First large-scale study reveals important losses of managed honey bee and stingless bee colonies in Latin America.

Over the last quarter century, increasing honey bee colony losses motivated standardized large-scale surveys of managed honey bees (Apis mellifera), particularly in Europe and the United States. Here we present the first large-scale standardized survey of colony losses of managed honey bees and stingless bees across Latin America. Overall, 1736 beekeepers and 165 meliponiculturists participated in the 2-year survey (2016-2017 and 2017-2018). On average, 30.4% of honey bee colonies and 39.6% of stingless bee colonies were lost per year across the region. Summer losses were higher than winter losses in stingless bees (30.9% and 22.2%, respectively) but not in honey bees (18.8% and 20.6%, respectively). Colony loss increased with operation size during the summer in both honey bees and stingless bees and decreased with operation size during the winter in stingless bees. Furthermore, losses differed significantly between countries and across years for both beekeepers and meliponiculturists. Overall, winter losses of honey bee colonies in Latin America (20.6%) position this region between Europe (12.5%) and the United States (40.4%). These results highlight the magnitude of bee colony losses occurring in the region and suggest difficulties in maintaining overall colony health and economic survival for beekeepers and meliponiculturists.

Increasing Accessibility to Neuroscience through Translation: Going beyond the English Language.

Declaring the 1990s as The Decade of the Brain put the field of neuroscience at the forefront of public attention, with the nervous system becoming a subject of increasing interest in popular media. Although this has generally brought large swaths of the public closer to neuroscience, most current research is published and disseminated in a single language: English. This is unsurprising as English is indeed the lingua franca in scientific circles, but people around the world communicate in many other languages. To make neuroscience accessible to a larger audience, we share an initiative to translate the Knowing Neurons platform into a second language: Spanish. This collaborative project integrates humanities and STEM academic programs to make use of bilingual university students, in association with professional linguists and neuroscientists, to translate scientific content into a relatable format to Spanish speakers regardless of their country of origin. The translation effort was piloted within the framework of undergraduate outreach courses at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is coupled with outreach components targeting the Spanish-speaking community to promote this new resource. This project aims to foster an environment where the neuroscientific interests of the public, college students, instructors, and researchers coalesce in a unified space. We hope that opening new lines of communication with traditionally underrepresented communities might help combat the persistent lack of diversity in neuroscience (and STEM) that is currently seen in academia. We also provide an outline to inspire others to translate these, and similar resources, into other languages.

Population Kidney Health. A New Paradigm for Chronic Kidney Disease Management.

Statistical data extracted from national databases demonstrate a continuous growth in the incidence and prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and the ineffectiveness of current policies and strategies based on individual risk factors to reduce them, as well as their mortality and costs. Some innovative programs, telemedicine and government interest in the prevention of CKD did not facilitate timely access to care, continuing the increased demand for dialysis and transplants, high morbidity and long-term disability. In contrast, new forms of kidney disease of unknown etiology affected populations in developing countries and underrepresented minorities, who face socioeconomic and cultural disadvantages. With this background, our objective was to analyze in the existing literature the effects of social determinants in CKD, concluding that it is necessary to strengthen current kidney health strategies, designing in a transdisciplinary way, a model that considers demographic characteristics integrated into individual risk factors and risk factors population, incorporating the population health perspective in public health policies to improve results in kidney health care, since CKD continues to be an important and growing contributor to chronic diseases.

Bacterial Mucosal Immunotherapy with MV130 Prevents Recurrent Wheezing in Children: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-controlled Clinical Trial.

Rationale: Recurrent wheezing in children represents a severe public health concern. Wheezing attacks (WA), mainly associated with viral infections, lack effective preventive therapies. Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of mucosal sublingual immunotherapy based on whole inactivated bacteria (MV130) in preventing WA in children. Methods: A Phase 3 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trial including a cohort of 120 children <3 years old with ⩾3 WA during the previous year was conducted. Children with a positive skin test to common aeroallergens in the area where the clinical trial was performed were excluded from the trial. Subjects received MV130 or placebo daily for 6 months. The primary endpoint was the number of WA within 1 year after the first dose comparing MV130 and placebo. Measurements and Main Results: There was a significant lower number of WA in MV130 versus the placebo group, 3.0 (interquartile range [IQR], 2.0-4.0) versus 5.0 (IQR, 3.0-7.0) (P < 0.001). As secondary outcomes, a decrease in the duration of WA and a reduction in symptoms and medication scores in the MV130 versus placebo group were found. No adverse events were reported related to the active treatment. Conclusions: Mucosal bacterial immunotherapy with MV130 shows safety and clinical efficacy against recurrent WA in children.Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01734811).

An Undergraduate Student-Led Neuroscience Outreach Program Shows Promise in Shifting Teen Attitudes About Drugs.

Drug Outreach, Promoting Awareness (DOPA) is an undergraduate outreach program for local high school students designed to convey the neurobiological basis, risks, and addictive potential of commonly abused drugs. Here we describe DOPA and evaluate the program, including its impact on high school student attitudes about drug harm risk and addiction. Undergraduate neuroscience students versed in the neurobiology, physiology, and policy of drugs are trained in active learning methods, enabling them to create engaging and interactive classroom-based educational materials. Survey results showed that participation in DOPA increased high school student perceptions of the addictive potential and harm risk of drugs, which studies have shown to be inversely correlated with drug-taking. High school students also responded positively to the interactive nature of the program. These findings demonstrate how extensively trained undergraduates who are close peers to high school students can effectively lead science outreach initiatives and shift adolescent attitudes about drugs.

Quantitative assessments reveal improved neuroscience engagement and learning through outreach.

Lack of resources and exposure to neuroscience in K-12 education has resulted in a limited number of K-12 students pursuing higher education in the field. Meanwhile, the rapid expansion of the field of neuroscience has encouraged many higher educational institutes to offer neuroscience majors. This has opened up the opportunity to engage faculty, as well as graduate and undergraduate students in bringing the most needed knowledge and awareness about neuroscience into K-12 classrooms. However, undergraduate neuroscience curricula have limited formal opportunities to engage in outreach, and few existing programs have assessments to determine their effectiveness. To address these needs, we developed quantitative assessment tools that complement an existing neuroscience outreach program-Project Brainstorm-at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). 29 UCLA undergraduates enrolled in the 2016 and 2017 programs participated in this study, along with 298 K-12 students from local schools across the Los Angeles area. In undergraduate students, we assessed (a) improvement in students' teaching/communication abilities across the course of the outreach program, and (b) confidence in explaining neuroscience topics and interest in pursuing teaching career. In K-12 students, we evaluated (a) knowledge gain in neuroscience topics and (b) interest in pursuing higher education. Overall, Project Brainstorm showed significant improvement in all the above-mentioned categories. The assessment tools and data presented here provide a data-driven approach for optimizing neuroscience outreach programs and can easily be adapted to other outreach programs within neuroscience and in other STEM fields.

Tri- and hexaferrocenyl-substituted subphthalocyanines in the quest for the optimum electron donor-acceptor distances.

Three and six ferrocenyl subunits have been attached to the periphery of subphthalocyanines (SubPcs). Unlike axially coordinated ferrocenes, peripherally-bonded ferrocenes have an impact on the electronic features of SubPcs, which show a 44 to 70 nm red-shift of their Q-bands. The unusually deep and narrow ferrocenyl-SubPc is able to host C60, giving rise to atypical SubPc•C60 cocrystallates, through a combination of concave-convex and convex-convex π-π interactions.

Complexation and Electronic Communication between Corannulene-Based Buckybowls and a Curved Truxene-TTF Donor.

The association behavior of an electron-donating, bowl-shaped, truxene-based tetrathiafulvalene (truxTTF) with two corannulene-based fullerene fragments, C32 H12 and C38 H14 , is investigated in several solvents. Formation of 1:1 complexes is followed by absorption titrations and complemented by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The binding constants are in the range log Ka =2.9-3.5. DFT calculations reveal that the most stable arrangement is the conformation in which the 1,3-dithiole ring of truxTTF is placed inside the concave cavity of the corannulene derivative. This arrangement is confirmed experimentally by NMR measurements, and implies that a combination of π-π and CH-π interactions is the driving force for association. Time-dependent DFT calculations reproduce the experimental UV/Vis titrations and provide a detailed understanding of the spectral changes observed. Femtosecond transient absorption studies reveal the processes occurring after photoexcitation of either C32 H12 or C38 H14 and their supramolecular associates with truxTTF. In the case of truxTTF⋅C38 H14 , photoexcitation yields the charge-separated state truxTTF.+ ⋅C38 H14.- with a lifetime of approximately 160 ps.

Phthalocyanine-Perylenediimide Cart Wheels.

The electronic features of Zn(II) and Ru(II) phthalocyanines (Pcs) have been modulated by direct peripheral attachment of up to eight ferrocenes. The presence of peripheral ferrocenes noticeably impacts the electronic properties of the corresponding ZnPc and RuPc complexes 7, 12 and 9, 15, respectively-a notion that is supported by optical spectroscopy with bathochromic shifts of up to 8-10 nm per ferrocene unit. Cyclic voltammetry and optical spectroscopy reveal long-distance (10-11 bonds) electronic interaction between ferrocene units. The ZnPc and RuPc complexes have been integrated into a series of orthogonal, supramolecular bis(phthalocyanine)-perylenediimide electron donor-acceptor conjugates, 2a,b and 3a,b. In these cart-wheel-shaped arrays, coordination of ditopic perylenediimide 16, containing two pyridyl substituents at its imido positions, enabled selective interactions with the metal centers of phthalocyanines 7, 12, 9, and 15. The presence of ferrocenes in, for example, Zn complexes 2a and 3a triggers a fast energy transfer from the excited-state PDI to ZnPc. In the RuPc-PDI conjugates, substitution with ferrocenes produces a slight acceleration of the charge separation upon photoexcitation of the PDI chromophore. However, charge recombination is accelerated by 2 orders of magnitude in ferrocene-containing conjugates when compared to that in the analogous tert-butyl-substituted array 1b.

Unveiling the nature of supramolecular crown ether-C60 interactions.

A series of exTTF-(crown ether)2 receptors, designed to host C60, has been prepared. The size of the crown ether and the nature of the heteroatoms have been systematically changed to fine tune the association constants. Electrochemical measurements and transient absorption spectroscopy assisted in corroborating charge transfer in the ground state and in the excited state, leading to the formation of radical ion pairs featuring lifetimes in the range from 12 to 21 ps. To rationalize the nature of the exTTF-(crown ether)2·C60 stabilizing interactions, theoretical calculations have been carried out, suggesting a synergetic interplay of donor-acceptor, π-π, n-π and CH···π interactions, which is the basis for the affinity of our novel receptors towards C60.

Enhancing molecular recognition in electron donor-acceptor hybrids via cooperativity.

Herein, we report the synthesis of guanidinium bis-porphyrin tweezers 1 and fullerene carboxylate 3, their assembly into a novel supramolecular 1@3 electron donor-acceptor hybrid, and its characterization. In solution, the binding constant affording 1@3 is exceptionally high. 1@3, which features a highly confined topography, builds up from a combination of guanidinium-carboxylate hydrogen bonding and π-π stacking/charge-transfer motifs. The latter is governed by interactions between the electron-donating porphyrin and the electron-accepting fullerene. Importantly, positive cooperativity between the applied binding motifs is corroborated by a number of experimental techniques, such as NMR, absorption, fluorescence, etc. In addition, transient absorption experiments shed light onto electron-transfer processes taking place in the ground state and upon photoexcitation. In fact, porphyrin excitation powers an electron transfer to the fullerene yielding charge separated state lifetimes in the nanosecond regime.

Electron transfer in a supramolecular associate of a fullerene fragment.

Herein, we investigate the association of a fullerene fragment, hemifullerene C30H12, with an electron-donating bowl-shaped tetrathiafulvalene derivative (truxTTF). UV/Vis titrations and DFT calculations support formation of the supramolecular complex, for which an association constant of log Ka = 3.6±0.3 in CHCl3 at room temperature is calculated. Remarkably, electron transfer from truxTTF to C30H12 to form the fully charge-separated species takes place upon irradiation of the associate with light, constituting the first example in which a fullerene fragment mimics the electron-accepting behavior of fullerenes within a supramolecular complex.

Cardiac amyloidosis secondary to multiple myeloma.

Amyloidosis is a multisystemic disease caused by extracellular deposition of pathologic beta fibrillar proteins in multiple organs. Deposited fibrils can be either innunoglobulin light chanis or amyloid-A protein. The incidence of anyloidosis derived from anyloid-A protein, usually associated to an underlying disease, has been dimisishing over the decades in the United States producing clinical evidence of cardiac involvement in less than 5% of all cases. The extent of cardiac involvement is the determining prognostic factor. Early diagnosis and therapy aimed at the underlying disease may halt progression of cardiac dysfuction and improve prognosis. We report a case of a 63-year-old man who was diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis secondary to multiple myeloma.

Self-assembly, host-guest chemistry, and photophysical properties of subphthalocyanine-based metallosupramolecular capsules.

Four new subphthalocyanine-based capsules have been synthesized and characterized. These supramolecular systems have been successfully employed for the encapsulation of fullerenes and probed by a wide range of characterization methods, including NMR, UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, and electrochemistry. Furthermore, the binding constants of the host guest complexes were estimated. Finally, the photophysical properties revealed that the subphthalocyanines undergo a transduction of singlet excited-state energy to the fullerene inside the cavity upon photoexcitation.

Observation of Varroa destructor behavior in capped worker brood of Africanized honey bees.

The behavioral activity of Varroa destructor was observed using transparent cells. Mite oviposition started at 45.0 ± 25.0 h post capping, followed by the next eggs laid at regular 27.3 ± 2.0 h intervals. On the prepupa, mites were found to feed often and there was no preference for a specific segment as a feeding site. During the pupal stage the mite fed less often and almost always at the same point. Varroa showed a preference for defecation in the posterior part of the cell. A significant association was observed between the position of the feeding point in the pupa and the defecation site on the cell wall. Displacement behavior was observed in 71 % of the infested bee larvae and a major change in the free space available for varroa in the cell occurred when the prepupa molted into a pupa.

A putative vesicular transporter expressed in Drosophila mushroom bodies that mediates sexual behavior may define a neurotransmitter system.

Vesicular transporters are required for the storage of all classical and amino acid neurotransmitters in synaptic vesicles. Some neurons lack known vesicular transporters, suggesting additional neurotransmitter systems remain unidentified. Insect mushroom bodies (MBs) are critical for several behaviors, including learning, but the neurotransmitters released by the intrinsic Kenyon cells (KCs) remain unknown. Likewise, KCs do not express a known vesicular transporter. We report the identification of a novel Drosophila gene portabella (prt) that is structurally similar to known vesicular transporters. Both larval and adult brains express PRT in the KCs of the MBs. Additional PRT cells project to the central complex and optic ganglia. prt mutation causes an olfactory learning deficit and an unusual defect in the male's position during copulation that is rescued by expression in KCs. Because prt is expressed in neurons that lack other known vesicular transporters or neurotransmitters, it may define a previously unknown neurotransmitter system responsible for sexual behavior and a component of olfactory learning.

A photochemical on-off switch for tuning the equilibrium mixture of H2 nuclear spin isomers as a function of temperature.

The photochemical interconversion of the two allotropes of the hydrogen molecule [para-H(2) (pH(2)) and ortho-H(2) (oH(2))] incarcerated inside the fullerene C(70) (pH(2)@C(70) and oH(2)@C(70), respectively) is reported. Photoexcitation of H(2)@C(70) generates a fullerene triplet state that serves as a spin catalyst for pH(2)/oH(2) conversion. This method provides a means of changing the pH(2)/oH(2) ratio inside C(70) by simply irradiating H(2)@C(70) at different temperatures, since the equilibrium ratio is temperature-dependent and the electronic triplet state of the fullerene produced by absorption of the photon serves as an "on-off" spin catalyst. However, under comparable conditions, no photolytic pH(2)/oH(2) interconversion was observed for H(2)@C(60), which was rationalized by the significantly shorter triplet lifetime of H(2)@C(60) relative to H(2)@C(70).