Identification of novel pesticides for use against glasshouse invertebrate pests in UK tomatoes and peppers

To inform current and future pesticide availability to glasshouse vegetable growers, the current project trialled more than twenty products, including existing industry standards, against four key pests of glasshouse tomatoes and bell peppers. These included experimental conventional chemical pesticides as well as alternative biopesticide and biorational products based on phytochemicals, microbials and physically-acting substances. The results suggest that certain biopesticide products, particularly botanicals, provide good levels of pest control, with the same being true of experimental conventional chemical pesticides not yet recommended for use against these pests on these crops. Efforts are on-going to ensure that results of the current project translate to industry benefit via new pesticide approvals

SOFTPEST MULTITRAP - MANAGEMENT OF STRAWBERRY BLOSSOM WEEVIL AND EUROPEAN TARNISHED PLANT BUG IN ORGANIC STRAWBERRY AND RASPBERRY USING SEMIOCHEMICAL TRAPS

Many growers of organic strawberry and raspberry have large losses in yield and reduced quality of their products because of insect damage. For many insects species pheromones and host plant volatiles are of major importance in mate finding and host plant location. In this project we want to extend our knowledge of these systems to develop effective control measures to control these pests in organic crops. The focus will be on the strawberry blossom weevil, the European tarnish plant bug and the raspberry beetle

Design and deployment of semiochemical traps for capturing 1 Anthonomus rubi Herbst (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) and Lygus rugulipennis Poppius (Hetereoptera: Miridae) in soft fruit crops

Strawberry blossom weevil (SBW), Anthonomus rubi Herbst (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) and European tarnished plant bug (ETB), Lygus rugulipennis Poppius (Hetereoptera: Miridae), cause significant damage to strawberry and raspberry crops. Using the SBW aggregation pheromone and ETB sex pheromone we optimized and tested a single trap for both species. A series of field experiments in crops and semi-natural habitats in five European countries tested capture of the target pests and the ability to avoid captures of beneficial arthropods. A Unitrap containing a trapping agent of water and detergent and with a cross vane was more efficient at capturing both species compared to traps which incorporated glue as a trapping agent. Adding a green cross vane deterred attraction of non-pest species such as bees, but did not compromise catches of the target pests. The trap caught higher numbers of ETB and SBW if deployed at ground level and although a cross vane was not important for catches of ETB it was needed for significant captures of SBW. The potential for mass trapping SBW and ETB simultaneously in soft fruit crops is discussed including potential improvements to make this more effective and economic to deploy

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

Loss of PTB or Negative Regulation of Notch mRNA Reveals Distinct Zones of Notch and Actin Protein Accumulation in Drosophila Embryo

Polypyrimidine Tract Binding (PTB) protein is a regulator of mRNA processing and translation. Genetic screens and studies of wing and bristle development during the post-embryonic stages of Drosophila suggest that it is a negative regulator of the Notch pathway. How PTB regulates the Notch pathway is unknown. Our studies of Drosophila embryogenesis indicate that (1) the Notch mRNA is a potential target of PTB, (2) PTB and Notch functions in the dorso-lateral regions of the Drosophila embryo are linked to actin regulation but not their functions in the ventral region, and (3) the actin-related Notch activity in the dorso-lateral regions might require a Notch activity at or near the cell surface that is different from the nuclear Notch activity involved in cell fate specification in the ventral region. These data raise the possibility that the Drosophila embryo is divided into zones of different PTB and Notch activities based on whether or not they are linked to actin regulation. They also provide clues to the almost forgotten role of Notch in cell adhesion and reveal a role for the Notch pathway in cell fusions

Dimethyl fumarate in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inhibits inflammasome-mediated inflammation and has been proposed as a treatment for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 (NCT04381936, ISRCTN50189673). In this assessment of DMF performed at 27 UK hospitals, adults were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus DMF. The primary outcome was clinical status on day 5 measured on a seven-point ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes were time to sustained improvement in clinical status, time to discharge, day 5 peripheral blood oxygenation, day 5 C-reactive protein, and improvement in day 10 clinical status. Between 2 March 2021 and 18 November 2021, 713 patients were enroled in the DMF evaluation, of whom 356 were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus DMF, and 357 to usual care alone. 95% of patients received corticosteroids as part of routine care. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of DMF on clinical status at day 5 (common odds ratio of unfavourable outcome 1.12; 95% CI 0.86-1.47; p = 0.40). There was no significant effect of DMF on any secondary outcome

Dimethyl fumarate in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inhibits inflammasome-mediated inflammation and has been proposed as a treatment for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 (NCT04381936, ISRCTN50189673). In this assessment of DMF performed at 27 UK hospitals, adults were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus DMF. The primary outcome was clinical status on day 5 measured on a seven-point ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes were time to sustained improvement in clinical status, time to discharge, day 5 peripheral blood oxygenation, day 5 C-reactive protein, and improvement in day 10 clinical status. Between 2 March 2021 and 18 November 2021, 713 patients were enroled in the DMF evaluation, of whom 356 were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus DMF, and 357 to usual care alone. 95% of patients received corticosteroids as part of routine care. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of DMF on clinical status at day 5 (common odds ratio of unfavourable outcome 1.12; 95% CI 0.86-1.47; p = 0.40). There was no significant effect of DMF on any secondary outcome

Exploitation of the sex pheromone of apple leaf midge Dasineura mali Kieffer (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) for pest monitoring: Part 1. Development of lure and trap

In previous work, the female sex pheromone of the apple leaf midge, Dasineura mali (Kieffer (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), was identified by us as (Z)-13-acetoxy-8-heptadecen-2-one. Only one enantiomer of the chiral compound was attractive to male midges but the racemic mixture was equally attractive. A series of replicated field experiments was carried out during 2004–2006 to develop an optimised pheromone trap system for monitoring populations of D. mali in commercial orchards. With rubber septa dispensers numbers of midges caught increased with increase in loading of pheromone over the range tested from 1 mg to 100 mg and a loading of 3 mg was found to be suitable for pest monitoring purposes. Polyethylene vial dispensers were unattractive during these tests. Release rate studies in the laboratory showed reasonably uniform release of pheromone from the septa for at least 574 days at 27 C and 8 km/h wind speed. With the vials there was a delay of 10 days before the start of release of pheromone under these conditions. Funnel, bottle, Petri dish, delta and dish traps all caught midges, those with the larger catching surfaces being more sensitive. In practice, it was concluded that the standard delta trap is the best design for use by growers. The colour of the trap had no effect on attractiveness to D. mali males, but catches of non-target arthropods in red, green an black traps were significantly lower than in white, yellow or blue traps. The red traps are recommended for use by growers. Numbers of male midges caught were greatest in traps at ground level and decreased strongly with increasing height of trap deployment. A standard deployment height of 0.5 m was chosen. Males were attracted to traps over a distance of at least 50 m from an infested orchard. They showed a strong diurnal pattern of flight activity. Numbers caught rose steeply in the morning starting at 07:00 h (2 h after dawn), reached a peak at 09:00 h and steadily declined throughout the day thereafter. Conversely, numbers of ovipositing females were very low at 09:00 h but increased steadily, reaching a peak at 11:00–12:00 h and declining thereafter