Systematic review of the efficacy of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy for oligoprogressive disease in metastatic cancer.

Background: Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy (SABR) for the treatment of oligometastatic disease can improve survival and delay the requirement for systemic therapy. The benefits of SABR in oligoprogressive disease are less well-defined. Here, we evaluate the available evidence investigating the efficacy of SABR in the treatment of oligoprogressive disease.

Sub-lethal effects of the insecticide, imidacloprid, on the responses of damselfly larvae to chemosensory cues indicating predation risk.

Insecticides, including the widely used neonicotinoids, can affect both pest and non-target species. In addition to lethal effects, these insecticides at sub-lethal levels may cause disruption to sensory perception and processing leading to behavioural impairments. In this laboratory experiment, we investigated the effects of a 10-day exposure to the neonicotinoid insecticide, imidacloprid, on the behaviour of larvae of the damselfly, Lestes congener.

Exposure to the insecticide, imidacloprid, impairs predator-recognition learning in damselfly larvae.

Many aquatic organisms use chemosensory information to learn about local predation threats, but contaminants in their environment may impair such cognitive processes. Neonicotinoids are a class of water-soluble systemic insecticides that have become a major concern in aquatic systems. In this study, we explored how a 10-day exposure to various concentrations (0, 0.

Agricultural Use of Insecticides Alters Homeostatic Behaviors and Cognitive Ability in Lymnaea stagnalis.

Lymnaea stagnalis is an ecologically important, stress-sensitive, freshwater mollusk that is at risk for exposure to insecticides via agricultural practices. We provide insight into the impact insecticides have on L. stagnalis by comparing specific behaviors including feeding, locomotion, shell regeneration, and cognition between snails collected at two different sites: one contaminated by insecticides and one not.

Neonicotinoids and other agricultural stressors collectively modify aquatic insect communities.

Threats to wetland water quality and aquatic insect secondary production in agricultural landscapes are multifaceted and are known to vary spatially and temporally. We designed this study with the aim to disentangle the effects of multiple stressors on emerging aquatic insects from wetlands impacted by intensive agricultural practices and receiving runoff from neonicotinoid-treated canola. A total of 22 semi-permanent wetlands were monitored over two growing seasons (11 different wetlands per year) in central Saskatchewan, Canada.

Diet characterization and a preliminary investigation into trophic niche placement for an endangered lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) population in the Saskatchewan River, SK, Canada.

All Canadian lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) populations are listed under the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) due to their complex life history, loss of habitat and negative interactions with anthropomorphic activities. Lake sturgeon diets vary considerably across their range and depend on the local benthic invertebrate fauna, substrata, and competition with congener species. Hence, determining population-specific prey assemblages is a vital contribution to effective conservation efforts.

Species traits modify the species-area relationship in ground-beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) assemblages on islands in a boreal lake.

Life-history traits influence colonization, persistence, and extinction of species on islands and are important aspects of theories predicting the geographical distribution and evolution of species. We used data collected from a large freshwater lake (1,413 km2) in central Canada to test the effects of island area and isolation on species richness and abundance of carabid beetles as a function of body size, wing length, and breeding season. A total of 10,018 individual beetles from 37 species were collected during the frost-free period of 2013 using transects of pitfall traps on 30 forested islands ranging in area from 0.

Evidence for Substrate Influence on Artificial Substrate Invertebrate Communities.

Cobble baskets are frequently used as a tool to measure differences in benthic macroinvertebrate communities between waterbodies; however, underlying differences in substrate type may influence the resultant colonization of baskets, misrepresenting communities. This study tests the hypothesis that cobble basket placement influences the resulting benthic macroinvertebrate community. Cobble basket arrays (n = 4) were deployed in Dog Lake, Saskatchewan, in 2011 (97 d) and 2012 (95 d) on cobble habitats and soft or sandy substrates ∼100 m apart.

Turnover of hydrogen isotopes in lake sturgeon blood: implications for tracking movements of wild populations.

Naturally occurring deuterium ((2)H) in biota can be used to trace movement, migration and geographic origin of a range of organisms. However, to evaluate movements of animals using δ(2)H measurements of tissues, it is necessary to establish the turnover time of (2)H in the tissues and the extent of isotopic discrimination from different environmental (2)H sources to those tissues. We investigated the turnover of (2)H in lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) blood by manipulating both environmental water δ(2)H and diet δ(2)H over a four-month period.

Effects of pitfall trap lid transparency and habitat structure on the catches of carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in tame pasture.

Captures of insects in pitfall traps are affected by features of trap design that may confound the interpretation of data. One such feature is a lid suspended over the opening of the trap to exclude debris and rainwater. In this study, we tested whether use of these lids affected captures of carabid beetles by altering the light conditions at the opening to the trap.