Capital breeders, such as the eider duck Somateria mollissima, accumulate resources before the start of breeding. Eiders preferentially feed on blue mussels Mytilus edulis to build up body condition during winter. We explored how body condition and gizzard mass of wintering eiders relate to mussel quality and quantity, winter climate and body condition of females at the breeding grounds. Body condition during winter (defined as scaled body mass index) of eiders increased during winter and the magnitude of the effect depended on age and mussel quality. Gizzard mass of eiders increased during winter with effects of mussel quality, mussel stocks and sex. Body condition in winter of adult females increased from the first half of January to the second half of February on average by 1.5%, equal to c. 96 g. During the same period gizzard mass of adult females increased by 12.2%, i.e., a nearly ten-fold increase compared to that observed in body condition in winter. Body condition of females at the breeding grounds in Finland (defined as body condition at hatching) was significantly positively correlated with gizzard mass in winter, but not significantly correlated with body condition in winter. Thus, eiders allocate body reserves to increase gizzard mass but less so to increase body condition in winter. This can be considered an adaptive migratory strategy of these eiders, whereby large winter (pre-migratory) gizzards increase food processing capacity, making it possible for eiders to arrive at the breeding grounds with superior body condition and a high reproductive potential.

Understanding species habitat use and factors affecting changes in their distributions are necessary to promote the conservation of any biological community. We evaluated the changes in wetland use of the non-breeding waterbird community. Based on long-term citizen-science data (1988-2020), we tested the hypotheses that wetland use is associated with species diet and potential range-shift drivers (the tendency to occupy the same sites in consecutive years-site affinity-and the species' average temperature across its wintering range-species temperature index). We analysed species-specific wetland use of 25 species of waterbirds wintering in Czechia over a period of 33 years. The analyses explained variability in trends in numbers of the studied waterbird species across four inland wetland types: reservoirs; fishponds; industrial waters created by flooding of former mining sites; and running waters. Trends in waterbird abundance positively correlated with species' diet on fishponds, industrial and running waters. Among the diet groups, invertivores showed the largest increase in abundances on industrial waters, closely followed by herbivores. Herbivores showed the largest increase in abundances in fishponds, and piscivores did so in running waters. Regarding range-shift drivers, species with higher site affinity showed higher abundances on running waters, while species with low species temperature index (i.e. wintering on average in sites with lower temperature) were more abundant on reservoirs. The abundance of both warm-dwelling and species with low site affinity increased on fishponds and industrial waters. Our findings suggest that the increased importance of the wetland types considered here for wintering waterbirds is likely to be linked to diet related changes in habitat use and changes in species distributions; and highlight that wintering waterbirds are expected to select sites with higher availability of food, higher energy content, and lower foraging cost. Recent and rapid changes in species distributions may lead to a decrease in the effectiveness of national and international conservation efforts. When planning conservation measures, it should be kept in mind that climate change does not only imply large-scale north/north-eastwards shifts of entire waterbird distributions, but can also modify the use of the habitats by waterbird species inside their traditional wintering range.

Objective: To follow and analyze the clinical course and quality of life of Pandemrix H1N1-vaccinerelated narcolepsy (pNT1). Methods: Twenty-six drug-naive confirmed pNT1 subjects completed Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), Ullanlinna Narcolepsy Scale (UNS), Swiss Narcolepsy Scale (SNS), Rimon's Brief Depression scale (RDS), and WHO-5 Well-being index questionnaires near the disease onset and in a follow-up a minimum of two years later. The number of cataplexies and body mass index (BMI) were recorded. The effects of hypocretin-1 levels and sleep recording results were analyzed. The findings at the follow-up visit were compared with 25 non-vaccine-related type 1 narcolepsy (NT1) subjects. Results: In pNT1, RDS score decreased significantly (mean 10.2, SD 4.7 vs mean 6.7, SD 4.5, p = 0.003). Median of BMI increased from 20.8 kg m(-2) to 23.4 kg m(-2), p <0.001. There were no significant differences in other sleep scores. However, deviation and range in questionnaire scores at the follow-up were wide. Subjects with very low or undetectable hypocretin-1 levels had worse scores in UNS (mean 26.4, SD 6.95 vs mean 19.1, SD 3.83, p = 0.006) and ESS (mean 17.9, SD = 4.29 vs mean 14.1, SD = 3.70, p = 0.047) than those with hypocretin-1 levels of 20-110 pg/mL. Most disabling symptoms were excessive daytime sleepiness and disturbed sleep. There were no significant differences between the scores in pNT1 and NT1. Conclusions: Clinical course of pNT1 is heterogeneous but the evolution of pNT1 seems similar to NT1. Lower hypocretin levels in pNT1 are associated with a more severe phenotype. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

recently developed finite-element approach for fully numerical atomic structure calculations [S. Lehtola, Int. J. Quantum Chem. 119, e25945 (2019)] is extended to the description of atoms with spherically symmetric densities via fractionally occupied orbitals. Specialized versions of Hartree-Fock as well as local density and generalized gradient approximation density functionals are developed, allowing extremely rapid calculations at the basis-set limit on the ground and low-lying excited states, even for heavy atoms. The implementation of range separation based on the Yukawa or complementary error function (erfc) kernels is also described, allowing complete basis-set benchmarks of modern range-separated hybrid functionals with either integer or fractional occupation numbers. Finally, the computation of atomic effective potentials at the local density or generalized gradient approximation levels for the superposition of atomic potentials (SAP) approach [S. Lehtola, J. Chem. Theory Comput. 15, 1593 (2019)] that has been shown to be a simple and efficient way to initialize electronic structure calculations is described. The present numerical approach is shown to afford beyond micro-Hartree accuracy with a small number of numerical basis functions, and to reproduce the literature results for the ground states of atoms and their cations for 1

Working hours is a ubiquitous exposure given that most adults are employed, and one that is modifiable via legislative change if not always through individual-level choice. According to a recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Labour Organization (ILO), there is currently sufficient evidence to conclude that long working hours (i.e., >= 55 h per week) elevate the risk of fatal and non-fatal ischaemic heart disease to a clinically meaningful extent. After assessing the data used by the ILO/WHO, we feel that the expert group has not correctly applied their own framework for assessing the strength of the evidence. In the meta-analysis of observational studies in the report, the association between long working hours and incident heart disease appeared stronger in lower quality cohort studies with a high risk of bias (minimally-adjusted hazard ratio 1.20, 95% CI 1.01-1.41, compared to standard 35-40 weekly hours) than in the superior-quality studies with a lower risk of bias for which the estimate was not significantly different from the null (1.08, 95% CI 0.93-1.25). There was also marked effect modification, such that there was no increase in ischaemic heart disease for those working long hours in high socioeconomic status occupations, a finding also reported in analyses of a recent census-based cohort study which was not included in the report. Our meta-analysis of all these studies confirm that the findings are not consistent but differ between subgroups and that the summary age- and sex-adjusted hazard ratio for long working hours in high socioeconomic status occupations does not support excess risk: 0.85, 95% CI 0.63-1.13 (Pinteraction = 0.005, total N = 451,982). For these and other reasons detailed in this commentary, we advance a more cautious interpretation of the existing evidence. The conclusions should be restricted to low socioeconomic status occupations only and more research is still needed to confirm or refute harmfulness and determine clinical relevance.