Attractive plant volatiles as a control method against apple fruit moth (Argyresthia conjugella Zell.)?

Apple fruit moth, Argyresthia conjugella Zell. (Lepidoptera: Argyresthiidae), is the most important pest of apples in Scandinavia. In years when its primary host, rowan (Sorbus aucuparia L.), has little or no berries for egglaying, female A. conjugella fly into apple orchards to lay their eggs. In some years the entire apple crop can be destroyed. Volatiles from apples and rowan have been collected and identified. In GC-EAD tests females have responded to several compounds found in both rowan and apple. Some of these compounds were used in field trapping tests during 2002, and a mixture of two compounds trapped significantly more females and males compared to control traps. However, field trapping results from 2003 indicate that the two-compound blend seem to trap insects too late in the season to prevent egglaying in apples. Several new compounds were also tested in 2003, and some of these gave promising results. The results will be discussed in relation to use attractive plant volatiles as a control method against A. conjugella females

Semaglutide treatment attenuates vessel remodelling in ApoE-/- mice following vascular injury and blood flow perturbation.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Randomized clinical studies have shown a reduction in cardiovascular outcomes with glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) treatment with the hypothesized mechanisms being an underlying effect on atherosclerosis. Here, we aimed to assess the pharmacological effects of semaglutide in an atheroprone murine model that recapitulates central mechanisms related to vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) phenotypic switching and endothelial dysfunction known to operate within the atherosclerotic plaque. METHODS In study A, we employed an electrical current to the carotid artery in ApoE-/- mice to induce severe VSMC injury and death, after which the arteries were allowed to heal for 4 weeks. In study B, a constrictive cuff was added for 6 h at the site of the healed segment to induce a disturbance in blood flow. RESULTS Compared to vehicle, semaglutide treatment reduced the intimal and medial area by ∼66% (p = 0.007) and ∼11% (p = 0.0002), respectively. Following cuff placement, expression of the pro-inflammatory marker osteopontin and macrophage marker Mac-2 was reduced (p < 0.05) in the semaglutide-treated group compared to vehicle. GLP-1R were not expressed in murine carotid artery and human coronary vessels with and without atherosclerotic plaques, and semaglutide treatment did not affect proliferation of cultured primary human VSMCs. CONCLUSIONS Semaglutide treatment reduced vessel remodelling following electrical injury and blood flow perturbation in an atheroprone mouse model. This effect appears to be driven by anti-inflammatory and -proliferative mechanisms independent of GLP-1 receptor-mediated signalling in the resident vascular cells. This mechanism of action may be important for cardiovascular protection.This study was supported by a grant from the LifePharm Centre of In Vivo Pharmacology.S

Environmental, Dietary, Maternal, and Fetal Predictors of Bulky DNA Adducts in Cord Blood: A European Mother–Child Study (NewGeneris)

Background:Bulky DNA adducts reflect genotoxic exposures, have been associated with lower birth weight, and may predict cancer risk.Objective:We selected factors known or hypothesized to affect in utero adduct formation and repair and examined their associations with adduct levels in neonates.Methods:Pregnant women from Greece, Spain, England, Denmark, and Norway were recruited in 2006–2010. Cord blood bulky DNA adduct levels were measured by the 32P-postlabeling technique (n = 511). Diet and maternal characteristics were assessed via questionnaires. Modeled exposures to air pollutants and drinking-water disinfection by-products, mainly trihalomethanes (THMs), were available for a large proportion of the study population.Results:Greek and Spanish neonates had higher adduct levels than the northern European neonates [median, 12.1 (n = 179) vs. 6.8 (n = 332) adducts per 108 nucleotides, p < 0.001]. Residence in southern European countries, higher maternal body mass index, delivery by cesarean section, male infant sex, low maternal intake of fruits rich in vitamin C, high intake of dairy products, and low adherence to healthy diet score were statistically significantly associated with higher adduct levels in adjusted models. Exposure to fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide was associated with significantly higher adducts in the Danish subsample only. Overall, the pooled results for THMs in water show no evidence of association with adduct levels; however, there are country-specific differences in results with a suggestion of an association in England.Conclusion:These findings suggest that a combination of factors, including unknown country-specific factors, influence the bulky DNA adduct levels in neonates.Citation:Pedersen M, Mendez MA, Schoket B, Godschalk RW, Espinosa A, Landström A, Villanueva CM, Merlo DF, Fthenou E, Gracia-Lavedan E, van Schooten FJ, Hoek G, Brunborg G, Meltzer HM, Alexander J, Nielsen JK, Sunyer J, Wright J, Kovács K, de Hoogh K, Gutzkow KB, Hardie LJ, Chatzi L, Knudsen LE, Anna L, Ketzel M, Haugen M, Botsivali M, Nieuwenhuijsen MJ, Cirach M, Toledano MB, Smith RB, Fleming S, Agramunt S, Kyrtopoulos SA, Lukács V, Kleinjans JC, Segerbäck D, Kogevinas M. 2015. Environmental, dietary, maternal, and fetal predictors of bulky DNA adducts in cord blood: a European mother–child study (NewGeneris). Environ Health Perspect 123:374–380; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.140861

A genome-wide association study of anorexia nervosa

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a complex and heritable eating disorder characterized by dangerously low body weight. Neither candidate gene studies nor an initial genome wide association study (GWAS) have yielded significant and replicated results. We performed a GWAS in 2,907 cases with AN from 14 countries (15 sites) and 14,860 ancestrally matched controls as part of the Genetic Consortium for AN (GCAN) and the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 3 (WTCCC3). Individual association analyses were conducted in each stratum and meta-analyzed across all 15 discovery datasets. Seventy-six (72 independent) SNPs were taken forward for in silico (two datasets) or de novo (13 datasets) replication genotyping in 2,677 independent AN cases and 8,629 European ancestry controls along with 458 AN cases and 421 controls from Japan. The final global meta-analysis across discovery and replication datasets comprised 5,551 AN cases and 21,080 controls. AN subtype analyses (1,606 AN restricting; 1,445 AN binge-purge) were performed. No findings reached genome-wide significance. Two intronic variants were suggestively associated: rs9839776 (P=3.01×10−7) in SOX2OT and rs17030795 (P=5.84×10−6) in PPP3CA. Two additional signals were specific to Europeans: rs1523921 (P=5.76×10−6) between CUL3 and FAM124B and rs1886797 (P=8.05×10−6) near SPATA13. Comparing discovery to replication results, 76% of the effects were in the same direction, an observation highly unlikely to be due to chance (P= 4×10−6), strongly suggesting that true findings exist but that our sample, the largest yet reported, was underpowered for their detection. The accrual of large genotyped AN case-control samples should be an immediate priority for the field

A genome-wide association study of anorexia nervosa suggests a risk locus implicated in dysregulated leptin signaling

J. Kaprio, A. Palotie, A. Raevuori-Helkamaa ja S. Ripatti ovat työryhmän Eating Disorders Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium jäseniä. Erratum in: Sci Rep. 2017 Aug 21;7(1):8379, doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-06409-3We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of anorexia nervosa (AN) using a stringently defined phenotype. Analysis of phenotypic variability led to the identification of a specific genetic risk factor that approached genome-wide significance (rs929626 in EBF1 (Early B-Cell Factor 1); P = 2.04 x 10(-7); OR = 0.7; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.61-0.8) with independent replication (P = 0.04), suggesting a variant-mediated dysregulation of leptin signaling may play a role in AN. Multiple SNPs in LD with the variant support the nominal association. This demonstrates that although the clinical and etiologic heterogeneity of AN is universally recognized, further careful sub-typing of cases may provide more precise genomic signals. In this study, through a refinement of the phenotype spectrum of AN, we present a replicable GWAS signal that is nominally associated with AN, highlighting a potentially important candidate locus for further investigation.Peer reviewe

Altimetry for the future: Building on 25 years of progress

In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the altimetry of the future. This paper summarizes contributions and recommendations that were collected and provides guidance for future mission design, research activities, and sustainable operational radar altimetry data exploitation. Recommendations provided are fundamental for optimizing further scientific and operational advances of oceanographic observations by altimetry, including requirements for spatial and temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, their accuracy and continuity. There are also new challenges and new openings mentioned in the paper that are particularly crucial for observations at higher latitudes, for coastal oceanography, for cryospheric studies and for hydrology. The paper starts with a general introduction followed by a section on Earth System Science including Ocean Dynamics, Sea Level, the Coastal Ocean, Hydrology, the Cryosphere and Polar Oceans and the ‘‘Green” Ocean, extending the frontier from biogeochemistry to marine ecology. Applications are described in a subsequent section, which covers Operational Oceanography, Weather, Hurricane Wave and Wind Forecasting, Climate projection. Instruments’ development and satellite missions’ evolutions are described in a fourth section. A fifth section covers the key observations that altimeters provide and their potential complements, from other Earth observation measurements to in situ data. Section 6 identifies the data and methods and provides some accuracy and resolution requirements for the wet tropospheric correction, the orbit and other geodetic requirements, the Mean Sea Surface, Geoid and Mean Dynamic Topography, Calibration and Validation, data accuracy, data access and handling (including the DUACS system). Section 7 brings a transversal view on scales, integration, artificial intelligence, and capacity building (education and training). Section 8 reviews the programmatic issues followed by a conclusion

Common Genetic Variation And Age at Onset Of Anorexia Nervosa

Background Genetics and biology may influence the age at onset of anorexia nervosa (AN). The aims of this study were to determine whether common genetic variation contributes to AN age at onset and to investigate the genetic associations between age at onset of AN and age at menarche. Methods A secondary analysis of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium genome-wide association study (GWAS) of AN was performed which included 9,335 cases and 31,981 screened controls, all from European ancestries. We conducted GWASs of age at onset, early-onset AN (< 13 years), and typical-onset AN, and genetic correlation, genetic risk score, and Mendelian randomization analyses. Results Two loci were genome-wide significant in the typical-onset AN GWAS. Heritability estimates (SNP-h2) were 0.01-0.04 for age at onset, 0.16-0.25 for early-onset AN, and 0.17-0.25 for typical-onset AN. Early- and typical-onset AN showed distinct genetic correlation patterns with putative risk factors for AN. Specifically, early-onset AN was significantly genetically correlated with younger age at menarche, and typical-onset AN was significantly negatively genetically correlated with anthropometric traits. Genetic risk scores for age at onset and early-onset AN estimated from independent GWASs significantly predicted age at onset. Mendelian randomization analysis suggested a causal link between younger age at menarche and early-onset AN. Conclusions Our results provide evidence consistent with a common variant genetic basis for age at onset and implicate biological pathways regulating menarche and reproduction.Peer reviewe