Development of Pesticide Sensing Polyaniline Electrode Through Detection of Alachlor By Cyclic Voltammetry

This research project was done to develop a chemical sensor for detection of a specific pesticide, a chlorinated herbicide called alachlor. Alachlor is an herbicide used to kill broadleaf weeds that grow mainly in corn, peanuts, and soybeans. The purpose of this project was to develop an environmentally friendly sensor in the form of an electrode that will be able to detect alachlor in aqueous samples. The way this was done was by using an electrochemical instrumentation technique called cyclic voltammetry. Polyaniline, a conducting polymer, was grown on a platinum substrate and the resulting electrode was cycled in various concentrations of alachlor in aqueous buffered samples at pH 4. By monitoring the current produced from the polymer on the metal substrate, a change in electrical current from interaction with the herbicide signaled its detection. Through additional instrumentation by SEM and FTIR it was suggested that a chemical reaction was responsible for the change in current produced by polyaniline

Use of Subsistence-Harvested Whale Carcasses by Polar Bears in the Southern Beaufort Sea

The availability of a food subsidy has the potential to influence the condition, behavior, fitness, and population dynamics of a species. Since the early 2000s, monitoring efforts along the coast of northern Alaska have indicated a higher proportion of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) of the southern Beaufort Sea (SB) subpopulation coming onshore to feed on subsistence-harvested bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) carcasses during the fall and early winter seasons. Concurrently, Indigenous communities annually hunt bowhead whale and deposit the unused remains at localized “bone piles,” creating the potential for human-bear interactions. Our objective was to determine the annual number of polar bears feeding at the bone pile near Kaktovik, Alaska. Using a hair snag surrounding the bone pile, we collected hair samples to identify individual bears via microsatellite genotypes during 2011 – 14. We used capture-mark-recapture data in the POPAN open-population model to estimate the number of bears visiting the bone pile. We estimated that as many as 72 (SE = 9) and 76 (SE = 10) male and female polar bears, respectively, used the bone pile located at Kaktovik, Alaska, in 2012, which represents approximately 16% of the SB polar bear subpopulation. It will be important to monitor the number of bears using the bone pile and subsequent human-bear interactions and conflicts along the northern coast of Alaska, if sea ice continues to recede.L’existence de subventions alimentaires a la possibilité d’influencer l’état, le comportement, la condition physique et la dynamique de la population d’une espèce. Depuis le début des années 2000, les efforts de surveillance déployés sur la côte nord de l’Alaska ont laissé entrevoir une plus grande proportion d’ours polaires (Ursus maritimus) de la sous-population du sud de la mer de Beaufort venant sur le littoral pour manger les carcasses des baleines boréales (Balaena mysticetus) pêchées à des fins de subsistance pendant les saisons de l’automne et du début de l’hiver. En même temps, les collectivités autochtones chassent les baleines boréales tous les ans et déposent leurs restes dans des « tas d’ossements », ce qui crée la possibilité d’interactions entre les humains et les ours. Notre objectif consistait à déterminer le nombre annuel d’ours polaires qui s’alimentent au tas d’ossements situé près de Kaktovik, en Alaska. De 2011 à 2014, à l’aide d’un piège à poils placé près du tas d’ossements, nous avons recueilli des échantillons de poils afin d’identifier les ours individuels au moyen de génotypes microsatellites. Nous avons employé les données de capture-marquage-recapture du modèle de population ouverte POPAN pour estimer le nombre d’ours se rendant au tas d’ossements. Nous avons estimé que jusqu’à 72 (ET = 9) et 76 (ET = 10) ours polaires mâles et femelles, respectivement, ont utilisé le tas d’ossements de Kaktovik, en Alaska, en 2012, ce qui représente environ 16 % de la sous-population d’ours polaires du sud de la mer de Beaufort. Il sera important de surveiller le nombre d’ours qui utilisent le tas d’ossements de même que les interactions et les conflits entre les humains et les ours qui s’ensuivront sur la côte nord de l’Alaska si la glace de mer continue de reculer

A Novel ascaroside controls the parasitic life cycle of the entomopathogenic nematode heterorhabditis bacteriophora

Entomopathogenic nematodes survive in the soil as stress-resistant infective juveniles that seek out and infect insect hosts. Upon sensing internal host cues, the infective juveniles regurgitate bacterial pathogens from their gut that ultimately kill the host. Inside the host, the nematode develops into a reproductive adult and multiplies until unknown cues trigger the accumulation of infective juveniles. Here, we show that the entomopathogenic nematode Heterorhabditis bacteriophora uses a small-molecule pheromone to control infective juvenile development. The pheromone is structurally related to the dauer pheromone ascarosides that the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans uses to control its development. However, none of the C. elegans ascarosides are effective in H. bacteriophora, suggesting that there is a high degree of species specificity. Our report is the first to show that ascarosides are important regulators of development in a parasitic nematode species. An understanding of chemical signaling in parasitic nematodes may enable the development of chemical tools to control these species. © 2012 American Chemical Society

Outcomes after angiography with sodium bicarbonate and acetylcysteine

Background: Intravenous sodium bicarbonate and oral acetylcysteine are widely used to prevent acute kidney injury and associated adverse outcomes after angiography without definitive evidence of their efficacy. Methods: Using a 2-by-2 factorial design, we randomly assigned 5177 patients at high risk for renal complications who were scheduled for angiography to receive intravenous 1.26% sodium bicarbonate or intravenous 0.9% sodium chloride and 5 days of oral acetylcysteine or oral placebo; of these patients, 4993 were included in the modified intention-to-treat analysis. The primary end point was a composite of death, the need for dialysis, or a persistent increase of at least 50% from baseline in the serum creatinine level at 90 days. Contrast-associated acute kidney injury was a secondary end point. Results: The sponsor stopped the trial after a prespecified interim analysis. There was no interaction between sodium bicarbonate and acetylcysteine with respect to the primary end point (P=0.33). The primary end point occurred in 110 of 2511 patients (4.4%) in the sodium bicarbonate group as compared with 116 of 2482 (4.7%) in the sodium chloride group (odds ratio, 0.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.72 to 1.22; P=0.62) and in 114 of 2495 patients (4.6%) in the acetylcysteine group as compared with 112 of 2498 (4.5%) in the placebo group (odds ratio, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.78 to 1.33; P=0.88). There were no significant between-group differences in the rates of contrast-associated acute kidney injury. Conclusions: Among patients at high risk for renal complications who were undergoing angiography, there was no benefit of intravenous sodium bicarbonate over intravenous sodium chloride or of oral acetylcysteine over placebo for the prevention of death, need for dialysis, or persistent decline in kidney function at 90 days or for the prevention of contrast-associated acute kidney injury. (Funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Research and Development and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia; PRESERVE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01467466.

Economics of local food systems: a toolkit to guide community discussions, assessments and choices, The

As consumers across the Nation express a growing interest in a closer connection to their food producers—whether through access to more localized markets and/or shorter supply chains— cities and regions have begun to regard the expansion of local food marketing activities as a critical component of their economic development strategies. Rising demand for locally produced, source-identified, and differentiated food products has generated a plethora of new and spinoff businesses in many communities, which aim to increase the range of and accessibility to local food items for both retail and wholesale customers. In turn, this emergence of local food businesses has sparked a groundswell of financial support and interest from private foundations and public agencies on the assumption that the development of local food systems contributes to positive economic outcomes, especially with respect to local economic development and improved farm viability. Unfortunately, given the nascent nature of local food demand growth and the scarcity of available data, relatively few of these efforts have been guided by rigorous assessments. In response, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has formed new initiatives and programs to develop new markets and support existing markets so that producers and their communities may leverage these new opportunities. Specifically, the USDA, Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has managed the Farmers Market Promotion Program (now expanded to the Local Foods Promotion Program), with great expectations of positive outcomes, but no standardized approach on how to evaluate market and economic outcomes. As a result, a team of regional economists and food system specialists were assembled through a project hosted by Colorado State University (CSU) to develop a Toolkit comprised of food system assessment principles and economic indicators a community may expect to share. Given the real-world projects, experiences, and applied research of the CSU-led team, the Toolkit is grounded in practices that are credible and useable within the economic development discussions guiding communities. The goal of this Toolkit is to guide and enhance the capacity of local organizations to make more deliberate and credible measurements of local and regional economic activity and other ancillary benefits

Decreased Expression Of apM1 in Omental and Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue of Humans With Type 2 Diabetes

We have screened a subtracted cDNA library in order to identify differentially expressed genes in omental adipose tissue of human patients with Type 2 diabetes. One clone (#1738) showed a marked reduction in omental adipose tissue from patients with Type 2 diabetes. Sequencing and BLAST analysis revealed clone #1738 was the adipocyte-specific secreted protein gene apM1 (synonyms ACRP30, AdipoQ, GBP28). Consistent with the murine orthologue, apM1 mRNA was expressed in cultured human adipocytes and not in preadipocytes. Using RT-PCR we confirmed that apM1 mRNA levels were significantly reduced in omental adipose tissue of obese patients with Type 2 diabetes compared with lean and obese normoglycemic subjects. Although less pronounced, apM1 mRNA levels were reduced in subcutaneous adipose tissue of Type 2 diabetic patients. Whereas the biological function of apM1 is presently unknown, the tissue specific expression, structural similarities to TNFα and the dysregulated expression observed in obese Type 2 diabetic patients suggest that this factor may play a role in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes

Sentinel-based Surveillance of Coyotes to Detect Bovine Tuberculosis, Michigan

Coyotes could be used as sentinels to detect Mycobacterium bovis in the wild

Using meta-analytic path analysis to test theoretical predictions in health behavior: An illustration based on meta-analyses of the theory of planned behavior

Objective: Synthesizing research on social cognitive theories applied to health behavior is an important step in the development of an evidence base of psychological factors as targets for effective behavioral interventions. However, few meta-analyses of research on social cognitive theories in health contexts have conducted simultaneous tests of theoretically-stipulated pattern effects using path analysis. We argue that conducting path analyses of meta-analytic effects among constructs from social cognitive theories is important to test nomological validity, account for mediation effects, and evaluate unique effects of theory constructs independent of past behavior. We illustrate our points by conducting new analyses of two meta-analyses of a popular theory applied to health behaviors, the theory of planned behavior. Method: We conducted meta-analytic path analyses of the theory in two behavioral contexts (alcohol and dietary behaviors) using data from the primary studies included in the original meta-analyses augmented to include intercorrelations among constructs and relations with past behavior missing from the original analysis. Results: Findings supported the nomological validity of the theory and its hypotheses for both behaviors, confirmed important model processes through mediation analysis, demonstrated the attenuating effect of past behavior on theory relations, and provided estimates of the unique effects of theory constructs independent of past behavior. Conclusions: Our analysis illustrates the importance of conducting a simultaneous test of theory-stipulated effects in meta-analyses of social cognitive theories applied to health behavior. We recommend researchers adopt this analytic procedure when synthesizing evidence across primary tests of social cognitive theories in health

Using citizen science data to identify the sensitivity of species to human land use

Conservation practitioners must contend with an increasing array of threats that affect biodiversity. Citizen scientists can provide timely and expansive information for addressing these threats across large scales, but their data may contain sampling biases. We used randomization procedures to account for possible sampling biases in opportunistically reported citizen science data to identify species' sensitivities to human land use. We analyzed 21,044 records of 143 native reptile and amphibian species reported to the Carolina Herp Atlas from North Carolina and South Carolina between 1 January 1990 and 12 July 2014. Sensitive species significantly associated with natural landscapes were 3.4 times more likely to be legally protected or treated as of conservation concern by state resource agencies than less sensitive species significantly associated with human-dominated landscapes. Many of the species significantly associated with natural landscapes occurred primarily in habitats that had been nearly eradicated or otherwise altered in the Carolinas, including isolated wetlands, longleaf pine savannas, and Appalachian forests. Rare species with few reports were more likely to be associated with natural landscapes and 3.2 times more likely to be legally protected or treated as of conservation concern than species with at least 20 reported occurrences. Our results suggest that opportunistically reported citizen science data can be used to identify sensitive species and that species currently restricted primarily to natural landscapes are likely at greatest risk of decline from future losses of natural habitat. Our approach demonstrates the usefulness of citizen science data in prioritizing conservation and in helping practitioners address species declines and extinctions at large extents

Predicting Alcohol Pre-Drinking in Australian Undergraduate Students Using an Integrated Theoretical Model

Background: The aim of the present study was to examine the social-cognitive and motivational factors associated with pre-drinking based on a model integrating motivational constructs from self-determination theory and belief-based constructs from the theory of planned behaviour. Methods: A prospective correlational design was used. Participants (N = 286; 66.4% female) completed self-report measures of past alcohol consumption, autonomous and controlled forms of motivation from self-determination theory, and attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, and behavioural intentions from the theory of planned behaviour at baseline. Participants reported pre-drinking frequency four weeks later. Results: Variance-based structural equation modelling showed that the hypothesised model predicted 54 per cent of the variance in pre-drinking intentions at baseline, and 20 per cent of the variance in pre-drinking behaviour at follow-up. Mediation analyses indicated strong, statistically significant effects of autonomous motivation on intentions to pre-drink, partially mediated by attitudes and subjective norms. Intention and perceived behavioural control significantly predicted pre-drinking frequency. Conclusions: Results provide support for the hypothesised model relationships. Autonomous motivation, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control were influential in forming students' intentions to pre-drink. However, consistent with previous findings, the intention-behaviour relationship was relatively weak. Future research should look to non-intentional and volitional processes that may influence pre-drinking in undergraduates