Phytophthora cactorum and Colletotrichum acutatum: Survival and Detection

Phytophthora cactorum and Colletotrichum acutatum are pathogens which are transported with plant material as latent infections and can also survive in soil and plant debris. Since the beginning of 1990’s P. cactorum caused losses in strawberries in Finland and increased culling of silver birch seedlings in forest nurseries because of stem lesions. In this study primers specific for the pathogen were designed, and in a simple PCR they gave an amplification product from pure cultures only when P. cactorum was used as a template. No cross reactions were found with other Phytophthoras in group I or other microbes. Inoculated strawberry plants gave also a clear band in PCR-analyses when the template concentration was diluted. However, amplification was not always reproducible with birch seedlings. With soil samples the best result was gained by a combination of baiting and isolation. C. acutatum is a quarantine pathogen on strawberry in the European Union and thus the infected plants are destroyed in Finland to avoid further spread of the pathogen. The pathogen has earlier been found to survive over one winter in infected plant debris and soil. In the survival test (2003-2005) done in this study, specific amplification products were obtained from test plants inoculated with artificially infected plant residues after 20 months of storage outdoors on soil surface. More positive results were achieved from bait plants grown in soil collected from the field where infected plants had been destroyed two years before, than from samples collected a year after the plant destruction

Doing time and motion diffractively: Academic life everywhere and all the time

This article offers a diffractive methodological intervention into workplace studies of academic life. In its engagement of a playful, performative research and writing practice the article speaks back to technocratic organisational and sociological workplace ‘time and motion’ studies which centre on the human and rational, and presume a linear teleology of cause and effect. As a counterpoint, we deploy posthumanist new materialist research practices which refuse human-centric approaches and aim to give matter its due. As a means to analyse what comes out of our joint workspaces photo project we produce two ‘passes’ through data – two diffractive experiments which destabilise what normally counts as ‘findings’ and their academic presentation. The article deploys the motif of ‘starting somewhere else’ to signal both our intention to keep data animated, alive and interactive, and to utilise visual and written modes of seriality as enabling constraints which produce a more generative focus on the mundane, emergent, unforeseen, and happenstance in studies of daily working life

Breaking Open the Black Boxes: media archaeology, anarchaeology and media materiality

An essay on the emergent methodology of media archaeology, in relation to the material turn in approaches to digital media. In particular, this article advocates taking up Siegfried Zielinski's concept of 'anarchaeology', but in a different sense to the way it was originally proposed, in order to emphasise the political potentials of a media (an)archaeological methodological approach

Observation and calibration strategies for large-scale multi-beam velocity-resolved mapping of the [CII] emission in the Orion molecular cloud

24 pags., 32 figs., 3 tabs.Context. The [CII] 158 μm far-infrared fine-structure line is one of the dominant cooling lines of the star-forming interstellar medium. Hence [CII] emission originates in and thus can be used to trace a range of ISM processes. Velocity-resolved large-scale mapping of [CII] in star-forming regions provides a unique perspective of the kinematics of these regions and their interactions with the exciting source of radiation. Aims. We explore the scientific applications of large-scale mapping of velocity-resolved [CII] observations. With the [CII] observations, we investigate the effect of stellar feedback on the ISM. We present the details of observation, calibration, and data reduction using a heterodyne array receiver mounted on an airborne observatory. Methods. A 1.15 square degree velocity-resolved map of the Orion molecular cloud centred on the bar region was observed using the German REceiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies (upGREAT) heterodyne receiver flying on board the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. The data were acquired using the 14 pixels of the German REceiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies that were observed in an on-the-fly mapping mode. 2.4 million spectra were taken in total. These spectra were gridded into a three-dimensional cube with a spatial resolution of 14.1 arcseconds and a spectral resolution of 0.3 km s-1. Results. A square-degree [CII] map with a spectral resolution of 0.3 km s-1 is presented. The scientific potential of this data is summarized with discussion of mechanical and radiative stellar feedback, filament tracing using [CII], [CII] opacity effects, [CII] and carbon recombination lines, and [CII] interaction with the large molecular cloud. The data quality and calibration is discussed in detail, and new techniques are presented to mitigate the effects of unavoidable instrument deficiencies (e.g. baseline stability) and thus to improve the data quality. A comparison with a smaller [CII] map taken with the Herschel/Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared spectrometer is presented. Conclusions. Large-scale [CII] mapping provides new insight into the kinematics of the ISM. The interaction between massive stars and the ISM is probed through [CII] observations. Spectrally resolving the [CII] emission is necessary to probe the microphysics induced by the feedback of massive stars. We show that certain heterodyne instrument data quality issues can be resolved using a spline-based technique, and better data correction routines allow for more efficient observing strategies.This work is based on observations made with the NASA/DLR Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). SOFIA is jointly operated by the Universities Space Research Association, Inc.(USRA), under NASA contract NAS2-97001, and the Deutsches SOFIA Institut (DSI) under DLR contract 50 OK 0901 to the University of Stuttgart. This work is carried out within the Collaborative Research Centre 956, subproject [A4], funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) – project ID 184018867. We thank the Spanish MICIU for funding support under grant AYA2017-85111-P

Embodied Commons: Knowledge and Sharing in Delhi's Electronic Bazaars

The notion of the ‘sharing economy’ has recently received significant academic and non-academic attention. What the different debates have in common is an emphasis on how technologically mediated knowledge and specific social motivations enable practices of sharing. This article discusses knowledge and sharing in popular marketplaces. Based on an ethnography of Delhi’s electronic bazaars, Lajpat Rai market, Palika Bazaar and Nehru Place, this article suggests ways to think about knowledge that are embodied and practice-based: What is such embodied knowledge? How is it created and shared? The article argues that bazaars combine sociality established through face-to-face bargaining with informal trade arrangements to enable co-creation and collaboration around technological products. The resulting knowledge is tacit in nature and is mimetically transmitted between bodies. As a result, the bazaars feature a kind of sharing that is distinct from what is understood by most accounts of the sharing economy

In epithelial cancers, aberrant COL17A1 promoter methylation predicts its misexpression and increased invasion

Background: Metastasis is a leading cause of death among cancer patients. In the tumor microenvironment, altered levels of extracellular matrix proteins, such as collagens, can facilitate the first steps of cancer cell metastasis, including invasion into surrounding tissue and intravasation into the blood stream. However, the degree of misexpression of collagen genes in tumors remains understudied, even though this knowledge could greatly facilitate the development of cancer treatment options aimed at preventing metastasis. Methods: We systematically evaluate the expression of all 44 collagen genes in breast cancer and assess whether their misexpression provides clinical prognostic significance. We use immunohistochemistry on 150 ductal breast cancers and 361 cervical cancers and study DNA methylation in various epithelial cancers. Results: In breast cancer, various tests show that COL4A1 and COL4A2 overexpression and COL17A1 (BP180, BPAG2) underexpression provide independent prognostic strength (HR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.17–1.34, p = 3.03 × 10; HR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.11–1.25, p = 8.11 × 10; HR = 0.86, 95% CI = 0.81–0.92, p = 4.57 × 10; respectively). Immunohistochemistry on ductal breast cancers confirmed that the COL17A1 protein product, collagen XVII, is underexpressed. This strongly correlates with advanced stage, increased invasion, and postmenopausal status. In contrast, immunohistochemistry on cervical tumors showed that collagen XVII is overexpressed in cervical cancer and this is associated with increased local dissemination. Interestingly, consistent with the opposed direction of misexpression in these cancers, the COL17A1 promoter is hypermethylated in breast cancer and hypomethylated in cervical cancer. We also find that the COL17A1 promoter is hypomethylated in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, lung squamous cell carcinoma, and lung adenocarcinoma, in all of which collagen XVII overexpression has previously been shown. Conclusions: Paradoxically, collagen XVII is underexpressed in breast cancer and overexpressed in cervical and other epithelial cancers. However, the COL17A1 promoter methylation status accurately predicts both the direction of misexpression and the increased invasive nature for five out of five epithelial cancers. This implies that aberrant epigenetic control is a key driver of COL17A1 gene misexpression and tumor cell invasion. These findings have significant clinical implications, suggesting that the COL17A1 promoter methylation status can be used to predict patient outcome. Moreover, epigenetic targeting of COL17A1 could represent a novel strategy to prevent metastasis in patients

Pharmacologic prophylaxis for atrial fibrillation following cardiac surgery: a systematic review

Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia occurring after cardiac surgery. Its incidence varies depending on type of surgery. Postoperative AF may cause hemodynamic deterioration, predispose to stroke and increase mortality. Effective treatment for prophylaxis of postoperative AF is vital as reduces hospitalization and overall morbidity. Beta - blockers, have been proved to prevent effectively atrial fibrillation following cardiac surgery and should be routinely used if there are no contraindications. Sotalol may be more effective than standard b-blockers for the prevention of AF without causing an excess of side effects. Amiodarone is useful when beta-blocker therapy is not possible or as additional prophylaxis in high risk patients. Other agents such as magnesium, calcium channels blocker or non-antiarrhythmic drugs as glycose-insulin - potassium, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, corticosteroids, N-acetylcysteine and statins have been studied as alternative treatment for postoperative AF prophylaxis