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Holden Keene posted an update 6 months, 3 weeks ago
The bean weevil Acanthoscelides obtectus Say (Coleoptera Chrysomelidae Bruchinae) can cause significant losses in production of its primary host common bean Phaseolus vulgaris L. To avoid bean protection with environmentally risky chemical insecticides and provide sustainable and safe production of food, new pest management methods based on natural compounds are investigated. In the present study, we evaluated protective potential of the essential oil (EO) from the common thyme Thymus vulgaris L. applied on bean seeds. We assessed residual contact toxicity of thyme EO and its effects on A. obtectus longevity, oviposition and adult emergence. Furthermore, to elucidate the role of oxidative stress in thyme EO toxicity, we estimated the levels of oxidatively damaged proteins and lipids, as well as the level of thiols which have important role for antioxidant capacity. We found that thyme oil significantly reduced adult survival and longevity, induced oxidative damage to lipids and proteins and depleted protein and non-protein thiols in a concentration-dependent manner. Females appeared to be more tolerant to thyme oil treatment than males. Sublethal EO concentrations affected oxidative stress indices, deterred oviposition and strongly inhibited adult emergence. The results suggest that thyme oil has the potential to be used as an ecofriendly insecticide for A. obtectus control.Poly(butylene terephthalate-co-tetramethylene ether glycol) (PBT-co-PTMEG) copolymers with PTMEG ranging from 0 to 40 wt% were synthesized through melt polymerization. The structure and composition were supported by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H NMR). All samples had excellent thermal stability at a Td-5% around 370 °C. Crystallization temperature (Tc) and enthalpy of crystallization (ΔHc) were detected by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), revealing a decrement from 182.3 to 135.1 °C and 47.0 to 22.1 J g-1, respectively, with the increase in PTMEG concentration from 0 to 40 wt%. Moreover, nonisothermal crystallization was carried out to explore the crystallization behavior of copolymers; the crystallization rate of PBT reduced gradually when PTMEG content increased. Hence, a decrement in the spherulite growth rate was detected in polarizing light microscope (PLM) observation, observing that the PTMEG could enhance the hindrance in the molecular chain to lower the crystallinity of PBT-co-PTMEG copolyester. Moreover, thermal properties and the crystallization rate of PBT-co-PTMEG copolymers can be amended via the regulation of PTMEG contents.The theory of critical slowing down (CSD) suggests an increasing pattern in the time series of CSD indicators near catastrophic events. This theory has been successfully used as a generic indicator of early warning signals in various fields, including climate research. In this paper, we present an application of CSD on water level data with the aim of producing an early warning signal for floods. To achieve this, we inspect the trend of CSD indicators using quantile estimation instead of using the standard method of Kendall’s tau rank correlation, which we found is inconsistent for our data set. For our flood early warning system (FLEWS), quantile estimation is used to provide thresholds to extract the dates associated with significant increases on the time series of the CSD indicators. We apply CSD theory on water level data of Kelantan River and found that it is a reliable technique to produce a FLEWS as it demonstrates an increasing pattern near the flood events. We then apply quantile estimation on the time series of CSD indicators and we manage to establish an early warning signal for ten of the twelve flood events. The other two events are detected on the first day of the flood.Evidence suggests that built environment characteristics affect older adults’ travel activity behaviors, e.g., walking and cycling, which have well-established health benefits. However, the relationship between urban greenery and walking behaviors remains unclear, partly due to methodological limitation. Previous studies often measured urban greenery from a bird’s eye perspective, which may mismatch with the pedestrian’s perception from the street. In this study, we measured greenery view index from eye-level streetscape photos retrieved from Baidu Street View, an online mapping service provider. Walking behaviors of 180 older adults in six neighborhoods were collected from questionnaires. We also measured land use diversity, pedestrian-oriented design (street connectivity), and population density-the three Ds of the built environment. Results show that street greenery view index contributes to walking time of older adults, suggesting street greenery should be taken into design consideration to promote walking behaviors of older adults.Alcohol-related harms may be increased among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) involved in sex work, yet data on alcohol misuse among AGYW in sub-Saharan Africa are still scarce. We conducted a cross-sectional study among 15-24-year-old AGYW from January 2013 to December 2018 in Kampala, Uganda and used the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) to study alcohol use patterns and dependence symptoms (dependence score ≥4). Of 1440 participants (median age 21 years), 83.1% had less than secondary education, 79.8% reported ≥10 paying sexual partners in the past month, 46.0% had ever experienced intimate partner violence (IPV), and 20.6% were living with HIV. Overall, 59.9% scored ≥8 and 29.4% scored ≥16 on the AUDIT. Of 277 (15.8%) with dependence symptoms, 69.1% were screened alcohol dependent. An AUDIT score ≥8 was associated with older age, illicit drug use, experiencing IPV, inconsistent condom use with paying partners, and HIV sero-negativity. All factors remained associated with a higher score ≥16 except HIV status. Navitoclax cell line Similarly, illicit drug use, experiencing IPV and inconsistent condom use were associated with dependence symptoms and, in addition, a higher number of paying sexual partners. Alcohol misuse is high in this population, they urgently need harmful substance use reduction interventions.
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