scholarly journals A global assessment of drivers and risks associated with pollinator decline

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Dicks ◽  
Tom Breeze ◽  
Hien Ngo ◽  
Deepa Senapathi ◽  
Jiandong An ◽  
...  

Abstract Pollinator decline has attracted global attention, and substantial efforts are underway to respond, through national pollinator strategies and action plans. These policy responses require clarity on what is driving pollinator decline, and what risks it generates for society, in different parts of the world. Using a formal expert elicitation process, we evaluated relative regional and global importance of eight pressures driving pollinator decline, and ten consequent risks to human well-being. Our results indicate that global policy responses should focus on reducing pressure from changes in land cover and configuration, land management, and pesticides, as these were considered very important drivers in most regions. We quantify for the first time how the importance of drivers, and risks from pollinator decline, differ among regions. For example, losing access to managed pollinators was only considered a serious risk to people in North America, whereas yield instability in pollinator-dependent crops, classed as a serious or high risk in four regions, presented only moderate risk in Europe and North America. Overall, perceived risks were substantially higher in the Global South. Despite extensive, research on pollinator decline, our analysis reveals considerable scientific uncertainty about what this means for human society.

Crisis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danica W. Y. Liu ◽  
A. Kate Fairweather-Schmidt ◽  
Richard Burns ◽  
Rachel M. Roberts ◽  
Kaarin J. Anstey

Abstract. Background: Little is known about the role of resilience in the likelihood of suicidal ideation (SI) over time. Aims: We examined the association between resilience and SI in a young-adult cohort over 4 years. Our objectives were to determine whether resilience was associated with SI at follow-up or, conversely, whether SI was associated with lowered resilience at follow-up. Method: Participants were selected from the Personality and Total Health (PATH) Through Life Project from Canberra and Queanbeyan, Australia, aged 28–32 years at the first time point and 32–36 at the second. Multinomial, linear, and binary regression analyses explored the association between resilience and SI over two time points. Models were adjusted for suicidality risk factors. Results: While unadjusted analyses identified associations between resilience and SI, these effects were fully explained by the inclusion of other suicidality risk factors. Conclusion: Despite strong cross-sectional associations, resilience and SI appear to be unrelated in a longitudinal context, once risk/resilience factors are controlled for. As independent indicators of psychological well-being, suicidality and resilience are essential if current status is to be captured. However, the addition of other factors (e.g., support, mastery) makes this association tenuous. Consequently, resilience per se may not be protective of SI.


2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Cristine Hoffmann Schlesener ◽  
Jutiane Wollmann ◽  
Juliano De Bastos Pazini ◽  
Anderson Dionei Grützmacher ◽  
Flávio Roberto Mello Garcia

Drosophila suzukii (Diptera, Drosophilidae) is an exotic species, endemic to Asia and currently a pest to small and stone fruits in several countries of North America and Europe. It was detected in 2013 for the first time in South America, in the south of Brazil. Unlike most drosophilids, this species deserves special attention, because the females are capable of oviposit inside healthy fruits, rendering their sale and export prohibited. Despite the confirmed existence of this species in different states of Brazil, this insect is yet been to be given the pest status. Nevertheless, the mere presence of this species is enough to cause concern to producers of small fruits and to justify further investigation for it’s control, especially chemical control for a possible change in status. Therefore, the goal of this work was to evaluate, in laboratory, mortality of D. suzukii adults and ovicidal effect when exposed to different insecticides registered for species of the Tephritidae and Agromyzidae families in different cultures. The insecticides deltamethrin, dimethoate, spinosad, fenitrothion, phosmet, malathion, methidathion, and zeta-cypermethrin resulted in mortality to 100 % of the subjects three days after the treatment (DAT). Regarding the effects over eggs, it was  established that the insecticides fenitrothion, malathion, and methidathion deemed 100 % of the eggs not viable, followed by phosmet and diflubenzuron, which also caused elevated reduction in the eclosion of larvae two DAT.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-255
Author(s):  
Maria Magdalena Setyaningsih ◽  
Emy Sutiyarsih

Kehamilan remaja adalah kehamilan yang terjadi pada remaja berusia kurang dari 20 tahunan. Kehamilan remaja memberikan banyak kerugian bagi kesehatan, mental dan psikologis, kesejahteraan ekonomi dan peluang karier, kemiskinan dan prospek kehidupan masa depan remaja. Tujuan penelitian mengidentifikasi faktor determinan yang melatarbelakangi terjadinya kehamilan remaja. Jenis penelitian adalah penelitian analitik kategorik jenis survei kuantitatif dengan desain case control. Populasi semua perempuan yang bertempat tinggal di wilayah dusun Wonosari, Sukosari, dan Krajan Pandansari dan pernah/sedang hamil pertama kali pada usia kurang dari 20 tahun. Teknik pengambilan sampel cluster random sampling besar sampel 73. Berdasarkan hasil model akhir analisis multivariat, diketahui bahwa variabel pendidikan, riwayat kehamilan remaja pada keluarga dan usia menikah merupakan variabel yang berhubungan dengan kejadian kehamilan remaja setelah dikontrol oleh variabel akses informasi, responden berpendidikan rendah memiliki peluang 20,8 kali lebih tinggi, responden yang memiliki riwayat kehamilan remaja pada keluarga memiliki peluang 14,9 kali lebih tinggi, responden yang menikah pada usia <20 tahun memiliki peluang 12,1 kali lebih tinggi, responden dengan pemahaman yang kurang baik terkait penggunaan kondom memiliki peluang 5,9 kali lebih tinggi untuk terjadi kehamilan remaja. Oleh karena itu perlu dibangun karakter buiding, sosial karakter suport untuk para ibu remaja dan keluarga sehingga terbangun interaksi yang baik dalam keluarga yang dilandasi dengan pendidikan dan pemahaman yang baik tentang Pendidikan seksualitas. Teen pregnancy is a pregnancy that occurs in adolescents aged less than 20 years old. Teen pregnancy provides many disadvantages for health, mental, psychological, economic well-being, career opportunities, poverty, and the future life. The aim of the study was to identify the determinants underlying teen pregnancy incidence. This study was a quantitative study with categorical analytic method. The study design used a case control with two comparison groups. The groups were control group and case group. The population in this study was all women who lived in the Wonosari, Sukosari, and Krajan Pandansari district and had or were pregnant for the first time at the age of less than 20 years old. Seventy three respondents were recruited using cluster sampling technique. The case group consists of women who were or had pregnant for the first time at the age of less than 20 years old and their children are currently aged ≤ 1 years old. The control group consists of women who were pregnant for the first time at the age of > 20 years old. The data was collected using a questionnaire. The findings showed that education, history of teen pregnancy in family and the age of marriage were related to the incidence of teen pregnancy after being controlled by information access. Low-educated respondents had 20.8 times higher chance of experiencing teen pregnancy; respondents with a history of teen pregnancy in the family had 4.9 times higher chance of experiencing teen pregnancy; respondents who were married at the age of < 20 years old had 12.1 times higher chance of experiencing teen pregnancy; respondents with poor understanding of condom use had 5.9 times higher chance of teenage pregnancy. In conclusion, the findings suggest to build good interactions in the family based on education and a good understanding of sex education.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1420326X2097546
Author(s):  
Richard A Sharpe ◽  
Andrew J Williams ◽  
Ben Simpson ◽  
Gemma Finnegan ◽  
Tim Jones

Fuel poverty affects around 34% of European homes, representing a considerable burden to society and healthcare systems. This pilot study assesses the impact of an intervention to install a new first time central heating system in order to reduce fuel poverty on household satisfaction with indoor temperatures/environment, ability to pay bills and mental well-being. In Cornwall, 183 households received the intervention and a further 374 went onto a waiting list control. A post-intervention postal questionnaires and follow-up phone calls were undertaken ( n = 557) to collect data on household demographics, resident satisfaction with indoor environment, finances and mental well-being (using the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing scale). We compared responses between the waiting list control and intervention group to assess the effectiveness of the intervention. A total of 31% of participants responded, 83 from the waiting list control and 71 from the intervention group. The intervention group reported improvements in the indoor environment, finances and mental well-being. However, these benefits were not expressed by all participants, which may result from diverse resident behaviours, lifestyles and housing characteristics. Future policies need to consider whole house approaches alongside resident training and other behaviour change techniques that can account for complex interactions between behaviours and the built environment.


Author(s):  
Lucie Jurek ◽  
Matias Balthazar ◽  
Sheffali Gulati ◽  
Neda Novakovic ◽  
María Núñez ◽  
...  

AbstractThe lack of consensual measures to monitor core change in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or response to interventions leads to difficulty to prove intervention efficacy on ASD core symptoms. There are no universally accepted outcome measures developed for measuring changes in core symptoms. However, the CARS (Childhood Autism Rating Scale) is one of the outcomes recommended in the EMA Guideline on the clinical development of medicinal products for the treatment of ASD. Unfortunately, there is currently no consensus on the response definition for CARS among individuals with ASD. The aim of this elicitation process was to determine an appropriate definition of a response on the CARS2 scale for interventions in patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). An elicitation process was conducted following the Sheffield Elicitation Framework (SHELF). Five experts in the field of ASD and two experts in expert knowledge elicitation participated in an 1-day elicitation workshop. Experts in ASD were previously trained in the SHELF elicitation process and received a dossier of scientific evidence concerning the topic. The response definition was set as the mean clinically relevant improvement averaged over all patients, levels of functioning, age groups ***and clinicians. Based on the scientific evidence and expert judgment, a normal probability distribution was agreed to represent the state of knowledge of this response with expected value 4.03 and standard deviation 0.664. Considering the remaining uncertainty of the estimation and the available literature, a CARS-2 improvement of 4.5 points has been defined as a threshold to conclude to a response after an intervention. A CARS-2 improvement of 4.5 points could be used to evaluate interventions' meaningfulness in indivudals. This initial finding represents an important new benchmark and may aid decision makers in evaluating the efficacy of interventions in ASD.


Economies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Romagnoli ◽  
Luigi Mastronardi

This study analyzes the links between Italian inner area municipalities’ expenditure and per capita incomes, considered as a proxy of well-being. Inner areas are territorial contexts characterized by a significant distance from the centers, the main supply poles of essential services. Following a top-down approach, the paper at first demonstrates the existence of a global convergence process in per capita incomes, with a faster rate of convergence in inner areas with respect to centers; then, attention is focused on local administrations’ policies and their impact on incomes in Italian inner areas. The paper gives a twofold contribution to the debate about the implementation of territorial cohesion policies: (a) on one side, public expenditure data are considered for the first time in an econometric model regarding Italian inner areas; (b) on the other side, the reference territorial subdivision is the lowest possible, giving the opportunity to investigate the changes in well-being at the finest scale.


1983 ◽  
Vol 120 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Boucot ◽  
C. H. C. Brunton ◽  
J. N. Theron

SummaryThe Devonian brachiopod Tropidoleptus is recognized for the first time in South Africa. It is present in the lower part of the Witteberg Group at four widely separated localities. Data regarding the stratigraphical range of the genus elsewhere, combined with information on recently described fossil plants and vertebrates from underlying strata of the upper Bokkeveld Group, suggest that a Frasnian or even Givetian age is reasonable for the lower part of the Witteberg Group. The recognition of Tropidoleptus in a shallow water, near-shore, molluscan association, at the top of the South African marine Devonian sequence, is similar to its occurrence in Bolivia, and suggests a common Malvinokaffric Realm history of shallowing, prior to later Devonian or early Carboniferous non-marine sedimentation. It is noteworthy that Tropidoleptus is now known to occur in ecologically suitable environments around the Atlantic, but is absent from these same environments in Asia and Australia. Tropidoleptus is an excellent example of dispersal in geological time — first appearing in northern Europe and Nova Scotia, then elsewhere in eastern North America and North Africa, followed by South America and South Africa, while continuing in North America.


1990 ◽  
Vol 122 (4) ◽  
pp. 647-650
Author(s):  
Laurent Lesage

AbstractChaetocnema concinna (Marsham, 1802), a European flea beetle, is reported for the first time from Canada. Preliminary collection data indicate that it may feed on the same host plants as in Europe. It has been collected to date in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Maine.


2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (12) ◽  
pp. 1530-1542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yves Plusquellec ◽  
Sylvain Desbiens ◽  
Rémy Gourvennec

Procteria (Pachyprocteria) vermifera n. sp. is described from the upper part of the York River Formation (Gaspé Sandstones Group), lower Eifelian (brachiopod Amphigenia Zone), Rimouski County (Quebec, Canada). This new species is considered part of a new lineage of Pachyprocteria characterized by the presence of interstitial corallites. This study reveals for the first time that the granules on the lower (proximal) side are distributed irregularly, their density being higher in the central area of this side than at the periphery. The unusual association of the tabulate coral Procteria (Pachyprocteria) with the “worm” Hicetes is pointed out. The record of the new species adds to the known paleogeographic distribution of Pachyprocteria in North America (Laurussia).


1992 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Higgs

Relying on standard measures of macroeconomic performance, historians and economists believe that “war prosperity” prevailed in the United States during World War II. This belief is ill-founded, because it does not recognize that the United States had a command economy during the war. From 1942 to 1946 some macroeconomic performance measures are statistically inaccurate; others are conceptually inappropriate. A better grounded interpretation is that during the war the economy was a huge arsenal in which the well-being of consumers deteriorated. After the war genuine prosperity returned for the first time since 1929.


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