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INTRODUCTION: Poor storage of medicines can reduce their efficacy, yet little is known about how people store medicines in their homes and elsewhere, why these locations are chosen, and whether the conditions are suitable for medicines storage. AIM: To investigate where medicines are commonly stored in New Zealand households, why, and the typical conditions-temperature and relative humidity-in those places of storage. METHODS: Data from a large qualitative study on the meanings of medicines were analysed to explore where people store medicines in their households, and why. A data logger was used to log temperature and relative humidity in common medicine storage places, such as homes and cars. RESULTS: Kitchens and bathrooms were the most commonly reported storage places, with people influenced by convenience, desire to remember to take medicines, and child safety when deciding where to store medicines. High temperatures and humidity were found in kitchens and bathrooms, extreme temperatures in a car and a backpack, and extremely low temperatures in checked-in luggage on a plane. DISCUSSION: Temperature- and humidity-sensitive medicines should not be stored long-term in common storage locations, such as kitchens and bathrooms. Conditions in these places may not comply with the recommended storage conditions given by the manufacturer. Furthermore, medicines should not be left in backpacks or cars, especially if the vehicle is in the sun. Medicines that may degrade upon freezing and thawing - such as protein-containing medicines, emulsions, suspensions and some solutions - should not be stored in the cargo hold of a plane.

To address concerns raised regarding the use of online course-based summative assessment methods, a quasi-experimental design was implemented in which students who completed a summative assessment either online or offline were compared on performance scores when using their self-reported "preferred" or "non-preferred" modes. Performance scores were found not to differ depending on whether the assessment was completed in the preferred or non-preferred mode. These findings provide preliminary support for the validity of online assessment methods. Future studies could help determine the extent to which this finding generalizes beyond the assessment procedures and type of sample used here. Suggestions for follow-up studies are offered, including exploring the validity of more complex computer-related online assessment tasks and investigating the impact of using preferred and non-preferred modes upon the "quality of the student experience". (Contains 5 notes and 2 tables.)

Understanding what drives or prevents long-distance migrants to respond to environmental change requires basic knowledge about the wintering and breeding grounds, and the timing of movements between them. Both strong and weak migratory connectivity have been reported for Palearctic passerines wintering in Africa, but this remains unknown for most species. We investigated whether pied flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca from different breeding populations also differ in wintering locations in west-Africa. Light-level geolocator data revealed that flycatchers from different breeding populations travelled to different wintering sites, despite similarity in routes during most of the autumn migration. We found support for strong migratory connectivity showing an unexpected pattern: individuals breeding in Fennoscandia (S-Finland and S-Norway) wintered further west compared to individuals breeding at more southern latitudes in the Netherlands and SW-United Kingdom. The same pattern was found in ring recovery data from sub-Saharan Africa of individuals with confirmed breeding origin. Furthermore, population-specific migratory connectivity was associated with geographical variation in breeding and migration phenology: birds from populations which breed and migrate earlier wintered further east than birds from 'late' populations. There was no indication that wintering locations were affected by geolocation deployment, as we found high repeatability and consistency in δ13C and δ15N stable isotope ratios of winter grown feathers of individuals with and without a geolocator. We discuss the potential ecological factors causing such an unexpected pattern of migratory connectivity. We hypothesise that population differences in wintering longitudes of pied flycatchers result from geographical variation in breeding phenology and the timing of fuelling for spring migration at the wintering grounds. Future research should aim at describing how temporal dynamics in food availability across the wintering range affects migration, wintering distribution and populations' capacity to respond to environmental changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sex-limited polymorphism has evolved in many species including our own. Yet, we lack a detailed understanding of the underlying genetic variation and evolutionary processes at work. The brood parasitic common cuckoo ( Cuculus canorus ) is a prime example of female-limited color polymorphism, where adult males are monochromatic gray and females exhibit either gray or rufous plumage. This polymorphism has been hypothesized to be governed by negative frequency-dependent selection whereby the rarer female morph is protected against harassment by males or from mobbing by parasitized host species. Here, we show that female plumage dichromatism maps to the female-restricted genome. We further demonstrate that, consistent with balancing selection, ancestry of the rufous phenotype is shared with the likewise female dichromatic sister species, the oriental cuckoo ( Cuculus optatus ). This study shows that sex-specific polymorphism in trait variation can be resolved by genetic variation residing on a sex-limited chromosome and be maintained across species boundaries.

Background and Aims: High quality clinical research that addresses important questions requires significant resources. In resource-constrained environments, projects will therefore need to be prioritized. The Australia and New Zealand Musculoskeletal (ANZMUSC) Clinical Trials Network aimed to develop a stakeholder-based, transparent, easily implementable tool that provides a score for the 'importance' of a research question which could be used to rank research projects in order of importance., Methods: Using a mixed-methods, multi-stage approach that included a Delphi survey, consensus workshop, inter-rater reliability testing, validity testing and calibration using a discrete-choice methodology, the Research Question Importance Tool (ANZMUSC-RQIT) was developed. The tool incorporated broad stakeholder opinion, including consumers, at each stage and is designed for scoring by committee consensus., Results: The ANZMUSC-RQIT tool consists of 5 dimensions (compared to 6 dimensions for an earlier version of RQIT): (1) extent of stakeholder consensus, (2) social burden of health condition, (3) patient burden of health condition, (4) anticipated effectiveness of proposed intervention, and (5) extent to which health equity is addressed by the research. Each dimension is assessed by defining ordered levels of a relevant attribute and by assigning a score to each level. The scores for the dimensions are then summed to obtain an overall ANZMUSC-RQIT score, which represents the importance of the research question. The result is a score on an interval scale with an arbitrary unit, ranging from 0 (minimal importance) to 1000. The ANZMUSC-RQIT dimensions can be reliably ordered by committee consensus (ICC 0.73-0.93) and the overall score is positively associated with citation count (standardised regression coefficient 0.33, p<0.001) and journal impact factor group (OR 6.78, 95% CI 3.17 to 14.50 for 3rd tertile compared to 1st tertile of ANZMUSC-RQIT scores) for 200 published musculoskeletal clinical trials., Conclusion: We propose that the ANZMUSC-RQIT is a useful tool for prioritising the importance of a research question., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Taylor et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Why and how new migration routes emerge remain fundamental questions in ecology, particularly in the context of current global changes. In its early stages, when few individuals are involved, the evolution of new migration routes can be easily confused with vagrancy, i.e. the occurrence of individuals outside their regular breeding, non-breeding or migratory distribution ranges. Yet, vagrancy can in theory generate new migration routes if vagrants survive, return to their breeding grounds and transfer their new migration route to their offspring, thus increasing a new migratory phenotype in the population. Here, we review the conceptual framework and empirical challenges of distinguishing regular migration from vagrancy in small obligate migratory passerines and explain how this can inform our understanding of migration evolution. For this purpose, we use the Yellow-browed Warbler (Phylloscopus inornatus) as a case study. This Siberian species normally winters in southern Asia and its recent increase in occurrence in Western Europe has become a prominent evolutionary puzzle. We first review and discuss available evidence suggesting that the species is still mostly a vagrant in Western Europe but might be establishing a new migration route initiated by vagrants. We then list possible empirical approaches to check if some individuals really undertake regular migratory movements between Western Europe and Siberia, which would make this species an ideal model for studying the links between vagrancy and the emergence of new migratory routes., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Currently, the deployment of tracking devices is one of the most frequently used approaches to study movement ecology of birds. Recent miniaturization of light-level geolocators enabled studying small bird species whose migratory patterns were widely unknown. However, geolocators may reduce vital rates in tagged birds and may bias obtained movement data. There is a need for a thorough assessment of the potential tag effects on small birds, as previous meta-analyses did not evaluate unpublished data and impact of multiple life-history traits, focused mainly on large species and the number of published studies tagging small birds has increased substantially. We quantitatively reviewed 549 records extracted from 74 published and 48 unpublished studies on over 7,800 tagged and 17,800 control individuals to examine the effects of geolocator tagging on small bird species (body mass <100 g). We calculated the effect of tagging on apparent survival, condition, phenology and breeding performance and identified the most important predictors of the magnitude of effect sizes. Even though the effects were not statistically significant in phylogenetically controlled models, we found a weak negative impact of geolocators on apparent survival. The negative effect on apparent survival was stronger with increasing relative load of the device and with geolocators attached using elastic harnesses. Moreover, tagging effects were stronger in smaller species. In conclusion, we found a weak effect on apparent survival of tagged birds and managed to pinpoint key aspects and drivers of tagging effects. We provide recommendations for establishing matched control group for proper effect size assessment in future studies and outline various aspects of tagging that need further investigation. Finally, our results encourage further use of geolocators on small bird species but the ethical aspects and scientific benefits should always be considered., (© 2019 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology © 2019 British Ecological Society.)

Each year, billions of songbirds cross large ecological barriers during their migration. Understanding how they perform this incredible task is crucial to predict how global change may threaten the safety of such journeys. Earlier studies based on radar suggested that most songbirds cross deserts in intermittent flights at high altitude, stopping in the desert during the day, while recent tracking with light loggers suggested diurnal prolongation of nocturnal flights and common non-stop flights for some species. We analyzed light intensity and temperature data obtained from geolocation loggers deployed on 130 individuals of ten migratory songbird species, and show that a large variety of strategies for crossing deserts exists between, but also sometimes within species. Diurnal stopover in the desert is a common strategy in autumn, while most species prolonged some nocturnal flights into the day. Non-stop flights over the desert occurred more frequently in spring than in autumn, and more frequently in foliage gleaners. Temperature recordings suggest that songbirds crossed deserts with flight bouts performed at various altitudes according to species and season, along a gradient ranging from low above ground in autumn to probably >2000 m above ground level, and possibly at higher altitude in spring. High-altitude flights are therefore not the general rule for crossing deserts in migrant songbirds. We conclude that a diversity of migration strategies exists for desert crossing among songbirds, with variations between but also within species.

Objectives: In March 2018, New Zealand (NZ) introduced standardised tobacco packaging that also featured new pictorial warnings, with implementation completed by early June 2018. We evaluated how the new packaging affected tobacco pack displays in outdoor areas of hospitality venues., Design: Before-and-after descriptive field observation study., Setting: Central city area of the capital city of NZ (Wellington)., Participants: Observations of people smoking and tobacco packs were made at 56 hospitality venues with outdoor tables (2422 separate venue observations), after the introduction of standardised tobacco packaging. Comparisons were made with a prior study in the same setting, from a time when tobacco packaging still featured brand imagery., Results: A total of 8191 patrons, 1113 active smokers and 889 packs and pouches (522 of known orientation) were observed over 2422 venue observations. There were 0.80 visible packs per active smoker in 2018, compared with 1.26 in 2014 (risk ratio (RR)=0.64, 95% CI 0.60 to 0.67, p<0.0001). The new packs in 2018 were also less likely to be displayed face-up, compared with packs in 2014, which had brand imagery on the front face (RR=0.77, 95% CI 0.72 to 0.83, p<0.0001). Pack and pouch display (RR=3.09 in 2014 and 3.10 in 2018) and active smoking (RR=3.16 in 2014 compared with 3.32 in 2018) were higher at venues without children present, compared with venues with children present (this finding was consistent over time)., Conclusions: The reduction in the number of visible packs per active smoker, along with the reduction in face-up positioning of packs, suggests that smokers found the new standardised packs less attractive. Countries introducing standardised packaging should consider evaluating social display of tobacco packaging., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Objective: Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) frequently undergo repeat testing for antibodies against extractable nuclear antigens (anti-ENA), but it is not known whether this is necessary or cost-effective. This study characterized the frequencies of changes in anti-ENA, anti-dsDNA, and complement C3 and C4 upon repeat testing., Methods: Chart review was done at one site of 130 patients with SLE enrolled in the 1000 Canadian Faces of Lupus prospective registry with annual antibody and complement testing. We determined the frequency of seroconversion (changes) on the next test and over the entire followup given 1 or multiple consistent results, and the cost to detect these changes., Results: Overall, 89.4% of patients had no changes in anti-ENA screening results from the first available test, 3.3% changed from negative to positive, and 7.3% from positive to negative. Following a single anti-ENA test, 3.9% of negative tests changed to positive and 4.2% of positive changed to negative on the next test. After multiple consistent tests, the frequencies of changes progressively declined. No changes from the first test were observed in anti-dsDNA, C3, and C4 in 60.8%, 83.3%, and 75.4% of patients, respectively. After 2 consistent anti-ENA tests, the cost to detect 1 change was above US$2000., Conclusion: Anti-ENA results change infrequently, especially following 1 or more negative tests. The high cost and lack of evidence that changes affect management suggest that repeating anti-ENA tests routinely is unnecessary. Anti-dsDNA and complements change more frequently after an abnormal result, but less after a normal value.

Cells communicate with one another to create microenvironments and share resources. One avenue by which cells communicate is through the action of exosomes. Exosomes are extracellular vesicles that are released by one cell and taken up by neighbouring cells. But how exosomes instigate communication between cells has remained largely unknown. We present evidence here that particular long non-coding RNA molecules are preferentially packaged into exosomes. We also find that a specific class of these exosome associated non-coding RNAs functionally modulate cell viability by direct interactions with L-lactate dehydrogenase B (LDHB), high-mobility group protein 17 (HMG-17), and CSF2RB, proteins involved in metabolism, nucleosomal architecture and cell signalling respectively. Knowledge of this endogenous cell to cell pathway, those proteins interacting with exosome associated non-coding transcripts and their interacting domains, could lead to a better understanding of not only cell to cell interactions but also the development of exosome targeted approaches in patient specific cell-based therapies., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest from this work.

Natural selective processes have been known to drive phenotypic plasticity, which is the emergence of different phenotypes from one genome following environmental stimulation. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been observed to modulate transcriptional and epigenetic states of genes in human cells. We surmised that lncRNAs are governors of phenotypic plasticity and drive natural selective processes through epigenetic modulation of gene expression. Using heat shocked human cells as a model we find several differentially expressed transcripts with the top candidates being lncRNAs derived from retro-elements. One particular retro-element derived transcripts, Retro-EIF2S2, was found to be abundantly over-expressed in heat shocked cells. Over-expression of Retro-EIF2S2 significantly enhanced cell viability and modulated a predisposition for an adherent cellular phenotype upon heat shock. Mechanistically, we find that this retro-element derived transcript interacts directly with a network of proteins including 40S ribosomal protein S30 (FAU), Eukaryotic translation initiation factor 5A (EIF5A), and Ubiquitin-60S ribosomal protein L40 (UBA52) to affect protein modulated cell adhesion pathways. We find one motif in Retro-EIF2S2 that exhibits binding to FAU and modulates phenotypic cell transitions from adherent to suspension states. The observations presented here suggest that retroviral derived transcripts actively modulate phenotypic plasticity in human cells in response to environmental selective pressures and suggest that natural selection may play out through the action of retro-elements in human cells.