Comparison of asian soybean rust chemical control on a susceptible and a resistant cultivar in Brazil.

The development of resistant cultivars to the Asian soybean rust (ASR), caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi, brought an additional tool to the disease management in Brazil. ASR develops slower in resistant cultivars than in susceptible ones, allowing a reduction of the number of fungicide sprays, but chemical control is still necessary. A field trial was conducted in Ponta Grossa, Parana State, in order to compare the effects of ASR chemical control with four fungicide formulations, in both resistant (BRSGO 7560) and susceptible (CD 249 RR) soybean cultivars. The fungicides were applied twice, beginning at soybean growth stage R3?R4, when first uredinia were observed, and at soybean stage R5.3?R5.4. The fungicides used were premix formulations of pyraclostrobin + epoxiconazole + fluxapyroxad (40+64.8+40 g a.i./ha), azoxystrobin + cyproconazole (60+24 g a.i./ha), pyraclostrobin + epoxiconazole (79.8+30 g a.i./ha), and epoxiconazole (125 g a.i./ha). The ASR severity at soybean growth stage R7 on nonsprayed plots reached 75.4% on the resistant cultivar and 98.6% on the susceptible cultivar. Lower ASR severity index were observed in the resistant cultivar, with the treatments pyraclostrobin + epoxiconazole (9.8%), pyraclostrobin + epoxiconazole + fluxapyroxad (10.5%), and azoxystrobin + cyproconazole (10.9%), with an average of disease control ranging from 90.8 to 91.3%. The treatments with pyraclostrobin + epoxiconazole and pyraclostrobin + epoxiconazole + fluxapyroxad provided the lower yield reductions on both soybean cultivars. The yield and grain weight reductions in the nonsprayed treatment were 32 and 28%, respectively, on the resistant cultivar and 44 and 32%, respectively, on the susceptible cultivar

A Head-Mounted Camera System Integrates Detailed Behavioral Monitoring with Multichannel Electrophysiology in Freely Moving Mice.

Breakthroughs in understanding the neural basis of natural behavior require neural recording and intervention to be paired with high-fidelity multimodal behavioral monitoring. An extensive genetic toolkit for neural circuit dissection, and well-developed neural recording technology, make the mouse a powerful model organism for systems neuroscience. However, most methods for high-bandwidth acquisition of behavioral data in mice rely upon fixed-position cameras and other off-animal devices, complicating the monitoring of animals freely engaged in natural behaviors. Here, we report the development of a lightweight head-mounted camera system combined with head-movement sensors to simultaneously monitor eye position, pupil dilation, whisking, and pinna movements along with head motion in unrestrained, freely behaving mice. The power of the combined technology is demonstrated by observations linking eye position to head orientation; whisking to non-tactile stimulation; and, in electrophysiological experiments, visual cortical activity to volitional head movements

Anisotropic superconductivity and quantum oscillations in the layered dichalcogenide TaSnS2

TaSnS2 single crystal and polycrystalline samples are investigated in detail by magnetization, electrical resistivity, and specific heat as well as Raman spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Studies are focused on the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the superconducting state. We determine the critical fields for both directions B∥c and B⊥c. Additionally, we investigate the dependence of the resistivity, the critical temperature, and the structure through Raman spectroscopy under high pressure up to 10 GPa. At a pressure of ≈3GPa the superconductivity is suppressed below our minimum temperature. The Sn NMR powder spectrum shows a single line which is expected for the TaSnS2 phase and confirms the high sample quality. Pronounced de Haas-van Alphen oscillations in the ac susceptibility of polycrystalline sample reveal two pairs of frequencies indicating coexisting small and large Fermi surfaces. The effective mass of the smaller Fermi surface is ≈0.5me. We compare these results with the band structures from DFT calculations. Our findings on TaSnS2 are discussed in terms of a quasi-two-dimensional BCS superconductivity

Mouse visual cortex contains a region of enhanced spatial resolution.

The representation of space in mouse visual cortex was thought to be relatively uniform. Here we reveal, using population receptive-field (pRF) mapping techniques, that mouse visual cortex contains a region in which pRFs are considerably smaller. This region, the "focea," represents a location in space in front of, and slightly above, the mouse. Using two-photon imaging we show that the smaller pRFs are due to lower scatter of receptive-fields at the focea and an over-representation of binocular regions of space. We show that receptive-fields of single-neurons in areas LM and AL are smaller at the focea and that mice have improved visual resolution in this region of space. Furthermore, freely moving mice make compensatory eye-movements to hold this region in front of them. Our results indicate that mice have spatial biases in their visual processing, a finding that has important implications for the use of the mouse model of vision

The cingulate gyrus: Additional motor area and cortical autonomic regulator

No Abstract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/49976/1/901120118_ftp.pd

Plant diversity effects on grassland productivity are robust to both nutrient enrichment and drought

Global change drivers are rapidly altering resource availability and biodiversity. While there is consensus that greater biodiversity increases the functioning of ecosystems, the extent to which biodiversity buffers ecosystem productivity in response to changes in resource availability remains unclear. We use data from 16 grassland experiments across North America and Europe that manipulated plant species richness and one of two essential resources—soil nutrients or water—to assess the direction and strength of the interaction between plant diversity and resource alteration on above-ground productivity and net biodiversity, complementarity, and selection effects. Despite strong increases in productivity with nutrient addition and decreases in productivity with drought, we found that resource alterations did not alter biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships. Our results suggest that these relationships are largely determined by increases in complementarity effects along plant species richness gradients. Although nutrient addition reduced complementarity effects at high diversity, this appears to be due to high biomass in monocultures under nutrient enrichment. Our results indicate that diversity and the complementarity of species are important regulators of grassland ecosystem productivity, regardless of changes in other drivers of ecosystem function

The plasticity of the mirror system: how reward learning modulates cortical motor simulation of others

Cortical motor simulation supports the understanding of others' actions and intentions. This mechanism is thought to rely on the mirror neuron system (MNS), a brain network that is active both during action execution and observation. Indirect evidence suggests that alpha/beta suppression, an electroencephalographic (EEG) index of MNS activity, is modulated by reward. In this study we aimed to test the plasticity of the MNS by directly investigating the link between alpha/beta suppression and reward. 40 individuals from a general population sample took part in an evaluative conditioning experiment, where different neutral faces were associated with high or low reward values. In the test phase, EEG was recorded while participants viewed videoclips of happy expressions made by the conditioned faces. Alpha/beta suppression (identified using event-related desynchronisation of specific independent components) in response to rewarding faces was found to be greater than for non-rewarding faces. This result provides a mechanistic insight into the plasticity of the MNS and, more generally, into the role of reward in modulating physiological responses linked to empathy