Improving understanding of the basic biology and ecology of many insect pollinators, particularly specialist or rare taxa, is a priority for many researchers. As such, there is often a need to temporarily confine field-collected organisms in a non-injurious manner in order to gain information or support additional studies. This protocol represents a thoroughly tested, quick, and inexpensive field method for safely handling bees of conservation concern that can easily be tailored toward specific project needs, including organism identification, pollen removal, marking, and/or collection of non-lethal tissue samples for genetic analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElectrical transmission rights-of-way are ubiquitous and critical infrastructure across the landscape. Active vegetation management of these rights-of-way, a necessity to deliver electricity more safely, maintains these landscape features as stages of early successional habitat, a rarity in many regions, making these areas viable movement corridors for many taxa. The goals of this study were to (i) evaluate the effects of different electrical transmission landscape management practices on flowering plant and flower-visiting insect diversity parameters and (ii) generate conservation management inferences for these landscapes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough the significance of chemical modifications on RNA is acknowledged, the evolutionary benefits and specific roles in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) replication remain elusive. Most studies have provided only population-averaged values of modifications for fragmented RNAs at low resolution and have relied on indirect analyses of phenotypic effects by perturbing host effectors. Here we analysed chemical modifications on HIV-1 RNAs at the full-length, single RNA level and nucleotide resolution using direct RNA sequencing methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTumor budding is defined as a single cell or a cluster of up to 5 tumor cells at the invasion front. Due to the difficulty of identifying patients at high risk for pT1 non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) and the difficulties in T1 substaging, tumor budding was evaluated as a potential alternative and prognostic parameter in these patients. Tumor budding as well as growth pattern, invasion pattern and lamina propria infiltration were retrospectively evaluated in transurethral resection of the bladder (TURB) specimens from 92 patients with stage pT1 NMIBC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe formation of regional strategic alliances continues to be a well-evidenced response to a varying array of market forces that are challenging the ability of healthcare institutions to realize their missions. Organizations that serve rural communities especially feel pressure to initiate the formation of these collaborative arrangements.In response to concerns of Pennsylvania legislators regarding the impact of these alliances on rural healthcare entities, the Center for Rural Pennsylvania funded a study of outcomes of regional strategic alliances involving rural healthcare institutions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGreen, MS, Kimmel, CS, Martin, TD, Mouser, JG, and Brune, MP. Effect of carbohydrate mouth rinse on resistance exercise performance. J Strength Cond Res 36(7): 1916-1921, 2022-A carbohydrate mouth rinse (CMR) has been shown to enhance short duration endurance performance and raises the possibility that a similar strategy could improve performance during resistance exercise.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhen considering relationships between genotype and phenotype we frequently ignore the fact that the genome of a typical animal, notably including that of a fish and a human, harbours a huge amount of foreign DNA. Such DNA, in the form of transposable elements, can affect genome function in a major way, and transgene biology needs to be included in our understanding of the genome. Here we examine an unexpected phenotypic effect of the chromosomally integrated transgene fli1a-F-hsp70l:Gal4VP16 that serves as a model for transgene function generally.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe role of osteoblast placement in skeletal morphological variation is relatively well understood, but alternative developmental mechanisms affecting bone shape remain largely unknown. Specifically, very little attention has been paid to variation in later mineralization stages of intramembranous ossification as a driver of morphological diversity. We discover the occurrence of specific, sometimes large, regions of nonmineralized osteoid within bones that also contain mineralized tissue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFABO compatibility rules in kidney transplantation have been deeply modified with the possibility of ABO-incompatible transplantation. The recipient has to be prepared in the days preceding surgery with an objective of ABO antibody titers of 1/8 or less. This is obtained through a procedure including antibody removal, rituximab and IV immunoglobulins alone or in association according to the initial titer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Research has demonstrated that patients with opioid use disorders (OUD; including both opioid abuse and/or dependence) have poorer neuropsychological functioning compared to healthy controls; however, the pattern and robustness of the findings remain unknown.
Objectives: This study meta-analyzed the results from previous research examining the neuropsychological deficits associated with opioids across 14 neurocognitive domains.
Method: Articles comparing patients with OUD to healthy controls were selected based on detailed inclusion/exclusion criteria and variables of interest were coded.
The North American monarch butterfly () population has declined significantly over the past two decades. Among the many other factors, loss of breeding habitat has been implicated as a potential leading driver. In response, wildlife agencies and conservation practitioners have made a strong push to restore and conserve milkweeds on both wild and managed landscapes including agricultural lands as well as transportation and utility rights-of-way.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHighbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.; Ericales: Ericaceae) is an important crop grown throughout the eastern United States and Canada. Cross-pollination by insects greatly enhances pollination and fruit set in highbush blueberry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe opercle is a prominent craniofacial bone supporting the gill cover in all bony fish and has been the subject of morphological, developmental, and genetic investigation. We surveyed the shapes of this bone among 110 families spanning the teleost tree and examined its pattern of occupancy in a principal component-based morphospace. Contrasting with expectations from the literature that suggest the local morphospace would be only sparsely occupied, we find primarily dense, broad filling of the morphological landscape, indicating rich diversity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWildflower strip plantings in intensive agricultural systems have become a widespread tool for promoting pollination services and biological conservation because of their use by wasps and bees. Many of the trap-nesting wasps are important predators of common crop pests, and cavity-nesting bees that utilize trap-nests are important pollinators for native plants and many crops. The impact of wildflower strips on the nesting frequency of trap-nesting wasps or bees within localized areas has not been thoroughly investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Previous meta-analytical research examining cocaine and methamphetamine separately suggests potentially different neuropsychological profiles associated with each drug. In addition, neuroimaging studies point to distinct structural changes that might underlie differences in neuropsychological functioning.
Objectives: This meta-analysis compared the effect sizes identified in cocaine versus methamphetamine studies across 15 neuropsychological domains.
Highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) is an important crop grown throughout Florida. Currently, most blueberry growers use honey bees (Apis mellifera L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Drug Alcohol Abuse
September 2017
Background: Prior research utilizing whole-brain neuroimaging techniques has identified structural differences in gray matter in opioid-dependent individuals. However, the results have been inconsistent.
Objectives: The current study meta-analytically examines the neuroimaging findings of studies published before 2016 comparing opioid-dependent individuals to drug-naïve controls.
Heightened phenotypic variation among mutant animals is a well-known, but poorly understood phenomenon. One hypothetical mechanism accounting for mutant phenotypic variation is progenitor cells variably choosing between two alternative fates during development. Zebrafish mef2ca mutants develop tremendously variable ectopic bone in their hyoid craniofacial skeleton.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Promising models for cognitive rehabilitation in alcohol treatment rest on a more nuanced understanding of the associated impairments in the multifaceted domains of executive functioning (EF) and impulsivity.
Objectives: This meta-analysis examined the effects of alcohol on the individual subcomponents of EF and impulsivity in recently detoxified participants, including 1) Inhibition & Self-Regulation, 2) Flexibility & Set Shifting, 3) Planning & Problem Solving, 4) Reasoning & Abstraction, and 5) Verbal Fluency. Impulsivity was further examined through an analysis of motor, cognitive, and decisional subcategories.
Both Fras1 and Itga8 connect mesenchymal cells to epithelia by way of an extracellular 'Fraser protein complex' that functions in signaling and adhesion; these proteins are vital to the development of several vertebrate organs. We previously found that zebrafish fras1 mutants have craniofacial defects, specifically, shortened symplectic cartilages and cartilage fusions that spare joint elements. During a forward mutagenesis screen, we identified a new zebrafish mutation, b1161, that we show here disrupts itga8, as confirmed using CRISPR-generated itga8 alleles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrevious research suggests that core borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms vary in severity with advancing age. While structural neuroimaging studies show smaller limbic and prefrontal gray matter volumes (GMV) in primarily adult and adolescent BPD patients, respectively, findings are inconsistent. Using the effect-size signed differential mapping (ES-SDM) meta-analytic method, we investigated the relationship between advancing age and GMV abnormalities in BPD patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVarroa destructor Anderson & Trueman (Varroa) is a damaging pest of the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera, in North America, Europe, and Asia. However, Varroa infestations have not produced equivalent colony losses of African subspecies of honey bee throughout Africa and parts of the Americas. We surveyed the Varroa infestation rates (number of Varroa per 100 adult honey bees) in colonies of A.
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