Myths, models and mitigation of resistance to pesticides. (1/14889)

Resistance to pesticides in arthropod pests is a significant economic, ecological and public health problem. Although extensive research has been conducted on diverse aspects of pesticide resistance and we have learned a great deal during the past 50 years, to some degree the discussion about 'resistance management' has been based on 'myths'. One myth involves the belief that we can manage resistance. I will maintain that we can only attempt to mitigate resistance because resistance is a natural evolutionary response to environmental stresses. As such, resistance will remain an ongoing dilemma in pest management and we can only delay the onset of resistance to pesticides. 'Resistance management' models and tactics have been much discussed but have been tested and deployed in practical pest management programmes with only limited success. Yet the myth persists that better models will provide a 'solution' to the problem. The reality is that success in using mitigation models is limited because these models are applied to inappropriate situations in which the critical genetic, ecological, biological or logistic assumptions cannot be met. It is difficult to predict in advance which model is appropriate to a particular situation; if the model assumptions cannot be met, applying the model sometimes can increase the rate of resistance development rather than slow it down. Are there any solutions? I believe we already have one. Unfortunately, it is not a simple or easy one to deploy. It involves employing effective agronomic practices to develop and maintain a healthy crop, monitoring pest densities, evaluating economic injury levels so that pesticides are applied only when necessary, deploying and conserving biological control agents, using host-plant resistance, cultural controls of the pest, biorational pest controls, and genetic control methods. As a part of a truly multi-tactic strategy, it is crucial to evaluate the effect of pesticides on natural enemies in order to preserve them in the cropping system. Sometimes, pesticide-resistant natural enemies are effective components of this resistance mitigation programme. Another name for this resistance mitigation model is integrated pest management (IPM). This complex model was outlined in some detail nearly 40 years ago by V. M. Stern and colleagues. To deploy the IPM resistance mitigation model, we must admit that pest management and resistance mitigation programmes are not sustainable if based on a single-tactic strategy. Delaying resistance, whether to traditional pesticides or to transgenic plants containing toxin genes from Bacillus thuringiensis, will require that we develop multi-tactic pest management programmes that incorporate all appropriate pest management approaches. Because pesticides are limited resources, and their loss can result in significant social and economic costs, they should be reserved for situations where they are truly needed--as tools to subdue an unexpected pest population outbreak. Effective multi-tactic IPM programmes delay resistance (= mitigation) because the number and rates of pesticide applications will be reduced.  (+info)

Referenceless interleaved echo-planar imaging. (2/14889)

Interleaved echo-planar imaging (EPI) is an ultrafast imaging technique important for applications that require high time resolution or short total acquisition times. Unfortunately, EPI is prone to significant ghosting artifacts, resulting primarily from system time delays that cause data matrix misregistration. In this work, it is shown mathematically and experimentally that system time delays are orientation dependent, resulting from anisotropic physical gradient delays. This analysis characterizes the behavior of time delays in oblique coordinates, and a new ghosting artifact caused by anisotropic delays is described. "Compensation blips" are proposed for time delay correction. These blips are shown to remove the effects of anisotropic gradient delays, eliminating the need for repeated reference scans and postprocessing corrections. Examples of phantom and in vivo images are shown.  (+info)

Modeling breathing-zone concentrations of airborne contaminants generated during compressed air spray painting. (3/14889)

This paper presents a mathematical model to predict breathing-zone concentrations of airborne contaminants generated during compressed air spray painting in cross-flow ventilated booths. The model focuses on characterizing the generation and transport of overspray mist. It extends previous work on conventional spray guns to include exposures generated by HVLP guns. Dimensional analysis and scale model wind-tunnel studies are employed using non-volatile oils, instead of paint, to produce empirical equations for estimating exposure to total mass. Results indicate that a dimensionless breathing zone concentration is a nonlinear function of the ratio of momentum flux of air from the spray gun to the momentum flux of air passing through the projected area of the worker's body. The orientation of the spraying operation within the booth is also very significant. The exposure model requires an estimate of the contaminant generation rate, which is approximated by a simple impactor model. The results represent an initial step in the construction of more realistic models capable of predicting exposure as a mathematical function of the governing parameters.  (+info)

The impact of a multidisciplinary approach on caring for ventilator-dependent patients. (4/14889)

OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinical and financial outcomes of a highly structured multidisciplinary care model for patients in an intensive care unit (ICU) who require prolonged mechanical ventilation. The structured model outcomes (protocol group) are compared with the preprotocol outcomes. DESIGN: Descriptive study with financial analysis. SETTING: A twelve-bed medical-surgical ICU in a non-teaching tertiary referral center in Ogden, Utah. STUDY PARTICIPANTS: During a 54 month period, 469 consecutive intensive care patients requiring mechanical ventilation for longer than 72 hours who did not meet exclusion criteria were studied. INTERVENTIONS: A multidisciplinary team was formed to coordinate the care of ventilator-dependent patients. Care was integrated by daily collaborative bedside rounds, monthly meetings, and implementation of numerous guidelines and protocols. Patients were followed from the time of ICU admission until the day of hospital discharge. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patients were assigned APACHE II scores on admission to the ICU, and were divided into eight diagnostic categories. ICU length of stay, hospital length of stay, costs, charges, reimbursement, and in-hospital mortality were measured. RESULTS: Mortality in the preprotocol and protocol group, after adjustment for APACHE II scores, remained statistically unchanged (21-23%). After we implemented the new care model, we demonstrated significant decreases in the mean survivor's ICU length of stay (19.8 days to 14.7 days, P= 0.001), hospital length of stay (34.6 days to 25.9 days, P=0.001), charges (US$102500 to US$78500, P=0.001), and costs (US$71900 to US$58000, P=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of a structured multidisciplinary care model to care for a heterogeneous population of ventilator-dependent ICU patients was associated with significant reductions in ICU and hospital lengths of stay, charges, and costs. Mortality rates were unaffected.  (+info)

Simultaneous measurement of evoked release and [Ca2+]i in a crayfish release bouton reveals high affinity of release to Ca2+. (5/14889)

The opener neuromuscular junction of crayfish was used to determine the affinity of the putative Ca2+ receptor(s) responsible for evoked release. Evoked, asynchronous release, and steady-state intracellular Ca2+ concentration, [Ca2+]ss, were measured concomitantly in single release boutons. It was found that, as expected, asynchronous release is highly correlated with [Ca2+]ss. Surprisingly, evoked release was also found to be highly correlated with [Ca2+]ss. The quantal content (m) and the rate of asynchronous release (S) showed sigmoidal dependence on [Ca2+]ss. The slope log m/log [Ca2+]ss varied between 1.6 and 3.3; the higher slope observed at the lower [Ca2+]o. The slope log S/log [Ca2+]ss varied between 3 and 4 and was independent of [Ca2+]o. These results are consistent with the assumption that evoked release is controlled by the sum of [Ca2+]ss and the local elevation of Ca2+ concentration near the release sites resulting from Ca2+ influx through voltage-gated Ca2+ channels (Y). On the basis of the above, we were able to estimate Y. We found Y to be significantly <10 microM even for [Ca2+]o = 13.5 mM. The dissociation constant (Kd) of the Ca2+ receptor(s) associated with evoked release was calculated to be in the range of 4-5 microM. This value of Kd is similar to that found previously for asynchronous release.  (+info)

Resolution of fluorescence correlation measurements. (6/14889)

The resolution limit of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy for two-component solutions is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The autocorrelation function for two different particles in solution were computed, statistical noise was added, and the resulting curve was fitted with a least squares fit. These simulations show that the ability to distinguish between two different molecular species in solution depends strongly on the number of photons detected from each particle, their difference in size, and the concentration of each component in solution. To distinguish two components, their diffusion times must differ by at least a factor of 1.6 for comparable quantum yields and a high fluorescence signal. Experiments were conducted with Rhodamine 6G and Rhodamine-labeled bovine serum albumin. The experimental results support the simulations. In addition, they show that even with a high fluorescence signal but significantly different quantum yields, the diffusion times must differ by a factor much bigger than 1.6 to distinguish the two components. Depending on the quantum yields and the difference in size, there exists a concentration threshold for the less abundant component below which it is not possible to determine with statistical means alone that two particles are in solution.  (+info)

Formal analysis of electrogenic sodium, potassium, chloride and bicarbonate transport in mouse colon epithelium. (7/14889)

1. The mammalian colonic epithelium carries out a number of different transporting activities simultaneously, of which more than one is increased following activation with a single agonist. These separate activities can be quantified by solving a set of equations describing these activities, provided some of the dependent variables can be eliminated. Using variations in the experimental conditions, blocking drugs and comparing wild type tissues with those from transgenic animals this has been achieved for electrogenic ion transporting activity of the mouse colon. 2. Basal activity and that following activation with forskolin was measured by short circuit current in isolated mouse colonic epithelia from normal and cystic fibrosis (CF) mice. 3. Using amiloride it is shown that CF colons show increased electrogenic sodium absorption compared to wild type tissues. CF mice had elevated plasma aldosterone, which may be responsible for part or all of the increased sodium absorbtion in CF colons. 4. The derived values for electrogenic chloride secretion and for electrogenic potassium secretion were increased by 13 and 3 fold respectively by forskolin, compared to basal state values for these processes. 5. The loop diuretic, frusemide, completely inhibited electrogenic potassium secretion, but apparently only partially inhibited electrogenic chloride secretion. However, use of bicarbonate-free solutions and acetazolamide reduced the frusemide-resistant current, suggesting that electrogenic bicarbonate secretion accounts for the frusemide-resistant current. 6. It is argued that the use of tissues from transgenic animals is an important adjunct to pharmacological analysis, especially where effects in tissues result in the activation of more than one sort of response.  (+info)

Stretching lattice models of protein folding. (8/14889)

A new class of experiments that probe folding of individual protein domains uses mechanical stretching to cause the transition. We show how stretching forces can be incorporated in lattice models of folding. For fast folding proteins, the analysis suggests a complex relation between the force dependence and the reaction coordinate for folding.  (+info)