Strategies to control late blight in potatoes in Europe

In Europe an aggressive genetically diverse population of potato late blight is present which regularly causes problems in all potato growing regions. It is therefore of the utmost importance that blight is managed in an integrated way by combining a range of measures. Hygiene measures can keep the number of primary sources of inoculum low. In a number of European countries campaigns are ongoing to increase the awareness of growers to reduce the risk of early inoculum sources such as dumps, volunteers and infected seed. The use of varieties with stable resistance for foliar and tuber blight is also a part of an integrated control strategy. In intermediate resistant varieties possibilities are investigated to reduce the input of fungicides. Fungicides still have a key role to play in the integrated control of late blight. In order to optimize the use of fungicides it is important to know the effectiveness and type of activity of the active ingredients to control blight. The use of fungicides should be targeted by using information on infection conditions based on weather data, disease pressure and fungicide characteristics. Decision Support Systems (DSS) can be used to integrate and organize all the available information required for decisions to control late blight

Gain of 20q11.21 in human pluripotent stem cells impairs TGF-β-dependent neuroectodermal commitment

Gain of 20q11.21 is one of the most common recurrent genomic aberrations in human pluripotent stem cells. Although it is known that overexpression of the antiapoptotic gene Bcl-xL confers a survival advantage to the abnormal cells, their differentiation capacity has not been fully investigated. RNA sequencing of mutant and control hESC lines, and a line transgenically overexpressing Bcl-xL, shows that overexpression of Bcl-xL is sufficient to cause most transcriptional changes induced by the gain of 20q11.21. Moreover, the differentially expressed genes in mutant and Bcl-xL overexpressing lines are enriched for genes involved in TGF-beta- and SMAD-mediated signaling, and neuron differentiation. Finally, we show that this altered signaling has a dramatic negative effect on neuroectodermal differentiation, while the cells maintain their ability to differentiate to mesendoderm derivatives. These findings stress the importance of thorough genetic testing of the lines before their use in research or the clinic

What is the evidence base of used aggregated antibiotic resistance percentages to change empirical antibiotic treatment? A scoping review

Contains fulltext : 251404.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)OBJECTIVES: Antibiotic resistance requires continuous monitoring by experts to decide whether empirical antibiotic therapies (EATs) should be replaced by alternative antibiotics. The exact moment and criteria for this change are unclear and generally based on consensus between experts. This scoping review aims to identify from the literature the resistance thresholds used for a change in EAT and the criteria on which they are based. METHODS: Scoping review for which a comprehensive structured literature search was conducted. Rayyan, software for systematic reviews, was used for the screening of abstracts and titles. Data sources were Pubmed and a hand-search of reference lists and grey literature. Papers were eligible if they concerned any type of bacterial infectious disease and mentioned or defined antibiotic resistance thresholds for decision-making purposes for EAT. The inclusion and analysis of articles was done by two researchers; any conflicts were resolved through discussion or by consulting a third reviewer. RESULTS: We identified 3146 unique papers. Following title/abstract screening, 125 papers were comprehensively read, and 16 papers were included. The included papers gave thresholds for urinary tract infections, respiratory tract infections, meningitis, skin and soft tissue infections, gonorrhoea, and bone and joint infections. Six criteria were found that were commonly used to base the thresholds on. These were: disease severity, efficacy of treatment, adverse drug events, risk of Clostridioides difficile infection, costs, and increased resistance. The number of criteria used to define each threshold varied from one to six between papers. CONCLUSIONS: The thresholds used for EATs are few, commonly based on expert opinion estimates, and can therefore have broad ranges. Used criteria underlying reported thresholds are heterogenous and require standardization. Considering the rising trend in resistance, there is a clear need for rigid tools to determine thresholds in order to support guideline development with the best and timely evidence

An atypical presentation of cystic fibrosis: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>The presentation of cystic fibrosis is dependant upon which organs are affected. Common presentations include chronic respiratory infections and malabsorption. Patients with atypical disease tend to present late in childhood or as adults. Eye manifestations of cystic fibrosis are less well known.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 14-year-old Caucasian boy presented with tiredness and difficulty seeing at night, over a period of 6 months. Good vision was only described in bright conditions. There was no history of jaundice, steatorrhea or diarrhoea.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This is the first reported case of newly diagnosed cystic fibrosis-related liver disease in a teenage boy, whose presenting symptom was night blindness secondary to vitamin A deficiency.</p

Identification of novel clostridium perfringens type E strains that carry an iota toxin plasmid with a functional enterotoxin gene

Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin (CPE) is a major virulence factor for human gastrointestinal diseases, such as food poisoning and antibiotic associated diarrhea. The CPE-encoding gene (cpe) can be chromosomal or plasmid-borne. Recent development of conventional PCR cpe-genotyping assays makes it possible to identify cpe location (chromosomal or plasmid) in type A isolates. Initial studies for developing cpe genotyping assays indicated that all cpe-positive strains isolated from sickened patients were typable by cpe-genotypes, but surveys of C. perfringens environmental strains or strains from feces of healthy people suggested that this assay might not be useful for some cpe-carrying type A isolates. In the current study, a pulsed-field gel electrophoresis Southern blot assay showed that four cpe-genotype untypable isolates carried their cpe gene on a plasmid of ~65 kb. Complete sequence analysis of the ~65 kb variant cpe-carrying plasmid revealed no intact IS elements and a disrupted cytosine methyltransferase (dcm) gene. More importantly, this plasmid contains a conjugative transfer region, a variant cpe gene and variant iota toxin genes. The toxin genes encoded by this plasmid are expressed based upon the results of RT-PCR assays. The ~65 kb plasmid is closely related to the pCPF4969 cpe plasmid of type A isolates. MLST analyses indicated these isolates belong to a unique cluster of C. perfringens. Overall, these isolates carrying a variant functional cpe gene and iota toxin genes represent unique type E strains. © 2011 Miyamoto et al

The Loss of PTEN Allows TCR αβ Lineage Thymocytes to Bypass IL-7 and Pre-TCR–mediated Signaling

The phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) negatively regulates cell survival and proliferation mediated by phosphoinositol 3 kinases. We have explored the role of the phosphoinositol(3,4,5)P3-phosphatase PTEN in T cell development by analyzing mice with a T cell–specific deletion of PTEN. Ptenflox/floxLck-Cre mice developed thymic lymphomas, but before the onset of tumors, they showed normal thymic cellularity. To reveal a regulatory role of PTEN in proliferation of developing T cells we have crossed PTEN-deficient mice with mice deficient for interleukin (IL)-7 receptor and pre–T cell receptor (TCR) signaling. Analysis of mice deficient for Pten and CD3γ; Pten and γc; or Pten, γc, and Rag2 revealed that deletion of PTEN can substitute for both IL-7 and pre-TCR signals. These double- and triple-deficient mice all develop normal levels of CD4CD8 double negative and double positive thymocytes. These data indicate that PTEN is an important regulator of proliferation of developing T cells in the thymus

Parity Mixed Doublets in A = 36 Nuclei

The $\gamma$-circular polarizations ($P_{\gamma}$) and asymmetries ($A_{\gamma}$) of the parity forbidden M1 + E2 $\gamma$-decays: $^{36}Cl^{\ast} (J^{\pi} = 2^{-}; T = 1; E_{x} = 1.95$ MeV) $\rightarrow$ $^{36}Cl (J^{\pi} = 2^{+}; T = 1; g.s.)$ and $^{36}Ar^{\ast} (J^{\pi} = 2^{-}; T = 0; E_{x} = 4.97$ MeV) $\rightarrow$ $^{36}Ar^{\ast} (J^{\pi} = 2^{+}; T = 0; E_{x} = 1.97$ MeV) are investigated theoretically. We use the recently proposed Warburton-Becker-Brown shell-model interaction. For the weak forces we discuss comparatively different weak interaction models based on different assumptions for evaluating the weak meson-hadron coupling constants. The results determine a range of $P_{\gamma}$ values from which we find the most probable values: $P_{\gamma}$ = $1.1 \cdot 10^{-4}$ for $^{36}Cl$ and $P_{\gamma}$ = $3.5 \cdot 10^{-4}$ for $^{36}Ar$.Comment: RevTeX, 17 pages; to appear in Phys. Rev.

Aplikasi Smartphone Untuk Anti Bully

Bullying is aggressive activities not only among school aged children but it can be happened in higher education, office or even in family on daily basis. Bullying involves physical and non physical action which is repeated acted and can be represented in verbal, social and physical thing. Bullying has negative for both perpetrators and victims, the perpetrators will have bad habit which can influence the way their living in the future and particularly for victim it will make them become alone and not open to surrounding relationships.In this paper, we proposed an application which can help to reduce the negative effect of bullying by reporting any bullying happened and do the next action based on meeting result. Moreover, this application will give open private consultation for both perpetrators and victims in order to reduce bullying activities and recognized as bullying. Creating forum for both community who are interested to reduce bullying negatve effect and provide information regarding with negative effect of bullying will help people to educate themselves regarding with bullying. Anti Bully application, IT for Anti Bully, physiatrist Computer Scienc