Assessment of ecological risks in weed biocontrol: Input from retrospective ecological analyses

Prediction of the outcomes of natural enemy introductions remains the most fundamental challenge in biological control. Quantitative retrospective analyses of ongoing biocontrol projects provide a systematic strategy to evaluate and further develop ecological risk assessment. In this review, we highlight a crucial assumption underlying a continued reliance on the host specificity paradigm as a quantitative prediction of ecological risk, summarize the status of our retrospective analyses of nontarget effects of two weevils used against exotic thistles in North America, and discuss our prospective assessment of risk to a federally listed, threatened species (Cirsium pitcheri) based on those studies. Our analyses quantify the fact that host range and preference from host specificity tests are not sufficient to predict ecological impact if the introduced natural enemy is not strictly monophagous. The implicit assumption when such use is made of the host specificity data in risk assessment is that population impacts are proportional to relative preference and performance, the key components of host specificity. However, in concert with shifting awareness in the field, our studies demonstrate that the environment influences and can alter host use and population growth, leading to higher than expected direct impacts on the less preferred native host species at several spatial scales. Further, we have found that straightforward, easily anticipated indirect effects, on intraguild foragers as well as on the less preferred native host plant species, can be both widespread and significant. We conclude that intensive retrospective ecological studies provide some guidance for the quantitative prospective studies needed to assess candidate biological control agent dynamics and impacts and, so, contribute to improved rigor in the evaluation of total ecological risk to native species.     

Arachidonic acid metabolism in the murine eosinophil. III. Effect of nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drugs on lymphokine-directed eosinophil migration in vivo

In vitro studies of murine eosinophils indicated that lymphokine-stimulated metabolism of arachidonic acid by a lipoxygenase pathway was required for a migration response. In this study we tested the effects of drugs that affect arachidonic acid metabolism on lymphokine-dependent eosinophil accumulation in vivo by the use of 111In-labeled eosinophils. Indomethacin at different dosages either stimulated (1 mg/kg) or partially inhibited (5 to 25 mg/kg) eosinophil accumulation. Aspirin had no significant effects in doses up to 50 mg/kg. BW755C, a drug that inhibits both cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase, dramatically inhibited eosinophil accumulation at 25 to 125 mg/kg. Pretreatment in vitro of 111In-labeled eosinophils with some drugs known to inhibit lipoxygenase reduced their subsequent accumulation at a lymphokine-injected site in vivo, but the high concentrations required for inhibition suggested that the effects of the drugs were at least partially reversible. Pretreatment with indomethacin did not inhibit the ability of 111In-labeled eosinophils to accumulate at the site of lymphokine injection in vivo. It may be anticipated from these results that drugs inhibiting lipoxygenase will have critical effects on manifestations of immunologic reactions that recruit eosinophils.     

Hopf bifurcation in a stomatal oscillator

Stomata are microscopic openings in leaves of green plants which permit gas exchange. This paper presents a parameter study of a model of a stomatal oscillator first derived by Delwiche and Cooke in 1977. We prove the existence of an unstable limit cycle by using the theory of the Hopf bifurcation. Other bifurcations exhibited by the model are also discussed.     

The structure of a model membrane in relation to the viscoelastic properties of the red cell membrane

The molecular arrangement within a lamellar structure composed of human erythrocyte lipids is determined. The 45 A thick lipid layer, in water, is filled in the interior with a liquid-like configuration of the hydrocarbon chains of phospholipid molecules and is covered on both sides by their hydrophilic polar groups. Cholesterol is located so that part of its steroid nucleus is between the polar groups of the phospholipid molecules while the rest of the molecule extends into the inner hydrocarbon layer. This lipid leaflet would be expected to have the mechanical properties of a purely liquid surface, as other authors have shown for the "black" lipid membranes. Data are presented which demonstrate that the intact erythrocyte membrane is a tough viscoelastic substance with a Young''s modulus of 10⁶–10⁸ dynes/cm² and a viscosity of 10⁷–10¹⁰ poises. The parameters and the kinetics of membrane breakdown are incompatible with the model system of pure lipid. Caution must be exercised in applying various data on the model systems to intact membranes.