The Availability, Appropriateness, and Integration of Services to Promote Indigenous Australian Youth Wellbeing and Mental Health: Indigenous Youth and Service Provider Perspectives.

Concerns about the complexity, fragmentation and inefficiency of Australia's current youth mental health service systems have led policy makers to seek improvements through a shift to community-based solutions. However, there is little evidence of how communities can make this shift. This paper examines the efforts of one Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (hereafter, respectfully, Indigenous) community-Yarrabah in north Queensland-to develop strategies for mental health and wellbeing service system improvements for school-aged youth (5-18 years). The research was co-designed with Yarrabah's community-controlled health service and explores the perceptions of Yarrabah youth and service providers. Iterative grounded theory methods were used to collect and analyse data from 32 youth aged 11-24 years and 24 service providers. Youth were reluctant to seek help, and did so only if they felt a sense of safety, trust, relationality and consistency with providers. Young people's four suggestions for improvement were access to (1) information and awareness about mental health; (2) youth facilities, spaces and activities; (3) safe and available points of contact; and (4) support for recovery from mental illness. Service providers highlighted an appetite for youth-guided community change and recommended five improvement strategies: (1) listening to youth, (2) linking with community members, (3) providing wellbeing promotion programs, (4) intervening early, and (5) advocating to address the determinants of youth mental health. Overall, both groups realised a disjunct between youth need and service provision, but a willingness to work together for systems change. This study demonstrates the importance of community-driven efforts that harness both youth and service providers' perspectives, and suggests a need for ongoing dialogue as the basis for co-designing and implementing improvements to wellbeing supports and mental health services for Indigenous youth.

Trap Tree and Interception Trap Techniques for Management of Ambrosia Beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) in Nursery Production.

The majority of wood-boring ambrosia beetles are strongly attracted to ethanol, a behavior which could be exploited for management within ornamental nurseries. A series of experiments was conducted to determine if ethanol-based interception techniques could reduce ambrosia beetle pest pressure. In two experiments, trap trees injected with a high dose of ethanol were positioned either adjacent or 10-15 m from trees injected with a low dose of ethanol (simulating a mildly stressed tree) to determine if the high-dose trap trees could draw beetle attacks away from immediately adjacent stressed nursery trees. The high-ethanol-dose trees sustained considerably higher attacks than the low-dose trees; however, distance between the low- and high-dose trees did not significantly alter attack rates on the low-dose trees. In a third experiment, 60-m length trap lines with varying densities of ethanol-baited traps were deployed along a forest edge to determine if immigrating beetles could be intercepted before reaching sentinel traps or artificially stressed sentinel trees located 10 m further in-field. Intercept trap densities of 2 or 4 traps per trap line were associated with fewer attacks on sentinel trees compared to no traps, but 7 or 13 traps had no impact. None of the tested intercept trap densities resulted in significantly fewer beetles reaching the sentinel traps. The evaluated ethanol-based interception techniques showed limited promise for reducing ambrosia beetle pressure on nursery trees. An interception effect might be enhanced by applying a repellent compound to nursery trees in a push-pull strategy.

Management of flatheaded appletree borer (Chrysobothris femorata Olivier) in woody ornamental nursery production with a winter cover crop.

BACKGROUND: The flatheaded appletree borer (Chrysobothris femorata Olivier) (FHAB) is a native pest of fruit, shade and nut trees throughout the United States. Use of cover crops is an effective pest management tool for some key insect pests in vegetable and cereal production systems, but its impact in woody ornamental production systems has not been investigated. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a winter cover crop for management of FHAB in nursery production. Red maple trees (Acer rubrum L.) grown under four treatment regimes (cover crop, cover crop + insecticide, bare row and bare row + insecticide) were evaluated for damage by FHAB and impact on tree growth parameters. RESULTS: The cover crop reduced FHAB damage, with results equivalent to standard imidacloprid treatments. The reduction in FHAB attacks in cover crop treatments may be due to microclimate changes at preferred oviposition sites, trunk camouflage or interference with access to oviposition sites. Tree growth was reduced in the cover crop treatments due to competition for resources. CONCLUSION: Physical blockage of oviposition sites by cover crops and subsequent microclimate changes protected against FHAB damage. Therefore, cover crops can be an alternative to chemical insecticides. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.

Daily Drinking Is Associated with Increased Mortality.

BACKGROUND: There is evidence that low-level alcohol use, drinking 1 to 2 drinks on occasion, is protective for cardiovascular disease, but increases the risk of cancer. Synthesizing the overall impact of low-level alcohol use on health is therefore complex. The objective of this paper was to examine the association between frequency of low-level drinking and mortality. METHODS: Two data sets with self-reported alcohol use and mortality follow-up were analyzed: 340,668 individuals from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and 93,653 individuals from the Veterans Health Administration (VA) outpatient medical records. Survival analyses were conducted to evaluate the association between low-level drinking frequency and mortality. RESULTS: The minimum risk drinking frequency among those who drink 1 to 2 drinks per occasion was found to be 3.2 times weekly in the NHIS data, based on a continuous measure of drinking frequency, and 2 to 3 times weekly in the VA data. Relative to these individuals with minimum risk, individuals who drink 7 times weekly had an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of all-cause mortality of 1.23 (p < 0.0001) in the NHIS data, and individuals who drink 4 to 7 times weekly in the VA data also had an adjusted HR of 1.23 (p = 0.01). Secondary analyses in the NHIS data showed that the minimum risk was drinking 4 times weekly for cardiovascular mortality, and drinking monthly or less for cancer mortality. The associations were consistent in stratified analyses of men, women, and never smokers. CONCLUSIONS: The minimum risk of low-level drinking frequency for all-cause mortality appears to be approximately 3 occasions weekly. The robustness of this finding is highlighted in 2 distinctly different data sets: a large epidemiological data set and a data set of veterans sampled from an outpatient clinic. Daily drinking, even at low levels, is detrimental to one's health.

Screening for depression in young Indigenous people: building on a unique community initiative.

Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service Aboriginal Corporation (GYHSAC) is an Indigenous community-controlled health organisation providing comprehensive primary care to the people of Yarrabah in far north Queensland, Australia. GYHSAC conducts an annual Young Person's Health Check (YPC) for people aged 15-25 years based on the Medical Benefits Schedule Item 715. However, the YPC is constantly evolving to meet the needs of the community, and in 2016, in response to concerns about psychological risk among Indigenous youth, GYHSAC teamed up with James Cook University to trial an adapted PHQ-9 depression screening tool (aPHQ-9) as part of the YPC. This study describes the 2016 YPC event, reports the prevalence of depressive symptoms, examines local issues related to the use of the screening tool and proposes recommendations for future health screening. Experienced health professionals conducted the aPHQ-9 assessment in a private area of the clinic. One-in-five young people were found to have moderate-severe symptoms or self-harm ideation in the previous 2 weeks; they were referred to the mental health service. The aPHQ-9 screening process was found to be straightforward and well accepted by staff and youth. Importantly, it provided valuable 'space' to facilitate communication on sensitive issues and was a conduit for speedy referral and follow up by trained staff. Based on our experience, we recommend dedicated depression screening in future routine community health checks for young people and adults.

Interaction of a Preventative Fungicide Treatment and Root Rot Pathogen on Ambrosia Beetle Attacks during a Simulated Flood Event.

Flooding can increase tree susceptibility to root rot pathogens as well as attacks by ambrosia beetles attracted to stress-induced ethanol emissions. The objective of this study was to investigate the interaction of a preventative fungicide treatment and root infection with Phytophthora cinnamomi on ambrosia beetle attacks in flood stressed trees. A fungicide (Pageant® Intrinsic®) was evaluated in two flood trials using Eastern redbud and tulip poplar trees with treatments including the fungicide with or without pathogen or no fungicide with or without pathogen. Fungicide treated trees had fewer ambrosia beetle attacks, particularly in trees without P. cinnamomi co-infection. In a follow-up experiment, ethanol content was evaluated in flooded redbuds to determine if the fungicide treatment reduced stress-induced compounds. All flood stressed trees began producing ethanol within 24 h post flooding, regardless of fungicide treatment or P. cinnamomi infection. We conclude that pre-treatments of a fungicide can provide protection from ambrosia beetle attacks during an extreme flood event, but that protection is reduced if a root rot pathogen is also present. Additionally, rejection of fungicide treated trees was not related to the absence of ethanol, as the fungicide-treated plants released ethanol in quantities similar to non-treated trees.

Impact of inter- and intra-specific competition among larvae on larval, adult, and life-table traits of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus females.

Few studies have taken a comprehensive approach of measuring the impact of inter- and intra-specific larval competition on adult mosquito traits. In this study, the impact of competition Aedes aegypti and A. albopictus was quantified over the entire life of a cohort.Competitive treatments affected hatch-to-adult survivorship and development time to adulthood of females for both species, but affected median wing length of females only for A. albopictus. Competitive treatments had no significant effect on the median adult female longevity nor were there any effects on other individual traits related to bloodfeeding and reproductive success.Analysis of life table traits revealed no effect of competitive treatment on net reproductive rate (R0) but there were significant effects on cohort generation time (Tc) and cohort rate of increase (r) for both species.Inter-specific and intra-specific competition among Aedes larvae may produce individual and population-level effects that are manifest in adults; however, benign conditions may enable resulting adults to compensate for some impacts of competition, particularly those affecting blood feeding success, fecundity, and net reproductive rate, R0. The effect of competition, therefore, affects primarily larva - to - adult survivorship and larval development time, which in turn impact the cohort generation time, Tc and ultimately cohort rate of increase, r.The lack of effects of larval rearing environment on adult longevity suggests that effects on vectorial capacity due to longevity may be limited if adults have easy access to sugar and blood meals.

Seasonal variation in competition and coexistence of Aedes mosquitoes: stabilizing effects of egg mortality or equalizing effects of resources?

Theory shows that fluctuation of environmental conditions can produce temporal niches for inferior competitors that mitigate effects of interspecific competition and facilitate long-term persistence of poor competitors. In south Florida, the mosquitoes Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti often co-occur in water-filled containers despite A. albopictus being competitively superior to A. aegypti. We tested the hypothesis that seasonal fluctuation in environmental conditions reduces or reverses competitive asymmetry between the species and contributes to persistence of the poorer competitor via stabilizing or equalizing effects. During the Florida wet and dry seasons, we manipulated mosquito egg exposure to desiccation before inducing hatching and allowing surviving larvae to compete for 59 days. The effect of season also incorporated seasonal fluctuations in resource input to experimental containers. For both species, composite index of population performance (λ') was greater in the dry season than in the wet season, indicating strong seasonal effects on population dynamics. Aedes albopictus was not affected by competition in either season. Aedes aegypti was negatively affected by interspecific competition in the wet season. Aedes aegypti egg survival was unaffected by exposure to the different experimental environments. There was a small reduction in A. albopictus egg survival in the wet season, but this reduction was unrelated to effects on λ', indicating fluctuation in the egg environment did not contribute to dry season release from competition. Detritus resource inputs were over three times greater in the dry season than in the wet season. Given the relatively small effect of environment on egg survival, these results suggest that seasonal differences in population performance are driven primarily by per-capita food availability. Large inputs of detritus in the dry season appear to reduce competition and produce similar responses in both species. This result suggests that seasonal variation contributes to coexistence of A. albopictus and A. aegypti as a fitness-equalizing factor.

Does the 'old bag' make a good 'wind bag'?: Comparison of four fabrics commonly used as exclusion bags in studies of pollination and reproductive biology.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Fabrics used in pollination bags may exclude pollen carried by biotic vectors, but have varying degrees of permeability to wind-borne pollen. The permeability of bags to wind-borne pollen may have important consequences in studies of pollination and reproductive biology. The permeability of four fabrics commonly used in the construction of pollination bags was examined. METHODS: Deposition of wind-borne pollen on horizontally and vertically oriented microscope slides was assessed on slides enclosed in pollination bags, as well as on control slides. KEY RESULTS: It was found that the permeability of fabrics to wind-borne pollen, as measured by deposition on both horizontally and vertically oriented slides, decreased with pore size. However, deposition on horizontal slides was always greater than on vertical slides for a given fabric; this could manifest itself as differential success of pollination of flowers in bags-dependent on flower orientation. CONCLUSIONS: Obviously, bags with mesh size smaller than most pollen grains are impermeable to pollen. However, material for such bags is very expensive. In addition, it was also observed that bags with even moderately small pore size, such as pores (approx. 200 microm) in twisted fibre cotton muslin, offered highly significant barriers to passage of wind-borne pollen. Such bags are sufficiently effective in most large-sample-size reproductive biology studies.

Autologous transplantation for diffuse aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma in first relapse or second remission.

We evaluated the results of high-dose chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with diffuse aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in first relapse (Rel 1) or second complete remission (CR 2). Data were evaluated from the Autologous Blood and Marrow Transplant Registry on 429 patients with diffuse aggressive NHL who underwent transplantation in Rel 1 or CR 2. Transplantations were performed between 1989 and 1996 and were reported to the Autologous Blood and Marrow Transplant Registry by 93 centers in North and South America. The probability of 3-year survival was 44% (95% confidence interval [CI], 33%-55%). The probability at 3 years of progression-free survival was 31% (95% CI, 27%-36%). Patients who underwent transplantation in CR 2 had a 3-year probability of progression-free survival of 38% (95% CI, 30%-46%) compared with 28% (95% CI, 22%-33%) for those who were not in remission at the time of transplantation (P <.001). In multivariate analysis, chemotherapy resistance, increased lactic dehydrogenase at diagnosis, an interval of <12 months from diagnosis to relapse, age >or=40 years, and use of myeloid growth factors to accelerate posttransplantation bone marrow recovery were adverse predictors of survival. High-dose chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for patients with diffuse aggressive NHL in CR 2 or Rel 1 resulted in better outcome for patients with chemotherapy-sensitive disease, longer relapse-free intervals, and age <40 years. Exposure to myeloid growth factors to accelerate recovery for recipients of bone marrow grafts may increase the risk of disease progression or death.

RESPONSES OF FLORAL TRAITS TO SELECTION ON PRIMARY SEXUAL INVESTMENT IN SPERGULARIA MARINA: THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE SEXES.

Two widespread assumptions underlie theoretical models of the evolution of sex allocation in hermaphroditic species: (1) resource allocations to male and female function are heritable; and (2) there is an intrinsic, genetically based negative correlation between male and female reproductive function. These assumptions have not been adequately tested in wild species, although a few studies have detected either genetic variation in pollen and ovule production per flower or evidence of trade-offs between male and female investment at the whole plant level. It may also be argued, however, that in highly autogamous, perfect-flowered plant taxa that exhibit genetic variation in gamete production, strong stabilizing selection for an efficient pollen:ovule ratio should result in a positive correlation among genotypes with respect to mean ovule and mean pollen production per flower. Here we report the results of a three-generation artificial selection experiment conducted on a greenhouse population of the autogamous annual plant Spergularia marina. Starting with a base population of 1200 individuals, we conducted intense mass selection for two generations, creating four selected lines (high and low ovule production per flower; high and low anther production per flower) and a control line. By examining the direct and correlated responses of several floral traits to selection on gamete production per flower, we evaluated the expectations that primary sexual investment would exhibit heritable variation and that resource-sharing, variation in resource-garnering ability, or developmental constraints mold the genetic correlations expressed among floral organs. The observed direct and correlated responses to selection on male and female gamete production revealed significant heritabilities of both ovule and anther production per flower and a significant negative genetic correlation between them. When plants were selected for increased ovules per flower over two generations, ovule production increased and anther production declined relative to the control line. Among plants selected for decreased anthers per flower, we observed a decline in anther production and an increase in ovule production relative to the control line. In contrast, the lines selected for low ovules per flower and for high anthers per flower exhibited no evidence for significant genetic correlations between male and female primary investment. Correlated responses to selection also indicate a genetically based negative correlation between the production of normal versus developmentally abnormal anthers (staminoid organs); a positive correlation between the production of ovules versus staminoid organs; and a positive correlation between the production of anthers and petals. The negative relationship between male versus female primary investment supports classical sex allocation theory, although the asymmetrical correlated responses to selection indicate that this relationship is not always expressed.

FLORAL DISPLAY IN PHYLA INCISA: CONSEQUENCES FOR MALE AND FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS.

The inflorescences of Phyla incisa consist of flowers in two phases: younger, nectar-containing flowers that have yellow corolla throats and older, nectar-lacking flowers that have dark purple corolla throats. Observations of pollinator visitation patterns to both natural and manipulated inflorescences were made to determine the role of each flower phase in pollinator attraction. The effect of older-phase flowers on male and female reproductive success was determined by comparing stigmatic pollen loads and estimates of pollen removal from inflorescences having different numbers of these flowers. The pollinators of Phyla selected larger inflorescences more often than expected based upon the size distribution of inflorescences available to them. Both younger- and older-phase flowers contributed to the attraction of pollinators, but the latter were less effective in this function. The presence of older-phase flowers significantly increased the visitation rate to inflorescences and the amount of pollen removed but had little effect on pollen deposition on stigmas. The lack of correspondence between pollen deposition and pollinator-visitation rate was not due to stigma saturation, since stigma loads varied greatly. The data indicate that the deposition of pollen on stigmas in this species is a relatively stochastic process, whereas pollen removal from inflorescences occurs at a much more regular rate. Old-phase flower retention appears to contribute to reproductive success through increased pollen donation when pollinator activity is high and may also increase the probability of seed set when pollinators are rare.