House Mice in the Atlantic Region: Genetic Signals of Their Human Transport.

Background/objectives: The colonization history of house mice reflects the maritime history of humans that passively transported them worldwide. We investigated western house mouse colonization in the Atlantic region through studies of mitochondrial D-loop DNA sequences from modern specimens.

Methods: We assembled a dataset of 758 haplotypes derived from 2765 mice from 47 countries/oceanic archipelagos (a combination of new and published data).

The efficiency of detecting seabird behaviour from movement patterns: the effect of sampling frequency on inferring movement metrics in Procellariiformes.

Background: Recent technological advances have resulted in low-cost GPS loggers that are small enough to be used on a range of seabirds, producing accurate location estimates (± 5 m) at sampling intervals as low as 1 s. However, tradeoffs between battery life and sampling frequency result in studies using GPS loggers on flying seabirds yielding locational data at a wide range of sampling intervals. Metrics derived from these data are known to be scale-sensitive, but quantification of these errors is rarely available.

Little change in plastic loads in South Atlantic seabirds since the 1980s.

Despite growing concern about the large amounts of waste plastic in marine ecosystems, evidence of an increase in the amount of floating plastic at sea has been mixed. Both at-sea surveys and ingested plastic loads in seabirds show inconsistent evidence of significant increases in the amount of plastic since the 1980s. We use 3727 brown skua Catharacta antarctica regurgitations, each containing the remains of a single seabird, to monitor changes in plastic loads in four seabird taxa breeding at Inaccessible Island, Tristan da Cunha in nine years from 1987 to 2018.

Effects of Cadmium Stress on Tartary Buckwheat Seedlings.

Cadmium (Cd) is a naturally occurring toxic heavy metal that adversely affects plant germination, growth, and development. While the effects of Cd have been described on many crop species including rice, maize, wheat and barley, few studies are available on cadmium's effect on Tartary buckwheat which is a traditional grain in China. We examined nine genotypes and found that 30 µM of Cd reduced the root length in seedlings by between 4 and 44% and decreased the total biomass by 7 to 31%, compared with Cd-free controls.

Reduced tillering and dwarfing genes alter root traits and rhizo-economics in wheat.

The tiller inhibition (tin) and Reduced height (Rht) genes strongly influence the carbon partitioning and architecture of wheat shoots, but their effects on the energy economy of roots have not been examined in detail. We examined multiple root traits in three sets of near-isogenic wheat lines (NILs) that differ in the tin gene or various dwarfing gene alleles (Rht-B1b, Rht-D1b, Rht-B1c and Rht-B1b + Rht-D1b) to determine their effects on root structure, anatomy and carbon allocation. The tin gene resulted in fewer tillers but more costly roots in an extreme tin phenotype with a Banks genetic background due to increases in root-to-shoot ratio, total root length, and whole root respiration.

Regurgitated skua pellets containing the remains of South Atlantic seabirds can be used as biomonitors of small buoyant plastics at sea.

Using seabirds as bioindicators of marine plastic pollution requires an understanding of how the plastic retained in each species compares with that found in their environment. We show that brown skua Catharacta antarctica regurgitated pellets can be used to characterise plastics in four seabird taxa breeding in the central South Atlantic, even though skua pellets might underrepresent the smallest plastic items in their prey. Fregetta storm petrels ingested more thread-like plastics and white-faced storm petrels Pelagodroma marina more industrial pellets than broad-billed prions Pachyptila vittata and great shearwaters Ardenna gravis.

Value-Based Proposition of an Adapted Integrated Care Telehealth Service for Accountable Care Organization Members.

The authors describe a real-world application of virtually integrated primary and behavioral health care implemented within an accountable care organization (ACO) system. Cost-of-care data from before and after a 6-month intervention were analyzed for 121 Medicaid and Child Health Plan Plus ACO members. The intervention was associated with a significant shift in the distribution of health care costs, from inpatient and emergency care to outpatient and preventive care.

Understanding the sources of marine litter in remote islands: The Galapagos islands as a case study.

Determining the sources of marine litter is necessary to mitigate this increasing global problem. Plastic bottles are useful tracers of marine litter and constitute the main item (24%) stranding on remote beaches in the Galapagos Islands. The aim of this study was to estimate the abundance of plastic bottles in remote beaches and inferred their sources.

Successful introgression of wMel Wolbachia into Aedes aegypti populations in Fiji, Vanuatu and Kiribati.

Pacific Island countries have experienced periodic dengue, chikungunya and Zika outbreaks for decades. The prevention and control of these mosquito-borne diseases rely heavily on control of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which in most settings are the primary vector. Introgression of the intracellular bacterium Wolbachia pipientis (wMel strain) into Ae.

Influence of colourants on environmental degradation of plastic litter.

Plastic degradation and the resultant production of microplastics has an important effect on the environment and fauna across the world. This paper shows that the colourant incorporated into plastic formulations has a significant effect on the stability of plastics. A static experimental exposure of differently coloured polypropylene bottle tops from the same manufacturer to a moderate climate over 3 years showed that black, white and silver plastics were almost unaffected whereas the specific blue, green and especially red pigments used in this study were significantly degraded.

Tracing beach litter sources: Drink lids tell a different story from their bottles.

Water and soft drink bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sink at sea unless they contain trapped air, whereas their lids are made from polymers that float and can drift long distances. We sampled loose lids and bottles at 21 South African beaches to compare their origins. The proportions of foreign-made bottles and lids were correlated, and increased away from urban centres, indicating that much land-based litter strands close to source areas.

A conditional mutation in a wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) gene regulating root morphology.

Characterisation and genetic mapping of a key gene defining root morphology in bread wheat. Root morphology is central to plants for the efficient uptake up of soil water and mineral nutrients. Here we describe a conditional mutant of hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum L.

Reduced dengue incidence following city-wide wMel Wolbachia mosquito releases throughout three Colombian cities: Interrupted time series analysis and a prospective case-control study.

Background: The introduction of Wolbachia (wMel strain) into Aedes aegypti mosquitoes reduces their capacity to transmit dengue and other arboviruses. Randomised and non-randomised studies in multiple countries have shown significant reductions in dengue incidence following field releases of wMel-infected Ae. aegypti.

Large-scale releases and establishment of wMel Wolbachia in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes throughout the Cities of Bello, Medellín and Itagüí, Colombia.

Background: The wMel strain of Wolbachia has been successfully introduced into Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and has been shown to reduce the transmission of dengue and other Aedes-borne viruses. Here we report the entomological results from phased, large-scale releases of Wolbachia infected Ae. aegypti mosquitoes throughout three contiguous cities located in the Aburrá Valley, Colombia.

Does Equine Interaction Facilitate Emotional Safety and Learning for College Students within an Agricultural-Based Classroom?

Effective teaching requires an educational environment that promotes learning, and yet, developing such an environment can be challenging within today's agricultural-based classroom for educators due to the trend to a more virtual teaching format and less hands-on learning. Animal interaction, particularly equine activities, has been shown to assist educators in the development of an emotionally safe environment for promoting learning. However, research is lacking as to whether the interaction with the animal needs to be direct or indirect within the collegiate educational environment to observe benefits.

Illegal dumping from ships is responsible for most drink bottle litter even far from shipping lanes.

Recent studies using bottles as tracers have shown that illegal dumping from ships is responsible for the rapid increase in drink bottles washing up on oceanic islands and at remote continental beaches away from local litter inputs. However, these studies have been in areas with moderate to high levels of shipping activity. I examined bottles stranded on the Pitcairn Islands in the central South Pacific, which are far from major shipping routes.

Physical Mapping of QTLs for Root Traits in a Population of Recombinant Inbred Lines of Hexaploid Wheat.

Root architecture is key in determining how effective plants are at intercepting and absorbing nutrients and water. Previously, the wheat () cultivars Spica and Maringa were shown to have contrasting root morphologies. These cultivars were crossed to generate an F population of recombinant inbred lines (RILs) which was genotyped using a 90 K single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) chip.

Global assessment of marine plastic exposure risk for oceanic birds.

Plastic pollution is distributed patchily around the world's oceans. Likewise, marine organisms that are vulnerable to plastic ingestion or entanglement have uneven distributions. Understanding where wildlife encounters plastic is crucial for targeting research and mitigation.

Abundance and composition of small floating plastics in the eastern and southern sectors of the Atlantic Ocean.

We report the distribution of floating plastics in the eastern and southern sectors of the Atlantic Ocean based on 35 neuston net trawl samples collected during two research cruises in 2016 and 2017. Plastic particles (>200 μm) were found in 69% of net tows, with median densities of 1583 items·km and 5.1 g·km.

Heart Failure Association-International Cardio-Oncology Society Risk Score Validation in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer.

Background: This paper looks to validate the risk score from the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology and the International Cardio-Oncology Society (HFA-ICOS) for predicting potential cardiotoxicity from anticancer therapy for patients positive for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2.

Methods: A total of 507 patients with at least five years since index diagnosis of breast cancer were retrospectively divided according to the HFA-ICOS risk proforma. According to level of risk, these groups were assessed for rates of cardiotoxicity via mixed-effect Bayesian logistic regression model.

Characterization of Extracellular Vesicle-Coupled miRNA Profiles in Seminal Plasma of Boars with Divergent Semen Quality Status.

Sperm heterogeneity creates challenges for successful artificial insemination. Seminal plasma (SP) surrounding sperm is an excellent source for detecting reliable non-invasive biomarkers of sperm quality. Here, we isolated microRNAs (miRNAs) from SP-derived extracellular vesicles (SP-EV) of boars with divergent sperm quality statuses.