Did Going North Give Us Migraine? An Evolutionary Approach on Understanding Latitudinal Differences in Migraine Epidemiology

This commentary discusses a recent publication by evolutionary biologists with strong implications for migraine experts. The Authors showed that a gene polymorphism associated with migraine gave our ancestors an evolutionary advantage when colonizing northern, and thus colder, territories. They then highlight that the prevalence of migraine may differ among countries because of climatic adaptation. These results may prove useful in planning both epidemiological and physiological studies in the field of migraine

Can human maxillary premolar crown dimensions discriminate between males and females?

Studies showed that odontometry can be used to analyse the influence of sexual dimorphism on the size of the teeth in specific ancestries. The aim of this study was to explore the bucco-lingual dimensions expressed as a ratio of human maxillary premolar crowns in males and females from polled ancestries. ethnicities If this measurement could discriminate sex, it would have application in forensic cases, mass disasters and archaeology where the number of mingled human remains is high and the ancestry ethnicity is unknown or multiple; Moreover, methodologies applied on radiographs or biochemical analysis in the laboratory is not always possible. The sample studied consisted of unworn premolars from 51 skeletal remains, 19 females and 32 males of known sex from collections: the Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons, England and the Natural History Museum, London and 100 archived orthodontic plaster casts of young adult dental patients (50 females and 50 males) of Royal London Hospital. Digital photographs were taken parallel to the occlusal surface and intercuspal distance and maximum bucco-lingual distance were captured using ImageJ 1.47v (U. S. National Institutes of Health, Maryland, USA), and the ratio of both distances calculated. Results were compared using a t-test and showed that for both upper premolars, the overall ratio was greater in males than females; however this was not significantly different to zero. The overall ratio for first premolar (P1) was less than second premolar (P2) in males and females. These findings show that maxillary premolar, measured in this way, are not significantly different and cannot discriminate between the sexes in this sample of different ancestries

Spatial and temporal hot spots of Aedes albopictus abundance inside and outside a South European metropolitan area

Aedes albopictus is a tropical invasive species which in the last decades spread worldwide, also colonizing temperate regions of Europe and US, where it has become a public health concern due to its ability to transmit exotic arboviruses, as well as severe nuisance problems due to its aggressive daytime outdoor biting behaviour. While several studies have been carried out in order to predict the potential limits of the species expansions based on eco-climatic parameters, few studies have so far focused on the specific effects of these variables in shaping its micro-geographic abundance and dynamics. The present study investigated eco-climatic factors affecting Ae. albopictus abundance and dynamics in metropolitan and sub-urban/rural sites in Rome (Italy), which was colonized in 1997 and is nowadays one of the most infested metropolitan areas in Southern Europe. To this aim, longitudinal adult monitoring was carried out along a 70 km-transect across and beyond the most urbanized and densely populated metropolitan area. Two fine scale spatiotemporal datasets (one with reference to a 20m circular buffer around sticky traps used to collect mosquitoes and the second to a 300m circular buffer within each sampling site) were exploited to analyze the effect of climatic and socio-environmental variables on Ae. albopictus abundance and dynamics along the transect. Results showed an association between highly anthropized habitats and high adult abundance both in metropolitan and sub-urban/ rural areas, with “small green islands” corresponding to hot spots of abundance in the metropolitan areas only, and a bimodal seasonal dynamics with a second peak of abundance in autumn, due to heavy rains occurring in the preceding weeks in association with permissive temperatures. The results provide useful indications to prioritize public mosquito control measures in temperate urban areas where nuisance, human-mosquito contact and risk of local arbovirus transmission are likely higher, and highlight potential public health risks also after the summer months typically associated with high mosquito densities

Progresso da fusariose em espigas de triticale.

Editores técnicos: Joseani Mesquita Antunes, Ana Lídia Variani Bonato, Márcia Barrocas Moreira Pimentel

Efeito de iscas tóxicas sobre o parasitoide Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Hymenoptera: Braconidae).

O objetivo do trabalho foi avaliar o efeito de iscas tóxicas sobre o parasitoide D. longicaudata por meio de testes por ingestão

Characterization of meloidogyne species from irrigated rice in southern Brazil.

Edição dos Proceedings do 6th International Congress of Nematology, Cape Town, South Africa, May 2014

Diversidade molecular entre populações de Spodoptera frugiperda no Brasil avaliada por marcadores AFLP.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a diversidade molecular, por meio de marcadores AFLP, de seis populações de Spodoptera frugiperda coletadas na cultura do milho, em diferentes regiões geográficas do Brasil. O DNA foi extraído de lagartas de quarto instar, e as reações de AFLP foram realizadas com sete combinações de oligonucleotídeos iniciadores. A partir das seis populações de S. frugiperda estudadas, foi identificado um grupo principal formado por três populações geneticamente mais relacionadas. As populações de S. frugiperda analisadas mostram alta variabilidade genética, com máximo de 58% de similaridade