Deciphering Plant-Insect-Microorganism Signals for Sustainable Crop Production

Agricultural crop productivity relies on the application of chemical pesticides to reduce pest and pathogen damage. However, chemical pesticides also pose a range of ecological, environmental and economic penalties. This includes the development of pesticide resistance by insect pests and pathogens, rendering pesticides less effective. Alternative sustainable crop protection tools should therefore be considered. Semiochemicals are signalling molecules produced by organisms, including plants, microbes, and animals, which cause behavioural or developmental changes in receiving organisms. Manipulating semiochemicals could provide a more sustainable approach to the management of insect pests and pathogens across crops. Here, we review the role of semiochemicals in the interaction between plants, insects and microbes, including examples of how they have been applied to agricultural systems. We highlight future research priorities to be considered for semiochemicals to be credible alternatives to the application of chemical pesticides

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)1.

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field

A resampling approach for under-estimating a finite population total from a censored sample

SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RR 4487(2002,10) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Convergence of the Conditional Per Symbol Entropy for Stationary Gaussian Fading Channels for Almost All Input Sequences

Abstract—In the present work, a discrete-time stationary Rayleigh flat-fading channel with unknown channel state information at the transmitter and the receiver is considered. The law of the channel is assumed to be known at the receiver and the fading process is supposed to be a stationary Gaussian process with an absolutely summable autocorrelation function. The conditional per symbol entropy of the output given the input is shown to converge to a constant for almost every realization of i.i.d. input variables. This implies the existence of the corresponding conditional entropy rate. Moreover, a novel inequality yielding a lower bound for the rate is derived. I. MOTIVATION AND SETUP We considera stationaryRayleighflat-fadingchannelwhere thechannelstateinformationisunknownat thetransmitterand the receiver. Moreover, the law of the channel is assumed t

Laser-induzierte Thermotherapie (LITT) bei malignen Lebertumoren: Einsatz der Sonographie zur Katheterplatzierung und Prozessbeobachtung [Laser-induced thermotherapy (LITT) for malignant liver tumours: the role of sonography in catheter placement and observation of the therapeutic procedure]

AIM: Evaluation of sonography in the placement of catheters for laser-induced thermotherapy (LITT) as well as for the observation of the therapeutic procedure in cases of malignant liver tumours. METHODS: Following the placement of 1-4 LITT applicators, 18 patients with malignant liver tumours (recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma n = 5, metachronous liver metastases n = 13) were examined by ultrasound to determine the position of the applicators as well as the sonographic visualisation of the respective lesion. The laser treatment procedure was also observed sonographically. As standard reference method for the documentation of thermally induced necroses we used magnetic resonance tomography 24-48 hours after the procedure. RESULTS: The tip of the applicator could be localised in all cases, and the position of the applicator relative to the lesion could be directly visualised in 78% of cases. The hyperechogenic thermal effect during LITT had a median size of 4.5 cm, thus proving to be significantly larger than the actual necrosis induced (p < 0.01). The sonographic observation of the procedure identified 8/10 primarily incomplete ablations which were then treated again immediately after correction of the position of the applicators. CONCLUSION: Continuous sonographic observation of the procedure of LITT can yield important additional information