Survival and development of Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) (Lepidoptera : Noctuidae) on neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss) leaves

The survival, development and feeding responses of Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) on neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss) leaflets were evaluated under choice and no-choice conditions. Neem leaflets provided to starving fourth-instar larvae were chewed, but larvae expectorated most of the material. The weight of surviving larvae decreased and no fourth instars completed development on neem leaflets alone. Larvae resumed feeding when transferred to cotton leaves after 5 days of feeding on neem leaflets. Fourth instars strongly discriminated between neem leaflets and cotton leaves when offered a choice. Early sixth instars decreased in weight and had delayed development when feet only on neem leaflets. Mure than one-half lived for more than 2 weeks and some completed development to adults. Neem is an unacceptable non-host plant species for H. armigera.

Incomplete, asymmetric, and route-dependent cross-tolerance between oxycodone and morphine in the Dark Agouti rat

Our previous studies indicate that oxycodone is a putative kappa-opioid agonist, whereas morphine is a well documented mu-opioid agonist. Because there is limited information regarding the development of tolerance to oxycodone, this study was designed to 1) document the development of tolerance to the antinociceptive effects of chronically infused i.v. oxycodone relative to that for i.v. morphine and 2) quantify the degree of antinociceptive cross-tolerance between morphine and oxycodone in adult male Dark Agouti (DA) rats. Antinociceptive testing was performed using the tail-flick latency test. Complete antinociceptive tolerance was achieved in 48 to 84 h after chronic infusion of equi-antinociceptive doses of i.v. oxycodone (2.5 mg/24 h and 5 mg/24 h) and i.v. morphine (10 mg/24 h and 20 mg/24 h, respectively). Dose-response curves for bolus doses of i.v. and i.c.v. morphine and oxycodone were produced in naive, morphine-tolerant, and oxycodone-tolerant rats. Consistent with our previous findings that oxycodone and morphine produce their intrinsic antinociceptive effects through distinctly different opioid receptor populations, there was no discernible cross-tolerance when i.c.v. oxycodone was given to morphine-tolerant rats. Similarly, only a low degree of cross-tolerance (approximate to 24%) was observed after i.v. oxycodone administration to morphine-tolerant rats. By contrast, both i.v. and i.c.v. morphine showed a high degree of cross-tolerance (approximate to 71% and approximate to 54%, respectively) in rats rendered tolerant to oxycodone. Taken together, these findings suggest that, after parenteral but not supraspinal administration, oxycodone is metabolized to a mu-opioid agonist metabolite, thereby explaining asymmetric and incomplete cross-tolerance between oxycodone and morphine.

The development and evaluation of an incontinence screening questionnaire for female primary care

Although there is a high prevalence of leaking urine among Australian women, there are currently no standardized procedures for screening patients for incontinence in the primary care setting (known in Australia as general practice). In response to this, an incontinence screening questionnaire (ISQ) was developed and evaluated for use in general practice. Eighty-nine women completed an original compilation of 33 items that asked about situations associated with leaking urine, avoidance of leakage, and concern about leakage. Each item was assessed according to its acceptability for the population of female general practice patients, discriminative value, and test-retest reliability. These patients also underwent an objective test of incontinence, the 48-hour pad test, so that the screening items could be validated against an objective classification of incontinence. The study included women who had bladder control problems and those who did not. Eight items on the ISQ were shown to be acceptable to patients, discriminative, reliable, and valid indicators of objective incontinence. Five items were capable of predicting almost 70% of patients who showed objective leakage of urine and misclassified fewer than 15% of these patients. Those five items were selected for inclusion in the (refined) ISQ. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Assessing perceived need for mental health care in a community survey: development of the Perceived Need for Care Questionnaire (PNCQ)

Background: The Perceived Need for Care Questionnaire (PNCQ) was designed for the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. The PNCQ complemented collection of data on diagnosis and disability with the survey participants' perceptions of their needs for mental health care and the meeting of those needs. The four-stage design of the PNCQ mimics a conversational exploration of the topic of perceived needs. Five categories of perceived need are each assigned to one of four levels of perceived need (no need, unmet need, partially met need and met need). For unmet need and partially met need, information on barriers to care is collected, Methods: Inter-rater reliabilities of perceived needs assessed by the PNCQ were examined in a study of 145 anxiety clinic attenders. Construct validity of these items was tested, using a multi-trait multi-method approach and hypotheses regarding extreme groups, in a study with a sample of 51 general practice and community psychiatric service patients. Results: The instrument is brief to administer and has proved feasible for use in various settings. Inter-rater reliabilities for major categories, measured by the kappa statistic, exceeded 0.60 in most cases; for the summary category of all perceived needs, inter-rater reliability was 0.62. The multi-trait multi-method approach lent support to the construct validity of the instrument, as did findings in extreme groups. Conclusions: The PNCQ shows acceptable feasibility, reliability and validity, adding to the range of assessment tools available for epidemiological and health services research.

Effects of replacing meat with soyabean in the diet on sex hormone concentrations in healthy adult males

A randomised crossover dietary intervention study was performed to evaluate the effects of replacing meat protein in the diet with a soyabean product, tofu, on blood concentrations of testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, androstanediol glucuronide, oestradiol, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), and the free androgen index (total testosterone concentration/SHBG concentration x 100; FAI). Forty-two healthy adult males aged 35-62 years were studied. Diets were isoenergetic, with either 150 g lean meat or 290 g tofu daily providing an equivalent amount of macronutrients, with only the source of protein differing between the two diets. Each diet lasted for 4 weeks, with a 2-week interval between interventions. Fasting blood samples were taken between 07.00 and 09.30 hours. Urinary excretion of genistein and daidzein was significantly higher after the tofu diet (P

Conservation of the sequence and temporal expression of let-7 heterochronic regulatory RNA

Two small RNAs regulate the timing of Caenorhabditis elegans development(1,2). Transition from the first to the second larval stage fates requires the 22-nucleotide lin-4 RNA(1,3,4), and transition from late larval to adult cell fates requires the 21-nucleotide let-7 RNA 2. The lin-4 and let-7 RNA genes are not homologous to each other, but are each complementary to sequences in the 3' untranslated regions of a set of protein-coding target genes that are normally negatively regulated by the RNAs1,2,5,6. Here we have detected let-7 RNAs of similar to 21 nucleotides in samples from a wide range of animal species, including vertebrate, ascidian, hemichordate, mollusc, annelid and arthropod, but not in RNAs from several cnidarian and poriferan species, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Escherichia coli or Arabidopsis. We did not detect lin-4 RNA in these species. We found that let-7 temporal regulation is also conserved: let-7 RNA expression is first detected at late larval stages in C. elegans and Drosophila, at 48 hours after fertilization in zebrafish, and in adult stages of annelids and molluscs. The let-7 regulatory RNA may control late temporal transitions during development across animal phylogeny.

Detecting insomnia: comparison of four self-report measures of sleep in a young adult population

The sensitivity and specificity of four self-report measures of disordered sleep - the Sleep Impairment Index (SII), the Sleep Disorders Questionnaire (SDQ), the Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes About Sleep Scale (DBAS) and the Sleep-Wake Activity Inventory (SWAI) - were compared in subjects with insomnia and normal sleep. Nineteen young adult subjects met DSM-IV criteria for primary insomnia and another 19 were normal control subjects. Discriminatory characteristics of each measure were assessed using receiver operator characteristic curve analyses. Discriminatory power was maximised for each measure to produce cut-scores applicable for identification of individuals with insomnia. The DBAS, SII and SDQ psychiatric DIMS subscale were found to correlate, and discriminated well between the two groups. The SWAI nocturnal sleep subscale was not found to be an accurate discriminator. The results suggest differences in the measures in their ability to detect insomnia, and offer guidelines as to the optimal use of test scores to identify young adults suspected of insomnia.

Structure development in octadecyl trimethylammonium templated silicate films grown at the air/water interface

The mechanism of growth of silicate films at the air/liquid interface has been investigated in situ by a series of grazing incidence diffraction experiments using a 20 x 25 cm(2) imaging plate as the detector. C(18)TAX (X = Br- or Cl-) has been used as the film templating surfactant. The formation of a layered phase, prior to growth of the hexagonal mesophase in C(18)TABr templated films. has been seen. This layered structure has a significantly shorter d spacing compared to the final hexagonal film (43 versus 48 Angstrom, respectively). The correlation lengths associated with the development of the hexagonal in-plane diffraction spots are much longer in-plane than perpendicular to the air/liquid interface (300 Angstrom versus 50 Angstrom). This implies that the film forms via the growth or aggregation of islands that are initially only a micelle or two thick. which then grow down into the solution.