Lambert Sandberg (foodwatch2)

Maize seed treatment with chemicals to control underground pests is a common agricultural practice, but inappropriate use of insecticides poses a considerable threat to plant development and soil nontarget organisms. In this study, the availability of tetraniliprole seed dressing to control the black cutworm Agrotis ipsilon (Lepidoptera Noctuidae) in the maize seeding stage and its safety to earthworms (Eisenia fetida) were investigated. The selective toxicity (ST) of tetraniliprole between E. fetida and A. ipsilon was greater than 4000. No significant adverse effect of tetraniliprole seed treatment on the germination of maize seeds was observed at concentrations of 2.4-9.6 g a.i. /kg seed. Compared with the untreated control, seed treatment with tetraniliprole at 9.6 g a.i. /kg seed greatly reduced the percentage of damaged plants from 88.73% to 26.67%, and achieved the highest control effect of 69.91%. Tetraniliprole of 2.4 g a.i. /kg seed can effectively inhibit A. ipsilon until 14 days after seed germination, with the lowest mortality rate of 44.44%. During the entire exposure period, the maximum residual concentration of tetraniliprole detected in the soil (5.86 mg/kg) was considerably lower than the LC50 value of tetraniliprole to E. fetida (>4000 mg/kg). According to the low-tier risk assessment, the highest risk quotient (RQ) of tetraniliprole seed treatment to earthworms at test concentrations was 2.8 × 10-3, which was evaluated as acceptable. This study provided data support for tetraniliprole seed treatment to control underground pests in maize fields.Evidence is still limited for the role of long-term PM2.5 exposure in cerebrovascular diseases among residents in high pollution regions. The study is aimed to investigate the long-term effects of PM2.5 exposure on stroke mortality, and further explore the effect modification of temperature variation on the PM2.5-mortality association in northern China. Based on a cohort data with an average follow-up of 9.8 years among 38,435 urban adults, high-resolution estimates of PM2.5 derived from a satellite-based model were assigned to each participant. A Cox regression model with time-varying exposures and strata of geographic regions was employed to assess the risks of stroke mortality associated with PM2.5, after adjusting for individual risk factors. The cross-product term of PM2.5 exposure and annual temperature range was further added into the regression model to test whether the long-term temperature variation would modify the association of PM2.5 with stroke mortality. Colcemid supplier Among the study participants, the annual mean level of PM2.5 concentration was 66.3 μg/m3 ranging from 39.0 μg/m3 to 100.6 μg/m3. For each 10 μg/m3 increment in PM2.5, the hazard ratio (HR) was 1.31 (95% CI 1.04-1.65) for stroke mortality after multivariable adjustment. In addition, the HRs of PM2.5 decreased gradually as the increase of annual temperature range with the HRs of 1.95 (95% CI 1.36-2.81), 1.53 (95% CI 1.06-2.22), and 1.11 (95% CI 0.75-1.63) in the low, middle, and high group of annual temperature range, respectively. The findings provided further evidence of long-term PM2.5 exposure on stroke mortality in high-exposure settings such as northern China, and also highlighted the view that assessing the adverse health effects of air pollution might not ignore the role of temperature variations in the context of climate change.Listeria monocytogenes widely exists in the natural environment and does great harm, which can cause worldwide public safety problem. Infection with L. monocytogenes can cause rapid death of Kupffer cell (KCs) in liver tissue and liver damage. American ginseng saponins is a natural compound in plants, which has great potential in inhibiting L. monocytogenes infection. Therefore, American ginseng stem-leaf saponins (AGS) and American ginseng heat-transformed saponins (HTS) were used as raw materials to study their bacteriostatic experiments in vivo