The potential use of lures for thrips biological control in greenhouses: practice and theory

Exploiting the response of thrips pest species to odours has long been a goal for improving thrips pest management including biological control. Applications of attractants could include improved monitoring, push-pull (in conjunction with a repellent odour), lure and kill, and lure and infect technologies, and surveillance for invasive organisms. We have recently discovered that 4-pyridyl carbonyl compounds can elicit responses from a range of thrips species (Thrips tabaci, T. major, T. obscuratus and Frankliniella occidentalis) in the laboratory, in glasshouses and in open field bioassays. Some of these compounds can increase the trap capture of these thrips species in both commercial greenhouses and broad acre commercial crops where these species are considered pests. However, our understanding of the mechanisms eliciting this response in thrips is still only rudimentary. Greater knowledge of the underlying behavioural mechanisms, including the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that may affect these responses, as well as optimal trap design and configuration, and odour formulation, will be essential if semiochemical-based approaches are to be integrated into thrips management programme

microRNA expression in the aging mouse lung

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a novel class of short double stranded RNA that mediate the post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. Previous studies have implicated changes in miRNA expression in the regulation of development and the induction of diseases such as cancer. However, although miRNAs have been implicated in the process of aging in C. elegans, nothing is known of their role in mammalian tissues. RESULTS: To address this question, we have used a highly-sensitive, semi-quantitative RT-PCR based approach to measure the expression profile of 256 of the 493 currently identified miRNAs in the lungs from 6 month (adult) and 18 month (aged) old female BALB/c mice. We show that, despite the characteristic changes in anatomy and gene expression associated with lung aging, there were no significant changes in the expression of 256 miRNAs. CONCLUSION: Overall, these results show that miRNA transcription is unchanged during lung aging and suggests that stable expression of miRNAs might instead buffer age related changes in the expression of protein-encoding gene

Interference with the Host Haemostatic System by Schistosomes

Schistosomes, parasitic flatworms that cause the tropical disease schistosomiasis, are still a threat. They are responsible for 200 million infections worldwide and an estimated 280,000 deaths annually in sub-Saharan Africa alone. The adult parasites reside as pairs in the mesenteric or perivesicular veins of their human host, where they can survive for up to 30 years. The parasite is a potential activator of blood coagulation according to Virchow's triad, because it is expected to alter blood flow and endothelial function, leading to hypercoagulability. In contrast, hepatosplenic schistosomiasis patients are in a hypocoagulable and hyperfibrinolytic state, indicating that schistosomes interfere with the haemostatic system of their host. In this review, the interactions of schistosomes with primary haemostasis, secondary haemostasis, fibrinolysis, and the vascular tone will be discussed to provide insight into the reduction in coagulation observed in schistosomiasis patients.Interference with the haemostatic system by pathogens is a common mechanism and has been described for other parasitic worms, bacteria, and fungi as a mechanism to support survival and spread or enhance virulence. Insight into the mechanisms used by schistosomes to interfere with the haemostatic system will provide important insight into the maintenance of the parasitic life cycle within the host. This knowledge may reveal new potential anti-schistosome drug and vaccine targets. In addition, some of the survival mechanisms employed by schistosomes might be used by other pathogens, and therefore, these mechanisms that interfere with host haemostasis might be a broad target for drug development against blood-dwelling pathogens. Also, schistosome antithrombotic or thrombolytic molecules could form potential new drugs in the treatment of haemostatic disorders

Attachment disorders diagnosed by community practitioners:a replication and extension

Background: While considered a rare diagnosis, reactive attachment disorder (RAD) is simultaneously the subject of considerable debate. A recent report suggested that RAD is overdiagnosed in community settings and that conduct problems may be used to make a diagnosis of RAD (Woolgar & Baldock, Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 20, 2015, 34–40). This study seeks to replicate and extend these findings. Method: Clinical assessment data from 100 consecutive admissions of maltreated foster and adopted children (ages 3–17) to a specialty treatment clinic in the United States were reviewed. Measures included semi-structured interviews of RAD and disinhibited social engagement disorder (DSED) symptoms and caregiver-report questionnaires of emotional problems, conduct problems, and the quality of the parent–child relationship. Results: Of the 100 cases reviewed, 39 presented with a diagnostic history of RAD, DSED, or ‘attachment disorder’. Of these cases, three were diagnosed in-clinic with DSED; no cases met diagnostic criteria for RAD according to DSM-5 criteria. However, analyses found that those diagnosed with RAD by community-based clinicians were significantly more likely to display conduct problems and to be adopted (as opposed to in foster care). Conclusions: These findings confirm those of Woolgar and Baldock (Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 20, 2015, 34–40). It appears that the diagnostic criteria of RAD are commonly being inaccurately applied in general community-based practice. Clarification of diagnostic criteria for RAD in recent revisions of diagnostic taxonomies, the accumulation of empirical data on RAD, and improved instrumentation are either poorly disseminated or inadequately implemented in community-based practice settings

Manual blood exchange transfusion does not significantly contribute to parasite clearance in artesunate-treated individuals with imported severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria

Background: Exchange transfusion (ET) has remained a controversial adjunct therapy for the treatment of severe malaria. In order to assess the relative contribution of ET to parasite clearance in severe malaria, all patients receiving ET as an adjunct treatment to parenteral quinine or to artesunate were compared with patients treated with parenteral treatment with quinine or artesunate but who did not receive ET. ET was executed using a standardized manual isovolumetric exchange protocol. Methods. All patients in the Rotterdam Malaria Cohort treated for severe P. falciparum malaria at the Institute for Tropical Diseases of the Harbour Hospital between 1999 and 2011 were included in this retrospective follow-up study. Both a two-stage approach and a log-linear mixed model approach were used to estimate parasite clearance times

Renormalization of Hamiltonian Field Theory; a non-perturbative and non-unitarity approach

Renormalization of Hamiltonian field theory is usually a rather painful algebraic or numerical exercise. By combining a method based on the coupled cluster method, analysed in detail by Suzuki and Okamoto, with a Wilsonian approach to renormalization, we show that a powerful and elegant method exist to solve such problems. The method is in principle non-perturbative, and is not necessarily unitary.Comment: 16 pages, version shortened and improved, references added. To appear in JHE

Chapter 8 – Beyond authors’ rights

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Role of non-coding RNAs in maintaining primary airway smooth muscle cells

BACKGROUND: The airway smooth muscle (ASM) cell maintains its own proliferative rate and contributes to the inflammatory response in the airways, effects that are inhibited by corticosteroids, used in the treatment of airways diseases. OBJECTIVE: We determined the differential expression of mRNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs) and long noncoding RNA species (lncRNAs) in primary ASM cells following treatment with a corticosteroid, dexamethasone, and fetal calf serum (FCS). METHODS: mRNA, miRNA and lncRNA expression was measured by microarray and quantitative real-time PCR. RESULTS: A small number of miRNAs (including miR-150, −371-5p, −718, −940, −1181, −1207-5p, −1915, and −3663-3p) were decreased following exposure to dexamethasone and FCS. The mRNA targets of these miRNAs were increased in expression. The changes in mRNA expression were associated with regulation of ASM actin cytoskeleton. We also observed changes in expression of lncRNAs, including natural antisense, pseudogenes, intronic lncRNAs, and intergenic lncRNAs following dexamethasone and FCS. We confirmed the change in expression of three of these, LINC00882, LINC00883, PVT1, and its transcriptional activator, c-MYC. We propose that four of these lincRNAs (RP11-46A10.4, LINC00883, BCYRN1, and LINC00882) act as miRNA ‘sponges’ for 4 miRNAs (miR-150, −371-5p, −940, −1207-5p). CONCLUSION: This in-vitro model of primary ASM cell phenotype was associated with the regulation of several ncRNAs. Their identification allows for in-vitro functional experimentation to establish causality with the primary ASM phenotype, and in airway diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

A framework for digital sunken relief generation based on 3D geometric models

Sunken relief is a special art form of sculpture whereby the depicted shapes are sunk into a given surface. This is traditionally created by laboriously carving materials such as stone. Sunken reliefs often utilize the engraved lines or strokes to strengthen the impressions of a 3D presence and to highlight the features which otherwise are unrevealed. In other types of reliefs, smooth surfaces and their shadows convey such information in a coherent manner. Existing methods for relief generation are focused on forming a smooth surface with a shallow depth which provides the presence of 3D figures. Such methods unfortunately do not help the art form of sunken reliefs as they omit the presence of feature lines. We propose a framework to produce sunken reliefs from a known 3D geometry, which transforms the 3D objects into three layers of input to incorporate the contour lines seamlessly with the smooth surfaces. The three input layers take the advantages of the geometric information and the visual cues to assist the relief generation. This framework alters existing techniques in line drawings and relief generation, and then combines them organically for this particular purpose

Non-Abelian Magnetized Blackholes and Unstable Attractors

Fluctuations of non-Abelian gauge fields in a background magnetic flux contain tachyonic modes and hence the background is unstable. We extend these results to the cases where the background flux is coupled to Einstein gravity and show that the corresponding spherically symmetric geometries, which in the absence of a cosmological constant are of the form of Reissner-Nordstrom blackholes or the AdS_2xS^2, are also unstable. We discuss the relevance of these instabilities to several places in string theory including various string compactifications and the attractor mechanism. Our results for the latter imply that the attractor mechanism shown to work for the extremal Abelian charged blackholes, cannot be applied in a straightforward way to the extremal non-Abelian colored blackholes.Comment: 23 pages, 3 .eps figures; v2: Stability of minimal charge blackhole emphasized, Refs adde