An approximately 15,000-year record of El Nino-driven alluviation in southwestern ecuador

Debris flows have deposited inorganic laminae in an alpine lake that is 75 kilometers east of the Pacific Ocean, in Ecuador. These storm-induced events were dated by radiocarbon, and the age of laminae that are less than 200 years old matches the historic record of El Nino events. From about 15,000 to about 7000 calendar years before the present, the periodicity of clastic deposition is greater than or equal to 15 years; thereafter, there is a progressive increase in frequency to periodicities of 2 to 8.5 years. This is the modern El Nino periodicity, which was established about 5000 calendar years before the present. This may reflect the onset of a steeper zonal sea surface temperature gradient, which was driven by enhanced trade winds.     

Effects of blue shrimp Litopenaeus stylirostris and goldlined rabbitfish Siganus lineatus in mono‐ and polyculture on production and environmental conditions

This study was conducted to compare the effects of shrimp and rabbitfish in mono‐ and polyculture stocked at high biomass on production and environmental conditions in a mesocosm system. Shrimp (14 g) and/or rabbitfish (19 g) were stocked in four treatments with different density but with the same total biomass (236 g m^?2), including shrimp monoculture (SM) (17 shrimp m^?2), shrimp–fish polyculture (SF) (11 shrimp and 4 rabbitfish m^?2), fish–shrimp polyculture (FS) (6 shrimp and 8 rabbitfish m^?2) and fish monoculture (FM) (12 rabbitfish m^?2). After 10 weeks of experiment, shrimp survival and biomass were low in the treatments where shrimp were dominant (SM, SF), while rabbitfish survival and biomass were high in all the treatments. Shrimp mortality was assumed to be related to an excess of the system carrying capacity (CC). Results suggested that CC is linked to shrimp biomass/density rather than the system eutrophication level. The ecosystem became heterotrophic as daily feed supply was beyond 7 g m^?2 per day. This threshold corresponded to the environmental CC of the semi‐intensive shrimp culture system. Under these conditions, the combination of high fish biomass and low shrimp biomass appeared as the most valuable in terms of system performances.     

Assessment of Vascular Perfusion Kinetics Using Contrast‐enhanced Ultrasound for the Diagnosis of Prostatic Disease in Dogs

Vascular perfusion was assessed in 10 dogs without prostatic abnormalities and 26 dogs with prostatic disease using contrast‐enhanced ultrasound. The time to reach peak contrast intensity (TTP) and peak perfusion intensity (PPI) were measured, and histological biopsies were collected from each dog. Biopsies confirmed normal prostate (n = 10), benign prostatic hyperplasia (n = 11), mixed benign pathology (n = 9), prostatitis (n = 1), prostatic malignancy [adenocarcinoma (n = 4); leiomyosarcoma (n = 1)]. In normal dogs, mean PPI was 16.8% ± 5.8 SD, and mean TTP was 33.6 ± 6.4 s. Benign conditions overall were not statistically different from normal dogs (p > 0.05); for benign prostatic hyperplasia, mean PPI was 16.9 ± 3.8%, and mean TTP was 26.2 ± 5.8 s; for mixed benign pathology mean PPI was 14.8 ± 7.8%, and mean TTP was 31.9 ± 9.7 s; for prostatitis, PPI was 14.2%, and TTP was 25.9 s. The malignant conditions overall had perfusion values that differed from the normal dogs (p < 0.05), although evaluation of the data for individual malignancies did not demonstrate a consistent trend; for adenocarcinomas, the PPI was numerically higher with a mean of 23.7 ± 1.9%, and the mean TTP was 26.9 ± 4.8 s, whilst for the dog with leiomyosarcoma values were numerically lower with a PPI of 14.1% and TTP of 41.3 s. Contrast‐enhanced ultrasound appears to offer some ability to document differences in perfusion that may differentiate between malignant and benign lesions, although studies with larger numbers of animals are required to confirm this contention.     

Integrated pest management: A strategy to control resistance of Spodoptera exigua and Helicoverpa armigera caterpillars to insecticides on soybean in the Mekong Delta

The antibiotic nucleoside tubercidin produced by Streptomyces viola-ceoniger was evaluated for in-vivo efficacy and in-vitro activity against Phytophthora capsici, Magnaporthe grisea and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. Tubercidin was more effective against P. capsici and M. grisea than against C. gloeosporioides in inhibiting mycelial growth. The bioassay on TLC plates was the most sensitive method and allowed the evaluation of antifungal activity of tubercidin even at a low concentration of 0.1 μgml^?1. As compared to the systemic fungicide metalaxyl, tubercidin was similar or somewhat higher in inhibition of mycelial growth of P. capsici. When applied to pepper stems, tubercidin was equally as effective as metalaxyl in the control of phytophthora blight in pepper plants, irrespective of application time and concentration. The treatment with 1000 μg ml^?1 tubercidin induced phytotoxicity in pepper plants. No control efficacy of phytophtora blight was observed in pepper plants supplied with a soil drench of tubercidin. Treatment with tubercidin at 500 μg ml^?1 completely protected pepper plants at first branch stage from phytophthora blight until four days after application. The control efficacy of tubercidin drastically declined seven days after application.