Use of beneficial bacteria and their secondary metabolites to control grapevine pathogen diseases

Grapevine is one of the most important economic crops yielding berries, wine products as well as derivates. However, due to the large array of pathogens inducing diseases on this plant, considerable amounts of pesticides—with possible negative impact on the environment and health—have been used and are currently used in viticulture. To avoid negative impacts of such products and to ensure product quality, a substantial fraction of pesticides needs to be replaced in the near future. One solution can be related to the use of beneficial bacteria inhabiting the rhizo- and/or the endosphere of plants. These biocontrol bacteria and their secondary metabolites can reduce directly or indirectly pathogen diseases by affecting pathogen performance by antibiosis, competition for niches and nutrients, interference with pathogen signaling or by stimulation of host plant defenses. Due to the large demand for biocontrol of grapevine diseases, such biopesticides, their modes of actions and putative consequences of their uses need to be described. Moreover, the current knowledge on new strains from the rhizo- and endosphere and their metabolites that can be used on grapevine plants to counteract pathogen attack needs to be discussed. This is in particular with regard to the control of root rot, grey mould, trunk diseases, powdery and downy mildews, pierce’s disease, grapevine yellows as well as crown gall. Future prospects on specific beneficial microbes and their secondary metabolites that can be used as elicitors of plant defenses and/or as biocontrol agents with potential use in a more sustainable viticulture will be further discussed

Reconnaissance of 2016 Central Italy Earthquake Sequence

The Central Italy earthquake sequence nominally began on 24 August 2016 with a M6.1 event on a normal fault that produced devastating effects in the town of Amatrice and several nearby villages and hamlets. A major international response was undertaken to record the effects of this disaster, including surface faulting, ground motions, landslides, and damage patterns to structures. This work targeted the development of high-value case histories useful to future research. Subsequent events in October 2016 exacerbated the damage in previously affected areas and caused damage to new areas in the north, particularly the relatively large town of Norcia. Additional reconnaissance after a M6.5 event on 30 October 2016 documented and mapped several large landslide features and increased damage states for structures in villages and hamlets throughout the region. This paper provides an overview of the reconnaissance activities undertaken to document and map these and other effects, and highlights valuable lessons learned regarding faulting and ground motions, engineering effects, and emergency response to this disaster

Photodynamic treatment of lens epithelial cells for cataract surgery

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) eiiploying Dihematopor*iyrin ethers (DHE) (Photofrin II) at pharmacologic lvels, has been denonstrate3 to kill rabbit lens epithelial cells, in vivo. This in vitro study, reports on the minimal necessary parameters for rabbit lens epithelial cell death. Explants of rabbit lenses were incubated in various concentrations of DHE (1O,, 100, 500, 1000 ug/ml) for 1, 2, or 5 minutes. 30 to 120 Joules/an of collimated 514.5 nm Argon laser light re delivered to the locier concentrations of 10, 50, and 100 ug,'ml DHE treated cells. One hundre1 fifteen explants were treated, in all. Higher concentrations of DHE alone (500 and 1000 ug/ml) were sufficient to induce cellular swelling. Lower concentrations required light for cellular effect. Trypan blue staining revealed cell death at these minimal pa9ieters: DHE 50 ug/ml, incubation 1 minute, 514.5 r Argon light 1.0 Watt/an for 30 sec (30 Joules) . In future studies, these rameters will be tested in vivo, for their ability to eliminate lens epithelial proliferation after cataract surgery

Succinylcholine-stimulated muscle tensions following botulinum injection in the domestic cat

Succinylcholine (SCh) selectively stimulates, and can therefore selectively assay, the multiple innervated (MI) fiber system of the extraocular muscles. Since botulinum-A toxin has been observed to induce changes in eye position in humans. SCh was used to assess the effect of botulinum-A on the SCh-sensitive MI fibers of extraocular muscles. Intravenous SCh infusion (40 μg −1 kg −1 min −1) was performed in the anesthetized domestic cat. Thirty-eight infusions were performed in 19 normal controls, measuring the peak tensions generated in the four horizontal and four vertical rectus muscles. Succinylcholine-stimulated muscle tensions (SSMT) were then repeated in nine animals, 4 weeks and 10 weeks following injection of botulinum-A toxin into both medial rectus muscles. Mean peak SSMTs were unchanged at 4 and 10 weeks following botulinum injection when compared to controls. We propose that botulinum chemo-denervation has no acute or chronic effect on the MI SCh-sensitive muscle fibers of the medial recti of the domestic cat. This lack of effect on the postsynaptic MI fibers indirectly supports light and electron microscopic studies which show changes predominantly in the singly innervated (SI), rather than the MI fibers following botulinum injection. Mean peak SSMTs were also greater for medial and superior rectus muscles compared to lateral and inferior recti respectively, suggesting a greater number or proportion of MI fibers in medial and superior recti

Reliability and Application Variability of a Commercially Available Infrared Videonystagmography Unit

PURPOSE: Nystagmus is a condition of involuntary eye movement. The causes for nystagmus may be congenital, idiopathic, or acquired. Considerable debate exists on the therapeutic potential of various surgical techniques. Currently, there are neither standardized protocols nor devices to record quantitative data on patients with clinical nystagmus undergoing various procedures at multiple centers to facilitate randomized prospective clinical trials. METHODS: The authors evaluated the reliability and variability of a commercially available infrared videonystagmography unit, by recording eye movement waveforms elicited from normal volunteers (n=117, 13 patients, 9 trials), by different examiners (A, B, and C). Five movement characteristics were examined including saccadic latency, velocity and precision and pursuit gain and velocity. RESULTS: The overall test/retest variability was low, where the median coefficient of variation of the three testers for all five eye movement categories was less than 15%, and less than 10% of the coefficients of variation calculated were more than 20%. However, there was a significant difference interobserver variability for all outcomes, except saccade latency. CONCLUSIONS: The between-tester analysis was found to have greater variability than the test/retest reliability analysis. Future studies at multiple sites, using videonystagmography measurements should aim to have each patient repeatedly tested by the same tester. In anticipation of multicenter, randomized, prospective clinical trials of surgical procedures for nystagmus, standardized protocols for nystagmographic data collection and analysis must be validated both within and among participating centers

Enediynes Bearing Polyfluoroaryl Sulfoxide as New Antiproliferative Agents with Dual Targeting of Microtubules and DNA

International audienceA novel series of enediynes possessing pentafluorophenylsulfoxide have been developed. The innovative compounds possess antiproliferative activity against a broad panel of human cancer cells originating from breast, blood, lung, kidney, colon, prostate, pancreas or skin with IC 50 ranging from 0.6 to 3.4 µM. The antiproliferative activity of enediynes in darkness is associated to their ability to compromise microtubule network. In addition, exposure to UV leads to double-stranded DNA cleavage caused by the newly synthesized molecules reducing further their IC 50 in nanomolar range against human tumor cells, including chemo-resistant pancreatic cancer cells. Taken together, the examined data demonstrate that enediynes possessing pentafluorosulfoxide are promising molecules in the cancer therapy