A Surprisingly Non-attractiveness of Commercial Poison Baits to Newly Established Population of White-Footed Ant, Technomyrmex brunneus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), in a Remote Island of Japan

The white-footed ant, Technomyrmex brunneus, was newly introduced and established in a remote island of Japan and has caused unacceptable damage to the daily life of residents. To establish proper control measures, the present study investigated whether T. brunneus is effectively attracted to commercially available poison baits used to exterminate common household pest ants and the Argentine ant in Japan. Cafeteria experiments using three types of nontoxic baits and eight types of commercial poison baits for ants were conducted in the field, and the attractiveness was compared among the baits. The liquid poison bait “Arimetsu,” which consists of 42.6% water, 55.4% sugar, and 2.0% borate, and nontoxic 10% (w/v) sucrose water showed the highest attractiveness. On the other hand, other commercial poison baits were not as attractive. Therefore, sucrose liquid is the most effective attractive component to use in poison baits for T. brunneus

Structural Parameterizations of Vertex Integrity

The graph parameter vertex integrity measures how vulnerable a graph is to a removal of a small number of vertices. More precisely, a graph with small vertex integrity admits a small number of vertex removals to make the remaining connected components small. In this paper, we initiate a systematic study of structural parameterizations of the problem of computing the unweighted/weighted vertex integrity. As structural graph parameters, we consider well-known parameters such as clique-width, treewidth, pathwidth, treedepth, modular-width, neighborhood diversity, twin cover number, and cluster vertex deletion number. We show several positive and negative results and present sharp complexity contrasts.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, WALCOM 202

Characterization of candidate intermediates in the Black Box of the ecdysone biosynthetic pathway in Drosophila melanogaster: Evaluation of molting activities on ecdysteroid-defective larvae

Early steps of the biosynthetic pathway of the insect steroid hormone ecdysone remains the “Black Box” wherein the characteristic ecdysteroid skeleton is built. 7-Dehydrocholesterol (7dC) is the precursor of uncharacterized intermediates in the Black Box. The oxidation step at C-3 has been hypothesized during conversion from 7dC to 3-oxo-2, 22, 25-trideoxyecdysone, yet 3-dehydroecdysone is undetectable in some insect species. Therefore, we first confirmed that the oxidation at C-3 occurs in the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster using deuterium-labeled cholesterol. We next investigated the molting activities of candidate intermediates, including oxidative products of 7dC, by feeding-rescue experiments for Drosophila larvae in which an expression level of a biosynthetic enzyme was knocked down by the RNAi technique. We found that the administration of cholesta-4, 7-dien-3-one (3-oxo-Δ4, 7C) could overcome the molting arrest of ecdysteroid-defective larvae in which the expression level of neverland was reduced. However, feeding 3-oxo-Δ4, 7C to larvae in which the expression levels of shroud and Cyp6t3 were reduced inhibited molting at the first instar stage, suggesting that this steroid could be converted into an ecdysteroid-antagonist in loss of function studies of these biosynthetic enzymes. Administration of the highly conjugated cholesta-4, 6, 8(14)-trien-3-one, oxidized from 3-oxo-Δ4, 7C, did not trigger molting of ecdysteroid-defective larvae. These results suggest that an oxidative product derived from 7dC is converted into ecdysteroids without the formation of this stable conjugated compound. We further found that the 14α-hydroxyl moiety of Δ4-steroids is required to overcome the molting arrest of larvae in loss of function studies of Neverland, Shroud, CYP6T3 or Spookier, suggesting that oxidation at C-14 is indispensable for conversion of these Δ4-steroids into ecdysteroids via 5β-reduction

Neurological Analysis Based on the Terminal End of the Spinal Cord and the Narrowest Level of Injured Spine in Thoracolumbar Spinal Injuries

This study aimed to clarify neurological differences among the epiconus, conus medullaris, and cauda equina syndromes. Eighty-seven patients who underwent surgery for acute thoracolumbar spinal injuries were assessed. We defined the epiconus as the region from the terminal end of the spinal cord to the proximal 1.0 to 2.25 vertebral bodies, the conus medullaris as the region proximal to < 1.0 vertebral bodies, and the cauda equina as the distal part of the nerve roots originating from the spinal cord. On the basis of the distance from the terminal end of the spinal cord to the narrowest level of the spinal canal, the narrowest levels were ordered as follows: the epiconus followed by the conus medullaris and cauda equina. The narrowest levels were the epiconus in 22 patients, conus medullaris in 37 patients, and cauda equina in 25 patients. On admission, significantly more patients had a narrowed epiconus of Frankel grades A-C than a narrowed cauda equina. At the final follow-up, there were no significant differences in neurological recovery among those with epiconus, conus medullaris, or cauda equina syndrome. Anatomically classifying the narrowest lesion is useful for clarifying the differences and similarities among these three syndromes

Polytetrafluoroethylene fume-induced pulmonary edema: a case report and review of the literature

INTRODUCTION: Polytetrafluoroethylene is ubiquitous in materials commonly used in cooking and industrial applications. Overheated polytetrafluoroethylene can generate toxic fumes, inducing acute pulmonary edema in some cases. However, neither the etiology nor the radiological features of this condition have been determined. For clarification, we report an illustrative case, together with the first comprehensive literature review. CASE PRESENTATION: A previously healthy 35-year-old Japanese man who developed severe dyspnea presented to our hospital. He had left a polytetrafluoroethylene-coated pan on a gas-burning stove for 10 hours while unconscious. Upon admission, he was in severe respiratory distress. A chest computed tomographic scan showed massive bilateral patchy consolidations with ground-glass opacities and peripheral area sparing. A diagnosis of polytetrafluoroethylene fume-induced pulmonary edema was made. He was treated with non-invasive positive pressure ventilation and a neutrophil elastase inhibitor, which dramatically alleviated his symptoms and improved his oxygenation. He was discharged without sequelae on hospital day 11. A literature review was performed to survey all reported cases of polytetrafluoroethylene fume-induced pulmonary edema. We searched the PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and OvidSP databases for reports posted between the inception of the databases and 30 September 2014, as well as several Japanese databases (Ichushi Web, J-STAGE, Medical Online, and CiNii). Two radiologists independently interpreted all chest computed tomographic images. Eighteen relevant cases (including the presently reported case) were found. Our search revealed that (1) systemic inflammatory response syndrome was frequently accompanied by pulmonary edema, and (2) common computed tomography findings were bilateral ground-glass opacities, patchy consolidation and peripheral area sparing. Pathophysiological and radiological features were consistent with the exudative phase of acute respiratory distress syndrome. However, the contrast between the lesion and the spared peripheral area was striking and was distinguishable from the common radiological features of acute respiratory distress syndrome. CONCLUSION: The essential etiology of polytetrafluoroethylene fume-induced pulmonary edema seems to be increased pulmonary vascular permeability caused by an inflammatory response to the toxic fumes. The radiological findings that distinguish polytetrafluoroethylene fume-induced pulmonary edema can be bilateral ground-glass opacity or a patchy consolidation with clear sparing of the peripheral area

Silverrush. Xii. Intensity Mapping for Ly Α Emission Extending over 100-1000 Comoving Kpc Around Z ∼2-7 Laes with Subaru Hsc-Ssp and Chorus Data

We conduct intensity mapping to probe for extended diffuse Lyα emission around Lyα emitters (LAEs) at z ∼2-7, exploiting very deep (∼26 mag at 5σ) and large-area (∼4.5 deg2) Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam narrowband (NB) images and large LAE catalogs consisting of a total of 1540 LAEs at z = 2.2, 3.3, 5.7, and 6.6 obtained by the HSC-SSP and CHORUS projects. We calculate the spatial correlations of these LAEs with ∼1-2-billion-pixel flux values of the NB images, deriving the average Lyα surface brightness (SBLyα ) radial profiles around the LAEs. By carefully estimating systematics such as fluctuations of sky background and point-spread functions, we detect Lyα emission at 100-1000 comoving kpc around z = 3.3 and 5.7 LAEs at the 3.2σ and 3.7σ levels, respectively, and tentatively (=2.0σ) at z = 6.6. The emission is as diffuse as ∼10-20-10-19 erg s-1 cm-2 arcsec-2 and extended beyond the virial radius of a dark matter halo with a mass of 1011 M. While the observed SBLyα profiles have similar amplitudes at z = 2.2-6.6 within the uncertainties, the intrinsic SBLyα profiles (corrected for the cosmological dimming effect) increase toward high redshifts. This trend may be explained by increasing hydrogen gas density due to the evolution of the cosmic volume. Comparisons with theoretical models suggest that extended Lyα emission around an LAE is powered by resonantly scattered Lyα photons in the CGM and IGM that originate from the inner part of the LAE and/or neighboring galaxies around the LAE