A RANGELAND GRASSHOPPER INSURANCE PROGRAM

The incidence of benefits and costs from controlling rangeland grasshoppers on public grazing lands poses problems of economic efficiency and distributional equity. Public grasshopper control programs operate like public disaster assistance. However, grasshopper infestations are an insurable risk. This article proposes a rangeland grasshopper insurance program which reduces the economic inefficiencies and distributional inequities of the existing program.Risk and Uncertainty,

THE ECONOMIC THRESHOLD FOR GRASSHOPPER CONTROL ON PUBLIC RANGELANDS

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is responsible for controlling grasshopper populations on public rangelands. Under current guidelines, control of grasshoppers on rangeland should occur if grasshopper densities are at least eight per square yard. This article evaluates the concept of an economic threshold relative to the value of forage saved from destruction during a grasshopper outbreak. It is shown that financial justification for treating grasshopper outbreaks depends upon grasshopper density, rangeland productivity, climate factors, livestock cost and return relationships, and the efficacy of treatment options.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

Magnetic Susceptibility As a Proxy for Investigating Microbially Mediated Iron Reduction

We investigated magnetic susceptibility (MS) variations in hydrocarbon contaminated sediments. Our objective was to determine if MS can be used as an intrinsic bioremediation indicator due to the activity of iron-reducing bacteria. A contaminated and an uncontaminated core were retrieved from a site contaminated with crude oil near Bemidji, Minnesota and subsampled for MS measurements. The contaminated core revealed enriched MS zones within the hydrocarbon smear zone, which is related to iron-reduction coupled to oxidation of hydrocarbon compounds and the vadose zone, which is coincident with a zone of methane depletion suggesting aerobic or anaerobic oxidation of methane is coupled to iron-reduction. The latter has significant implications for methane cycling. We conclude that MS can serve as a proxy for intrinsic bioremediation due to the activity of iron-reducing bacteria iron-reducing bacteria and for the application of geophysics to iron cycling studies

Self-directed growth of AlGaAs core-shell nanowires for visible light applications

Al(0.37)Ga(0.63)As nanowires (NWs) were grown in a molecular beam epitaxy system on GaAs(111)B substrates. Micro-photoluminescence measurements and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy indicated a core-shell structure and Al composition gradient along the NW axis, producing a potential minimum for carrier confinement. The core-shell structure formed during the growth as a consequence of the different Al and Ga adatom diffusion lengths.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure

Harnessing RNA sequencing for global, unbiased evaluation of two new adjuvants for dendritic-cell immunotherapy

Effective stimulation of immune cells is crucial for the success of cancer immunotherapies. Current approaches to evaluate the efficiency of stimuli are mainly defined by known flow cytometry-based cell activation or cell maturation markers. This method however does not give a complete overview of the achieved activation state and may leave important side effects unnoticed. Here, we used an unbiased RNA sequencing (RNA-seq)-based approach to compare the capacity of four clinical-grade dendritic cell (DC) activation stimuli used to prepare DC-vaccines composed of various types of DC subsets; the already clinically applied GM-CSF and Frühsommer meningoencephalitis (FSME) prophylactic vaccine and the novel clinical grade adjuvants protamine-RNA complexes (pRNA) and CpG-P. We found that GM-CSF and pRNA had similar effects on their target cells, whereas pRNA and CpG-P induced stronger type I interferon (IFN) expression than FSME. In general, the pathways most affected by all stimuli were related to immune activity and cell migration. GM-CSF stimulation, however, also induced a significant increase of genes related to nonsense-mediated decay, indicating a possible deleterious effect of this stimulus. Taken together, the two novel stimuli appear to be promising alternatives. Our study demonstrates how RNA-seq based investigation of changes in a large number of genes and gene groups can be exploited for fast and unbiased, global evaluation of clinical-grade stimuli, as opposed to the general limited evaluation of a pre-specified set of genes, by which one might miss important biological effects that are detrimental for vaccine efficacy

Evaluating impacts of bottom trawling and hypoxia on benthic communities at the local, habitat, and regional scale using a modelling approach

Bottom trawling disturbance and hypoxia are affecting marine benthic habitats worldwide. We present an approach to predict their effects on benthic communities, and use the approach to estimate the state, the biomass relative to carrying capacity, of the Baltic Sea at the local, habitat, and regional scale. Responses to both pressures are expected to depend on the longevity of fauna, which is predicted from benthic data from 1558 locations. We find that communities in low-salinity regions mostly consist of short-lived species, which are, in our model, more resilient than those of the saline areas. The model predicts that in 14% of the Baltic Sea region benthic biomass is reduced by at least 50%, whereas an additional 8% of the region has reductions of 10-50%. The effects of hypoxia occur over larger spatial scales and lead to a low state of especially deep habitats. The approach is based on a simple characterization of the benthic community, which comes with high uncertainty, but allows for the identification of benthic habitats that are at greatest risk and prioritization of management actions at the regional scale. This information supports the development of sustainable approaches to manage impact of human activities on benthic ecosystems.</p

Cell Recovery in Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid in Smokers Is Dependent on Cumulative Smoking History

Background: Smoking is a risk factor for various lung diseases in which BAL may be used as a part of a clinical investigation. Interpretation of BAL fluid cellularity is however difficult due to high variability, in particular among smokers. In this study we aimed to evaluate the effect of smoking on BAL cellular components in asymptomatic smokers. The effects of smoking cessation, age and gender were also investigated in groups of smokers and exsmokers. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of BAL findings, to our knowledge the largest single center investigation, in our department from 1999 to 2009. One hundred thirty two current smokers (48 males and 84 females) and 44 ex-smokers (16 males and 28 females) were included. A group of 295 (132 males and 163 females) never-smokers served as reference. Result: The median [5–95 pctl] total number of cells and cell concentration in current smokers were 63.4 [28.6–132.1]610 6 and 382.1 [189.7–864.3]610 6 /L respectively and correlated positively to the cumulative smoking history. Macrophages were the predominant cell type (96.7 % [90.4–99.0]) followed by lymphocytes (2 % [0.8–7.7]) and neutrophils (0.6 % [0–2.9]). The concentration of all inflammatory cells was increased in smokers compared to never smokers and ex-smokers. BAL fluid recovery was negatively correlated with age (p,0.001). Smoking men had a lower BAL fluid recovery than smoking women. Conclusion: Smoking has a profound effect on BAL fluid cellularity, which is dependent on smoking history. Our results performed on a large group of current smokers and ex-smokers in a well standardized way, can contribute to bette

Molecular Characterisation of Trimethoprim Resistance in Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae during a Two Year Intervention on Trimethoprim Use

BACKGROUND: Trimethoprim resistance is increasing in Enterobacteriaceae. In 2004-2006 an intervention on trimethoprim use was conducted in Kronoberg County, Sweden, resulting in 85% reduction in trimethoprim prescriptions. We investigated the distribution of dihydrofolate reductase (dfr)-genes and integrons in Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae and the effect of the intervention on this distribution. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Consecutively isolated E. coli (n = 320) and K. pneumoniae (n = 54) isolates phenotypically resistant to trimethoprim were studied. All were investigated for the presence of dfrA1, dfrA5, dfrA7, dfrA8, dfrA12, dfrA14, dfrA17 and integrons class I and II. Isolates negative for the seven dfr-genes (n = 12) were also screened for dfr2d, dfrA3, dfrA9, dfrA10, dfrA24 and dfrA26. These genes accounted for 96% of trimethoprim resistance in E. coli and 69% in K. pneumoniae. The most prevalent was dfrA1 in both species. This was followed by dfrA17 in E. coli which was only found in one K. pneumoniae isolate. Class I and II Integrons were more common in E. coli (85%) than in K. pneumoniae (57%). The distribution of dfr-genes did not change during the course of the 2-year intervention. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The differences observed between the studied species in terms of dfr-gene and integron prevalence indicated a low rate of dfr-gene transfer between these two species and highlighted the possible role of narrow host range plasmids in the spread of trimethoprim resistance. The stability of dfr-genes, despite large changes in the selective pressure, indirectly suggests a low fitness cost of dfr-gene carriage