BACKGROUND Cochineal red is an organic compound widely used in food,cosmetics,pharmaceuticals,textiles,and other fields due to its excellent safety profile.Poisoning caused by eating foods containing cochineal red is ...BACKGROUND Cochineal red is an organic compound widely used in food,cosmetics,pharmaceuticals,textiles,and other fields due to its excellent safety profile.Poisoning caused by eating foods containing cochineal red is rare,and repeated atrial arrhythmia due to cochineal red poisoning is even rarer.CASE SUMMARY An 88-year-old Asian female patient was admitted to hospital due to a disturbance of consciousness.Twelve hours prior to presentation,the patient consumed 12 eggs containing cochineal red over a period of 2 h.At presentation,the patient was in a coma and had a score of 6 on the Glasgow Coma Scale(E2+VT+M4).The patient’s skin and mucous membranes were pink.Electrocardiography(ECG)revealed rapid atrial fibrillation without any signs of ischemia.We prescribed cedilan and fluid replacement for arrhythmia correction.Shortly after admission,the atrial fibrillation corrected to a normal sinus rhythm.On the day 2 of admission,the patient had a sudden atrial flutter accompanied by hemodynamic instability and rapidly declining arterial oxygen saturation between 85%and 90%.The sinus rhythm returned to normal after two electrical cardioversions.Six days after admission,the skin color of the patient returned to normal,and the ECG results were normal.The patient was transferred out of the intensive care unit and eventually discharged after 12 d in hospital.At the 2-mo follow-up visit,the patient was in good health with no recurrence of arrhythmia.CONCLUSION Although cochineal red is a safe,natural food additive,excessive consumption or occupational exposure can induce cardiac arrhythmias.展开更多
The thin layers of birnessite (Mn7O13?5H2O) are exposed to reactive species gliding arc plasma in humid air, which induces the treatment of the thin layers surface. Plasma treatment thin layer of birnessite was used f...The thin layers of birnessite (Mn7O13?5H2O) are exposed to reactive species gliding arc plasma in humid air, which induces the treatment of the thin layers surface. Plasma treatment thin layer of birnessite was used for the degradation of Cochineal Red. The experimental results showed that 95% of the CR solution was completely decolorized by thin layer of birnessite treated by plasma compared to 80% of the same solution after interaction of thin layer of birnessite untreated. The decay kinetics always follows a pseudo-first order reaction. The application of the humid air plasma for the surface treatment of thin layers of birnessite improves the efficiency of treatment for Cochineal Red degradation.展开更多
The cactus is a plant that grows in many rural areas,widely used as a hedge,and has multiple benefits through the manufacture of various cosmetics and other products.However,this crop has been suffering for some time ...The cactus is a plant that grows in many rural areas,widely used as a hedge,and has multiple benefits through the manufacture of various cosmetics and other products.However,this crop has been suffering for some time from the attack of the carmine scaleDactylopius opuntia(Hemiptera:Dactylopiidae).The infestation can spread rapidly if not treated in the early stage.Current solutions consist of regular field checks by the naked eyes carried out by experts.The major difficulty is the lack of experts to check all fields,especially in remote areas.In addition,this requires time and resources.Hence the need for a system that can categorize the health level of cacti remotely.To date,deep learning models used to categorize plant diseases from images have not addressed the mealy bug infestation of cacti because computer vision has not sufficiently addressed this disease.Since there is no public dataset and smartphones are commonly used as tools to take pictures,it might then be conceivable for farmers to use them to categorize the infection level of their crops.In this work,we developed a system called CactiVIT that instantly determines the health status of cacti using the Visual image Transformer(ViT)model.We also provided a new image dataset of cochineal infested cacti.1 Finally,we developed a mobile application that delivers the classification results directly to farmers about the infestation in their fields by showing the probabilities related to each class.This study compares the existing models on the new dataset and presents the results obtained.The VIT-B-16 model reveals an approved performance in the literature and in our experiments,in which it achieved 88.73%overall accuracy with an average of+2.61%compared to other convolutional neural network(CNN)models that we evaluated under similar conditions.展开更多
The cochineal, Dactylopius opuntiae, has recently become the main pest that damages the prickly cactus, Opuntia ficus-indica, plants in Morocco. The control methods in which pesticides are used and applied weekly, hav...The cochineal, Dactylopius opuntiae, has recently become the main pest that damages the prickly cactus, Opuntia ficus-indica, plants in Morocco. The control methods in which pesticides are used and applied weekly, have generated phytotoxicity, poisoning and high residuality in fresh nopal, which also prevents its commercialization in international markets and the constant risk to human and animal health. Therefore, the use of less aggressive products with a low impact on the environment and is sustainable for the crop, has been introduced without an obvious strategy for gradual control of the insect. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of Beta vulgaris subsp., Eucalyptus torquata and Cedrus atlantica plant extracts (Eucalyptus leaves, small pieces of beet and Cedrus leaves powdered and macerated in 100 ml of distilled water for 72 h) for controlling of D. opuntiae under laboratory and field conditions. The results show that these extracts constitute a viable alternative for the control of wild cochineal in the nopal. A gradual reduction of cochineal populations was obtained, until after the third application with these extracts, with biological effectiveness of up to 90%. The findings of our study indicate that Beta vulgaris subsp., plant extracts could be used in the development and implementation of a biological control program against D. opuntiae under field conditions.展开更多
The tomentose cochineal scale insect, Dactylopius tomentosus （Lamarck） （Hemiptera： Dactylopiidae）, is an important biological control agent against invasive species of Cylindropuntia （Caryophyllales： Cactaceae...The tomentose cochineal scale insect, Dactylopius tomentosus （Lamarck） （Hemiptera： Dactylopiidae）, is an important biological control agent against invasive species of Cylindropuntia （Caryophyllales： Cactaceae）. Recent studies have demonstrated that this scale is composed of host-affiliated biotypes with differential host specificity and fitness on particular host species. We investigated genetic variation and phylogenetic rela-tionships among D. tomentosus biotypes and provenances to examine the possibility that genetic diversity may be related to their host-use pattern, and whether their phylogenetic relationships would give insights into taxonomic relatedness of their host plants. Nucleotide sequence comparison was accomplished using sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I （COI） gene. Sequences of individuals from the same host plant within a region were identical and characterized by a unique haplotype. Individuals belonging to the same biotype but from different regions had similar haplotypes. However, haplotypes were not shared between different biotypes. Phylogenetic analysis grouped the monophyletic D. tomentosus into 3 well-resolved clades of biotypes. The phylogenetic relationships and clustering of biotypes corresponded with known taxonomic relatedness of their hosts. Two biotypes, Fulgida and Mamillata, tested positive for Wolbachia （α-Proteobacteria）, a common endosymbiont of insects. The Wolbachia sequences were serendipitously detected by using insect-specific COI DNA barcoding primers and are most similar to Wolbachia Supergroup F strains. This study is the first molecular characterization of cochineal biotypes that, together with Wolbachia sequences, contribute to the better identification of the biotypes of cochineal insects and to the biological control of cacti using host-specific biotypes of the scale.展开更多
基金Anhui University of Chinese Medicine,No.2022LAY012.
文摘BACKGROUND Cochineal red is an organic compound widely used in food,cosmetics,pharmaceuticals,textiles,and other fields due to its excellent safety profile.Poisoning caused by eating foods containing cochineal red is rare,and repeated atrial arrhythmia due to cochineal red poisoning is even rarer.CASE SUMMARY An 88-year-old Asian female patient was admitted to hospital due to a disturbance of consciousness.Twelve hours prior to presentation,the patient consumed 12 eggs containing cochineal red over a period of 2 h.At presentation,the patient was in a coma and had a score of 6 on the Glasgow Coma Scale(E2+VT+M4).The patient’s skin and mucous membranes were pink.Electrocardiography(ECG)revealed rapid atrial fibrillation without any signs of ischemia.We prescribed cedilan and fluid replacement for arrhythmia correction.Shortly after admission,the atrial fibrillation corrected to a normal sinus rhythm.On the day 2 of admission,the patient had a sudden atrial flutter accompanied by hemodynamic instability and rapidly declining arterial oxygen saturation between 85%and 90%.The sinus rhythm returned to normal after two electrical cardioversions.Six days after admission,the skin color of the patient returned to normal,and the ECG results were normal.The patient was transferred out of the intensive care unit and eventually discharged after 12 d in hospital.At the 2-mo follow-up visit,the patient was in good health with no recurrence of arrhythmia.CONCLUSION Although cochineal red is a safe,natural food additive,excessive consumption or occupational exposure can induce cardiac arrhythmias.
文摘The thin layers of birnessite (Mn7O13?5H2O) are exposed to reactive species gliding arc plasma in humid air, which induces the treatment of the thin layers surface. Plasma treatment thin layer of birnessite was used for the degradation of Cochineal Red. The experimental results showed that 95% of the CR solution was completely decolorized by thin layer of birnessite treated by plasma compared to 80% of the same solution after interaction of thin layer of birnessite untreated. The decay kinetics always follows a pseudo-first order reaction. The application of the humid air plasma for the surface treatment of thin layers of birnessite improves the efficiency of treatment for Cochineal Red degradation.
基金PHC Toubkal/21/121-Campus France:45942UG who funded the work and the mobility fee between Morocco and France.
文摘The cactus is a plant that grows in many rural areas,widely used as a hedge,and has multiple benefits through the manufacture of various cosmetics and other products.However,this crop has been suffering for some time from the attack of the carmine scaleDactylopius opuntia(Hemiptera:Dactylopiidae).The infestation can spread rapidly if not treated in the early stage.Current solutions consist of regular field checks by the naked eyes carried out by experts.The major difficulty is the lack of experts to check all fields,especially in remote areas.In addition,this requires time and resources.Hence the need for a system that can categorize the health level of cacti remotely.To date,deep learning models used to categorize plant diseases from images have not addressed the mealy bug infestation of cacti because computer vision has not sufficiently addressed this disease.Since there is no public dataset and smartphones are commonly used as tools to take pictures,it might then be conceivable for farmers to use them to categorize the infection level of their crops.In this work,we developed a system called CactiVIT that instantly determines the health status of cacti using the Visual image Transformer(ViT)model.We also provided a new image dataset of cochineal infested cacti.1 Finally,we developed a mobile application that delivers the classification results directly to farmers about the infestation in their fields by showing the probabilities related to each class.This study compares the existing models on the new dataset and presents the results obtained.The VIT-B-16 model reveals an approved performance in the literature and in our experiments,in which it achieved 88.73%overall accuracy with an average of+2.61%compared to other convolutional neural network(CNN)models that we evaluated under similar conditions.
文摘The cochineal, Dactylopius opuntiae, has recently become the main pest that damages the prickly cactus, Opuntia ficus-indica, plants in Morocco. The control methods in which pesticides are used and applied weekly, have generated phytotoxicity, poisoning and high residuality in fresh nopal, which also prevents its commercialization in international markets and the constant risk to human and animal health. Therefore, the use of less aggressive products with a low impact on the environment and is sustainable for the crop, has been introduced without an obvious strategy for gradual control of the insect. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of Beta vulgaris subsp., Eucalyptus torquata and Cedrus atlantica plant extracts (Eucalyptus leaves, small pieces of beet and Cedrus leaves powdered and macerated in 100 ml of distilled water for 72 h) for controlling of D. opuntiae under laboratory and field conditions. The results show that these extracts constitute a viable alternative for the control of wild cochineal in the nopal. A gradual reduction of cochineal populations was obtained, until after the third application with these extracts, with biological effectiveness of up to 90%. The findings of our study indicate that Beta vulgaris subsp., plant extracts could be used in the development and implementation of a biological control program against D. opuntiae under field conditions.
文摘The tomentose cochineal scale insect, Dactylopius tomentosus （Lamarck） （Hemiptera： Dactylopiidae）, is an important biological control agent against invasive species of Cylindropuntia （Caryophyllales： Cactaceae）. Recent studies have demonstrated that this scale is composed of host-affiliated biotypes with differential host specificity and fitness on particular host species. We investigated genetic variation and phylogenetic rela-tionships among D. tomentosus biotypes and provenances to examine the possibility that genetic diversity may be related to their host-use pattern, and whether their phylogenetic relationships would give insights into taxonomic relatedness of their host plants. Nucleotide sequence comparison was accomplished using sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I （COI） gene. Sequences of individuals from the same host plant within a region were identical and characterized by a unique haplotype. Individuals belonging to the same biotype but from different regions had similar haplotypes. However, haplotypes were not shared between different biotypes. Phylogenetic analysis grouped the monophyletic D. tomentosus into 3 well-resolved clades of biotypes. The phylogenetic relationships and clustering of biotypes corresponded with known taxonomic relatedness of their hosts. Two biotypes, Fulgida and Mamillata, tested positive for Wolbachia （α-Proteobacteria）, a common endosymbiont of insects. The Wolbachia sequences were serendipitously detected by using insect-specific COI DNA barcoding primers and are most similar to Wolbachia Supergroup F strains. This study is the first molecular characterization of cochineal biotypes that, together with Wolbachia sequences, contribute to the better identification of the biotypes of cochineal insects and to the biological control of cacti using host-specific biotypes of the scale.
