Untersuchungen zum Einfluss von Temperatur und Licht auf die Fra?leistung von Macrolophus pygmaeus (Rambur, 1839) (Heteroptera: Miridae) an verschiedenen Wei?e Fliege-Arten

Whiteflies are one of the major pests in greenhouse cultivation. Traditional methods of pest control involve the use of pesticides, which may lead to the emergence of resistive vermin. Therefore and in the context of growing health- and environmental awareness alternative ways of pest control should be considered. One alternative approach is the deployment of natural antagonists to the vermin. An effective use of those organisms within pest control requires studies on their biology, their behaviour and their climatic tolerance. Biology and behaviour of the studied insects are presented in a synopsis of the scientific literature. For this paper laboratory experiments on the predation rate of the beneficial organism M. pygmaeus were conducted on different whitefly species under various conditions of both, temperature and light. The treatment was carried out on eggs and larval stages of the whitefly species T. vaporariorum and B. tabaci with a photoperiod of 9 and 16 h light and under temperatures of 11?C22°C. On infestation by T. vaporariorum a high effectiveness (68,4?C79,7%) of M. pygmaeus is shown under all tested light- and temperature conditions. On infestation of B. tabaci the effectiveness of M. pygmaeus was lower (8,5?C46,1%). For unknown reasons those two species did not reproduce in the rearing. The high predation rate of M. pygmaeus on eggs and larval stages of T. vaporariorum proved that M. pygmaeus can be effectively deployed at low (11?C13°C) and intermediate (18?C22°C) temperatures under both, short day- and long day conditions. Especially at low temperatures and short day conditions M. pygmaeus so far turns out to be a useful supplement or alternative.     

Don't look back in anger! Responsiveness to missed chances in successful and nonsuccessful aging

Life-span theories explain successful aging with an adaptive management of emotional experiences like regret. As opportunities to undo regrettable situations decline with age, a reduced engagement into these situations represents a potentially protective strategy to maintain well-being in older age. Yet, little is known about the underlying neurobiological mechanisms supporting this claim. We used a multimodal psychophysiological approach in combination with a sequential risk-taking task that induces the feeling of regret and investigated young as well as emotionally successfully and unsuccessfully (i.e., late-life depressed) aged participants. Responsiveness to regret was specifically reduced in successful aging paralleled by autonomic and frontostriatal characteristics indicating adaptive shifts in emotion regulation. Our results suggest that disengagement from regret reflects a critical resilience factor for emotional health in older age.     

Establishment of diagnostic criteria for feline nonflea-induced hypersensitivity dermatitis

Hypersensitivity dermatitides (HD) are commonly seen in cats, and they are usually caused by environmental, food and/or flea allergens. Affected cats normally present with one of the following clinical reaction patterns: head and neck excoriations, usually symmetrical self-induced alopecia, eosinophilic skin lesions or miliary dermatitis. Importantly, none of these clinical presentations is considered to be pathognomonic for HD skin diseases, and the diagnosis of HD is usually based on the exclusion of other pruritic diseases and on a positive response to therapy. The objectives of this study were to propose sets of criteria for the diagnosis of nonflea-induced HD (NFHD). We recruited 501 cats with pruritus and skin lesions and compared clinical parameters between cats with NFHD (encompassing those with nonflea, nonfood HD and those with food HD), flea HD and other pruritic conditions. Using simulated annealing techniques, we established two sets of proposed criteria for the following two different clinical situations: (i) the diagnosis of NFHD in a population of pruritic cats; and (ii) the diagnosis of NFHD after exclusion of cats with flea HD. These criteria sets were associated with good sensitivity and specificity and may be useful for homogeneity of enrolment in clinical trials and to evaluate the probability of diagnosis of NFHD in clinical practice. Finally, these criteria were not useful to differentiate cats with NFHD from those with food HD.     

Comparison of the effects of propofol or alfaxalone for anaesthesia induction and maintenance on respiration in cats

ObjectiveTo compare the effects of propofol and alfaxalone on respiration in cats.Study designRandomized, ‘blinded’, prospective clinical trial.AnimalsTwenty cats undergoing ovariohysterectomy.MethodsAfter premedication with medetomidine 0.01 mg kg⁻¹ intramuscularly and meloxicam 0.3 mg kg⁻¹ subcutaneously, the cats were assigned randomly into two groups: group A (n = 10) were administered alfaxalone 5 mg kg⁻¹ minute⁻¹ followed by 10 mg kg⁻¹ hour⁻¹ intravenously (IV) and group P (n = 10) were administered propofol 6 mg kg⁻¹ minute⁻¹ followed by 12 mg kg⁻¹hour⁻¹ IV for induction and maintenance of anaesthesia, respectively. After endotracheal intubation, the tube was connected to a non-rebreathing system delivering 100% oxygen. The anaesthetic maintenance drug rate was adjusted (± 0.5 mg kg⁻¹ hour⁻¹) every 5 minutes according to a scoring sheet based on physiologic variables and clinical signs. If apnoea > 30 seconds, end-tidal carbon dioxide (Pe′CO₂) > 7.3 kPa (55 mmHg) or arterial haemoglobin oxygen saturation (SpO₂) < 90% occurred, manual ventilation was provided. Methadone was administered postoperatively. Data were analyzed using independent-samples t-tests, Fisher's exact test, linear mixed-effects models and binomial test.ResultsManual ventilation was required in two and eight of the cats in group A and P, respectively (p = 0.02). Two cats in both groups showed apnoea. Pe′CO₂ > 7.3 kPa was recorded in zero versus four and SpO₂ < 90% in zero versus six cats in groups A and P respectively. Induction and maintenance dose rates (mean ± SD) were 11.6 ± 0.3 mg kg⁻¹ and 10.7 ± 0.8 mg kg⁻¹ hour⁻¹ for alfaxalone and 11.7 ± 2.7 mg kg⁻¹ and 12.4 ± 0.5 mg kg⁻¹ hour⁻¹ for propofol.Conclusion and clinical relevanceAlfaxalone had less adverse influence on respiration than propofol in cats premedicated with medetomidine. Alfaxalone might be better than propofol for induction and maintenance of anaesthesia when artificial ventilation cannot be provided.     

New splitting method for wood fracture characterization

Summary A testing procedure with a new and simple specimen shape is presented which is appropriate to characterize fracturing of inhomogeneous and complex materials like wood. With this, the fracture energy of spruce wood is determined in the TL and RL direction. The size effect, i.e. influences of specimen dimensions on K_IC and G_f (specific fracture energy) are investigated. Stress and deformation distribution in the newly developed specimens are analysed with FE methods. The measured load-displacement curves are approximated by bilinear softening diagrams and FE analysis. Based on these results, it is tried to interpret typical deviations from LEFM's behaviour by mechanisms like microcracking, crack branching or crack tip bridging.The authors thank Dr. A. Teischinger for supplying the testing material and Dipl. Ing M. Elser for preparation of the diagrams. Financial support of the Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Wien is gratefully acknowledged.     

Toward metrological traceability for DNA fragment ratios in GM quantification. 2. Systematic study of parameters influencing the quantitative determination of MON 810 corn by real-time PCR

This paper is part of a set of three papers investigating metrological traceability of the quantification of DNA fragments as, for instance, used for quantification of genetic modifications. This paper evaluates the possible impact of several factors on results of real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) measurements. It was found that the particle size of the powder samples does not have an influence, whereas the nature of the calibrant (plasmidic or genomic DNA) has a significant effect. Moreover, two real-time PCR detection methods (construct-specific and event-specific) for MON 810 corn were compared. The results obtained in a specifically designed interlaboratory study revealed a significant influence of the DNA extraction method on measurement results when the MON 810 construct-specific real-time PCR detection method was applied. Statistical analyses confirmed the importance of validating DNA extraction methods in conjunction with real-time PCR methods.     

Repeated drying–rewetting cycles and their effects on the emission of CO2, N2O,NO, and CH4 in a forest soil

Prolonged summer droughts due to climate change are expected for this century, but little is known about the effects of drying and wetting on biogenic trace‐gas fluxes of forest soils. Here, the response of CO₂, N₂O, NO, and CH₄ fluxes from temperate forest soils towards drying–wetting events has been investigated, using undisturbed soil columns from a Norway spruce forest in the “Fichtelgebirge”, Germany. Two different types of soil columns have been used for this study to quantify the contribution of organic and mineral horizons to the total fluxes: (1) organic horizons (O) and (2) organic and mineral soil horizons (O+M). Three drying–wetting treatments with different rewetting intensities (8, 20, and 50 mm of irrigation d^–1) have been compared to a constantly moist control to estimate the influence of rainfall intensity under identical drying conditions and constant temperature (+15°C). Drought significantly reduced CO₂, N₂O, and NO fluxes in most cycles. Following rewetting, CO₂ fluxes quickly recovered back to control level in the O columns but remained significantly reduced in the O+M columns with total CO₂ fluxes from the drying–wetting treatment ranging approx. 80% of control fluxes. Fluxes of N₂O and NO remained significantly reduced in both O and O+M columns even after rewetting, with cumulative fluxes from drying–wetting treatments ranging between 20% and 90% of the control fluxes, depending on gas and cycle. Fluxes of CH₄ were small in all treatments and seem to play no significant role in this soil. No evidence for the release of additional gas fluxes due to drying–wetting was found. The intensity of rewetting had no significant effect on the CO₂, N₂O, NO, and CH₄ fluxes, suggesting that the length of the drought period is more important for the emission of these gases. We can therefore not confirm earlier findings that fluxes of CO₂, N₂O, and NO during wetting of dry soil exceed the fluxes of constantly moist soil.     

Drosophila CENH3 is sufficient for centromere formation

CENH3 is a centromere-specific histone H3 variant essential for kinetochore assembly. Despite its central role in centromere function, there has been no conclusive evidence supporting CENH3 as sufficient to determine centromere identity. To address this question, we artificially targeted Drosophila CENH3 (CENP-A/CID) as a CID-GFP-LacI fusion protein to stably integrated lac operator (lacO) arrays. This ectopic CID focus assembles a functional kinetochore and directs incorporation of CID molecules without the LacI-anchor, providing evidence for the self-propagation of the epigenetic mark. CID-GFP-LacI-bound extrachromosomal lacO plasmids can assemble kinetochore proteins and bind microtubules, resulting in their stable transmission for several cell generations even after eliminating CID-GFP-LacI. We conclude that CID is both necessary and sufficient to serve as an epigenetic centromere mark and nucleate heritable centromere function.