618 research outputs found
Nestboxes as habitat for insects, especially for flies and their parasitoids
Aus Nistkästen wurden nach dem Ausfliegen der Vögel etwa
500 Nester entnommen und die darin vorhandenen Insekten
herausgesucht oder mit einem Eklektor abgesammelt. Die gefundenen
Arten lassen sich den in Nestern bekannten Gilden
zuordnen: Parasiten, Saprophage, Räuber oder Parasitoide
(Schlupfwespen i.w.S. und Raupenfliegen). Für die cyclorrhaphen
Dipteren und ihre Parasitoide wird ein Nahrungsnetz als
Bild eines Teils der Choriozönose im Vogelnest dargestellt. Es
konnten 32 Arten in 10 Familien gefunden werden. Nidikol
sind die Vogelblutfliegen (Protocalliphora azurea, Calliphoridae)
mit ihrem Parasitoiden (Nasonia vitripennis, Pteromalidae), der
durchschnittlich 40% der Puparien abtötet und dadurch für die
Vögel eine besondere Bedeutung hat. Eine zweite Vogelblutfliegenart
(P. falcozi) konnte nur in Süddeutschland gefunden
werden. Bei dieser Art ist der größte Teil der Puparien mit einer
Hülle aus Nistmaterial vor der Parasitierung geschützt. Die
wenigen nicht geschützten Puparien werden ähnlich häufig
parasitiert wie die von P. azurea. Zwei weitere Parasitoide (Dibrachys
cavus und D. lignicola, Pteromalidae) konnten in Puparien
von Raupenfliegen (Triarthria setipennis und Ocytata
pallipes, Tachinidae) gefunden werden, die ihrerseits als Parasitoide
in Ohrwürmern (Forficula auricularia, Forficulidae)
leben. Die Arten der Nahrungskette Ohrwurm → Raupenfliege
→ Dibrachys gehören zu einer anderen Choriozönose, die sich
in Verstecken bildet und sich im Nistkasten mit der der Nester
überschneidet. Bei den Flöhen (Ceratophyllus gallinae, Ceratophyllidae)
konnte das Verlassen des Nestes nach dem Ausfliegen
der Jungvögel bis zur folgenden Brutsaison mit einem Eklektor
ermittelt werden. Im Herbst erscheinen zunächst die im Nest
vorhandenen adulten Flöhe, im folgenden Frühjahr die Individuen
der neuen Generation.
Die in Nistkästen gefundenen saprophagen Insekten werden
erstaunlich wenig parasitiert. Sie fressen Mikroorganismen
und sind am Abbau des Nistmaterials beteiligt. In Nistkästen
spielen sie allerdings eine untergeordnete Rolle, weil das Nistmaterial
normalerweise entfernt wird. Es wird diskutiert, dass
sie in natürlichen Höhlen eine Bedeutung beim Abbau des
Nistmaterials haben. Die Wirkung der Keratin fressenden
Arten, die Haare und Federn abbauen, wird an Hand von
Fängen der Kleistermotte (Endrosis sarcitrella, Oecophoridae)
gezeigt.The insect fauna from about 500 nest boxes was investigated after the birds had left the nests. The insects were collected out
of the nest material or were captured with an emergence trap. All species found belong to the known guilds: Blood sucking
parasites, saprophagous species, predators or parasitoids. The foodweb of the cyclorrhaphous flies and their parasitoids is
shown as a part of the choriocoenosis in the nests. 32 species of 10 fly families were found. The bird blow fly Protocalliphora
azurea (Calliphoridae) and its parasitoid Nasonia vitripennis (Pteromalidae) are nidicole species. The parasitoid kills about
40% of the blow fly puparia which is an advantage for the birds. A second blow fly P. falcozi was only found in Southern
Germany. This species wraps most of the puparia with material of the nest which protects them from parasitism. The unwrapped
puparia suffer a similar infestation as P. azurea.
Two more parasitoids (Dibrachys cavus and D. lignicola, Pteromalidae) were found in the puparia of two tachinid flies
(Triarthria setipennis and Ocytata pallipes) which are parasitoids of the common European earwig (Forficula auricularia,
Forficulidae). The food chain earwig → tachinid fly → Dibrachys spp. belongs to another choriocoenosis which describes the
fauna of the earwig shelters. It overlaps in the nest box with the choriocoenosis of the nidicole insects.
The catches of fleas (Ceratophyllus gallinae, Ceratophyllidae) with an emergence trap show that the adult fleas leave the box
during autumn and winter. The new generation emerges in springtime of the following year.
Many species of saprophagous insects live in the nest. They suffer very low parasitism rates. The insects feed on microorganisms
and contribute to the destruction of the nest material. Normally this has no effect in nest boxes because these are cleaned
whereas the saprophagous species may be important in natural holes. The effect of the keratin feeding White-shouldered
House-moth (Endrosis sarcitrella, Oecophoridae) is demonstrated
Dephasing in Metals by Two-Level Systems in the 2-Channel-Kondo Regime
We point out a novel, non-universal contribution to the dephasing rate
1/\tau_\phi \equiv \gamma_\phi of conduction electrons in metallic systems:
scattering off non-magnetic two-level systems (TLSs) having almost degenerate
Kondo ground states. In the regime \Delta_{ren} < T < T_K (\Delta_{ren} =
renormalized level splitting, T_K = Kondo temperature), such TLSs exhibit
non-Fermi-liquid physics that can cause \gamma_\phi, which generally decreases
with decreasing T, to seemingly saturate in a limited temperature range before
vanishing for T \to 0. This could explain the saturation of dephasing recently
observed in gold wires [Mohanty et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 3366 (1997)].Comment: Final published version, including minor improvements suggested by
referees. 4 pages, Revtex, 1 figur
Association of FEV1 in asthmatic children with personal and microenvironmental exposure to airborne particulate matter.
Exposure to particulate matter (PM) air pollution has been shown to exacerbate children's asthma, but the exposure sources and temporal characteristics are still under study. Children's exposure to PM is likely to involve both combustion-related ambient PM and PM related to a child's activity in various indoor and outdoor microenvironments. Among 19 children with asthma, 9-17 years of age, we examined the relationship of temporal changes in percent predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV1) to personal continuous PM exposure and to 24-hr average gravimetric PM mass measured at home and central sites. Subjects were followed for 2 weeks during either the fall of 1999 or the spring of 2000, in a southern California region affected by transported air pollution. FEV(subscript)1(/subscript) was measured by subjects in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Exposure measurements included continuous PM using a passive nephelometer carried by subjects; indoor, outdoor home, and central-site 24-hr gravimetric PM2.5 (PM of aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 microm) and PM10; and central-site hourly PM10, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone. Data were analyzed with linear mixed models controlling for within-subject autocorrelation, FEV1 maneuver time, and exposure period. We found inverse associations of FEV1 with increasing PM exposure during the 24 hr before the FEV1 maneuver and with increasing multiday PM averages. Deficits in percent predicted FEV1 (95% confidence interval) for given PM interquartile ranges measured during the preceding 24-hr were as follows: 128 microg/m3 1-hr maximum personal PM, -6.0% (-10.5 to -1.4); 30 microg/m3 24-hr average personal PM, -5.9% (-10.8 to -1.0); 6.7 microg/m3 indoor home PM2.5, -1.6% (-2.8 to -0.4); 16 microg/m3 indoor home PM10, -2.1% (-3.7 to -0.4); 7.1 microg/m3 outdoor home PM2.5, -1.1% (-2.4 to 0.1); and 7.5 microg/m3 central-site PM2.5, -0.7% (-1.9 to 0.4). Stronger associations were found for multiday moving averages of PM for both personal and stationary-site PM. Stronger associations with personal PM were found in boys allergic to indoor allergens. FEV1 was weakly associated with NO2 but not with O3. Results suggest mixed respiratory effects of PM in asthmatic children from both ambient background exposures and personal exposures in various microenvironments
Clinical Consensus Conference: Survey on Gram-Positive Bloodstream Infections with a Focus on Staphylococcus aureus
The increased incidence over the past decade of bloodstream infections (BSIs) caused by gram-positive bacteria, particularly methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus , highlights the critical need for a consistent approach to therapy. However, there is currently no international consensus on the diagnosis and management of gram-positive BSIs. The Clinical Consensus Conference on Gram-Positive Bloodstream Infections was convened as a session at the 9th International Symposium on Modern Concepts in Endocarditis and Cardiovascular Infections held in 2007. Participants discussed various aspects of the practical treatment of patients who present with gram-positive BSI, including therapeutic options for patients with BSIs of undefined origin, the selection of appropriate empirical therapy, and treatment of complicated and uncomplicated BSIs. The opinions of participants about these key issues are reflected in this articl
Systematics and evolution of predatory flower flies (Diptera Syrphidae) based on exon-capture sequencing
Flower flies (Diptera: Syrphidae) are one of the most species-rich dipteran families and provide important ecosystem services such as pollination, biological control of pests, recycling of organic matter and redistributions of essential nutrients. Flower fly adults generally feed on pollen and nectar, but their larval feeding habits are strikingly diverse. In the present study, high-throughput sequencing was used to capture and enrich phylogenetically and evolutionary informative exonic regions. With the help of the baitfisher software, we developed a new bait kit (SYRPHIDAE1.0) to target 1945 CDS regions belonging to 1312 orthologous genes. This new bait kit was successfully used to exon capture the targeted loci in 121 flower fly species across the different subfamilies of Syrphidae. We analysed different amino acid and nucleotide data sets (1302 loci and 154 loci) with maximum likelihood and multispecies coalescent models. Our analyses yielded highly supported similar topologies, although the degree of the SRH (global stationarity, reversibility and homogeneity) conditions varied greatly between amino acid and nucleotide data sets. The sisterhood of subfamilies Pipizinae and Syrphinae is supported in all our analyses, confirming a common origin of taxa feeding on soft-bodied arthropods. Based on our results, we define Syrphini stat.rev. to include the genera Toxomerus and Paragus. Our divergence estimate analyses with beast inferred the origin of the Syrphidae in the Lower Cretaceous (125.5-98.5 Ma) and the diversification of predatory flower flies around the K-Pg boundary (70.61-54.4 Ma), coinciding with the rise and diversification of their prey.Peer reviewe
Gene content evolution in the arthropods
Arthropods comprise the largest and most diverse phylum on Earth and play vital roles in nearly every ecosystem. Their diversity stems in part from variations on a conserved body plan, resulting from and recorded in adaptive changes in the genome. Dissection of the genomic record of sequence change enables broad questions regarding genome evolution to be addressed, even across hyper-diverse taxa within arthropods. Using 76 whole genome sequences representing 21 orders spanning more than 500 million years of arthropod evolution, we document changes in gene and protein domain content and provide temporal and phylogenetic context for interpreting these innovations. We identify many novel gene families that arose early in the evolution of arthropods and during the diversification of insects into modern orders. We reveal unexpected variation in patterns of DNA methylation across arthropods and examples of gene family and protein domain evolution coincident with the appearance of notable phenotypic and physiological adaptations such as flight, metamorphosis, sociality, and chemoperception. These analyses demonstrate how large-scale comparative genomics can provide broad new insights into the genotype to phenotype map and generate testable hypotheses about the evolution of animal diversity
Differential, Positional-Dependent Transcriptional Response of Antigenic Variation (var) Genes to Biological Stress in Plasmodium falciparum
1% of the genes of the human malaria causing agent Plasmodium falciparum belong to the heterogeneous var gene family which encodes P. falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PFEMP1). This protein mediates part of the pathogenesis of the disease by causing adherence of infected erythrocytes (IE) to the host endothelium. At any given time, only one copy of the family is expressed on the IE surface. The cues which regulate the allelic exclusion of these genes are not known. We show the existence of a differential expression pattern of these genes upon exposure to biological stress in relation to their positional placement on the chromosome – expression of centrally located var genes is induced while sub-telomeric copies of the family are repressed - this phenomenon orchestrated by the histone deacetylase pfsir2. Moreover, stress was found to cause a switch in the pattern of the expressed var genes thus acting as a regulatory cue. By using pharmacological compounds which putatively affect pfsir2 activity, distinct changes of var gene expression patterns were achieved which may have therapeutic ramifications. As disease severity is partly associated with expression of particular var gene subtypes, manipulation of the IE environment may serve as a mechanism to direct transcription towards less virulent genes
Amicus Brief, Lebron v. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital
Illinois Public Act 82-280, § 2-1706.5, as amended by P.A. 94-677, § 330 (eff. Aug. 25, 2005), and as codified as 735 ILCS 5/2-1706.5(a), imposes a 1 million “cap” on the noneconomic damages that may be awarded against a hospital, its affiliates, or their employees.
This brief will address two of the questions presented for review by the parties:
1. Does the cap violate the Illinois Constitution’s prohibition on “special legislation,” Art. IV, § 3, because it unnecessarily, arbitrarily, and irrationally grants exceptional benefits and privileges exclusively to certain classes of tort defendants.
2. Does the cap violate the Illinois Constitution’s guarantee of “equal protection,” Art. I, § 2, because it unnecessarily, arbitrarily, and irrationally imposes extraordinary burdens uniquely upon certain classes and sub-classes of tort plaintiffs
Metabolic and Hormonal Changes After Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass and Sleeve Gastrectomy: a Randomized, Prospective Trial
BACKGROUND: The mechanisms of amelioration of glycemic control early after laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRYGB) or laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) are not fully understood. METHODS: In this prospective, randomized 1-year trial, outcomes of LRYGB and LSG patients were compared, focusing on possibly responsible mechanisms. Twelve patients were randomized to LRYGB and 11 to LSG. These non-diabetic patients were investigated before and 1 week, 3 months, and 12 months after surgery. A standard test meal was given after an overnight fast, and blood samples were collected before, during, and after food intake for hormone profiles (cholecystokinin (CCK), ghrelin, glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), peptide YY (PYY)). RESULTS: In both groups, body weight and BMI decreased markedly and comparably leading to an identical improvement of abnormal glycemic control (HOMA index). Post-surgery, patients had markedly increased postprandial plasma GLP-1 and PYY levels (p > 0.05) with ensuing improvement in glucose homeostasis. At 12 months, LRYGB ghrelin levels approached preoperative values. The postprandial, physiologic fluctuation returned, however, while LSG ghrelin levels were still markedly attenuated. One year postoperatively, CCK concentrations after test meals increased less in the LRYGB group than they did in the LSG group, with the latter showing significantly higher maximal CCK concentrations (p > 0.012 vs. LRYGB). CONCLUSIONS: Bypassing the foregut is not the only mechanism responsible for improved glucose homeostasis. The balance between foregut (ghrelin, CCK) and hindgut (GLP-1, PYY) hormones is a key to understanding the underlying mechanisms
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