context and enterprise are produced within accounts of a particular locality. We used a discursive psychological approach to examine how the community depicted itself as a context for enterprise. Our analysis identified three discursive repertoires mobilised by a range of voices in the community which combined to portray an unenterprising community and create a conceptual deadlock for enterprise. We suggest it is too deterministic to assume context is fixed and controls the potential for entrepreneurial development. Instead, we should consider social practices, including talk, that help construct the contexts in which entrepreneurship is expected to occur.The research resorted in this article was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council studentship

The transcriptional response of Caenorhabditis elegans to ivermectin exposure identifies novel genes involved in the response to reduced food intake

We have examined the transcriptional response of Caenorhabditis elegans following exposure to the anthelmintic drug ivermectin (IVM) using whole genome microarrays and real-time QPCR. Our original aim was to identify candidate molecules involved in IVM metabolism and/or excretion. For this reason the IVM tolerant strain, DA1316, was used to minimise transcriptomic changes related to the phenotype of drug exposure. However, unlike equivalent work with benzimidazole drugs, very few of the induced genes were members of xenobiotic metabolising enzyme families. Instead, the transcriptional response was dominated by genes associated with fat mobilization and fatty acid metabolism including catalase, esterase, and fatty acid CoA synthetase genes. This is consistent with the reduction in pharyngeal pumping, and consequential reduction in food intake, upon exposure of DA1316 worms to IVM. Genes with the highest fold change in response to IVM exposure, cyp-37B1, mtl-1 and scl-2, were comparably up-regulated in response to short–term food withdrawal (4 hr) independent of IVM exposure, and GFP reporter constructs confirm their expression in tissues associated with fat storage (intestine and hypodermis). These experiments have serendipitously identified novel genes involved in an early response of C. elegans to reduced food intake and may provide insight into similar processes in higher organisms