Gamma Radiation and Cold Treatments for the Disinfestation of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly in California-Grown Oranges and Lemons

Low-dose gamma radiation and cold treatments were tested for their effectiveness in the disinfestation of the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata, from California-grown navel oranges and Calfame lemons. Cold treatments were applied for 7, 14, or 21 days to simulate postharvest storage and/or shipment durations and temperatures (5.5°C for oranges and 11.1°C for lemons). Low-dose gamma radiation treatments were applied at various dosages, both independent of and in tandem with cold treatments. The results of egg hatchability and larval survival studies show that a synergistic effect is observed when gamma radiation and cold treatments are used in tandem. The data show that infested navel oranges stored for 14-21 days at 5.5°C required a radiation dose of 0.30 kGy or less to result in very low, or no, hatch of mature medfly eggs. Furthermore, identical treatment of mature medfly larvae resulted in no adult eclosion from pupae. Shorter durations of cold storage, however, require considerably higher dosages to observe similar mortality rates and may not be desirable as fruit quality may be affected at these higher do sages . Calfame lemons require higher dosages than oranges to ob serve similar mortality rates at the same cold treatment durations due to the higher temperature 11.1°C) at which they are stored. The data show that irradiation at 0.30 kGy with cold storage of 21 days or irradiation at 0.50 kGy with cold storage of 14 days is sufficient to cause nearly total egg mortality

ATP synthase: from single molecule to human bioenergetics

ATP synthase (FoF1) consists of an ATP-driven motor (F1) and a H+-driven motor (Fo), which rotate in opposite directions. FoF1 reconstituted into a lipid membrane is capable of ATP synthesis driven by H+ flux. As the basic structures of F1 (α3β3γδε) and Fo (ab2c10) are ubiquitous, stable thermophilic FoF1 (TFoF1) has been used to elucidate molecular mechanisms, while human F1Fo (HF1Fo) has been used to study biomedical significance. Among F1s, only thermophilic F1 (TF1) can be analyzed simultaneously by reconstitution, crystallography, mutagenesis and nanotechnology for torque-driven ATP synthesis using elastic coupling mechanisms. In contrast to the single operon of TFoF1, HFoF1 is encoded by both nuclear DNA with introns and mitochondrial DNA. The regulatory mechanism, tissue specificity and physiopathology of HFoF1 were elucidated by proteomics, RNA interference, cytoplasts and transgenic mice. The ATP synthesized daily by HFoF1 is in the order of tens of kilograms, and is primarily controlled by the brain in response to fluctuations in activity

ARIA 2016: Care pathways implementing emerging technologies for predictive medicine in rhinitis and asthma across the life cycle

The Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) initiative commenced during a World Health Organization workshop in 1999. The initial goals were (1) to propose a new allergic rhinitis classification, (2) to promote the concept of multi-morbidity in asthma a

Gamma Radiation Treatment for Disinfestation of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly in California Grown Fruits. I. Stone Fruits

A study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of gamma irradiation for disinfesting California grown stone fruits which contain eggs and larvae of the Mediterranean fruit fly, C. capitata. Several varieties of plums, peaches, and nectarines, and one variety each of cherries and apricots were investigated. It was found that the different varieties of fruits as well as fruit quality, i.e., ripeness, water content, bruised areas on the fruit, may have a pronounced effect on the effectiveness of the gamma radiation treatment. However, despite varying degrees of survival due to fruit quality, in all of the egg hatchability and larval survival studies, none of the treated individuals survived to emerge as adults at dosages less than 0.60 kGy. Our studies indicate that the gamma radiation technology might indeed be considered a possible alternative to quarantine treatment with chemical fumigants such as ethylene dibromide (EDB)

Optofluidic assembly of InGaAsP microdisk lasers on Si photonic circuits with submicron alignment accuracy

We demonstrate optofluidic assembly of pre-fabricated InGaAsP microdisk lasers (6 mum diameter, 200 nm thickness) on silicon photonic circuits with sub-micron alignment accuracy. The laser output is successfully coupled to the integrated silicon waveguide

Assessment of single cell viability following light-induced electroporation through use of on-chip microfluidics

The high throughput electroporation of single cells is important in applications ranging from genetic transfection to pharmaceutical development. Light-induced electroporation using optoelectronic tweezers (OET) shows promise towards achieving this goal. However, cell viability following light-induced electroporation has yet to be shown. Here we present a novel OET device which incorporates microfluidic channels in order to assess the viability of single cells following light-induced electroporation. Monitoring of single cell electroporation and viability is achieved through the use of fluorescent dyes which are exchanged using the integrated fluidic channels. The successful reversible electroporation of HeLa cells is shown

Metallic nanoparticle manipulation using optoelectronic tweezers

We report on trapping of single and multiple spherical gold nanoparticles with 60 to 250 nm diameters using optoelectronic tweezers (OET). Thanks to the low optical intensities required for stable trapping (20 muW over 1.7 mum spot), we estimate the temperature increase in OET-trapped nanoparticles due to absorption to be DeltaT < 0.1degC, making OET-trapped nanoparticles suitable for biological imaging and sensing applications. In addition, we observe translational velocities of 68 mum/s and demonstrate trapping of both single and multiple nanoparticles in a single trap