Translocation of Neonicotinoid in Maize and Nontarget Impacts to Water and Soil

The neonicotinoids are a relatively new group of insecticides, first commercially available in the early 1990s, and have become the most widely used insecticide class in the world. Neonicotinoids can be utilized in a variety of ways however the vast majority are applied as a seed coating prior to planting. These neonicotinoid seed treatments (NST) are primarily used within field crops, where their main use is as a prophylactic, insurance based approach to pest management. By 2011 US adoption rates exceeded \u3e80% in maize and 34-44% in soy. This widespread and rapid use has not been justified with a corresponding rise in pest pressure. Numerous peer-reviewed publications had reported inconsistent yield benefits for NST use at the start of this dissertation. Furthermore, an increasing number of reports have reported contamination of nontarget areas with neonicotinoids. In order to investigate one potential mechanism to explain both inconsistent yield benefits and estimate the contribution of NST to environmental contamination, I conducted a two-year field study in which I compared concentrations of clothianidin seed treatments in maize to that of maize without neonicotinoid seed treatments. I found the protection of NST extends to at least 34 d post planting and that in-plant concentrations followed an exponential decay pattern with initially high values followed by a rapid decrease within the first ~20 d post planting. A cumulative maximum of 1.34% of the initial seed treatment was successfully recovered from whole plant tissues in both study years with only 0.26% of the initial seed treatment being recovered from root tissue. My findings suggest NST may provide some protection from early season maize pests but, even at the highest per kernel concentrations of clothianidin tested, peak in-plant concentrations are poorly correlated with the key pest that they are labeled to control: the corn rootworm the key maize pest within the US. Additionally, the poor translocation efficiency of NST, in combination with the high leaching risk of these compounds, provides a route for environmental contamination. To further address the crop protection efficacy of NST, and determine if their mandatory use is justified (growers usually do not have access to untreated seed), I also conducted a metaanalysis on plant health and pest damage metrics from 15 yr of insecticide efficacy trials conducted on Indiana maize. Corn rootworm remains the key pest of maize in the United States however it is managed largely by Bt corn hybrids, along with soil insecticides and NSTs. Frequently, more than one of these pest-management approaches is employed at the same time. This meta-analytical approach allowed me to summarize the mean effect over 15 yrs worth of data and pest management techniques. The probability of recovering the insecticide cost associated with each treatment was also calculated when possible. With the exception of early-season plant health (stand counts), in which the NSTs performed better than all other insecticides, the vast majority of insecticides performed similarly in all plant health metrics, including yield. Furthermore, all tested insecticides (including NSTs) reported a high probability (\u3e80%) of recovering treatment costs. Given the similarity in performance and probability of recovering treatment costs, I suggest NSTs be optional for producers, so that they can be incorporated into an insecticide rotation when managing for corn rootworm, the primary Indiana corn pest. This approach could simultaneously reduce costs to growers, lower the likelihood of non-target effects, and reduce the risk of pests evolving resistance to the neonicotinoid insecticides. The high soil half-life and low Kow of many neonicotinoids result in a high leaching risk. This, in combination with their annual repeated use is likely the reason an increasing number of detections of environmental neonicotinoids are being reported. In order to quantify the magnitude and timing of CLO concentrations in leachate from tile drain fields, an experiment was carried out using field lysimeters at the Purdue Water Quality Field Station. The maximum clothianidin concentration in leachate was found to be an approximate order of magnitude higher than previously reported (3.48 ng/ml). This is not surprising, as these data result from a direct and undiluted measure of neonicotinoid leachate reinforcing the role of NST to environmental contamination. Furthermore, my work demonstrates that NST concentrations within leachate are greatest at precipitation events that follow planting and conform to a first-order decay pattern of initially high concentrations, with a rapid and drastic concentration decrease as the growing season progresses. I also investigated the possibility of nontarget impacts resultant from neonicotinoid contamination in leachate. The systemic nature of NST allows them to readily be translocated by nontarget vegetation and at the start of this dissertation, non-target translocation had not been reported in aquatic vegetation. This question was explored with manipulative laboratory experiments to assess the uptake potential of aqueous clothianidin, a proxy for agricultural runoff and leachate, in the aquatic macrophyte, gibbous duckweed (Lemna gibba). Clothianidin was found to reach equilibrium within plant tissues by 12 hrs exposure at a concentration ~65% of the concentration within the water. Finally, bioassays utilizing clothianidin-contaminated duckweed were conducted on a duckweed-associated insect (Rhopalosiphum nymphaeae, waterlily aphid (Linnaeus)) to investigate potential impacts on higher trophic levels

The Life History of Larinus Minutus, a Biological Control Agent of Invasive Knapweeds, and its Dispersal from Release Sites in Arkansas

Larinus minutus Gyllenhal, a biological control agent of invasive knapweeds, has become established in several states and provinces since initial North American introduction in 1991. In order to reduce growing spotted knapweed populations in Northwest Arkansas, Larinus minutus (a biological control agent of spotted knapweed) was released annually from 2008-2011. Little is known about the larval development of this species, although the widespread use of this insect has provided research describing detailed host range and generalized life history. The speed and extent of the spread of this weevil from release sites following introduction have not been reported. This research described the larval development of L. minutus and its spread from release sites. Overwintered adult weevils were field collected and allowed to mate for two days for larval development studies. Females were placed individually into a mesh cage attached to a capitulum and allowed ~24 hours to oviposit. Randomly-collected caged capitula were dissected biweekly and head capsule measurements recorded. Once a majority of larva pupated, alternate day observations were conducted on remaining caged capitula to determine average emergence date. Two cohorts (occurring at full and late-flower) were used to observe season-related development differences. Two larval instars were observed from head capsule data analyzed with Hcap, a computer program that analyzes frequency distributions to determine instar number, mean head capsule width, instar range, and optimal separation points. Compared to previously published observations, all developmental stages were accelerated and one fewer stage was observed. Release sites were surveyed with transect sampling in winter of 2011 and 2012 to describe average L. minutus spread following introduction. Sampling included collection of 100 capitula per quadrat along each transect for later dissection and timed visual observation to record positive infestation. GPS coordinates were recorded at each sample location to determine distance from a release site. Collected data were analyzed with a diffusion equation to describe the spread from a release site. This research shows two years post release, an annual increase of infested capitula, up to 21%, and spread from a release point, up to ~225 m can be expected

Soluble ephrin a1 is necessary for the growth of HeLa and SK-BR3 cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ephrin A1 (EFNA1) is a member of the A-type ephrin family of cell surface proteins that function as ligands for the A-type Eph receptor tyrosine kinase family. In malignancy, the precise role of EFNA1 and its preferred receptor, EPHA2, is controversial. Several studies have found that EFNA1 may suppress EPHA2-mediated oncogenesis, or enhance it, depending on cell type and context. However, little is known about the conditions that influence whether EFNA1 promotes or suppresses tumorigenicity. EFNA1 exists in a soluble form as well as a glycophosphatidylinositol (GPI) membrane attached form. We investigated whether the contradictory roles of EFNA1 in malignancy might in part be related to the existence of both soluble and membrane attached forms of EFNA1 and potential differences in the manner in which they interact with EPHA2.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using a RNAi strategy to reduce the expression of endogenous EFNA1 and EPHA2, we found that both EFNA1 and EPHA2 are required for growth of HeLa and SK-BR3 cells. The growth defects could be rescued by conditioned media from cells overexpressing soluble EFNA1. Interestingly, we found that overexpression of the membrane attached form of EFNA1 suppresses growth of HeLa cells in 3D but not 2D. Knockdown of endogenous EFNA1, or overexpression of full-length EFNA1, resulted in relocalization of EPHA2 from the cell surface to sites of cell-cell contact. Overexpression of soluble EFNA1 however resulted in more EPHA2 distributed on the cell surface, away from cell-cell contacts, and promoted the growth of HeLa cells.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We conclude that soluble EFNA1 is necessary for the transformation of HeLa and SK-BR3 cells and participates in the relocalization of EPHA2 away from sites of cell-cell contact during transformation.</p

Does Patient Age and Criticality Affect the Paramedic Student\u27s Opportunity to be a Team Leader?

Throughout various health-professions education, it is common for student learners to follow preceptor experts in the clinical environment. Depending on the profession, some students may encounter various age groups and various severities of patient presentations. This research in emergency medical services (EMS) education sought to investigate whether the age and acuity of the patient influences the paramedic student’s opportunity to act as a team leader during pre-hospital internship experiences. A retrospective review of student records in FISDAP, a national online EMS student tracking system, was completed. 537,343 patient encounters among 5,720 students from January 2010 to December 2018 were analyzed; statistical analysis included the use of odds ratios. Results found that paramedic students led less pediatric encounters than adult encounters. Paramedic students were significantly less likely to lead calls with all pediatric age groups across increasing levels of acuity with the exception of 3-12 year-old patients who were “critical” or had a “life-threatening illness/injury”; in this case, they were just as likely as their preceptors to lead the pre-hospital team. Additionally, paramedic students across the nation generally led a higher percentage of “critical” encounters than “non-critical” encounters (46.26% to 26.63%) during their field internships. When considering clinical experiences for health-profession learners, using this research from EMS education as proxy may help clinical educators develop more effective training for preceptors and clinical sites to preemptively address this phenomenon. Specifically, preceptors should be educated to allow increased opportunities (when available and appropriate) for students to act with more autonomy among pediatric populations in the clinical learning environment. Ideally this increased exposure and practice will help build future generations of more prepared and more experienced healthcare professionals

Opening the Crystalline Color Superconductivity Window

Cold dense quark matter is in a crystalline color superconducting phase wherever pairing occurs between species of quarks with chemical potentials whose difference \delta\mu lies within an appropriate window. If the interaction between quarks is modeled as point-like, this window is rather narrow. We show that when the interaction between quarks is modeled as single-gluon exchange, the window widens by about a factor of ten at accessible densities and by much larger factors at higher density. This striking enhancement reflects the increasingly (1+1)-dimensional nature of the physics at weaker and weaker coupling. Our results indicate that crystalline color superconductivity is a generic feature of the phase diagram of cold dense quark matter, occurring wherever one finds quark matter which is not in the color-flavor locked phase. If it occurs within the cores of compact stars, a crystalline color superconducting region may provide a new locus for glitch phenomena.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figure

Exploring the Relationship Between Compassion and Attachment in Individuals with Mental Health Difficulties: A Systematic Review

The objective of the review was to explore the relevance of the relationship of compassion and attachment to mental health. APAPsycInfo, APAPsycArticles, CINAHL, MEDLINE, Social Science Database, Sociology Database, PTSDpubs, Pubmed, and Web of Science were searched from their inception until November 9, 2021. Peer-reviewed empirical studies exploring the compassion–attachment relationship in individuals with mental health difficulties through outcome measures were included. Studies were excluded if non-empirical, with non-clinical/subclinical samples, in a language other than English and if they did not consider the compassion–attachment relationship. Risk of bias was assessed through The Newcastle–Ottawa Scale and the Downs and Black Checklist. Seven eligible studies comprising 4839 participants were identified, with low to moderate risk of overall bias. Findings indicated a more straightforward relationship between self-compassion and secure attachment and confirmed the relevance of compassion and attachment to psychological functioning. Limitations concerned study design, the use of self-report measures, and low generalisability. While suggesting mechanisms underpinning compassion and attachment, the review corroborates the role of secure attachment and self-compassion as therapeutic targets against mental health difficulties. This study is registered on PROSPERO number CRD42021296279

Spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in the linked cluster expansion

We investigate dynamical chiral symmetry breaking in the Coulomb gauge Hamiltonian QCD. Within the framework of the linked cluster expansion we extend the BCS ansatz for the vacuum and include correlation beyond the quark-antiquark paring. In particular we study the effects of the three-body correlations involving quark-antiquark and transverse gluons. The high momentum behavior of the resulting gap equation is discussed and numerical computation of the chiral symmetry breaking is presented.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

Kualitas Hidup Pasien Diabetes Melitus Tipe 2 di Puskesmas Se Kota Kupang

Diabetes Mellitus is well known as a chronic disease which can lead to a decrease in quality of life in all domains. The study aims to explore the diabetic type 2 patient\u27s quality of life and find out the factors affecting in type 2 diabetic mellitus patients. The cross-sectional study design is used that included 65 patient with type 2 diabetes mellitus, in 11 public health centers of Kupang City. Data were collected by using Short Form Survey (SF-36) that assessed 8-scale health profile. Independent sample t-test is used to analyze the correlation between the factors affecting and the quality of life. the study showed that the QoL of DM patients decreased in all 8- health profile including physical functioning, social functioning, mental health, general health, pain, change in the role due to physical problems and emotional problems. The Study also showed there was a relationship between gender, duration of suffering from Diabetes mellitus, and complications to the quality of life. Male perceived a better quality of life than female

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: A Measurement of the DR6 CMB Lensing Power Spectrum and its Implications for Structure Growth

We present new measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing over $9400$ sq. deg. of the sky. These lensing measurements are derived from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) Data Release 6 (DR6) CMB dataset, which consists of five seasons of ACT CMB temperature and polarization observations. We determine the amplitude of the CMB lensing power spectrum at $2.3\%$ precision ($43\sigma$ significance) using a novel pipeline that minimizes sensitivity to foregrounds and to noise properties. To ensure our results are robust, we analyze an extensive set of null tests, consistency tests, and systematic error estimates and employ a blinded analysis framework. The baseline spectrum is well fit by a lensing amplitude of $A_{\mathrm{lens}}=1.013\pm0.023$ relative to the Planck 2018 CMB power spectra best-fit $\Lambda$CDM model and $A_{\mathrm{lens}}=1.005\pm0.023$ relative to the $\text{ACT DR4} + \text{WMAP}$ best-fit model. From our lensing power spectrum measurement, we derive constraints on the parameter combination $S^{\mathrm{CMBL}}_8 \equiv \sigma_8 \left({\Omega_m}/{0.3}\right)^{0.25}$ of $S^{\mathrm{CMBL}}_8= 0.818\pm0.022$ from ACT DR6 CMB lensing alone and $S^{\mathrm{CMBL}}_8= 0.813\pm0.018$ when combining ACT DR6 and Planck NPIPE CMB lensing power spectra. These results are in excellent agreement with $\Lambda$CDM model constraints from Planck or $\text{ACT DR4} + \text{WMAP}$ CMB power spectrum measurements. Our lensing measurements from redshifts $z\sim0.5$--$5$ are thus fully consistent with $\Lambda$CDM structure growth predictions based on CMB anisotropies probing primarily $z\sim1100$. We find no evidence for a suppression of the amplitude of cosmic structure at low redshiftsComment: 45+21 pages, 50 figures. Prepared for submission to ApJ. Also see companion papers Madhavacheril et al and MacCrann et a