Female behavior drives the formation of distinct social structures in C57BL/6J versus wild-derived outbred mice in field enclosures.

BACKGROUND: Social behavior and social organization have major influences on individual health and fitness. Yet, biomedical research focuses on studying a few genotypes under impoverished social conditions. Understanding how lab conditions have modified social organizations of model organisms, such as lab mice, relative to natural populations is a missing link between socioecology and biomedical science. RESULTS: Using a common garden design, we describe the formation of social structure in the well-studied laboratory mouse strain, C57BL/6J, in replicated mixed-sex populations over 10-day trials compared to control trials with wild-derived outbred house mice in outdoor field enclosures. We focus on three key features of mouse social systems: (i) territory establishment in males, (ii) female social relationships, and (iii) the social networks formed by the populations. Male territorial behaviors were similar but muted in C57 compared to wild-derived mice. Female C57 sharply differed from wild-derived females, showing little social bias toward cage mates and exploring substantially more of the enclosures compared to all other groups. Female behavior consistently generated denser social networks in C57 than in wild-derived mice. CONCLUSIONS: C57 and wild-derived mice individually vary in their social and spatial behaviors which scale to shape overall social organization. The repeatable societies formed under field conditions highlights opportunities to experimentally study the interplay between society and individual biology using model organisms.

To Treat or Not to Treat Bees? Handy VarLoad: A Predictive Model for Varroa destructor Load.

The parasitic Varroa destructor is considered a major pathogenic threat to honey bees and to beekeeping. Without regular treatment against this mite, honey bee colonies can collapse within a 2-3-year period in temperate climates. Beyond this dramatic scenario, Varroa induces reductions in colony performance, which can have significant economic impacts for beekeepers. Unfortunately, until now, it has not been possible to predict the summer Varroa population size from its initial load in early spring. Here, we present models that use the Varroa load observed in the spring to predict the Varroa load one or three months later by using easily and quickly measurable data: phoretic Varroa load and capped brood cell numbers. Built on 1030 commercial colonies located in three regions in the south of France and sampled over a three-year period, these predictive models are tools designed to help professional beekeepers' decision making regarding treatments against Varroa. Using these models, beekeepers will either be able to evaluate the risks and benefits of treating against Varroa or to anticipate the reduction in colony performance due to the mite during the beekeeping season.

A Failure to Communicate? Doctors and Nurses in American Hospitals.

This article showcases the realities and challenges of teamwork in American hospitals based on the in situ comparison with France. Drawing on observation of nurse-physician interactions in hospitals in the two nations, this article highlights a troubling conflict between teamwork rhetoric and realities on the ward. Although the use of informatics systems such as electronic health records is supposed to increase cooperation, the observations presented here show that on the contrary, it inhibits communication that is becoming mainly virtual. While the nursing profession is more developed and provides stronger education in the United States, this story highlights the challenges in creating a shared environment of work and suggests the importance of balancing professional autonomy and effective teamwork.

The content and meaning of administrative work: a qualitative study of nursing practices.

AIM: To investigate the content and meaning of nurses' administrative work. BACKGROUND: Nurses often report that administrative work keeps them away from bedside care. The content and meaning of this work remains insufficiently explored. DESIGN: Comparative case studies. METHOD: The investigation took place in 2014. It was based on 254 hours of observations and 27 interviews with nurses and staff in two contrasting units: intensive care and long-term care. A time and motion study was also performed over a period of 96 hours. RESULTS: Documentation and Organizational Activities is composed of six categories; documenting the patient record, coordination, management of patient flow, transmission of information, reporting quality indicators, ordering supplies- stock management Equal amounts of time were spent on these activities in each case. Nurses did not express complaints about documentation in intensive care, whereas they reported feeling frustrated by it in long-term care. These differences reflected the extent to which these activities could be integrated into nurses' clinical work and this is in turn was related to several factors: staff ratios, informatics, and relevance to nursing work. CONCLUSION: Documentation and Organizational Activities are a main component of care. The meaning nurses attribute to them is dependent on organizational context. These activities are often perceived as competing with bedside care, but this does not have to be the case. The challenge for managers is to fully integrate them into nursing practice. Results also suggest that nurses' Documentation and Organizational Activities should be incorporated into informatics strategies.

Comparison of statistical models for analyzing wheat yield time series.

The world's population is predicted to exceed nine billion by 2050 and there is increasing concern about the capability of agriculture to feed such a large population. Foresight studies on food security are frequently based on crop yield trends estimated from yield time series provided by national and regional statistical agencies. Various types of statistical models have been proposed for the analysis of yield time series, but the predictive performances of these models have not yet been evaluated in detail. In this study, we present eight statistical models for analyzing yield time series and compare their ability to predict wheat yield at the national and regional scales, using data provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and by the French Ministry of Agriculture. The Holt-Winters and dynamic linear models performed equally well, giving the most accurate predictions of wheat yield. However, dynamic linear models have two advantages over Holt-Winters models: they can be used to reconstruct past yield trends retrospectively and to analyze uncertainty. The results obtained with dynamic linear models indicated a stagnation of wheat yields in many countries, but the estimated rate of increase of wheat yield remained above 0.06 t ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ in several countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and America, and the estimated values were highly uncertain for several major wheat producing countries. The rate of yield increase differed considerably between French regions, suggesting that efforts to identify the main causes of yield stagnation should focus on a subnational scale.