Lund University

About: Lund University is a education organization based out in Lund, Sweden. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Cancer. The organization has 42345 authors who have published 124676 publications receiving 5016438 citations. The organization is also known as: Lunds Universitet & University of Lund.

Seed coating with a neonicotinoid insecticide negatively affects wild bees

Abstract: Understanding the effects of neonicotinoid insecticides on bees is vital because of reported declines in bee diversity and distribution and the crucial role bees have as pollinators in ecosystems and agriculture. Neonicotinoids are suspected to pose an unacceptable risk to bees, partly because of their systemic uptake in plants, and the European Union has therefore introduced a moratorium on three neonicotinoids as seed coatings in flowering crops that attract bees. The moratorium has been criticized for being based on weak evidence, particularly because effects have mostly been measured on bees that have been artificially fed neonicotinoids. Thus, the key question is how neonicotinoids influence bees, and wild bees in particular, in real-world agricultural landscapes. Here we show that a commonly used insecticide seed coating in a flowering crop can have serious consequences for wild bees. In a study with replicated and matched landscapes, we found that seed coating with Elado, an insecticide containing a combination of the neonicotinoid clothianidin and the non-systemic pyrethroid β-cyfluthrin, applied to oilseed rape seeds, reduced wild bee density, solitary bee nesting, and bumblebee colony growth and reproduction under field conditions. Hence, such insecticidal use can pose a substantial risk to wild bees in agricultural landscapes, and the contribution of pesticides to the global decline of wild bees may have been underestimated. The lack of a significant response in honeybee colonies suggests that reported pesticide effects on honeybees cannot always be extrapolated to wild bees.

One vs three years of adjuvant imatinib for operable gastrointestinal stromal tumor: a randomized trial.

Abstract: Context Adjuvant imatinib administered for 12 months after surgery has improved recurrence-free survival (RFS) of patients with operable gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) compared with placebo. Objective To investigate the role of imatinib administration duration as adjuvant treatment of patients who have a high estimated risk for GIST recurrence after surgery. Design, Setting, and Patients Patients with KIT-positive GIST removed at surgery were entered between February 2004 and September 2008 to this randomized, open-label phase 3 study conducted in 24 hospitals in Finland, Germany, Norway, and Sweden. The risk of GIST recurrence was estimated using the modified National Institutes of Health Consensus Criteria. Intervention Imatinib, 400 mg per day, orally for either 12 months or 36 months, started within 12 weeks of surgery. Main Outcome Measures The primary end point was RFS; the secondary end points included overall survival and treatment safety. Results Two hundred patients were allocated to each group. The median follow-up time after randomization was 54 months in December 2010. Diagnosis of GIST was confirmed in 382 of 397 patients (96%) in the intention-to-treat population at a central pathology review. KIT or PDGFRA mutation was detected in 333 of 366 tumors (91%) available for testing. Patients assigned for 36 months of imatinib had longer RFS compared with those assigned for 12 months (hazard ratio [HR], 0.46; 95% CI, 0.32-0.65; P Conclusion Compared with 12 months of adjuvant imatinib, 36 months of imatinib improved RFS and overall survival of GIST patients with a high risk of GIST recurrence. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00116935

Roentgen stereophotogrammetry. A method for the study of the kinematics of the skeletal system.

Abstract: I have developed a roentgen stereophotogrammetric method for determination of positions of radiopaque markers in an object. The space coordinates are determined in a laboratory coordinate system, which is defined by markers in a test "cage". The markers in the test cage function as calibration points, and are roentgenographed on the same film(s) as the object. Calibration markers and object markers are exposed from two roentgen foci. The cage markers, are in their function, of two kinds, of which one (fiducial marks) is used for projective transformations of the image points to the laboratory coordinate system, while the other (control points) is used for determining the roentgen foci positions in the same coordinate system. After these calculations have been performed, the three-dimensional coordinates of object indicators are determined by crossing of lines between the roentgen foci and the transformed image points. The mathematical principles for the reconstruction of the bundles of rays from the roentgen foci at the moment of exposure are discussed in Chapter 2. Three constructions of test cages, Models 1A and 1B, and Model 2 are also discussed there. In Test Cage Model 1, the two exposures of the object are obtained on one film, but in Model 2 we expose on two films that are perpendicular to each other. The three cage models are, in turn, intended for high-accuracy determinations of lengths (Model 1A), general determinations of space coordinates, especially in larger objects (Model 1B), and high-accuracy determinations of space coordinates in medium-sized objects (Model 1B), and high-accuracy determinations of space coordinates in medium-sized objects (Model 1B). Note, that if the positions of the roentgen foci and the film are not altered, we can roentgenograph the calibration points separately on a film, and then, after removal of the test cage, roentgenograph the object on the same film. The calibration of the test cages is discussed in Chapter 3. To determine coordinates of markers in a plane is easy, if a rectangular coordinatograph is accessible, and we use the same instrument as for the measurements of the films, a Wild Autograph A8. Determination of the position in space of the plate with control points in relation to the plate with fiducial marks requires more consideration. We describe how the degrees of freedom of the plate with control points (translations in x- and y-directions, rotation angle phi about a z-axis), which are difficult to control at construction of the test cages, can be determined by specific calibration procedures.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Insulin granule dynamics in pancreatic beta cells

Abstract: Glucose-induced insulin secretion in response to a step increase in blood glucose concentrations follows a biphasic time course consisting of a rapid and transient first phase followed by a slowly developing and sustained second phase. Because Type 2 diabetes involves defects of insulin secretion, manifested as a loss of first phase and a reduction of second phase, it is important to understand the cellular mechanisms underlying biphasic insulin secretion. Insulin release involves the packaging of insulin in small (diameter ≈0.3 µm) secretory granules, the trafficking of these granules to the plasma membrane, the exocytotic fusion of the granules with the plasma membrane and eventually the retrieval of the secreted membranes by endocytosis. Until recently, studies on insulin secretion have been confined to the appearance of insulin in the extracellular space and the cellular events preceding exocytosis have been inaccessible to more detailed analysis. Evidence from a variety of secretory tissues, including pancreatic islet cells suggests, however, that the secretory granules can be functionally divided into distinct pools that are distinguished by their release competence and/or proximity to the plasma membrane. The introduction of fluorescent proteins that can be targeted to the secretory granules, in combination with the advent of new techniques that allow real-time imaging of granule trafficking in living cells (granule dynamics), has led to an explosion of our knowledge of the pre-exocytotic and post-exocytotic processes in the beta cell. Here we discuss these observations in relation to previous functional and ultra-structural data as well as the secretory defects of Type 2 diabetes.

A genome-wide approach accounting for body mass index identifies genetic variants influencing fasting glycemic traits and insulin resistance.

Abstract: Recent genome-wide association studies have described many loci implicated in type 2 diabetes (T2D) pathophysiology and β-cell dysfunction but have contributed little to the understanding of the genetic basis of insulin resistance. We hypothesized that genes implicated in insulin resistance pathways might be uncovered by accounting for differences in body mass index (BMI) and potential interactions between BMI and genetic variants. We applied a joint meta-analysis approach to test associations with fasting insulin and glucose on a genome-wide scale. We present six previously unknown loci associated with fasting insulin at P < 5 × 10(-8) in combined discovery and follow-up analyses of 52 studies comprising up to 96,496 non-diabetic individuals. Risk variants were associated with higher triglyceride and lower high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels, suggesting a role for these loci in insulin resistance pathways. The discovery of these loci will aid further characterization of the role of insulin resistance in T2D pathophysiology.