First report of Barley Yellow Dwarf Viruses (BYDVs) on dicotyledonous weed hosts in Turkey

Yellow dwarf viruses (YDVs) are economically destructive viral diseases of cereal crops, which cause the reduction of harvested yield and quality of grains. Up to now the identification of such viruses was limited to monocotyledonous Poaceae weed hosts, and was not investigated in dicotyledons. In this study, using DAS-ELISA and RT-PCR methods, 6 dicotyledonous weed species, collected from Trakya, Turkey, were examined for the presence of the YDVs pathogens BYDV-PAV, BYDV-MAV, BYDV-RMV, BYDV-SGV and CYDV-RPV. The screening tests revealed certain samples of Geranium dissectum L. and Juncus compressus Jacq. were infected with BYDV-PAV, while other samples of the same species were positive for BYDV-MAV. Additionally, RT-PCR tests of both weed species revealed cases of mixed infection by BYDV-PAV and BYDV-MAV. Transmission experiments using the aphid species Rhopalosiphum padi L. showed that BYDV-PAV was transmitted persistently from Geranium dissectum to barley cv. Barbaros seedlings. To our knowledge, this is the first report of Geranium dissectum and Juncus compressus as possible plant hosts of BYDV-PAV and BYDV-MAV in Turkey

External hydrogen embrittlement assessment of pipeline base metal and heat affected zone through slow strain rate tensile testing

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Esociformes: Esocidae, Pikes, and Umbridae (Mudminnows)

The order Esociformes (Pikes and Mudminnows) comprises two families, Esocidae (Pikes) and Umbridae (Mudminnows). The Pikes are a small Holarctic (Northern Hemisphere) family, that includes large, elongate predators with duckbill-like snouts full of sharp teeth. Popular with sport fishers, the largest Pikes fight fiercely on hook and line. As piscivorous, voracious, ambush predators, the Pikes play an important functional role in the trophic ecology and fish assemblage structure of many aquatic systems, especially in northern lakes. Other esocids, such as the Olympic Mudminnow, Novumbra hubbsi, and Blackfishes, genus Dallia, are interesting because of their tolerance of low dissolved oxygen and pH. The Alaska Blackfish, Dallia pectoralis, and the Northern Pike, Esox lucius, can also withstand the extremely cold conditions of the Arctic and subarctic waters of Canada, Alaska, and Siberia. The name Esocidae is derived from Linnaeus’s (1758) generic name for Pike, Esox, from the Latin word esox meaning Pike, which came originally from the Greek isox or possibly the Gaelic eog, ehawe (salmon) (Boschung & Mayden 2004)

How can we optimise inhaled beta2 agonist dose as ‘reliever’ medicine for wheezy pre-school children? Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Background: Asthma is a common problem in children and, if inadequately controlled, may seriously diminish their quality of life. Inhaled short-acting beta2 agonists such as salbutamol are usually prescribed as ‘reliever’ medication to help control day-to-day symptoms such as wheeze. As with many medications currently prescribed for younger children (defined as those aged 2 years 6 months to 6 years 11 months), there has been no pre-licensing age-specific pharmacological testing; consequently, the doses currently prescribed (200–1000 μg) may be ineffective or likely to induce unnecessary side effects. We plan to use the interrupter technique to measure airway resistance in this age group, allowing us for the first time to correlate inhaled salbutamol dose with changes in clinical response. We will measure urinary salbutamol levels 30 min after dosing as an estimate of salbutamol doses in the lungs, and also look for genetic polymorphisms linked to poor responses to inhaled salbutamol. Methods: This is a phase IV, randomised, controlled, observer-blinded, single-centre trial with four parallel groups (based on a sparse sampling approach) and a primary endpoint of the immediate bronchodilator response to salbutamol so that we can determine the most appropriate dose for an individual younger child. Simple randomisation will be used with a 1:1:1:1 allocation. Discussion: The proposed research will exploit simple, non-invasive and inexpensive tests that can mostly be performed in an outpatient setting in order to help develop the evidence for the correct dose of salbutamol in younger children with recurrent wheeze who have been prescribed salbutamol by their doctor. Trial registration: EudraCT2014-001978-33, ISRCTN15513131. Registered on 8 April 2015

Cyclic vomiting syndrome in adults

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72300/1/j.1365-2982.2008.01113.x.pd

Predicting Geographic Variation in Cutaneous Leishmaniasis, Colombia

Predicting Geographic Variation in ACL, Colombi

How Low Can You Go?: Widespread Challenges in Measuring Low Stream Discharge and a Path Forward

Low flows pose unique challenges for accurately quantifying streamflow. Current field methods are not optimized to measure these conditions, which in turn, limits research and management. In this essay, we argue that the lack of methods for measuring low streamflow is a fundamental challenge that must be addressed to ensure sustainable water management now and into the future, particularly as climate change shifts more streams to increasingly frequent low flows. We demonstrate the pervasive challenge of measuring low flows, present a decision support tool (DST) for navigating best practices in measuring low flows, and highlight important method developmental needs

Biodiversity Loss and the Taxonomic Bottleneck: Emerging Biodiversity Science

Human domination of the Earth has resulted in dramatic changes to global and local patterns of biodiversity. Biodiversity is critical to human sustainability because it drives the ecosystem services that provide the core of our life-support system. As we, the human species, are the primary factor leading to the decline in biodiversity, we need detailed information about the biodiversity and species composition of specific locations in order to understand how different species contribute to ecosystem services and how humans can sustainably conserve and manage biodiversity. Taxonomy and ecology, two fundamental sciences that generate the knowledge about biodiversity, are associated with a number of limitations that prevent them from providing the information needed to fully understand the relevance of biodiversity in its entirety for human sustainability: (1) biodiversity conservation strategies that tend to be overly focused on research and policy on a global scale with little impact on local biodiversity; (2) the small knowledge base of extant global biodiversity; (3) a lack of much-needed site-specific data on the species composition of communities in human-dominated landscapes, which hinders ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation; (4) biodiversity studies with a lack of taxonomic precision; (5) a lack of taxonomic expertise and trained taxonomists; (6) a taxonomic bottleneck in biodiversity inventory and assessment; and (7) neglect of taxonomic resources and a lack of taxonomic service infrastructure for biodiversity science. These limitations are directly related to contemporary trends in research, conservation strategies, environmental stewardship, environmental education, sustainable development, and local site-specific conservation. Today’s biological knowledge is built on the known global biodiversity, which represents barely 20% of what is currently extant (commonly accepted estimate of 10 million species) on planet Earth. Much remains unexplored and unknown, particularly in hotspots regions of Africa, South Eastern Asia, and South and Central America, including many developing or underdeveloped countries, where localized biodiversity is scarcely studied or described. ‘‘Backyard biodiversity’’, defined as local biodiversity near human habitation, refers to the natural resources and capital for ecosystem services at the grassroots level, which urgently needs to be explored, documented, and conserved as it is the backbone of sustainable economic development in these countries. Beginning with early identification and documentation of local flora and fauna, taxonomy has documented global biodiversity and natural history based on the collection of ‘‘backyard biodiversity’’ specimens worldwide. However, this branch of science suffered a continuous decline in the latter half of the twentieth century, and has now reached a point of potential demise. At present there are very few professional taxonomists and trained local parataxonomists worldwide, while the need for, and demands on, taxonomic services by conservation and resource management communities are rapidly increasing. Systematic collections, the material basis of biodiversity information, have been neglected and abandoned, particularly at institutions of higher learning. Considering the rapid increase in the human population and urbanization, human sustainability requires new conceptual and practical approaches to refocusing and energizing the study of the biodiversity that is the core of natural resources for sustainable development and biotic capital for sustaining our life-support system. In this paper we aim to document and extrapolate the essence of biodiversity, discuss the state and nature of taxonomic demise, the trends of recent biodiversity studies, and suggest reasonable approaches to a biodiversity science to facilitate the expansion of global biodiversity knowledge and to create useful data on backyard biodiversity worldwide towards human sustainability