293 research outputs found
Synthetic sex pheromone attracts the leishmaniasis vector Lutzomyia longipalpis to experimental chicken sheds treated with insecticide
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Current strategies for controlling American visceral leishmaniasis (AVL) have been unable to prevent the spread of the disease across Brazil. With no effective vaccine and culling of infected dogs an unpopular and unsuccessful alternative, new tools are urgently needed to manage populations of the sand fly vector, <it>Lutzomyia longipalpis </it>Lutz and Neiva (Diptera: Psychodidae). Here, we test two potential strategies for improving <it>L. longipalpis </it>control using the synthetic sand fly pheromone (±)-9-methylgermacrene-B: the first in conjunction with spraying of animal houses with insecticide, the second using coloured sticky traps.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Addition of synthetic pheromone resulted in greater numbers of male and female sand flies being caught and killed at experimental chicken sheds sprayed with insecticide, compared to pheromone-less controls. Furthermore, a ten-fold increase in the amount of sex pheromone released from test sheds increased the number of females attracted and subsequently killed. Treating sheds with insecticide alone resulted in a significant decrease in numbers of males attracted to sheds (compared to pre-spraying levels), and a near significant decrease in numbers of females. However, this effect was reversed through addition of synthetic pheromone at the time of insecticide spraying, leading to an increase in number of flies attracted post-treatment.</p> <p>In field trials of commercially available different coloured sticky traps, yellow traps caught more males than blue traps when placed in chicken sheds. In addition, yellow traps fitted with 10 pheromone lures caught significantly more males than pheromone-less controls. However, while female sand flies showed a preference for both blue and yellow pheromone traps sticky traps over white traps in the laboratory, neither colour caught significant numbers of females in chicken sheds, either with or without pheromone.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We conclude that synthetic pheromone could currently be most effectively deployed for sand fly control through combination with existing insecticide spraying regimes. Development of a standalone pheromone trap remains a possibility, but such devices may require an additional attractive host odour component to be fully effective.</p
Multi-modal analysis of courtship behaviour in the old world leishmaniasis vector Phlebotomus argentipes
BACKGROUND: The sand fly Phlebotomus argentipes is arguably the most important vector of leishmaniasis worldwide. As there is no vaccine against the parasites that cause leishmaniasis, disease prevention focuses on control of the insect vector. Understanding reproductive behaviour will be essential to controlling populations of P. argentipes, and developing new strategies for reducing leishmaniasis transmission. Through statistical analysis of male-female interactions, this study provides a detailed description of P. argentipes courtship, and behaviours critical to mating success are highlighted. The potential for a role of cuticular hydrocarbons in P. argentipes courtship is also investigated, by comparing chemicals extracted from the surface of male and female flies. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: P. argentipes courtship shared many similarities with that of both Phlebotomus papatasi and the New World leishmaniasis vector Lutzomyia longipalpis. Male wing-flapping while approaching the female during courtship predicted mating success, and touching between males and females was a common and frequent occurrence. Both sexes were able to reject a potential partner. Significant differences were found in the profile of chemicals extracted from the surface of males and females. Results of GC analysis indicate that female extracts contained a number of peaks with relatively short retention times not present in males. Extracts from males had higher peaks for chemicals with relatively long retention times. CONCLUSIONS: The importance of male approach flapping suggests that production of audio signals through wing beating, or dispersal of sex pheromones, are important to mating in this species. Frequent touching as a means of communication, and the differences in the chemical profiles extracted from males and females, may also indicate a role for cuticular hydrocarbons in P. argentipes courtship. Comparing characteristics of successful and unsuccessful mates could aid in identifying the modality of signals involved in P. argentipes courtship, and their potential for use in developing new strategies for vector control
Nonequilibrium dynamics of random field Ising spin chains: exact results via real space RG
Non-equilibrium dynamics of classical random Ising spin chains are studied
using asymptotically exact real space renormalization group. Specifically the
random field Ising model with and without an applied field (and the Ising spin
glass (SG) in a field), in the universal regime of a large Imry Ma length so
that coarsening of domains after a quench occurs over large scales. Two types
of domain walls diffuse in opposite Sinai random potentials and mutually
annihilate. The domain walls converge rapidly to a set of system-specific
time-dependent positions {\it independent of the initial conditions}. We obtain
the time dependent energy, magnetization and domain size distribution
(statistically independent). The equilibrium limits agree with known exact
results. We obtain exact scaling forms for two-point equal time correlation and
two-time autocorrelations. We also compute the persistence properties of a
single spin, of local magnetization, and of domains. The analogous quantities
for the spin glass are obtained. We compute the two-point two-time correlation
which can be measured by experiments on spin-glass like systems. Thermal
fluctuations are found to be dominated by rare events; all moments of truncated
correlations are computed. The response to a small field applied after waiting
time , as measured in aging experiments, and the fluctuation-dissipation
ratio are computed. For ,
, it equals its equilibrium value X=1, though time
translational invariance fails. It exhibits for aging regime
with non-trivial , different from mean field.Comment: 55 pages, 9 figures, revte
Langevin simulations of the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of the vortex glass in high-temperature superconductors
We study the relaxation dynamics of flux lines in dirty high-temperature
superconductors using numerical simulations of a London-Langevin model of the
interacting vortex lines. By analysing the equilibrium dynamics in the vortex
liquid phase we find a dynamic crossover to a glassy non-equilibrium regime. We
then focus on the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of the vortex glass phase using
tools that are common in the study of other glassy systems. By monitoring the
two-times roughness and dynamic wandering we identify and characterize
finite-size effects that are similar, though more complex, than the ones found
in the stationary roughness of clean interface dynamics. The two-times
density-density correlation and mean-squared-displacement correlation age and
their temporal scaling follows a multiplicative law similar to the one found at
criticality. The linear responses also age and the comparison with their
associated correlations shows that the equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation
relation is modified in a simple manner that allows for the identification of
an effective temperature characterizing the dynamics of the slow modes. The
effective temperature is closely related to the vortex liquid-vortex glass
crossover temperature. Interestingly enough, our study demonstrates that the
glassy dynamics in the vortex glass is basically identical to the one of a
single elastic line in a disordered environment (with the same type of scaling
though with different parameters). Possible extensions and the experimental
relevance of these results are also discussed.Comment: 22 pages, 29 figure
Factors affecting field performance of pheromone traps for tobacco beetle, Lasioderma serricorne and tobacco moth, Ephestia elutella
Tobacco beetle, Lasioderma serricorne (F.) (Coleoptera: Anobiidae), is one of the most serious insect pests of stored tobacco and traps baited with the female-produced sex pheromone, serricornin, are used for monitoring the pest. In two trapping experiments carried out in tobacco warehouses in Greece, two commercially-available trap and lure systems for L. serricorne were found to be equally effective in terms of numbers of beetles trapped. In contrast to previous reports, anhydroserricornin was unattractive and lures containing serricornin and anhydroserricornin were less attractive than lures containing serricornin only. The sex pheromone of the other main insect pest of tobacco, Ephestia elutella (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), could be added to the lures without affecting the attractiveness of either pheromones to their respective species. Lures remained attractive for at least four weeks under field conditions, and, in laboratory tests, release of pheromone could still be detected after 30 days at 27°C. The stereoisomeric composition of the serricornin in the two commercial lures was similar with high proportions of the attractive (4S,6S,7S)-isomer. The proportion of the (4S,6S,7R)-isomer was low and this is known to reduce the attractiveness
Quantum Collective Creep: a Quasiclassical Langevin Equation Approach
The dynamics of an elastic medium driven through a random medium by a small
applied force is investigated in the low-temperature limit where quantum
fluctuations dominate. The motion proceeds via tunneling of segments of the
manifold through barriers whose size grows with decreasing driving force .
In the limit of small drive, at zero-temperature the average velocity has the
form . For strongly
dissipative dynamics, there is a wide range of forces where the dissipation
dominates and the velocity--force characteristics takes the form
, with the
action for a typical tunneling event, the force dependence being determined by
the roughness exponent of the -dimensional manifold. This result
agrees with the one obtained via simple scaling considerations. Surprisingly,
for asymptotically low forces or for the case when the massive dynamics is
dominant, the resulting quantum creep law is {\it not} of the usual form with a
rate proportional to ; rather we find corresponding to and , with the naive scaling exponent for massive
dynamics. Our analysis is based on the quasi-classical Langevin approximation
with a noise obeying the quantum fluctuation--dissipation theorem. The many
space and time scales involved in the dynamics are treated via a functional
renormalization group analysis related to that used previously to treat the
classical dynamics of such systems. Various potential difficulties with these
approaches to the multi-scale dynamics -- both classical and quantum -- are
raised and questions about the validity of the results are discussed.Comment: RevTeX, 30 pages, 8 figures inserte
Impact of metabolic comorbidity on the association between body mass index and heatlh-related quality of life: a Scotland-wide cross-sectional study of 5,608 participants
<p/>Background: The prevalence of obesity is rising in Scotland and globally. Overall, obesity is associated with increased morbidity, mortality and reduced health-related quality of life. Studies suggest that "healthy obesity" (obesity without metabolic comorbidity) may not be associated with morbidity or mortality. Its impact on health-related quality of life is unknown.
<p/>Methods: We extracted data from the Scottish Health Survey on self-reported health-related quality of life, body mass index (BMI), demographic information and comorbidity. SF-12 responses were converted into an overall health utility score. Linear regression analyses were used to explore the association between BMI and health utility, stratified by the presence or absence of metabolic comorbidity (diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia or cardiovascular disease), and adjusted for potential confounders (age, sex and deprivation quintile).
<p/>Results: Of the 5,608 individuals, 3,744 (66.8%) were either overweight or obese and 921 (16.4%) had metabolic comorbidity. There was an inverted U-shaped relationship whereby health utility was highest among overweight individuals and fell with increasing BMI. There was a significant interaction with metabolic comorbidity (p = 0.007). Individuals with metabolic comorbidty had lower utility scores and a steeper decline in utility with increasing BMI (morbidly obese, adjusted coefficient: -0.064, 95% CI -0.115, -0.012, p = 0.015 for metabolic comorbidity versus -0.042, 95% CI -0.067, -0.018, p = 0.001 for no metabolic comorbidity).
<p/>Conclusions: The adverse impact of obesity on health-related quality of life is greater among individuals with metabolic comorbidity. However, increased BMI is associated with reduced health-related quality of life even in the absence of metabolic comorbidity, casting doubt on the notion of "healthy obesity"
The three-dimensional random field Ising magnet: interfaces, scaling, and the nature of states
The nature of the zero temperature ordering transition in the 3D Gaussian
random field Ising magnet is studied numerically, aided by scaling analyses. In
the ferromagnetic phase the scaling of the roughness of the domain walls,
, is consistent with the theoretical prediction .
As the randomness is increased through the transition, the probability
distribution of the interfacial tension of domain walls scales as for a single
second order transition. At the critical point, the fractal dimensions of
domain walls and the fractal dimension of the outer surface of spin clusters
are investigated: there are at least two distinct physically important fractal
dimensions. These dimensions are argued to be related to combinations of the
energy scaling exponent, , which determines the violation of
hyperscaling, the correlation length exponent , and the magnetization
exponent . The value is derived from the
magnetization: this estimate is supported by the study of the spin cluster size
distribution at criticality. The variation of configurations in the interior of
a sample with boundary conditions is consistent with the hypothesis that there
is a single transition separating the disordered phase with one ground state
from the ordered phase with two ground states. The array of results are shown
to be consistent with a scaling picture and a geometric description of the
influence of boundary conditions on the spins. The details of the algorithm
used and its implementation are also described.Comment: 32 pp., 2 columns, 32 figure
- …