Intensity and risk of chemical pesticides when cultivating sugar beet, silage maize and winter wheat in crop rotations

Der Einsatz chemischer Pflanzenschutzmittel dient zum einen der Sicherstellung des Ertrages, steht jedoch auch aufgrund von möglichen ökologischen Risiken in der Kritik. Der Nationale Aktionsplan zur nachhaltigen Anwen­dung von Pflanzenschutzmitteln zielt auf die Redu­zierung dieser Risiken ab. In der vorliegenden Studie wurden chemische Pflanzenschutzmaßnahmen in Feldversuchen in den Jahren 2011–2014 in den Fruchtfolgen Zuckerrüben-Winterweizen-Winterweizen, Silo­mais-Win­ter­weizen-Winterweizen, Silomais-Zuckerrüben-Winterweizen und Silomais im Daueranbau an zwei Standorten untersucht. Als Indikator der Intensität diente der „Behandlungsindex“, das Umweltrisiko wurde mit dem Simulationsmodell „SYNOPS“ für Stellvertreterorganismen in den Nichtziel-Kompartimenten „Oberflächengewässer“, „Saumbiotope“ und „Boden“ kalkuliert. Der Behandlungsindex variierte zwischen den Fruchtfolgen von 5,1 bis 20,6 und das Umweltrisiko wurde überwiegend als sehr niedrig bis mittel kalkuliert. Es existierte keine Korrelation zwischen der Intensität und dem Umwelt­risiko über die Fruchtfolgen. Silomais im Daueranbau hatte die geringste Intensität, jedoch war das Umwelt­risiko höher. Für Silomais und Winterweizen existierten herbizide und fungizide Wirkstoffe, für die ein nicht tolerables Umweltrisiko kalkuliert wurde. Konsequenzen für den Integrierten Pflanzenschutz ergeben sich unter anderem aus der Wahl weniger toxischer Wirkstoffe, einer Reduktion der Gesamtaufwandmenge und nicht-chemischer Maßnahmen, wie mechanische Unkraut­­regulierung oder resistente Sorten.The use of chemical pesticides serves at reducing crop yield losses, but is also criticised because of possible ecological risks. The German national action plan on sustainable use of plant protection products aims at reduc­ing these risks. The current study investigated pesticide appli­cations on two sites in Germany in 2011–2014, comparing different crop rotations with sugar beet, silage maize and winter wheat as well as silage maize under continuous cultivation. The treatment index was used as an indicator for the pesticide application intensity. The environmental risk was calculated by the simulation model “SYNOPS” for reference orga­nisms in the non-target compartments “surface water”, “field margin biotope” and “soil”. The treatment index varied between crop rotations from 5.1 to 20.6 and the environmental risk was mostly calculated as very low to medium. No correlation between intensity and environmental risk of crop rotations was found. The lowest treatment index was calculated for silage maize in continuous cultivation, but, the environmental risk was higher. Some herbicidal and fungicidal active ingredients used in silage maize and winter wheat were identified for which non tolerable environmental risks were calculated. Consequences for the Integrated Pest Management result from the choice of active substances with lower toxicity, a reduction of the entire application rate and non-chemical measures like mechanical weed control or resistant varieties

Intensity and risk of chemical pesticides when cultivating sugar beet, silage maize and winter wheat in crop rotations

Corrigendum Im Artikel „Intensität und Risiko des chemischen Pflanzenschutzes beim Anbau von Zuckerrüben, Silomais und Winterweizen in Fruchtfolgen“ von Brauer-Siebrecht, W., Jacobs, A., Koch H.-J., Strassemeyer, J. und Märländer, B., der auf den Seiten 184-195, Ausgabe 70, Nr. 6 erschien, wurden Korrekturen in Abb. 3 vorgenommen. In Abb. 3 wurde eine vertikale Strich-Punkt-Linie ergänzt, die eine Abgrenzung zwischen den Umweltkompartimenten Feld und Saumbiotop bzw. Boden ermöglicht. Weiterhin wurde im oberen und unteren Teil der Abbildung die Risikotoleranzgrenze als horizontale gepunktete (nicht gestrichelte) Linie dargestellt. Zuletzt wurde innerhalb der Boxplots neben dem Median auch der Mittelwert – dargestellt durch eine gestrichelte Linie – ergänzt. Die Änderungen beeinträchtigen nicht die Schlussfolgerungen des Artikels. Zusammenfassung Der Einsatz chemischer Pflanzenschutzmittel dient zum einen der Sicherstellung des Ertrages, steht jedoch auch aufgrund von möglichen ökologischen Risiken in der Kritik. Der Nationale Aktionsplan zur nachhaltigen Anwen­dung von Pflanzenschutzmitteln zielt auf die Redu­zierung dieser Risiken ab. In der vorliegenden Studie wurden chemische Pflanzenschutzmaßnahmen in Feldversuchen in den Jahren 2011–2014 in den Fruchtfolgen Zuckerrüben-Winterweizen-Winterweizen, Silo­mais-Win­ter­weizen-Winterweizen, Silomais-Zuckerrüben-Winterweizen und Silomais im Daueranbau an zwei Standorten untersucht. Als Indikator der Intensität diente der „Behandlungsindex“, das Umweltrisiko wurde mit dem Simulationsmodell „SYNOPS“ für Stellvertreterorganismen in den Nichtziel-Kompartimenten „Oberflächengewässer“, „Saumbiotope“ und „Boden“ kalkuliert. Der Behandlungsindex variierte zwischen den Fruchtfolgen von 5,1 bis 20,6 und das Umweltrisiko wurde überwiegend als sehr niedrig bis mittel kalkuliert. Es existierte keine Korrelation zwischen der Intensität und dem Umwelt­risiko über die Fruchtfolgen. Silomais im Daueranbau hatte die geringste Intensität, jedoch war das Umwelt­risiko höher. Für Silomais und Winterweizen existierten herbizide und fungizide Wirkstoffe, für die ein nicht tolerables Umweltrisiko kalkuliert wurde. Konsequenzen für den Integrierten Pflanzenschutz ergeben sich unter anderem aus der Wahl weniger toxischer Wirkstoffe, einer Reduktion der Gesamtaufwandmenge und nicht-chemischer Maßnahmen, wie mechanische Unkraut­­regulierung oder resistente Sorten.  Corrigendum In the article „Intensity and risk of chemical pesticides when cultivating sugar beet, silage maize and winter wheat in crop rotations” by Brauer-Siebrecht, W., Jacobs, A., Koch H.-J., Strassemeyer, J. und Märländer, B., which was published on pages 184-195, issue 70, no. 6, corrections were made in Fig. 3. In Fig. 3 a vertical dashed/dotted line was added, which enables a distinction between the environment compartments field and ecoton and soil, respectively. Furthermore, the limit of risk tolerance is now shown as a horizontal dotted (not dashed) line in the upper and lower part of the figure. Finally, the mean was added within the box plots – shown as dashed line. This correction does not affect the conclusions of the paper. Abstract The use of chemical pesticides serves at reducing crop yield losses, but is also criticised because of possible ecological risks. The German national action plan on sustainable use of plant protection products aims at reduc­ing these risks. The current study investigated pesticide appli­cations on two sites in Germany in 2011–2014, comparing different crop rotations with sugar beet, silage maize and winter wheat as well as silage maize under continuous cultivation. The treatment index was used as an indicator for the pesticide application intensity. The environmental risk was calculated by the simulation model “SYNOPS” for reference orga­nisms in the non-target compartments “surface water”, “field margin biotope” and “soil”. The treatment index varied between crop rotations from 5.1 to 20.6 and the environmental risk was mostly calculated as very low to medium. No correlation between intensity and environmental risk of crop rotations was found. The lowest treatment index was calculated for silage maize in continuous cultivation, but, the environmental risk was higher. Some herbicidal and fungicidal active ingredients used in silage maize and winter wheat were identified for which non tolerable environmental risks were calculated. Consequences for the Integrated Pest Management result from the choice of active substances with lower toxicity, a reduction of the entire application rate and non-chemical measures like mechanical weed control or resistant varieties. &nbsp

Knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and serological status related to Chagas disease among Latin American migrants in Germany: A cross-sectional study in six German cities

BackgroundLittle is known about knowledge, attitudes and behaviors concerning Chagas disease (CD) among Latin American migrants in Germany to inform public health decision making.MethodsA cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was conducted between March 2014 and October 2019 among Latin American migrants in six cities in Germany to obtain information on migration history, socioeconomic and insurance status, knowledge about CD, potential risk factors for Trypanosoma cruzi infection, and willingness to donate blood or organs.Results168 participants completed the questionnaire. The four countries with the highest proportion of participants contributing to the study population were Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Ecuador. Before migrating to Europe, the majority of the study population resided in an urban setting in houses made of stone or concrete, had higher academic education and was integrated into the German healthcare and healthcare insurance system. The majority of all study participants were also willing to donate blood and organs and a quarter of them had donated blood previously. However, many participants lacked basic knowledge about symptoms and modes of transmission of Chagas disease. One out of 56 serologic tests (1.8%) performed was positive. The seropositive female participant born in Argentina had a negative PCR test and no signs of cardiac or other organ involvement.ConclusionsThe study population does not reflect the population structure at risk for T. cruzi infection in endemic countries. Most participants had a low risk profile for infection with T. cruzi. Although the sample size was small and sampling was not representative of all persons at risk in Germany, the seroprevalence found was similar to studies previously conducted in Europe. As no systematic screening for T. cruzi in Latin American blood and organ donors as well as in women of child-bearing age of Latin American origin is implemented in Germany, a risk of occasional transmission of T. cruzi remains

Regulation of Inflammatory Gene Expression in PBMCs by Immunostimulatory Botanicals

Many hundreds of botanicals are used in complementary and alternative medicine for therapeutic use as antimicrobials and immune stimulators. While there exists many centuries of anecdotal evidence and few clinical studies on the activity and efficacy of these botanicals, limited scientific evidence exists on the ability of these botanicals to modulate the immune and inflammatory responses. Using botanogenomics (or herbogenomics), this study provides novel insight into inflammatory genes which are induced in peripheral blood mononuclear cells following treatment with immunomodulatory botanical extracts. These results may suggest putative genes involved in the physiological responses thought to occur following administration of these botanical extracts. Using extracts from immunostimulatory herbs (Astragalus membranaceus, Sambucus cerulea, Andrographis paniculata) and an immunosuppressive herb (Urtica dioica), the data presented supports previous cytokine studies on these herbs as well as identifying additional genes which may be involved in immune cell activation and migration and various inflammatory responses, including wound healing, angiogenesis, and blood pressure modulation. Additionally, we report the presence of lipopolysaccharide in medicinally prepared extracts of these herbs which is theorized to be a natural and active component of the immunostimulatory herbal extracts. The data presented provides a more extensive picture on how these herbs may be mediating their biological effects on the immune and inflammatory responses

Optimization of Muscle Activity for Task-Level Goals Predicts Complex Changes in Limb Forces across Biomechanical Contexts

Optimality principles have been proposed as a general framework for understanding motor control in animals and humans largely based on their ability to predict general features movement in idealized motor tasks. However, generalizing these concepts past proof-of-principle to understand the neuromechanical transformation from task-level control to detailed execution-level muscle activity and forces during behaviorally-relevant motor tasks has proved difficult. In an unrestrained balance task in cats, we demonstrate that achieving task-level constraints center of mass forces and moments while minimizing control effort predicts detailed patterns of muscle activity and ground reaction forces in an anatomically-realistic musculoskeletal model. Whereas optimization is typically used to resolve redundancy at a single level of the motor hierarchy, we simultaneously resolved redundancy across both muscles and limbs and directly compared predictions to experimental measures across multiple perturbation directions that elicit different intra- and interlimb coordination patterns. Further, although some candidate task-level variables and cost functions generated indistinguishable predictions in a single biomechanical context, we identified a common optimization framework that could predict up to 48 experimental conditions per animal (n = 3) across both perturbation directions and different biomechanical contexts created by altering animals' postural configuration. Predictions were further improved by imposing experimentally-derived muscle synergy constraints, suggesting additional task variables or costs that may be relevant to the neural control of balance. These results suggested that reduced-dimension neural control mechanisms such as muscle synergies can achieve similar kinetics to the optimal solution, but with increased control effort (≈2×) compared to individual muscle control. Our results are consistent with the idea that hierarchical, task-level neural control mechanisms previously associated with voluntary tasks may also be used in automatic brainstem-mediated pathways for balance

Different populations and sources of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC): A comparison of adult and neonatal tissue-derived MSC

The mesenchymal stroma harbors an important population of cells that possess stem cell-like characteristics including self renewal and differentiation capacities and can be derived from a variety of different sources. These multipotent mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) can be found in nearly all tissues and are mostly located in perivascular niches. MSC have migratory abilities and can secrete protective factors and act as a primary matrix for tissue regeneration during inflammation, tissue injuries and certain cancers

The PREDICTS database: a global database of how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human impacts

Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species’ threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project – and avert – future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups – including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems – www.predicts.org.uk). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015

Centrality evolution of the charged-particle pseudorapidity density over a broad pseudorapidity range in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN)=2.76TeV

Peer reviewe

A Novel Microtiter Plate Format High Power Open Source LED Array

Many photochemical or photobiological applications require the use of high power ultraviolet light sources, such as high-pressure mercury arc lamps. In addition, many photo-induced chemical, biochemical and biological applications require either a combinatorial setting or a parallel assay of multiple samples under the same environmental conditions to ensure reproducibility. To achieve this, alternative, controllable light sources, such as ultraviolet light emitting diodes (UV LEDs) with high power and spatial control are required. Preferably, LEDs are arranged in a suitable standardized 96-well microtiter plate format. We designed such an array and established the methods required for heat management and enabling stable, controllable illumination over time