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A two-year study was conducted in Maine wild blueberry fields (Vaccinium angustifolium Aiton) on the health of migratory honey bee colonies in 2014 and 2015. In each year, three or five colonies were monitored at each of nine wild blueberry field locations during bloom (mid-May until mid-June). Colony health was measured by assessing colony strength during wild blueberry bloom. Potential factors that might affect colony health were queen failure or supersedure, pesticide residues on trapped pollen, wax comb, and bee bread, and parasites and pathogens. We found that Varroa mite and pesticide residues on trapped pollen were significant predictors of colony health measured as the rate of change in the amount of sealed brood during bloom. These two factors explained 71% of the variance in colony health over the two years. Pesticide exposure was different in each year as were pathogen prevalence and incidence. We detected high prevalence and abundance of two recently discovered pathogens and one recently discovered parasite, the trypanosome Lotmaria passim Schwartz, the Sinai virus, and the phorid fly, Apocephalus borealis Brues.

PURPOSE: Life expectancy has become a core consideration in prostate cancer care. While multiple prediction tools exist to support decision-making, their discriminative ability remains modest, which hamper usage and utility. We examined whether combining patient-reported and claims-based health measures into prediction models improves performance. METHODS: Using SEER-CAHPS, we identified men ≥65 years old diagnosed with prostate cancer from 2004–2013 and extracted four types of data: demographics, cancer information, claims-based health measures, and patient-reported health measures. Next, we compared the performance of five nested competing risk regression models for other-cause mortality. Additionally, we assessed whether adding new health measures to established prediction models improved discriminative ability. RESULTS: Among 3,240 cases, 246 (7.6%) died of prostate cancer while 631 (19.5%) died of other causes. The National Cancer Institute Comorbidity Index score was associated but weakly correlated with patient-reported overall health (p

Studies on the outcomes of pesticide exposure on bumble bees have traditionally evaluated the pesticides individually. Poorly known is the effect of simultaneous exposure to multiple pesticides, which has high likelihood in agricultural landscapes. Four experiments were conducted to determine if simultaneous exposure to sub-lethal doses of the insecticide Assail® (30% acetamiprid) and the fungicide Orbit® or Tilt® (41.8% propiconazole) would cause detrimental effects on survival and colony productivity of the common eastern bumble bee, Bombus impatiens (Cresson) (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Survival of workers exposed to propiconazole was marginally reduced (Experiment 1), whereas gyne production increased in colonies exposed to acetamiprid (Experiment 2). There was a trend for fewer larvae and workers in colonies exposed to acetamiprid and a mixture of acetamiprid and propiconazole (Experiment 3). Higher wax moth infestations and densities were observed in colonies exposed to the mixture of acetamiprid and propiconazole (Experiment 4). In conclusion, exposure to the two pesticides resulted in variable outcomes in B. impatiens. Synergy between acetamiprid and propiconazole was explained as an indirect effect of enhanced wax worm infestation. We found an increased level of wax worm infestation in colonies exposed to a mixture of Assail and Tilt compared to colonies not exposed to Assail or Tilt (control) or exposed only to Assail. While this study does not provide evidence that B. impatiens are at high risk when simultaneously exposed to field rates of these two pesticides, we suggest that wild blueberry growers practice integrated pest management as a means of reducing any amount of risk to these important bumble bees.

In this chapter, we review both the methodology of economic evaluation and evidence from the literature to advance the understanding of the role of economic considerations in evaluating health care in general and program options to improve the quality of cancer survivorship. Some might say that it is imperative to consider the economics because the scarcity of resources obliges individuals, organizations, and societies to select only a small subset of all health-care intervention and program possibilities. Essentially, economic analysis provides invaluable information for short- and long-run policy decision making at the national and local levels, for cancer survivors and their families, for insurers and health-care providers, for employers, and for society as a whole.