Scale Insects on Ornamental Plants

8 pp., 3 tables, 18 photosScale insects damage landscape plants, shrubs and trees. This publication explains how to control scale insects economically without damaging the environment, including sampling for scale crawlers, using natural enemies and applying pesticides

Springtails

Springtails are an insect pest of lawns and homes. They are not harmful to people, pets, plants, structures or furnishings. However, their presence and jumping behaviors make them a nuisance. This publication offers ideas for controlling them

Biological Control of Saltcedar

Saltcedar is an exotic shrub or small tree that has spread throughout the rivers, streams and lakes of west and southwest Texas and other areas of the western United States. This brochure explains an effort to introduce the saltcedar leaf beetle as a biological control measure against saltcedar. 8 pp., 3 photo

Evaluation of Wiring Constructions for Space Applications

A NASA Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OS&MA) program to develop lightweight, reliable, and safe wiring insulations for aerospace applications is being performed by the NASA Lewis Research Center (LeRC). As part of this effort, a new wiring construction utilizing high strength PTFE (poly tetrafluoroethylene) as the insulation has been tested and compared with the existing military standard polyimide-based MIL-W-81381 wire construction. Electrical properties which were investigated included ac corona inception and extinction voltages (sea level and 60,000 feet), time/current to smoke, and wire fusing time. The two constructions were also characterized in terms of their mechanical properties of flexural strength, abrasion resistance (23 C and 150 C), and dynamic cut-through (23 C and 200 C). The results obtained in this testing effort are presented and discussed in this paper

Islet primary cilia motility controls insulin secretion

Primary cilia are specialized cell-surface organelles that mediate sensory perception and, in contrast to motile cilia and flagella, are thought to lack motility function. Here, we show that primary cilia in human and mouse pancreatic islets exhibit movement that is required for glucose-dependent insulin secretion. Islet primary cilia contain motor proteins conserved from those found in classic motile cilia, and their three-dimensional motion is dynein-driven and dependent on adenosine 5\u27-triphosphate and glucose metabolism. Inhibition of cilia motion blocks beta cell calcium influx and insulin secretion. Human beta cells have enriched ciliary gene expression, and motile cilia genes are altered in type 2 diabetes. Our findings redefine primary cilia as dynamic structures having both sensory and motile function and establish that pancreatic islet cilia movement plays a regulatory role in insulin secretion

Effects of diet on resource utilization by a model human gut microbiota containing Bacteroides cellulosilyticus WH2, a symbiont with an extensive glycobiome

The human gut microbiota is an important metabolic organ, yet little is known about how its individual species interact, establish dominant positions, and respond to changes in environmental factors such as diet. In this study, gnotobiotic mice were colonized with an artificial microbiota comprising 12 sequenced human gut bacterial species and fed oscillating diets of disparate composition. Rapid, reproducible, and reversible changes in the structure of this assemblage were observed. Time-series microbial RNA-Seq analyses revealed staggered functional responses to diet shifts throughout the assemblage that were heavily focused on carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism. High-resolution shotgun metaproteomics confirmed many of these responses at a protein level. One member, Bacteroides cellulosilyticus WH2, proved exceptionally fit regardless of diet. Its genome encoded more carbohydrate active enzymes than any previously sequenced member of the Bacteroidetes. Transcriptional profiling indicated that B. cellulosilyticus WH2 is an adaptive forager that tailors its versatile carbohydrate utilization strategy to available dietary polysaccharides, with a strong emphasis on plant-derived xylans abundant in dietary staples like cereal grains. Two highly expressed, diet-specific polysaccharide utilization loci (PULs) in B. cellulosilyticus WH2 were identified, one with characteristics of xylan utilization systems. Introduction of a B. cellulosilyticus WH2 library comprising >90,000 isogenic transposon mutants into gnotobiotic mice, along with the other artificial community members, confirmed that these loci represent critical diet-specific fitness determinants. Carbohydrates that trigger dramatic increases in expression of these two loci and many of the organism's 111 other predicted PULs were identified by RNA-Seq during in vitro growth on 31 distinct carbohydrate substrates, allowing us to better interpret in vivo RNA-Seq and proteomics data. These results offer insight into how gut microbes adapt to dietary perturbations at both a community level and from the perspective of a well-adapted symbiont with exceptional saccharolytic capabilities, and illustrate the value of artificial communities

Potentials of Mean Force for Protein Structure Prediction Vindicated, Formalized and Generalized

Understanding protein structure is of crucial importance in science, medicine and biotechnology. For about two decades, knowledge based potentials based on pairwise distances -- so-called "potentials of mean force" (PMFs) -- have been center stage in the prediction and design of protein structure and the simulation of protein folding. However, the validity, scope and limitations of these potentials are still vigorously debated and disputed, and the optimal choice of the reference state -- a necessary component of these potentials -- is an unsolved problem. PMFs are loosely justified by analogy to the reversible work theorem in statistical physics, or by a statistical argument based on a likelihood function. Both justifications are insightful but leave many questions unanswered. Here, we show for the first time that PMFs can be seen as approximations to quantities that do have a rigorous probabilistic justification: they naturally arise when probability distributions over different features of proteins need to be combined. We call these quantities reference ratio distributions deriving from the application of the reference ratio method. This new view is not only of theoretical relevance, but leads to many insights that are of direct practical use: the reference state is uniquely defined and does not require external physical insights; the approach can be generalized beyond pairwise distances to arbitrary features of protein structure; and it becomes clear for which purposes the use of these quantities is justified. We illustrate these insights with two applications, involving the radius of gyration and hydrogen bonding. In the latter case, we also show how the reference ratio method can be iteratively applied to sculpt an energy funnel. Our results considerably increase the understanding and scope of energy functions derived from known biomolecular structures

Echocardiography-derived total atrial conduction time (PA-TDI duration): risk stratification and guidance in atrial fibrillation management

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a major cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. To early detect and to avoid AF-related complications, several cardiac imaging modalities and approaches aim to quantify the severity of the underlying atrial cardiomyopathy (i.e., the extent of atrial remodeling). However, most established cardiac imaging modalities just incorporate single components of atrial remodeling and do not reflect the complete multifactorial process, which may contribute to their limited predictive value. Echocardiography-derived PA-TDI duration is a sophisticated echocardiographic parameter to assess total atrial conduction time and directly reflects both electrical and structural changes to the atria. Therefore, PA-TDI duration provides a more comprehensive quantification of the extent of atrial remodeling than other imaging modalities. In this article we review the role of PA-TDI duration as a marker of atrial remodeling and summarize the available data on PA-TDI duration to identify patients at risk for AF, as well as to guide AF management. Moreover, we discuss how to assess PA-TDI duration and provide recommendations on the implementation of PA-TDI duration into routine clinical care. Graphic abstractCardiolog

Economic Aspects of Sanitation in Developing Countries

Improved sanitation has been shown to have great impacts on people's health and economy. However, the progress of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on halving the proportion of people without access to clean water and basic sanitation by 2015 has thus far been delayed. One of the reasons for the slow progress is that policy makers, as well as the general public, have not fully understood the importance of the improved sanitation solutions. This paper, by gathering relevant research findings, aims to report and discuss currently available evidence on the economic aspects of sanitation, including the economic impacts of unimproved sanitation and the costs and economic benefits of some common improved sanitation options in developing countries.; DATA USED IN THIS PAPER WERE OBTAINED FROM DIFFERENT INFORMATION SOURCES: international and national journal articles and reports, web-based statistics, and fact sheets. We used both online search and hand search methods to gather the information.; Scientific evidence has demonstrated that the economic cost associated with poor sanitation is substantial. At the global level, failure to meet the MDG water and sanitation target would have ramifications in the area of US$38 billion, and sanitation accounts for 92$142 billion (US$year 2005). This translates to a per capita spending of US$28 for sanitation. Annually, this translates to roughly US$14 million. The evidence complied in this paper demonstrates that investing in sanitation is socially and economically worthwhile. For every US$1 invested, achieving the sanitation MDG target and universal sanitation access in the non-OECD countries would result in a global return of US$9.1 and US$11.2, respectively.; Given the current state of knowledge, sanitation is undeniably a profitable investment. It is clear that achieving the MDG sanitation target not only saves lives but also provides a foundation for economic growth

Knowledge-based energy functions for computational studies of proteins

This chapter discusses theoretical framework and methods for developing knowledge-based potential functions essential for protein structure prediction, protein-protein interaction, and protein sequence design. We discuss in some details about the Miyazawa-Jernigan contact statistical potential, distance-dependent statistical potentials, as well as geometric statistical potentials. We also describe a geometric model for developing both linear and non-linear potential functions by optimization. Applications of knowledge-based potential functions in protein-decoy discrimination, in protein-protein interactions, and in protein design are then described. Several issues of knowledge-based potential functions are finally discussed.Comment: 57 pages, 6 figures. To be published in a book by Springe