Keratouveitis from Euphorbia cyparissias exposure is a temporal phenomenon

We present the case of an 82-year-old woman with severe keratouveitis secondary to exposure to the plant Euphorbia cyparissias during the month of August. Despite copious irrigation of both eyes, she developed a case of Euphorbia keratouveitis that was typical in its course. Exposure to plant sap from this species should be treated much like an alkaline chemical injury as the pH of the ocular surface may be elevated. E. cyparissias should be carefully handled as it may result in keratouveitis, especially in early autumn

Behavior studies related to pesticides: Urban chemical pesticides and Iowa urban chemical-pesticide dealers

As reflected in sales reports, millions of people are using chemical pesticides to solve a number of problems. Estimated total cost of chemical pesticides to all United States users in 1965 was more than a billion dollars. Farmers used pesticides costing an estimated $590 million-58 percent of the total. Residential (home, lawn, and garden) purchases amounted to about$220 million or about 22 percent of the total. The remaining purchases were made by industrial, institutional, and governmental sources. The use of chemical pesticides is expected to increase in the following year. The use of chemical pesticides has not, however, been accepted by everyone. Concern has been voiced about possible consequences of improper use of these chemicals to the user as well as to wildlife, pets and agricultural commodities. This concern has been expressed in proposals to limit or abolish the use of chemical pesticides. The subject is controversial, but there have been few valid data on which to base rational discussion. Little research work has been done in determining attitudes, knowledge, and use and sales patterns of individuals in relation to chemical pesticides. Similarly, little is known about the people who sell chemicals to the ultimate consumer; i.e., what the dealers’ levels of knowledge and attitudes are; what their perceptions of possible harmful consequences are; what information they provide; and what they perceive their role to be

Recognizing the equity implications of restoration priority maps

A growing number of studies seek to identify global priority areas for conservation and restoration. These studies often produce maps that highlight the benefits of concentrating such activity in the tropics. However, the potential equity implications of using these prioritization exercises to guide global policy are less often explored and articulated. We highlight those equity issues by examining a widely publicized restoration priority map as an illustrative case. This map is based on a prioritization analysis that sought to identify places where restoration of agricultural land might provide the greatest biodiversity and carbon sequestration benefits at the lowest cost. First, we calculate the proportion of agricultural land in countries around the world that the map classifies as a top 15% restoration priority. A regression analysis shows that this map prioritizes restoration in countries where displacing agriculture may be most detrimental to livelihoods: countries that are poorer, more populated, more economically unequal, less food secure, and that employ more people in agriculture. Second, we show through another regression analysis that a similar pattern appears sub-nationally within the tropics: 5 km × 5 km parcels of land in the tropics that are less economically developed or more populated are more likely to be top 15% restoration priorities. In other words, equity concerns persist at a subnational scale even after putting aside comparisons between the tropics and the Global North. Restorative activity may be beneficial or harmful to local livelihoods depending on its conceptualization, implementation, and management. Our findings underline a need for prioritization exercises to better attend to the risks of concentrating potentially negative livelihood impacts in vulnerable regions. We join other scholars calling for greater integration of social data into restoration science

Menstrual cycle phase does not predict political conservatism

Recent authors have reported a relationship between women's fertility status, as indexed by menstrual cycle phase, and conservatism in moral, social and political values. We conducted a survey to test for the existence of a relationship between menstrual cycle day and conservatism. 2213 women reporting regular menstrual cycles provided data about their political views. Of these women, 2208 provided information about their cycle date, 1260 provided additional evidence of reliability in self-reported cycle date, and of these, 750 also indicated an absence of hormonal disruptors such as recent hormonal contraception use, breastfeeding or pregnancy. Cycle day was used to estimate day-specific fertility rate (probability of conception); political conservatism was measured via direct self-report and via responses to the "Moral Foundations” questionnaire. We also recorded relationship status, which has been reported to interact with menstrual cycle phase in determining political preferences. We found no evidence of a relationship between estimated cyclical fertility changes and conservatism, and no evidence of an interaction between relationship status and cyclical fertility in determining political attitudes. Our findings were robust to multiple inclusion/exclusion criteria and to different methods of estimating fertility and measuring conservatism. In summary, the relationship between cycle-linked reproductive parameters and conservatism may be weaker or less reliable than previously thought

Retinitis Pigmentosa GTPase Regulator (RPGR) protein isoforms in mammalian retina:insights into X-linked Retinitis Pigmentosa and associated ciliopathies

AbstractMutations in the cilia-centrosomal protein Retinitis Pigmentosa GTPase Regulator (RPGR) are a frequent cause of retinal degeneration. The RPGR gene undergoes complex alternative splicing and encodes multiple protein isoforms. To elucidate the function of major RPGR isoforms (RPGR1–19 and RPGRORF15), we have generated isoform-specific antibodies and examined their expression and localization in the retina. Using sucrose-gradient centrifugation, immunofluorescence and co-immunoprecipitation methods, we show that RPGR isoforms localize to distinct sub-cellular compartments in mammalian photoreceptors and associate with a number of cilia-centrosomal proteins. The RCC1-like domain of RPGR, which is present in all major RPGR isoforms, is sufficient to target it to the cilia and centrosomes in cultured cells. Our findings indicate that multiple isotypes of RPGR may perform overlapping yet somewhat distinct transport-related functions in photoreceptors

Resonant Thermoelectric Nanophotonics

Photodetectors are typically based either on photocurrent generation from electron–hole pairs in semiconductor structures or on bolometry for wavelengths that are below bandgap absorption. In both cases, resonant plasmonic and nanophotonic structures have been successfully used to enhance performance. Here, we show subwavelength thermoelectric nanostructures designed for resonant spectrally selective absorption, which creates large localized temperature gradients even with unfocused, spatially uniform illumination to generate a thermoelectric voltage. We show that such structures are tunable and are capable of wavelength-specific detection, with an input power responsivity of up to 38 V W^(–1), referenced to incident illumination, and bandwidth of nearly 3 kHz. This is obtained by combining resonant absorption and thermoelectric junctions within a single suspended membrane nanostructure, yielding a bandgap-independent photodetection mechanism. We report results for both bismuth telluride/antimony telluride and chromel/alumel structures as examples of a potentially broader class of resonant nanophotonic thermoelectric materials for optoelectronic applications such as non-bandgap-limited hyperspectral and broadband photodetectors