Lethal effect of sulfuryl fluoride on eggs of different age of the Indian meal moth Plodia interpunctella (Hübner) – demonstration of the no constancy of the ct product for control

Ein bis vier Tage alte Eier der Dörrobstmotte Plodia interpunctella dienten zur Untersuchung ihrer Widerstands­fähigkeit gegen Begasung mit Sulfurylfluorid (SF) bei 27°C und 65% relativer Luftfeuchte sowie der Frage der Konstanz der letalen SF-Dosierung, dem ct-Produkt (ctp) aus letaler Einwirkzeit und letaler Konzentration für verschiedene Einwirkzeiten und Konzentrationen. In vielen Experimentalreihen bei fester Konzentration zwischen 1 g/m3 und 6,24 g/m3 und Variation der Einwirkzeiten zwischen ein bis vier Tagen beeinflusste das Alter der eingesetzten Insekteneier deutlich den Grad der erzielten Mortalität. Mit wenigen Ausnahmen vertrugen einen Tag alte Eier bei Begasungen über ein bis drei Tage mehr Gas als Eier der anderen Altersgruppen. 6,24 g/m3 führten im Dreitagetest zu vollständiger Mortalität aller 600 eingesetzten jüngeren und älteren Eier [ctp100 = 450 gh/m3] wie auch 1,99 g/m3 in vier Tagen mit insgesamt 450 eingesetzten Eiern [ctp100 = 191 gh/m3]. Eine Transformation der Versuchsdaten mit Probit Analyse und nichtlinearer Regression mündete in eine ausführliche Diskussion und mehrere Tabellen und Grafiken mit den ct-Produkten als Funktion der letaler Einwirkzeiten und SF-Konzentrationen. Die ct-Produkte für 95% und 100% Mortalität, ctp95 und ctp100, aller eingesetzten Eier nahmen für vier Tage Behandlung deutlich ein Minimum an, und zeigten darüber hinaus eine starke Abhängigkeit vom Alter der jeweils verwendeten Motteneier und von der jeweils eingesetzten konstanten SF-Konzentration. Die Daten dienten abschließend für eine Darstellung der Beziehung zwischen letaler Einwirkzeit von ein bis vier Tagen in Abhängigkeit von der jeweils er­forderlichen letalen SF-Konzentration mit dem letalen ct-Produkt als Parameter. Viele der zitierten Literaturdaten bestätigten die Tendenz der durchgeführten Studie, welche die relativ hohe Empfindlichkeit der Eier der Dörrobstmotte im Vergleich zu Eiern anderer vorratsschädlicher Insekten belegte. Erstmalig unterzog eine Studie die Abhängigkeit des letalen Effekts von SF auf Eier dieser Motte einer detaillierten Diskussion bezüglich des Eialters, auch im Hinblick auf ein besseres Verständnis der Nichtkonstanz des letalen ct-Produkts für verschiedene Einwirkzeiten oder Konzentrationen.    One to four day old eggs of the Indian meal moth Plodia interpunctella served for an investigation of their tolerance towards sulfuryl fluoride (SF) fumigation at 27°C and 65% relative humidity and of the question of constancy of the lethal dosage of SF – the ct product (ctp) of the lethal concentration and the lethal exposure time – for different concentrations and exposure periods. In many experimental series at fixed concentrations between 1 g/m3 and 6.24 g/m3 and exposure times between one and four days, egg age influenced the degree of mortality results. With few exceptions, one day old eggs tolerated the gas more than the other age groups of eggs at exposures of one to three days. 6.24 g/m3 caused full mortality of all young and older eggs in the test after three days of fumigation [ctp100 = 450 gh/m3] as well as 1.99 g/m3 within four days [ctp100 = 191 gh/m3]. Probit analysis and nonlinear regression of the mor­tality data resulted into an intensive discussion and into several tables and figures of lethal ct products as function of lethal exposure times and lethal concentrations. Ct products for 95% and 100% mortality, ctp95 and ctp100, of all implemented eggs showed minima for four days exposure, strong dependency of the age of the treated eggs and strong variations depending on the lethal concentration of SF. Regression led to a final figure showing the lethal exposure time between one and four days of treatment as function of the corresponding necessary lethal concentration of SF. Many accessible data from the literature and various tests confirmed the tendency of the presented results, showing the relative susceptibility of eggs of Plodia interpunctella in comparison with eggs of other stored product pest insects. For the first time, the lethal effect of SF was discussed in detail as a function of age of treated eggs of this moth for better understanding of the no constancy of the lethal ct product.   &nbsp

Seal whiskers vibrate over broad frequencies during hydrodynamic tracking

© The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 8350, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-07676-w.Although it is known that seals can use their whiskers (vibrissae) to extract relevant information from complex underwater flow fields, the underlying functioning of the system and the signals received by the sensors are poorly understood. Here we show that the vibrations of seal whiskers may provide information about hydrodynamic events and enable the sophisticated wake-tracking abilities of these animals. We developed a miniature accelerometer tag to study seal whisker movement in situ. We tested the ability of the tag to measure vibration in excised whiskers in a flume in response to laminar flow and disturbed flow. We then trained a seal to wear the tag and follow an underwater hydrodynamic trail to measure the whisker signals available to the seal. The results showed that whiskers vibrated at frequencies of 100–300 Hz, with a dynamic response. These measurements are the first to capture the incoming signals received by the vibrissae of a live seal and show that there are prominent signals at frequencies where the seal tactogram shows good sensitivity. Tapping into the mechanoreceptive interface between the animal and the environment may help to decipher the functional basis of this extraordinary hydrodynamic detection ability.Funding was provided by the NSF GRFP and NISE section 219 to C. Murphy and by the Office of Naval Research (N000141910468) to B. Calhoun

Impact of cross-border-associated cases on the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Switzerland during summer 2020 and 2021

During the summers of 2020 and 2021, the number of confirmed cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections in Switzerland remained at relatively low levels, but grew steadily over time. It remains unclear to what extent epidemic growth during these periods was a result of the relaxation of local control measures or increased traveling and subsequent importation of cases. A better understanding of the role of cross-border-associated cases (imports) on the local epidemic dynamics will help to inform future surveillance strategies. We analyzed routine surveillance data of confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 in Switzerland from 1 June to 30 September 2020 and 2021. We used a stochastic branching process model that accounts for superspreading of SARS-CoV-2 to simulate epidemic trajectories in absence and in presence of imports during summer 2020 and 2021. The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health reported 22,919 and 145,840 confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 from 1 June to 30 September 2020 and 2021, respectively. Among cases with known place of exposure, 27% (3,276 of 12,088) and 25% (1,110 of 4,368) reported an exposure abroad in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Without considering the impact of imported cases, the steady growth of confirmed cases during summer periods would be consistent with a value of that is significantly above the critical threshold of 1. In contrast, we estimated at 0.84 (95% credible interval, CrI: 0.78–0.90) in 2020 and 0.82 (95% CrI: 0.74–0.90) in 2021 when imported cases were taken into account, indicating that the local was below the critical threshold of 1 during summer. In Switzerland, cross-border-associated SARS-CoV-2 cases had a considerable impact on the local transmission dynamics and can explain the steady growth of the epidemic during the summers of 2020 and 2021

A Bayesian approach to modeling and projecting cohort effects

One of the key motivations in the construction of ever more sophisticated mortality models was the realisation of the importance of \cohort effects" in the historical data. However, these are often difficult to estimate robustly, due to the identifiability issues present in age/period/cohort mortality models, and exhibit spurious features for the most recent years of birth, for which we have little data. These can cause problems when we project the model into the future. In this study, we show how to ensure that projected mortality rates from the model are independent of the arbitrary identi ability constraints needed to identify the cohort parameters. We then go on to develop a Bayesian approach for projecting the cohort parameters, which allows fully for uncertainty in the recent parameters due to the lack of information for these years of birth, which leads to more reasonable projections of mortality rates in future

Energy-Rich Mesopelagic Fishes Revealed as a Critical Prey Resource for a Deep-Diving Predator Using Quantitative Fatty Acid Signature Analysis

Understanding the diet of deep-diving predators can provide essential insight to the trophic structure of the mesopelagic ecosystem. Comprehensive population-level diet estimates are exceptionally difficult to obtain for elusive marine predators due to the logistical challenges involved in observing their feeding behavior and collecting samples for traditional stomach content or fecal analyses. We used quantitative fatty acid signature analysis (QFASA) to estimate the diet composition of a wide-ranging mesopelagic predator, the northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris), across five years. To implement QFASA, we first compiled a library of prey fatty acid (FA) profiles from the mesopelagic eastern North Pacific. Given the scarcity of a priori diet data for northern elephant seals, our prey library was necessarily large to encompass the range of potential prey in their foraging habitat. However, statistical constraints limit the number of prey species that can be included in the prey library to the number of dietary FAs in the analysis. Exceeding that limit could produce non-unique diet estimates (i.e., multiple diet estimates fit the data equally well). Consequently, we developed a novel ad-hoc method to identify which prey were unlikely to contribute to diet and could, therefore, be excluded from the final QFASA model. The model results suggest that seals predominantly consumed small mesopelagic fishes, including myctophids (lanternfishes) and bathylagids (deep sea smelts), while non-migrating mesopelagic squids comprised a third of their diet, substantially less than suggested by previous studies. Our results revealed that mesopelagic fishes, particularly energy-rich myctophids, were a critical prey resource, refuting the long-held view that elephant seals are squid specialists

Transportation Energy Pathways LDRD.

This report presents a system dynamics based model of the supply-demand interactions between the USlight-duty vehicle (LDV) fleet, its fuels, and the corresponding primary energy sources through the year2050. An important capability of our model is the ability to conduct parametric analyses. Others have reliedupon scenario-based analysis, where one discrete set of values is assigned to the input variables and used togenerate one possible realization of the future. While these scenarios can be illustrative of dominant trendsand tradeoffs under certain circumstances, changes in input values or assumptions can have a significantimpact on results, especially when output metrics are associated with projections far into the future. Thistype of uncertainty can be addressed by using a parametric study to examine a range of values for the inputvariables, offering a richer source of data to an analyst.The parametric analysis featured here focuses on a trade space exploration, with emphasis on factors thatinfluence the adoption rates of electric vehicles (EVs), the reduction of GHG emissions, and the reduction ofpetroleum consumption within the US LDV fleet. The underlying model emphasizes competition between13 different types of powertrains, including conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs), conventional hybrids(HEVs), plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), and battery electric vehicles(BEVs).We find that many factors contribute to the adoption rates of EVs. These include the pace of technologicaldevelopment for the electric powertrain, battery performance, as well as the efficiency improvements inconventional vehicles. Policy initiatives can also have a dramatic impact on the degree of EV adoption. Theconsumer effective payback period, in particular, can significantly increase the market penetration rates ifextended towards the vehicle lifetime.Widespread EV adoption can have noticeable impact on petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas(GHG) emission by the LDV fleet. However, EVs alone cannot drive compliance with the most aggressiveGHG emission reduction targets, even as the current electricity source mix shifts away from coal and towardsnatural gas. Since ICEs will comprise the majority of the LDV fleet for up to forty years, conventional vehicleefficiency improvements have the greatest potential for reductions in LDV GHG emissions over this time.These findings seem robust even if global oil prices rise to two to three times current projections. Thus,investment in improving the internal combustion engine might be the cheapest, lowest risk avenue towardsmeeting ambitious GHG emission and petroleum consumption reduction targets out to 2050.3 AcknowledgmentThe authors would like to thank Dr. Andrew Lutz, Dr. Benjamin Wu, Prof. Joan Ogden and Dr. ChristopherYang for their suggestions over the course of this project. This work was funded by the Laboratory DirectedResearch and Development program at Sandia National Laboratories.

Natural polymorphisms in mycobacterium tuberculosis conferring resistance to delamanid in drug-naïve patients.

Mutations in the genes of the F420 signaling pathway, including dnn, fgd1, fbiA, fbiB, fbiC, and fbiD, of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) complex can lead to delamanid resistance. We searched for such mutations among 129 Mtb strains from Asia, South-America, and Africa using whole-genome sequencing; 70 (54%) strains had at least one mutation in one of the genes. For ten strains with mutations, we determined the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of delamanid. We found one strain from a delamanid-naïve patient carrying the natural polymorphism Tyr29del (ddn) that was associated with a critical MIC to delamanid

Inconsistency in aortic stenosis severity between CT and echocardiography: Prevalence and insights into mechanistic differences using computational fluid dynamics

© 2019 Author(s). Objectives The aims of this study were to evaluate the inconsistency of aortic stenosis (AS) severity between CT aortic valve area (CT-AVA) and echocardiographic Doppler parameters, and to investigate potential underlying mechanisms using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Methods A total of 450 consecutive eligible patients undergoing transcatheter AV implantation assessment underwent CT cardiac angiography (CTCA) following echocardiography. CT-AVA derived by direct planimetry and echocardiographic parameters were used to assess severity. CFD simulation was performed in 46 CTCA cases to evaluate velocity profiles. Results A CT-AVA>1 cm 2 was present in 23% of patients with echocardiographic peak velocity≥4 m/s (r=-0.33) and in 15% patients with mean Doppler gradient≥40 mm Hg (r=-0.39). Patients with inconsistent severity grading between CT and echocardiography had higher stroke volume index (43 vs 38 mL/m 2, p1 cm 2 in up to a quarter of patients. CFD demonstrates that haemodynamic severity may be exaggerated on Doppler analysis due to high LVOT flow rates, with or without skewed velocity profiles, across the valve orifice. These factors should be considered before making a firm diagnosis of severe AS and evaluation with CT can be helpful