Overwintering biology of the carob moth Apomyelois ceratoniae (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

The pomegranate fruit moth, Apomyelois ceratoniae (Zeller), is the most important pest of pomegranate orchards in Iran, where infestations lead to 20%–80% fruit loss. A. ceratoniae overwinters as larvae in several instars. The success in overwintering determines the fruit loss in the following season, thus overwintering physiology of A. ceratoniae could provide insights into population prediction. To this end, overwintering strategy and some seasonal physiological and biochemical changes were investigated in the field-collected larvae of A. ceratoniae. The lowest supercooling point was recorded in November (−14.6 ± 0.9 °C) and the highest in both October and March (−10.2 ± 0.9 °C). The median lethal temperature (LT50) of larvae was higher than supercooling point, suggesting that A. ceratoniae is chill-susceptible. Overwintering larvae had slightly higher concentrations of glycerol and sorbitol compared to summer larvae. There were no significant seasonal changes in body water content or hemolymph osmolality. Current winter temperatures in Iranian orchards are higher than the cold tolerance thresholds of A. ceratoniae, suggesting that overwintering mortality is not a key factor in determining A. ceratoniae populations

An EXPERIME TAL STUDY on the KI EMATICS of a SKILLED SERVICE in PLAYI G TE IS

ABSTRACT This paper studies the effective parameters of a skilled service in playing tennis and determines their relationship with skill deals. Effective service in tennis plays an important role in gaining more desirable result and the most important factor of success in getting scores depends on the player's skills in serving an effective service. The characteristics of a good service are the high speed of the ball and the precision of landing the ball. The several parameters affecting on these two characteristic in the service, are studied in this paper. Therefore, the Kinematic parameters of 8 Iranian professional tennis athletes of first division tennis league and also 8 non-professional Iranian athletes who exercise about 3 sessions a week were extracted. After land marking these athletes, by use of two high-frequency cameras, pictures were recorded when the tennis players were serving the services. The investigation on the results of these tests is performed by three dimensional motion analyses. The pictures are analyzed with the WinAnalyze software. Therefore, in this paper, the most important effective parameters in serving a successful service are detected

Cold tolerance of third-instar Drosophila suzukii larvae

Jakobs R, Ahmadi B, Houben S, Gariepy TD, Sinclair BJ. Cold tolerance of third-instar Drosophila suzukii larvae. JOURNAL OF INSECT PHYSIOLOGY. 2017;96:45-52.Drosophila suzukii is an emerging global pest of soft fruit; although it likely overwinters as an adult, larval cold tolerance is important both for determining performance during spring and autumn, and for the development of temperature-based control methods aimed at larvae. We examined the low temperature biology of third instar feeding and wandering larvae in and out of food. We induced phenotypic plasticity of thermal biology by rearing under short days and fluctuating temperatures (5.5-19 degrees C). Rearing under fluctuating temperatures led to much slower development (42.1 days egg-adult) compared to control conditions (constant 21.5 degrees C; 15.7 days), and yielded larger adults of both sexes. D. suzukii larvae were chill-susceptible, being killed by low temperatures not associated with freezing, and freezing survival was not improved when ice formation was inoculated externally via food or silver iodide. Feeding larvae were more cold tolerant than wandering larvae, especially after rearing under fluctuating temperatures, and rearing under fluctuating temperatures improved survival of prolonged cold (0 degrees C) to beyond 72 h in both larval stages. There was no evidence that acute cold tolerance could be improved by rapid cold hardening. We conclude that D. suzukii has the capacity to develop at low temperatures under fluctuating temperatures, but that they have limited cold tolerance. However, phenotypic plasticity of prolonged cold tolerance must be taken into account when developing low temperature treatments for sanitation of this species. Crown Copyright (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Prosthetic Valve Endocarditis: Early Outcome following Medical or Surgical Treatment

Background: Prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality associated with heart valve replacement surgery. The aim of the present study was to describe the early outcome of treatment in patients with PVE in a single center. Methods: The data of all the episodes of PVE registered at our institution between 2002 and 2007 were collected and analyzed retrospectively. The patients were assessed using clinical criteria defined by Durack and colleagues (Duke criteria). The analysis included a detailed study of hospital records. The continuous variables were expressed as mean ± standard deviation, and the discrete variables were presented as percentages.Results: Thirteen patients with PVE were diagnosed and treated at our center during the study period. In all the cases, mechanical prostheses were utilized. The patients' mean age was 46.9±12.8 years. Women made up 53.8% of all the cases. Early PVE was detected in 6 (46.2%) patients, and late PVE occurred in 7 (53.8 %). Eleven (84.6%) patients were treated with intravenous antimicrobial therapy, and the other two (15.4%) required surgical removal and replacement of the infected prosthesis in addition to antibiotic therapy. Blood cultures became positive in 46.2% of the patients. Mortality rate was 15.4% (2 patients). Conclusion: It seems that in selected cases with PVE, i.e. in those who remain clinically stable and respond well to antimicrobial therapy, a cure could be achieved by antimicrobial treatment alone with acceptable morbidity and mortality risk

Impact of Dialysis on Open Cardiac Surgery

Background: Dialysis patients frequently have coronary artery disease but are regarded as high risk patients for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Methods: Between February 2002 and September 2006, seventeen dialysis-dependent patients underwent isolated CABG at our center. CABG was performed under cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) for all the patients. All cases had been maintained on hemodialysis and the duration of preoperative hemodialysis ranged from 6 to 24 months (mean 13.4±6.4). The patients’ characteristics, clinical and operative data as well as perioperative and mid-term outcome were reviewed. Results: All patients were men with a mean age of 53±8.4 years. Mean preoperative ejection fraction was 45.5%±10.4% (range 25 to 60 %). One internal mammary graft was used in 16 (94.1%) patients. Cardiopulmonary bypass and aortic cross-clamp times were 71.3±18.7 and 40.5±8.3 minutes respectively. The more frequent complication was prolonged mechanical ventilation in 2 (11.7%), there was no perioperative mortality. In mid-term follow-up (mean time: 11.8±9.5 months) the mid-term mortality rate was 20% (3 patients). Conclusion: CABG in chronic renal dialysis patients can be accomplished with acceptable short and mid-term morbidity and mortality