Efficacy of Pseudomonas chlororaphis subsp. aureofaciens SH2 and Pseudomonas fluorescens RH43 isolates against root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) in kiwifruit

The Root-knot nematodes, Meloidogyne spp., are parasites of many crops and orchards, including kiwifruit trees. The Islamic Republic of Iran is among the leading kiwifruit producers in the world and M. incognita has been found as the dominant species responsible for severe loss of this crop. In order to evaluate the eff ectiveness of antagonistic bacteria on larval mortality, number of galls per plant and egg masses of nematode reduction, fifty local bacterial strains were isolated from root surrounding soils of kiwifruit plants in the northern production areas in Iran. Bacterial antagonists were characterized by morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular methods. Two representative strains, showing the best nematicidal activity, were identif ed as Pseudomonas chlororaphis subsp. aureofaciens (isolate Sh2) and Pseudomonas fluorescens (isolate Rh43). They increased the percentage of larval mortality to 56:38% and 54:28% respectively in assays in vitro and showed excellent performance also in vivo with consistent reduction of number of galls (67:31% and 55:63%, respectively) and egg mass (86:46% and 84:29%, respectively) in plants. This study indicates that Pseudomonas chlororaphis subsp. aureofaciens isolate Sh2 and Pseudomonas fluorescens isolate Rh43 are good potential biocontrol agents for containing root-knot nematodes in kiwifruit trees.peer-reviewe

Machine Intelligence for Advanced Medical Data Analysis: Manifold Learning Approach

In the current work, linear and non-linear manifold learning techniques, specifically Principle Component Analysis (PCA) and Laplacian Eigenmaps, are studied in detail. Their applications in medical image and shape analysis are investigated. In the first contribution, a manifold learning-based multi-modal image registration technique is developed, which results in a unified intensity system through intensity transformation between the reference and sensed images. The transformation eliminates intensity variations in multi-modal medical scans and hence facilitates employing well-studied mono-modal registration techniques. The method can be used for registering multi-modal images with full and partial data. Next, a manifold learning-based scale invariant global shape descriptor is introduced. The proposed descriptor benefits from the capability of Laplacian Eigenmap in dealing with high dimensional data by introducing an exponential weighting scheme. It eliminates the limitations tied to the well-known cotangent weighting scheme, namely dependency on triangular mesh representation and high intra-class quality of 3D models. In the end, a novel descriptive model for diagnostic classification of pulmonary nodules is presented. The descriptive model benefits from structural differences between benign and malignant nodules for automatic and accurate prediction of a candidate nodule. It extracts concise and discriminative features automatically from the 3D surface structure of a nodule using spectral features studied in the previous work combined with a point cloud-based deep learning network. Extensive experiments have been conducted and have shown that the proposed algorithms based on manifold learning outperform several state-of-the-art methods. Advanced computational techniques with a combination of manifold learning and deep networks can play a vital role in effective healthcare delivery by providing a framework for several fundamental tasks in image and shape processing, namely, registration, classification, and detection of features of interest

Effective In-School Suspension Programming: An Exploratory Study

Extensive research has shown out-of-school suspension as a deterrent to inappropriate behavior in school does not work. It further shows that the most frequently suspended populations are the same populations with the highest drop-out rates and that are most at-risk for becoming involved with the criminal justice system. This study seeks to look at the alternatives to out-of-school suspensions. A cross sectional survey was used to ask school professionals to describe their school suspension programming and to what extent they are using it. Twenty-eight respondents indicated results similar to what was found in the literature review; that while promising, in-school suspension lacks consistency, documentation, outcome data and enough funding to be successful. Implications for social work practice include school social workers working to build strong programs in the schools they are in, advocating for the implementation of in-school suspension programming and dissuading the use of out-of-school suspension. Also, promoting the importance of the maintenance of data to help support the future evidence of the successes of in-school suspension

Effective In-School Suspension Programming: An Exploratory Study

Extensive research has shown out-of-school suspension as a deterrent to inappropriate behavior in school does not work. It further shows that the most frequently suspended populations are the same populations with the highest drop-out rates and that are most at-risk for becoming involved with the criminal justice system. This study seeks to look at the alternatives to out-of-school suspensions. A cross sectional survey was used to ask school professionals to describe their school suspension programming and to what extent they are using it. Twenty-eight respondents indicated results similar to what was found in the literature review; that while promising, in-school suspension lacks consistency, documentation, outcome data and enough funding to be successful. Implications for social work practice include school social workers working to build strong programs in the schools they are in, advocating for the implementation of in-school suspension programming and dissuading the use of out-of-school suspension. Also, promoting the importance of the maintenance of data to help support the future evidence of the successes of in-school suspension