Evaluation of the Efficiency of Some Antagonistic Trichoderma spp. in the Management of Plant Parasitic Nematodes

Plant parasitic nematodes cause great economic losses to agricultural crops worldwide. They along, with their hosts, are not isolated in the ecological system, but are strongly influenced by antagonists, parasites and pathogens. Though pesticides appear to be the most economical and efficacious means of controlling plant pathogens, toxicological, environmental and sociological concerns have led to drastic reductions in the availability of efficient commercial nematicides. These restrictions have forced farmers to look for an integral system that makes use of other means of disease control. Species of spiral nematodes, Helicotylenchus and Scutellonema, were among the most abundant plant parasitic nematodes of the mulberry plant. Eco-friendly control of the parasitic nematodes could be achieved by means of endoparasitic fungi (like Hirsutella, Meria, Nematophthora and Nematoctonus), trapping fungi (like Arthrobotrys and Duddingtonia) or parasitic fungi (like Paeceilomyces lilacinus). During the course of this present work, Trichoderma Pers. Ex. Fr. was found to be one of the most effective fungi in controlling the eggs and J2 of Meloidogyne javanica. The present study outlines the comparative efficacy of five Trichoderma species (T. viride, T. harzianum, T. longibrachiatum, T. koningii and T. hamatum) against Helicotylenchus sp. and Scutellonema sp. The study also outlines the effect of Trichoderma viride Persoon on Scutellonema spp. and Helicotylenchus sp., effect of Trichoderma harzianum Raifae on Scutellonema sp. and Helicotylenchus sp., effect of Trichoderma longibrachiatum Rifai on Scutellonema sp. and Helicotylenchus sp., effect of Trichoderma koningii Oudeom on Scutellonema sp. and Helicotylenchus sp., and lastly effect of Trichoderma hamatum (Bonord) Bainier on Scutellonema sp. and Helicotylenchus sp

Geometrical classification of Killing tensors on bidimensional flat manifolds

Valence two Killing tensors in the Euclidean and Minkowski planes are classified under the action of the group which preserves the type of the corresponding Killing web. The classification is based on an analysis of the system of determining partial differential equations for the group invariants and is entirely algebraic. The approach allows to classify both characteristic and non characteristic Killing tensors.Comment: 27 pages, 20 figures, pictures format changed to .eps, typos correcte

Invariant classification of the rotationally symmetric R-separable webs for the Laplace equation in Euclidean space

An invariant characterization of the rotationally symmetric R-separable webs for the Laplace equation in Euclidean space is given in terms of invariants and covariants of a real binary quartic canonically associated to the characteristic conformal Killing tensor which defines the webs.Comment: 25 pages, recently submitted to the Journal of Mathematical Physic

Prevalence, underlying causes, and preventability of sepsis-associated mortality in US acute care hospitals

Importance: Sepsis is present in many hospitalizations that culminate in death. The contribution of sepsis to these deaths, and the extent to which they are preventable, is unknown. Objective: To estimate the prevalence, underlying causes, and preventability of sepsis-associated mortality in acute care hospitals. Design, Setting, and Participants: Cohort study in which a retrospective medical record review was conducted of 568 randomly selected adults admitted to 6 US academic and community hospitals from January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2015, who died in the hospital or were discharged to hospice and not readmitted. Medical records were reviewed from January 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018. Main Outcomes and Measures: Clinicians reviewed cases for sepsis during hospitalization using Sepsis-3 criteria, hospice-qualifying criteria on admission, immediate and underlying causes of death, and suboptimal sepsis-related care such as inappropriate or delayed antibiotics, inadequate source control, or other medical errors. The preventability of each sepsis-associated death was rated on a 6-point Likert scale. Results: The study cohort included 568 patients (289 [50.9%] men; mean [SD] age, 70.5 [16.1] years) who died in the hospital or were discharged to hospice. Sepsis was present in 300 hospitalizations (52.8%; 95% CI, 48.6%-57.0%) and was the immediate cause of death in 198 cases (34.9%; 95% CI, 30.9%-38.9%). The next most common immediate causes of death were progressive cancer (92 [16.2%]) and heart failure (39 [6.9%]). The most common underlying causes of death in patients with sepsis were solid cancer (63 of 300 [21.0%]), chronic heart disease (46 of 300 [15.3%]), hematologic cancer (31 of 300 [10.3%]), dementia (29 of 300 [9.7%]), and chronic lung disease (27 of 300 [9.0%]). Hospice-qualifying conditions were present on admission in 121 of 300 sepsis-associated deaths (40.3%; 95% CI 34.7%-46.1%), most commonly end-stage cancer. Suboptimal care, most commonly delays in antibiotics, was identified in 68 of 300 sepsis-associated deaths (22.7%). However, only 11 sepsis-associated deaths (3.7%) were judged definitely or moderately likely preventable; another 25 sepsis-associated deaths (8.3%) were considered possibly preventable. Conclusions and Relevance: In this cohort from 6 US hospitals, sepsis was the most common immediate cause of death. However, most underlying causes of death were related to severe chronic comorbidities and most sepsis-associated deaths were unlikely to be preventable through better hospital-based care. Further innovations in the prevention and care of underlying conditions may be necessary before a major reduction in sepsis-associated deaths can be achieved