Larval host plant origin modifies the adult oviposition preference of the female European grapevine moth Lobesia botrana

According to the ‘natal habitat preference induction' (NHPI) hypothesis, phytophagous insect females should prefer to lay their eggs on the host species on which they developed as larvae. We tested whether this hypothesis applies to the breeding behaviour of polyphagous European grapevine moth, Lobesia botrana, an important pest in European vineyards. We previously found that different grape cultivars affect several life history traits of the moth. Because the different cultivars of grapes are suspected to provide different plant quality, we tested the NHPI hypothesis by examining oviposition choice of L. botrana among three Vitis vinifera cultivars (Pinot, Chasselas and Chardonnay). In a choice situation, females of L. botrana that had never experienced grapes were able to discriminate between different grape cultivars and preferentially selected Pinot as an oviposition substrate. This ‘naive' preference of oviposition could be modified by larval environment: Females raised on grapes as larvae preferred to lay eggs on the cultivar that they had experienced. Furthermore, experience of the host plant during adult emergence could be excluded because when pupae originating from our synthetic diet were exposed to grapes, the emerging adults did not show preference for the cultivar from which they emerged. The NHPI hypothesis that includes the two sub-hypothesis "Hopkins host selection principle” and "chemical legacy” may thus be relevant in this syste

Searching for nests of the invasive Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) using radio-telemetry

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this recordAsian hornets (Vespa velutina) are voracious predators of bees, and are the latest emerging threat to managed and wild pollinator populations in Europe. To prevent establishment or reduce the rate of spread of V. velutina, early detection and destruction of nests is considered the only option. Detection is difficult as their nests are well hidden and flying hornets are difficult to follow over long distances. We address this challenge by tracking individual V. velutina workers flying back to their nests using radio telemetry for the first time, finding five previously undiscovered nests, up to 1.33 km from hornet release points. Hornets can fly with 0.28 g tags if the tag:hornet ratio is less than 0.8. This method offers a step-change in options to tackle the spread of this invader, providing an efficient means of finding V. velutina nests in complex environments to manage this emerging threat to pollinators.We thank Olivier Bonnard for discussions, sourcing materials, and advice on locating foraging V. velutina workers at INRA Bordeaux-Aquitaine. We also thank members of Jersey Beekeeping Association for their assistance in catching V. velutina workers in Jersey. The work was funded by a Defra research project grant (PH0532), with additional support by the States of Jersey Department of Environment and generous philanthropic donations by the South West Beekeeping Associations’ Forum (SWBKF), Somerset Beekeeping Association, Dorset Beekeeping Association, Cornwall Beekeeping Association, West Cornwall Beekeeping Association, Devon Beekeeping Association, Bournemouth & South Dorset Beekeeping Association, and B.J. Sherriff. We are grateful to INRA Bordeaux-Aquitaine, States of Jersey Department of Environment, and Durrell Wildlife Park for their welcome and permission to use facilities at their institutions

Associations between anxiety, body mass index, and sex hormones in women

Background: Several studies have shown a positive association between anxiety and obesity, particularly in women. We aimed to study whether sex hormone alterations related to obesity might play a role in this association. Patients and methods: Data for this study were obtained from a population-based cohort study (the LIFE-Adult-Study). A total of 3,124 adult women (970 premenopausal and 2,154 postmenopausal) were included into the analyses. The anxiety symptomatology was assessed using the GAD-7 questionnaire (cut-off ≥ 10 points). Sex hormones were measured from fasting serum samples. Results: We did not find significant differences in anxiety prevalence in premenopausal obese women compared with normal-weight controls (4.8% vs. 5.5%). Both obesity and anxiety symptomatology were separately associated with the same sex hormone alteration in premenopausal women: higher total testosterone level (0.97 ± 0.50 in obese vs. 0.86 ± 0.49 nmol/L in normal-weight women, p = 0.026 and 1.04 ± 0.59 in women with vs. 0.88 ± 0.49 nmol/L in women without anxiety symptomatology, p = 0.023). However, women with anxiety symptomatology had non-significantly higher estradiol levels than women without anxiety symptomatology (548.0 ± 507.6 vs. 426.2 ± 474.0 pmol/L), whereas obesity was associated with lower estradiol levels compared with those in normal-weight group (332.7 ± 386.5 vs. 470.8 ± 616.0 pmol/L). Women with anxiety symptomatology had also significantly higher testosterone and estradiol composition (p = 0.006). No associations of sex hormone levels and BMI with anxiety symptomatology in postmenopausal women were found. Conclusions: Although both obesity and anxiety symptomatology were separately associated with higher testosterone level, there was an opposite impact of anxiety and obesity on estradiol levels in premenopausal women. We did not find an evidence that the sex hormone alterations related to obesity are playing a significant role in anxiety symptomatology in premenopausal women. This could be the explanation why we did not find an association between obesity and anxiety. In postmenopausal women, other mechanisms seem to work than in the premenopausal group

Difference in virulence between Staphylococcus aureus isolates causing gangrenous mastitis versus subclinical mastitis in a dairy sheep flock

Staphylococcus aureus mastitis in dairy sheep ranges from subclinical mastitis to lethal gangrenous mastitis. Neither the S. aureus virulence factors nor the host-factors or the epidemiological events contributing to the different outcomes are known. In a field study in a dairy sheep farm over 21 months, 16 natural isolates of S. aureus were collected from six subclinical mastitis cases, one lethal gangrenous mastitis case, nasal carriage from eight ewes and one isolate from ambient air in the milking room. A genomic comparison of two strains, one responsible for subclinical mastitis and one for lethal gangrenous mastitis, was performed using multi-strain DNA microarrays. Multiple typing techniques (pulsed-field-gel-electrophoresis, multiple-locus variable-number, single-nucleotide polymorphisms, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA, spa typing and sas typing) were used to characterise the remaining isolates and to follow the persistence of the gangrenous isolate in ewes’ nares. Our results showed that the two strains were genetically closely related and they shared 3 615 identical predicted open reading frames. However, the gangrenous mastitis isolate carried variant versions of several genes (sdrD, clfA-B, sasA, sasB, sasD, sasI and splE) and was missing fibrinogen binding protein B (fnbB) and a prophage. The typing results showed that this gangrenous strain emerged after the initial subclinical mastitis screening, but then persisted in the flock in the nares of four ewes. Although we cannot dismiss the role of host susceptibility in the clinical events in this flock, our data support the hypothesis that S. aureus populations had evolved in the sheep flock and that S. aureus genetic variations could have contributed to enhanced virulence

A critical review of plant protection tools for reducing pesticide use on grapevine and new perspectives for the implementation of IPM in viticulture

Several pests and diseases have grapevine as their favourite host and the vineyard as preferred environment, so an intensive pesticide schedule is usually required to meet qualitative and quantitative production standards. The need to prevent the negative impact of synthetic chemical pesticides on human health and the environment and the consumer expectations in term of chemical residues in food stimulated the research of innovative tools and methods for sustainable pest management. The research project PURE (www.pure-ipm.eu) was a Europe-wide framework, which demonstrated that several solutions are now available for the growers and evaluated several new alternatives that are under development or almost ready for being applied in practice. Although the use of resistant/tolerant varieties is not yet feasible in several traditional grape growing areas, at least part of the synthetic chemical pesticides can be substituted with biocontrol agents to control pests and pathogens and/or pheromone mating disruption, or the number of treatments can be reduced by the use of decision support systems, which identify the optimal timing for the applications. This review presents the state of the art and the perspectives in the field of grapevine protection tools and strategies

Keep it SMPL: Automatic Estimation of 3D Human Pose and Shape from a Single Image

We describe the first method to automatically estimate the 3D pose of the human body as well as its 3D shape from a single unconstrained image. We estimate a full 3D mesh and show that 2D joints alone carry a surprising amount of information about body shape. The problem is challenging because of the complexity of the human body, articulation, occlusion, clothing, lighting, and the inherent ambiguity in inferring 3D from 2D. To solve this, we first use a recently published CNN-based method, DeepCut, to predict (bottom-up) the 2D body joint locations. We then fit (top-down) a recently published statistical body shape model, called SMPL, to the 2D joints. We do so by minimizing an objective function that penalizes the error between the projected 3D model joints and detected 2D joints. Because SMPL captures correlations in human shape across the population, we are able to robustly fit it to very little data. We further leverage the 3D model to prevent solutions that cause interpenetration. We evaluate our method, SMPLify, on the Leeds Sports, HumanEva, and Human3.6M datasets, showing superior pose accuracy with respect to the state of the art.Comment: To appear in ECCV 201

Alteration of Multiple Leukocyte Gene Expression Networks is Linked with Magnetic Resonance Markers of Prognosis After Acute ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction

Prognostic relevant pathways of leukocyte involvement in human myocardial ischemic-reperfusion injury are largely unknown. We enrolled 136 patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) after primary angioplasty within 12 h after onset of symptoms. Following reperfusion, whole blood was collected within a median time interval of 20 h (interquartile range: 15-25 h) for genome-wide gene expression analysis. Subsequent CMR scans were performed using a standard protocol to determine infarct size (IS), area at risk (AAR), myocardial salvage index (MSI) and the extent of late microvascular obstruction (lateMO). We found 398 genes associated with lateMO and two genes with IS. Neither AAR, nor MSI showed significant correlations with gene expression. Genes correlating with lateMO were strongly related to several canonical pathways, including positive regulation of T-cell activation (p = 3.44 x 10(-5)), and regulation of inflammatory response (p = 1.86 x 10(-3)). Network analysis of multiple gene expression alterations associated with larger lateMO identified the following functional consequences: facilitated utilisation and decreased concentration of free fatty acid, repressed cell differentiation, enhanced phagocyte movement, increased cell death, vascular disease and compensatory vasculogenesis. In conclusion, the extent of lateMO after acute, reperfused STEMI correlated with altered activation of multiple genes related to fatty acid utilisation, lymphocyte differentiation, phagocyte mobilisation, cell survival, and vascular dysfunction

Inflammation and prolonged QT time: Results from the Cardiovascular Disease, Living and Ageing in Halle (CARLA) study

Background: Previous research found an association of CRP with QT time in population based samples. Even more, there is evidence of a substantial involvement of the tumor necrosis factor-alpha system in the pathophysiology of cardiac arrhythmia, while the role of Interleukin 6 remains inconclusive. Objective: To determine the association between inflammation with an abnormally prolonged QT-time (APQT) in men and women of the elderly general population. Methods: Data descend from the baseline examination of the prospective, population-based Cardiovascular Disease, Living and Ageing in Halle (CARLA) Study. After exclusion of subjects with atrial fibrillation and missing ECG recording the final study cohort consisted of 919 men and 797 women. Blood parameters of inflammation were the soluble TNF-Receptor 1 (sTNF-R1), the high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP), and Interleukin 6 (IL-6). In accordance with major cardiologic societies we defined an APQT above a QT time of 460 ms in women and 450 ms in men. Effect sizes and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated by performing multiple linear and logistic regression analyses including the analysis of sex differences by interaction terms. Results: After covariate adjustment we found an odds ratio (OR) of 1.89 (95% CI: 1.13, 3.17) per 1000 pg/mL increase of sTNF-R1 in women, and 0.74 (95% CI: 0.48, 1.15) in men. In the covariate adjusted linear regression sTNF-R1 was again positively associated with QT time in women (5.75 ms per 1000 pg/mL, 95% CI: 1.32, 10.18), but not in men. Taking possible confounders into account IL-6 and hsCRP were not significantly related to APQT in both sexes. Conclusion: Our findings from cross-sectional analyses give evidence for an involvement of TNF-alpha in the pathology of APQT in women