Alcohol septal ablation for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy: do mitral valve leaflet length, septal thickness, or sex affect the outcome?

This retrospective cohort study aimed to assess whether basal septal wall thickness (BSWT), anterior (AML) and posterior (PML) mitral leaflet length, or sex were associated with remaining left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO) in patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) undergoing alcohol septal ablation (ASA). One hundred fifty-four patients who underwent ASA at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, between 2009 and 2021, were included retrospectively. Anatomical and hemodynamic parameters were collected from invasive catheterization before and during ASA, and from echocardiography (ECHO) examinations before, during, and at 1-year follow-up after ASA.

Interpatch foraging in honeybees-rational decision making at secondary hubs based upon time and motivation.

For honeybees, Apis mellifera, the hive has been well known to function as a primary decision-making hub, a place from which foragers decide among various directions, distances, and times of day to forage efficiently. Whether foraging honeybees can make similarly complex navigational decisions from locations away from the hive is unknown. To examine whether or not such secondary decision-making hubs exist, we trained bees to forage at four different locations.

Evidence for the honeybee's place knowledge in the vicinity of the hive.

Upon leaving the nest for the first time, honeybees employ a tripartite orientation/exploration system to gain the requisite knowledge to return to their hive after foraging. Focal exploration comes first- the departing bee turns around to face the return target and oscillates in a lateral flight pattern of increasing amplitude and distance. Thereafter, for the peripheral exploration, the forward flying bee circles the return-goal area with expanding and alternating clockwise and counterclockwise arcs.

Honeybee methodology, cognition, and theory: recording local directional decisions in interpatch foraging and interpreting their theoretical relevance.

Investigations made into the cognitive decision making of honeybees (Apis mellifera) traveling from one flower patch to another flower patch (interpatch foraging) are few. To facilitate such research, we present methods to artificially emulate interpatch foraging and quantify the immediate decision making of honeybees (within 50 cm) choosing to fly an interpatch path. These "Interpatch Methods" are validated, applied, and shown to produce novel information for the field of honeybee spatial cognition.

Allometry and resolution of bee eyes (Apoidea).

A sample of compound eyes from 15 species of female pollen foraging bees (apiform Apoidea) was morphometrically analyzed. These species were chosen for size differences, different social organization, and a wide geographic and taxonomic distribution (Apidae, Megachilidae, Andrenidae, Halictidae). The results demonstrate the following characteristics for the typical compound eye in female foraging bees: (1) the vertical diameter of the eye is about twice the horizontal diameter; (2) the eyes of diurnal foragers scale isometrically with body size; (3) the eyes of three species of nocturnal foragers have about 1.