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Honey bee (Apis mellifera) health and hive transport are regulated by local apiary programs composed of apiary inspectors. Inspectors monitor and ensure the health of honey bees through field visits to apiaries where they inspect, identify, diagnose, and provide recommendations for the treatment of honey bee health issues. Laws and regulations pertaining to beekeeping and honey bee health are present in most states, territories, and provinces. Veterinarians are encouraged to establish a relationship with their local apiary inspector to further support beekeepers and the management of healthy honey bee colonies.

With a solid foundation in public administration since the 1980s, few could argue that ethics is not an important aspect of a public service education. Yet, in many public human resource management...

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

SEER data are widely used to study rural-urban disparities in cancer. However, no studies have directly assessed how well the rural areas covered by SEER represent the broader rural United States.Public data sources were used to calculate county level measures of sociodemographics, health behaviors, health access and all cause cancer incidence. Driving time from each census tract to nearest Commission on Cancer certified facility was calculated and analyzed in rural SEER and non-SEER areas.Rural SEER and non-SEER counties were similar with respect to the distribution of age, race, sex, poverty, health behaviors, provider density, and cancer screening. Overall cancer incidence was similar in rural SEER vs non-SEER counties. However, incidence for White, Hispanic, and Asian patients was higher in rural SEER vs non-SEER counties. Unadjusted median travel time was 53 min (IQR 34-82) in rural SEER tracts and 54 min (IQR 35-82) in rural non-SEER census tracts. Linear modeling showed shorter travel times across all levels of rurality in SEER vs non-SEER census tracts when controlling for region (Large Rural: 13.4 min shorter in SEER areas 95% CI 9.1;17.6; Small Rural: 16.3 min shorter 95% CI 9.1;23.6; Isolated Rural: 15.7 min shorter 95% CI 9.9;21.6).The rural population covered by SEER data is comparable to the rural population in non-SEER areas. However, patients in rural SEER regions have shorter travel times to care than rural patients in non-SEER regions. This needs to be considered when using SEER-Medicare to study access to cancer care.

This small scale ethnographic study explores the L2 English academic writing identity negotiation of three Chinese students within the context of an introductory composition course at a U.S. Midwestern university focused on the needs of international students. Through individual interviews and classroom observations, it was investigated whether participants’ previous language learning experiences and current language ideologies play a significant role in their attitudes towards acquiring L2 academic literacy skills in English. Another point of interest was how these students shape their ‘imagined communities’ in respect to second language writing and whether they experience any kind of ‘inferiority of identity’. Resultsconcluded that students were implicitly and explicitly aware of English as a dominant discourse and were able to describe specific stylistic differences between Chinese and English argumentative writing that seemed to have some effect on their conscious development of thought patterns in organizing writing assignments in a given socio‐‐‐cultural setting. Further notice of how L2 students accommodate or resist English academic writing conventions and how they may self‐‐‐marginalize their own L1 merits greater attention.

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.

Myrmica rubra L. (Formicidae: Hymenoptera), an invasive ant species in Maine, has been problematic in coastal communities over the past 15years and the subject of studies on its ecology, effects, and management. In recent years we observed a fungus growing from moribund M. rubra (in vitro) and have isolated multiple cultures of this previously unreported fungus over 2 y. We analyzed morphology and DNA molecular sequences of this fungus and identified it as a member of the genus Hirsutella Pat. (Ophiocordycipitaceae; Hypocreales), the use of which is suppressed in favor of a monophyletic Ophiocordyceps clade. Molecular and morphological characters support the description of this fungus as a new species, O. myrmicarum, which is the first species in this genus to be isolated from North American M. rubra.

Bioassays were conducted to document the effects of Metarhizium anisopliae infection on adult female Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) reproduction before death and subsequent survival of offspring. The effect of infection on fecundity was evaluated for females already laying eggs and for newly eclosed females using M. anisopliae isolates ARSEF 7234 and 7711, respectively. Decreased longevity and oviposition compared with controls were observed in females that were already laying eggs when exposed to M. anisopliae ARSEF 7234. Newly eclosed females exposed to M. anisopliae ARSEF 7711 displayed shortened longevity (10.0 ± 0.7 days vs 74.3 ± 6.8 days for controls) and decreased oviposition (1.3 ± 0.7 eggs per ARSEF 7711-exposed female vs 97.2 ± 13.7 eggs per female for controls) compared with controls. Percentages of eggs that did not hatch were greater for both groups of fungal-treated females compared with controls and 60.0% of unhatched eggs contained signs of fungal infection. The percentage of larvae dying within 9 weeks of oviposition was higher for sexually mature females exposed to ARSEF 7234 compared with controls and >40% of dead larvae displayed signs of fungal infection. Thus, for both stages of females and both fungal isolates, fewer surviving larvae were produced after female fungal infection compared with controls. M. anisopliae infection affects female fitness by decreasing female longevity, by decreasing female oviposition before death and through horizontal transmission of M. anisopliae to offspring.

Twenty isolates of four species of entomopathogenic hypocrealean fungi (Beauveria bassiana, Beauveria brongniartii, Isaria farinosa, and Metarhizium anisopliae) were found to be pathogenic to adults of the Asian longhorned beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis. Survival times for 50% of the beetles tested (ST50) ranged from 5.0 (M. anisopliae ARSEF 7234 and B. brongniartii ARSEF 6827) to 24.5 (I. farinosa ARSEF 8411) days. Screening studies initially included strains of B. brongniartii, which is registered as a microbial control agent in Europe, Asia and South America but not in North America. At that time, we could not confirm that this fungal species is native to North America which added uncertainty regarding future registration of this species for pest control in the USA. Therefore, subsequent bioassays documented median survival times for three M. anisopliae isolates (5-6 days to death) and two of these isolates are suggested for further development because they are already registered for pest control in the USA.

A critical challenge in establishing a cure for HIV is the elimination of reservoirs of infection. A proposed approach is to reactivate HIV replication in infected cells and eliminate them by eliciting functional CD8+ T-cells. Due to their location and rapid and efficient response, CD8+ resident memory T cells (TRM) represent an ideal candidate, but their frequency and localization in HIV-infected subjects had not been evaluated. Therefore, we quantified frequencies of TRM cells by immunohistochemistry detection of CD8 and CD69 in cervical tissues from 5 HIV-infected and 5 non-infected women. In addition, migration assays of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from HIV-positive and negative donors were performed by plating one million PBMC on the top of a migration chamber placed in a well seeded with confluent HeLa cells. After 24 hours, cells that migrated to the bottom chamber were collected for flow cytometry evaluation. In cervical tissues, TRM numbers and frequencies were significantly different in basal membranes (0.93% in HIV-negative versus 0% in HIV-positive subjects, p=0.006), whereas no differences were seen for total CD8+ T cells. Moreover, in samples from HIV-positive subjects, lower frequencies of CD8+ CD69+ CD103+ T cells were detected between the cells migrated to the bottom chamber in samples from HIV-infected subjects (0.86% versus 3.54%, p=0.002, in HIV-negative versus HIV-positive). In HIV-positive donors, the frequency of CD4+ CD69+ CD103+ expressing CCR5 was significantly lower than for HIV-negative, while expression of CXCR3 and CCR7 were comparable. We propose that HIV impairs frequencies of TRM in the cervical mucosa at least in part by reducing CD8+ T cell migration through a CCR5-mediated mechanism.

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.

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are well known for their role in dampening the immune responses to self-antigens and thereby helping to prevent autoimmune disease. However, they must also permit immune responses to occur against foreign infectious agents. Using a mouse model of West Nile Virus (WNV) infection, we examined Treg kinetics, trafficking, and activation at both acute and memory time points. We showed that Treg numbers increase in both the secondary lymphoid organs and CNS after infection, and become activated similar to effector T cells. Using the Foxp3DTR knock-in mice, we have performed experiments to study the course of WNV infection in the presence or absence of Tregs. We found that compared to ”normal” mice, Treg deficient mice had increased antigen-driven production of IFN-g from both CD4 and CD8 T cells in both the spleen and CNS. Additionally, Treg deficient mice had an increased frequency of poly-functional T cells. In mice lacking Tregs, there were greater numbers of short lived effector CD8+ cells at acute infection time points in both the spleen and brain. At a memory time point, there were significantly fewer antigen-specific T cells present in the CNS of mice deficient in Tregs at the time of infection compared to Treg sufficient mice. Studies are currently underway to examine the role of Tregs in CD4 memory using this Treg depletion model.

The role of regulatory T cells (Tregs) in preventing or facilitating HIV infection remains unclear. To address this question, we analyzed samples from 129 HIV-exposed seronegative (HESN) individuals, divided into high and low exposure groups based on partner viral load. The two groups had comparable frequencies of Tregs, but in the higher exposure group there was a trend for increased expression of the Treg suppressive markers CD39 and CTLA4. CD4+ and CD8+ T cell activation was similar in the two groups. To assess T cell function, we measured the proliferation of T cells in response to four HIV peptide pools by a CFSE-based assay. Both low and high exposure groups showed a comparable percentage of CD4+ (12.7 % versus 9.7% respectively) and CD8+T cell proliferation (3.2% versus 4.9%). To assess the Treg suppressive function, we compared the proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and Treg-depleted PBMCs in response to the peptide pools. In 41% of the samples that showed proliferation in response to at least one peptide, T reg depletion induced an increased proliferation of CD4+ T cells. The suppression was similar in high and low exposure groups. In the remaining samples, Treg depletion led to a decrease in CD4+ T cell proliferation. In conclusion, our study suggests that HESN can mount an HIV-specific T cell response and further, Treg can either suppress or assist this response, though the mechanism for this difference remains under investigation.