Eco‐efficiency as a strategy for optimizing the sustainability of pest management

Agricultural industrialization and the subsequent reliance on pesticides has resulted in numerous unintended consequences, such as impacts upon the environment and by extension human health. Eco‐efficiency is a strategy for sustainably increasing production, while simultaneously decreasing these externalities on ecological systems. Eco‐efficiency is defined as the ratio of production to environmental impacts. It has been widely adopted to improve chemical production, but we investigate the challenges of applying eco‐efficiency to pesticide use. Eco‐efficiency strategies include technological innovation, investment in research and development, improvement of business processes, and accounting for market forces. These components are often part of integrated pest management (IPM) systems that include alternatives to pesticides, but its implementation is often thwarted by commercial realities and technical challenges. We propose the creation and adoption of an eco‐efficiency index for pesticide use so that the broad benefits of eco‐efficient strategies such as IPM can be more readily quantified. We propose an index based upon the ratio of crop yield to a risk quotient (RQ) calculated from pesticide toxicity. Eco‐efficiency is an operational basis for optimizing pest management for sustainability. It naturally favors adoption of IPM and should be considered by regulators, researchers, and practitioners involved in pest management. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry     

基于风险与效益模型的政府农业科技投入范围界定

在分析农业科技研发层次与演化流程的基础上,提出了不同研究阶段的农业技术类型和特征,构建了农业科技研发投入风险与效益模型,揭示了政府农业科技投入领域的选择行为,并以此界定了农业科技投入的合理范围。     

基于土地利用/覆盖的甘肃省景观生态风险时空变化特征

甘肃省景观类型丰富多样,在中国西部地区的生态安全中起关键性作用,也为当地发展提供着重要的物质基础和生态服务。由于气候变化和人类不合理活动的影响,甘肃省部分地区生态环境的安全与稳定遭到严峻挑战。本研究基于欧洲航空局全球土地利用/覆盖数据（CCI-LC）,利用动态度、转移矩阵方法分析了2005-2019年甘肃省土地利用/覆盖变化特征;通过构建景观生态风险指数并运用空间自相关分析法分析了景观生态风险的空间分布特征。结果显示：1)2005-2019年间,裸地面积减少最多,变化率1.88%,耕地次之,变化率2.31%;草地面积增加最多,变化率1.83%,建设用地次之,变化率191.08%。2）所有土地利用/覆盖类型中,建设用地的动态度最高且在整个研究时期内变化速率都保持在较高水平,综合动态度最大的时期为2010-2019年。3）土地利用/覆盖转移矩阵主要表现为耕地、林地、草地、裸地之间的转入与转出以及其他土地类型向建设用地的转入。4)2019年整体的生态风险值较2005年明显上升。其中低风险区和较低风险区面积最多,转化最频繁;中等风险区、较高风险区和高风险区面积虽然较少,但都存在不同程度的增长。...     

Intra- and interobserver assessments of intestinal wall thickness and segmentations from transverse sections of feline abdominal ultrasound images

Measurements of intestinal wall thicknesses from ultrasound imaging (US) are routinely used to support diagnoses of intestinal disorders in cats, however published studies describing observer agreement are currently lacking. The aim of this retrospective, observer agreement study was to quantify inter- and intraobserver repeatability and agreement in the measurement of intestinal wall layer thicknesses and the segmentation of transverse sections of small intestines in US images of 20 cats. Intestinal wall layer thickness measurements of the mucosa, submucosa, muscularis, serosa layer, and total thickness of these layers were performed on five cats with small cell epitheliotropic lymphoma, five with inflammatory bowel disease, and 10 with other conditions. Thickness measurements and the segmentation encompassing the serosa layer were obtained from five observers four times non-sequentially. The average standard deviation in thickness measurements (95% confidence interval) in the mucosa, submucosa, muscularis, serosa, and total thickness were 0.35 (0.07–0.95), 0.24 (0.07-0.52), 0.22 (0.06-0.49), 0.20 (0.05-0.49), and 0.57 (0.11-1.60) mm, respectively. The average intraclass correlation coefficients, which estimates the degree of consistency in thickness measurements and segmentation areas for each observer, ranged from 0.355 to 0.870 and 0.850 to 0.993, respectively. The interclass correlation coefficient, which estimates the degree of consistency when measuring a thickness or segmentation area over all observers ranged from 0.115 to 0.753, and 0.811 to 0.902, respectively. The overall average Dice Coefficient, which estimates the extent of overlap of the segmentations for all observers was 0.957 (0.933 to 0.972). Our results suggest segmentations of small intestines have a higher interobserver agreement than measurements of intestinal wall thicknesses.     

Hepatitis E virus in Cuba: A cross-sectional serological and virological study in pigs and people occupationally exposed to pigs

Surveillance of hepatitis E virus (HEV) in risk groups is an important strategy to monitor its circulation pattern and to timely detect changes thereof. The aims of this cross-sectional study were to estimate the prevalence of HEV infections in pigs and humans from different regions of the country, to identify risk factors for increasing anti-HEV IgG prevalence and to characterize HEV strains. The presence of anti-HEV antibodies was assessed by commercial ELISA in serum samples from the general population, farm and slaughterhouse employees, as well as pigs sampled in the three regions of Cuba from February to September 2016. Overall, individuals with occupational exposure to swine or swine products (70/248, 28.2%) were 4 times more likely to be seropositive compared to the general population (25/285, 8.7%; OR: 4.18; p < .001). Within the risk group, risk factors included age, number of years working in a professional activity with direct exposure to swine, geographic region and distance between residence and closest professional swine setting, while wearing gloves had a protective effect. Prevalence of total anti-HEV antibodies in swine was 88.2% (165/187) and HEV RNA was detected by real-time RT-PCR in 9.2% (16/173) swine stools. All HEV strains sequenced clustered within genotype 3. Some strains clearly belonged to subtype 3a, while another group of strains was related with subtypes 3b and 3 k but partial HEV sequences did not allow unequivocal subtype assignment. These findings suggest that the high HEV exposure in Cuban individuals with swine-related occupations could be due to enzootic HEV in certain regions, direct contact with infectious animals or their products as well as environmental contamination.