Choosing wisely: practical considerations on treatment efficacy and safety of asthma in the elderly

The prevalence of asthma in the most advanced ages is similar to that of younger ages. However, the concept that older individuals may suffer from allergic asthma has been largely denied in the past, and a common belief attributes to asthma the definition of “rare” disease. Indeed, asthma in the elderly is often underdiagnosed or diagnosed as COPD, thus leading to undertreatment of improper treatment. This is also due to the heterogeneity of clinical and functional presentations of geriatric asthma, including the partial loss of reversibility and the lower occurrence of the allergic component in this age range. The older asthmatic patients are also characterized the coexistence of comorbid conditions that, in conjunction with age-associated structural and functional changes of the lung, may contribute to complicate the management of asthma. The current review addresses the main issues related to the management of allergic asthma in the geriatric age. In particular, the paper aims at revising current pharmacological and non pharmacological treatments for allergic asthmatics of advanced ages, primarily focusing on their safety and efficacy, although most behaviors are an arbitrary extrapolation of what has been tested in young ages. In fact, age has always represented an exclusion criterion for eligibility to clinical trials. Experimental studies and real life observations specifically testing the efficacy and safety of therapeutic approaches in allergic asthma in the elderly are urgently needed.     

Profiles of trace elements and stable isotopes derived from giant long-lived Tridacna gigas bivalves: Potential applications in paleoclimate studies

This study investigates the environmental and biological controls on trace element partitioning and stable isotope composition of modern giant long-lived bivalves (Tridacna gigas) with the aim to use these archives for paleoclimatic reconstructions. Firstly, the intra-shell variability is studied by measuring time equivalent profiles in the different shell layers characterised by different growth rates. Secondly, the inter-site variability is studied by comparing profiles derived from three modern specimens collected in sites across the Indo-Pacific region characterised by different ranges of temperature and productivity.These results show that δ¹⁸O profiles are highly reproducible across the shell regardless of significantly different growth rates. Shell δ¹⁸O is primarily controlled by water δ¹⁸O and temperature. Comparison of intra shell Mg/Ca profiles shows a clear and systematic partitioning where inner layer Mg/Ca values are a least 2–3 times higher than outer layer and hinge areas. Inner layer Mg/Ca shows seasonal oscillations but superimposed on an ontogenetic trend with increasing values and increasing amplitude Mg/Ca oscillations with age. The Sr/Ca profiles do not show clear reproducible seasonal trends in the different shell zones. It is concluded that Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca profiles appear to reflect a combination of biological and environmental controls that will need to be disentangled before using these proxies in paleoclimatic studies.Finally, intra shell Ba/Ca profiles are reproducible in great detail for all modern specimens studied. Inter-site comparison shows that the amplitude and the timing of the Ba/Ca peaks appear to reflect the timing and the amplitude of the chlorophyll peaks associated with phytoplankton blooms at each locality making this tracer a potential paleoproductivity indicator.     

Odor specificity testing in the assessment of efficacy and non-target risk for Trichogramma ostriniae (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae)

Trichogramma ostriniae Pang and Chen (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) is an indigenous egg parasitoid of Ostrinia furnacalis Guenée (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) in China. We evaluated T. ostriniae's responses in olfactometer and wind tunnel assays to various host and plant odors that are likely to impact the efficacy and non-target risk of utilizing T. ostriniae as an augmentative biocontrol agent against Ostrinia nubilalis Hübner in the USA. In a Y-olfactometer, female T. ostriniae exhibited innate positive responses to the egg mass volatiles, scale volatiles, and synthetic sex pheromones of O. nubilalis. When exposed to O. nubilalis pheromone while walking on a platform in a wind tunnel, the wasps manifested significant changes in patch exploration behavior, including delayed dispersal from the platform and slowed walking. The wasps did not respond innately to the synthetic pheromone of a non-target species, Spodoptera frugiperda J. E. Smith (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), however. Exposing wasps to S. frugiperda pheromone together with eggs of a factitious rearing host prior to testing also did not alter the wasps’ lack of response to the pheromone, indicating that associative learning of the novel odor did not occur. Lastly, wasps showed no innate responses to leaf volatiles from corn (Zea mays L.) and pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), two crops attacked by O. nubilalis. We conclude that T. ostriniae is likely to be highly efficient at finding O. nubilalis eggs in the field through the exploitation of host chemical cues. Further, T. ostriniae's response to moth pheromone appears to be relatively host-specific, since the wasps responded to the pheromone of a congener to their natural host, but not to the pheromone of a more distantly related non-target species. This type of odor-specificity could be an important mechanism for reducing the risk of T. ostriniae attack on non-target species.     

Alternative statistical analyses for micropropagation: A practical case of proliferation and rooting phases in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Viburnum opulus</Emphasis>

Summary The kinds of data obtained in micropropagation studies are very often problematic, since they do not follow continous distribution and observations through culture vessels complicate measurement. Accordingly, standard analyses are often used, leading to misinterpretation of results. In this paper, we present a study of Viburnum opulus micropropagation using planned contrasts and fitting regression models in generalized linear models as an alternative statistical analysis of micropropagation results, and compare the results with that of traditional ANOVA. The advantages and possibilities of the alternative data analyses in plant tissue culture are discussed.