Are All These Rules Necessary? Extension Pesticide Programming with a Regulatory Purpose

Indiana\u27s private applicator recertification program includes state-required, pesticide regulatory topics. This article explores the relationship between Indiana private applicators\u27 dual attitudes towards pesticide handling practices and the pesticide regulations that mandate those practices. Newly recertified private applicators in northwest Indiana were surveyed by a mailed questionnaire. Respondents valued responsible pesticide management practices, but were collectively undecided about regulatory oversight of their pesticide handling activities. These results suggest that Extension pesticide safety educators involved in compliance education may improve their training curriculum by including material on the underlying benefits, personal and social, of pesticide regulation

In Vivo Characterization of Pancreatic and Lymph Node Tissue using Endoscopic Ultrasound Spectrum Analysis: Validation Study

Published on PubMed Central on 01 January 2011Background—Quantitative spectral analysis of the radio-frequency (RF) signals that underlie grayscale EUS images can be used to provide additional, objective information about tissue state. Objective—Our purpose was to validate RF spectral analysis as a method to distinguish between (1) benign and malignant lymph nodes and (2) normal pancreas (NP), chronic pancreatitis (CP) and pancreatic cancer (PC). Design & Setting—A prospective validation study of eligible patients was conducted to compare with pilot study RF data. Patients—Forty-three patients underwent EUS of the esophagus, stomach, pancreas, and surrounding intra-abdominal and mediastinal lymph nodes (19 from previous pilot study and 24 additional patients). Main Outcome Measurements—Midband fit, slope, intercept, and correlation coefficient from a linear regression of the calibrated RF power spectra were determined. Results—Discriminant analysis of mean pilot-study parameters was then performed to classify validation-study parameters. For benign vs. malignant lymph nodes, midband-fit and intercept (both with t-test p < 0.058) provided classification with 67% accuracy and area under ROC curve (AUC) of 0.86. For diseased vs. NP, midband-fit and correlation coefficient (both with ANOVA p < 0.001) provided 93% accuracy and AUC of 0.98. For PC vs. CP, the same parameters provided 77% accuracy and AUC of 0.89. Results improved further when classification was performed with all data. Limitations—Moderate sample size and spatial averaging inherent to the technique. Conclusions—This study confirms that mean spectral parameters provide a non-invasive method to quantitatively discriminate benign and malignant lymph nodes as well as normal and diseased pancreas.Ohio Wright Center of Innovation/Biomedical Research and Technology Transfer Grant “Biomedical structural, functional and molecular imaging enterprise.”K24 Midcareer Award in Patient Oriented Research, National Institutes of Health (Grant DK002800) to Amitabh ChakAmerican Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Research, Outcomes, and Effectiveness AwardPeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/84357/1/nihms147644.pd

\u3ci\u3eDrosophila\u3c/i\u3e Muller F Elements Maintain a Distinct Set of Genomic Properties Over 40 Million Years of Evolution

The Muller F element (4.2 Mb, ~80 protein-coding genes) is an unusual autosome of Drosophila melanogaster; it is mostly heterochromatic with a low recombination rate. To investigate how these properties impact the evolution of repeats and genes, we manually improved the sequence and annotated the genes on the D. erecta, D. mojavensis, and D. grimshawi F elements and euchromatic domains from the Muller D element. We find that F elements have greater transposon density (25–50%) than euchromatic reference regions (3–11%). Among the F elements, D. grimshawi has the lowest transposon density (particularly DINE-1: 2% vs. 11–27%). F element genes have larger coding spans, more coding exons, larger introns, and lower codon bias. Comparison of the Effective Number of Codons with the Codon Adaptation Index shows that, in contrast to the other species, codon bias in D. grimshawi F element genes can be attributed primarily to selection instead of mutational biases, suggesting that density and types of transposons affect the degree of local heterochromatin formation. F element genes have lower estimated DNA melting temperatures than D element genes, potentially facilitating transcription through heterochromatin. Most F element genes (~90%) have remained on that element, but the F element has smaller syntenic blocks than genome averages (3.4–3.6 vs. 8.4–8.8 genes per block), indicating greater rates of inversion despite lower rates of recombination. Overall, the F element has maintained characteristics that are distinct from other autosomes in the Drosophila lineage, illuminating the constraints imposed by a heterochromatic milieu