Low Input Fungicide Programmes for the Control of Late Blight in Potatoes.

End of Project ReportField and farm trials were carried out between 1996 and 2000 to determine the efficacy of the NegFry and Met. Éireann decision support systems (DSS) in controlling late blight of potatoes compared with routine fungicide treatments. The trials were also used to determine the potential of the systems to reduce fungicide inputs.Hardi Internationa

Plectranthus: A plant for the future?

AbstractThe genus Plectranthus (Lamiaceae) is a significant, prolific and extensively used genus in southern Africa. It plays a dominant role in both horticulture and traditional medicine. Some 12 species are documented for their use in treating ailments by various indigenous peoples of southern Africa. It is a firm favourite in gardens and Plectranthus has been bred to further utilise the remarkable diversity of indigenous South African wildflowers with amenity horticultural potential. Although previously subjected to both horticultural (Van Jaarsveld, 2006) and ethnobotanical (Lukhoba et al., 2006) review, Plectranthus is a genus with economic potential in various sectors, and this article aims to review this potential of southern African species

Energy landscape, two-level systems and entropy barriers in Lennard-Jones clusters

We develop an efficient numerical algorithm for the identification of a large number of saddle points of the potential energy function of Lennard- Jones clusters. Knowledge of the saddle points allows us to find many thousand adjacent minima of clusters containing up to 80 argon atoms and to locate many pairs of minima with the right characteristics to form two-level systems (TLS). The true TLS are singled out by calculating the ground-state tunneling splitting. The entropic contribution to all barriers is evaluated and discussed.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, 2 PostScript figure

Whole exome sequence analysis reveals a homozygous mutation in PNPLA2 as the cause of severe dilated cardiomyopathy secondary to neutral lipid storage disease.

Accepted manuscript 12 month embargo, pre-print immediately

Edge states and determination of pairing symmetry in superconducting Sr2RuO4

We calculate the energy dispersion of the surface Andreev states and their contribution to tunneling conductance for the order parameters with horizontal and vertical lines of nodes proposed for superconducting Sr2RuO4. For vertical lines, we find double peaks in tunneling spectra reflecting the van Hove singularities in the density of surface states originating from the turning points in their energy dispersion. For horizontal lines, we find a single cusp-like peak at zero bias, which agrees very well with the experimental data on tunneling in Sr2RuO4.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures. V.2: comparison with experiment added and discussion of horizontal nodes expanded. v.3: significant expansion: 1 figure and 2 pages added. v.4: acknowledgements added. Additional viewgraphs with experimental and theoretical curves superimposed are available at http://www2.physics.umd.edu/~yakovenk/talks/Sr2RuO4

Large-scale pharmacogenomic study of sulfonylureas and the QT, JT and QRS intervals: CHARGE Pharmacogenomics Working Group

Sulfonylureas, a commonly used class of medication used to treat type 2 diabetes, have been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Their effects on QT interval duration and related electrocardiographic phenotypes are potential mechanisms for this adverse effect. In 11 ethnically diverse cohorts that included 71 857 European, African-American and Hispanic/Latino ancestry individuals with repeated measures of medication use and electrocardiogram (ECG) measurements, we conducted a pharmacogenomic genome-wide association study of sulfonylurea use and three ECG phenotypes: QT, JT and QRS intervals. In ancestry-specific meta-analyses, eight novel pharmacogenomic loci met the threshold for genome-wide significance (P<5 × 10−8), and a pharmacokinetic variant in CYP2C9 (rs1057910) that has been associated with sulfonylurea-related treatment effects and other adverse drug reactions in previous studies was replicated. Additional research is needed to replicate the novel findings and to understand their biological basis

Josephson current in s-wave superconductor / Sr_2RuO_4 junctions

The Josephson current between an s-wave and a spin-triplet superconductor Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ (SRO) is studied theoretically. In spin-singlet / spin-triplet superconductor junctions, there is no Josephson current proportional to $\sin \phi$ in the absence of the spin-flip scattering near junction interfaces, where $\phi$ is a phase-difference across junctions. Thus a dominant term of the Josephson current is proportional to $\sin 2\phi$ . The spin-orbit scattering at the interfaces gives rise to the Josephson current proportional to $\cos\phi$, which is a direct consequence of the chiral paring symmetry in SRO

Dynamics of tree diversity in undisturbed and logged subtropical rainforest in Australia

In subtropical rainforest in eastern Australia, changes in the diversity of trees were compared under natural conditions and eight silvicultural regimes over 35 years. In the treated plots basal area remaining after logging ranged from 12 to 58 m2 per ha. In three control plots richness differed little over this period. In the eight treated plots richness per plot generally declined after intervention and then gradually increased to greater than original diversity. After logging there was a reduction in richness per plot and an increase in species richness per stem in all but the lightest selective treatments. The change in species diversity was related to the intensity of the logging, however the time taken for species richness to return to pre-logging levels was similar in all silvicultural treatments and was not effected by the intensity of treatment. These results suggest that light selective logging in these forests mainly affects dominant species. The return to high diversity after only a short time under all silvicultural regimes suggests that sustainability and the manipulation of species composition for desired management outcomes is possible

Predicting stroke through genetic risk functions: the CHARGE Risk Score Project.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Beyond the Framingham Stroke Risk Score, prediction of future stroke may improve with a genetic risk score (GRS) based on single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with stroke and its risk factors. METHODS: The study includes 4 population-based cohorts with 2047 first incident strokes from 22,720 initially stroke-free European origin participants aged ≥55 years, who were followed for up to 20 years. GRSs were constructed with 324 single-nucleotide polymorphisms implicated in stroke and 9 risk factors. The association of the GRS to first incident stroke was tested using Cox regression; the GRS predictive properties were assessed with area under the curve statistics comparing the GRS with age and sex, Framingham Stroke Risk Score models, and reclassification statistics. These analyses were performed per cohort and in a meta-analysis of pooled data. Replication was sought in a case-control study of ischemic stroke. RESULTS: In the meta-analysis, adding the GRS to the Framingham Stroke Risk Score, age and sex model resulted in a significant improvement in discrimination (all stroke: Δjoint area under the curve=0.016, P=2.3×10(-6); ischemic stroke: Δjoint area under the curve=0.021, P=3.7×10(-7)), although the overall area under the curve remained low. In all the studies, there was a highly significantly improved net reclassification index (P<10(-4)). CONCLUSIONS: The single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with stroke and its risk factors result only in a small improvement in prediction of future stroke compared with the classical epidemiological risk factors for stroke