[en] Background. In Sudan, the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is being developed to suppress populations of Anopheles arabiensis. The present study was carried out to evaluate the impact of long-term colonisation, irradiation, and transportation on male vigour and mating competitiveness under controlled semi-field conditions. Materials and Methods. Male mosquitoes were irradiated in Khartoum as pupae and transported 400 km to the field site in Dongola. Wild males and females were collected as immature stages (larvae and pupae) from the field site and sexed immediately after adult emergence. Competition experiments were carried out to test the mating competitiveness and vigour of colonised males (non-irradiated or irradiated) against wild conspecifics in the semi-field system. Results. Mortality resulting from packaging and transportation from Khartoum to Dongola was low for adults (1.1% for irradiated and 1.3% for non-irradiated males). In contrast, all irradiated pupae died on their way to the field site. On average, 54.9% females were inseminated after one night. There were no differences between the number of females inseminated by colony males and those inseminated by wild males. Only a slightly significant difference between the numbers of females inseminated by irradiated males (14.0±1.7) or by wild males (19.7±1.7) was observed. However, the competitive index (CI) for irradiated and colony males when competed with wild males were 0.71 and 0.81 respectively. Conclusions. Packing and transportation methods for pupae need to be improved. Prolonged colonisation (68 generations), irradiation and transportation of adult males did not affect their ability to locate virgin females and compete against wild conspecifics. Irradiation, in contrast to many reports, only had a marginal effect on released males during the first night after their release. These findings support the feasibility of staging an SIT campaign against this malaria vector. (author)

[en] Hypospadias is a common condition that is typically diagnosed and repaired in early life. Boys with hypospadias can present with complications from their surgery months to years later. Imaging in patients with hypospadias is usually accomplished by retrograde urethrography (RUG) and less commonly by voiding cystourethrography (VCUG). This pictorial essay demonstrates the fluoroscopic appearances of hypospadias preoperatively as well as the normal postoperative appearance and a variety of complications that can occur. (orig.)

[en] Adult males of Heliothis Virescens (F.) less than 12 h-old were irradiated with sub sterilizing doses of 50,100 or 125 Gy then crossed with untreated virgin females. The resulted F₁ males 1-and 4-day-old were dissected to determine the production of eupyrene sperm bundles and its accumulation in the duplex region. In another test, an experiment was conducted to determine the ability of F₁ males to mate and transfer sperm to untreated females. The data show that, eupyrene sperm bundles were not found in the duplex of newly emerged males immediately after emergence Number of eupyrene sperm bundles descended to duplex was significantly affected at 125 Gy during the first dark: light cycle of sperm descended. Accumulation of eupyrene sperm bundles of unmated F₁ males was significantly reduced at 100 and 125 Gy. It is apparent that the first mating is the most important, even in the control, and the rate of females that achieved successful mating with F₁ males after the first ejaculate was markedly reduced. This reduction was directly related to the dose level of irradiation. The proportion of mated females without and sperm, with apyrene sperms only or those with reduced amount of eupyrene sperms was generally increased as the dose applied to P₁ increased

[en] The attractant rate of protein bait to Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) sterile males at different ages and release densities, and the temporal changes in attractant rate of the bait with or without spinosad were studied. The results showed that the bait had a lower attractant rate to sterile males than to wild males, and the attractant rate decreased with age and reached a maximum level rate at the age of 5d old,which were 36.24% and 48.93%, respectively. The density of released sterile males had no significant effect on attractant rate, which reached 33%∼58% at the releasing density of 0.25∼1.00 males /m². The attractant rates to sterile males decreased with the duration after bait application both with 0.02% spinosad (applied by spraying) and without spinosad (applied by hanging bottles), which were 80% and 65% of total sterile males, respectively. The attractant effect disappeared 5d later and spinosad residues had no contacting action to sterile males. (authors)

[en] Tsetse flies are able to emit different acoustic signals. An acoustic method to test the quality of sterilized male tsetse flies was developed. Differences in the sound characteristics between males and females, between sterilized and unsterilized males, and between males sterilized in air and nitrogen, were determined. Also, the acoustic parameters (frequency, time, sound pressure level) of the sounds that are useful as criteria for quality control were determined. It was demonstrated that only the so-called 'feeding sounds' can be used as a quality criterion. Both sexes emitted feeding sounds while feeding on a host. These sounds were also used to find sexual partners, and had an effect on male copulation success. An acoustic sound analysis programme was developed; it automatically measured sound activity (only feeding sounds) under standard conditions (random sample, relative humidity, temperature, light intensity). (author)

No abstract available

[en] Effects of gamma radiation dosages from 5 to 50 Krad on the adult stage of Ephestia Kuehielia Z. were studied. Irradiated adults paired with untreated adults produced fewer eggs than pairs of unirradiated adults, and these eggs had reduced hatch. This effect was more pronounced with irradiated females or when both parents were irradiated. Radiation greatly reduced life span of treated adults. Adult females were more sensitive to the sterilizing effect of gamma radiation than were males. Males were sterilized when irradiated at 50 Krad, but females at 25 Krad. Previous studies showed that males irradiated as fully grown pupae at 45 Krad were completely sterile. When irradiated (I) males were confined with unirradiated (U) males and females (1:1:1 ratio), infertility of eggs was 48%. Increasing the ratio to 5:1:1, 10:1:1 and 15:1:1 caused 77.9, 84.6 and 94.4 percent infertility of the resulting eggs, respectively. The calculated competitiveness values for the 4 ratios were 0.55, 0.52, 0.42 and 0.88, respectively. Thus I males were only competitive at the highest flooding ration (15:1:1)

[en] The unique genetic phenomena responsible for inherited F₁ sterility in Lepidoptera and some other arthropods provided advantages for the use of inherited sterility in a sterile insect technique (SIT) program. Lepidopteran females generally can be completely sterilized at a dose of radiation that only partially sterilizes males of the same species. When these partially sterile males mate with fertile females, many of the radiation-induced deleterious effects are inherited by the F₁ generation. At the appropriate dose of radiation, egg hatch of females mated with irradiated males is reduced and the resulting (F₁) offspring are both highly sterile and predominantly male. Lower doses of radiation used to induce F₁ sterility increase the quality and competitiveness of there released insects. However, during a SIT program it is possible that traps used to monitor wild moth populations and overflooding ratios (marked released males vs unmarked wild males) may capture unmarked F₁ sterile males that cannot be distinguished from wild fertile males. In this study we developed a cytological technique with orcein and Giemsa stains to distinguish adult F₁ progeny of irradiated males and fertile males. Our observations on 6 pest species in 5 families of Lepidoptera indicate that F₁ males (sterile) from irradiated fathers can be distinguished from fertile males by the nuclei cluster in the eupyrene sperm bundles. The nuclei cluster in the fertile males exhibited a regular and organized arrangement of the sperm and was homogeneously stained, whereas in F₁ males the nuclei cluster of sperm was disorganized, irregular and unevenly stained. (author)

[en] The effects of gamma irradiation on amino acid content of the cotton leaf worm Spodoptera Littoralis was studied.The identified amino acids in the total body tissue of male moths were Theronine, Serine, Glutamic, Glycine, Alanine, Valine, Cystine, Methionine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Tyrosine, Phenylalanine, Lysine, Histidine and Arginine. The irradiation of full grown male pupae with doses 100,200 and 300 Gy decreased the total quantity of amino acids and the amount of most individual amino acids in male moths of P₁ or F₁ generations with some exceptions for Threonine, Alanine, Glycine, Serine, Valine, Cystine and Methionine which were increased.The effect of irradiation on amino acid content of the reproductive system tissues for each male or female were also studied.The results indicated that irradiation decreased the total quantity of amino acid content of both sexes by increasing the dose and males were more radiosensitive than females. Also, irradiation decreased the amount of individual amino acids in both sexes with certain exceptions, e.g. Alanine, Methionine and Tyrosine which increased in the reproductive system of male, and Methionine which increased by more than four times as control.The amino acid content was determined as well in F₁ egg progeny, which was produced from irradiated males Irradiation doses (100, 200 and 300 Gy) decreased the total quantity of amino acids, and all individual ones except Cystine.The greatest reduction (54.9% was observed with Lysine at 300 Gy as compared to control

No abstract available