Susceptibility of Selected Ericaceous Ornamental Host Species to Phytophthora ramorum

We assessed disease reactions of 51 species or varieties of ericaceous ornamental hosts to two isolates of Phytophthora ramorum, the causal agent of sudden oak death. Inoculation was performed with an A2 mating type U.S. isolate from rhododendron and the P. ramorum type culture of A1 mating type from Germany. For only one host were statistically significant differences in disease observed between the two isolates. Several different inoculation methods were compared. The 51 hosts tested varied widely in susceptibility, ranging from 0% to over 90% leaf area infected. Two cultivars of Vaccinium macrocarpon (cranberry) showed no disease, while three cultivars of Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel) were all highly susceptible. The results indicate that many ornamental hosts grown in the United States are susceptible to P. ramorum under artificial inoculation conditions. Inoculum density studies with two susceptible host species showed that P. ramorum is capable of producing disease symptoms over sporangium concentrations ranging from 100 to 5,000 sporangia per ml. Mean numbers of chlamydospores forming in host tissue of 21 hosts ranged from 2 to over 900 chlamydospores per 6-mm-diameter leaf disk. Whether hosts showing susceptiblity under the experimental conditions used in this study would become infected with P. ramorum in the presence of inoculum under natural conditions is unknown

Cultural characteristics, morphology, and variation within Claviceps africana and C. sorghi from India

Sorghum ergot in India is caused by Claviceps africana and C. sorghi. The distributions of these two species in India is not known. Eighty-nine sorghum ergot isolates were cultured from young sphacelia obtained from male sterile sorghum plants artificially inoculated using inoculum collected in the field. Based on cultural characteristics, the isolates were separated into two groups which differed distinctly in the morphology of their sphacelia, conidia, and sclerotia. Marked differences also were observed in rates of secondary conidial production and disease spread between the groups. In combination with molecular evidence, our results confirm that the isolates placed in Group I represent C. africana and Group II isolates represent C. sorghi. C. africana was found to be widely distributed in all sorghum growing areas of India. The species first described as occurring in India, C. sorghi, appears to be restricted to a few locations in the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka

An outbreak of sorghum ergot in parts of Andhra Pradesh, India

This paper reports the incidence and severity of ergot infection (Claviceps sorghi) on sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) on 28 farms in districts of Mahbubnagar and Ranga Reddy in Andhra Pradesh during an ergot epidemic in 2000 - 2001. Cultivars sown were local Yellow Jowar, local White Jowar and ICSV 745 as dual purpose sorghums, and SSG 777 and SSG 878 for fodder. In most villages, the sorghum crop had high incidence and severity (up to 100%) of ergot infection. The source of the epidemic was suggested to be the storage of infected panicles from previous years or the movement of contaminated seed from one village to another. Pathogen development was favoured by cloudy weather and high rainfall during flowering; one village 80 km from the epidemic had no rain during flowering and no incidence of ergot

What makes you not a Buddhist? : a preliminary mapping of values

This study sets out to establish which Buddhist values contrasted with or were shared by adolescents from a non-Buddhist population. A survey of attitude toward a variety of Buddhist values was fielded in a sample of 352 non-Buddhist schoolchildren aged between 13 and 15 in London. Buddhist values where attitudes were least positive concerned the worth of being a monk/nun or meditating, offering candles & incense on the Buddhist shrine, friendship on Sangha Day, avoiding drinking alcohol, seeing the world as empty or impermanent and Nirvana as the ultimate peace. Buddhist values most closely shared by non-Buddhists concerned the Law of Karma, calming the mind, respecting those deserving of respect, subjectivity of happiness, welfare work, looking after parents in old age and compassion to cuddly animals. Further significant differences of attitude toward Buddhism were found in partial correlations with the independent variables of sex, age and religious affiliation. Correlation patterns paralleled those previously described in theistic religions. Findings are applied to spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and for the teaching of religious to pupils of no faith adherence. The study recommends that quantitative psychometrics employed to conceptualize Buddhist values by discriminant validity in this study could be extended usefully to other aspects of the study of Buddhism, particularly in quest of validity in the conceptualization of Buddhist identity within specifically Buddhist populations

Critical Race Theory and Education: racism and anti-racism in educational theory and praxis

What is Critical Race Theory (CRT) and what does it offer educational researchers and practitioners outside the US? This paper addresses these questions by examining the recent history of antiracist research and policy in the UK. In particular, the paper argues that conventional forms of antiracism have proven unable to keep pace with the development of increasingly racist and exclusionary education polices that operate beneath a veneer of professed tolerance and diversity. In particular, contemporary antiracism lacks clear statements of principle and theory that risk reinventing the wheel with each new study; it is increasingly reduced to a meaningless slogan; and it risks appropriation within a reformist “can do” perspective dominated by the de-politicized and managerialist language of school effectiveness and improvement. In contrast, CRT offers a genuinely radical and coherent set of approaches that could revitalize critical research in education across a range of inquiries, not only in self-consciously "multicultural" studies. The paper reviews the developing terrain of CRT in education, identifying its key defining elements and the conceptual tools that characterise the work. CRT in education is a fast changing and incomplete project but it can no longer be ignored by the academy beyond North America

Prevalence of ergot of sorghum in India

This paper reports the incidence and severity of ergot (Claviceps sorghi and Claviceps africana) on sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) grown in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh from 1999 to 2002. Crops were surveyed at vegetative to physiological maturity stages and disease incidence (number of plants infected) and severity (percentage, based on the number of florets infected within panicles) recorded in 12 m2 areas. Percentage incidence of ergot infection varied with location, with Rajasthan and Gujarat recording only trace infections from 1999-2002 and Karnataka having 27-60% infection. Disease severity followed the same pattern

Prevalence of major foliar and panicle diseases of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) in the Deccan plateau of India

Extensive on-farm disease surveys were conducted from August 1999 until March 2001 in four sorghum-growing states of the Indian Deccan plateau. A total of 965 fields were surveyed covering 228 fields in Andhra Pradesh (AP), 406 in Karnataka (KAR), 290 in Maharashtra (MH) and 41 in Tamil Nadu (TN). Among 14 foliar diseases observed, maize stripe virus (MStV), a tenuivirus transmitted by the delphacid plant hopper (Peregrinus maidis), and among five panicle diseases, ergot or sugary disease (Claviceps sorghi and C. africana) were the most destructive diseases. MStV was prevalent in 28.4% and ergot in 13.4% of the fields surveyed in two years across four states. Yet, the mean incidence of MStV in AP was 6% with 85% mean severity. The values in KAR were 12% incidence and 83% severity, in MH 5% and 67%, and in TN 12% and 76%, respectively. The mean incidence of ergot in AP was 34% with 67% mean severity. The values in KAR were 41% and 79%, in MH, 30% and 67%, and in TN 100% and 100%, respectively. Variation in frequency of occurrence of MStV was observed between 1999 and 2001. Variations in frequency could be due to weather factors, vector survival, cropping pattern, and host specificity. The frequency of ergot also was varying among years, locations, seasons and cultivars. An ergot epidemic was observed during the 1999 rainy season in Maachinenipalli village (16°35′N; 78°3′E), Andhra Pradesh. In September 2000, the disease had spread to 13 neighboring administrative zones damaging about 130 000 ha. This paper elucidates the distribution of diseases observed between 1999 and 2001 but does not imply that the diseases are restricted necessarily to a particular zone or location

MaDDOSY (Mass Determination Diffusion Ordered Spectroscopy) using an 80 MHz bench top NMR for the rapid determination of polymer and macromolecular molecular weight

YesMeasurement of molecular weight is an integral part of macromolecular and polymer characterization which usually has limitations. Herein, we present the use of a bench-top 80 MHz NMR spectrometer for diffusion-ordered spectroscopy as a practical and rapid approach for the determination of molecular weight/size using a novel solvent and polymer-independent universal calibration.Royal Society. Grant Number: URF∖R1∖180274. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Grant Numbers: EP/V037943/1, EP/V007688/1, EP/V036211/