Leaf surface factors of transgenic Bt cotton associated with the feeding behaviors of cotton aphids: A case study on non-target effects

The present paper reports case study results of the risk assessment of transgenic Bt cotton on a non-target pest, cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii. Several types of techniques, i.e., electrical penetration graph (EPG), light and electron microscopy, bioassays and chemical analysis, were applied to investigate physical and chemical leaf factors of 2 transgenic Bt cotton lines (GK12 and GK19) and their pa-rental non-Bt cotton line (Simian3) associated with searching and feeding behaviors of cotton aphids on leaves or leaf extracts of cotton plants. EPG results showed that there were some differences among behaviors of cotton aphids on 2 Bt cotton and 1 non-Bt cotton lines. Cotton aphids performed similarly to leaf surface extracts from 3 cotton lines; and leaf surface chemicals, mainly volatiles and waxes, were almost identical in the components and concentrations among the cotton lines. However, three cotton lines were quite different from each other in the densities of certain kinds of covering trichomes. Therefore, the relationships between the physical characteristics and the searching behaviors of cotton aphids on the three cotton lines were constructed as the regression equations. Glandular trichomes and covering trichomes with 5 branches influenced the cotton aphids' searching behaviors effectively; and other trichomes with other branches affected aphids in varying ways. These results demonstrated that leaf surface physical factors of transgenic Bt cotton lines different from their parental non-Bt line could affect the penetration behaviors of non-target cotton aphids. Cotton aphids penetrate and feed more easily on two Bt cotton lines than on the non-Bt cotton line.     

PERMANENT GENETIC RESOURCES: A set of primer pairs for amplifying the complete mitochondrial DNA of endangered Chinese egret (Aves, Ardeidae, Egretta eulophotes)

The Chinese egret is a globally endangered species. Here we describe a set of primer pairs to amplify its entire mtDNA. The polymerase chain reaction products (1000–2000 bp) were successfully amplified by using this primer set and were then sequenced and aligned. The contiguous mtDNA sequences of the Chinese egret were assembled to be a circular molecule (17 579 bp). This primer set was also confirmed to be useful for six other species of ardeid birds. The versatility of this primer set will provide a groundwork for further studies on the genetic structure and molecular evolution of the ardeid species.     

氮源和真菌诱导子对铁皮石斛原球茎悬浮培养的影响

利用正交实验设计研究不同种类和浓度的氮源对铁皮石斛原球茎生长的影响,利用完全随机实验设计研究不同真菌诱导子对铁皮石斛原球茎生长和多糖积累的影响.结果表明硝态氮促进铁皮石斛原球茎鲜重和干重的增加( P ＜0.05);铵态氮促进铁皮石斛原球茎鲜重增加( P ＜0.05).无论鲜重还是干重,硝态氮和铵态氮的影响均不存在互作,最佳组合为:67-V培养液 100 mg/L (NH4)2SO4 800 mg/L KNO3 30 g/L蔗糖 200 g/L马铃薯提取汁.F检验的结果表明,14种真菌诱导子对铁皮石斛原球茎生物量的增加(鲜重与干重)均无显著性影响( P ＞0.05).但与对照铁皮石斛原球茎的多糖含量相比,真菌诱导子g6、g14、g5、g4处理可使其多糖含量分别提高14%、9%、6%、4%.本研究获得了有利于铁皮石斛原球茎生长的硝态氮和铵态氮的最佳搭配方案以及有利于铁皮石斛原球茎积累多糖的四种真菌诱导子,表明通过液体悬浮培养生产铁皮石斛原球茎及其多糖成分具有较好的开发应用前景.     

Nonparametric regression using local kernel estimating equations for correlated failure time data

We study nonparametric regression for correlated failure timedata. Kernel estimating equations are used to estimate nonparametriccovariate effects. Independent and weighted-kernel estimatingequations are studied. The derivative of the nonparametric functionis first estimated and the nonparametric function is then estimatedby integrating the derivative estimator. We show that the nonparametrickernel estimator is consistent for any arbitrary working correlationmatrix and that its asymptotic variance is minimized by assumingworking independence. We evaluate the performance of the proposedkernel estimator using simulation studies, and apply the proposedmethod to the western Kenya parasitaemia data.     

Comparing treatments in the presence of crossing survival curves: an application to bone marrow transplantation

Summary .   In some clinical studies comparing treatments in terms of their survival curves, researchers may anticipate that the survival curves will cross at some point, leading to interest in a long-term survival comparison. However, simple comparison of the survival curves at a fixed point may be inefficient, and use of a weighted log-rank test may be overly sensitive to early differences in survival. We formulate the problem as one of testing for differences in survival curves after a prespecified time point, and propose a variety of techniques for testing this hypothesis. We study these methods using simulation and illustrate them on a study comparing survival for autologous and allogeneic bone marrow transplants.     

Nonparametric and semiparametric group sequential methods for comparing accuracy of diagnostic tests

SUMMARY: Comparison of the accuracy of two diagnostic tests using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves from two diagnostic tests has been typically conducted using fixed sample designs. On the other hand, the human experimentation inherent in a comparison of diagnostic modalities argues for periodic monitoring of the accruing data to address many issues related to the ethics and efficiency of the medical study. To date, very little research has been done on the use of sequential sampling plans for comparative ROC studies, even when these studies may use expensive and unsafe diagnostic procedures. In this article we propose a nonparametric group sequential design plan. The nonparametric sequential method adapts a nonparametric family of weighted area under the ROC curve statistics (Wieand et al., 1989, Biometrika 76, 585-592) and a group sequential sampling plan. We illustrate the implementation of this nonparametric approach for sequentially comparing ROC curves in the context of diagnostic screening for nonsmall-cell lung cancer. We also describe a semiparametric sequential method based on proportional hazard models. We compare the statistical properties of the nonparametric approach with alternative semiparametric and parametric analyses in simulation studies. The results show the nonparametric approach is robust to model misspecification and has excellent finite-sample performance.     

猪水泡病病毒全基因组核苷酸序列的测定与分析

猪水泡病是由猪水泡病病毒(Swine vesicular disease virus,SVDV)引起的猪的一种急性传染病,在症状上与口蹄疫极其相似。该病流行性强,发病率高,能造成严重的公共卫生问题。国际兽医局将其列为动物A类传染病,我国农业部列为动物一类传染病。SVDV属于小RNA病毒科肠道病毒属,其核酸类型为单股正链RNA分子,无囊膜,病毒基因组含一个大的开放阅读框,编码一条由2185个氨基酸组成的多聚蛋白。     

我国登革3型病毒广西80-2株基因组全序列分析

对我国登革 3型病毒 80 2株基因组进行全序列测定 ,为了解其基因组结构与功能的关系提供依据 .根据登革 3型病毒H87株的序列设计并合成引物 ,应用RT PCR和RACE法 ,对 80 2株基因组RNA进行扩增、克隆测序后获得我国登革 3型病毒广西株基因组序列 .该株病毒基因组全长10 696nt ,不含poly(A)尾 ,4种碱基数分别为A :3 4 3 7,C :2 2 15,G :2 773 ,U :2 2 71.包含一个读码框架 ,自 95至 10 2 67位 ,共 10 170个碱基 ,编码 3 3 90个氨基酸 ,5′和 3′非编码区长度分别为 94nt和4 3 2nt.与H 87株比较 ,核苷酸和氨基酸序列同源性均在 99%以上 ,有 2 8个碱基发生改变 ,其中 2 6个碱基突变发生在读码框架内 ,碱基转换 18个 ,颠换 10个 ;碱基突变引起 14个氨基酸的改变 .80 2株与H87株病毒的基因组全序列同源性高 ,变异度小 .     

Raking Kappa: Describing Potential Impact of Marginal Distributions on Measures of Agreement

Several authors have noted the dependence of kappa measures of inter-rater agreement on the marginal distributions of contingency tables displaying the joint ratings. This paper introduces a smoothed version of kappa computed after raking the table to achieve pre-specified marginal distributions. A comparison of kappa with raked kappa for various margins can indicate the extent of the dependence on the margins, and can indicate how much of the lack of agreement is due to marginal heterogeneity.     

Flexural properties of repaired heat‐polymerising acrylic resin after wetting with monomer and acetone

doi:10.1111/j.1741‐2358.2009.00321.x
Flexural properties of repaired heat‐polymerising acrylic resin after wetting with monomer and acetone Objectives: Repair strength can be improved by treating fractured surfaces of a denture. Background: This study investigated flexural properties of heat‐polymerised acrylic resin specimens repaired with auto‐polymerising and visible light curing (VLC) resins after the repair surfaces were wetted with monomers or acetone. Materials and Methods: Fifty‐four specimens (65 × 10 × 2.5 mm) were prepared and 48 of them were sectioned to simulate denture fracture. Butt‐joint designed repair surfaces were wetted with heat‐, auto‐polymerising monomers and acetone for 180 s and repaired with auto‐polymerising and VLC resins. After repairs, specimens were subjected to three‐point bending test and flexural strength, strain, fracture load, modulus of elasticity and deflection values were recorded. Data were analysed with Student t and LSD tests (p ≤ 0.05). Results: Overall flexural strength, strain, fracture load and deflection values of specimens repaired with VLC resin were significantly higher than the specimens repaired with auto‐polymerising resin for all types of wetting agent (p < 0.05). Within the wetting agents, heat‐ and auto‐polymerising monomers produced the best mechanical properties, while wetting with acetone did not provide superior effect over both monomers. Conclusion: In clinical use, wetting the repair surfaces may result in stronger repairs. The use of bonding agent in VLC resin repairs in combination with wetting agent results in improved flexural properties.