Improved Sweetpotato Whitefly and Potato Psyllid Control in Tomato by Combining the Mirid Dicyphus hesperus (Heteroptera: Miridae) With Specialist Parasitic Wasps.

Bemisia tabaci Gennadius (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) and Bactericera cockerelli Sulcer (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) are important pests in tomato, and the mirid Dicyphus hesperus Knight (Heteroptera: Miridae) has been shown as an effective predator of both pests. Although the predator was able to suppress populations of both pests, the remaining levels could still exceed tolerable levels. Thus, we here hypothesized whether the combination of D. hesperus with the specialist parasitoids Eretmocerus eremicus Rose y Zolnerowich (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) (whitefly) and Tamarixia triozae (Burks) (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) (psyllid) would result in better pest control on a greenhouse scale. For that, we conducted a trial in which we compared the results against B. tabaci and B. cockerelli in greenhouses treated with D. hesperus alone or the predator in combination with the specialist parasitoids. The results showed that the predator was able to establish and suppress B. tabaci and B. cockerelli in tomato, but the addition of the specialist parasitoids resulted in better and more cost-effective pest control. Implementation of this method would therefore increase the robustness and reliability of biocontrol-based integrated pest management programmes for tomato crops, over methods based exclusively on D. hesperus release.

Attitudes toward physician-nurse collaboration: a cross-cultural study of male and female physicians and nurses in the United States and Mexico.

BACKGROUND: Inter-professional collaboration between physicians and nurses, within and between cultures, can help contain cost and insure better patient outcomes. Attitude toward such collaboration is a function of the roles prescribed in the culture that guide professional behavior. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the study was to test three research hypotheses concerning attitudes toward physician-nurse collaboration across genders, disciplines, and cultures. METHOD: The Jefferson Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Nurse Collaboration was administered to 639 physicians and nurses in the United States (n = 267) and Mexico (n = 372). Attitude scores were compared by gender (men, women), discipline (physicians, nurses), and culture (United States, Mexico) by using a three-way factorial analysis of variance design. RESULTS: Findings confirmed the first research hypothesis by demonstrating that both physicians and nurses in the United States would express more positive attitudes toward physician-nurse collaboration than their counterparts in Mexico. The second research hypothesis, positing that nurses as compared to physicians in both countries would express more positive attitudes toward physician-nurse collaboration, was also supported. The third research hypothesis that female physicians would express more positive attitudes toward physician-nurse collaboration than their male counterparts was not confirmed. CONCLUSIONS: Collaborative education for medical and nursing students, particularly in cultures with a hierarchical model of inter-professional relationship, is needed to promote positive attitudes toward complementary roles of physicians and nurses. Faculty preparation for collaboration is necessary in such cultures before implementing collaborative education.

Visual evoked potentials in a sample of schizophrenic patients.

Variations in evoked potentials utilizing a photic stimulus in a sample of psychiatric patients compared to a healthy sample were evaluated. A group of patients diagnosed as schizophrenic was tested against a sample of healthy volunteers in a trial combining visual evoked potentials and a simultaneous cognitive processing. The stimulus was a checkerboard pattern presented under three different conditions. The results indicate diminished P100 and lack the reactivity associated with cognitive processes in schizophrenic group. The P200 component also lacked, in the inpatient group the changes associated with the performance of the trial. Finally the multiple P300 component was shortened in latency and decreased in amplitude in the schizophrenia group. Besides, P300 interhemispheric shifts related to trials, were commonly inverted in schizophrenics. Results are interpreted as a lacked interhemispheric coordination in schizophrenics, rather than a fixed hemispheric alteration. Likewise, an attenuation in processing from specific cortical areas to association cortex is concluded.