Replacing Mancozeb with Alternative Fungicides for the Control of Late Blight in Potato.

Mancozeb (MZ) is a broadly used fungicide for the control of plant diseases, including late blight in potatoes caused by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) De Bary. MZ has been banned for agricultural use by the European Union as of January 2022 due to its hazards to humans and the environment. In a search for replacement fungicides, twenty-seven registered anti-oomycete fungicidal preparations were evaluated for their ability to mitigate the threat of this disease. Fourteen fungicides provided good control (≥75%) of late blight in potted potato and tomato plants in growth chambers. However, in Tunnel Experiment 1, only three fungicides provided effective control of P. infestans in potatoes: Cyazofamid (Ranman, a QiI inhibitor), Mandipropamid (Revus, a CAA inhibitor), and Oxathiapiprolin + Benthiavalicarb (Zorvek Endavia, an OSBP inhibitor + CAA inhibitor). In Tunnel Experiment 2, these three fungicides were applied at the recommended doses at 7-, 9-, and 21-day intervals, respectively, totaling 6, 4, and 2 sprays during the season. At 39 days post-inoculation (dpi), control efficacy increased in the following order: Zorvec Endavia > Ranman > Revus > Mancozeb. Two sprays of Zorvec Endavia were significantly more effective in controlling the blight than six sprays of Ranman or four sprays of Revus. We, therefore, recommend using these three fungicides as replacements for mancozeb for the control of late blight in potatoes. A spray program that alternates between these three fungicides may be effective in controlling the disease and also in avoiding the build-up of resistance in P. infestans to mandipropamid and oxathiapiprolin.

Causes of dropout from health insurance program: An experience from Lumbini Province, Nepal.

The Health Insurance Program (HIP) in Nepal is experiencing low enrolment and high dropout rates, but the causes of these issues have remained unknown. This study aimed to explore the causes of dropouts of the HIP implemented by the Health Insurance Board, Nepal. We employed an exploratory qualitative research design. We purposefully selected the informants for the data collection who had previously enrolled and currently not renewed their insurance scheme. We gathered qualitative information from 16 in-depth interviews, four key informant interviews, and four focus group discussion in Palpa and Bardia Districts of Lumbini Province, Nepal. The qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. We identified two major themes and nine drop-out-related sub-themes. These were: unnecessary health insurance; negligence to renew; unable to pay the contribution amount; poor cooperation between institutions as well as insurees and insurers; limited coverage and ceiling amount; rigid processes to receive health services; health professionals' behaviors; poor quality healthcare services; inadequate information. Dropout-related factors were associated with personal or individual factors and institutional or policy-related (process-related) factors. The major causes/reasons for dropout include lengthy procedures, poor quality and unsatisfactory services, a lack of knowledge on health insurance norms and procedures, and health professionals' behavior towards insurees during treatment. Information, education, and communication programs related to health insurance are still necessary to make the insurees familiar with the insurance systems and its processes. These factors could be taken into account by policymakers while planning interventions to minimize the low enrollment and high dropout.

Further evidence of low adherence to stimulant treatment in adult ADHD: an electronic medical record study examining timely renewal of a stimulant prescription.

RATIONALE: ADHD is a prevalent and morbid neurobiological disorder affecting up to 5% of adults. While stimulants have been documented to be safe and effective in adults with ADHD, uncertainties remain about adherence to these treatments. OBJECTIVES: The main aim of this article was to evaluate contemporaneous rates and correlates of adherence to stimulants in adults with ADHD using data from electronic medical records from a large healthcare organization focusing on timely renewal of an initial prescription. METHODS: Subjects were patients 18 to 44 years of age who had been prescribed a stimulant between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2016. Prescription and sociodemographic data were extracted from the Partners HealthCare Research Patient Data Registry (RPDR). Our outcome metric was renewal of the index stimulant prescription defined as the first prescription recorded in the electronic record for the period under investigation. RESULTS: We identified 2689 patients with an index prescription for a stimulant medication. Results showed that only 42% of patients renewed their prescriptions in a timely enough fashion to be considered consistently medicated. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that adults with ADHD have a low rate of renewal of their initial stimulant prescription indicating poor patient engagement in their treatment for ADHD.

Patterns of interval correlations in neural oscillators with adaptation.

Neural firing is often subject to negative feedback by adaptation currents. These currents can induce strong correlations among the time intervals between spikes. Here we study analytically the interval correlations of a broad class of noisy neural oscillators with spike-triggered adaptation of arbitrary strength and time scale. Our weak-noise theory provides a general relation between the correlations and the phase-response curve (PRC) of the oscillator, proves anti-correlations between neighboring intervals for adapting neurons with type I PRC and identifies a single order parameter that determines the qualitative pattern of correlations. Monotonically decaying or oscillating correlation structures can be related to qualitatively different voltage traces after spiking, which can be explained by the phase plane geometry. At high firing rates, the long-term variability of the spike train associated with the cumulative interval correlations becomes small, independent of model details. Our results are verified by comparison with stochastic simulations of the exponential, leaky, and generalized integrate-and-fire models with adaptation.