Nuclear and Chloroplast Microsatellites Show Multiple Introductions in the Worldwide Invasion History of Common Ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia

BACKGROUND: Ambrosia artemisiifolia is a North American native that has become one of the most problematic invasive plants in Europe and Asia. We studied its worldwide population genetic structure, using both nuclear and chloroplast microsatellite markers and an unprecedented large population sampling. Our goals were (i) to identify the sources of the invasive populations; (ii) to assess whether all invasive populations were founded by multiple introductions, as previously found in France; (iii) to examine how the introductions have affected the amount and structure of genetic variation in Europe; (iv) to document how the colonization of Europe proceeded; (v) to check whether populations exhibit significant heterozygote deficiencies, as previously observed. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We found evidence for multiple introductions of A. artemisiifolia, within regions but also within populations in most parts of its invasive range, leading to high levels of diversity. In Europe, introductions probably stem from two different regions of the native area: populations established in Central Europe appear to have originated from eastern North America, and Eastern European populations from more western North America. This may result from differential commercial exchanges between these geographic regions. Our results indicate that the expansion in Europe mostly occurred through long-distance dispersal, explaining the absence of isolation by distance and the weak influence of geography on the genetic structure in this area in contrast to the native range. Last, we detected significant heterozygote deficiencies in most populations. This may be explained by partial selfing, biparental inbreeding and/or a Wahlund effect and further investigation is warranted. CONCLUSIONS: This insight into the sources and pathways of common ragweed expansion may help to better understand its invasion success and provides baseline data for future studies on the evolutionary processes involved during range expansion in novel environments

Factors associated with hospital service satisfaction in a sample of Arab subjects with schizophrenia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Assessment of patients' satisfaction with health care services could help to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the system and provide guidance for further development. The study's objectives were to: (i) assess the pattern of satisfaction with hospital care for a sample of people with schizophrenia in Kuwait, using the Verona Service Satisfaction Scale (VSSS-EU); ii) compare the pattern of satisfaction with those of similar studies; and iii) assess the association of VSSS seven domains with a number of variables representing met and unmet needs for care, family caregiver burden, severity of psychopathology, level of psychosocial functioning, socio-demographic characteristics, psychological well-being and objective quality of life.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Consecutive outpatients in stable condition and their family caregivers were interviewed with the VSSS-EU and measures of needs for care, caregiver burden, quality of life and psychopathology.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were 130 patients (66.1%m, mean age 36.8). While over two-thirds expressed satisfaction with the domains of "overall satisfaction", "professionals' skills", "access", "efficacy", and "relatives' involvement", only about one-third were satisfied with the domains of "information" and "types of intervention". The later two domains were the areas in which European patients had better satisfaction than our patients, while our patients expressed better satisfaction than the Europeans in the domain of "relatives' involvement". In multiple regression analyses, self-esteem, positive and negative affect were the most important correlates of the domains of service satisfaction, while clinical severity, caregiver burden and health unmet needs for care played relatively minor roles.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The noted differences and similarities with the international data, as well as the predictive power of self-esteem and affective state, support the impression that patients' attitudes towards psychiatric care involve a complex relationship between clinical, personal and socio-cultural characteristics; and that many of the factors that impact on satisfaction with service relate to individual psychological characteristics. The weaknesses in the system, highlighted by the pattern of responses of the participants, indicate possible gaps in the provision of comprehensive psychiatric care in the country and obviate the need for public mental health education and development of services to enhance the quality of care.</p

Insect Pollinated Crops, Insect Pollinators and US Agriculture: Trend Analysis of Aggregate Data for the Period 1992–2009

In the US, the cultivated area (hectares) and production (tonnes) of crops that require or benefit from insect pollination (directly dependent crops: apples, almonds, blueberries, cucurbits, etc.) increased from 1992, the first year in this study, through 1999 and continued near those levels through 2009; aggregate yield (tonnes/hectare) remained unchanged. The value of directly dependent crops attributed to all insect pollination (2009 USD) decreased from $14.29 billion in 1996, the first year for value data in this study, to$10.69 billion in 2001, but increased thereafter, reaching $15.12 billion by 2009. The values attributed to honey bees and non-Apis pollinators followed similar patterns, reaching$11.68 billion and $3.44 billion, respectively, by 2009. The cultivated area of crops grown from seeds resulting from insect pollination (indirectly dependent crops: legume hays, carrots, onions, etc.) was stable from 1992 through 1999, but has since declined. Production of those crops also declined, albeit not as rapidly as the decline in cultivated area; this asymmetry was due to increases in aggregate yield. The value of indirectly dependent crops attributed to insect pollination declined from$15.45 billion in 1996 to $12.00 billion in 2004, but has since trended upward. The value of indirectly dependent crops attributed to honey bees and non-Apis pollinators, exclusive of alfalfa leafcutter bees, has declined since 1996 to$5.39 billion and $1.15 billion, respectively in 2009. The value of alfalfa hay attributed to alfalfa leafcutter bees ranged between$4.99 and $7.04 billion. Trend analysis demonstrates that US producers have a continued and significant need for insect pollinators and that a diminution in managed or wild pollinator populations could seriously threaten the continued production of insect pollinated crops and crops grown from seeds resulting from insect pollination

Generalized Poisson Summation Formulas for Continuous Functions of Polynomial Growth

The Poisson summation formula (PSF) describes the equivalence between the sampling of an analog signal and the periodization of its frequency spectrum. In engineering textbooks, the PSF is usually stated formally without explicit conditions on the signal for the formula to hold. By contrast, in the mathematics literature, the PSF is commonly stated and proven in the pointwise sense for various types of $L _{ 1 }$ signals. This $L _{ 1 }$ assumption is, however, too restrictive for many signal-processing tasks that demand the sampling of possibly growing signals. In this paper, we present two generalized versions of the PSF for d-dimensional signals of polynomial growth. In the first generalization, we show that the PSF holds in the space of tempered distributions for every continuous and polynomially growing signal. In the second generalization, the PSF holds in a particular negative-order Sobolev space if we further require that d∕2 + ε derivatives of the signal are bounded by some polynomial in the $L _{ 2 }$ sense

Intraperitoneal drain placement and outcomes after elective colorectal surgery: international matched, prospective, cohort study

Despite current guidelines, intraperitoneal drain placement after elective colorectal surgery remains widespread. Drains were not associated with earlier detection of intraperitoneal collections, but were associated with prolonged hospital stay and increased risk of surgical-site infections.Background Many surgeons routinely place intraperitoneal drains after elective colorectal surgery. However, enhanced recovery after surgery guidelines recommend against their routine use owing to a lack of clear clinical benefit. This study aimed to describe international variation in intraperitoneal drain placement and the safety of this practice. Methods COMPASS (COMPlicAted intra-abdominal collectionS after colorectal Surgery) was a prospective, international, cohort study which enrolled consecutive adults undergoing elective colorectal surgery (February to March 2020). The primary outcome was the rate of intraperitoneal drain placement. Secondary outcomes included: rate and time to diagnosis of postoperative intraperitoneal collections; rate of surgical site infections (SSIs); time to discharge; and 30-day major postoperative complications (Clavien-Dindo grade at least III). After propensity score matching, multivariable logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards regression were used to estimate the independent association of the secondary outcomes with drain placement. Results Overall, 1805 patients from 22 countries were included (798 women, 44.2 per cent; median age 67.0 years). The drain insertion rate was 51.9 per cent (937 patients). After matching, drains were not associated with reduced rates (odds ratio (OR) 1.33, 95 per cent c.i. 0.79 to 2.23; P = 0.287) or earlier detection (hazard ratio (HR) 0.87, 0.33 to 2.31; P = 0.780) of collections. Although not associated with worse major postoperative complications (OR 1.09, 0.68 to 1.75; P = 0.709), drains were associated with delayed hospital discharge (HR 0.58, 0.52 to 0.66; P &lt; 0.001) and an increased risk of SSIs (OR 2.47, 1.50 to 4.05; P &lt; 0.001). Conclusion Intraperitoneal drain placement after elective colorectal surgery is not associated with earlier detection of postoperative collections, but prolongs hospital stay and increases SSI risk

Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults

Background Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data from 3663 population-based studies with 222 million participants that measured height and weight in representative samples of the general population. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends in the prevalence of different BMI categories, separately for adults (age ≥20 years) and school-aged children and adolescents (age 5–19 years), from 1990 to 2022 for 200 countries and territories. For adults, we report the individual and combined prevalence of underweight (BMI &lt;18·5 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2). For school&#x2;aged children and adolescents, we report thinness (BMI &lt;2 SD below the median of the WHO growth reference) and obesity (BMI &gt;2 SD above the median). Findings From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity in adults decreased in 11 countries (6%) for women and 17 (9%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 that the observed changes were true decreases. The combined prevalence increased in 162 countries (81%) for women and 140 countries (70%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. In 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity was highest in island nations in the Caribbean and Polynesia and Micronesia, and countries in the Middle East and north Africa. Obesity prevalence was higher than underweight with posterior probability of at least 0·80 in 177 countries (89%) for women and 145 (73%) for men in 2022, whereas the converse was true in 16 countries (8%) for women, and 39 (20%) for men. From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of thinness and obesity decreased among girls in five countries (3%) and among boys in 15 countries (8%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80, and increased among girls in 140 countries (70%) and boys in 137 countries (69%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. The countries with highest combined prevalence of thinness and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents in 2022 were in Polynesia and Micronesia and the Caribbean for both sexes, and Chile and Qatar for boys. Combined prevalence was also high in some countries in south Asia, such as India and Pakistan, where thinness remained prevalent despite having declined. In 2022, obesity in school-aged children and adolescents was more prevalent than thinness with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 among girls in 133 countries (67%) and boys in 125 countries (63%), whereas the converse was true in 35 countries (18%) and 42 countries (21%), respectively. In almost all countries for both adults and school-aged children and adolescents, the increases in double burden were driven by increases in obesity, and decreases in double burden by declining underweight or thinness. Interpretation The combined burden of underweight and obesity has increased in most countries, driven by an increase in obesity, while underweight and thinness remain prevalent in south Asia and parts of Africa. A healthy nutrition transition that enhances access to nutritious foods is needed to address the remaining burden of underweight while curbing and reversing the increase in obesit