Understory influence on leafroller pupunations in Hawke's bay organic apple orchard

Leafrollers (Tortricidae) were collected from apple foliage and understorey vegetation in six commercial organic apple orchards in Hawke’s Bay over one season. Assessments were made of plant species present in the understorey at the time of collection. All leafroller larvae were reared to adults on artificial diet to identify leafroller species and parasitoids. Nearly half (47%) of all leafrollers collected in these orchards were located in the understorey, highlighting the importance of understorey and its management for the control of leafroller. Dock, clover and dandeliontype plants contributed 25% to the overall understorey, yet hosted 75% of the leafrollers collected from the understorey. Dolichogenidea sp. was the most abundant parasitoid (79%) attacking leafrollers found amongst the apple foliage, whereas Glyptapanteles demeter was dominant in the understorey (61%). Generally the number of leafrollers in an orchard was proportional to the abundance of broadleaf weeds and inversely proportional to parasitis

A method for determining the suitability of schools as evacuation shelters and aid distribution hubs following disasters: case study from Cagayan de Oro, Philippines

Despite the controversy regarding their use, school buildings are often assigned as emergency evacuation shelters, temporary accommodation and aid distribution hubs following disasters. This paper presents a methodology to compare the relative suitability of different school buildings for these purposes by using the analytical hierarchy process to weight criteria based on the combined opinions of relevant experts and combine these with descriptive scores from surveyed buildings. The aggregated weights show that approximately equal weighting should be given to the hard characteristics (hazard at location and physical vulnerability) and soft characteristics (accessibility, communications, living environment, access to supplies). As well as immediate safety, conditions for inhabitation are important so that displaced persons are not discouraged from evacuating to shelters and shelter life is not detrimental to health and well-being. The study allows an optimal selection of school buildings used as shelters before and after a disaster and highlights where most improvement could be made with relatively little time and resources for both individual buildings and the whole study area. This method was applied to Cagayan de Oro in the Philippines, an area exposed to floods, windstorms and earthquakes, but can be adapted for other local contexts and building types. Among the 38 school buildings surveyed, we identified key areas for improvement as being insufficient pedestrian access for evacuation at night and for those with mobility constraints, and a lack of alternate spaces for evacuee activities leading to interference with education

Resilience from a lived-experience perspective in the regional context of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland

Within the UK, academics and practitioners’ understanding of resilience have been increasingly nuanced, particularly after the introduction of the Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) 2004. However, there remain debates and variations in how resilience is conceptualised that creates confusion in how resilience building is operationalised in practice by stakeholders. To address this concern, this study explores the meaning of resilience from the perspectives of people with a lived experience of flooding, through the lens of adaptive capacity, which is a key dimension of resilience as identified in Scottish policy frameworks. Insight from a literature review combined with empirical data collected from forty-three participants, suggests that resilience to natural hazards is a function of two inter-related aspects: ‘information’ and ‘response’ mechanisms. Further analysis suggests that resilience enhancement begins following receipt of risk information from either experience or other sources that shapes the understanding of a hazard and what protective steps to take. This understanding prompts behavioural responses influenced by ‘risk attitude’, ‘skills’ and ‘access to resources’ to enhance the adaptive capacity of the receiver. The paper engages in the complex debate about how resilience is conceptualized from the social sciences perspective. It presents a simplified account of what resilience means and sets out policy and practical implications of this

Maternal obesity support services: a qualitative study of the perspectives of women and midwives

Background - Twenty percent of pregnant women in the UK are obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2), reflecting the growing public health challenge of obesity in the 21st century. Obesity increases the risk of adverse outcomes during pregnancy and birth and has significant cost implications for maternity services. Gestational weight management strategies are a high priority; however the evidence for effective, feasible and acceptable weight control interventions is limited and inconclusive. This qualitative study explored the experiences and perceptions of pregnant women and midwives regarding existing support for weight management in pregnancy and their ideas for service development. Methods - A purposive sample of 6 women and 7 midwives from Doncaster, UK, participated in two separate focus groups. Transcripts were analysed thematically. Results - Two overarching themes were identified, 'Explanations for obesity and weight management' and 'Best care for pregnant women'. 'Explanations' included a lack of knowledge about weight, diet and exercise during pregnancy; self-talk messages which excused overeating; difficulties maintaining motivation for a healthy lifestyle; the importance of social support; stigmatisation; and sensitivity surrounding communication about obesity between midwives and their clients. 'Best care' suggested that weight management required care which was consistent and continuous, supportive and non-judgemental, and which created opportunities for interaction and mutual support between obese pregnant women. Conclusions - Women need unambiguous advice regarding healthy lifestyles, diet and exercise in pregnancy to address a lack of knowledge and a tendency towards unhelpful self-talk messages. Midwives expressed difficulties in communicating with their clients about their weight, given awareness that obesity is a sensitive and potentially stigmatising issue. This indicates more could be done to educate and support them in their work with obese pregnant women. Motivation and social support were strong explanatory themes for obesity and weight management, suggesting that interventions should focus on motivational strategies and social support facilitation

The Megamaser Cosmology Project: I. VLBI observations of UGC 3789

The Megamaser Cosmology Project (MCP) seeks to measure the Hubble Constant (Ho) in order to improve the extragalactic distance scale and constrain the nature of dark energy. We are searching for sources of water maser emission from AGN with sub-pc accretion disks, as in NGC 4258, and following up these discoveries with Very Long Baseline Interferometric (VLBI) imaging and spectral monitoring. Here we present a VLBI map of the water masers toward UGC 3789, a galaxy well into the Hubble Flow. We have observed masers moving at rotational speeds up to 800 km/s at radii as small as 0.08 pc. Our map reveals masers in a nearly edge-on disk in Keplerian rotation about a 10^7 Msun supermassive black hole. When combined with centripetal accelerations, obtained by observing spectral drifts of maser features (to be presented in Paper II), the UGC 3789 masers may provide an accurate determination of Ho, independent of luminosities and metallicity and extinction corrections.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures, 4 table

Quantum universal detectors

We address the problem of estimating the expectation value of an arbitrary operator O via a universal measuring apparatus that is independent of O, and for which the expectation values for different operators are obtained by changing only the data-processing. The ``universal detector'' performs a joint measurement on the system and on a suitably prepared ancilla. We characterize such universal detectors, and show how they can be obtained either via Bell measurements or via local measurements and classical communication between system and ancilla.Comment: 4 pages, no figure

Designing theoretically-informed implementation interventions

Clinical and health services research is continually producing new findings that may contribute to effective and efficient patient care. However, the transfer of research findings into practice is unpredictable and can be a slow and haphazard process. Ideally, the choice of implementation strategies would be based upon evidence from randomised controlled trials or systematic reviews of a given implementation strategy. Unfortunately, reviews of implementation strategies consistently report effectiveness some, but not all of the time; possible causes of this variation are seldom reported or measured by the investigators in the original studies. Thus, any attempts to extrapolate from study settings to the real world are hampered by a lack of understanding of the effects of key elements of individuals, interventions, and the settings in which they were trialled. The explicit use of theory offers a way of addressing these issues and has a number of advantages, such as providing: a generalisable framework within which to represent the dimensions that implementation studies address, a process by which to inform the development and delivery of interventions, a guide when evaluating, and a way to allow for an exploration of potential causal mechanisms. However, the use of theory in designing implementation interventions is methodologically challenging for a number of reasons, including choosing between theories and faithfully translating theoretical constructs into interventions. The explicit use of theory offers potential advantages in terms of facilitating a better understanding of the generalisability and replicability of implementation interventions. However, this is a relatively unexplored methodological area

The Influence of Using Novel Predictive Technologies on Judgments of Stigma, Empathy, and Compassion among Healthcare Professionals

Background: Our objective was to evaluate whether the description of a machine learning (ML) app or brain imaging technology to predict the onset of schizophrenia or alcohol use disorder (AUD) influences healthcare professionals’ judgments of stigma, empathy, and compassion. Methods: We randomized healthcare professionals (N = 310) to one vignette about a person whose clinician seeks to predict schizophrenia or an AUD, using a ML app, brain imaging, or a psychosocial assessment. Participants used scales to measure their judgments of stigma, empathy, and compassion. Results: Participants randomized to the ML vignette endorsed less anger and more fear relative to the psychosocial vignette, and the brain imaging vignette elicited higher pity ratings. The brain imaging and ML vignettes evoked lower personal responsibility judgments compared to the psychosocial vignette. Physicians and nurses reported less empathy than clinical psychologists. Conclusions: The use of predictive technologies may reinforce essentialist views about mental health and substance use that may increase specific aspects of stigma and reduce others

Effect of Quark Scatter on Baryogenesis by Electroweak Strings

The amount of baryon asymmetry generated by the electroweak strings at a rough estimate is smaller than that generated by the bubble expansion since the collapsing strings cannot cover the whole volume of the universe. However, the interaction cross section of the strings with particles can be larger than the geometrical area of the order of the string thickness. The scattering cross section of quarks from the electroweak strings is calculated using Dirac equation in the string background. It it proportional to the reverse of the momentum perpendicular to the string axis. Thus the effective interaction area can be enhanced at least ten times so that the suppression compared to the first order phase transition scenario might be also improved.Comment: 12 pages (LaTeX), no figure, Astroparticle Physics (1996