Pesticide stress on plants negatively affects parasitoid fitness through a bypass of their phytophage hosts.

Pesticides taken up by plants from the soil or interstitial (pore) water can cascade to higher trophic levels, which are expected to be more affected due to cumulative bottom-up effects. Knowledge about the impact of indirect exposure to pesticides on non-target terrestrial trophic chains, however, is still lacking. Therefore, we examined the direct and indirect effects of three concentrations of the herbicide 2,6-dichlorobenzonitrile (DCBN) and an insecticide with a similar molecular structure (1,4-dichlorobenzene, DCB) on the fitness traits of a tritrophic system: the wheat plant Triticum aestivum, the aphid Sitobion avenae and its specialist parasitoid Aphidius rhopalosiphi.

QSAR development and bioavailability determination: the toxicity of chloroanilines to the soil dwelling springtail Folsomia candida.

Quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) are an established tool in environmental risk assessment and a valuable alternative to the exhaustive use of test animals under REACH. In this study a QSAR was developed for the toxicity of a series of six chloroanilines to the soil-dwelling collembolan Folsomia candida in standardized natural LUFA2.2 soil.

Development of QSARs for the toxicity of chlorobenzenes to the soil dwelling springtail Folsomia candida.

To meet the goals of Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) as formulated by the European Commission, fast and resource-effective tools are needed to predict the toxicity of compounds in the environment. We developed quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) for the toxicity of nine chlorinated benzenes to the soil-dwelling collembolan Folsomia candida in natural LUFA2.2 (Landwirtschaftliche Untersuchungs und Forschungsanstalt [LUFA]) standard soil and in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development artificial soil.

Tinea gladiatorum: Pennsylvania's experience.

Objective: To describe the impact of ringworm infections in high school wrestlers (tinea gladiatorum) in Pennsylvania during the 1998-1999 scholastic wrestling season.

Design: Retrospective 23-item mail-out survey.

Setting: Pennsylvania high schools with varsity wrestling programs in 1998-1999.