RNA interference (RNAi) can be used for the protection against agricultural pests through the silencing of genes required for pest fitness. To assess the potential of RNAi approaches in the ...two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, we compared 5 methods for the delivery of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). These methods include mite feeding on either (i) leaves floating on a dsRNA solution, (ii) dsRNA-expressing plants, (iii) artificial diet supplemented with dsRNA, or (iv) dsRNA-coated leaves, and (v) mite soaking in a dsRNA solution. In all cases, the gene targeted for method validation was the Vacuolar-type H+-ATPase (TuVATPase), encoding a constitutively expressed ATP-driven proton pump located in the membrane. Down-regulation of TuVATPase increased mortality and/or reduced fecundity in all methods, but with variable efficiency. The most efficient methods for dsRNA delivery were direct soaking of mites in the dsRNA solution and mite feeding on dsRNA-coated leaves that mimics dsRNA application as a sprayable pesticide. Both resulted in a dark-body phenotype not observed in mites treated with a control dsRNA. Although with lower efficiency, dsRNA designed for TuVATPase silencing and expressed in transgenic Arabidopsis plants impacted the fitness of mites feeding on these plants. RNAi may thus be a valuable strategy to control spider mite populations, either as a sprayable pesticide or through transgenic crops. This comparative methodological study focusing on the induction of RNAi-based gene silencing in T. urticae paves the way for reverse genetics approaches in this model chelicerate system and prepares large-scale systematic RNAi screens as a first step towards the development of specific RNA-based pesticides. Such alternative molecules may help control spider mites that cause significant damages to crops and ornamental plant species, as well as other chelicerates detrimental to agriculture and health.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
We study a periodic review inventory model with a nonperishable product over an infinite planning horizon. The demand for the nonperishable product arrives according to a Poisson process. Lost sales ...are unobservable but the stockout times are observable. We formulate the problem as a dynamic programming model with learning on arrival rate according to stockout times and further simplify it by using unnormalized probabilities. We then compare the system performance with those under other two information scenarios where lost sales are observable or both lost sales and stockout times are unobservable. We show that the optimal inventory order-up-to level with observable stockout times is larger than the one with observable lost sales. We also show that more information improves the system performance.
Understanding the factors and processes that shape intra-specific sensitivity to heat stress is fundamental to better predicting the vulnerability of benthic species to climate change. Here, we ...investigate the response of a habitat-forming Mediterranean octocoral, the red gorgonian Paramuricea clavata (Risso, 1826) to thermal stress at multiple biological and geographical scales. Samples from eleven P. clavata populations inhabiting four localities separated by hundreds to more than 1500 km of coast and with contrasting thermal histories were exposed to a critical temperature threshold (25 °C) in a common garden experiment in aquaria. Ten of the 11 populations lacked thermotolerance to the experimental conditions provided (25 days at 25 °C), with 100% or almost 100% colony mortality by the end of the experiment. Furthermore, we found no significant association between local average thermal regimes nor recent thermal history (i.e., local water temperatures in the 3 months prior to the experiment) and population thermotolerance. Overall, our results suggest that local adaptation and/or acclimation to warmer conditions have a limited role in the response of P. clavata to thermal stress. The study also confirms the sensitivity of this species to warm temperatures across its distributional range and questions its adaptive capacity under ocean warming conditions. However, important inter-individual variation in thermotolerance was found within populations, particularly those exposed to the most severe prior marine heatwaves. These observations suggest that P. clavata could harbor adaptive potential to future warming acting on standing genetic variation (i.e., divergent selection) and/or environmentally-induced phenotypic variation (i.e., intra- and/or intergenerational plasticity).
The effect of clinician experience on the perception of risks for biological complications associated with dental implant therapy is unknown.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether ...clinician experience levels, as assessed by the number of implants placed and/or restored, as well as by type of clinical experience (restorative/prosthodontic and/or surgical), influence the perception of risk for biological complications with dental implant therapy.
A 10-item survey instrument was developed that asked participants from a convenience sample to rank different risk factors for peri-implant complications in the areas of patient history, clinical findings, and clinician choices and postimplant placement findings. Information about participant experience (number of implants placed and restored and type of experience) was also captured. The Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U test statistical analyses were performed to determine the degree, if any, to which the level of clinician experience influenced risk factor rankings (α=.05).
Clinicians with more experience viewed the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medications and clinician inexperience as more important risk factors than did less experienced clinicians. Clinicians with less experience viewed treated moderate or severe chronic periodontitis and thin tissue biotype as more important risk factors than did more experienced clinicians. Clinicians with predominantly surgical experience viewed a heavy plaque index as a more important risk factor than clinicians with predominantly restorative experience.
The data indicate that the level of clinical experience influences how risk factors associated with biological complications of dental implant therapy are viewed by clinicians.
This paper studies an inventory management problem faced by an upstream supplier that is in a collaborative agreement, such as vendor-managed inventory (VMI), with a retailer. A VMI partnership ...provides the supplier an opportunity to manage inventory for the supply chain in exchange for point-of-sales (POS)- and inventory-level information from the retailer. However, retailers typically possess superior local market information and as has been the case in recent years, are able to capture and analyze customer purchasing behavior beyond the traditional POS data. Such analyses provide the retailer access to market signals that are otherwise hard to capture using POS information. We show and quantify the implication of the financial obligations of each party in VMI that renders communication of such important market signals as noncredible. To help institute a sound VMI collaboration, we propose
learn and screen
—a dynamic inventory mechanism—for the supplier to effectively manage inventory and information in the supply chain. The proposed mechanism combines the ability of the supplier to learn about market conditions from POS data (over multiple selling periods) and dynamically determine when to screen the retailer and acquire his private demand information. Inventory decisions in the proposed mechanism serve a strategic purpose in addition to their classic role of satisfying customer demand. We show that our proposed dynamic mechanism significantly improves the supplier’s expected profit and increases the efficiency of the overall supply chain operations under a VMI agreement. In addition, we determine the market conditions in which a strategic approach to VMI results in significant profit improvements for both firms, particularly when the retailer has high market power (i.e., when the supplier highly depends on the retailer) and when the supplier has relatively less knowledge about the end customer/market compared with the retailer.
This paper was accepted by Gad Allon, operations management.
In this study, we provide an alternative approach for proving the preservation of concavity together with submodularity, and apply it to finite‐horizon non‐stationary joint inventory‐pricing models ...with general demands. The approach characterizes the optimal price as a function of the inventory level. Further, it employs the Cauchy–Schwarz and arithmetic‐geometric mean inequalities to establish a relation between the one‐period profit and the profit‐to‐go function in a dynamic programming setting. With this relation, we demonstrate that the one‐dimensional concavity of the price‐optimized profit function is preserved as a whole, instead of separately determining the (two‐dimensional) joint concavities in price (or mean demand/risk level) and inventory level for the one‐period profit and the profit‐to‐go function in conventional approaches. As a result, we derive the optimality condition for a base‐stock, list‐price (BSLP) policy for joint inventory‐pricing optimization models with general form demand and profit functions. With examples, we extend the optimality of a BSLP policy to cases with non‐concave revenue functions in mean demand. We also propose the notion of price elasticity of the slope (PES) and articulate the condition as that in response to a price change of the commodity, the percentage change in the slope of the expected sales is greater than the percentage change in the slope of the expected one‐period profit. The concavity preservation conditions for the additive, generalized additive, and location‐scale demand models in the literature are unified under this framework. We also obtain the conditions under which a BSLP policy is optimal for the logarithmic and exponential form demand models.
We present a deep learning approximation, stochastic optimization based, method for wave kinetic equations. To build confidence in our approach, we apply the method to a Smoluchowski coagulation ...equation with multiplicative kernel for which an analytic solution exists. Our deep learning approach is then used to approximate the non-stationary solution to a 3-wave kinetic equation corresponding to acoustic wave systems. To validate the neural network approximation, we compare the decay rate of the total energy with previously obtained theoretical results. A finite volume solution is presented and compared with the present method.
The public French Cord Blood Banks Network was established in 1999 with the objective of standardizing the practices governing umbilical cord blood (UCB) banking in France. The Network adopted a ...strategy to optimize its inventory and improve the quality of its banked units based on a quality improvement process using outcome data regularly provided by Eurocord. This study aimed to describe the results, over 10 years, of UCBT facilitated by a national network that used the same criteria of UCB collection and banking and to assess how modifications of banking criteria and unit selection might influence transplant outcomes. Nine hundred and ninety-nine units (593 single-unit and 203 double-unit grafts) were released by the Network to transplant 796 patients with malignant (83%) and non-malignant (17%) diseases. Median cell dose exceeded 3.5 × 10
TNC/kg in 86%. There was a trend to select units more recently collected and with higher cell dose. Neutrophil engraftment was 88.2% (85.7-90.7) and 79.3% (72.6-86.5) respectively for malignant and non-malignant diseases with a trend to faster recovery with higher cell doses. The respective 3-year transplant-related mortality were 31.1% (27.5-35.1) and 34.3% (27.0-43.5). OS was 49% ± 4 in malignant and 62% ± 4 in non-malignant disorders. In multivariate analysis, cell dose was the only unit-related factor associated with outcomes. Our results reflect the benefit on clinical outcomes of the strategy adopted by the Network to bank units with higher cell counts.
To evaluate the effect of an antenatal integrative medicine education programme in addition to usual care for nulliparous women on intrapartum epidural use.
Open-label, assessor blind, randomised ...controlled trial.
2 public hospitals in Sydney, Australia.
176 nulliparous women with low-risk pregnancies, attending hospital-based antenatal clinics.
The Complementary Therapies for Labour and Birth protocol, based on the She Births and acupressure for labour and birth courses, incorporated 6 evidence-based complementary medicine techniques: acupressure, visualisation and relaxation, breathing, massage, yoga techniques, and facilitated partner support. Randomisation occurred at 24-36 weeks' gestation, and participants attended a 2-day antenatal education programme plus standard care, or standard care alone.
Rate of analgesic epidural use. Secondary: onset of labour, augmentation, mode of birth, newborn outcomes.
There was a significant difference in epidural use between the 2 groups: study group (23.9%) standard care (68.7%; risk ratio (RR) 0.37 (95% CI 0.25 to 0.55), p≤0.001). The study group participants reported a reduced rate of augmentation (RR=0.54 (95% CI 0.38 to 0.77), p<0.0001); caesarean section (RR=0.52 (95% CI 0.31 to 0.87), p=0.017); length of second stage (mean difference=-0.32 (95% CI -0.64 to 0.002), p=0.05); any perineal trauma (0.88 (95% CI 0.78 to 0.98), p=0.02) and resuscitation of the newborn (RR=0.47 (95% CI 0.25 to 0.87), p≤0.015). There were no statistically significant differences found in spontaneous onset of labour, pethidine use, rate of postpartum haemorrhage, major perineal trauma (third and fourth degree tears/episiotomy), or admission to special care nursery/neonatal intensive care unit (p=0.25).
The Complementary Therapies for Labour and Birth study protocol significantly reduced epidural use and caesarean section. This study provides evidence for integrative medicine as an effective adjunct to antenatal education, and contributes to the body of best practice evidence.
ACTRN12611001126909.
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