Field Evaluation of Herbicides on Small Fruit, Vegetable, and Ornamental Crops, 1997

Growers generally use herbicides to efficiently produce high-quality fruit and vegetables for processing or fresh market sales. Due to the smaller acreage of these crops compared to major field crops, fewer herbicides are registered for use in fruit and vegetable crops than for field crops. Each year, new herbicides are evaluated under Arkansas growing conditions with the objective of improving the herbicide technology for the grower, processor, and ultimately the consumer. This report includes studies on the control of many of the more serious weed problems in important crops of this region, including snapbeans, spinach, southern pea, watermelon, cantaloupe, tomato, blackberry, and grape. In addition, the report includes information on the tolerance of selected bedding plants to some effective herbicides

Herbicide Evaluation in Arkansas Rice, 1997

Weed control is economically important for production of rice, a major crop in Arkansas. These findings summarize efforts of the team of Arkansas scientists working on weed control strategies for rice during 1997. Various technologies were evaluated in field studies at five locations involving the major weed problems and rice production systems used in the state. Results from these studies will add to the arsenal of weed control options for producers. Highlights include synergists and safeners for herbicides to aid in control of propanil-resistant barnyardgrass; herbicides and flooding techniques for control of red rice and other weeds; and the use of transgenic rice cultivars for broadspectrum weed control. The preliminary results reported here generally warrant further testing for more advanced findings and for the labeling of new technologies, and finally are the basis for updating safe, effective, and economical recommendations to Arkansas rice producers

Herbicide Evaluation in Arkansas Rice, 1998

Weed control is economically important for production of rice, a major crop in Arkansas. These findings summarize efforts of the team of Arkansas scientists working on weed control strategies for rice during 1998. Various technologies were evaluated in field studies involving the major weed problems and rice production systems used in the state. Results from these studies will add to the arsenal of weed control options for producers. The preliminary results reported here generally warrant further testing for more advanced findings and for the labeling of new technologies and, finally, are the basis for updating safe, effective, and economical recommendations to Arkansas rice producers

The influence of antidiabetic medications on the development and progression of prostate cancer

AbstractBackgroundThe development of prostate tumors has been linked to co-morbid diabetes mellitus (DM) in several studies, potentially through the stimulation of insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGFR). This study evaluates the effect of anti-diabetic medication use on the development of high grade tumors and time to tumor progression compared to non-diabetics.MethodsThis retrospective, nested case control study identified patients with prostate cancer (PCa) from the Kentucky Medicaid Database. Cases were diagnosed with PCa and DM and using at least one of the following antidiabetic medications; sulfonylureas, insulin, metformin or TZDs. Cases were further stratified on their insulin exposure resulting from therapy. Controls were those with PCa without DM or any anti-diabetic medications.ResultsThe use of metformin or TZDs trended toward decreased odds of high-grade tumors and decreased risk of progression, while sulfonylureas and high-dose insulin tended toward an increased odds of high-grade tumors and increase the risk of progression compared to non-diabetics.ConclusionsFuture studies should be conducted to further evaluate the effects of anti-diabetic medications on tumor grade and time to prostate cancer progression

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Data Management Challenges in Species Distribution Modeling

Abstract An important component in the fields of ecology and conservation biology is understanding the environ

Blue-Black or White-Gold? Early Stage Processing and the Color of 'The Dress' - Fig 1

<p>The Dress as seen on the internet shown in A and the actual blue and black dress is shown in B. C shows an extracted image of the Dress consisting of vertical stripes of decreasing spatial frequency that was used in the present study to explore perception of the dress with limited contextual cues.</p

Incidence and risk factors of clinically significant chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia in patients with solid tumors

Purpose and relevance. Chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia (CIT) can be a significant problem in patients with cancer, leading to numerous clinical complications. Understanding the types of patients at risk for these complications is essential to improve monitoring, counseling, and provide future targeted prophylaxis measures. Previous studies have limited prospective utility since they do not examine risk factors associated with complications from multi-agent regimens. This evaluation aims to identify the incidence and risk factors associated with clinical complications of CIT in patients receiving common chemotherapy regimens. Methods. Retrospective evaluation of adult patients receiving first or second line regimens for the most common solid tumors associated with high rates (≥5%) of laboratory diagnosed thrombocytopenia. Patients were examined for clinically significant CIT (defined as platelet count &lt;75,000 cells/µL as well as the presence of one of the following: bleeding, dose reduction/delay, platelet transfusion, or therapy cessation) and associated risk factors. Results. About 254 patients receiving a total of 278 regimens were evaluated. The incidence of clinically significant CIT = 10.1%; complications were most common in patients receiving cisplatin/gemcitabine for bladder cancer (57%), or carboplatin/gemcitabine (29%) or cisplatin/etoposide (18%) for lung cancer. Bladder cancer (OR = 13.7 (2.89–64.7); p = 0.001) and concurrent or recent infection (OR = 3.8 (1.45–10.1); p = 0.007) was found to increase the risk of clinical complications while smoking was found to have a protective effect (OR = 0.17 (0.04–0.71)). Conclusions. The incidence of clinically significant CIT is most commonly seen in patients using cisplatin/gemcitabine for bladder cancer, or carboplatin/gemcitabine or cisplatin/etoposide for lung cancer. Further evaluation of these patients is warranted. </jats:p

Luminance and Colorimetric Evaluation of ‘The Dress.’

<p>Luminance and Colorimetric Evaluation of ‘The Dress.’</p

The colorimeter positioned over the 22” LCD display with magnified components of the Dress image.

<p>The system measures luminance and CIE chromaticity.</p