Dinotefuran and Piperonyl Butoxide Mixture for The Extermination and Prevention of Ctenocephalides Canis and Ctenocephalides Felis Felis In Dogs And Cats

Ctenocephalides canis and Ctenocephalides felis felis are insects which are among the most common ectoparasites of common household dogs and cats. Flea killers have been developed for decades to counter this worldwide pest. It is a never-ending battle because of the continuous genetic resistance presented by the pest. In the present study, we applied a mixture of the pesticide Dinotefuran (26% w/v) and the synergist Piperonyl butoxide (6% w/v) to dogs (Solpreme Dogtrade and cats (Solpreme Cattrade) infested with the fleas via ldquoSpot onrdquo method. The treatment exterminated all of the fleas within 3 days (100%, plt 0.001). Re-infestation after 10 days caused an increase in the number of fleas, yet most of the effect lasted for at least 30 days. Further tests showed that the treatment is safe, water resistant, and has a long shelf life. The development of this novel mixture of substances provides an effective, safe means in the struggle with the continuous development of resistance to pesticides among major skin parasites

The teratogenicity and behavioral teratogenicity of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and di-butyl Phthalate (DBP) in a chick model

Phthalates are industrial chemicals widely used in consumer products, plastics and children toys, and the risk of exposure to phthalates, especially prenatal exposure, is a growing concern justifying the development of an animal model to better understand their effect. The present study was designed to evaluate the suitability of a chick model for phthalate DEHP teratogenicity and neurobehavioral teratogenicity, a model which is simple and devoid of potential confounding factors such as maternal toxicity, maternal-fetal unit and maternalneonatal interactions; major findings were confirmed in the DBP study. Prehatch exposure to DEHP in doses ranging from 20 to 100 mg/kg, reduced the percent hatching from 80% in control eggs to 65%, and increased late hatchings from 12.5% in control eggs to 29.4%. In addition it induced developmental defects characterized by an opening or weakening of abdominal muscles allowing internal organs to protrude externally with or without a sac, omphalocele or gastroschisis, respectively. The effect was dose dependent ranging from 8% with DEHP (20 mg/kg) to 22% (100 mg/kg). Similar treatment with DBP 100 mg/kg has reduced percentage hatching to 57% and increased late hatching to 37.5%, with a 14% increase in gastroschisis. Biochemical evaluation revealed elevated levels of alkaline phosphatase, which reflects non-specific toxicity of DEHP at such a high dose. Behavioral evaluation using an imprinting test and locomotor activity on chicks pretreated with DEHP (100 mg/kg) has shown an abolishment of imprinting performance from the control (0.65) preference ratio. DNA damage measurements of the metabolite 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG) in blood samples showed an increase of 39.7% after prehatch exposure to phthalates. This was statistically significant for DEHP and indicates genetic toxicity, since part of the teratogenic activity is associated with oxidative stress and DNA damage.This study was supported by a grant from the Al-Quds Nutrition & Health Research Institute. The authors would like to thank Mr. Rateb Hussein and Mr. Munther Metani for their technical assistance, and Dr. Tamer Essawi and Mr. Firas Hassan for their help in performing the biochemical measurements

Senate: A Maliciously-Secure MPC Platform for Collaborative Analytics

Many organizations stand to benefit from pooling their data together in order to draw mutually beneficial insights -- e.g., for fraud detection across banks, better medical studies across hospitals, etc. However, such organizations are often prevented from sharing their data with each other by privacy concerns, regulatory hurdles, or business competition. We present Senate, a system that allows multiple parties to collaboratively run analytical SQL queries without revealing their individual data to each other. Unlike prior works on secure multi-party computation (MPC) that assume that all parties are semi-honest, Senate protects the data even in the presence of malicious adversaries. At the heart of Senate lies a new MPC decomposition protocol that decomposes the cryptographic MPC computation into smaller units, some of which can be executed by subsets of parties and in parallel, while preserving its security guarantees. Senate then provides a new query planning algorithm that decomposes and plans the cryptographic computation effectively, achieving a performance of up to 145$\times$ faster than the state-of-the-art

TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Indian summer monsoon onset forecast skill in the UK Met Office initialized coupled seasonal forecasting system (GloSea5-GC2)

Accurate and precise forecasting of the Indian monsoon is important for the socio-economic security of India, with improvements in agriculture and associated sectors from prediction of the monsoon onset. In this study we establish the skill of the UK Met Office coupled initialized global seasonal forecasting system, GloSea5-GC2, in forecasting Indian monsoon onset. We build on previous work that has demonstrated the good skill of GloSea5 at forecasting interannual variations of the seasonal mean Indian monsoon using measures of large-scale circulation and local precipitation. We analyze the summer hindcasts from a set of three springtime start-dates in late April/early May for the 20-year hindcast period (1992-2011). The hindcast set features at least fifteen ensemble members for each year and is analyzed using five different objective monsoon indices. These indices are designed to examine large and local-scale measures of the monsoon circulation, hydrological changes, tropospheric temperature gradient, or rainfall for single value (area-averaged) or grid-point measures of the Indian monsoon onset. There is significant correlation between onset dates in the model and those found in reanalysis. Indices based on large-scale dynamic and thermodynamic indices are better at estimating monsoon onset in the model rather than local-scale dynamical and hydrological indices. This can be attributed to the model's better representation of large-scale dynamics compared to local-scale features. GloSea5 may not be able to predict the exact date of monsoon onset over India, but this study shows that the model has a good ability at predicting category-wise monsoon onset, using early, normal or late tercile categories. Using a grid-point local rainfall onset index, we note that the forecast skill is highest over parts of central India, the Gangetic plains, and parts of coastal India - all zones of extensive agriculture in India. El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) forcing in the model improves the forecast skill of monsoon onset when using a large-scale circulation index, with late monsoon onset coinciding with El Niño conditions and early monsoon onset more common in La Niña years. The results of this study suggest that GloSea5's ensemble-mean forecast may be used for reliable Indian monsoon onset prediction a month in advance despite systematic model errors

Geophagy Practices and the Content of Chemical Elements in the Soil Eaten by Pregnant Women in Artisanal and Small Scale Gold Mining Communities in Tanzania.

Geophagy, a form of pica, is the deliberate consumption of soil and is relatively common across Sub-Saharan Africa. In Tanzania, pregnant women commonly eat soil sticks sold in the market (pemba), soil from walls of houses, termite mounds, and ground soil (kichuguu). The present study examined geophagy practices of pregnant women in a gold mining area of Geita District in northwestern Tanzania, and also examined the potential for exposure to chemical elements by testing soil samples. We conducted a cross sectional study using a convenience sample of 340 pregnant women, ranging in age from 15-49 years, who attended six government antenatal clinics in the Geita District, Tanzania. Structured interviews were conducted in June-August, 2012, to understand geophagy practices. In addition, soil samples taken from sources identified by pregnant women practicing geophagy were analysed for mineral element content. Geophagy was reported by 155 (45.6%) pregnant women with 85 (54.8%) initiating the practice in the first trimester. A total of 101 (65%) pregnant women reported eating soil 2 to 3 times per day while 20 (13%) ate soil more than 3 times per day. Of 155 pregnant women 107 (69%) bought pemba from local shops, while 48 (31%) consumed ground soil kichuguu. The estimated mean quantity of soil consumed from pemba was 62.5 grams/day. Arsenic, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, nickel and zinc levels were found in both pemba and kichuguu samples. Cadmium and mercury were found only in the kichuguu samples. Based on daily intake estimates, arsenic, copper and manganese for kichuguu and copper and manganese for pemba samples exceed the oral Minimum Risk Levels designated by the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry. Almost 50% of participants practiced geophagy in Geita District consistent with other reports from Africa. Both pemba and kichuguu contained chemical elements at varying concentration, mostly above MRLs. As such, pregnant women who eat soil in Geita District are exposed to potentially high levels of chemical elements, depending upon frequency of consumption, daily amount consumed and the source location of soil eaten

Genome evolution in the allotetraploid frog Xenopus laevis

To explore the origins and consequences of tetraploidy in the African clawed frog, we sequenced the Xenopus laevis genome and compared it to the related diploid X. tropicalis genome. We characterize the allotetraploid origin of X. laevis by partitioning its genome into two homoeologous subgenomes, marked by distinct families of ???fossil??? transposable elements. On the basis of the activity of these elements and the age of hundreds of unitary pseudogenes, we estimate that the two diploid progenitor species diverged around 34 million years ago (Ma) and combined to form an allotetraploid around 17-18 Ma. More than 56% of all genes were retained in two homoeologous copies. Protein function, gene expression, and the amount of conserved flanking sequence all correlate with retention rates. The subgenomes have evolved asymmetrically, with one chromosome set more often preserving the ancestral state and the other experiencing more gene loss, deletion, rearrangement, and reduced gene expression.ope

Protein complexes are under evolutionary selection to assemble via ordered pathways

Is the order in which proteins assemble into complexes important for biological function? Here, we seek to address this by searching for evidence of evolutionary selection for ordered protein complex assembly. First, we experimentally characterize the assembly pathways of several heteromeric complexes and show that they can be simply predicted from their three-dimensional structures. Then, by mapping gene fusion events identified from fully sequenced genomes onto protein complex assembly pathways, we demonstrate evolutionary selection for conservation of assembly order. Furthermore, using structural and high-throughput interaction data, we show that fusion tends to optimize assembly by simplifying protein complex topologies. Finally, we observe protein structural constraints on the gene order of fusion that impact the potential for fusion to affect assembly. Together, these results reveal the intimate relationships among protein assembly, quaternary structure, and evolution and demonstrate on a genome-wide scale the biological importance of ordered assembly pathways