Male age mediates reproductive investment and response to paternity assurance.

addresses: Centre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, , Cornwall Campus, Penryn TR10 9EZ, UK, Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, , Athens, GA 30602, USA.types: Journal ArticleTheory predicts that male response to reduced paternity will depend on male state and interactions between the sexes. If there is little chance of reproducing again, then males should invest heavily in current offspring, regardless of their share in paternity. We tested this by manipulating male age and paternity assurance in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. We found older males invested more in both mating effort and parental effort than younger males. Furthermore, male age, a component of male state, mediated male response to perceived paternity. Older males provided more prenatal care, whereas younger males provided less prenatal care, when perceived paternity was low. Adjustments in male care, however, did not influence selection acting indirectly on parents, through offspring performance. This is because females adjusted their care in response to the age of their partner, providing less care when paired with older males than younger males. As a result offspring, performance did not differ between treatments. Our study shows, for the first time, that a male state variable is an important modifier of paternity-parental care trade-offs and highlights the importance of social interactions between males and females during care in determining male response to perceived paternity

Protocol for the 'e-Nudge trial' : a randomised controlled trial of electronic feedback to reduce the cardiovascular risk of individuals in general practice [ISRCTN64828380]

Background: Cardiovascular disease (including coronary heart disease and stroke) is a major cause of death and disability in the United Kingdom, and is to a large extent preventable, by lifestyle modification and drug therapy. The recent standardisation of electronic codes for cardiovascular risk variables through the United Kingdom's new General Practice contract provides an opportunity for the application of risk algorithms to identify high risk individuals. This randomised controlled trial will test the benefits of an automated system of alert messages and practice searches to identify those at highest risk of cardiovascular disease in primary care databases. Design: Patients over 50 years old in practice databases will be randomised to the intervention group that will receive the alert messages and searches, and a control group who will continue to receive usual care. In addition to those at high estimated risk, potentially high risk patients will be identified who have insufficient data to allow a risk estimate to be made. Further groups identified will be those with possible undiagnosed diabetes, based either on elevated past recorded blood glucose measurements, or an absence of recent blood glucose measurement in those with established cardiovascular disease. Outcome measures: The intervention will be applied for two years, and outcome data will be collected for a further year. The primary outcome measure will be the annual rate of cardiovascular events in the intervention and control arms of the study. Secondary measures include the proportion of patients at high estimated cardiovascular risk, the proportion of patients with missing data for a risk estimate, and the proportion with undefined diabetes status at the end of the trial

Diet quality is positively associated with 100% fruit juice consumption in children and adults in the United States: NHANES 2003-2006

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>One hundred percent fruit juice (100% FJ) has been viewed by some as a sweetened beverage with concerns about its effect on weight. Little regard has been given to the contribution of 100% FJ to diet quality.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this study data from the 2003-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were used to examine the association of 100% FJ consumption with diet quality in participants 2-5 years of age (y) (n = 1665), 6-12 y (n = 2446), 13-18 y (n = 3139), and 19+y (n = 8861). Two 24-hour dietary recalls were used to determine usual intake using the National Cancer Institute method. Usual intake, standard errors, and regression analyses (juice independent variable and Healthy Eating Index-2005 [HEI-2005] components were dependent variables), using appropriate covariates, were determined using sample weights.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The percentage of participants 2-5 y, 6-12 y, 13-18 y, and 19+y that consumed 100% FJ was 71%, 57%, 45%, and 62%, respectively. Usual intake of 100% FJ (ounce [oz]/day) among the four age groups was: 5.8 ± 0.6, 2.6 ± 0.4, 3.7 ± 0.4, and 2.4 ± 0.2 for those in age groups 2-5 y, 6-12 y, 13-18 y, and 19+y, respectively. Consumption of 100% FJ was associated with higher energy intake in 6-12 y, 13-18 y, and 19+y; and higher total, saturated, and discretionary fats in 13-18 y participants. Consumption of 100% FJ was associated with higher total HEI-2005 scores in all age groups (< 0.0001). In 100% FJ consumers, total and whole fruit consumption was higher and intake of added sugars was lower in all age groups.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Usual intake of 100% FJ consumption exceeded MyPyramid recommendations for children 2-5 y, but was associated with better diet quality in all age groups and should be encouraged in moderation as part of a healthy diet.</p

Regional and local emissions in red river delta, Northern Vietnam

Fine (PM2.2) and coarse (PM2.2–10) particles concurrently collected in urban (Hanoi) and rural (Lucnam) areas were analyzed for ionic and elemental compositions to provide input for PMF receptor modeling of emission sources in the Red River Delta (RRD), a key economic development region in Vietnam. Long-range transport (LRT) aerosol, coal fly ash from major coal-fired plants in RRD, and marine aerosols are regional sources, which explain the minor variability of the mass concentrations of fine particles across the region. Local sources include soil/resuspended road dust, local coal fly ash, and biomass burning. Soil/resuspended road dust is the largest source component of coarse particles at the two sites. It is more abundant in Hanoi than in Lucnam reflecting the urban–rural contrast in traffic and construction works. Receptor models reveal the incorporation of secondary sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium into the various primary particles, i.e., soot, minerals, soil organic matter, and sea salt. Soot particles from LRT carry the largest amounts of sulfate and ammonium mass concentrations measured at the two sites. Based on receptor models, the yields and possible chemical forms of secondary sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium in different types of primary particles can be inferred

A Genetic Analysis of the Relationship Between Life-history Variation and Heat-shock Tolerance in Drosophila buzzatii

Although exposure to environmental stress is common in most populations, and the physiological effects of stress on individuals are well studied, the evolutionary importance of stress to populations is not well understood. To address multitrait responses to environmental change and potential constraints on character evolution, we analysed, in 100 isofemale lines of Drosophila buzzatii, the genetic relationships between resistance to a short heat shock and several life-history traits: survival in benign conditions, larval developmental time, fecundity and longevity. Estimates of heritability of larval thermotolerance were low, but significant, and all life-history traits varied significantly among isofemale lines. Several of these traits covaried significantly. Most correlations indicated positive life-history relationships, but males and females from lines where female fecundity was higher developed more slowly in the absence of stress, which is a negative life-history relationship. The stress reduced or negated many trait associations, and showed one additional relationship; more larvae from lines that developed fast at 25°C survived to adult after stress than did larvae from slow developing lines. These shifts in fitness relationships, when a single stress bout is applied, suggest that even small increases in environmental stress can have profound effects on evolutionary relationships among life-history traits

Development of environmental tools for anopheline larval control

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Malaria mosquitoes spend a considerable part of their life in the aquatic stage, rendering them vulnerable to interventions directed to aquatic habitats. Recent successes of mosquito larval control have been reported using environmental and biological tools. Here, we report the effects of shading by plants and biological control agents on the development and survival of anopheline and culicine mosquito larvae in man-made natural habitats in western Kenya. Trials consisted of environmental manipulation using locally available plants, the introduction of predatory fish and/or the use of <it>Bacillus thuringiensis </it>var. <it>israelensis </it>(<it>Bti</it>) in various combinations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Man-made habitats provided with shade from different crop species produced significantly fewer larvae than those without shade especially for the malaria vector <it>Anopheles gambiae</it>. Larval control of the African malaria mosquito <it>An. gambiae </it>and other mosquito species was effective in habitats where both predatory fish and <it>Bti </it>were applied, than where the two biological control agents were administered independently.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We conclude that integration of environmental management techniques using shade-providing plants and predatory fish and/or <it>Bti </it>are effective and sustainable tools for the control of malaria and other mosquito-borne disease vectors.</p

An affordable, quality-assured community-based system for high-resolution entomological surveillance of vector mosquitoes that reflects human malaria infection risk patterns.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: More sensitive and scalable entomological surveillance tools are required to monitor low levels of transmission that are increasingly common across the tropics, particularly where vector control has been successful. A large-scale larviciding programme in urban Dar es Salaam, Tanzania is supported by a community-based (CB) system for trapping adult mosquito densities to monitor programme performance. Methodology An intensive and extensive CB system for routine, longitudinal, programmatic surveillance of malaria vectors and other mosquitoes using the Ifakara Tent Trap (ITT-C) was developed in Urban Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and validated by comparison with quality assurance (QA) surveys using either ITT-C or human landing catches (HLC), as well as a cross-sectional survey of malaria parasite prevalence in the same housing compounds. RESULTS: Community-based ITT-C had much lower sensitivity per person-night of sampling than HLC (Relative Rate (RR) [95% Confidence Interval (CI)] = 0.079 [0.051, 0.121], P < 0.001 for Anopheles gambiae s.l. and 0.153 [0.137, 0.171], P < 0.001 for Culicines) but only moderately differed from QA surveys with the same trap (0.536 [0.406,0.617], P = 0.001 and 0.747 [0.677,0.824], P < 0.001, for An. gambiae or Culex respectively). Despite the poor sensitivity of the ITT per night of sampling, when CB-ITT was compared with QA-HLC, it proved at least comparably sensitive in absolute terms (171 versus 169 primary vectors caught) and cost-effective (153US$versus 187US$ per An. gambiae caught) because it allowed more spatially extensive and temporally intensive sampling (4284 versus 335 trap nights distributed over 615 versus 240 locations with a mean number of samples per year of 143 versus 141). Despite the very low vectors densities (Annual estimate of about 170 An gambiae s.l bites per person per year), CB-ITT was the only entomological predictor of parasite infection risk (Odds Ratio [95% CI] = 4.43[3.027,7. 454] per An. gambiae or Anopheles funestus caught per night, P =0.0373). Discussion and conclusion CB trapping approaches could be improved with more sensitive traps, but already offer a practical, safe and affordable system for routine programmatic mosquito surveillance and clusters could be distributed across entire countries by adapting the sample submission and quality assurance procedures accordingly

Labour migration, communities and perceptions of social cohesion in England

Abstract The unexpected scale of labour migration from eastern Europe to the UK following EU enlargement in 2004 was thought to pose a threat to the cohesiveness of those local communities hosting larger influxes of migrants. Nevertheless, areas rich in community capacity may have been able to incorporate migrant workers in ways that sustained social cohesion. This paper explores the effects of labour migration on residents’ perceptions of social cohesion in urban areas in England using multivariate statistical techniques. The statistical results suggest that post-enlargement migration weakened social cohesion, but that the prospects of social incorporation were better in areas with stronger community capacity. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed

Breast cancer incidence and mortality in Tyrol/Austria after fifteen years of opportunistic mammography screening

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of this study was to analyse breast cancer incidence and mortality in Tyrol from 1970 to 2006, namely after performing more than a decade of opportunistic mammography screening and just before piloting an organised screening programme. Our investigation was conducted on a population level.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To study time trends in breast cancer incidence and mortality, we applied the age-period-cohort model by Poisson regression to the official mortality data covering more than three decades from 1970 to 2006 and to the incidence data ranging from 1988 to 2006. In addition, for incidence data we analysed data on breast cancer staging and compared these with EU guidelines.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>For the analysis of time trend in breast cancer mortality in age groups 40-79, an age-period-cohort model fits well and shows for years 2002-2006 a statistically significant reduction of 26% (95% CI 13%-36%) in breast cancer mortality as compared to 1992-1996.</p> <p>We see only slight non-significant increases in breast cancer incidence. For the past five years, incidence data show a 10% proportion of in situ cases, and of 50% for cases in stages II+.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The opportunistic breast cancer screening programme in Tyrol has only in part exploited the mortality reduction known for organised screening programmes. There seems to be potential for further improvement, and we recommend that an organised screening programme and a detailed screening database be introduced to collect all information needed to analyse the quality indicators suggested by the EU guidelines.</p

What evidence is there to support skill mix changes between GPs, pharmacists and practice nurses in the care of elderly people living in the community?

Background: Workforce shortages in Australia are occurring across a range of health disciplines but are most acute in general practice. Skill mix change such as task substitution is one solution to workforce shortages. The aim of this systematic review was to explore the evidence for the effectiveness of task substitution between GPs and pharmacists and GPs and nurses for the care of older people with chronic disease. Published, peer reviewed (black) and non-peer reviewed (grey) literature were included in the review if they met the inclusion criteria. Results: Forty-six articles were included in the review. Task substitution between pharmacists and GPs and nurses and GPs resulted in an improved process of care and patient outcomes, such as improved disease control. The interventions were either health promotion or disease management according to guidelines or use of protocols, or a mixture of both. The results of this review indicate that pharmacists and nurses can effectively provide disease management and/or health promotion for older people with chronic disease in primary care. While there were improvements in patient outcomes no reduction in health service use was evident. Conclusion: When implementing skill mix changes such as task substitution it is important that the health professionals' roles are complementary otherwise they may simply duplicate the task performed by other health professionals. This has implications for the way in which multidisciplinary teams are organised in initiatives such as the GP Super Clinics