Sub-lethal effects of lufenuron exposure on spotted bollworm Earias vittella (Fab): key biological traits and detoxification enzymes activity

Spotted bollworm, Earias vittella, is one of the most serious and devastating insect pests of vegetables and cotton. Currently, insecticides are necessary for its control in nearly all crop systems. In this paper, we evaluate the sub-lethal effects of lufenuron on biological traits and activity of detoxification enzymes: cytochrome P450 monooxygenases, esterase, and glutathione Stranseferase (GST) in second instar larvae of E. vittella. Results showed that sub-lethal concentrations (LC15 and LC40 of lufenuron), prolonged larval period (at LC40 = 13.86 ± 1.22 day, LC15 = 13.14 ± 1.15 day, control = 12.28 ± 0.7), pupal duration (LC40 = 11.1 ± day, LC15 = 11.8 ± 0.28 day, control = 9.40 ± 0.52), and extended mean generation time (LC40 = 27.3 ± 0.43 LC15 = 29.0 ± 1.19 day, control = 26.0 ± 0.65). Sub-lethal exposure significantly prolonged the pre-adult stage, decreased pupal weight, and reduced adult longevity in the parent (F0) and F1 generation. Moreover, the fecundity and egg viability were significantly lowered in parental and F1 generations at both sub-lethal concentrations compared to the control. While no significant effects were noted on reproductive parameters such as the intrinsic rate of increase (r), finite rate of increase (λ), and net reproduction rate (R0) of F1 generation when compared to the control. Only mean generation time (T) in F1 at LC15 was significantly longer compared to the LC40 and control (LC40 = 3.79 ± 0.37, LC15 = 32.28 ± 1.55 day, control = 29.79 ± 0.55). Comparatively, the activities of cytochrome P450 monooxygenases and esterase were higher than GST in treated populations. The increase in resistance development against insecticides may possibly because of elevated activity of detoxification enzymes. These results provide useful information for monitoring resistance in integrated pest management (IPM) programs for E. vittella

Enhanced effects of dietary tannic acid with chlorantraniliprole on life table parameters and nutritional physiology of Spodoptera exigua (Hübner)

The beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a highly polyphagous pest which causes considerable economic losses to cotton and many vegetable crops. Tannins are among the most important secondary metabolites in cotton plants. We show that tannic acid enhances the toxic effect of chlorantraniliprole on S. exigua when presented in combination. Bioassays using third-instar S. exigua larvae on an artificial diet showed that consumption of tannic acid with chlorantraniliprole at the concentration of (2 mg/g and LC50 0.018 mg/L) had higher toxicity when compared to either chlorantraniliprole or tannic acid alone (LC50 0.027 mg/L). The diet containing tannic acid with chlorantraniliprole significantly prolonged larval and pupal developmental time and extended mean generation time and total preoviposition period compared to either chemical alone. Moreover, fecundity, survival rate, reproductive value, intrinsic rate of increase, finite rate of increase and net reproduction rate declined significantly when exposed to the combined treatment. No difference was observed between tannic acid and the control. Meanwhile, tannic acid with chlorantraniliprole had markedly antifeedant effects; causing significant decline in the relative growth rate (RGR), the relative consumption rate (RCR), the efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI), the efficiency of conversion of digested food and an increase in the approximate digestibility (AD) compared to either chemical alone. Tannic acid with chlorantraniliprole also decreased the insect’s carbohydrate, lipid and protein contents significantly. The results showed that the interaction between tannic acid and chlorantraniliprole on the growth inhibition of larvae was additive and tannic acid increased the toxicity of chlorantraniliprole to insects. The results of this study provide information useful in integrated pest management programs for S. exigua and show that tannic acid combined with chlorantraniliprole may be a route to reducing the use of synthetic pesticides

The impact of disease control measures on the spread of COVID-19 in the province of Sindh, Pakistan

The province of Sindh reported the first COVID-19 case in Pakistan on 26(th) February 2020. The Government of Sindh has employed numerous control measures to limit its spread. However, for low-and middle-income countries such as Pakistan, the management protocols for controlling a pandemic are not always as definitive as they would be in other developed nations. Given the dire socio-economic conditions of Sindh, continuation of province-wise lockdowns may inadvertently cause a potential economic breakdown. By using a data driven SEIR modelling framework, this paper describes the evolution of the epidemic projections because of government control measures. The data from reported COVID-19 prevalence and google mobility is used to parameterize the model at different time points. These time points correspond to the government’s call for advice on the prerequisite actions required to curtail the spread of COVID-19 in Sindh. Our model predicted the epidemic peak to occur by 18(th) June 2020 with approximately 3500 reported cases at that peak, this projection correlated with the actual recorded peak during the first wave of the disease in Sindh. The impact of the governmental control actions and religious ceremonies on the epidemic profile during this first wave of COVID-19 are clearly reflected in the model outcomes through variations in the epidemic peaks. We also report these variations by displaying the trajectory of the epidemics had the control measures been guided differently; the epidemic peak may have occurred as early as the end of May 2020 with approximately 5000 reported cases per day had there been no control measures and as late as August 2020 with only around 2000 cases at the peak had the lockdown continued, nearly flattening the epidemic curve

Haematologic Parameters In Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia Patients Treated With ALL Trans- Retinoic acid

Background: Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL) is commonly associated with disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) and early correction of coagulopathy is of vital importance. All Trans-Retinoic Acid (ATRA) is considered to be the drug of choice in the treatment of APL.  Objective: The work was conducted to 1- Identify patients with APL who show laboratory evidence of DIC. 2- Study the serial changes in haemostatic parameters in APL patients treated with ATRA and to compare their results with those treated with conventional chemotherapy without ATRA. Subjective and methods: In this prospective study (from October 2003 to October 2005), 44 newly diagnosed, untreated APL patients were included. ATRA plus chemotherapy – treated patients were 24 while 17 patients were treated with chemotherapy other than ATRA. For each patient, a full clinical evaluation was done and hematological investigations were accomplished at time of diagnosis and repeated on day 3 and 7 of therapy. Diagnosis of DIC was based on finding a positive D- dimer test with hypofibrinogenaemia with or without pathologically prolonged (PT and/or APTT). Results: In 44 newly diagnosed, untreated APL patients studied, the age range between 6-81 years with a median of 27 years. Male to female ratio was 1.3:1. Before treatment all patients had anemia, thrombocytopenia, and elevated level of D – dimer. DIC was present in all patients at time of diagnosis. All parameters that showed abnormal level at time of diagnosis had returned to normality within one week in ATRA treated group, indicating that DIC has essentially resolved. By contrast, those parameters remained abnormal even on day 7 in the chemotherapy treated group. Indicating that DIC was on going. Conclusion: ATRA therapy in APL patients is associated with rapid improvement of coagulopathy therefore , it is justified to be used from day one of the treatment

mmWave Four-Element MIMO Antenna for Future 5G Systems

This paper presents an S-shape four-port Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) wideband mmWave antenna with bandwidth of 25 GHz to 39 GHz. The antenna is designed on 0.254 mm ultra-thin RO5880 with permittivity of 2.3. The dimensions of proposed S-shape antenna are 10 12 mm for single element and 24 24 mm for four-port MIMO configuration. A decoupling network is introduced to further compress mutual coupling among MIMO elements. The peak gain achieved is 7.1 dBi and MIMO assembly delivers diversity scheme. The proposed MIMO antenna is fabricated, and simulated results are found to be in excellent agreement with simulations. Through the results obtained, the proposed MIMO antenna system can be considered as a potential candidate for future mmWave devices.This project has received funding from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant 801538

Simulation of Channel Segregation During Directional Solidification of In—75 wt pct Ga. Qualitative Comparison with In Situ Observations

International audienceFreckles are common defects in industrial casting. They result from thermosolutal convection due to buoyancy forces generated from density variations in the liquid. The present paper proposes a numerical analysis for the formation of channel segregation using the three-dimensional (3D) cellular automaton (CA)—finite element (FE) model. The model integrates kinetics laws for the nucleation and growth of a microstructure with the solution of the conservation equations for the casting, while introducing an intermediate modeling scale for a direct representation of the envelope of the dendritic grains. Directional solidification of a cuboid cell is studied. Its geometry, the alloy chosen as well as the process parameters are inspired from experimental observations recently reported in the literature. Snapshots of the convective pattern, the solute distribution, and the morphology of the growth front are qualitatively compared. Similitudes are found when considering the coupled 3D CAFE simulations. Limitations of the model to reach direct simulation of the experiments are discussed

A Fully Automated and Explainable Algorithm for the Prediction of Malignant Transformation in Oral Epithelial Dysplasia

Oral epithelial dysplasia (OED) is a premalignant histopathological diagnosis given to lesions of the oral cavity. Its grading suffers from significant inter-/intra- observer variability, and does not reliably predict malignancy progression, potentially leading to suboptimal treatment decisions. To address this, we developed a novel artificial intelligence algorithm that can assign an Oral Malignant Transformation (OMT) risk score, based on histological patterns in the in Haematoxylin and Eosin stained whole slide images, to quantify the risk of OED progression. The algorithm is based on the detection and segmentation of nuclei within (and around) the epithelium using an in-house segmentation model. We then employed a shallow neural network fed with interpretable morphological/spatial features, emulating histological markers. We conducted internal cross-validation on our development cohort (Sheffield; n = 193 cases) followed by independent validation on two external cohorts (Birmingham and Belfast; n = 92 cases). The proposed OMTscore yields an AUROC = 0.74 in predicting whether an OED progresses to malignancy or not. Survival analyses showed the prognostic value of our OMTscore for predicting malignancy transformation, when compared to the manually-assigned WHO and binary grades. Analysis of the correctly predicted cases elucidated the presence of peri-epithelial and epithelium-infiltrating lymphocytes in the most predictive patches of cases that transformed (p < 0.0001). This is the first study to propose a completely automated algorithm for predicting OED transformation based on interpretable nuclear features, whilst being validated on external datasets. The algorithm shows better-than-human-level performance for prediction of OED malignant transformation and offers a promising solution to the challenges of grading OED in routine clinical practice

RNA interference-mediated knockdown of a cytochrome P450 gene enhanced the toxicity of α-cypermethrin in xanthotoxin-fed larvae of Spodoptera exigua (Hübner)

The beet armyworm (Spodoptera exigua) is a highly polyphagous agricultural pest that is distributed worldwide. However, the adaptive mechanisms of S. exigua for various insecticides and defensive substances in host plants are unknown. Insect P450 monooxygenases play an important role in the detoxification of plant toxins and insecticides, leading to insecticides resistance. We investigated the induced effects of xanthotoxin exposure on detoxification enzyme activity and larval tolerance to α-cypermethrin in S. exigua. Our results showed that the lethal concentration (LC50) of α-cypermethrin for xanthotoxin-exposed larvae was 2.1-fold higher than in the control. Moreover, cytochrome P450 enzyme activity was significantly elevated by upregulation of P450 genes in treated larvae. RT-qPCR results showed that CYP9A10 expression level was significantly increased in all treatments, while maximal expression level was observed in xanthotoxin+α-cypermethrin-fed larvae. RNAi-mediated silencing of CYP9A10 further increased mortality by 18%, 26% and 35% at 48 h and by 27%, 43% and 55% at 72 h when larvae were exposed to diets containing chemicals as compared to the control. The results show that CYP9A10 might play an important role in xanthotoxin and α-cypermethrin detoxification in S. exigua. RNAi-mediated silencing could provide an effective synergistic agent for pest control or insecticide resistance management