Asian Soybean Rust: Incidence, Severity, and Morphological Characterization of Phakopsora pachyrhizi (Uredinia and Telia) in Argentina

Asian soybean rust (ASR), caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi, is the most destructive disease of soybean (Glycine max) in many areas of the world. ASR was first detected in Argentina during 2002 in a limited area in the northern region of the country (2). During the 2004 growing season, P. pachyrhizi spread rapidly throughout most soybean growing areas of northwestern and northeastern Argentina. ASR was also was found in some fields in Entre Ríos and Santa Fe provinces. In all areas, symptoms were expressed late in the 2004 season (growth stages R5.5 to R7) and yield losses were minimal. The objectives of this study were to quantify P. pachyrhizi infection in the canopy and morphologically characterize the fungus from fields where it had been previously detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (3). Incidence (percentage of plants affected) and severity (percentage of leaf area affected, including chlorosis) were visually estimated for 10 plants arbitrarily collected (April 2004) from each of three fields located in Charata (Chacabuco), Chaco Province (Sample 1, collected in the R6 stage), La Paloma (Moreno), Santiago del Estero Province (Sample 2, stage R6 to R7), and Tolloche (Anta), Salta Province (Sample 3, stage R5.5). Disease assessments were made for the lower, middle, and upper canopy from 15 leaves per plant. The number of pustules per cm2 and uredinia per lesion were recorded from the undersides of central leaflets for each trifoliolate observed. Tissue sections were made to observe fructifications of P. pachyrhizi. Incidence of affected plants was 100% in all fields. Disease severity for Sample 1 was 45% (range 30 to 60%), 20% (10 to 30%), and 10% (5 to 20%) for the lower, middle, and upper canopy, respectively; for Sample 2: 60% (30 to 80%), 40% (25 to 50%), and 25% (15 to 40%) for the lower, middle, and upper canopy, respectively; and for Sample 3: 25% (10 to 50%), 15% (10 to 20%), and 10% (5 to 15%) for the lower, middle, and upper canopy, respectively. The number of pustules per cm2 for Sample 1 was 156/cm2 (range 88 to 200); Sample 2: 172/cm2 (128 to 232); and Sample 3: 120/cm2 (72 to 232). The number of uredinia per lesion for Sample 1 was 6 per lesion (range 1 to 15); Sample 2: 5.5 per lesion (1 to 13), and Sample 3: 2.8 per lesion (1 to 5). The two spore types that were commonly observed were urediniospores and teliospores. Telia were found on infected leaves mixed with uredinia in every sample. Urediniospores measured 16 to 22 μm (mean 18.5 μm) × 25 to 30 μm (mean 27 μm). Teliospores measured 8 to 11 μm (mean 9 μm) × 19 to 27 μm (mean 23.8 μm). Spores sizes are in the range described by Ono et al. (1). To our knowledge, this is the first report of epidemiological and morphological characterization of ASR in Argentina and the first report of the telial stage of P. pachyrhizi on soybean in South America.Fil: Carmona, Marcelo Anibal. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía; ArgentinaFil: Gally, Marcela Edith. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía; ArgentinaFil: Lopez, Silvia Edith. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Micología y Botánica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Micología y Botánica; Argentin

Human resource management practices and organizational performance. The mediator role of immaterial satisfaction in Italian Social Cooperatives

The paper deals with the mediating role of immaterial satisfaction between substantive human resources (HR) features and organizational performance. We address this relationship in the Italian social service sector using a survey dataset that includes 4134 workers and 320 not-for-profit social cooperatives. The obtained results show that human resource management (HRM) practices influence immaterial satisfaction and, satisfaction positively impacts on firm performance. However, the impact of the different HRM practices is not the same. In this sense, worker involvement and workload pressure have a positive impact on firm performance; but task autonomy or collaborative teamwork do not have impact on organizational performance

Culture effects in the ethical decision-making process of Latin American accountants

Despite the amount of accounting ethics research conducted over many years, two significant problems remain unsolved. First, there is a need to create accurate measurement instruments capable of predicting behavior within a theoretical framework of ethical decision-making. Second, it is important to develop ways to make measurements appropriate for application in other cultures or countries. Thus, the purpose of this study is twofold. The first objective is to develop a scale to measure the ethical evaluations, judgments, and intentions of Latin American accountants. The second goal is to determine the effects of national culture and gender on the results posited by the proposed ethical decision-making model. The results of the study provide strong evidence of the relationship between culture and ethics. They provide robust evidence to support the first two hypotheses pointing the usefulness of the Multidimensional Ethics Scale (MES) to explain the ethical evaluations, judgment and intentions of respondents in a cross-cultural context. Findings provide evidence to partially support the influence of masculine orientation and gender in the ethical intentions and provide evidence to discard that they influence the ethical judgment, suggesting that respondents use different evaluative criteria to make the judgment or take an action. Results suggest that the effect of masculine orientation and gender in ethical behavior is situation specific. In some circumstances, male or masculine persons are more willing to act unethically than female or feminine individuals. This study contribute to accounting ethics literature by (1) offering additional evidence of the link between ethics and culture; (2) developing a multidimensional ethics scale that explains and predicts the ethical judgments and intentions of Latin American accountants; (3) identifying differences among Latin Americans that may be significant, even when individuals share the same culture; (4) providing useful information regarding the future accountants of 10 Latin American countries; and (5) providing other researchers with a reliable measurement instrument for further research

Schizophrenic molecules and materials with multiple personalities - how materials science could revolutionise how we do chemical sensing

Molecular photoswitches like spiropyrans derivatives offer exciting possibilities for the development of analytical platforms incorporating photo-responsive materials for functions such as light-activated guest uptake and release and optical reporting on status (passive form, free active form, guest bound to active form). In particular, these switchable materials hold tremendous promise for microflow-systems, in view of the fact that their behaviour can be controlled and interrogated remotely using light from LEDs, without the need for direct physical contact. We demonstrate the immobilisation of these materials on microbeads which can be incorporated into a microflow system to facilitate photoswitchable guest uptake and release. We also introduce novel hybrid materials based on spiropyrans derivatives grafted onto a polymer backbone which, in the presence of an ionic liquid, produces a gel-like material capable of significant photoactuation behaviour. We demonstrate how this material can be incorporated into microfluidic platforms to produce valve-like structures capable of controlling liquid movement using light

Impact of Cell Phone use During Face-to-Face Social Interaction

This study is about the effect of cell phone use during face-to-face social interactions. Past research has shown that cell phone use decreases levels of enjoyment during social interactions, thus we conducted a conceptual replication of Dwyer et al. (2017) study to test this. We predicted that participants who used their phones during a social interaction will experience lower levels of enjoyment compared to participants who did not use their cell phones

Beads, boats and switches: making things happen with molecular photoswitches

In this paper we present recent results obtained with a stimulus-responsive materials based on the photo-switchable behaviour exhibited by spiro-cyclic derivatives. Our results suggest that these highly novel materials offer unique capabilities hitherto inaccessible using conventional materials. In particular, we will focus on photocontrolled guest binding and release, inherent signalling of status, photo-actuation and solvent driven motion of small structures as examples of the fascinating behaviour of these exceptional materials