Monitoring trends in pesticide use and residues on Queensland wool

Pesticides are applied to sheep during the wool-growing season to control louse infestation and blowfly strike. Pesticides used in Australia belong to organophosphorous (OP), synthetic pyrethroid (SP) or insect growth regulator (IGR) classes. To maintain market access, the Australian wool industry has resolved to reduce the amount of pesticide residues on wool by a strategy of best management practices that minimise the need for pesticide application late in the wool-growing season. This paper reports the results of a program to monitor trends in pesticide use by Queensland woolgrowers and amounts of OP, SP and IGR pesticides on Queensland wool during the period 1993 to 1999

Logistic regression models to evaluate inspection of wool lots for lice

The body louse (Bovicola ovis) is associated with reduced wool production and economic loss in sheep flocks. Although it can be controlled by pesticides (organophosphorous, OP, synthetic pyrethroid, SP and insect growth regulator, IGR), pesticide use has several disadvantages (residues on wool and market restrictions, occupational health and safety, environmental affects, development of resistance). Most pesticide applied to Queensland sheep flocks is for louse control. Although most woolgrowers consider their flocks uninfested, >90% still use pesticides, presumably as an ‘insurance policy’ against reinfestation.2,3 To develop and measure the success of louse-control and pesticide-reduction extension programs, tests to estimate the prevalence of louse infestation are required. To interpret results, test characteristics must be known and the study population used for test evaluation and its characteristics must be considered. We describe a study to evaluate visual inspection of wool lots at sale for lice as a test, and to investigate flock and management characteristics that influence test performance

Age, Growth, And Reproduction Of The Goosefish Lophius-Americanus (Pisces, Lophiiformes)

Age, growth, and reproduction were studied in goosefish Lophius americanus collected from National Marine Fisheries Service groundfish surveys and commercial fishing cruises between Georges Bank and Cape Hatteras in the western North Atlantic. Age and growth of L. americanus were determined from vertebral annuli, which became visible at the edge of the vertebral centra in May. Maximum ages of males and females were 9 and 11 years, respectively. Males appeared to experience higher mortality than females in the older age-classes. Von Bertalanffy growth curves calculated for males and females had excellent agreement with back-calculated lengths. The growth rate of L. americanus was intermediate to its eastern Atlantic congeners, L. piscatorius and L. budegassa. Male L. americanus matured at 3+ years (approximately 370 mm TL) and females at 4+ years (approximately 485 mm TL). Spawning took place primarily in May and June. Fecundity in 17 individuals of 610-1048 mm TL ranged from 300,000 to 2,800,000 ova, and was linear with total length in that size range. Histological examination of the ovaries showed they are remarkably similar to ovaries of other lophiiform species. Females produced egg veils, which may function in dispersion, buoyancy, facilitating fertilization, and protection of the eggs and larvae

Truthmakers and modality

This paper attempts to locate, within an actualist ontology, truthmakers for modal truths: truths of the form or . In section 1 I motivate the demand for substantial truthmakers for modal truths. In section 2 I criticise Armstrong’s account of truthmakers for modal truths. In section 3 I examine essentialism and defend an account of what makes essentialist attributions true, but I argue that this does not solve the problem of modal truth in general. In section 4 I discuss, and dismiss, a theistic account of the source of modal truth proposed by Alexander Pruss. In section 5 I offer a means of (dis)solving the problem

Weak mixing angle at low energies

We determine the weak mixing angle in the MS-bar scheme at energy scales relevant for present and future low energy electroweak measurements. We relate the renormalization group evolution of the weak mixing angle to the corresponding evolution of the QED coupling and include higher-order terms in alpha_s and alpha that had not been treated in previous analyses. We also up-date the analysis of non-perturbative hadronic contributions and argue that the associated uncertainty is small compared to anticipated experimental errors. The resulting value of the low-energy weak mixing angle is sin^2 theta_W (0) = 0.23867 +- 0.00016.Comment: 21 pages; 1 figure and some references added, some changes in text; final version as publishe

Opportunities and Challenges for the development of 'Core Outcome Sets' in Neuro-Oncology

Core Outcome Sets (COS) define minimum outcomes to be measured and reported in clinical effectiveness trials for a particular health condition/health area. Despite recognition as critical to clinical research design for other health areas, none have been developed for neuro-oncology. COS development projects should carefully consider: scope (how the COS should be used), stakeholders involved in development (including patients as both research partners and participants), and consensus methodologies used (typically a Delphi survey and consensus meeting), as well as dissemination plans. Developing COS for neuro-oncology is potentially challenging due to extensive tumor subclassification (including molecular stratification), different symptoms related to anatomical tumor location, and variation in treatment options. Development of a COS specific to tumor subtype, in a specific location, for a particular intervention may be too narrow and would be unlikely to be used. Equally, a COS that is applicable across a wider area of neuro-oncology may be too broad and therefore lack specificity. This review describes why and how a COS may be developed, and discusses challenges for their development, specific to neuro-oncology. The COS under development are briefly described, including: adult glioma, incidental/untreated meningioma, meningioma requiring intervention, and adverse events from surgical intervention for pediatric brain tumors. Keywords: clinical trial; core outcome set; effectiveness; glioma; meningioma

Closed-Loop Targeted Memory Reactivation during Sleep Improves Spatial Navigation

Sounds associated with newly learned information that are replayed during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep can improve recall in simple tasks. The mechanism for this improvement is presumed to be reactivation of the newly learned memory during sleep when consolidation takes place. We have developed an EEG-based closed-loop system to precisely deliver sensory stimulation at the time of down-state to up-state transitions during NREM sleep. Here, we demonstrate that applying this technology to participants performing a realistic navigation task in virtual reality results in a significant improvement in navigation efficiency after sleep that is accompanied by increases in the spectral power especially in the fast (12\u201315 Hz) sleep spindle band. Our results show promise for the application of sleep-based interventions to drive improvement in real-world tasks

Dressing of Ultracold Atoms by their Rydberg States in a Ioffe-Pritchard Trap

We explore how the extraordinary properties of Rydberg atoms can be employed to impact the motion of ultracold ground state atoms. Specifically, we use an off-resonant two-photon laser dressing to map features of the Rydberg states on ground state atoms. It is demonstrated that the interplay between the spatially varying quantization axis of the considered Ioffe-Pritchard field and the fixed polarizations of the laser transitions provides the possibility of substantially manipulating the ground state trapping potential.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure