SUMMARY

California. Water samples showed no detects of fenoxycarb, hydramethylnon, pyriproxyfen, dimethoate, and methidathion. Bifenthrin was detected in two samples at 0.495 and 0.778 parts per billion (ppb) at nursery sites F and G, respectively. Chlorpyrifos was detected in one sample at 0.06 ppb. Diazinon was detected in two samples at 0.059 and 0.06 ppb at sites F and E, respectively. Malathion was detected in one sample of nursery runoff at 0.07 ppb. Toxicity was tested at San Diego Creek at Campus Drive, an integrated site. This site was not significantly toxic (5 % mortality) to Ceriodaphnia dubia in the water collected. Additional water and sediment samples were collected from a mitigation filter strip planted with Canna to mitigate offsite movement of insecticides and nitrates. Bifenthrin and chlorpyrifos were detected in all water samples with a general trend of declining concentrations as the water passed through the filter strip. Sediment samples were positive for bifenthrin and chlorpyrifos with detections ranging from 776 to 1470 ppb and 27 to 80 ppb, respectively. SCOPE OF THIS MEMORANDUM This memorandum reports results of water sampling conducted by the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), under interagency agreement with the California Department of Food an

SUMMARY

California. Water samples showed no detects of fenoxycarb, hydramethylnon, pyriproxyfen, chlorpyrifos, dimethoate, and methidathion. Bifenthrin was detected in all samples ranging from 0.071 to 2.41 parts per billion (ppb). Diazinon was detected in three samples ranging from 0.055 to 0.187 ppb. Malathion was detected in three samples of nursery runoff ranging from 0.136 to 0.778 ppb. Toxicity was tested at San Diego Creek at Campus Dr., an integrated site. This site was significantly toxic (100 % mortality) to Ceriodaphnia dubia in the water collected. Sediment samples were collected from a mitigation filter strip. Samples were positive for bifenthrin and chlorpyrifos with detections ranging from 733 to 1340 ppb and 28 to 72 ppb, respectively. SCOPE OF THIS MEMORANDUM This memorandum reports results of water sampling conducted by the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), under interagency agreement with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), for the Red Imported Fire Ant (RIFA) control project. Data included here are from the February 28, 2001 monitoring, and encompass results from both chemical analyses and aquatic biotoxicity testing. This memorandum summarizes results for bifenthrin, fenoxycarb, hydramethylnon, pyriproxyfen, and five organophosphorus insecticides

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OEHHA also acknowledges the following contributors

The dusty environment of HD 97300 as seen by Herschel and Spitzer

Aims. We analyze the surroundings of HD 97300, one of two intermediate-mass stars in the Chamaeleon I star-forming region. The star is known to be surrounded by a conspicuous ring of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Methods. We present infrared images taken with Herschel and Spitzer using 11 different broad-band filters between 3.6 um and 500 um. We compare the morphology of the emission using cuts along different position angles. We construct spectral energy distributions, which we compare to different dust models, and calculate dust temperatures. We also derive opacity maps and analyze the density structure of the environment of HD 97300. Results. We find that HD 97300 has no infrared excess at or below 24 um, confirming its zero-age main-sequence nature. The morphology of the ring is very similar between 3.6 um and 24 um. The emission at these wavelengths is dominated by either PAH features or PAH continuum. At longer wavelengths, only the northwestern part of the ring is visible. A fit to the 100-500 um observations suggests that the emission is due to relatively warm (~26 K) dust. The temperature gradually decreases with increasing distance from the ring. We find a general decrease in the density from north to south, and an approximate 10% density increase in the northeastern part of the ring. Conclusions. Our results are consistent with the theory that the ring around HD 97300 is essentially a bubble blown into the surrounding interstellar matter and heated by the star.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Preventing packaging of translatable P5-associated DNA contaminants in recombinant AAV vector preps

Recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors are increasingly being used for clinical gene transfer and have shown great potential for the treatment of several monogenic disorders. However, contaminant DNA from producer plasmids can be packaged into rAAV alongside the intended expression cassette-containing vector genome. The consequences of this are unknown. Our analysis of rAAV preps revealed abundant contaminant sequences upstream of the AAV replication (Rep) protein driving promoter, P5, on the Rep-Cap producer plasmid. Characterization of P5-associated contaminants after infection showed transfer, persistence, and transcriptional activity in AAV-transduced murine hepatocytes, in addition to in vitro evidence suggestive of integration. These contaminants can also be efficiently translated and immunogenic, revealing previously unrecognized side effects of rAAV-mediated gene transfer. P5-associated contaminant packaging and activity were independent of an inverted terminal repeat (ITR)-flanked vector genome. To prevent incorporation of these potentially harmful sequences, we constructed a modified P5-promoter (P5-HS), inserting a DNA spacer between an Rep binding site and an Rep nicking site in P5. This prevented upstream DNA contamination regardless of transgene or AAV serotype, while maintaining vector yield. Thus, we have constructed an rAAV production plasmid that improves vector purity and can be implemented across clinical rAAV applications. These findings represent new vector safety and production considerations for rAAV gene therapy

High platelet reactivity in patients with acute coronary syndromes undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention: Randomised controlled trial comparing prasugrel and clopidogrel

Background: Prasugrel is more effective than clopidogrel in reducing platelet aggregation in acute coronary syndromes. Data available on prasugrel reloading in clopidogrel treated patients with high residual platelet reactivity (HRPR) i.e. poor responders, is limited. Objectives: To determine the effects of prasugrel loading on platelet function in patients on clopidogrel and high platelet reactivity undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention for acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Patients: Patients with ACS on clopidogrel who were scheduled for PCI found to have a platelet reactivity ≥40 AUC with the Multiplate Analyzer, i.e. “poor responders” were randomised to prasugrel (60 mg loading and 10 mg maintenance dose) or clopidogrel (600 mg reloading and 150 mg maintenance dose). The primary outcome measure was proportion of patients with platelet reactivity <40 AUC 4 hours after loading with study medication, and also at one hour (secondary outcome). 44 patients were enrolled and the study was terminated early as clopidogrel use decreased sharply due to introduction of newer P2Y12 inhibitors. Results: At 4 hours after study medication 100% of patients treated with prasugrel compared to 91% of those treated with clopidogrel had platelet reactivity <40 AUC (p = 0.49), while at 1 hour the proportions were 95% and 64% respectively (p = 0.02). Mean platelet reactivity at 4 and 1 hours after study medication in prasugrel and clopidogrel groups respectively were 12 versus 22 (p = 0.005) and 19 versus 34 (p = 0.01) respectively. Conclusions: Routine platelet function testing identifies patients with high residual platelet reactivity (“poor responders”) on clopidogrel. A strategy of prasugrel rather than clopidogrel reloading results in earlier and more sustained suppression of platelet reactivity. Future trials need to identify if this translates into clinical benefit

Analogical Transfer in RDFS, Application to Cocktail Name Adaptation

International audienceThis paper deals with analogical transfer in the framework of the representation language RDFS. The application of analogical transfer to case-based reasoning consists in reusing the problem-solution dependency to the context of the target problem; thus it is a general approach to adaptation. RDFS is a representation language that is a standard of the semantic Web; it is based on RDF, a graphical representation of data, completed by an entailment relation. A dependency is therefore represented as a graph representing complex links between a problem and a solution, and analogical transfer uses, in particular, RDFS entailment. This research work is applied (and inspired from) the issue of cocktail name adaptation: given a cocktail and a way this cocktail is adapted by changing its ingredient list, how can the cocktail name be modified

Dynamics of trimming the content of face representations for categorization in the brain

To understand visual cognition, it is imperative to determine when, how and with what information the human brain categorizes the visual input. Visual categorization consistently involves at least an early and a late stage: the occipito-temporal N170 event related potential related to stimulus encoding and the parietal P300 involved in perceptual decisions. Here we sought to understand how the brain globally transforms its representations of face categories from their early encoding to the later decision stage over the 400 ms time window encompassing the N170 and P300 brain events. We applied classification image techniques to the behavioral and electroencephalographic data of three observers who categorized seven facial expressions of emotion and report two main findings: (1) Over the 400 ms time course, processing of facial features initially spreads bilaterally across the left and right occipito-temporal regions to dynamically converge onto the centro-parietal region; (2) Concurrently, information processing gradually shifts from encoding common face features across all spatial scales (e.g. the eyes) to representing only the finer scales of the diagnostic features that are richer in useful information for behavior (e.g. the wide opened eyes in 'fear'; the detailed mouth in 'happy'). Our findings suggest that the brain refines its diagnostic representations of visual categories over the first 400 ms of processing by trimming a thorough encoding of features over the N170, to leave only the detailed information important for perceptual decisions over the P300