Acquisition and Evolution of Plant Pathogenesis–Associated Gene Clusters and Candidate Determinants of Tissue-Specificity in Xanthomonas

is a large genus of plant-associated and plant-pathogenic bacteria. Collectively, members cause diseases on over 392 plant species. Individually, they exhibit marked host- and tissue-specificity. The determinants of this specificity are unknown. lineage. genome and indicate that differentiation with respect to host- and tissue-specificity involved not major modifications or wholesale exchange of clusters, but subtle changes in a small number of genes or in non-coding sequences, and/or differences outside the clusters, potentially among regulatory targets or secretory substrates

Maximum phonation time: variability and reliability

The objective of the study was to determine maximum phonation time reliability as a function of the number of trials, days, and raters in dysphonic and control subjects. Two groups of adult subjects participated in this reliability study: a group of outpatients with functional or organic dysphonia versus a group of healthy control subjects matched by age and gender. Over a period of maximally 6 weeks, three video recordings were made of five subjects' maximum phonation time trials. A panel of five experts were responsible for all measurements, including a repeated measurement of the subjects' first recordings. Patients showed significantly shorter maximum phonation times compared with healthy controls (on average, 6.6 seconds shorter). The averaged interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) over all raters per trial for the first day was 0.998. The averaged reliability coefficient per rater and per trial for repeated measurements of the first day's data was 0.997, indicating high intrarater reliability. The mean reliability coefficient per day for one trial was 0.939. When using five trials, the reliability increased to 0.987. The reliability over five trials for a single day was 0.836; for 2 days, 0.911; and for 3 days, 0.935. To conclude, the maximum phonation time has proven to be a highly reliable measure in voice assessment. A single rater is sufficient to provide highly reliable measurements