Soft plastic lures (SPLs) are commonly used artificial lures in recreational angling. Anglers regularly lose SPLs while fishing and there is little knowledge about the environmental impacts of lost ...SPLs. As with other plastic items, SPLs contain phthalates and other persistent additives that may leach into water. In this study, 16 randomly chosen SPLs of common models were analyzed for the leaching of persistent, water-soluble plastic additives, including phthalates. The estrogenicity of sample extracts from a subsample of 10 SPLs was assessed using luciferase reporter gene bioassays. Over a period of 61 days, 10 of the 16 SPLs leached the targeted phthalates dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP) and di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP) at median detectable concentrations ranging from 10 ng/g sample BBP to a median of 1001 ng/g DMP as well as 45 persistent, mobile, and toxic (PMT) plastic additives. DEP was detected most frequently in 8 SPLs, followed by BBP (2 SPLs), DMP (2 SPLs) and DnBP (1 SPL). The extract from one SPL with comparatively low phthalate and PMT plastic additive levels was active in the bioassay, indicating high endocrine-disruptive potential, presumably due to unknown additives that were not among the target substances of the methodology used in this study. The study was supplemented by a mail survey among anglers, in which attitudes of anglers towards SPLs were investigated. The survey indicated that SPL loss is a common event during angling. Most participants were concerned about potential ecological impacts of SPLs, wanted the ingredients of SPLs to be labelled and supported legal restrictions concerning toxic ingredients of SPLs. The study shows that SPLs are a potential source of environmental pollution, may pose human health risks and need further investigation, considering the frequent use of SPLs in recreational angling.
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•Soft plastic lures are increasingly used and regularly lost in recreational angling.•Soft plastic lures may leach persistent, water-soluble plastic additives.•10 out of 16 analyzed soft plastic lures leached targeted phthalates.•One soft plastic lure - indicated estrogenicity in bioassay.•A survey indicated anglers' awareness of ecological risks regarding soft plastic lures.
Ceratitis capitata is the most serious agricultural pest in Argentinean fruit-growing regions. The use of baited traps for Medfly control is an expanding and increasingly successful integrated ...management strategy. The high cost of traps and attractants is one of the main limitations for use on either a massive scale or a small-scale control. This study aimed to evaluate the advantages or disadvantages of using natural fruit juice-based lures for Medfly adult monitoring at the orchard level in an irrigated valley. Medfly capture with a standard protein attractant was compared with peach, apple, sweet orange, fig, and grape juices. All attractants were evaluated in 1.5-liter disposable plastic bottles that served as traps. The most relevant finding was the interaction between attractant effectiveness and season. While the standard yeast was the most effective attractant during summer, the highest Medfly caught values recorded during both spring and autumn were achieved with traps baited with orange juice. The use of fruit juices as attractants and disposable bottles as traps can decrease the impact on non-target insects and reduce management costs.
Pollution from recreational fishing gear can have a significant effect on aquatic species and the environment. For these reasons, the development of more environmentally friendly fishing gear is ...desired to reduce the amount of marine litter caused by recreational angling. Several attempts have been made to develop biodegradable fishing baits; however, the strength, wear resistance, and water interaction properties of these baits are suboptimal. In this study, various compositions of biodegradable lures were manufactured to investigate the influence of the individual components on the important bait properties including strength, heat resistance, swelling, viscosity, and porosity. By investigating the important lure properties, the results can be compared to commercially available soft plastic lures. The baits manufactured with a low percentage of water and a high percentage of xanthan gum showed increased strength and the lowest porosity; however, these baits increased in size and weight the most during the swelling test. The lures fabricated using a high percentage of water and a low percentage of beef gelatin showed the least amount of swelling, which is desired. Lastly, the lures manufactured with a high percentage of water and a low percentage of vegetable glycerin allowed for the best heat resistance properties. The results discussed in this paper will aid in completing further formula optimizations to improve the properties of the biodegradable lures. Advances in the development of more environmentally friendly fishing tackle is essential to reduce the impact that lost and discarded fishing gear can have on the environment and wildlife. By investigating the properties of biodegradable fishing lures, progression of more sustainable alternatives can be explored to protect from the toxic chemicals and plastics that soft plastic lures contain.
•Heeds recent calls for developing new nudges and expanding the range of nudges.•Finds that receiving closure to curiosity can be used to incentivize choices.•Contains some of the largest field ...experiments on curiosity (116,772 observations).
Drawing on people’s motivation to whet their curiosity, we tested a previously unexplored solution to reconciling want/should conflicts. Past work has shown that people are motivated to satisfy their curiosity and find enjoyment in doing so. Our work shows that piquing people’s curiosity can be leveraged to influence their choices, by steering them away from tempting “want” options (e.g., choosing unhealthy foods, watching lowbrow films, taking the elevator), and toward less-than-tempting, though normatively desirable “should” options. In two lab and two field studies, we created curiosity lures—incentives that pique people’s curiosity and deliver its closure on the condition people choose the “should” option over the “want” option. In all, our nudges were successful and highlight the external validity of our research. Notably, we observed a 9.8% increase in stairwell-use, and a 10% increase in fruit-and-vegetable purchases when we tested curiosity lures in large-scale field experiments totaling over 100,000 observations.
The aim of the study was to test convergent/discriminant validity of two measures of cognitive reflection, cognitive reflection test (CRT) and belief bias syllogisms (BBS) and to investigate whether ...their distinctive characteristic of luring participants into giving wrong intuitive responses explains their relationships with various abilities and disposition measures. Our results show that the same traits largely account for performance on both non-lure task, the Berlin Numeracy Test (BNT), and CRT and explain their correlations with other variables. These results also imply that the predictive validity of CRT for wide range of outcomes does not stem from lures. Regarding the BBS, we found that its correlations with other measures were substantially diminished once we accounted for the effects of BNT. This also implies that the lures are not the reason for the correlation between BBS and these measure. We conclude that the lures are not the reason why cognitive reflection tasks correlate with different outcomes. Our results call into question an original definition of CRT as a measure of ability or disposition to resist reporting first response that comes to mind, as well as the validity of results of studies showing “incremental validity” of CRT over numeracy.
Pollen tube guidance is a unique navigating system that is required for the successful sexual reproduction of plants. As plant sperm cells are non-motile and egg cells are embedded deep inside the ...female tissues, a pollen tube delivers the two sperm cells that it contains by growing towards the ovule, in which the egg cell resides. Pollen tube growth towards the ovule is precisely controlled and divided into two stages, preovular and ovular guidance. In this Cell Science at a Glance article and accompanying poster, we provide a comprehensive overview of pollen tube guidance and highlight some of the attractant peptides used during ovular guidance. We further discuss the precise one-to-one guidance system that exists in multi-ovular plants. The pollen tube-blocking system, which is mediated by male-female crosstalk communication, to avoid attraction of multiple pollen tubes, is also reviewed.
Pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella) is a destructive pest of agricultural crops especially cotton crop in Pakistan. It has ability to form rosette flowers, bolls and makes them unable to open. ...Thus it deteriorates cotton seed quality which has significant impact on yield reduction. Increasing trend of insecticides has resulted in insecticide resistance, environmental pollution and risks of human health. Integrated pest management has key role to reduce negative impacts. Besides of several other components, pheromone traps are best monitoring and mass capturing tool for bollworms in agricultural crops. The study was conducted to check relation of pink bollworm mass trapping in pheromone traps relating to environmental factors during three years study 2018 to 2020. Results indicated that pink bollworm has two peak activity periods during study years. Standard weeks (SW) 11 to 15 and 31-35 were highly active while SW 20 to 26 was inactive periods of pink bollworm. Adult moth population captures in pheromone traps was 3.14, 4.41 and 6.75/ trap during 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. Highest peaks were 11.12, 11.85, 15.94 /trap with maximum, minimum, average temperatures, relative humidity and rainfall of 29.43: 36.59: 35.28°C, 11.31: 21.36: 22.80°C, 20.37: 28.96: 29.04°C, 54.66: 61.23:58. 36% and 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 mm, during 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. Temperature 20- 30°C had significant impacts to speed activities of pink bollworm. Minimum (r= -0.165, -0.144, -0.582) and maximum (r= -0.078, -0.045, -0.192) temperatures had negative and non- significant correlation with population in pheromone traps while average temperature had positive and significant correlation (r= 0.112, 0.290, 0.486) during study years. Average temperature had maximum impact of 20.9 (0.01), 20.7 (0.03) and 9.3 (0.07) % on population variability during 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. Population trends of pink bollworm had shown increasing trends during the subsequent years. Pheromone traps proved best monitoring tool of pink bollworm to integrate into integrated pest management strategy.
Poor face-name recall has been associated with age-related impairments in cognitive functioning, namely declines in episodic memory and executive control. However, the role of social cognitive ...function - the ability to remember, process, and store information about others - has been largely overlooked in this work. Extensive work has shown that social and nonsocial cognitive processes rely on unique, albeit overlapping, mechanisms. In the current study, we explored whether social cognitive functioning - specifically the ability to infer other people's mental states (i.e., theory of mind) - facilitates better face-name learning. To do this, a sample of 289 older and young adults completed a face-name learning paradigm along with standard assessments of episodic memory and executive control alongside two theory of mind measures, one static and one dynamic. In addition to expected age differences, several key effects emerged. Age-related differences in recognition were explained by episodic memory, not social cognition. However, age effects in recall were explained by both episodic memory and social cognition, specifically affective theory of mind in the dynamic task. Altogether, we contend that face-name recall can be supported by social cognitive functioning, namely understanding emotions. While acknowledging the influence of task characteristics (i.e., lures, target ages), we interpret these findings in light of existing accounts of age differences in face-name associative memory.
Rough-toothed dolphins (Steno bredanensis) form an isolated subpopulation in the Mediterranean Sea that resides only in the eastern basin. Due to the paucity of records, the conservation threats ...these dolphins face and their ecology and distribution are poorly understood. While most observations indicate that individuals are found in two isolated clusters in the eastern basin, we hereby present five observations -three visual, one acoustic and one stranding- that possibly extend the range of this subpopulation to the entire offshore waters of the eastern basin. The stomach content remains of the stranded individual revealed a diet based on epipelagic squids and octopods. The stranded dolphin had also consumed seven plastic bags and nine squid-like plastic fishing lures, which had caused a complete gastric blockage and probably led to the stranding. High pollution loads from macroplastics in the Mediterranean Sea may evolve into a new potential threat for this subpopulation.
•Mediterranean rough-toothed dolphins remain understudied.•Most observations belong in two isolated clusters in the eastern basin.•Further data extend the entire offshore waters of this basin as potential habitat.•A stranded individual ingested plastic fishing lures that resembled its prey.•Ingestion of macroplastics can potentially threaten this subpopulation.
