Determining Adoption of Integrated Pest Management Practices by Grains Farmers in Virginia

This article describes the results of three integrated pest management (IPM) surveys of corn, soybean, and small grains farmers in the coastal plains region of Virginia. Farmers identified their weed, disease, insect, and animal pests, and the reasons they use (or do not use) IPM practices for those pests

The molecular and mechanical mechanisms of the age-associated increase in the severity of experimental ventilator induced lung injury

Abstract Background The majority of patients requiring mechanical ventilation are over the age of 65 and advanced age is known to increase the severity of ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) and mortality. However, the mechanisms which predispose aging ventilator patients to increased mortality rates are not fully understood. Pulmonary edema is a hallmark of VILI and the severity of edema increases with age. Ventilation with conservative fluid management decreases mortality rates in acute respiratory distress (ARDS) patients, but has not been investigated in VILI. We hypothesized that age-associated increases in pulmonary edema promote age-related increases in ventilator-associated mortality. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress can disrupt cellular functions and plays a key role in many disease states. The severity of ER stress also increases with age. We hypothesized that age-associated increases in ER stress also increase in the severity of VILI. Finally, serum Vitamin C (VitC) levels also decrease with age. VitC treatments have been shown to decrease mortality rates in murine models of ARDS by and attenuate pulmonary edema. We hypothesize that VitC treatments will attenuate ventilator induced pulmonary edema in our aged murine subjects. Methods Mechanical Ventilation: Young and old mice were mechanically ventilated with either high tidal volume (HVT) or low tidal volume (LVT) for with either liberal or conservative fluid support. One group received VitC treatment prior to ventilation. Cell Stretch: Alveolar epithelial cells (ATIIs) from young and old mice were harvested, cultured, and mechanically stretched. Treatment groups received ER stress inhibitor 4-PBA. Results Both advanced age and HVT ventilation significantly increased inflammation, injury, and decreased survival rates. Conservative fluid support significantly diminished pulmonary edema decreased mortality rates. VitC treatments significantly decreased pulmonary edema and improved pulmonary mechanics. Mechanical stretch promoted ER Stress and upregulated proinflammatory gene expression and secretion in aged ATIIs. ER stress inhibition attenuated all of these effects. Conclusion Conservative fluid management alone attenuated age-associated increases in ventilator-associated mortality. VitC treatments decreased pulmonary edema and partially restore pulmonary mechanics in old mice ventilated with HVT. ER stress inhibition decreased stretch induced proinflammatory gene expression and protein secretion in aged mechanically stretched ATII cells

An On-Line Survey Process for Assessing Impact of an Email-Delivered Pest Advisory

IPM specialists simplified the entry, collection, editing, and distribution of pest alerts by creating a new Web site, the Virginia Ag Pest Advisory. A simple on-line survey was used to assess the usefulness of the advisory. The on-line survey was low-cost and required less effort than conventional surveys. Such a system provides feedback from users, which can be used to improve Extension programs and generates results to be used in reporting impact data

Sampling-based Motion Planning via Control Barrier Functions

Robot motion planning is central to real-world autonomous applications, such as self-driving cars, persistence surveillance, and robotic arm manipulation. One challenge in motion planning is generating control signals for nonlinear systems that result in obstacle free paths through dynamic environments. In this paper, we propose Control Barrier Function guided Rapidly-exploring Random Trees (CBF-RRT), a sampling-based motion planning algorithm for continuous-time nonlinear systems in dynamic environments. The algorithm focuses on two objectives: efficiently generating feasible controls that steer the system toward a goal region, and handling environments with dynamical obstacles in continuous time. We formulate the control synthesis problem as a Quadratic Program (QP) that enforces Control Barrier Function (CBF) constraints to achieve obstacle avoidance. Additionally, CBF-RRT does not require nearest neighbor or collision checks when sampling, which greatly reduce the run-time overhead when compared to standard RRT variants

HE4 as a serum biomarker for the diagnosis of pelvic masses: a prospective, multicenter study in 965 patients

Background: To evaluate the diagnostic value of adding human epididymis protein 4 (HE4), cancer antigen 125 (CA125) and risk of malignancy algorithm (ROMA) to ultrasound for detecting ovarian cancer in patients with a pelvic mass. Methods: This was a prospective, observational, multicenter study. Patients aged > 18 years who were scheduled to undergo surgery for a suspicious pelvic mass had CA125 and HE4 levels measured prior to surgery, in addition to a routine transvaginal ultrasound scan. The diagnostic performance of CA125, HE4 and ROMA for distinguishing between benign and malignant adnexal masses was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and the corresponding area under the curve (AUC). Results: Of 965 evaluable patients, 804 were diagnosed with benign tumors and 161 were diagnosed with ovarian cancer. In late-stage ovarian cancer, CA125, HE4 and ROMA all had an excellent diagnostic performance (AUC > 0.92), whereas in stage I and II, diagnostic performance of all three biomarkers was less adequate (AUC < 0.77). In the differential diagnosis of ovarian cancer and endometriosis, ROMA and HE4 performed better than CA125 with 99 and 98.1% versus 75.0% sensitivity, respectively, at 75.4% specificity. Conclusions: ROMA and HE4 could be valuable biomarkers to help with the diagnosis of ovarian cancer in premenopausal patients in order to differentiate from endometriosis, whereas CA125 may be more adequate for postmenopausal patients

Neonicotinoid seed treatments of soybean provide negligible benefits to US farmers

Neonicotinoids are the most widely used insecticides worldwide and are typically deployed as seed treatments (hereafter NST) in many grain and oilseed crops, including soybeans. However, there is a surprising dearth of information regarding NST effectiveness in increasing soybean seed yield, and most published data suggest weak, or inconsistent yield benefit. The US is the key soybean-producing nation worldwide and this work includes soybean yield data from 194 randomized and replicated field studies conducted specifically to evaluate the effect of NSTs on soybean seed yield at sites within 14 states from 2006 through 2017. Here we show that across the principal soybean-growing region of the country, there are negligible and management-specific yield benefits attributed to NSTs. Across the entire region, the maximum observed yield benefits due to fungicide (FST = fungicide seed treatment) + neonicotinoid use (FST + NST) reached 0.13 Mg/ha. Across the entire region, combinations of management practices affected the effectiveness of FST + N ST to increase yield but benefits were minimal ranging between 0.01 to 0.22 Mg/ha. Despite widespread use, this practice appears to have little benefit for most of soybean producers; across the entire region, a partial economic analysis further showed inconsistent evidence of a break-even cost of FST or FST + N ST. These results demonstrate that the current widespread prophylactic use of NST in the key soybean-producing areas of the US should be re-evaluated by producers and regulators alike

Neonicotinoid seed treatments of soybean provide negligible benefits to US farmers

Neonicotinoids are the most widely used insecticides worldwide and are typically deployed as seed treatments (hereafter NST) in many grain and oilseed crops, including soybeans. However, there is a surprising dearth of information regarding NST effectiveness in increasing soybean seed yield, and most published data suggest weak, or inconsistent yield benefit. The US is the key soybean-producing nation worldwide and this work includes soybean yield data from 194 randomized and replicated field studies conducted specifically to evaluate the effect of NSTs on soybean seed yield at sites within 14 states from 2006 through 2017. Here we show that across the principal soybean-growing region of the country, there are negligible and management-specific yield benefits attributed to NSTs. Across the entire region, the maximum observed yield benefits due to fungicide (FST = fungicide seed treatment) + neonicotinoid use (FST + NST) reached 0.13 Mg/ha. Across the entire region, combinations of management practices affected the effectiveness of FST + N ST to increase yield but benefits were minimal ranging between 0.01 to 0.22 Mg/ha. Despite widespread use, this practice appears to have little benefit for most of soybean producers; across the entire region, a partial economic analysis further showed inconsistent evidence of a break-even cost of FST or FST + N ST. These results demonstrate that the current widespread prophylactic use of NST in the key soybean-producing areas of the US should be re-evaluated by producers and regulators alike

Reforming the Role of Magistrates: Implications for Summary Justice in England and Wales

This paper examines current government proposals to reorient and ‘strengthen’ the function of lay magistrates through the creation of new magisterial responsibilities such as oversight of out of court disposals and greater involvement with local justice initiatives. It is argued that, taken in isolation, these measures will fail to consolidate the role of magistrates in summary justice unless they are enacted alongside other measures which aim to reaffirm the status of lay justices, and which seek to reverse the trend which has prioritised administrative efficiency at the expense of lay justice