Ecology and management of plum curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar [Coleoptera :Curculionidae], in apple orchards

Le charançon de la prune (Conotrachelus nénuphar) est un insecte originaire de l'Amérique du Nord. Il s'attaque aux fruits à pépins et à noyaux de l'est des États-Unis et du Canada. Il est un ravageur prépondérant en vergers de pommiers (Maluspumila) au Québec. Au printemps, les adultes se déplacent de leurs sites d'hibernation, localisés principalement dans les boisés, vers les vergers. Avant la nouaison, l'activité de ces insectes est surtout nocturne, mais elle s'étend à toute la journée dès l'apparition des fruits. Les larves quittent le fruit au moment de la chute physiologique, et la pupaison s'effectue dans le sol. La nouvelle génération d'adultes apparaît en août, et se nourrit de fruits jusqu'à l'automne, puis retourne vers les sites d’hibernation. Plusieurs éléments de la bio-écologie du charançon sont méconnus, notamment les relations entre l’insecte et l’hôte, le comportement, la dispersion, le mode de déplacement, la reconnaissance des plantes hôtes et des sites d’hibernation, l’orientation, et les seuils économiques. Il n’existe actuellement aucune méthode fiable pour dépister ce charançon, et aucun moyen biologique de lutte contre ce ravageur. Cependant, des études récentes sur le comportement et l’activité du charançon de la prune en conditions semi-naturelles et naturelles pourraient permettre le développement de stratégies de lutte plus efficaces. Ces travaux sont présentés ici de même qu’une revue des méthodes de lutte (chimique, biologique, génétique, mécanique et culturale) envisageables contre le charançon de la prune.Plum curculio (Conotrachelus nenuphar) is a native pest of pome and stone fruit in eastern North America. It is a key pest of apple (Malus pumila) orchards in Quebec. In spring, adults disperse primarily from woodland overwintering sites to apple orchards. Before fruit set, the beetles are mainly nocturnal. As fruits become available for oviposition, adults extend their activity to the daytime. Full grown larvae found in dropped apples in June (June drop) enter the soil to pupate. The summer brood emerges in August, feeds on the remaining fruit throughout the fall and then disperses to suitable overwintering sites. Little is known of its community and host plant relationships, dispersal behavior, factors influencing its mode of locomotion, choice of food sources, overwintering sites, micro-habitat selection, orientation, and action threshold. Commercially available biocontrol agents are not effective, and convenient and reliable monitoring techniques for the timing of sprays have not been developed. However, recent field and insectary studies on the behavior and activity of plum curculio adults may allow us to improve the efficiency of control strategies. These findings are presented here, together with their implications for control of the plum curculio by modifying its habitat, and by better timing and location of sprays and other interventions. This paper also includes brief reviews of biological controls, insect growth regulators, and genetic controls for plum curculio

Neuropsychological performance in survivors of breast cancer more than 20 years after adjuvant chemotherapy

Purpose: Adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer can have adverse effects on cognition shortly after administration. Whether chemotherapy has any long-term effects on cognition is largely unknown, yet it becomes increasingly relevant because of the widespread use of chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer and the improved survival. We investigated whether cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil (CMF) chemotherapy for breast cancer is associated with worse cognitive performance more than 20 years after treatment. Patients and Methods: This case-cohort study compared the cognitive performance of patients with breast cancer who had a history of adjuvant CMF chemotherapy treatment (six cycles; average time since treatment, 21 years; n = 196) to that of a population-based sample of women never diagnosed with cancer (n = 1,509). Participants were between 50 and 80 years of age. Exclusion criteria were ever use of adjuvant endocrine therapy, secondary malignancy, recurrence, and/or metastasis. Results: The women exposed to chemotherapy performed significantly worse than the reference group on cognitive tests of immediate (P = .015) and delayed verbal memory (P = .002), processing speed (P < .001), executive functioning (P = .013), and psychomotor speed (P = .001). They experienced fewer symptoms of depression (P < .001), yet had significantly more memory complaints on two of three measures that could not be explained by cognitive test performance. Conclusion: Survivors of breast cancer treated with adjuvant CMF chemotherapy more than 20 years ago perform worse, on average, than random population controls on neuropsychological tests. The pattern of cognitive problems is largely similar to that observed in patients shortly after cessation of chemotherapy. This study suggests that cognitive deficits following breast cancer diagnosis and subsequent CMF chemotherapy can be long lasting

Inflammation markers and cognitive performance in breast cancer survivors 20 years after completion of chemotherapy: a cohort study

BACKGROUND: Inflammation is an important candidate mechanism underlying cancer and cancer treatment-related cognitive impairment. We investigated levels of blood cell-based inflammatory markers in breast cancer survivors on average 20 years after chemotherapy and explored the relation between these markers and global cognitive performance. METHODS: One hundred sixty-six breast cancer survivors who received post-surgical radiotherapy and six cycles of adjuvant cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil (CMF) chemotherapy on average 20 years before enrollment were compared with 1344 cancer-free women from a population-based sample (50-80 years old). Breast cancer survivors were excluded if they used adjuvant hormonal therapy or if they developed relapse, metastasis, or second primary malignancies. Systemic inflammation status was assessed by the granulocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (GLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII). Cognitive performance was assessed using an extensive neuropsychological test battery from which the general cognitive factor was derived to evaluate global cognitive performance. We examined the association between cancer, the general cognitive factor, and inflammatory markers using linear regression models. RESULTS: Breast cancer survivors had a lower general cognitive factor than non-exposed participants from the comparator group (mean difference = -0.21; 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.35 to -0.06). Inflammatory markers were higher in cancer survivors compared with non-exposed participants (mean difference for log(GLR) = 0.31; 95% CI 0.24 to 0.37, log(PLR) = 0.14; 95% CI 0.09 to 0.19, log(SII) = 0.31; 95% CI 0.24 to 0.39). The association between higher levels of inflammatory markers and lower general cognitive factor was statistically significant in cancer survivors but not among non-exposed participants. We found a group-by-inflammatory marker interaction; cancer survivors showed additional lower general cognitive factor per standard deviation increase in inflammatory markers (P for interaction for GLR = 0.038, PLR = 0.003, and SII = 0.033). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to show that (1) cancer survivors have increased levels of inflammation on average 20 years after treatment and (2) these inflammatory levels are associated with lower cognitive performance. Although this association needs verification by a prospective study to determine causality, our findings can stimulate research on the role of inflammation in long-term cognitive problems and possibilities to diminish such problems

Sturgeon osteocalcin shares structural features with matrix gla protein evolutionary relationship and functional implications

Osteocalcin (OC) and matrix Gla protein (MGP) are considered evolutionarily related because they share key structural features, although they have been described to exert different functions. In this work, we report the identification and characterization of both OC and MGP from the Adriatic sturgeon, a ray-finned fish characterized by a slow evolution and the retention of many ancestral features. Sturgeon MGP shows a primary structure, post-translation modifications, and patterns of mRNA/protein distribution and accumulation typical of known MGPs, and it contains seven possible Gla residues that would make the sturgeon protein the most gamma-carboxylated among known MGPs. In contrast, sturgeon OC was found to present a hybrid structure. Indeed, although exhibiting protein domains typical of known OCs, it also contains structural features usually found in MGPs (e. g. a putative phosphorylated propeptide). Moreover, patterns of OC gene expression and protein accumulation overlap with those reported for MGP; OC was detected in bone cells and mineralized structures but also in soft and cartilaginous tissues. We propose that, in a context of a reduced rate of evolution, sturgeon OC has retained structural features of the ancestral protein that emerged millions of years ago from the duplication of an ancient MGP gene and may exhibit intermediate functional features.Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation [POCTI/MAR/57921/2004, SFRH/BD/9077/2002]; Fundo Europeu De Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) (Portugal); National Funding; Center of Marine Sciences (CCMAR

Immune or genetic-mediated disruption of CASPR2 causes pain hypersensitivity due to enhanced primary afferent excitability

Human autoantibodies to contactin-associated protein-like 2 (CASPR2) are often associated with neuropathic pain, and CASPR2 mutations have been linked to autism spectrum disorders, in which sensory dysfunction is increasingly recognized. Human CASPR2 autoantibodies, when injected into mice, were peripherally restricted and resulted in mechanical pain-related hypersensitivity in the absence of neural injury. We therefore investigated the mechanism by which CASPR2 modulates nociceptive function. Mice lacking CASPR2 (Cntnap2(-/-)) demonstrated enhanced pain-related hypersensitivity to noxious mechanical stimuli, heat, and algogens. Both primary afferent excitability and subsequent nociceptive transmission within the dorsal horn were increased in Cntnap2(-/-) mice. Either immune or genetic-mediated ablation of CASPR2 enhanced the excitability of DRG neurons in a cell-autonomous fashion through regulation of Kv1 channel expression at the soma membrane. This is the first example of passive transfer of an autoimmune peripheral neuropathic pain disorder and demonstrates that CASPR2 has a key role in regulating cell-intrinsic dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neuron excitability

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters