Influence de l'âge des grand-parents sur l'apparition des mâles chez le Rotifère Notommata copeus Ehr.

When parental females (♀♀P = mothers) of the rotifer Notommata copeus are placed in light conditions inducing the appearance of mictic females in their offspring (F₁), the age of the parents of these parental females significantly affects the ratio of mictic females in the F₁ generation.

The preparental females (♀♀PP = grandmothers), the parental females and the F₁ females are isolated in a medium changed at each generation and, in the second experimental series, changed daily: the preparental age effect implicates the transmission of substances on two generations.

This influence of the preparental age is rhythmic: the ratio of mictic females in F₁ related to this age varies in a sinusoidal manner. This influence is endogenous: it persists, always in a sinusoidal form, when the medium in which each grandmother is placed is changed daily.

Furthermore, the net reproduction ratio, Ro, does not vary significantly with the preparental age during these experiments.     

THE PRACTICAL CONTROL OF WIREWORM BY γ-BENZENE HEXACHLORIDE ('GAMMEXANE'): COMPARISONS WITH DICHLORODIPHENYLTRICHLORETHANE (D.D.T.)

Benzene hexachloride containing 13% of the insecticidally active gamma isomer known as 'Gammexane' has been used successfully in a considerable number of field trials in the control of wireworm. On heavily infested land the effective dosage rates associated with an appreciable reduction in wireworm population, and giving a marked improvement in plant establishment and substantial increases in yield, range between 1 and 6 lb./acre (2–12 oz./acre of Gammexane), on oats and wheat. The effective dosage rates vary and depend upon whether the insecticide is combine-drilled, broadcast, or applied as a seed dressing.
Although D.D.T. applied by similar methods was associated with similar reductions in wireworm population, the use of this insecticide resulted in smaller yield increases.     

Possible Generational Effects of Habitat Degradation on Alligator Reproduction

ABSTRACT Population decline of the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) was observed in Lake Apopka in central Florida, USA, in the early 1980s. This decline was thought to result from adult mortality and nest failure caused by anthropogenic increases in sediment loads, nutrients, and contaminants. Reproductive impairment also was reported. Extensive restoration of marshes associated with Lake Apopka has been conducted, as well as some limited restoration measures on the lake. Monitoring by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FFWCC) has indicated that the adult alligator population began increasing in the early 1990s. We expected that the previously reported high proportion of complete nest failure (θ₀) during the 1980s may have decreased. We collected clutches from alligator nests in Lake Apopka from 1983 to 2003 and from 5 reference areas from 1988 to 1991, and we artificially incubated them. We used a Bayesian framework with Gibbs sampler of Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation to analyze θ₀. Estimated θ₀ was consistently higher in Lake Apopka compared with reference areas, and the difference in θ₀ ranged from 0.19 to 0.56. We conducted change point analysis to identify and test the significance of the change point in θ₀ in Lake Apopka between 1983 and 2003, indicating the point of reproductive recovery. The estimated Bayes factor strongly supported the single change point hypothesis against the no change point hypothesis. The major downward shift in θ₀ probably occurred in the mid-1990s, approximately a generation after the major population decline in the 1980s. Furthermore, estimated θ₀ values after the change point (0.21) were comparable with those of reference areas (0.07–0.31). These results combined with the monitoring by FFWCC seem to suggest that anthropogenic habitat degradation caused reproductive impairment of adult females and decreases in θ₀ occurred with the sexual maturity of a new generation of breeding females. Long-term monitoring is essential to understand population changes due to habitat restoration. Such information can be used as an input in planning and evaluating restoration activities.     

A benefit-finding intervention for family caregivers of persons with Alzheimer disease: study protocol of a randomized controlled trial

Background

Patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) not treated with primary or rescue percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are at risk for recurrent ischemia, especially when viability in the infarct-area is present. Therefore, an invasive strategy with PCI of the infarct-related coronary artery in patients with viability would reduce the occurrence of a composite end point of death, reinfarction, or unstable angina (UA).

Methods

Patients admitted with an (sub)acute myocardial infarction, who were not treated by primary or rescue PCI, and who were stable during the first 48 hours after the acute event, were screened for the study. Eventually, we randomly assigned 216 patients with viability (demonstrated with low-dose dobutamine echocardiography) to an invasive or a conservative strategy. In the invasive strategy stenting of the infarct-related coronary artery was intended with abciximab as adjunct treatment. Seventy-five (75) patients without viability served as registry group. The primary endpoint was the composite of death from any cause, recurrent myocardial infarction (MI) and unstable angina at one year. As secondary endpoint the need for (repeat) revascularization procedures and anginal status were recorded.

Results

The primary combined endpoint of death, recurrent MI and unstable angina was 7.5% (8/106) in the invasive group and 17.3% (19/110) in the conservative group (Hazard ratio 0.42; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.18-0.96; p = 0.032). During follow up revascularization-procedures were performed in 6.6% (7/106) in the invasive group and 31.8% (35/110) in the conservative group (Hazard ratio 0.18; 95% CI 0.13-0.43; p < 0.0001). A low rate of recurrent ischemia was found in the non-viable group (5.4%) in comparison to the viable-conservative group (14.5%). (Hazard-ratio 0.35; 95% CI 0.17-1.00; p = 0.051).

Conclusion

We demonstrated that after acute MI (treated with thrombolysis or without reperfusion therapy) patients with viability in the infarct-area benefit from a strategy of early in-hospital stenting of the infarct-related coronary artery. This treatment results in a long-term uneventful clinical course. The study confirmed the low risk of recurrent ischemia in patients without viability.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00149591.     

ASSESSMENT OF LABORATORY MEDIA CONTROLS FOR DETERMINING SALMONELLA VIRULENCE POTENTIAL OF POULTRY WATER SOURCES USING A HILA:LACZY FUSION STRAIN

Salmonella is regarded as a primary foodborne pathogen commonly found in the gastrointestinal tract and internal organs of poultry. However, Salmonella is also capable of surviving in fresh water supplies. In this study, our efforts were to determine which media controls of varying nutrient availability would allow for accurately assessing the potential of a poultry house water source to influence virulence gene expression in Salmonella. The cages of the sampled layer house were divided into four separate quadrants. Virulence expression was measured using a β-galactosidase assay on a hilA:lacZY fusion strain of S. Typhimurium and calculated as Miller units to adjust for bacterial cell concentration measured as optical density. Virulence assays were performed with brain heart infusion broth (BHI) serving as the primary overall control which yielded values ranging from approximately 60–100 Miller units. Results showed that standing water obtained from quadrant 2 yielded a significantly different (P<0.05) virulence responses compared to other standing water samples from other quadrants. However, no significant difference was observed between the quadrants for the fresh water samples. BHI media proved to be the most consistent negative control for evaluating hilA response to poultry house water by yielding the lowest overall Miller unit values compared to other laboratory control media.     

Modelling population growth in stage-grouped organisms: a simple extension to the Leslie model

A simple method for decomposing a population's stage grouping into the underlying age structure is described. The population's dynamics can then be predicted using standard age-structured models, such as Leslie's matrix model. The method overcomes objections to previous attempts to use Leslie's procedure for modelling population growth in stage-grouped organisms. A hypothetical example is used to illustrate the new technique.     

FLUORESCENT DNA BINDING DYE-BASED APPROACH FOR MEASURING THE GROWTH OF AN ESCHERICHIA COLI LYSINE AUXOTROPH AND QUANTIFYING LYSINE

Microbiological assays for determination of bioavailable lysine appear to have many advantages. However, since the developed assay is based on bacterial growth and considerable optical density (OD) is required to detect distinguishable differences in extent of growth, it can be time consuming. The purpose of this study was to explore the fluorescence as an alternative method to measure bacterial growth instead of OD and examine the possibility to shorten the time required for the lysine assay. An assay based on SYTO 9 green fluorescent DNA binding dye (Live/Dead BacLight Protocol, Molecular Probes) was used to stain all bacteria in a population. Additional experiments were carried out to determine the ability of fluorescence based on SYTO 9 to overcome problems associated with high nonbacterial background that contributes to OD. From this study it appears that using fluorescence based on SYTO 9 green fluorescent staining, the E. coli lysine auxotroph growth assay can be completed in 9 h instead of 11 h and has the advantage of improved detection sensitivity. Problems associated with interference by high background nonbacterial OD can be partially resolved by fluorescence.