ALBERT

Description: Suicide is the leading cause of death among young men aged 15–29 in Greenland, but few epidemiological studies have described this problem. We aimed to summarise descriptive epidemiological studies of suicide in young men in Greenland compared with other demographic groups in Denmark and Greenland to inform future suicide prevention strategy. We searched PubMed, PsycINFO, and Embase using an agreed search strategy to identify English-language papers describing suicide epidemiology in Greenlandic men aged 15–29. We followed PRISMA guidelines in screening and appraising eligible publications. Eight articles fulfilled inclusion criteria of 64 meeting search criteria. Findings covering 1970–2011 supported a dramatic rise in suicide rates in Greenlandic men aged 15–24 from 1976, who remained the highest-ranking demographic group over 1976–2011 compared with men and women of all age groups in Denmark and Greenland. Highest rates recorded were almost 600 per 100,000 per year in men aged approximately 20–23 over 1977–1986. No studies described suicide epidemiology after 2011, and no studies described risk factors for suicide in young men. Given the very high suicide rates recorded for young men over 1976–2011, such studies will be essential for informing the development and evaluation of appropriate preventive interventions.

Description: Using a global climate model, Amazonian deforestation experiments are conducted perturbing 1, 9, 25, 81 and 121 grid points, each with 5 ensemble members. All experiments show warming and drying over Amazonia. The impact of deforestation on temperature, averaged either over the affected area or a wider area, decreases by a factor of two as the scale of the perturbation increases from 1 to 121 grid points. This is associated with changes in the surface energy balance and consequential impacts on the atmosphere above the regions deforested. For precipitation, as the scale of deforestation increases from 9 to 121 grid points, the reduction in rainfall over the perturbed area decreases from ∼1.5 to ∼1 mm d −1 . However, if the surrounding area is considered and large deforestation perturbations made, compensatory increases in precipitation occur such that there is little net change. This is largely associated with changes in horizontal advection of moisture. Disagreements ...

Description: The health gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians may be exacerbated by climate change if temperature extremes have disproportionate adverse effects on Indigenous people. To explore this issue, we analysed the effect of temperature extremes on hospital admissions for respiratory diseases, stratified by age, Indigenous status and sex, for people living in two different climates zones in the Northern Territory during the period 1993–2011. We examined admissions for both acute and chronic respiratory diagnoses, controlling for day of the week and seasonality variables. Our analysis showed that: (1) overall, Indigenous hospital admission rates far exceeded non-Indigenous admission rates for acute and chronic diagnoses, and Top End climate zone admission rates exceeded Central Australia climate zone admission rates; (2) extreme cold and hot temperatures were associated with inconsistent changes in admission rates for acute respiratory disease in Indigenous and non-Indigenous children and older adults; and (3) no response to cold or hot temperature extremes was found for chronic respiratory diagnoses. These findings support our two hypotheses, that extreme hot and cold temperatures have a different effect on hospitalisations for respiratory disease between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, and that these health risks vary between the different climate zones. We did not, however, find that there were differing responses to temperature extremes in the two populations, suggesting that any increased vulnerability to climate change in the Indigenous population of the Northern Territory arises from an increased underlying risk to respiratory disease and an already greater existing health burden.

Description: People bereaved by suicide have an increased risk of suicide and suicide attempt, yet report receiving less support than people bereaved by other sudden deaths. Reductions in support may contribute to suicide risk, yet their nature is unclear. We explored the impact of suicide bereavement on the interpersonal relationships of young adults in the UK using an online survey to collect qualitative data. We conducted thematic analysis of free-text responses from 499 adults to questions capturing the impact of bereavement on relationships with partners, close friends, close family, extended family, and other contacts. We identified four main themes describing the changes in relationships following the suicide: (1) Social discomfort over the death (stigma and taboo; painfulness for self or others to discuss; socially prescribed grief reactions); (2) social withdrawal (loss of social confidence; withdrawal as a coping mechanism); (3) shared bereavement experience creating closeness and avoidance; (4) attachments influenced by fear of further losses (overprotectiveness towards others; avoiding attachments as protective). These findings contribute to understanding deficits in support and pathways to suicidality after suicide bereavement. Such disrupted attachments add to the burden of grief and could be addressed by public education on how to support those bereaved by suicide.

Description: The insect superfamily Psylloidea (Hemiptera) includes economically important biocontrol agents, pests and plant pathogen vectors, for which a rapid and accurate identification is fundamental for international biosecurity. Australasia is a hot spot for psyllid diversity, but previous species assessments in the region were largely based on morphology and host plant association. Morphological identification of psyllids remains challenging for a wide number of species and for juvenile insects, while a robust molecular framework for identification is not available. Consequently, knowledge of psyllid biology is compromised. Here, incorporating morphological evidence and host plant associations, insects collected from almost 600 primarily New Zealand locations were linked to 67 previously described species. By applying species delimitation methods including GYMC (General Mixed Yule–Coalescent method), PTP (Poisson Tree Processes), mPTP (multi–rate Poisson Tree Processes) and ABGD (Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery) to a dataset composed of 425 cytochrome oxidase I (COI) DNA barcode sequences, further cryptic diversity was revealed among the psyllid collection; more than 20 undescribed taxa are reported here for the first time, resulting in a total of 90 taxa across 21 genera and six families included in this study. Our improved understanding of psyllid diversity in New Zealand revealed new plant host-psyllid associations and geographical variation. The DNA barcode resource will enable future studies of psyllid ecology and more accurate, rapid identifications of psyllids that pose biosecurity threats to Australasia.

Description: Diversity, Vol. 10, Pages 50: DNA Barcoding Highlights Cryptic Diversity in the New Zealand Psylloidea (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha) Diversity doi: 10.3390/d10030050 Authors: Francesco Martoni Simon Bulman Andrew Pitman Gary Taylor Karen Armstrong The insect superfamily Psylloidea (Hemiptera) includes economically important biocontrol agents, pests and plant pathogen vectors, for which a rapid and accurate identification is fundamental for international biosecurity. Australasia is a hot spot for psyllid diversity, but previous species assessments in the region were largely based on morphology and host plant association. Morphological identification of psyllids remains challenging for a wide number of species and for juvenile insects, while a robust molecular framework for identification is not available. Consequently, knowledge of psyllid biology is compromised. Here, incorporating morphological evidence and host plant associations, insects collected from almost 600 primarily New Zealand locations were linked to 67 previously described species. By applying species delimitation methods including GYMC (General Mixed Yule–Coalescent method), PTP (Poisson Tree Processes), mPTP (multi–rate Poisson Tree Processes) and ABGD (Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery) to a dataset composed of 425 cytochrome oxidase I (COI) DNA barcode sequences, further cryptic diversity was revealed among the psyllid collection; more than 20 undescribed taxa are reported here for the first time, resulting in a total of 90 taxa across 21 genera and six families included in this study. Our improved understanding of psyllid diversity in New Zealand revealed new plant host-psyllid associations and geographical variation. The DNA barcode resource will enable future studies of psyllid ecology and more accurate, rapid identifications of psyllids that pose biosecurity threats to Australasia.

Description: IJERPH, Vol. 15, Pages 666: Support Needs and Experiences of People Bereaved by Suicide: Qualitative Findings from a Cross-Sectional British Study of Bereaved Young Adults International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health doi: 10.3390/ijerph15040666 Authors: Alexandra Pitman Tanisha De Souza Adelia Khrisna Putri Fiona Stevenson Michael King David Osborn Nicola Morant People bereaved by suicide are at increased risk of suicide, but evidence is lacking that available interventions reduce suicide risk. Few large-scale studies have described the views of suicide-bereaved people regarding their needs for support. Our objective was to explore the nature of young adults’ experiences of support after bereavement by suicide and their views on valued and unhelpful aspects. We conducted a cross-sectional study of staff and students aged 18–40 at 37 United Kingdom (UK) higher educational institutions in 2010, eliciting qualitative responses to two questions probing experiences of support and unmet needs after the suicide of a close contact. We conducted thematic analysis of responses from 420 adults bereaved by suicide, of whom 75% had received support after the loss. We identified three broad descriptive areas corresponding to important aspects of support: value and experiences of the support received; views on specific support needs; and reasons for not seeking support. We found that needs for emotional support exist throughout the social networks of people who die by suicide but are often hidden. Our findings suggest a need for proactive offers of support from family, friends, and professionals after suicide, repeated regularly in case a bereaved person does not feel ready for support early on.

Description: IJERPH, Vol. 15, Pages 643: The Impact of Suicide Bereavement on Educational and Occupational Functioning: A Qualitative Study of 460 Bereaved Adults International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health doi: 10.3390/ijerph15040643 Authors: Alexandra Pitman Adelia Khrisna Putri Tanisha De Souza Fiona Stevenson Michael King David Osborn Nicola Morant People bereaved by suicide are at an increased risk of suicide and of dropping out of education or work. Explanations for these associations are unclear, and more research is needed to understand how improving support in educational or work settings for people bereaved by suicide might contribute to reducing suicide risk. Our objective was to explore the impact of suicide on occupational functioning. We conducted a cross-sectional online study of bereaved adults aged 18–40, recruited from staff and students of British higher educational institutions in 2010. We used thematic analysis to analyse free text responses to two questions probing the impact of suicide bereavement on work and education. Our analysis of responses from 460 adults bereaved by suicide identified three main themes: (i) specific aspects of grief that impacted on work performance, cognitive and emotional domains, and social confidence; (ii) structural challenges in work or educational settings including a lack of institutional support, the impact of taking time off, and changes to caring roles; and (iii) new perspectives on the role of work, including determination to achieve. Institutional support should be tailored to take account of the difficulties and experiences described.

Description: Land surface models (LSMs) must accurately simulate observed energy and water fluxes during droughts in order to provide reliable estimates of future water resources. We evaluated 8 different LSMs (14 model versions) for simulating evapotranspiration (ET) during periods of evaporative drought (Edrought) across six flux tower sites. Using an empirically defined Edrought threshold (a decline in ET below the observed 15th percentile), we show that LSMs simulated 58 Edrought days per year, on average, across the six sites, ∼3 times as many as the observed 20 d. The simulated Edrought magnitude was ∼8 times greater than observed and twice as intense. Our findings point to systematic biases across LSMs when simulating water and energy fluxes under water-stressed conditions. The overestimation of key Edrought characteristics undermines our confidence in the models’ capability in simulating realistic drought responses to climate change and has wider implications for phenomena sensitive ...

Description: Irrigation is known to influence regional climate but most studies forecast and simulate irrigation with offline (i.e. land only) models. Using south eastern Australia as a test bed, we demonstrate that irrigation demand is fundamentally different between land only and land–atmosphere simulations. While irrigation only has a small impact on maximum temperature, the semi-arid environment experiences near surface moistening in coupled simulations over the irrigated regions, a feedback that is prevented in offline simulations. In land only simulations that neglect the local feedbacks, the simulated irrigation demand is 25% higher and the standard deviation of the mean irrigation rate is 60% smaller. These local-scale irrigation-driven feedbacks are not resolved in coarse-resolution climate models implying that use of these tools will overestimate irrigation demand. Future studies of irrigation demand must therefore account for the local land–atmosphere interactions by using coupled...