Response of 'Merlot' (Vitis vinifera) grapevine to defoliation caused by downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola) during the following growing season

The downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola) epidemics on leaf canopy during the ripening phase causes a stress situation for the grapevine. The plant compensates the carbohydrate request of the berries mobilising the carbohydrate reserves stored in the woody parts. In this fourth study the impact of the reserves reduction on the growth and fertility and the recovering capacity of the plant were analysed during two consecutive periods of two years (first year = stress; second year = recovering). Two treatments were compared: “Untreated canopy” (to prevent quantity losses, the clusters were treated once with a contact fungicide at the discovery of the first downy mildew sporulation) and “Standard schedule” (schedule normally applied in the vineyard). The impact of decreased reserve contents in the following growth season has negatively influenced only the shoot elongation and the potential crop yield quantity of the “Untreated canopy” treatment. Nevertheless, a single recovery year was enough to rebuild the reserve pool particularly in the roots, confirming the acclimation potential of the grapevine.

A geometric study of the dispersionless Boussinesq type equation

We discuss the dispersionless Boussinesq type equation, which is equivalent to the Benney-Lax equation, being a system of equations of hydrodynamical type. This equation was discussed in . The results include: a description of local and nonlocal Hamiltonian and symplectic structures, hierarchies of symmetries, hierarchies of conservation laws, recursion operators for symmetries and generating functions of conservation laws (cosymmetries). Highly interesting are the appearances of operators that send conservation laws and symmetries to each other but are neither Hamiltonian, nor symplectic. These operators give rise to a noncommutative infinite-dimensional algebra of recursion operators

Quantification of the influence of the downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola) epidemics on the compensatory capacities of Vitis vinifera 'Merlot' to limit the qualitative yield damage

A preview study on the analysis of the impact of downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola) epidemics on the plant growth and yield quality has shown no correlation between disease severity progress on the canopy and sugar accumulation in the berries from veraison until harvest, indicating the capacity of the vine to compensate a stress situation induced by the downy mildew damage on leaf canopy. In this study the compensation capacity of the plant was analysed during three years under field conditions comparing three different downy mildew control strategies: A = “Untreated canopy” (to prevent quantity losses, the clusters were treated once with a contact fungicide at the discovery of the first downy mildew sporulation); B = “Reduced fungicide schedule” (based on a first treatment at the appearance of the first symptoms, to avoid yield quantity losses followed by one or two additional fungicide applications during the early epidemic phase with the aim of delaying the epidemic). C = “Standard schedule” (schedule normally applied in the vineyard). The experimental plot was moved each year to avoid stress influence due to a repetition of the trials on the same place. The grapevine compensated for the carbohydrate requirements of the cluster by mobilizing the starch reserves stored in the woody parts. Roots were the most important site of carbohydrate accumulation used from the grapevine and the mobilisation was higher in treatment A followed by treatment B. This compensation did not completely exhaust the reserves of each woody part and lets suppose a hierarchical pattern of the mobilisation; first a mobilisation of the reserves stored in the roots, and secondly those from the trunk, cane and shoot. The downy mildew could be considered as a stress factor for the grapevine.

Influence of Plasmopara viticola on gas exchange parameters on field-grown Vitis vinifera 'Merlot'

The impact of downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola) epidemic on main and lateral leaf assimilation capacity of Vitis vinifera 'Merlot' has been quantified, under field conditions during the ripening phase, by means of leaf gas exchange measurements. The aim was to describe the impact of different disease severity levels on the gas exchange rate of symptomless portions of main and lateral leaves and of the sporulating parts in comparison with healthy leaves. The measurements were carried out on plants normally treated and on plants where only the clusters were treated with a contact fungicide to prevent quantity yield losses. A drastic reduction in the photosynthetic rate was observed on the sporulating area of main and lateral leaf tissues. Stomatal and mesophyll conductance decreased and stomatal resistance increased, indicating the difficulty of CO2 diffusing through the stomata into the mesophyll to the site of carboxylation. Downy mildew affected more negatively the gas exchange parameters on the symptomless parts of a diseased lateral leaf than of a main leaf, indicating a greater susceptibility of lateral leaves. A decrease of stomatal conductance and, consequently, of the photosynthetic rate, transpiration and water use efficiency was observed already at low severity level with increments of the disease severity on the leaf. At the same time an increase of stomatal resistance on the symptomless area of a lateral leaf was measured. Visual assessment of the diseased leaf area didn’t reflect the actual part colonized by the pathogen and at least a portion of the leaf area determined as healthy has in fact a latent lesion. Therefore, the visual estimation of downy mildew infection may not give a good indication of the effect of the pathogen on host physiology. The results also emphasized the important role of downy mildew as a stress element for the plant during ripening phase, a source element for carbohydrate production.

Quantitative effect of leaf damage caused by downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola) on growth and yield quality of grapevine 'Merlot' (Vitis vinifera)

The impact of downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola) epidemics on the plant growth and yield quality was analysed during three years under field conditions in order to show a relationship between disease severity on leaves and yield quality losses. Three different treatments were compared: A = “Untreated canopy” (to prevent quantity losses, the clusters were treated once with a contact fungicide at the discovery of the first downy mildew sporulation); B = “Reduced fungicide schedule” (based on a first treatment at the appearance of the first symptoms, to avoid yield quantity losses followed by one or two additional fungicide applications during the early epidemic phase with the aim of delaying the epidemic). C = “Standard schedule” (schedule normally applied in the vineyard). The experimental plot was moved each year to avoid stress influence due to a repetition of the trials on the same place. The epidemic progress in the treatment A has shown the same tendency during the three years with an increase starting from the beginning of the ripening phase. The disease severity was more important on the lateral than on the main leaves. During the three years of the study, the disease did not influence the amount of total healthy leaf area per plant until veraison. From this phenological stage until harvest, the healthy leaf area per plant decreased rapidly at the same time as the epidemic increased. The yield quantity was not affected indicating that a single fungicide application at the finding of the first sporulation was enough to preserve the crop production. Among the yield quality parameters, the sugar content has been negatively influenced by the downy mildew leaf damage. The difference was particularly evident between the treatments A and C with differences from 1.4 to 2.04 °Brix. Generally, treatment B didn’t differ from C. Sugar uptake in the berries begun to show a different dynamic between 7 and 14 days after the onset of ripening. No correlation between disease severity progress on the canopy and sugar accumulation in the berries from veraison until harvest was found, indicating the capacity of the vine to compensate a stress situation induced by the downy mildew damage on leaf canopy.

Neurospora crassa Light Signal Transduction Is Affected by ROS

In the ascomycete fungus Neurospora crassa blue-violet light controls the expression of genes responsible for differentiation of reproductive structures, synthesis of secondary metabolites, and the circadian oscillator activity. A major photoreceptor in Neurospora cells is WCC, a heterodimeric complex formed by the PAS-domain-containing polypeptides WC-1 and WC-2, the products of genes white collar-1 and white collar-2. The photosignal transduction is started by photochemical activity of an excited FAD molecule noncovalently bound by the LOV domain (a specialized variant of the PAS domain). The presence of zinc fingers (the GATA-recognizing sequences) in both WC-1 and WC-2 proteins suggests that they might function as transcription factors. However, a critical analysis of the phototransduction mechanism considers the existence of residual light responses upon absence of WCC or its homologs in fungi. The data presented point at endogenous ROS generated by a photon stimulus as an alternative input to pass on light signals to downstream targets

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and productivity of schizophrenia trials: an ecological study

The 5000 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group's database affords an opportunity to research for variables related to the differences between nations of their output of schizophrenia trials. Ecological study – investigating the relationship between four economic/demographic variables and number of schizophrenia RCTs per country. The variable with closest correlation was used to predict the expected number of studies. GDP closely correlated with schizophrenia trial output, with 76% of the total variation about the Y explained by the regression line (r = 0.87, 95% CI 0.79 to 0.92, r2 = 0.76). Many countries have a strong tradition of schizophrenia trials, exceeding their predicted output. All nations with no identified trial output had GDPs that predicted zero trial activity. Several nations with relatively small GDPs are, nevertheless, highly productive of trials. Some wealthy countries seem either not to have produced the expected number of randomised trials or not to have disseminated them to the English-speaking world. This hypothesis-generating study could not investigate causal relationships, but suggests, that for those seeking all relevant studies, expending effort searching the scientific literature of Germany, Italy, France, Brazil and Japan may be a good investment

Abundance changes of neophytes and native species indicate a thermophilisation and eutrophisation of the Swiss flora during the 20th century

During the 20th century human activities drastically altered the natural environment at global and local scales by habitat destruction, urbanisation, intensive agriculture, and climate warming. This anthropogenic pressure has modified species distributions and abundances, and led to the increased spread of neophytes. However, the determination of the magnitude, direction, and drivers of changes remains challenging as comparable historic data is often lacking. Here, we analysed the floristic shifts during the 20th century based on a historic (1900–1930) and current (2000–2017) floristic survey of the canton of Zurich (Switzerland; 1729 km2) in combination with Landolt ecological indicator values (EIVs) for vascular plants. We used two complementary approaches to quantify the floristic shifts using EIVs for temperature, moisture, continentality, nutrients, soil pH and available light. 1) Regarding 244 map tiles with each a 3 × 3 km2 area, we compared the average EIVs for neophytes (i.e., novel species arriving of expanding in the study area) and native species (i.e., species present in Switzerland for centuries). 2) Based on standardized species abundances in the historic and the current flora, we analysed the directed changes by comparing the species’ EIVs of different frequency classes for both the historic and current floristic surveys. Our results showed, that neophyte species arriving or spreading in the study area indicate both a thermophilisation and an eutrophisation. The observed shift in average EIVs for temperature corresponded to about 2 ◦C, which is in line with the calculated difference in niche centroids for neophytes and native species based on their global distribution (1.78 ◦C). The indicated thermophilisation and eutrophisation relate to the decrease in abundances of cold-adapted species and species of nutrient poor environments as well as the increase of warm-adapted and nitrophilous/ruderal species. Directed changes in the flora of the study area are likely to be driven by both climatic changes and land-use changes. Increases in trade activity, anthropogenic habitat disturbances and rising temperatures facilitate the establishment and spread of neophytes from warmer and drier regions. In parallel, wetland area and wetland species strongly decreased as well as species thriving on nutrient-poor sites due to intensified agriculture and nitrogen deposition

Administration of Steroids in Pediatric Cardiac Surgery: Impact on Clinical Outcome and Systemic Inflammatory Response

Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is associated with a systemic inflammatory response. Pre-bypass steroid administration may modulate the inflammatory response, resulting in improved postoperative recovery. We performed a prospective study in the departments of cardiovascular surgery and pediatric intensive care medicine of two university hospitals that included 50 infants who underwent heart surgery. Patients received either prednisolone (30 mg/kg) added to the priming solution of the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit (steroid group) or no steroids (nonsteroid group). Clinical outcome parameters include therapy with inotropic drugs, oxygenation, blood lactate, glucose, and creatinine, and laboratory parameters of inflammation include leukocytes, C-reactive protein, and interleukin-8. Postoperative recovery (e.g., the number, dosage, and duration of inotropic drugs as well as oxygenation) was similar in patients treated with or without steroids when corrected for the type of cardiac surgery performed. After CPB, there was an inflammatory reaction, especially in patients with a long CPB time. Postoperative plasma levels of interleukin-8 were correlated with the duration of CPB time (r = 0.62, p < 0.001). Administration of steroids had no significant impact on the laboratory parameters of inflammation. Administration of prednisolone into the priming solution of the CPB circuit had no measurable influence on postoperative recovery and did not suppress the inflammatory respons