Competitive androgen receptor antagonism as a factor determining the predictability of cumulative antiandrogenic effects of widely used pesticides

Copyright @ 2012 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Background: Many pesticides in current use have recently been revealed as in vitro androgen receptor (AR) antagonists, but information about their combined effects is lacking.
Objective: We investigated the combined effects and the competitive AR antagonism of pesticide mixtures.
Methods: We used the MDA-kb2 assay to test a combination of eight AR antagonists that did not also possess AR agonist properties (“pure” antagonists; 8 mix: fludioxonil, fenhexamid, ortho-­phenylphenol, imazalil, tebuconazole, dimetho­morph, methiocarb, pirimiphos-methyl), a combina­tion of five AR antagonists that also showed agonist activity (5 mix: cyprodinil, pyrimethanil, vinclozolin, chlor­propham, linuron), and all pesticides combined (13 mix). We used concentration addition (CA) and independent action (IA) to formu­late additivity expectations, and Schild plot analyses to investigate competitive AR antagonism.
Results: A good agreement between the effects of the mixture of eight “pure” AR antagonists and the responses predicted by CA was observed. Schild plot analysis revealed that the 8 mix acted by competi­tive AR antagonism. However, the observed responses of the 5 mix and the 13 mix fell within the “prediction window” boundaries defined by the predicted regression curves of CA and IA. Schild plot analysis with these mixtures yielded anomalous responses incompatible with competitive receptor antagonism.
Conclusions: A mixture of widely used pesticides can, in a predictable manner, produce combined AR antagonist effects that exceed the responses elicited by the most potent component alone. Inasmuch as large populations are regularly exposed to mixtures of anti­androgenic pesticides, our results underline the need for considering combination effects for these substances in regulatory practice.
This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. This work was funded by the European Commission, FP7 programme (CONTAMED, grant 212502).

An Integrated Approach to Teaching Washington State History in a Seventh Grade Humanities Block

For the 2002-2003 school year, Sultan School District (WA) made the decision to move the Washington State History course from the high school level to be taught at the middle school level, specifically in the seventh grade Humanities block for a semester. This decision was made to be in compliance with the future state Social Studies requirements. Since the Humanities course was already based on the theory of integrating Geography with Language Arts, a new curriculum needed to be developed to incorporate the new Washington State History material. A team of teachers decided to take this task on and develop a curriculum that focused on integrating literature, inquiry learning and other supplemental media to enhance the social studies content and build reading, writing and communication skills

Run management for organic layers

Layer runs are often bare and loaded with nutrients and with infectious stages of helminths. Various management strategies are recommended in order to better distribute the hens in the run, thereby preventing local accumulation of droppings and related problems. However, little is known about the impact of those strategies. A series of on farm experiments has been performed in order to test the effects of flock size and of artificial structures on the dispersal of the hens in the run. Further studies evaluated the effects of mowing and run size as well as rotational use of runs on turf quality, nutrient load in the soil and on the infection of the hens with internal parasites. As a summary, introducing structures or applying a rotational management scheme improves run use and facilitates mowing, thus improving turf quality in the run in front of the henhouse. However, the expected reduction of helminth infections and nutrient accumulation has not been observed

Factores que condicionan la participación del enfermero en el equipo interdisciplinario de salud

Años atrás ser enfermero era considerado realizar una actividad ingrata, destinada a la realización de tareas desagradables, relacionadas a la enfermedad en mayor medida que a la salud. Con el correr de los años esto fue tomando otro rumbo. Actualmente son profesionales reconocidos legalmente ya que existe una ley que esboza sus incumbencias y competencias. Tienen tareas específicas para el ejercicio de la profesión y autonomía para desarrollarlas. Una de las tareas para las cuales están capacitados los enfermeros es para participar en un equipo interdisciplinario. Este equipo beneficia al paciente ofreciéndole un nivel superior de diagnóstico y pronóstico, derivado del interés que cada disciplina tiene en el resultado compartido de los servicios al paciente. Este trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo determinar cuáles son los factores que condicionan la participación del enfermero en el equipo interdisciplinario de salud, del Hospital Alfredo Ítalo Perrupato, en los meses de junio, julio y agosto del 2012. El siguiente estudio es cuantitativo, descriptivo, de corte trasversal y prospectivo. Se realizaron 56 entrevistas con preguntas estructuradas al personal de enfermería de dicho hospital.Fil: Andrada, Laura. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Escuela de Enfermería..Fil: Martin, Liliana. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Escuela de Enfermería..Fil: Suárez, Erika. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Escuela de Enfermería.

Climate, Environment and Food Connections – Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Societal Resilience. International Workshop 19–21 September 2023, Uppsala University

The workshop aims at interdisciplinary exchange concerning the drivers of climate and environmental change as well as the societal responses towards these changes across time and space. Through land use and food production human societies have been transforming their environments at least since the transition to agriculture (Southwest Asia/Europe ca. 9000-3500 BC). At the same time food production systems have always been vulnerable to climate and environmental change, which might alter important variables such as the availability of water, the presence of pests or other crucial ecosystem services. Understanding the causes and effects between the different factors of change, however, is far from straightforward and requires interdisciplinary research. Today, there is an unprecedented amount of data on past climate change, on human cultural evolution and human-environment interactions in different fields. Climate and environmental indicators (so called proxies) preserved in e.g., sediments, ice cores or speleothems help to trace past climate and environmental change. Archaeological data offers understandings of human behaviour and bio-cultural interactions in the deep past. Case studies and forecasts might reveal current and past vulnerabilities, mitigation strategies and adaptations to environmental change. Understanding the drivers of such dynamics and how human societies responded might help build resilient pathways for the future. The workshop seeks to address questions, such as: - What can we learn about the past climate from natural archives and what are their limitations? - How can human impact on the environment be disentangled from other drivers of environmental change? - How did and do societies react towards climate and environmental change and what helps to build resilience? - How did and does climate change affect food-systems and what can be learned from past and present examples