Procrastination and preventive health-care in the older U.S. population.

Objective: Maintaining health preventive behaviours in later life reduces the risk of non-communicable diseases. However, these behaviours often require effort and discipline to adopt and may be prone to procrastination. This study examined whether procrastination affected engagement in health preventive behaviours among older adults.

Do discrepancies between subjective and objective health shift over time in later life? A markov transition model.

Subjective health (SH) deteriorates less rapidly than objective health (OH) in older adults. However, scant evidence exists regarding if discrepancies between SH and OH shift in the same individuals over time. We explore whether such discrepancies change over time in a sample of older adults living in England, through a prospective, observational cohort study design.

Inferring stochastic group interactions within structured populations via coupled autoregression.

The internal behaviour of a population is an important feature to take account of when modelling its dynamics. In line with kin selection theory, many social species tend to cluster into distinct groups in order to enhance their overall population fitness. Temporal interactions between populations are often modelled using classical mathematical models, but these sometimes fail to delve deeper into the, often uncertain, relationships within populations.

Community composition of the entomopathogenic fungal genus Metarhizium in soils of tropical and temperate conventional and organic strawberry fields.

Studies on community composition and population structure of entomopathogenic fungi are imperative to link ecosystem functions to conservation biological control. We studied the diversity and abundance of Metarhizium spp. from soil of conventionally and organically farmed strawberry crops and from the adjacent field margins in two different climatic zones: Brazil (tropical) and Denmark (temperate), using the same isolating methods.

Examining individual learning patterns using generalised linear mixed models.

Everyone learns differently, but individual performance is often ignored in favour of a group-level analysis. Using data from four different experiments, we show that generalised linear mixed models (GLMMs) and extensions can be used to examine individual learning patterns. Producing ellipsoids and cluster analyses based on predicted random effects, individual learning patterns can be identified, clustered and used for comparisons across various experimental conditions or groups.

Pesticide use, arthropod fauna and fruit damage in apple orchards in a Nordic climate.

Background: Integrated pest management (IPM) has a long history in fruit production and has become even more important with the implementation of the EU directive 2009/128/EC making IPM mandatory. In this study, we surveyed 30 apple orchards in Norway for 3 years (2016-2018) monitoring pest- and beneficial arthropods as well as evaluating fruit damage. We obtained growers' diaries of pest management and used these data to study positive and negative correlations of pesticides with the different arthropod groups and damage due to pests.

Weathering the hunt: The role of barometric pressure in predator insects' foraging behaviour.

Abiotic factors strongly influence ecological interactions and the spatial distribution of organisms. Despite the essential role of barometric pressure, its influence on insect behaviour remains poorly understood, particularly in predators. The effect of barometric pressure variation can significantly impact biological control programs involving entomophagous insects, as they must efficiently allocate time and energy to search for prey in challenging environments.

Reproductive compatibility among sympatric and allopatric isofemale lines of Riley, 1879.

The present study evaluated the reproductive compatibility of Riley, 1879, through an integrative approach using biological data and morphometry of three isofemale lines (isolines) collected from two geographical areas. These isolines differed in sequences of mitochondrial DNA and reproductive performance in the laboratory. The wasps used to initiate the isolines were collected in different environments: two lines from a Mediterranean climate in Irvine, California, USA, and one line from a tropical climate in Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil.

A Mixed Model for Assessing the Effect of Numerous Plant Species Interactions on Grassland Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function Relationships.

In grassland ecosystems, it is well known that increasing plant species diversity can improve ecosystem functions (i.e., ecosystem responses), for example, by increasing productivity and reducing weed invasion.

Health asymmetry as a predictor of depressive symptomatology over time among older European adults: A growth curve analysis.

Objective: Subjective (SH) and objective health (OH) measures are associated with depressive symptomatology in older adults. We explored whether the discrepancy between SH and OH (operationalised as 'health asymmetry' with four categories: 'health optimistic', 'health pessimistic' and 'good health realistic' and 'poor health realistic') may also relate to depressive symptomatology 1) cross-sectionally, and 2) longitudinally, among older European adults.

Methods: Adults (n = 26,520), aged 50+, from 11 European countries, were assessed over six waves of data collection (2006-2020) in the SHARE study.

Development of a Decision Support System for the Management of Mummy Berry Disease in Northwestern Washington.

Mummy berry, caused by , is the most important disease of the northern highbush blueberry ( L.) in North America and can cause up to 70% yield losses in affected fields. A key event in the mummy berry disease cycle is the primary infection phase where ascospores are released by apothecia that infect emerging floral and vegetative tissues.

Production of and by Submerged Liquid Fermentation and Bioactivity against and through Seed Inoculation.

Pochoniachlamydosporia and Purpureocilliumlilacinum are fungal bioagents used for the sustainable management of plant parasitic nematodes. However, their production through submerged liquid fermentation and their use in seed treatment have been underexplored. Therefore, our goal was to assess the effect of different liquid media on the growth of 40 isolates of P.

Logistic versus linear regression-based reliable change index: A simulation study with implications for clinical studies with different sample sizes.

The linear regression-based reliable change index (RCI) is widely used to identify memory impairments through longitudinal assessment. However, the minimum sample size required for estimates to be reliable has never been specified. Using data from 920 participants from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative data as true parameters, we run 12,000 simulations for samples of size 10-1,000 and analyzed the percentage of times the estimates are significant, their coverage rate, and the accuracy of the models including both the true-positive rate and the true-negative rate.

Global short-term forecasting of COVID-19 cases.

The continuously growing number of COVID-19 cases pressures healthcare services worldwide. Accurate short-term forecasting is thus vital to support country-level policy making. The strategies adopted by countries to combat the pandemic vary, generating different uncertainty levels about the actual number of cases.

Opportunities for Improved Potato Late Blight Management in the Republic of Ireland: Field Evaluation of the Modified Irish Rules Crop Disease Risk Prediction Model.

Potato late blight remains the most significant disease threat of potato cultivation globally, often requiring expensive, time-consuming, and environmentally unfriendly approaches to disease management. The goal of this research was to evaluate whether an estimation of potato late blight risk based on environmental factors can be reliably used to adjust the standard potato late blight management practices and the role of cultivar resistance under growing conditions and contemporary populations in the Republic of Ireland. The modified Irish Rules model made it possible to reduce fungicide usage by 58.

Monitoring of the field application of Metarhizium anisopliae in Brazil revealed high molecular diversity of Metarhizium spp in insects, soil and sugarcane roots.

The use of Metarhizium against sugarcane spittlebugs in Brazil is one of the most successful and long lasting biological control programs using entomopathogenic fungus in the world. However, studies to monitor the fate of this fungus on the sugarcane agroecosystem are rare, especially with respect to its persistence, efficacy in pest control and impact on the local populations of Metarhizium. The present study aimed at documenting the efficacy and persistence of M.

Prediction of Sporulation and Germination by the Spider Mite Pathogenic Fungus (Neozygitomycetes: Neozygitales: Neozygitaceae) Based on Temperature, Humidity and Time.

is a pathogenic fungus and natural enemy of the two-spotted spider mite, (Acari: Tetranychidae), which is an important polyphagous plant pest. The aim of this study was to reveal and predict what combination of temperature, relative humidity (RH), and time that enables and promotes primary conidia production and capilliconidia formation in (Brazilian isolate ESALQ 1420), in both a detached leaf assay mimicking climatic conditions in the leaf boundary layer and in a semi-field experiment. In the detached leaf assay, a significant number of conidia were produced at 90% RH but the highest total number of primary conidia and proportion of capilliconidia was found at 95 and 100% RH at 25 °C.

Data on morphological features of mycosis induced by Colletotrichum nymphaeae and Lecanicillium longisporum on citrus orthezia scale.

We describe symptoms of mycosis induced by two native fungal entomopathogens of the citrus orthezia scale, Praelongorthezia praelonga (Hemiptera: Ortheziidae), an important pest of citrus orchards. The data presented in this article are related to the article entitled "Seasonal prevalence of the insect pathogenic fungus Colletotrichum nymphaeae in Brazilian citrus groves under different chemical pesticide regimes" [1]. The endemic fungal pathogen, C.

The effect of synthetic pesticides and sulfur used in conventional and organically grown strawberry and soybean on Neozygites floridana, a natural enemy of spider mites.

Background: The beneficial fungus Neozygites floridana kills the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae, which is a serious polyphagous plant pest worldwide. Outbreaks of spider mites in strawberry and soybean have been associated with pesticide applications. Pesticides may affect N.

Lethal and Sublethal Effects of Insecticides Used on Citrus, on the Ectoparasitoid Tamarixia radiata.

Huanglongbing (HLB) is a disease associated with the bacteria "Candidatus Liberibacter spp." and has been devastating citrus orchards around the world. Its management involves control of the insect vector, the Asian citrus psyllid Diaphorina citri Kuwayama.

The effects of photoperiod and light intensity on the sporulation of Brazilian and Norwegian isolates of Neozygites floridana.

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of light intensity and duration (photoperiod) on the sporulation (discharge of primary conidia) and conidia germination (from non-infective primary conidia to infective capilliconidia) of Neozygites floridana isolates from Tetranychus urticae originating from Norway and Brazil. Two light intensities (40 and 208 μmolm(-2)s(-1)), three photoperiods (24 h of continuous light (24 h D), 12 h of darkness followed by 12 h of light (12 h D: 12 h L) and 24 h of continuous darkness (24 h D)) and two temperatures (18°C and 23°C) were tested. The fungus produced similar amounts of primary conidia and capilliconidia at 12 h D:12 h and 24 h D, indicating that the fungus discharges almost all of its conidia during the first 12 h of darkness.