Tomato spotted wilt virus and its management

In 1993, western flower thrips, an important pest of horticultural crops, was found in Western Australia. Since then there has been an upsurge in damsging virus disease epidemics caused by tomato spotter wilt virus in horticultural crops. This has occurred because western flower thrips is a more effective vector of tomato spotted wilt virus than other thrips species. Lindrea Latham and Roger Jones outline the symptoms, spread and management of this serious virus disease in vegetables and ornamentals

Touch and Massage for Medically Fragile Infants

Research investigating the efficacy of infant massage has largely focused on premature and low birth weight infants. The majority of investigations have neglected highly acute patients in academic neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). The current study was developed with two aims: (Phase 1) to develop, implement and demonstrate the feasibility and safety of a parent-trained compassionate touch/massage program for infants with complex medical conditions and (Phase 2) to conduct a longitudinal randomized control trial (RCT) of hand containment/massage versus standard of care in a level III academic Center for Newborn and Infant Critical Care (CNICC). Certified infant massage instructors (CIMIs) taught parents to massage their hospitalized infants. Massage therapy and instruction were performed for seven consecutive days and health outcomes were collected for up to 1 month following treatment. Caregivers, nurses and certified infant massage therapists indicated moderate to high levels of satisfaction and feasibility with the implementation of hand containment/massage in a level III academic center CNICC. In addition, infant behavioral and physiological measures were within safe limits during the massage sessions. All caregivers participating in the massage group reported high levels of satisfaction 7 days into the intervention and at the 1-month follow-up with regards to their relationship with their infant, the massage program's impact on that relationship and the massage program. Due to unequal and small sample sizes, between group analyses (control versus massage) were not conducted. Descriptive infant characteristics of health outcomes are described. Preliminary data from this study indicates feasibility and safety of infant massage and satisfaction among the caregivers, CIMIs and the nurses in the CNICC. An important contribution from this study was the demonstration of the infants’ safety based on physiological stability and no change in agitation/pain scores of the infants receiving massage. Massage in a tertiary urban academic NICU continues to be an area of needed study. Future studies examining infant health outcomes, such as weight gain, decreased length of hospitalization and caregiver–infant bonding, would provide greater insight into the impact of massage for medically fragile infants

Crop Updates 2000 Cereals - part 3

This session covers eighteen papers from different authors: BARLEY AND OAT AGRONOMY 1. Unicorn barley must meet malting specifications to be a viable option, Roslyn Jettnerand Blakely Paynter, Agriculture Western Australia 2. Optimum oat seed rates, Glenn McDonald, Agriculture Western Australia 3. Production and Quality of export Oaten Hay (1998 and 1989), Pierre Fievez, Pierre Fievez and Associates FROST 4. Climatology of Frost in Southern Western Australia, Ian Foster, Agriculture Western Australia 5. Flowering calculator, David Tennant, Agriculture Western Australia 6. Some options for managing the risk of frost damage, Wal Anderson, Agriculture Western Australia PASTURE 7. TIMERITE® Control of redlegged earth mite in south western Australia with a spring spray to pastures, James Ridsdill-Smith and Celia Pavri, CSIRO Entomology, University of Western Australia 8. The pattern of seed softening in subterranean clover in relation to presicted false break risk, Ross Chapman and Senthold Asseng, CSIRO Plant Industry, Centre for Mediterranean Agricultural Research 9. Charano serradella – a viable option for 1:1 cropping, Steve Carr and Brad Nutt IAMA Agri-Services Western Australia and Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture, University of Western Australia 10. Alfalfa mosaic virus in alternative annual pasture and forage legumes, Lindrea Latham and Roger Jones, Crop Improvement Institute, Agriculture Western Australia and Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture, University of Western Australia 11. Pasture mixture performs better than single-species-based pasture – 1999, Anyou Liu, Clinton Revell and David Ferris, Centre for Cropping Systems, Agriculture Western Australia 12. Better pasture management improves performance of following crops – 1999, Anyou Liu, Clinton Revell and David Ferris, Centre for Cropping Systems, Agriculture Western Australia 13. Lucerne Benefits Crop Production, Roy Latta1, Lisa-Jane Blacklow2, Chris Matthews1 1Agriculture Western Australia 2University of Western Australia 14. Does size count? Determining optimum release number of red apion for biocontrol of doublegee, Tim Woodburn and Paul Yeoh, CSIRO Entomology/CRC Weed Management Systems, Perth 15. Herbicide tolerance of some new cultivars of annual pasture legumes, Clinton Revell and Ian Rose, Centre for Cropping Systems, Agriculture Western Australia 16. Lucerne – crop rotations in the Esperance region, Anita Lyons, Roy Latta and Chris Matthews,Agriculture Western Australia PRECISION AGRICULTURE 17. Assessing the results of on-farm experiments using yield monitors, Simon Cook and Matthew Adams, CSIRO Land and Water 18. Achiever: A GIS based achievable yield and fertiliser recommendation system for precision agriculture, Robert J. Corner, Matthew L. Adams, Precision Agriculture Research Group CSIRO Land and Wate

The epidemiology and management of fungal- and nonpersistent aphid-borne plant viruses in a Mediterranean type climate

Field, glasshouse and laboratory experiments and field surveys were done in Western Australia to develop control strategies for various non-persistently aphid-borne viruses of grain legumes, celery and carrots and for the fungally-transmitted lettuce big vein disease (LBVD). In a range of legumes, extreme resistance to Alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV) was found in Vicia faba cv. Ascot, Hedysarum coronarium cv. Grimaldi, and Lens culinaris IL5480, to Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) in Lathyrus cicera ATC80521, L. clymenum C7022, Ornithopus sativus cv. Cadiz, and V. sativus cv. Languedoc, and to Pea seedborne mosaic virus (PSbMV) in all accessions and varieties of Cicer arietinum and L. culinaris and some of L. sativus and most pasture legumes tested. No sources of extreme resistance to Carrot virus Y (CarVY) was found to carrot germplasm. The first reports of seed transmission of AMV in Vicia faba and of CMV in Pisum sativum, V. faba, V. narbonensis and eight pasture legumes were made. No evidence for the seed transmission of CarVY was found. Plants of V. faba infected early with AMV recovered while plants infected later incurred yield losses (up to 45%). In contrast, plants of C. arietinum infected with AMV when young were killed. L. culinaris plants infected with AMV and CMV suffered high yield losses (up to 90%) dependent on the age of plants when they were infected. Plants of lettuce infected with LBVD when young often failed to form ‘hearts’ but leaf symptoms were mild, whereas later infected plants had more severe leaf symptoms. Spatial patterns of disease spread were monitored and implications for disease control discussed for CarVY and LBVD. The incidence of CarVY in carrot crops was often high in a wide selection of varieties grown throughout Australia. CarVY was determined to have a wide host range within the Apiaceae family but not in other plant families. No evidence for reservoirs of CarVY was found in species other than carrot, despite extensive surveys of known Apiaceous hosts. CarVY was readily transmitted by a wide range of aphid species in a non-persistent manner. Control strategies for Celery mosaic virus (CeMV), by instigation of a ‘celery free period’ and LBVD by combining resistant lettuce varieties and plastic mulch were demonstrated. New control measures for AMV, CMV, PSbMV and CarVY were also discussed

Tomato spotted wilt virus and its management

In 1993, western flower thrips, an important pest of horticultural crops, was found in Western Australia. Since then there has been an upsurge in damsging virus disease epidemics caused by tomato spotter wilt virus in horticultural crops. This has occurred because western flower thrips is a more effective vector of tomato spotted wilt virus than other thrips species. Lindrea Latham and Roger Jones outline the symptoms, spread and management of this serious virus disease in vegetables and ornamentals

The distribution and movement of polyphosphate and associated cations in sludges from NDEBPR plants in different configurations at pilot scale

A gradual change in the mode and location of intracellular storage of polyphosphate was observed during a long-term pilot-scale evaluation of operating efficiency of a number of EBPR process configurations used for model calibration. The location of intracellular polyphosphate, (defined by the extraction procedure), was seen to change from a long chain form to a lower molecular weight or short chain form under the influence of nitrate return to the anaerobic zone, which was related to a number of factors including influent character (TKN/COD, influent RBCOD) and process configuration, however during trials with high TKN/COD (greater than or equal to 0.13) the storage of polyphosphate was observed to exist predominately in the short chain form. The behaviour of EBPR biomass in a sequencing batch reactor demonstrated mobilisation and storage of polyphosphate from only the low MW form. (C) 1998 IAWQ. Publsihed by Elsevier Science Ltd

Dynamics of the anaerobic utilization of organic substrates in an anaerobic/aerobic sequencing batch reactor

The operation of an anaerobic/aerobic Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) with synthetic feed (glucose as the sole organic substrate) demonstrated periods of non-EBPR and EBPR operation in the absence of polyhydroxy alkanoate (PHA) storage. The glucose added as feed disappeared rapidly (within 10 minutes) and none of the normal fermentation products were detected in the supernatant in either mode of operation. Anaerobic/aerobic batch trials using the biomass from the SBR were conducted to examine the processes taking place and a rapid uptake of glucose was confirmed and was accompanied by a fall in pH. The biomass also demonstrated that anaerobic PHB storage occurred when acetate feed was used. The biomass was characterized by a large population of ''G'' bacteria, the absence of filamentous microorganisms, compact flee structure and high total carbohydrate (ca 40% w/w). The supernatant was characterized by low GOD, TOC and the virtual absence of the glucose substrate. The observations indicate that EBPR was possible under circumstances which are not consistent with accepted mechanisms

Different mechanism for Anaerobic storage of Organic Substrates and their effect on EPBR

The driving force for Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (EBPR) is the presence of an anaerobic zone that enriches the activated sludge for P-accumulating microorganisms (PAOs). According ro accepted models, PAOs anaerobically store volatile fatty acids (VFAs) as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) utilising polyphosphate hydrolysis as the energy source. For substrates other than VFAs, one hypothesis is that other heterotrophs convert them to VFAs, so acting in favour of PAOs. However, particular glycogen accumulating microorganisms have been described (GAOs), that compete against PAOs being able to store anaerobically many substrates into PHAs, by transforming intracellular carbohydrates (glycogen) into PHAs, as the energy source. In this perspective, the paper presents a summary (with new findings) of a long experimental work to study EBPR processes with a lab-scale Sequencing Batch Reactor fed with different organic substrates (peptone, glucose and acetate, separate or in mixtures). Our results show that EBPR can be obtained with substrates other than VFAs with neither their pre-conversion to VFAs nor their storage as PHA. Moreover, in different periods anaerobic uptake of glucose was possible with and without EBPR. In both cases, the stored polymer was glycogen while the energy source was either polyphosphate hydrolysis or lactic fermentation, respectively. These results are not consistent with the reported behaviour of PAOs or GAOs, so showing that many different mechanisms of anaerobic uptake and storage of substrates can art in Favour of, or against EBPR, Deeper insight on these mechanisms is needed to improve design and operation of EBPR plants

Influence of storage on kinetic selection to control aerobic filamentous bulking

In various activated sludge systems, sludge grows under transient (unbalanced) conditions and storage of internal polymers becomes important. Differences in storage capacity under transients are often used to explain kinetic control of bulking, but storage is neither studied in detail nor usually included in modelling. For this reason, the transient response of different aerobic mixed cultures was studied by experimentally determining the role of storage. Two different mixed cultures (bulking and non-bulking) were selected in an acetate-limited medium, by continuous or intermittent feeding of a CSTR, respectively. Batch tests were used to investigate the transient response of the selected cultures as a function of the starvation time and of the ratio of the initial concentration of the substrate and sludge biomass (So/Xo). In most experimental conditions, both cultures showed that the storage of poly-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) is in general the prevailing mechanism of substrate removal. In particular, the culture dominated by floc-formers showed very fast response to the substrate spike with a high observed yield. Storage was practically the only metabolism occurring. The ratio So/Xo did not have a major role in determining the type and extent of the response. Starvation did not affect the response of the floc-formers to transient conditions. For the filamentous bacteria, both the growth response and, even more significantly, the storage response were negatively affected. Hence, the difference in storage capacity between filamentous and floc-forming bacteria was further increased. Copyright (C) 1996 IAWQ