Integrated management of white mold in soybean

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, the causal agent for white mold (Sclerotinia stem rot), is a devastating soybean fungal pathogen. In 2006, white mold ranked in the top 10 yield reducing diseases of soybean and was estimated to account for over 2 billion metric tonnes of yield loss world-wide (1). In the United States, soybean losses in 2009 reached an estimated 59 million bushels due to white mold, which cost producers ~$560 million (2, 3). Disease control is limited due to the lack of complete resistance in commercial cultivars and an incomplete understanding of resistance mechanisms (3). Further investigation of white mold resistance mechanisms in soybean and subsequent resistance evaluations of soybean germplasm would improve commercially available resistance

Dollar Spot of Turfgrass

The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service periodically issues revisions to its publications. The most current edition is made available. For access to an earlier edition, if available for this title, please contact the Oklahoma State University Library Archives by email at [email protected] or by phone at 405-744-6311.Entomology and Plant Patholog

Magneto-optical spectra of closely spaced magnetite nanoparticles

The Faraday rotation spectrum of composites containing magnetite nanoparticles is found to be dependent on the interparticle spacing of the constituent nanoparticles. The composite materials are prepared by combining chemically synthesized Fe 3O4 smagnetited nanoparticles s8-nm diameterd and polysmethylmethacrylated . Composites are made containing a range of nanoparticle concentrations. The peak of the main spectral feature depends on nanoparticle concentration; this peak is observed to shift from approximately 470 nm for sdilute compositesd to 540 nm concentrated . We present a theory based on the discrete-dipole approximation which accounts for optical coupling between magnetite particles. Qualitative correlations between theoretical calculations and experimental data suggest that the shifts in spectral peak position depend on both interparticle distance and geometrical configuratio

Identification of Long stress-induced non-coding transcripts that have altered expression in cancer

AbstractIt has recently become clear that the transcriptional output of the human genome is far more abundant than previously anticipated, with the vast majority of transcripts not coding for protein. Utilizing whole-genome tiling arrays, we analyzed the transcription across the entire genome in both normal human bronchial epithelial cells (NHBE) and NHBE cells exposed to the tobacco carcinogen NNK. Our efforts focused on the characterization of non-coding transcripts that were greater than 300 nucleotides in length and whose expression was increased in response to NNK. We identified 12 Long Stress-Induced Non-coding Transcripts that we term LSINCTs. Northern blot analysis revealed that these transcripts were larger than predicted from the tiling array data. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR performed across a panel of normal cell lines indicates that these transcripts are more abundantly expressed in rapidly growing tissues or in tissues that are more prone to cellular stress. These transcripts that have increased expression after exposure to NNK also had increased expression in a number of lung cancer cell lines and also in many breast cancer cell lines. Collectively, our results identified a new class of long stress responsive non-coding transcripts, LSINCTs, which have increased expression in response to DNA damage induced by NNK. LSINCTs interestingly also have increased expression in a number of cancer-derived cell lines, indicating that the expression is increased in both, correlating cellular stress and cancer

Longitudinal Analysis of Memory B and T Cell Responses to Dengue Virus in a 5-Year Prospective Cohort Study in Thailand

Prior exposure to dengue virus (DENV) has a profound impact on the outcome of infection, which varies according to the interval between infections. Antibodies secreted by B cells and cytokines secreted by T cells are thought to contribute both to protective immunity against DENV and the pathogenesis of dengue disease. We analyzed peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) collected from Thai children over a 5-year prospective cohort study to define the dynamics of DENV-specific memory B and T cell responses and the impact of symptomatic or subclinical DENV infections. To measure B cell responses, PBMC were stimulated with IL-2 plus R848 and culture supernatants were tested for DENV-binding antibodies by ELISA. To measure T cell responses, PBMC were stimulated in dual-color ELISPOT assays with overlapping peptide pools of structural and non-structural proteins from the four DENV types. B cell responses were low to one or more DENV types prior to symptomatic infection and increased with reactivity to all four types after infection. Subjects who had a subclinical infection or who did not experience a DENV infection during the study period showed strong memory B cell responses to all four DENV types. T cell responses to DENV peptides demonstrated a cytokine hierarchy of IFN-γ \u3e IL-2 \u3e IFN-γ/IL-2. T cell responses were low or absent prior to secondary infections. The trends in T cell responses to DENV peptides over 3 year post-infection were highly variable, but subjects who had experienced a secondary DENV1 infection showed higher cytokine responses compared to subjects who had experienced a secondary DENV2 or subclinical infection. The longitudinal nature of our study demonstrates persistent memory B cell responses over years and a lasting but variable impact of secondary DENV infection on DENV-specific T cell responses

Doing a leisure activity because there is nothing else to do: Related outcomes and intervention effects for adolescents

This study examined whether a leisure-focused intervention, HealthWise, was related to reduced youth polysubstance use and delayed sexual debut via reducing how often youth did leisure activities because there was nothing else to do. HealthWise was compared to a no-intervention control for 5,610 high school students from eighth to tenth grades in townships near Cape Town, South Africa. Three specific leisure activities were examined: spending time with friends, playing sports, and going to parks. Among girls, spending time with friends because there was nothing else to do significantly mediated the effect of HealthWise on reducing frequent polysubstance use in the past month. For boys, spending time in parks because there was nothing else to do mediated the effect of HealthWise on delayed sexual debut. Results partially supported the HealthWise logic model of impacting risky behaviors via leisure and the value of prevention programs addressing the reasons behind leisure choices

National contributions to observed global warming

There is considerable interest in identifying national contributions to global warming as a way of allocating historical responsibility for observed climate change. This task is made difficult by uncertainty associated with national estimates of historical emissions, as well as by difficulty in estimating the climate response to emissions of gases with widely varying atmospheric lifetimes. Here, we present a new estimate of national contributions to observed climate warming, including CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and land-use change, as well as methane, nitrous oxide and sulfate aerosol emissions While some countries' warming contributions are reasonably well defined by fossil fuel CO2 emissions, many countries have dominant contributions from land-use CO2 and non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions, emphasizing the importance of both deforestation and agriculture as components of a country's contribution to climate warming. Furthermore, because of their short atmospheric lifetime, recent sulfate aerosol emissions have a large impact on a country's current climate contribution We show also that there are vast disparities in both total and per-capita climate contributions among countries, and that across most developed countries, per-capita contributions are not currently consistent with attempts to restrict global temperature change to less than 2 °C above pre-industrial temperatures

Cellular and Morphological Alterations in the Vastus Lateralis Muscle as the Result of ACL Injury and Reconstruction

Background: Individuals who have had an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear and reconstruction continue to experience substantial knee extensor strength loss despite months of physical therapy. Identification of the alterations in muscle morphology and cellular composition are needed to understand potential mechanisms of muscle strength loss, initially as the result of the injury and subsequently from surgery and rehabilitation. Methods: We performed diffusion tensor imaging-magnetic resonance imaging and analyzed muscle biopsies from the vastus lateralis of both the affected and unaffected limbs before surgery and again from the reconstructed limb following the completion of rehabilitation. Immunohistochemistry was done to determine fiber type and size, Pax-7-positive (satellite) cells, and extracellular matrix (via wheat germ agglutinin straining). Using the diffusion tensor imaging data, the fiber tract length, pennation angle, and muscle volume were determined, yielding the physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA). Paired t tests were used to compare the effects of the injury between injured and uninjured limbs and the effects of surgery and rehabilitation within the injured limb. Results: We found significant reductions before surgery in type-IIA muscle cross-sectional area (CSA; p = 0.03), extracellular matrix (p \u3c 0.01), satellite cells per fiber (p \u3c 0.01), pennation angle (p = 0.03), muscle volume (p = 0.02), and PCSA (p = 0.03) in the injured limb compared with the uninjured limb. Following surgery, these alterations in the injured limb persisted and the frequency of the IIA fiber type decreased significantly (p \u3c 0.01) and that of the IIA/X hybrid fiber type increased significantly (p \u3c 0.01). Conclusions: Significant and prolonged differences in muscle quality and morphology occurred after ACL injury and persisted despite reconstruction and extensive physical therapy. Clinical Relevance: These results suggest the need to develop more effective early interventions following an ACL tear to prevent deleterious alterations within the quadriceps

Indication for the disappearance of reactor electron antineutrinos in the Double Chooz experiment

The Double Chooz Experiment presents an indication of reactor electron antineutrino disappearance consistent with neutrino oscillations. A ratio of 0.944 $\pm$ 0.016 (stat) $\pm$ 0.040 (syst) observed to predicted events was obtained in 101 days of running at the Chooz Nuclear Power Plant in France, with two 4.25 GW$_{th}$ reactors. The results were obtained from a single 10 m$^3$ fiducial volume detector located 1050 m from the two reactor cores. The reactor antineutrino flux prediction used the Bugey4 measurement as an anchor point. The deficit can be interpreted as an indication of a non-zero value of the still unmeasured neutrino mixing parameter \sang. Analyzing both the rate of the prompt positrons and their energy spectrum we find \sang = 0.086 $\pm$ 0.041 (stat) $\pm$ 0.030 (syst), or, at 90% CL, 0.015 $<$ \sang $\ <$ 0.16.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, (new version after PRL referee's comments