Resistance to Varroa destructor is a trait mainly transmitted by the queen and not via worker learning (2024)
Journal Article
Martin, S. J., Grindrod, I., Webb, G., Toft, R., & Villalobos, E. (2024). Resistance to Varroa destructor is a trait mainly transmitted by the queen and not via worker learning. Apidologie, 55, Article 40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-024-01084-6

How beekeepers can propagate the Varroa-resistant traits they have in their colonies depends on how varroa resistance, i.e. the key hygienic behavioural traits, is passed onto the next generation. This study investigates if the key hygienic traits ar... Read More about Resistance to Varroa destructor is a trait mainly transmitted by the queen and not via worker learning.

Nature-based solutions to increase rice yield: An experimental assessment of the role of birds and bats as agricultural pest suppressors in West Africa (2024)
Journal Article
Sottomayor, M., Palmeirim, A. F., Meyer, C. F. J., De Lima, R. F., Rocha, R., & Rainho, A. (2024). Nature-based solutions to increase rice yield: An experimental assessment of the role of birds and bats as agricultural pest suppressors in West Africa. Agriculture, ecosystems & environment, 370, Article 109067. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2024.109067

Rice is widely consumed as a staple food, being cultivated worldwide. However, in West Africa, production is not enough to satisfy demand. Rice often suffers intensive damage by herbivorous arthropods that affect quality and quantity of the grain. Bi... Read More about Nature-based solutions to increase rice yield: An experimental assessment of the role of birds and bats as agricultural pest suppressors in West Africa.

Apicomplexa micropore: history, function, and formation (2024)
Journal Article
Yang, J., Long, S., Hide, G., Lun, Z.-R., & Lai, D.-H. (2024). Apicomplexa micropore: history, function, and formation. Trends in Parasitology, 40(5), S1471-4922(24)00079-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2024.03.008

The micropore, a mysterious structure found in apicomplexan species, was recently shown to be essential for nutrient acquisition in Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii. However, the differences between the micropores of these two parasites qu... Read More about Apicomplexa micropore: history, function, and formation.

Industry Engagement and Authentic Assessment, their contribution to Lifewide Learning for Postgraduate students of professionally orientated disciplines. (2024)
Journal Article

Structured opportunities for work-based learning, such as live-brief projects (QAA, 2018), are valued by Professional, Statutory & Regulatory Bodies (PSRBs) for the opportunities afforded for behavioural competency development such as stakeholder man... Read More about Industry Engagement and Authentic Assessment, their contribution to Lifewide Learning for Postgraduate students of professionally orientated disciplines..

The transplant rejection response involves neutrophil and macrophage adhesion-mediated trogocytosis and is regulated by NFATc3 (2024)
Journal Article

The anti-foreign tissue (transplant rejection) response, mediated by the immune system, has been the biggest obstacle to successful organ transplantation. There are still many enigmas regarding this process and some aspects of the underlying mechanis... Read More about The transplant rejection response involves neutrophil and macrophage adhesion-mediated trogocytosis and is regulated by NFATc3.

Secondary forest buffers the effects of fragmentation on aerial insectivorous bat species following 30 years of passive forest restoration (2024)
Journal Article
Rowley, S., López-Baucells, A., Rocha, R., Bobrowiec, P. E. D., & Meyer, C. F. J. (2024). Secondary forest buffers the effects of fragmentation on aerial insectivorous bat species following 30 years of passive forest restoration. Restoration Ecology, e14093. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.14093

Passive forest restoration can buffer the effects of habitat loss on biodiversity. We acoustically surveyed aerial insectivorous bats in a whole‐ecosystem fragmentation experiment in the Brazilian Amazon over a 2‐year period, across 33 sites, compris... Read More about Secondary forest buffers the effects of fragmentation on aerial insectivorous bat species following 30 years of passive forest restoration.

Prevalence of Eimeria Species, Detected by ITS1-PCR Immobilized on FTA Cards, in Future Laying Hens and Breeding Hens in Six Provinces in Northeastern Algeria (2024)
Journal Article
Ayadi, O., Djemai, S., & Hide, G. (2024). Prevalence of Eimeria Species, Detected by ITS1-PCR Immobilized on FTA Cards, in Future Laying Hens and Breeding Hens in Six Provinces in Northeastern Algeria. Acta parasitologica / Witold Stefański Institute of Parasitology, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11686-023-00773-z

Purpose
Avian coccidiosis is an important and widely distributed disease that affects global agricultural economies through losses. In Algeria, there is limited epidemiological and ecological knowledge about this disease and this hinders implementat... Read More about Prevalence of Eimeria Species, Detected by ITS1-PCR Immobilized on FTA Cards, in Future Laying Hens and Breeding Hens in Six Provinces in Northeastern Algeria.

Near-infrared digital hemispherical photography enables correction of plant area index for woody material during leaf-on conditions (2023)
Journal Article

Indirect optical measurement techniques enable efficient and non-destructive estimation of plant area index (PAI). However, because they cannot distinguish between foliage and other canopy elements, corrections are needed to determine leaf area index... Read More about Near-infrared digital hemispherical photography enables correction of plant area index for woody material during leaf-on conditions.

Brown Bear Cognition and Welfare (2023)
Journal Article

The welfare of large-brained wide-roaming carnivores in captivity has been of longstanding public and professional concern. Bears are one such example. Ursids have unexpectedly large relative brain sizes, indeed showing brain size increases similar t... Read More about Brown Bear Cognition and Welfare.

Macrophage-mediated trogocytosis contributes to destroying human schistosomes in a non-susceptible rodent host, Microtus fortis (2023)
Journal Article

Schistosoma parasites, causing schistosomiasis, exhibit typical host specificity in host preference. Many mammals, including humans, are susceptible to infection, while the widely distributed rodent, Microtus fortis, exhibits natural anti-schistosome... Read More about Macrophage-mediated trogocytosis contributes to destroying human schistosomes in a non-susceptible rodent host, Microtus fortis.

The Lobster Pregnancy Test: A Molecular Tool In Support Of Lobster Stocks And Fisheries In The UK (2023)
Thesis

The European Lobster (Homarus gammarus) is one of the highest value shellfish species landed in the UK and accounts for a large part of British shellfish fisheries. However, high demand for this sought-after commodity has led to overfishing and decli... Read More about The Lobster Pregnancy Test: A Molecular Tool In Support Of Lobster Stocks And Fisheries In The UK.

Stage 1 Validation of Plant Area Index from the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (2023)
Journal Article

The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) aims to provide improved characterization of forest structure, and plant area index (PAI) is one of many variables provided in the official GEDI Level 2B (L2B) product suite. However, since release,... Read More about Stage 1 Validation of Plant Area Index from the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation.

Social return on investment: reflections on advancing the method within cities & health (2023)
Journal Article
Mitchell, L., Hardman, M., Goodspeed, T., Atkinson, L., & Howarth, M. (2023). Social return on investment: reflections on advancing the method within cities & health. Cities and Health, 7(5), 677-681. https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2023.2192333

Social return on investment has received attention from a spectrum of disciplinary
areas and practitioners. In the post-COVID city, the use of the approach has increased,
in part to provide data on green and blue schemes, arts and culture projects,... Read More about Social return on investment: reflections on advancing the method within cities & health.

HemiPy: A Python module for automated estimation of forest biophysical variables and uncertainties from digital hemispherical photographs (2023)
Journal Article

Digital hemispherical photography (DHP) is widely used to derive forest biophysical variables including leaf, plant, and green area index (LAI, PAI and GAI), the fraction of intercepted photosynthetically active radiation (FIPAR), and the fraction of... Read More about HemiPy: A Python module for automated estimation of forest biophysical variables and uncertainties from digital hemispherical photographs.

Functional screening reveals Toxoplasma prenylated proteins required for endocytic trafficking and rhoptry protein sorting (2023)
Journal Article

In the apicomplexans, endocytosed cargos (e.g., hemoglobin) are trafficked to a specialized organelle for digestion. This follows a unique endocytotic process at the micropore/cytostome in these parasites. However, the mechanism underlying endocytic... Read More about Functional screening reveals Toxoplasma prenylated proteins required for endocytic trafficking and rhoptry protein sorting.

Remotely sensed localised primary production anomalies predict the burden and community structure of infection in long‐term rodent datasets (2023)
Journal Article
Jackson, J. A., Bajer, A., Behnke-Borowczyk, J., Gilbert, F., Grzybek, M., Alsarraf, M., & Behnke, J. (in press). Remotely sensed localised primary production anomalies predict the burden and community structure of infection in long‐term rodent datasets. Global Change Biology, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16898

The increasing frequency and cost of zoonotic disease emergence due to global change have led to calls for the primary surveillance of wildlife. This should be facilitated by the ready availability of remotely sensed environmental data, given the imp... Read More about Remotely sensed localised primary production anomalies predict the burden and community structure of infection in long‐term rodent datasets.

Dune slope, not wind speed, best predicts bare sand in vegetated coastal dunes. (2023)
Journal Article
Smyth, T., Rooney, P., & Yates, K. (2023). Dune slope, not wind speed, best predicts bare sand in vegetated coastal dunes. Journal of Coastal Conservation, 27, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-023-00957-9

Globally vegetation cover on coastal sand dunes has increased since at least the 1950s. With the aim of restoring or increasing biodiversity, land managers in several countries have removed vegetation and/or reprofiled dune slopes to reinvigorate geo... Read More about Dune slope, not wind speed, best predicts bare sand in vegetated coastal dunes..

The landscape of tolerated genetic variation in humans and primates. (2023)
Journal Article

Personalized genome sequencing has revealed millions of genetic differences between individuals, but our understanding of their clinical relevance remains largely incomplete. To systematically decipher the effects of human genetic variants, we obtain... Read More about The landscape of tolerated genetic variation in humans and primates..

Assessment of active LiDAR data and passive optical imagery for double-layered mangrove leaf area index estimation: a case study in Mai Po, Hong Kong (2023)
Journal Article
Li, Q., Wong, F. K. K., Kwan, F., Wong, K., Fung, T., Brown, L. A., & Dash, J. (2023). Assessment of active LiDAR data and passive optical imagery for double-layered mangrove leaf area index estimation: a case study in Mai Po, Hong Kong. Remote Sensing, 15(10), 2551. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15102551

Remote sensing technology is a timely and cost-efficient method for leaf area index (LAI) estimation, especially for less accessible areas such as mangrove forests. Confounded by the poor penetrability of optical images, most previous studies focused... Read More about Assessment of active LiDAR data and passive optical imagery for double-layered mangrove leaf area index estimation: a case study in Mai Po, Hong Kong.

Problem-solving and spontaneous tool-using ability in European Brown Bears (Ursus arctos arctos) (2023)
Journal Article
Chambers, H., & O'Hara, S. Problem-solving and spontaneous tool-using ability in European Brown Bears (Ursus arctos arctos). Animal Behavior and Cognition, 10(1), 40-61. https://doi.org/10.26451/abc.10.01.03.2023

Little is known about the cognitive abilities of bears, despite possessing relatively large brains for their body size. One reason this group is perhaps overlooked is because they are thought to fail to conform to the “social brain” hypothesis, by be... Read More about Problem-solving and spontaneous tool-using ability in European Brown Bears (Ursus arctos arctos).