A procedure for evaluation of the indoor environment

Exposure to substances found in the indoor environment is known totrigger respiratory illnesses such as asthma. Despite this knowledge,information on how to identify and remove these exposures is scarce. Toaddress this issue, we describe a program of environmental assessmentdeveloped at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. Weevaluated buildings using a standardized assessment protocol. Thisprotocol included a combination of background information, visualinspection, volumetric air sampling, bulk sampling of suspicious areas,antigen measurement of housedust, and general measurements of the indoorclimate. We inspected a total of 63 buildings including 49 single unitstructures, 4 apartments, 4 town homes, 3 schools, 2 office buildings,and 1 mobile home. Most of these locations were identified because ofrespiratory ailments reported by the occupants. A screeningquestionnaire revealed factors that are known to be associated withfungal contamination such as leaks or flooding in 78% of thebuildings. Visual inspection confirmed these sources of contamination inthe majority of structures. Volumetric air sampling identified a highproportion of buildings with airborneAspergillus/Penicillium species. Stachybotrys wasfound in nearly 30% of these structures both in air and onsurface samples, and surprisingly, Stachybotrys spores werefound only in air in nearly 20%. Climactic factors were onlyweakly associated with fungal contamination. The homes of patients withrespiratory diseases often have significant fungal contamination thatcan be identified with a questionnaire. Using this standardizedapproach, factors associated with respiratory illnesses, usually fungalcontamination, frequently can be identified. Whether removal of theoffending exposure will lead to improve health remains to bedetermined.     

小菜蛾群体繁殖技术

小菜蛾是世界性十字花科蔬菜的主要害虫 ,也是迄今研究认为抗药性发展最快、最为严重的农业害虫。害虫抗药性以及蔬菜害虫防治技术等方面的研究使小菜蛾成为重要的实验昆虫。本文讨论小菜蛾室内群体繁殖技术的几种方法     

灰稻虱的饲养和饲毒

灰稻虱的饲养 ,虫源可从田间直接捕获繁殖 ,饲料用稻、麦、稗均可 ,但以稗草为最佳。饲毒须用低龄若虫在罹病小麦或水稻上吸毒 3天以上 ,无毒虫饲毒后须经过 1 5天以上的循徊期后才能用于感染接种。所用的带毒病株可直接从田间寻获 ,若需自己制备 ,可将通过了循徊期的带毒灰稻虱接种到麦苗或稻苗 (3～ 5叶期为宜 )上传毒 ,待病苗症状表现后用于饲毒。本文详细介绍了 1～ 3代灰稻虱饲养饲毒的方法和步骤。     

Cultivation of Gigartina skottsbergii (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta): Recent advances and challenges for the future

This study integrates landings statistics and biological studies of the red algaGigartina skottsbergii Setchell & Gardner. The analysis of the landings and carrageenan production in Chile suggeststhat this resource will suffer a strong harvesting pressure during the nextyears. Biological results on sporulation, germination, sporeling growth and survivorship in laboratory,indoor tanks and field conditions, indicated that cultivation of this species istechnically feasible, as spores can be seeded on ropes and other substrata. Vegetative propagation of this species through tissue fragmentationis also possible. Vegetative fragments of this carrageenophyte have 20 to30% higher growth rates than whole fronds in suspended culture systems. Protoplast production can be also explored for bypassing restrictions inspore availability. Major advantages that encourage the cultivation of G. skottsbergii include its gel quantity and quality, its pathogen-freecondition, a high reproduction potential and its regeneration capacity. Onthe other hand, the major constraints are related to its relatively slowgrowth as compared to other carrageenophytes, limited availability ofspores and high mortality during juvenile stages.     

Functional diversity for body actions in the mesencephalic locomotor region

1. Download : Download high-res image (240KB)
2. Download : Download full-size image

     

Creating Public Awareness of How Goats Are Reared and Milk Produced May Affect Consumer Acceptability

This study evaluated whether showing a video of the different ways of raising goats for milk affected consumer acceptability. Four combinations, 2 Videos (intensive [INT] and semiextensive [SEM] system) × 2 Milk Types (semiskimmed [S] and whole [W] milk), were evaluated by 70 habitual consumers of goat milk, who scored their liking and purchase intention during blind (B), expected (E), and informed (I) acceptability sessions. In the B session, consumers tasted both milk types without information. S samples were preferred over W samples. In the E session, SEM video created high expectations in terms of milk liking and purchase intent, whereas the opposite happened when showing INT video. In the I session, consumers showed a clear preference for combinations created using SEM video, regardless of milk type. W-SEM and S-INT were worse (negative disconfirmation) and better (positive disconfirmation) than expected, respectively. A complete assimilation toward expectations occurred only for S-INT. INT video adversely affected the acceptability of S samples. Concerning purchase intent, W-SEM and S-SEM were worse than expected, but the assimilation was complete only for S-SEM: SEM video increased purchase intent for S samples.     

Location-restricted dyadic interactions and maternal patterns

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of infant restraint on dyadic interactions and maternal foraging patterns. Five bonnet macaque (Macaca radiata) mother-infant dyads were observed under three conditions: high foraging demand for the mothers with nonrestrained contact between mothers and infants (HFD-NRC), high foraging demand with restrained contact (HFD-RC), and low foraging demand with restrained contact (LFD-RC). In the restrained contact conditions the infants lived in a nursery within the group pen that allowed dyadic nursing, contact, proximity, and grooming, but prevented the infants from being with their mothers in the remaining portions of the pen, including the foraging area. Observations began when the infants were a mean of 5.4 months old. HFD-RC resulted in decreased dyadic contact relative to HFD-NRC, but did not significantly affect foraging task engagement; there were, however, marked individual differences in the response patterns of the mothers. Dyadic contact was also decreased during the LFD-RC condition, but maternal patterns under low demand resulted in lower levels of infant contact initiation. This study demonstrated the feasibility of a nursery-restrained rearing paradigm in exploring the strategic patterns of coping with conflicting environmental and maternal demands in bonnet macaque mothers. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Influence of virgin queen honeybees (Apis mellifera) on queen rearing and foraging

ABSTRACT. Virgin queens are as effective as mated laying queens at inhibiting colonies from rearing queens but not from producing queen cell cups. Colonies without brood produce fewer queen cell cups than similar colonies that have brood. Colonies without queens forage much less and collect less pollen than with either a mated or virgin queen. Colonies with virgin queens forage as much as those with mated queens but collected less pollen.     

Wild bacterial probiotics fed to larvae of mass‐reared Queensland fruit fly [Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt)] do not impact long‐term survival,mate selection,or locomotor activity

Queensland fruit fly [Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt), Diptera, Tephritidae] is the most devastating insect pest impacting Australian horticulture. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is an important component of tephritid pest management programs. However, mass‐rearing and irradiation (to render insects sterile) may reduce the fitness and performance of the insect, including the ability of sterile males to successfully compete for wild females. Manipulation of the gut microbiome, including the supplementation with bacterial probiotics shows promise for enhancing the quality of mass‐reared sterile flies, however there are fewer published studies targeting the larval stage. In this study, we supplemented the larval stage of mass‐reared B. tryoni with bacterial probiotics. We tested several individual bacteria that had been previously isolated and characterized from the gut of wild B. tryoni larvae including Asaia sp., Enterobacter sp., Lactobacillus sp., Leuconostoc sp. We also tested a consortium of all four of these bacterial isolates. The fitness parameters tested included adult survival in field cages, laboratory mate selection of bacteria supplemented males by bacteria nonsupplemented females, and laboratory locomotor activity of adult flies. None of the bacterial probiotic treatments in the current study was significantly different to the control for field survival, mate selection or locomotor activity of adult B. tryoni, which agree with some of the other studies regarding bacterial probiotics fed to the larval stage of tephritids. Future work is needed to determine if feeding the same, and/or other probiotics to adults, as opposed to larvae can positively impact survival, mating performance, mating competitiveness and locomotor activity of B. tryoni. The bacterial group(s) and function of bacterial species that increase fitness and competitiveness is also of interest to tephritid mass‐rearing programs.