ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF ALFALFA INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

Integrated pest management (IMP) initially focused on insect pest control. More recently, IPM encompasses a broader concept of management, one which crosses several disciplinary boundaries. This article reports results of research dealing with four integrated management decisions for alfalfa (cultivar selection, inset control, weed control, and end-of-season harvest options.Crop Production/Industries,

Antibodies against Merozoite Surface Protein (Msp)-119 Are a Major Component of the Invasion-Inhibitory Response in Individuals Immune to Malaria

Antibodies that bind to antigens expressed on the merozoite form of the malaria parasite can inhibit parasite growth by preventing merozoite invasion of red blood cells. Inhibitory antibodies are found in the sera of malaria-immune individuals, however, the specificity of those that are important to this process is not known. In this paper, we have used allelic replacement to construct a Plasmodium falciparum parasite line that expresses the complete COOH-terminal fragment of merozoite surface protein (MSP)-119 from the divergent rodent malaria P. chabaudi. By comparing this transfected line with parental parasites that differ only in MSP-119, we show that antibodies specific for this domain are a major component of the inhibitory response in P. falciparum–immune humans and P. chabaudi–immune mice. In some individual human sera, MSP-119 antibodies dominated the inhibitory activity. The finding that antibodies to a small region of a single protein play a major role in this process has important implications for malaria immunity and is strongly supportive of further understanding and development of MSP-119–based vaccines

Peripheral Blood Pressure Changes Induced by Dobutamine Do Not Alter BOLD Signals in The Human Brain

In extending the use of functional MRI to neuropharmacology, a primary area of concern is that peripheral blood pressure changes induced by pharmacological agents could independently produce a change in the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal, resulting in difficulties distinguishing or interpreting drug-induced neural activations. In the present study, we utilized intravenous dobutamine, a beta-adrenergic receptor agonist, to increase the mean arterial blood pressure (MABP), while examining the effects of MABP changes on the BOLD signal in cocaine-dependent participants. Dobutamine infusion significantly increased the MABP from 93 ± 8 mm Hg to 106 ± 12 mm Hg (P \u3c 0.0005), but did not produce a significant global BOLD signal. Yet, a few voxels in the anterior cingulate showed BOLD signal changes that paralleled the changes in blood pressure (BP). Our observations support the conclusion that following the infusion of psychoactive agents, brain BOLD signals accurately reflect neuronal activity, even in the face of relatively large peripheral cardiovascular effects that transiently increase systemic BP

Control of Parasitophorous Vacuole Expansion by LYST/Beige Restricts the Intracellular Growth of Leishmania amazonensis

The intracellular protozoan Leishmania replicates in parasitophorous vacuoles (PV) that share many features with late endosomes/lysosomes. L. amazonensis PVs expand markedly during infections, but the impact of PV size on parasite intracellular survival is still unknown. Here we show that host cells infected with L. amazonensis upregulate transcription of LYST/Beige, which was previously shown to regulate lysosome size. Mutations in LYST/Beige caused further PV expansion and enhanced L. amazonensis replication. In contrast, LYST/Beige overexpression led to small PVs that did not sustain parasite growth. Treatment of LYST/Beige over-expressing cells with vacuolin-1 reversed this phenotype, expanding PVs and promoting parasite growth. The opposite was seen with E-64d, which reduced PV size in LYST-Beige mutant cells and inhibited L. amazonensis replication. Enlarged PVs appear to protect parasites from oxidative damage, since inhibition of nitric oxide synthase had no effect on L. amazonensis viability within large PVs, but enhanced their growth within LYST/Beige-induced small PVs. Thus, the upregulation of LYST/Beige in infected cells functions as a host innate response to limit parasite growth, by reducing PV volume and inhibiting intracellular survival

Functional dynamic genetic effects on gene regulation are specific to particular cell types and environmental conditions

Genetic effects on gene expression and splicing can be modulated by cellular and environmental factors; yet interactions between genotypes, cell type and treatment have not been comprehensively studied together. We used an induced pluripotent stem cell system to study multiple cell types derived from the same individuals and exposed them to a large panel of treatments. Cellular responses involved different genes and pathways for gene expression and splicing, and were highly variable across contexts. For thousands of genes, we identified variable allelic expression across contexts and characterized different types of gene-environment interactions, many of which are associated with complex traits. Promoter functional and evolutionary features distinguished genes with elevated allelic imbalance mean and variance. On average half of the genes with dynamic regulatory interactions were missed by large eQTL mapping studies, indicating the importance of exploring multiple treatments to reveal previously unrecognized regulatory loci that may be important for disease

Functional dynamic genetic effects on gene regulation are specific to particular cell types and environmental conditions

Genetic effects on gene expression and splicing can be modulated by cellular and environmental factors; yet interactions between genotypes, cell type and treatment have not been comprehensively studied together. We used an induced pluripotent stem cell system to study multiple cell types derived from the same individuals and exposed them to a large panel of treatments. Cellular responses involved different genes and pathways for gene expression and splicing, and were highly variable across contexts. For thousands of genes, we identified variable allelic expression across contexts and characterized different types of gene-environment interactions, many of which are associated with complex traits. Promoter functional and evolutionary features distinguished genes with elevated allelic imbalance mean and variance. On average half of the genes with dynamic regulatory interactions were missed by large eQTL mapping studies, indicating the importance of exploring multiple treatments to reveal previously unrecognized regulatory loci that may be important for disease

Physically attractive faces attract us physically

When interacting with other humans, facial expressions provide valuable information for approach or avoid decisions. Here, we consider facial attractiveness as another important dimension upon which approach-avoidance behaviours may be based. In Experiments 1–3, we measured participants' responses to attractive and unattractive women's faces in an approach-avoidance paradigm in which there was no explicit instruction to evaluate facial attractiveness or any other stimulus attribute. Attractive faces were selected more often, a bias that may be sensitive to response outcomes and was reduced when the faces were inverted. Experiment 4 explored an entirely implicit measure of approach, with participants passively viewing single faces while standing on a force platform. We found greater lean towards attractive faces, with this pattern being most obvious in male participants. Taken together, these results demonstrate that attractiveness activates approach-avoidance tendencies, even in the absence of any task demand

First search for gravitational waves from the youngest known neutron star

We present a search for periodic gravitational waves from the neutron star in the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. The search coherently analyzes data in a 12 day interval taken from the fifth science run of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. It searches gravitational-wave frequencies from 100 to 300 Hz and covers a wide range of first and second frequency derivatives appropriate for the age of the remnant and for different spin-down mechanisms. No gravitational-wave signal was detected. Within the range of search frequencies, we set 95% confidence upper limits of (0.7–1.2) × 10^(−24) on the intrinsic gravitational-wave strain, (0.4–4) × 10^(−4) on the equatorial ellipticity of the neutron star, and 0.005–0.14 on the amplitude of r-mode oscillations of the neutron star. These direct upper limits beat indirect limits derived from energy conservation and enter the range of theoretical predictions involving crystalline exotic matter or runaway r-modes. This paper is also the first gravitational-wave search to present upper limits on the r-mode amplitude