Historical data suggest that many bee species have declined in body size. Larger‐bodied bees with narrow phenological and dietary breadth are most prone to declines in body size over time. This may ...be especially true in solitary, desert‐adapted species that are vulnerable to climate change such as Centris pallida (Hymenoptera: Apidae). In addition, body size changes in species with size‐linked behaviours could threaten the prevalence of certain behavioural phenotypes long‐term. C. pallida solitary bees are found in the Sonoran Desert. Males use alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) and are dimorphic in both morphology and behaviour. C. pallida male body size has been studied since the 1970s in the same population. The authors collected body size data in 2022 and combined it with published records from 1974–2022. The authors find a persistent decline in the mean head width of patrolling males, and shifts towards smaller body sizes in the populations of males found foraging and hovering. Both morphs declined in average body size, and the proportion of large‐morph males in the population decreased by 8%. Mating males did not decline in mean body size over the last five decades. The authors discuss hypotheses related to the decline in C. pallida male head width. Finally, the authors advocate for C. pallida as an excellent study system for understanding the stability of ARTs with size‐linked behavioural phenotypes.
Average male Centris pallida body sizes have declined from 1974 to 2022, but the size of males that mate has remained stable.
Desert animals must manage the physiological stress caused by heat and desiccation; evaporative heat loss mitigates overheating but exacerbates water stress. Small endothermic flying insects may be ...particularly vulnerable to overheating and water stress as a result of high surface area to volume ratios, but we lack quantitative understanding of the relative magnitude of these abiotic stressors in flying desert invertebrates, despite their ecological importance.
During the hottest and driest weeks of year, many thousands of males of the Sonoran Desert digger bee (Centris caesalpiniae) flew near‐continuously at elevated thorax temperatures for hours at mating aggregation sites, while fighting other males and digging for females.
To determine whether incapacitating high temperatures or water loss limited the activity period of male C. caesalpiniae, we assessed wet and dry body mass and water content through the activity period, flight durations using mark–recapture methods, crop volume and sugar content, microclimate selection, water balance during flight, critical water content and maximum critical temperature.
Body masses and sizes of males declined through the morning. Body water content scaled isometrically with total body wet mass. Crop volume and sugar content did not vary throughout the day or with bee size.
Maximum critical temperature during flight was 51°C for large‐morph C. caesalpiniae males, similar to those measured for other bees, and well above body temperatures reached in the field, suggesting that avoidance of overheating does not limit activity in this desert bee.
The critical water content of Centris bees averaged 50%, at the low end of those measured for other bees. Measures of net water loss rate indicated that males approached lethal water loss limits within 4 h, a duration in the range of measured daily flight activity, suggesting that desiccation tolerance limits activity. Remarkably, male C. caesalpiniae were not observed to forage at floral or water sources during the activity period, yet they returned over multiple days, suggesting that these males have a mechanism to rehydrate when not at the mating aggregation.
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ABSTRACT
Flying endothermic insects thermoregulate, likely to improve flight performance. Males of the Sonoran Desert bee, Centris caesalpiniae, seek females at aggregations beginning at sunrise and ...cease flight near midday when the air temperature peaks. To identify the thermoregulatory mechanisms for C. caesalpiniae males, we measured tagma temperature, wingbeat frequency, water loss rate, metabolic rate and tagma mass of flying bees across shaded air temperatures of 19–38°C. Surface area, wet mass and dry mass declined with air temperature, suggesting that individual bees do not persist for the entire morning. The largest bees may be associated with cool, early mornings because they are best able to warm themselves and/or because they run the risk of overheating in the hot afternoons. Thorax temperature was high (38–45°C) and moderately well regulated, while head and abdomen temperatures were cooler and less controlled. The abdominal temperature excess ratio increased as air temperature rose, indicating active heat transfer from the pubescent thorax to the relatively bare abdomen with warming. Mass-specific metabolic rate increased with time, and air and thorax temperatures, but wingbeat frequency did not vary. Mass-specific water loss rate increased with air temperature, but this was a minor mechanism of thermoregulation. Using a heat budget model, we showed that whole-body convective conductance more than doubled through the morning, providing strong evidence that the primary mechanism of regulating thorax temperature during flight for these bees is increased use of the abdomen as a convector at higher air temperatures.
In the past decade, several states have introduced comprehensive sexuality education standards for public schools, but the impact is unknown because mechanisms to monitor adherence and improve ...quality have been lacking. In this study, we pilot-tested an approach for high school students to assess sexuality education standards mandated by the California Healthy Youth Act. We introduced a 15-minute online survey administered at the conclusion of sexuality education instruction. Results from thirteen Los Angeles high schools indicated that the approach was acceptable, feasible, and valid. It provided actionable data about which standards were being followed and whether the classroom environment was conducive to learning.
Parasitic diseases caused by kinetoplastid parasites of the genera Trypanosoma and Leishmania are an urgent public health crisis in the developing world. These closely related species possess a ...number of multimeric enzymes in highly conserved pathways involved in vital functions, such as redox homeostasis and nucleotide synthesis. Computational alanine scanning of these protein-protein interfaces has revealed a host of potentially ligandable sites on several established and emerging anti-parasitic drug targets. Analysis of interfaces with multiple clustered hotspots has suggested several potentially inhibitable protein-protein interactions that may have been overlooked by previous large-scale analyses focusing solely on secondary structure. These protein-protein interactions provide a promising lead for the development of new peptide and macrocycle inhibitors of these enzymes.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Over the last number of years, the legal academy has placed increasing emphasis on the need to diversify teaching methods, and in particular, has focused on expanding in-class, experiential teaching ...methods. Educational research confirms that learning experientially has multiple benefits for adult learners, including better retention of material, the ability to explore a more diverse range of representation contexts, the development and use of a broader range of analytical skills, and an emphasis professional collaboration and growth. Consistent with this evolution of the scholarship on teaching and learning in law school, ABA Standard 303(a)(3) requires all students to complete "one or more experiential course(s) totaling at least six credit hours." This growing recognition has increased demand for experiential learning courses and clinics at law schools, and presents opportunities for innovative teaching and community partnerships.
Health care transition preparation, medication adherence, and self-efficacy are important skills to achieve optimal health outcomes. It is unclear how pediatric patients with chronic conditions ...obtain health information that may impact the acquisition of these skills.
In this cross-sectional study, we determined the preferred sources/methods for health information among youths with chronic conditions and their relationship to health care transition readiness (STARx Questionnaire), self-efficacy (Iannotti's Diabetes Management Self-efficacy Scale), and medication adherence (Morisky Medication Adherence Scale). Youths with various chronic health conditions attending Victory Junction, a therapeutic camp, were invited to complete these online surveys.
A total of 160 youths with different chronic conditions from multiple institutions, ages 6 to 16years participated. Most commonly preferred sources of medical information were family/parents (n=122, 76.3%) and health care providers (n=88, 55.0%). Youths who favored family/parents had the highest medication adherence rates. In turn, youths who favored health care providers over other sources, scored highest on self-efficacy and transition readiness of all groups.
Our novel findings represent important areas of intervention to improve transition readiness, self-efficacy, and medication adherence. Ascertaining the patients' preferred method of learning about the disease and its management is important in order to customize and enhance health care transition readiness, self-efficacy, and medication adherence.
•Most youth with chronic conditions prefer to obtain health information from family/parents, which is associated with adherence.•Youth who prefer to gain health information from health care providers have higher transition readiness.•Self-efficacy was associated with reliance on health care providers as sources of health knowledge.
Abstract Purpose Health care transition readiness or self-management among adolescents and young adults (AYA) with chronic conditions may be influenced by factors related to their surrounding ...environment. Methods Study participants were AYA diagnosed with a chronic condition and evaluated at pediatric- and adult-focused subspecialty clinics at the University of North Carolina Hospital Systems. All participants were administered a provider-administered self-management/transition-readiness tool, the UNC TRxANSITION Scale. Geographic area and associated characteristics (ecological factors) were identified for each participant's ZIP code using the published U.S. Census data. The Level 1 model of the hierarchical linear regression used individual-level predictors of transition readiness/self-management. The Level 2 model incorporated the ecological factors. Results We enrolled 511 AYA with different chronic conditions aged 12–31 years with the following characteristics: mean age of 20± 4 years, 45% white, 42% black, and 54% female. Participants represented 214 ZIP codes in or around North Carolina, USA. The Level 1 model showed that age, gender, and race were significant predictors of transition readiness/self-management. On adding the ecological factors in the Level 2 model, race was no longer significant. Participants from a geographic area with a greater percentage of females (β = .114, p = .005) and a higher median income (β = .126, p = .002) had greater overall transition readiness. Ecological factors also predicted subdomains of transition readiness/self-management. Conclusions In this cohort of adolescents and young adults with different chronic conditions, ecological disparities such as sex composition, median income, and language predict self-management/transition readiness. It is important to take ecological risk factors into consideration when preparing patients for health self-management or transition.
Over the past several decades, substantial ground has been gained in understanding the biology of sex differences. With new mandates to include sex as a biological variable in NIH-funded research, ...greater knowledge is forthcoming on how sex chromosomes, sex hormones, and social and societal differences between sexes can affect the pathophysiology of health and disease. A detailed picture of how biological sex impacts disease pathophysiology will directly inform clinicians in their treatment approaches and challenge canonical therapeutic strategies. Thus, a profound opportunity to explore sex as a variable in personalized medicine now presents itself. While many sex differences are apparent in humans and have been described at length, we are only beginning to see how such differences impact disease progression, treatment efficacy, and outcomes in obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Here, we briefly present the most salient and convincing evidence of sex differences in type 2 diabetes detection, diagnostics, disease course, and therapeutics. We then offer commentary on how this evidence can inform clinicians on how to approach the clinical workup and management of different patients with diabetes. Finally, we discuss some gaps that remain in the literature and propose several research questions to guide basic and translational researchers as they continue in this growing area of scientific exploration.
The SNAP at Farmers Market Environmental Assessment was developed as a tool for market managers to examine SNAP participant accessibility for redeeming SNAP benefits at farmers markets. By completing ...the SNAP at Farmers Market Environmental Assessment, the tool can serve as a guide for providing practical next steps for market improvement. Extension practitioners and researchers, including SNAP-Ed staff, can use the assessment tool to support policy, systems, and environment change efforts that promote access to local, high-quality foods by SNAP consumers, the redemption of SNAP benefits, and potentially increased sales at farmers markets.
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