Assessing the effects of three potential chemical repellents to prevent bird damage to corn seeds and seedlings

BACKGROUND

Bird damage to seeds and seedlings of maize (Zea mays) and other crops is widespread, especially in organic farming, because no adequate seed protection is available. In this study, the effect of seed treatments with three substances likely to affect bird feeding behaviour (anthraquinone, pulegone and methyl anthranilate) was tested. Their repellent effect was tested in food and seedling choice (treated versus untreated) experiments with feral pigeons (Columba livia f. domestica) in aviaries. Most efficient variants were additionally tested in the field, where wild birds had unlimited access.

RESULTS

In aviaries, untreated seeds were clearly preferred over treated seeds by pigeons. The highest feeding deterrence effect occurred with the treatment variants pulegone 1.4 mL kg(-1) and methyl anthranilate 0.085 mL kg(-1). In contrast, there was no repellent effect if seedlings were offered to the pigeons in aviaries. The same applies to the number of maize seeds and seedlings grown from treated and untreated seeds, which were damaged in the field mainly by pheasants (Phasianus colchicus).

CONCLUSION

The study shows that the chemicals failed to repel feeding by birds in Germany. Further studies should concentrate on alternative, systemic effective substances possibly based on plant secondary metabolites to yield a bird repellent usable in organic farming.

Multiple synchronous outbreaks of Puumala virus, Germany, 2010

To investigate 2,017 cases of hantavirus disease in Germany, we compared 38 new patient-derived Puumala virus RNA sequences identified in 2010 with bank vole–derived small segment RNA sequences. The epidemic process was driven by outbreaks of 6 Puumala virus clades comprising strains of human and vole origin. Each clade corresponded to a different outbreak region.

Abstract P5-21-03: Concurrent loco-regional radiotherapy and trastuzumab in early-stage breast cancer: Long term results of prospective single-institution study

Purpose: To evaluate the early and late heart and skin toxicities, as well as the efficacy of concurrent adjuvant trastuzumab-radiotherapy (RT) for breast cancer (BC), with group with internal mammary chain (IMC) RT.

Material and methods: Prospective study of 308 patients (pts) treated between 2000 and 2009 by concurrent trastuzumab with normofractionated RT for non-metastatic BC. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was assessed by echocardiography or myocardial scintigraphy at baseline, before and after RT, every three months for one year, then annually. A LVEF strictly lower than 55%, was considered as altered. Trastuzumab was delivered every three weeks (8 mg/kg in the first infusion then 6 mg/kg) during a median time of 12 months (3–62). All toxicities were evaluated using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Effects version 3.0. Survival data were defined as the time from the histological diagnosis of BC until occurrence of the event. Loco-regional recurrence free- and alive pts were censored at the date of their last known contact. Survival and interval rates as well as their confidence interval (CI) were calculated using the Kaplan–Meier method.

Results: Median age was 52 years (25–83). Median follow-up was 50 months (13–126). The clinical tumour staging was: T0 or T1 in 131 pts (43.4%), T2 in 122 pts (40.4%), T3 or T4 in 49 pts (16.2%). The regional lymph nodes were histologically involved in 132 pts (43.0%). The left breast was treated in 155 pts (50.3%). The IMC was irradiated in 227 pts (73.7%), among them 114 (37.0%) in the left side. Before trastuzumab, anthracycline-based regimens were administered in 280 pts (90.9%). The median dose of trastuzumab was 6145 mg (1845–29180). Acute skin toxicity was acceptable with 226 (74.1%) grade 1, 67 (22.0%) grade 2 and 12 (3.9%) grade 3 skin reactions. Esophagitis was observed in 31 pts (10.0%): 26 (8.4%) grade 1; 4 (1.3%) grade 2, and 1 (0.3%) grade 3. Out of 286 pts with assessments at the median time of 23 months, late telangiectasia grade 1 occurred in 14 pts (4.9%) and grade 2 in 10 pts (3.5%), local pain grade 1 in 39 pts (13.7%) and grade 2 in 8 pts (2.8%), fibrosis grade 1 in 53 pts (18.6%) and grade 2 in 20 pts (7.0%). At the completion of RT, 11 pts (3.6%), whose cardiologic assessment at baseline was normal, presented a clinically silent LVEF alteration. During follow-up, 44 patients experienced cardio-vascular morbidity revealed by: asymptomatic LVEF alteration (50.0%), thrombo-embolic event (18.2%), tachycardia (15.9%), ischemic cardiomyopathy (6.8%), pericarditis (4.5%), hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (2.3%) or arterial hypertension (2.3%). The cumulative incidence of these events at 48 months was 13.3% CI95% [9.4; 17.2]. A symptomatic congestive heart failure was reported for 3 pts (1.0%). No death of cardiac origin was observed. At 48 months, loco-regional control was 95% CI95% [92; 98] and overall survival was 98% CI95% [96; 100].

Conclusions: In this prospective study of BC pts treated with trastuzumab and RT, both the rates of skin and esophageal toxicities were acceptable with excellent local control. Further follow-up is warranted to assess late cardiac toxicity.

Citation Information: Cancer Res 2012;72(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-21-03.

[Gated radiotherapy in breast cancer]

Postoperative radiotherapy is a cornerstone of the local treatment in breast cancer. It has been proved with high level of evidence that it decreases local relapse and improves survival of patients. However, radiotherapy comes with healthy tissue toxicity, heart and lung in particular. With constant improvement of radiation techniques, several methods have been developed to decrease the dose to the heart and the lungs. Sometimes, respiratory maneuvers can help, due to patient's anatomy: the radiotherapy is gated with patient's breath. The Deep Inspiration Breath Hold technique is the most popular and there are several ways to perform it. This note will describe the different systems with published data in order to help the radiation oncologist in the daily practice.

Single-agent duloxetine ingestions

Duloxetine is a serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, which is mainly used to treat depression. This retrospective study describes the demographic and clinical effects of duloxetine ingestions reported to the National Poison Data System (NPDS). NPDS data were searched for duloxetine exposures between 2004 and 2010. A total of 11,373 patients were included and exposures were divided into three groups of ages ≤6 years old, 7–12 years and >12 years. Neurological clinical effects occurred in 6.1% of the patients aged ≤6 years, 13.0% of the patients aged 7–12 years and 24.6% of the patients aged >12 years. Cardiovascular effects occurred in 1.4% of the patients aged ≤6 years old, 2.5% of the patients aged 7–12 years and 11.6% of the patients aged >12 years. Gastrointestinal effects occurred in 4.1% of the patients aged ≤6 years old, 16.6% of the patients aged 7–12 years and 13.8% of the patients aged >12 years. Tachycardia, nausea, vomiting, agitation/irritability, dizziness/vertigo and drowsiness were among the most common clinical effects in all three groups. Overall, 61.4% of the patients aged ≤6 years and 77.5% of the patients aged 7–12 years were managed in a non–health care facility, while 55.8% of the patients aged >12 years were referred to or already in a health care facility. We conclude that the majority of ingestions are benign in both pediatrics and adults. Most symptomatic patients have neurologic, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular effects. Most pediatric patients will be able to be managed in a non–health care facility.

[A case of cutaneous mammary re-irradiation]

In early-stage breast cancer, radiotherapy delivered after conservative surgery leads to a reduction in the risk of local recurrences by approximately two thirds. However, some local recurrences can occur in a previously irradiated region and be relevant for a second radiotherapy, exposing to an increased risk of adverse effects. We describe here the observation of a 66-year-old woman treated for a triple negative ductal infiltrative carcinoma of the left breast, who presented an early locoregional recurrence, notably as skin nodules, developed within the irradiated volume and progressing on chemotherapy. The patient was treated by re-irradiation performed concomitantly to oral chemotherapy by capecitabine.

Response of small rodents to manipulations of vegetation height in agro-ecosystems

Some small mammal populations require human interference to conserve rare or threatened species or to minimize adverse effects in plant production. Without a thorough understanding about how small rodents behave in their environment and consideration of how they react to management efforts, management will not be optimal. Social behavior, spatial and temporal activity patterns, predator avoidance and other behavioral responses can affect pest rodent management. Some of these behavioral patterns and their causes have been well studied. However, their impact on pest rodent management, especially for novel management approaches, is not always clear. Habitat manipulation occurs necessarily through land use and intentionally to reduce shelter and food availability and to increase predation pressure on rodents. Rodents often respond to decreased vegetation height with reduced movements and increased risk sensitivity in their feeding behavior. This seems to result mainly from an elevated perceived predation risk. Behavioral responses may lessen the efficacy of the management because the desired effects of predators might be mediated. It remains largely unknown to what extent such responses can compensate at the population level for the expected consequences of habitat manipulation and how population size and crop damage are affected. It is advantageous to understand how target and non-target species react to habitat manipulation to maximize the management effects by appropriate techniques, timing and spatial scale without causing unwanted effects at the system level.

Prediction and hydrogen acceleration of ordering in iron-vanadium alloys

Ab initio calculations of binary metallic systems often predict ordered compounds in contrast to empirical reports of solid solutions or disordered phases. These discrepancies are usually attributed to slow kinetics that retains metastable structures at low temperatures. The Fe-V system is an example of this phenomenon, in which we predict two ordered stable ground states, Fe3V and FeV3, whereas a disordered σ phase is reported. We propose to overcome this difficulty by hydrogen absorption, which facilitates metal atom mobility through vacancy formation and separation between the two elements due to their opposite affinities towards it, thus accelerating transformation kinetics. Hydrogen also increases the relative stability of the ordered structures compared with that of the σ phase without affecting the shape of the phase diagram. The hydrogen-induced formation of the ordered structures is expressed by a reversible decrease of the electrical resistivity with increasing hydrogen pressure. Such behavior has not been reported before in thin H absorbing films. Formation of the ordered structures is further substantiated by the kinetics of the resistivity changes upon variation of the hydrogen pressure, where two stages are distinguished: a fast initial stage and a much slower subsequent process in which the resistivity changes direction, associated with hydrogen dissolution and phase transformation, respectively.

Rise in the number of notified human hantavirus infections since October 2011 in Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Binary file ES_Abstracts_Final_ECDC.txt matches

Rise in the number of notified human hantavirus infections since October 2011 in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

From October 2011 to April 2012, 852 human hantavirus infections were notified in Germany, of which 580 (68%) were in Baden-Württemberg. Case numbers started to rise earlier than they did before the previous outbreaks in 2007 and 2010, and are the largest ever reported in this state during October to April of any year. The early rise could be due to a beech mast year in 2011, followed by an early and massive reproduction of the reservoir bank vole populations during winter 2011 and spring 2012.

Studying semblances of a true killer: experimental model of human ventricular fibrillation

It is unknown whether ventricular fibrillation (VF) studied in experimental models represents in vivo human VF. First, we examined closed chest in vivo VF induced at defibrillation threshold testing (DFT) in four patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy pretransplantation. We examined VF in these same four hearts in an ex vivo human Langendorff posttransplantation. VF from DFT was compared with VF from the electrodes from a similar region in the right ventricular endocardium in the Langendorff using two parameters: the scale distribution width (extracted from continuous wavelet transform) and VF mean cycle length (CL). In a second substudy group where multielectrode phase mapping could be performed, we examined early VF intraoperatively (in vivo open chest condition) in three patients with left ventricular cardiomyopathy. We investigated early VF in the hearts of three patients in an ex vivo Langendorff and compared findings with intraoperative VF using two metrics: dominant frequency (DF) assessed by the Welch periodogram and the number of phase singularities (lasting >480 ms). Wavelet analysis (P = 0.9) and VF CL were similar between the Langendorff and the DFT groups (225 ± 13, 218 ± 24 ms; P = 0.9), indicating that wave characteristics and activation rate of VF was comparable between the two models. Intraoperative DF was slower but comparable with the Langendorff DF over the endocardium (4.6 ± 0.1, 5.0 ± 0.4 Hz; P = 0.9) and the epicardium (4.5 ± 0.2, 5.2 ± 0.4 Hz; P = 0.9). Endocardial phase singularity number (9.6 ± 5, 12.1 ± 1; P = 0.6) was lesser in number but comparable between in vivo and ex vivo VF. VF dynamics in the limited experimental human studies approximates human in vivo VF.

Resistance tests and field trials with bromadiolone for the control of Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) on farms in Westphalia, Germany

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to determine the incidence and the level of resistance to bromadiolone among rats on farms suspected of being foci of resistance by using the international normalised ratio (INR)-based blood clotting response (BCR) test. Whether the level of reduced susceptibility constitutes 'practical resistance' was subsequently determined in field trials.

RESULTS

The 2.5 multiple of the ED(50) baseline was used to test for the incidence of resistance, and higher multiples in the range of the suspected resistance factor were used to investigate the degree of resistance. The ED(50) values of bromadiolone in resistant rats were confirmed in the range 4.70-7.05 mg kg(-1) for males and 4.62-6.61 mg kg(-1) for females. Variations within these ranges appeared between farms. According to the BCR resistance tests, 50-100% of rats were classified as resistant prior to the field trials; 29-100% of rats survived the treatments.

CONCLUSION

BCR tests based on the use of the INR and baselines are suitable for determining the incidence and for assessing the level of resistance in populations of Norway rats. The majority of rats of the Westphalian resistant strain, characterised by the Y139C marker in VKOR, are resistant to bromadiolone under practical control conditions.

Vitamin K requirement and reproduction in bromadiolone-resistant Norway rats

BACKGROUND

Nucleotide polymorphisms in the VKORC1 gene can be linked to anticoagulant rodenticide resistance in Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus Berkenhout). This provides a fitness advantage to rats exposed to anticoagulant actives, but may also cause fitness costs. The vitamin K requirement and reproductive parameters of bromadiolone-resistant rats (Westphalian resistant strain; VKOR variant Tyr139Cys) and bromadiolone-susceptible Norway rats were compared.

RESULTS

At vitamin K deficiency, blood clotting times increased in all homozygous resistant males within 8 days and in 80% of homozygous resistant females within 15 days. There was little effect on blood clotting in heterozygous males and no effect in heterozygous females and VKOR wild-type individuals. Litter size was about 20% higher in sensitive pairs compared with resistant pairs. Testes growth, male gonad weight, sperm motility and testis cell concentration were unaffected by the mutation.

CONCLUSIONS

The VKOR variant Tyr139Cys causes considerable physiological cost in Norway rats in terms of vitamin K requirement and reproduction. This may affect the distribution and spread of resistant individuals in the wild. Decreased litter size of resistant parents seems to be due to lowered female reproductive performance, as there was no significant effect of the mutation on any aspects of male reproduction considered, but this requires further study.

The presence of disseminated tumour cells in the bone marrow is inversely related to circulating free DNA in plasma in breast cancer dormancy

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to gain insight into breast cancer dormancy by examining different measures of minimal residual disease (MRD) over time in relation to known prognostic factors.

METHODS

Sixty-four primary breast cancer patients on follow-up (a median of 8.3 years post surgery) who were disease free had sequential bone marrow aspirates and blood samples taken for the measurement of disseminated tumour cells (DTCs), circulating tumour cells (CTCs) by CellSearch and qPCR measurement of overlapping (96-bp and 291-bp) amplicons in circulating free DNA (cfDNA).

RESULTS

The presence of CTCs was correlated with the presence of DTCs measured by immunocytochemistry (P=0.01) but both were infrequently detected. Increasing cfDNA concentration correlated with ER, HER2 and triple-negative tumours and high tumour grade, and the 291-bp amplicon was inversely correlated with DTCs measured by CK19 qRT-PCR (P=0.047).

CONCLUSION

Our results show that breast cancer patients have evidence of MRD for many years after diagnosis despite there being no overt evidence of disease. The inverse relationship between bone marrow CK19 mRNA and the 291-bp amplicon in cfDNA suggests that an inverse relationship between a measure of cell viability in the bone marrow (DTCs) and cell death in the plasma occurs during the dormancy phase of breast cancer.

'Clinical scaphoid fracture': is it time to abolish this phrase?

INTRODUCTION

Most patients with post-traumatic painful wrists and negative radiographs are treated as having a clinical scaphoid fracture. Such cases are usually followed up with repeat radiographs. If the radiographs are inconclusive further imaging is done. However, this traditional approach results in the vast majority of patients being unnecessarily immobilised for an unspecified period, leading to loss of productivity and income to the patient and the community. A number of studies have highlighted the use of early CT or MRI scans to identify these fractures. The aim of this study was to evaluate our current practice in managing patients with suspected fractures of the scaphoid.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A retrospective audit was carried out. The period studied was from January to August 2008. Fifty consecutive patients who were investigated for occult fractures of the scaphoid were included.

RESULTS

92% of the patients studied had a repeat radiograph in the fracture clinic. 84% of the patients had their wrists immobilised in a cast while awaiting further imaging. Only 6% had confirmed fracture of the scaphoid; all of these healed uneventfully. 76% of patients with negative scans had their wrists immobilised for an average period of 30.63 days.

CONCLUSIONS

It is time we rethink this dogmatic approach to patients with clinical signs but negative radiographs. We recommend that patients with a painful wrist following an injury and negative radiographs should be referred early to an appropriate clinician and earlier recourse to advanced imaging should be advocated.