Preplant 1,3-D treatments test well for perennial crop nurseries, but challenges remain

Preplant fumigation with methyl bromide commonly is used in open-field perennial crop nurseries in California for control of plant-parasitic nematodes, pathogens and weeds. Because this fumigant is being phased out, alternatives are needed to ensure the productivity of the perennial crop nursery industry as well as the ornamental, orchard and vineyard production systems that depend on clean planting stock. As part of the USDA Area-Wide Pest Management Program for Integrated Methyl Bromide Alternatives, several perennial crop nursery projects were conducted in California from 2007 to 2011 to test and demonstrate registered alternative fumigants and application techniques that maximize performance and minimize environmental impacts. The project was designed to evaluate shank application and soil surface sealing methods intended to reduce aboveground emission and improve soil performance of 1,3-dichloropropene, a leading methyl bromide alternative for nurseries. In these garden rose and tree nursery experiments, 1,3-dichloropropene treatments performed well regardless of application techniques. In this article, we highlight recent research and discuss the significance and remaining challenges for adoption of methyl bromide alternatives in this unique nursery stock production system

Range and primary habitats of Hawaiian insular false killer whales: informing determination of critical habitat

The article of record as published may be found at https://dx.doi.org/10.3354/esr00435For species listed under the US Endangered Species Act, federal agencies must designate 'critical habitat', areas containing features essential to conservation and/or that may require special management considerations. In November 2010, the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed listing a small demographically isolated population of false killer whales Pseudorca crassidens in Hawai'i as endangered but has not yet proposed designating critical habitat. We assessed the population's range and heavily used habitat areas using data from 27 satellite tag deployments. Assessment of independence of individuals with temporally overlapping data indicated that data were from 22 'groups'. Further analyses were restricted to 1 individual per group. Tag data were available for periods of between 13 and 105 d (median = 40.5 d), with 8513 locations (93.4% from July-January). Analyses of photo-identification data indicated that the population is divided into 3 large associations of individuals (social clusters), with tag data from 2 of these clusters. Ranges for these 2 clusters were similar, although one used significantly deeper waters, and their high-use areas differed. A minimum convex polygon range encompassing all locations was ~82800 km2, with individuals ranging from Ni'ihau to Hawai'i Island and up to 122 km offshore. Three high-use areas were identified: (1) off the north half of Hawai'i Island, (2) north of Maui and Moloka'i and (3) southwest of Lana'i. Although this analysis provides information useful for decision-making concerning designation of critical habitat, there are likely other high-use areas that have not yet been identified due to seasonal limitations and availability of data from only 2 of the 3 main social clusters.Fieldwork was primarily funded by grants and contracts to Cascadia Research Collective from the National Marine Fisheries Service Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center and the US Navy (N45) through the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Woods Hole Oceano- graphic Institution, and the Naval Postgraduate School. The Wild Whale Research Foundation and Dolphin Quest provided additional support.Funded by Naval Postgraduate School.Office of Naval Research Grant N00014081120

Staff experiences of Providing Maternity Services in Rural Southern Tanzania -- A Focus on Equipment, Drug and Supply Issues.

The poor maintenance of equipment and inadequate supplies of drugs and other items contribute to the low quality of maternity services often found in rural settings in low- and middle-income countries, and raise the risk of adverse maternal outcomes through delaying care provision. We aim to describe staff experiences of providing maternal care in rural health facilities in Southern Tanzania, focusing on issues related to equipment, drugs and supplies. Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were conducted with different staff cadres from all facility levels in order to explore experiences and views of providing maternity care in the context of poorly maintained equipment, and insufficient drugs and other supplies. A facility survey quantified the availability of relevant items. The facility survey, which found many missing or broken items and frequent stock outs, corroborated staff reports of providing care in the context of missing or broken care items. Staff reported increased workloads, reduced morale, difficulties in providing optimal maternity care, and carrying out procedures that carried potential health risks to themselves as a result. Inadequately stocked and equipped facilities compromise the health system's ability to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity by affecting staff personally and professionally, which hinders the provision of timely and appropriate interventions. Improving stock control and maintaining equipment could benefit mothers and babies, not only through removing restrictions to the availability of care, but also through improving staff working conditions

Astrometry with Hubble Space Telescope: A Parallax of the Fundamental Distance Calibrator RR Lyrae

We present an absolute parallax and relative proper motion for the fundamental distance scale calibrator, RR Lyr. We obtain these with astrometric data from FGS 3, a white-light interferometer on HST. We find $\pi_{abs} = 3.82 \pm 0.2$ mas. Spectral classifications and VRIJHKT$_2$M and DDO51 photometry of the astrometric reference frame surrounding RR Lyr indicate that field extinction is low along this line of sight. We estimate =0.07\pm0.03 for these reference stars. The extinction suffered by RR Lyr becomes one of the dominant contributors to the uncertainty in its absolute magnitude. Adopting the average field absorption, =0.07 \pm 0.03, we obtain M_V^{RR} = 0.61 ^{-0.11}_{+0.10}. This provides a distance modulus for the LMC, m-M = 18.38 - 18.53^{-0.11}_{+0.10} with the average extinction-corrected magnitude of RR Lyr variables in the LMC, , remaining a significant uncertainty. We compare this result to more than 80 other determinations of the distance modulus of the LMC.Comment: Several typos corrected. To appear in The Astronomical Journal, January 200

Host‐derived population genomics data provides insights into bacterial and diatom composition of the killer whale skin

Recent exploration into the interactions and relationship between hosts and their microbiota has revealed a connection between many aspects of the host's biology, health and associated micro-organisms. Whereas amplicon sequencing has traditionally been used to characterize the microbiome, the increasing number of published population genomics data sets offers an underexploited opportunity to study microbial profiles from the host shotgun sequencing data. Here, we use sequence data originally generated from killer whale Orcinus orca skin biopsies for population genomics, to characterize the skin microbiome and investigate how host social and geographical factors influence the microbial community composition. Having identified 845 microbial taxa from 2.4 million reads that did not map to the killer whale reference genome, we found that both ecotypic and geographical factors influence community composition of killer whale skin microbiomes. Furthermore, we uncovered key taxa that drive the microbiome community composition and showed that they are embedded in unique networks, one of which is tentatively linked to diatom presence and poor skin condition. Community composition differed between Antarctic killer whales with and without diatom coverage, suggesting that the previously reported episodic migrations of Antarctic killer whales to warmer waters associated with skin turnover may control the effects of potentially pathogenic bacteria such as Tenacibaculum dicentrarchi. Our work demonstrates the feasibility of microbiome studies from host shotgun sequencing data and highlights the importance of metagenomics in understanding the relationship between host and microbial ecology

The impact of hypoxia on B cells in COVID-19

Background: Prominent early features of COVID-19 include severe, often clinically silent, hypoxia and a pronounced reduction in B cells, the latter important in defence against SARS-CoV-2. This presentation resembles the phenotype of mice with VHL-deficient B cells, in which Hypoxia-Inducible Factors are constitutively active, suggesting hypoxia might drive B cell abnormalities in COVID-19. Methods: Detailed B cell phenotyping was undertaken by flow-cytometry on longitudinal samples from patients with COVID-19 across a range of severities (NIHR Cambridge BioResource). The impact of hypoxia on the transcriptome was assessed by single-cell and whole blood RNA sequencing analysis. The direct effect of hypoxia on B cells was determined through immunisation studies in genetically modified and hypoxia-exposed mice. Findings: We demonstrate the breadth of early and persistent defects in B cell subsets in moderate/severe COVID-19, including reduced marginal zone-like, memory and transitional B cells, changes also observed in B cell VHL-deficient mice. These findings were associated with hypoxia-related transcriptional changes in COVID-19 patient B cells, and similar B cell abnormalities were seen in mice kept in hypoxic conditions. Interpretation: Hypoxia may contribute to the pronounced and persistent B cell pathology observed in acute COVID-19 pneumonia. Assessment of the impact of early oxygen therapy on these immune defects should be considered, as their correction could contribute to improved outcomes. Funding: Evelyn Trust, Addenbrooke's Charitable Trust, UKRI/NIHR, Wellcome Trus

Open Data, Open Source and Open Standards in chemistry: The Blue Obelisk five years on

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.Abstract Background The Blue Obelisk movement was established in 2005 as a response to the lack of Open Data, Open Standards and Open Source (ODOSOS) in chemistry. It aims to make it easier to carry out chemistry research by promoting interoperability between chemistry software, encouraging cooperation between Open Source developers, and developing community resources and Open Standards. Results This contribution looks back on the work carried out by the Blue Obelisk in the past 5 years and surveys progress and remaining challenges in the areas of Open Data, Open Standards, and Open Source in chemistry. Conclusions We show that the Blue Obelisk has been very successful in bringing together researchers and developers with common interests in ODOSOS, leading to development of many useful resources freely available to the chemistry community.Peer Reviewe