We investigated which objective language proficiency tests best predict the language dominance, balance, English and Spanish proficiency scores relative to Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) scores (averaged across 5–6 raters). Eighty Spanish–English bilinguals completed OPIs, picture naming, semantic and letter fluency, lexical decision tests and a language history questionnaire. Except for letter fluency, objective measures explained more variance than self-report variables, which seldom and negligibly improved proficiency prediction beyond objective measures in forward regression models. Picture naming (the Multilingual Naming Test (MINT) Sprint 2.0) was the strongest predictor for most purposes. Lexical decision and category fluency were next best predictors, but the latter was time-consuming to score, while the former was easiest to administer (and does not require bilingual examiners). Surprisingly, self-rated proficiency better predicted the OPI scores when averaged across modalities (i.e., including reading/writing instead of just spoken proficiency), and lexical-decision (a written test) was as powerful as picture naming for predicting spoken Spanish (but not language dominance).

Introduction: In public discourse and media, as well as in medical settings, dementia is often portrayed as a tragedy, a perspective that contributes to stigma. Descriptions using metaphors like decaying fruit, or statements labeling dementia as death in life’’ and a tsunami for healthcare systems,’’ not only perpetuate negative emotions like fear and helplessness, but also promote social distance. These dehumanizing expressions can intensify the suffering of those living with dementia and those around them, besides complicating understanding of the condition, exacerbating social isolation, and hindering timely medical attention. Questioning the narrative of dementia as a tragedy does not imply denying or underestimating the challenges and suffering associated with this condition. However, diagnosis should not hinder the recognition of moments of pleasure, the potential for internal growth of the person living with dementia and those around them, as well as the persistence of connection and dignity. The philosophy of ambiguity offers a useful framework for countering a stigmatizing narrative and addressing dementia with a more compassionate and nuanced approach. The philosophy of ambiguity, primarily expounded by Simone de Beauvoir, invites us to recognize the coexistence of multiple realities and the simultaneous presence of contradictions. This is reflected in the complex contradictions and paradoxes present in our experiences, both personal and social. Health itself is an ambiguous concept, representing not only the absence of illness but also a dynamic and multifaceted state, culturally and contextually influenced. By focusing on preserved abilities, we can contribute to the well-being of those living with dementia, reinforcing their dignity and self-esteem. The success of this approach depends on having adequate social support and an effective healthcare system. Understanding dementia in a broad social and cultural context allows us to overcome the traditional Manichean view that categorizes it strictly as either tragedy or well-being. It is crucial for medical personnel to use empathetic and respectful communication to maintain dignity and foster hope in those living with dementia. Listening carefully and avoiding stigmatizing language are fundamental to recognizing individual worth and creating a more compassionate and humane care environment.

We construct inhomogeneous isoparametric families of hypersurfaces with non-austere focal set on each symmetric space of non-compact type and rank ${\geq }3$. If the rank is ${\geq }4$, there are infinitely many such examples. Our construction yields the first examples of isoparametric families on any Riemannian manifold known to have a non-austere focal set. They can be obtained from a new general extension method of submanifolds from Euclidean spaces to symmetric spaces of non-compact type. This method preserves the mean curvature and isoparametricity, among other geometric properties.

Pneumonia is a respiratory condition with complex etiology. Host genetic variation is thought to contribute to individual differences in susceptibility and symptom manifestation. Here, we analyze pneumonia data from the UK Biobank (14,780 cases and 439,096 controls) and FinnGen (9980 cases and 86,519 controls) and perform a genomewide association study meta-analysis. We use gene-based tests, colocalization, genetic correlation, latent causal variable (LCV) and polygenic prediction in an independent Australian sample (N = 5595) to draw insights into the etiology of pneumonia risk. We identify two independent loci on chromosome 15 (lead single-nucleotide polymorphisms rs2009746 and rs76474922) to be associated with pneumonia (p < 5e−8). Gene-based tests revealed 18 genes in chromosomes 15, 16 and 9, including IL127, PBX3, ApoB receptor (APOBR) and smoking related genes CHRNA3/5, statistically associated with pneumonia. We observed genetic correlations between pneumonia and cardiorespiratory, psychiatric and inflammatory related traits. LCV analysis suggests a strong genetic causal relationship with cardiovascular health phenotypes. Polygenic risk scores for pneumonia significantly predicted self-reported pneumonia in an independent sample, albeit with a small effect size (OR = 1.11 95% CI [1.04, 1.19], p < .05). Sensitivity analyses suggested the associations in chromosome 15 are mediated by smoking history, but the associations in chromosomes 16 and 9, and polygenic prediction were robust to adjustment for smoking. Altogether, our results highlight common genetic variants, genes and potential pathways that contribute to individual differences in susceptibility to pneumonia, and advance our understanding of the genetic factors underlying heterogeneity in respiratory medical outcomes.

More and more studies indicate that leisure plays a fundamental role in active ageing. Our study describes the current leisure patterns of older adults, comparing them with other age groups. Consequently, 445 adults, stratified by age (young, middle-aged and older adults), were selected and subsequently administered a set of tests. The results indicate that older people claim having more time for their leisure activities; however, the diversity of activities performed is lower, showing a negative gradient based on age. The leisure patterns of older people reflect a predominance of passive leisure, little cultural leisure time and moderate levels of social and physical leisure activities. Older people’s leisure seems to be influenced by ageist stereotypes and attribution biases. Our findings imply that these results could be used to design and implement programs aimed at promoting leisure styles that contribute to increase active ageing.

Mating strategy and sexual dimorphism of morphological traits of the leucosiid crab Pyrhila pisum were elucidated by analysing relative growth patterns of chelipeds and abdomen, and gonad development patterns. Male adults had long chelipeds compared with juvenile males and females. Among male adults, two phases with different slopes could be found in the regression lines; their chelipeds growth pattern changed from negative allometry to positive and longer chelipeds developed in large adults. The growth is more markedly expressed in the merus than in the propodus. Female adults had wider abdominal segments and a thicker body compared with juvenile females and males. Abdomen of females was greatly enlarged by a puberty moult. Male adults had well-developed gonads similar to female adults, and the weights of male gonads were often larger than those of females of the same body size. For adult males, a negative correlation was detected between carapace width and the weight ratio of their gonads, but no significant relationship was detected for adult females. Females had large and well-bloated seminal receptacles, whose weight was nearly equal to gonad weight. There was little difference in the amount of seminal receptacles regardless of the body size of females. There is a trade-off relationship in the development between chelipeds and gonads in adult males. Probably young adult males compensate for the disadvantageous condition of guarding by increasing the number of spermatozoids, and old adult males invest more of their energy to their chelae for guarding while decreasing investment in sperm production.

Mating behaviour of the leucosiid crab Pyrhila pisum was studied in the laboratory and tidal flats in Japan. Most males actively approached females. Males started guarding females without any courtship behaviour (pre-copulatory guarding). Males began copulation within several minutes. The copulation continued for about 1–2 h, following which males began post-copulatory guarding. This guarding lasted from almost 0 to over 3 days, but its duration was generally much longer than that prior to copulation. Release of guarding was not linked to ovulation by females. Long-term rearing experiments revealed that both sexes of P. pisum could copulate multiple times with various mates. Developmental stages of the embryos recorded from copulating ovigerous females widely varied; their timing of copulation may not be fixed. In the tidal flat, wandering males frequently contacted with other individuals, but without distinguishing single males, single females and pairs of P. pisum, or Hemigrapsus takanoi. Male P. pisum cannot recognize female conspecifics, and they approach their mates relying only on vision, without using any attractive cues from females. In cases in which males encountered pairing crabs, they successfully stole the females when the guardians were smaller than the challengers, suggesting that effectiveness of guarding depends on male size. Among the mating pairs, males tended to be larger than females, and the tendency of size-assortative mating was weak or absent. Therefore, the mating behaviour of P. pisum is not elaborate, although their guarding behaviour may contribute to improve success to some degree.

Studies of abundance and distribution of organisms are fundamental to ecology. The identity of host species is known to be one of the major factors influencing ectoparasitic flea abundance, but explanations are still needed regarding how host taxa influence abundance parameters of different flea species. This study was carried out at La Malinche National Park (LMNP), Tlaxcala, Mexico, where previously 11 flea species had been recorded on 8 host species. Our aims were to list micromammal flea species, to determine flea infection parameters [flea prevalence (FP) and flea mean abundance (FMA)] and to analyse the influence of host species on these parameters. A total of 16 species of fleas were identified from 1178 fleas collected from 14 species of 1274 micromammals captured with Sherman® traps from March 2014 to December 2015 in 18 sites at LMNP. Some host species influence FP and FMA, in particular, Microtus mexicanus and Peromyscus melanotis showed particularly higher infection values than other host species. Plusaetis aztecus and Plusaetis sibynus were identified as the most abundant flea species.

Plant–animal mutualistic interactions through ecological network systems and the environmental conditions in which they occur, allow us to understand patterns of species composition and the structure and dynamics of communities. We evaluated whether flower morphologies with different pollination syndromes (ornithophilous and non-ornithophilous) are used by hummingbirds and whether these characteristics affect the structure (core-peripheral species) of hummingbird networks. Observations were made in flowering patches, where plant–hummingbird interactions were recorded at three altitudes (300–2500 m) during three seasons (dry, rainy and post-rainy) from 2015 to 2016 at El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve, Chiapas, Mexico. We recorded 15 hummingbird species interacting with 58 plant species, and the greatest number of interacting hummingbird species (11; 14) and plant species (28; 40) were found at middle altitudes and during the dry season, respectively. In all study sites, most of the plant species visited by hummingbirds had an ornithophilous syndrome (67%) at high altitudes (22 plant species) and during the dry season (26 plant species), but more individual hummingbirds visited non-ornithophilous plant species. The hummingbird species at high altitudes exhibited the greatest level of specialization towards plants (H2′ = 0.74), but the networks of plant-hummingbird interactions were generalist (H2′ = 0.25); i.e. visiting plants with both syndromes, at low altitudes. The core generalist hummingbird species remained constant with altitude and season, but the core generalist plant species varied between different altitudes and seasons according to the phenology of the species.