Insect pest management approaches among currently recommended sugarcane varieties in Louisiana

The sugarcane borer, Diatraea saccharalis (F.), (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), is responsible for more than 90% of the total insect damage to sugarcane in Louisiana. The decision to apply insecticides is complex and influenced by numerous variables. Included among these variables are insect infestation levels, varieties, weather conditions, production input levels, and environmental concerns. Predicting damage that may result from infestations occurring at a particular time of the crop production season is also important. The objective of this research was to evaluate the impact of these variables on sugarcane borer populations and subsequent yield loss. Results from a two-year survey indicated a state average of 2% sugarcane borer damaged internodes in the 2000 growing season and revealed that most fields received only one application of insecticide. However, in Central Louisiana, where spring rainfall occurred, some fields required three insecticide applications for sugarcane borer control. In 2001, the survey showed a state average of 4% bored internodes, and most fields received less than one application of insecticide. In a two-year sugarcane borer management study conducted at the St. Gabriel Research Station, St. Gabriel, Louisiana, results from the plant cane crop (2001) and from the first ratoon crop (2002) showed some differences among the variety-management threshold regimes in percent bored internodes resulting from sugarcane borer larval feeding. For the resistant variety HoCP85-845, all thresholds for percent bored internodes were not significantly different from the untreated control, suggesting some flexibility in management when using the recommended 5% threshold level. In 2001for the highly susceptible variety HoCP91-555, the 10 percent threshold had significantly higher percent bored internodes than did the 5% and 5%/10% threshold treatments. HoCP91-555 also reached insecticide treatment levels before the other varieties. The selected threshold management regimes varied insecticide application timing and frequency to maintain sugarcane borer infestations below the designated thresholds. This study showed the importance of rainfall as a contributing factor for an increase in sugarcane borer levels and the role of resistant and highly susceptible varieties in a management strategy

Neurobiology of rodent self-grooming and its value for translational neuroscience

Self-grooming is a complex innate behaviour with an evolutionarily conserved sequencing pattern and is one of the most frequently performed behavioural activities in rodents. In this Review, we discuss the neurobiology of rodent self-grooming, and we highlight studies of rodent models of neuropsychiatric disorders-including models of autism spectrum disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder-that have assessed self-grooming phenotypes. We suggest that rodent self-grooming may be a useful measure of repetitive behaviour in such models, and therefore of value to translational psychiatry. Assessment of rodent self-grooming may also be useful for understanding the neural circuits that are involved in complex sequential patterns of action.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant NS025529)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant HD028341)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant MH060379

Updating the approaches to define susceptibility and resistance to anti-tuberculosis agents: implications for diagnosis and treatment

11 páginas, 2 figuras, 1 tablaInappropriately high breakpoints have resulted in systematic false-susceptible AST results to anti-TB drugs. MIC, PK/PD and clinical outcome data should be combined when setting breakpoints to minimise the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance.I. Comas was supported by PID2019-104477RB-I00 from the Spanish Science Ministry and by ERC (CoG 101001038)Peer reviewe