The early death of Colonel Robert C. Tytler and the afterlife of his collection

A letter by Allan Octavian Hume and three by Bertram Bevan-Petman, all written between 1904 and 1911 to Ernst Hartert, bird curator of Rothschild’s Tring Museum, are present in the Rothschild Tring archive, now held by the Natural History Museum. These shed light on both the probable cause of the early death in 1872 of Colonel Robert C. Tytler, British army officer and naturalist in colonial India, and on the somewhat convoluted fate of his collection subsequently.Copyright: © 2021 Prys-Jones, R et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credite

Does Language Dominance Affect Cognitive Performance In Bilinguals? Lifespan Evidence From Preschoolers Through Older Adults On Card Sorting, Simon, And Metalinguistic Tasks

This study explores the extent to which a bilingual advantage can be observed for three tasks in an established population of fully fluent bilinguals from childhood through adulthood. Welsh-English simultaneous and early sequential bilinguals, as well as English monolinguals, aged 3 years through older adults, were tested on three sets of cognitive and executive function tasks. Bilinguals were Welsh-dominant, balanced, or English-dominant, with only Welsh, Welsh and English, or only English at home. Card sorting, Simon, and a metalinguistic judgment task (650, 557, and 354 participants, respectively) reveal little support for a bilingual advantage, either in relation to control or globally. Primarily there is no difference in performance across groups, but there is occasionally better performance by monolinguals or persons dominant in the language being tested, and in one case-in one condition and in one age group-lower performance by the monolinguals. The lack of evidence for a bilingual advantage in these simultaneous and early sequential bilinguals suggests the need for much closer scrutiny of what type of bilingual might demonstrate the reported effects, under what conditions, and why.published_or_final_versio

Torsades de pointes during laparoscopic adrenalectomy of a pheochromocytoma: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Torsades de pointes is a rare but potentially lethal arrhythmia. The amount of literature available on Torsades de pointes occurring in patients with pheochromocytoma is limited, and we found no literature describing this dysrhythmia in a patient with pheochromocytoma under anesthesia.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We describe the case of a 42-year-old Caucasian woman without QT prolongation preoperatively with recurrent Torsades de pointes during laparoscopic removal of a pheochromocytoma. Torsades de pointes mainly occurs in the setting of a prolonged QT interval. This patient neither had a prolonged QT preoperatively nor was her family history suspect for a congenital long QT syndrome. Most likely, our patient had an acquired long QT syndrome, elicited by the combination of flecainide, hypomagnesemia and adrenergic stimulation during manipulation of the tumor.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We show that in the case of a surgical pheochromocytoma removal, perioperative conditions can elicit an acquired or previously unknown congenital long QT syndrome. Therefore, preoperative α- and β-blockade is advised, QT-prolonging drugs should be avoided and potassium and magnesium plasma levels should be kept at normal to high levels.</p

Effects of habitat composition and landscape structure on worker foraging distances of five bumblebee species

Bumblebees (Bombus spp.) are important pollinators of both crops and wild flowers. Their contribution to this essential ecosystem service has been threatened over recent decades by changes in land use, which have led to declines in their populations. In order to design effective conservation measures it is important to understand the effects of variation in landscape composition and structure on the foraging activities of worker bumblebees. This is because the viability of individual colonies is likely to be affected by the trade-off between the energetic costs of foraging over greater distances and the potential gains from access to additional resources. We used field surveys, molecular genetics and fine resolution remote sensing to estimate the locations of wild bumblebee nests and to infer foraging distances across a 20 km2 agricultural landscape in southern England. We investigated five species, including the rare B. ruderatus and ecologically similar but widespread B. hortorum. We compared worker foraging distances between species and examined how variation in landscape composition and structure affected foraging distances at the colony level. Mean worker foraging distances differed significantly between species. Bombus terrestris, B. lapidarius and B. ruderatus exhibited significantly greater mean foraging distances (551 m, 536 m, 501 m, respectively) than B. hortorum and B. pascuorum (336 m, 272 m, respectively). There was wide variation in worker foraging distances between colonies of the same species, which was in turn strongly influenced by the amount and spatial configuration of available foraging habitats. Shorter foraging distances were found for colonies where the local landscape had high coverage and low fragmentation of semi-natural vegetation, including managed agri-environmental field margins. The strength of relationships between different landscape variables and foraging distance varied between species, for example the strongest relationship for B. ruderatus being with floral cover of preferred forage plants. Our findings suggest that favourable landscape composition and configuration has the potential to minimise foraging distances across a range of bumblebee species. There is thus potential for improvements in the design and implementation of landscape management options, such as agri-environment schemes, aimed at providing foraging habitat for bumblebees and enhancing crop pollination services

The Mass Media and Russia’s “Sphere of Interests”:Mechanisms of Regional Hegemony in Belarus and Ukraine

As conduits for ideas, values and geographical knowledge, the mass media contribute to the construction of regional order. Moscow-based media organisations with audiences in post-Soviet republics have been described as ‘soft power tools’ or ‘information weapons’ which aid the Russian state in its pursuit of regional dominance. However, a heavy focus on the agency of the Russian state obscures the important role that local actors and their motives often play in delivering Russian media content to large audiences in neighbouring countries. This article examines several major news providers which export content from Russia to Belarus and Ukraine, reaching large audiences thanks to partnerships that serve particular local interests and accommodate some local sensitivities. These news providers resemble mechanisms of neo-Gramscian regional hegemony, where actors in the ‘periphery’ are involved in perpetuating norms from the ‘centre’. The article argues that Russia’s political leadership, despite promoting consensual hegemony as its preferred regional order, has in fact undermined the type of media mechanisms that might have helped to sustain such an order. As the Russian state has projected narratives without regard for negative local reactions, it has made itself more reliant on coercive means to secure its declared ‘sphere of interests’ across formerly Soviet territory

How informality can address emerging issues: Making the most of the G7

The G7 should address new, unprecedented and highly disruptive issues that characterise our complex world, rather than well‐understood international problems that fit into existing categories. We argue that the G7 can do this by playing to its strengths – informality and like‐mindedness in particular – in addressing emerging and transversal issues such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrencies

Using Malaise traps to assess aculeate Hymenoptera associated with farmland linear habitats across a range of farming intensities

The intensification of farming practices, along with the loss and fragmentation of semi-natural habitats within agricultural areas, has contributed significantly to insect decline worldwide including flower-visiting aculeate Hymenoptera. In this study aculeate Hymenoptera were collected using bi-directional Malaise traps placed along farmland linear habitats across a range of farming intensities. The aim was to further our understanding of the value of farmland linear habitats to this insect group and in particular the Vespinae, an understudied subfamily. Overall, significantly greater aculeate Hymenoptera species richness was found on extensive than on intermediate and intensive farms. Significantly more species and specimens were collected on the side of the traps adjacent to the linear habitats compared to the side which opened onto the fields. Aculeate Hymenoptera species richness was also significantly greater in dense hedgerows than in open hedgerows. Furthermore, two out of six Vespinae species, Vespula rufa and Vespula vulgaris, had significantly more individuals on extensive than intensive farms. This study highlights that low-intensity farming practices and farmland linear habitats, especially dense hedgerows, may enhance aculeate Hymenoptera occurrence in agricultural areas. It also demonstrates that Malaise traps set up along linear habitats across a range of farming intensities can make a significant contribution to knowledge regarding the biodiversity value of such areas. Given that selected Vespinae species follow similar trends to aculeate Hymenoptera, the possibility of using them as simple biodiversity indicators is worthy of further exploration.© 2019 The Royal Entomological Societ