Phénologie et modèles prévisionnels d'éclosion printanière pour trois arthropodes ravageurs en plantation commerciale d'arbres de Noël dans un contexte de changements climatiques

Le puceron des pousses du sapin Mindarus abietinus et le tétranyque de l’épinette Oligonychus ununguis sont deux ravageurs d’importance économique pour l’industrie des arbres de Noël au Québec. Les changements climatiques en cours pourraient affecter leur biologie et physiologie de telle sorte que leurs dommages sur les sapins cultivés augmenteront dans les prochaines décennies. Afin d’étudier les interactions entre M. abietinus, son arbre-hôte et la température ambiante, j’ai suivi des populations du puceron pendant trois étés dans des sapinières commerciales du sud du Québec. Entre autres, j’ai montré qu’il est possible de séparer correctement les générations chevauchantes de filles ailées et aptères du cycle vital complexe de M. abietinus, ce qui m’a permis d’observer une proportion de filles aptères plusieurs fois supérieure à ce qui était connu auparavant. Dans une expérience en plantation de sapin baumier, j’ai montré qu’un milieu réchauffé causerait une augmentation significative du taux de croissance des colonies de M. abietinus sur les pousses, en comparaison avec les colonies sous conditions naturelles actuelles. Ces résultats supportent l’hypothèse qu’un climat plus chaud, causé par les changements anthropogéniques, pourrait favoriser des densités plus élevées de M. abietinus, ce qui pourrait augmenter ses dommages esthétiques sur le sapin. Dans une expérience de laboratoire, la durée du développement en fonction de la température des œufs de ces deux ravageurs et de ceux d’une autre espèce, la cochenille des aiguilles du pin Chionaspis pinifoliae, a été mesurée en milieu contrôlé, ce qui m’a permis d’élaborer des modèles prévisionnels linéaires et non linéaires du taux de développement des œufs hivernés postdiapausants nouveaux pour le Québec. Finalement, en suivant la masse fraîche d’œufs hivernants de M. abietinus tout au long de leur diapause de plusieurs mois, j’ai observé un accroissement de la masse au printemps, impliquant l’eau comme possible facteur de déclenchement de l’embryogenèse.The balsam twig aphid Mindarus abietinus and the spruce spider mite Oligonychus ununguis are two pests of economic importance for the Christmas tree industry in Québec. Current climate change could affect their biology and physiology in such a way that, if their local densities in commercial fir plantations grow in the future, potential damage to cultivated firs could increase substantially. In order to study the interactions between M. abietinus, its host tree, and ambient temperature, I followed populations of the aphid during three consecutive summers in commercial fir plantations of southern Québec. I found it possible to separate overlapping generations of different morphs of this aphid in growing colonies on fir shoots, which allowed to record a proportion of wingless daughters several times larger than previously known for this aphid in its complex life cycle. Based on a field experiment, a warmer environment surrounding the aphids on balsam fir shoots increased spring colony growth rates significantly, when compared to unaltered colonies on neighbouring trees. These results support the hypothesis that a warmer climate, caused by anthropogenic change, would promote higher densities of M. abietinus on fir shoots, which could increase esthetic damage to Christmas trees. In a laboratory experiment, I studied the effect of ambient temperature on postdiapause development of the overwintering eggs of both aphid and mite species, along with that of another conifer-feeding pest, the pine needle scale Chionaspis pinifoliae, which led to parametrise new linear and nonlinear development rate models for postdiapause egg development of all three species. Finally, by following fresh mass of M. abietinus overwintering eggs throughout their diapause of several months, it was possible to observe a substantial increase in size and mass of these eggs in early spring, suggesting that water could trigger diapause termination and/or initiate embryogenesis of the first active stage

Examination of overall treatment effect and the proportion attributable to contextual effect in osteoarthritis: meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

Objective: To examine the overall treatment effect and the proportion attributable to contextual effect (PCE) in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of diverse treatments for osteoarthritis (OA). Methods: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL, Science Citation Index, AMED, CINAHL through October 2014, supplemented with manual search of reference lists, published meta-analyses and systematic reviews. Included were RCTs in OA comparing placebo with representative complementary, pharmacological, non-pharmacological and surgical treatments. The primary outcome was pain. Secondary outcomes were function and stiffness. The overall treatment effect was defined as the improvement from baseline in the treatment group. The contextual effect was defined as that of the placebo group. The PCE was calculated by dividing the contextual effect over the overall treatment effect. The effect size (ES) of overall treatment effect and the PCE were pooled using random-effects model. Subgroup analysis and meta-regression were conducted to examine determinants of the PCE. Results: In total, 215 trials (41,392 participants) were included. The overall treatment effect for pain-reduction ranged from the smallest with lavage (ES=0.46, 95%CI: 0.24, 0.68) to the largest with topical NSAIDs (ES=1.37, 95%CI 1.19, 1.55). On average, 75% (PCE=0.75, 95%CI 0.72, 0.79) of pain reduction was attributable to contextual effect. It varied by treatment from 47% (PCE=0.47, 95%CI: 0.32, 0.70) for intra-articular corticosteroid to 91% (PCE=0.91, 95%CI: 0.60, 1.37) for joint lavage. Similar results were observed for function and stiffness. Treatment delivered by needle/injection and other means but oral medication, longer duration of treatment, larger sample size (≥100 per arm) and public funding source were associated with increased PCE for pain-reduction. Conclusions: The majority (75%) of the overall treatment effect in OA RCTs is attributable to contextual effects, rather than the specific effect of treatments. Reporting overall treatment effect and PCE, in addition to traditional ES over placebo, permits a more balanced, clinically meaningful interpretation of RCT results. This would help dispel the frequent discordance between conclusions from RCT evidence and clinical experience - the “efficacy paradox”

Bell inequalities for three systems and arbitrarily many measurement outcomes

We present a family of Bell inequalities for three parties and arbitrarily many outcomes, which can be seen as a natural generalization of the Mermin Bell inequality. For a small number of outcomes, we verify that our inequalities define facets of the polytope of local correlations. We investigate the quantum violations of these inequalities, in particular with respect to the Hilbert space dimension. We provide strong evidence that the maximal quantum violation can only be reached using systems with local Hilbert space dimension exceeding the number of measurement outcomes. This suggests that our inequalities can be used as multipartite dimension witnesses.Comment: v1 6 pages, 4 tables; v2 Published version with minor typos correcte

Occurrence of methane oxidizing bacteria and methanogenic archaea in Earth’s cave systems : a metagenomic analysis

Funding This study received funding from NERC DTP studentship to AA (NE/S007377/1-2429402), Department for Economy NI studentship to MC and QUB for funding to DK. RD and DK were supported by DfE US-Ireland R&D partnership project 154. AH-V was supported by CNCS-UEFISCDI project PN-IIIP4-ID-PCCF-2016-0016, PCCF 16/2018 (DARKFOOD, PI Dr. O. T. Moldovan). Acknowledgments The authors thank the funders of this study for their support.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

La campagne CORAIL 1 du "N.O. CORIOLIS" aux îles Chesterfield (du 15 août au 4 septembre 1988) : données préliminaires sur les peuplements ichtyologiques

La campagne CORAIL 1 a permis l'étude des peuplements ichtyologiques coralliens sur trois stations aux îles Chesterfield. Chaque station est divisée en trois strates de profondeur : 0-5 m, 5-10 m et 10-15 m. Dans chaque strate deux empoisonnements à la roténone et de 3 à 5 transects ont été réalisés. Au total, 555 espèces de poissons ont été recensées. Ces poissons présentent une affinité légérement supérieure avec les peuplements de Nouvelle Calédonie qu'avec ceux de la Grande Barrière de Corail (GBR). Les résultats des empoisonnements et des comptages ont été combinés pour calculer les densités et les biomasses. Ces deux paramètres diminuent avec la profondeur, mais du fait de la diminution simultanée des substrats durs avec la profondeur, on observe de très grandes concentrations de poissons sur les pâtés coralliens isolés sur les fonds meubles au-delà de 10 m. Les densités et les biomasses observées (O.15 à 5.26 poissons/m2 et de 1.7 à 230 g/m2) sont du même ordre de grandeur que ce qui est actuellement connu du Pacifique tropical. La structure trophique de ces peuplements varie considérablement d'une strate à l'autre, l'élément le plus stable étant le nombre d'espèces par groupe trophiqu

Timing of antiretroviral therapy and adverse pregnancy outcomes : a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Although life-long combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) is recommended for all HIV-infected individuals, there are limited data on pregnancy outcome with ART initiation pre-conception. We assessed the safety of ART initiated pre-conception versus post-conception on adverse pregnancy outcome. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of studies from low-, middle-, and high-income countries. We searched Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, LILACS, MEDLINE for randomized trials, quasi-randomized trials and prospective cohort studies conducted between 01 January 1980 to 01 June 2016). Risk ratios were pooled using a random-effects model. FINDINGS: Eleven studies were included (N=19,189 mother-infant pairs). Women initiating ART pre-conception compared to post-conception were significantly more likely to deliver preterm (pooled risk ratio[RR]=1·20, 95% confidence interval[CI] 1·01-1·14, 10 studies), very preterm (RR=1·53, 95%CI 1·22-1·92, two studies), or have low birth weight (LBW) infants (RR=1·30, 95%CI 1·04-1·62, two studies). Data on neonatal mortality was limited. We found no increase in very LBW (RR=0.18, 95% CI 0.02-1.51, one study), small for gestational age (SGA) (RR = 1·13, 95% CI 0·94-1·35, two studies), severe SGA (RR=1·09, 95%CI 0·82-1·45, one study), stillbirth (RR= RR=1·30, 95% CI 0·99-1·69, two studies) or congenital anomalies (RR= RR=1·24, 95% CI 0·61-2·49, one study). INTERPRETATION: The benefits of ART for maternal health and prevention of perinatal transmission outweigh risks, but there remain limited, poor quality data on the extent/severity of these risks. We found elevated preterm delivery and low birth weight rates associated with pre-conception ART. As pre-conception ART rapidly increases globally, it will be critical to monitor for potential adverse pregnancy outcomes

The Curatorial Incubator : v.12

"So boasts James Joyce in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, that canonical tale of a sensitive, artistic youth coming of age. is year, e Curatorial Incubator, v.12 has asked emerging curators to get a little naughty and put a contemporary spin on this classic by considering media artworks that come together to create A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Brat. Happily, the programs they have assembled are as brash and fearless as Stephen Dedalus, hero of Joyce’s 1916 Modernist classic." -- p. 2

Heparin-Binding-Hemagglutinin-Induced IFN-γ Release as a Diagnostic Tool for Latent Tuberculosis

BACKGROUND: The detection of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is a major component of tuberculosis (TB) control strategies. In addition to the tuberculosis skin test (TST), novel blood tests, based on in vitro release of IFN-gamma in response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific antigens ESAT-6 and CFP-10 (IGRAs), are used for TB diagnosis. However, neither IGRAs nor the TST can separate acute TB from LTBI, and there is concern that responses in IGRAs may decline with time after infection. We have therefore evaluated the potential of the novel antigen heparin-binding hemagglutinin (HBHA) for in vitro detection of LTBI. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: HBHA was compared to purified protein derivative (PPD) and ESAT-6 in IGRAs on lymphocytes drawn from 205 individuals living in Belgium, a country with low TB prevalence, where BCG vaccination is not routinely used. Among these subjects, 89 had active TB, 65 had LTBI, based on well-standardized TST reactions and 51 were negative controls. HBHA was significantly more sensitive than ESAT-6 and more specific than PPD for the detection of LTBI. PPD-based tests yielded 90.00% sensitivity and 70.00% specificity for the detection of LTBI, whereas the sensitivity and specificity for the ESAT-6-based tests were 40.74% and 90.91%, and those for the HBHA-based tests were 92.06% and 93.88%, respectively. The QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT-IT) test applied on 20 LTBI subjects yielded 50% sensitivity. The HBHA IGRA was not influenced by prior BCG vaccination, and, in contrast to the QFT-IT test, remote (>2 years) infections were detected as well as recent (<2 years) infections by the HBHA-specific test. CONCLUSIONS: The use of ESAT-6- and CFP-10-based IGRAs may underestimate the incidence of LTBI, whereas the use of HBHA may combine the operational advantages of IGRAs with high sensitivity and specificity for latent infection.Journal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The strategic role of reinsurance in the United Kingdom’s (UK) non-life insurance market

We demonstrate that by increasing the level of reinsurance, primary insurers increase their product-market share at the expense of rivals with lower reinsurance coverage in five main lines of insurance in the United Kingdom’s (UK) non-life insurance market. We use panel data drawn from statutory filings made by non-life insurers to the then UK regulator (FSA) over 1985 to 2010 period. We find that the influence of reinsurance and other financial variables on insurers’ growth in product-market share varies across lines of insurance business. Since reinsurance impacts on product-market outcomes in competitive non-life insurance industry, we conclude that reinsurance performs an important strategic function in insurance markets