Distributions of western flower thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) and its predatory bug Orius niger (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae) assessed by coloured sticky traps and plant samplings in cotton

The capturing efficiency of four coloured (yellow, green, white and blue) sticky traps, placed at the top, middle and bottom strata of cotton plants, was tested for the western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), and its predatory bug, Orius niger (Wolff) (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae), as well as spatial distributions of both insects on the plant in years 2006 and 2007. The white coloured trap was the most attractive to F. occidentalis and O. niger in the 2-year study. The blue coloured trap was the least attractive for Orius. The mean numbers of F. occidentalis and O. niger on the top plant parts (flowers and leaves) and in all coloured traps positioned on the upper parts of the plants were greater than those found in the lower two strata. Taylor's power law analysis showed that F. occidentalis and O. niger adults aggregated in the flowers or on the leaves. This study suggests that top flowers could be preferentially sampled to determine population densities of Frankliniella flower thrips and Orius species in cotton, and thus, sticky traps should be placed on the top level of plants. F. occidentalis: O. niger ratios in the flowers varied from 4 to 60 thrips per Orius adult in the three plant strata. This result may indicate that F. occidentalis experiences more predation from Orius.     

Hydatid disease in acute leukemia: effect of anticancer treatment on echinococcosis

Echinococcosis, also known as hydatid disease or hydatidosis, is a zoonotic illness caused by the larval form of Echinococcus spp. It is highly prevalent in areas where the parasite is endemic such as the Mediterranean region. However, occurrence of echinococcosis and cancer together is rare. We treated and followed approximately 1200 patients with different hematologic neoplastic diseases between 1985 and 2003, and only one of these individuals had concomitant acute leukemia and liver hydatidosis. This report describes the case of a 19-year-old man who had both primary refractoriness of acute leukemia (AML-M4) and liver hydatidosis. Management is discussed. The patient had cystic echinococcosis (CE) of the liver that was classified as CE1 according to the system established by the World Health Organization's Informal Working Group on Echinococcosis. The patient underwent 3 months of treatment with agents that targeted the leukemia (daunorubicin, idarubicin, cytarabine, fludarabine) and its complications (amphotericin B, amphotericin B lipid complex, liposomal amphotericin B). Throughout this period, the size and the contents of the cyst did not change, Echinococcus titers remained unchanged, and the cyst classification remained CE1.     

Evaluation of haploidization efficiency in winter squash (Cucurbita maxima Duch.) and pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch.) through anther culture

The production of large numbers of haploids is the crucial point of the dihaploidisation process. Although in vitro haploid plants were successfully produced by irradiated pollen technique in winter squash (Cucurbita maxima Duch.) and pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch.), the frequency is still insufficient for using in a large-scale breeding programme. Thus, the present study was conducted to determine the efficacy of the anther culture technique on the production of in vitro haploids in the aforementioned species for which there have been no successful reports concerning by androgenesis. The anthers at uninucleate microspore stage were collected at different florescence times and then cultured on a solid MS medium supplemented by different combinations of 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid), BAP (6-benzylaminopurine), KN (kinetin) with the constant addition of NAA (naphthalene acetic acid) to induce callogenesis, embryogenesis and plantlet initiation. The combination of PGR, genotype and anther collection time played an important role in the androgenic response. The highest response was obtained from 57S?21 and G9 lines with the combination of 2.0 or 4.0 mg/l BAP?+?0.05 mg/l NAA (E6 medium) at the first anther collection time. Plantlets were regenerated and rooted on MS medium supplemented by 0.01 mg/l IAA. In total, 74 plants were recovered and propagated with micro-cuttings. The ploidy analyses revealed that 35 plants (47.3?%) were haploid (n?=?20), and the others (52.7?%) were diploid (2n?=?40).     

Phytoplankton distribution in the Caspian Sea during March 2001

Phytoplankton abundance, biomass and species composition of the Caspian Sea were evaluated by using samples collected from the Iranian (southern Caspian Sea) and southern Kazakhstan (eastern Caspian Sea) surface waters in March 2001. A total of 45 taxa were found in the samples (20 diatoms, 17 dinoflagellates and 8 others). Abundance and biomass of diatoms were high at the eastern stations, while dinoflagellates were dominant in terms of both biomass and abundance in the southern region. Average abundance and biomass were 40 000 ± 35 000 cell l⁻¹ and 580 ± 690 μg l⁻¹. The mean biomass value found here for the Middle and southern Caspian Sea in March are difficult to compare with the past due to limited information, but seems higher than previously registered values. Higher chlorophyll values were also apparent from the SeaWIFS images in 2001 compared to those in 1998. This is suggested to be due to decreased grazing of phytoplankton by zooplankton which is voraciously preyed by the recent invasive ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi.     

Lensfree fluorescent on-chip imaging of transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans over an ultra-wide field-of-view

We demonstrate lensfree on-chip fluorescent imaging of transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) over an ultra-wide field-of-view (FOV) of e.g., >2-8 cm(2) with a spatial resolution of ～10 μm. This is the first time that a lensfree on-chip platform has successfully imaged fluorescent C. elegans samples. In our wide-field lensfree imaging platform, the transgenic samples are excited using a prism interface from the side, where the pump light is rejected through total internal reflection occurring at the bottom facet of the substrate. The emitted fluorescent signal from C. elegans samples is then recorded on a large area opto-electronic sensor-array over an FOV of e.g., >2-8 cm(2), without the use of any lenses, thin-film interference filters or mechanical scanners. Because fluorescent emission rapidly diverges, such lensfree fluorescent images recorded on a chip look blurred due to broad point-spread-function of our platform. To combat this resolution challenge, we use a compressive sampling algorithm to uniquely decode the recorded lensfree fluorescent patterns into higher resolution images, demonstrating ～10 μm resolution. We tested the efficacy of this compressive decoding approach with different types of opto-electronic sensors to achieve a similar resolution level, independent of the imaging chip. We further demonstrate that this wide FOV lensfree fluorescent imaging platform can also perform sequential bright-field imaging of the same samples using partially-coherent lensfree digital in-line holography that is coupled from the top facet of the same prism used in fluorescent excitation. This unique combination permits ultra-wide field dual-mode imaging of C. elegans on a chip which could especially provide a useful tool for high-throughput screening applications in biomedical research.     

Rumen fungi: morphological types from Georgia cattle and the attack on forage cell walls

Fungal colonies developing in anaerobic media from zoospores in rumen fluid from cows eating Cynodon dactylon or Medicago sativa included types showing monocentric and polycentric growth. High energy supplements added to diets of Sorghum bicolor silage increased fungal numbers in the rumen, but increases were also affected by the history and predisposition of the animal. Mixed fungal types in rumen fluid and pure cultures of isolates showing monocentric and polycentric growth degraded and weakened lignocellulosic tissues and penetrated the cuticle of C. dactylon leaf blades. By weakening or degrading recalcitrant structures in forages, rumen fungi may alter physical parameters of plants that influence utilization of fibre by ruminants.     

Material heterogeneity,microstructure, and microcracks demonstrate differential influence on crack initiation and propagation in cortical bone

The recent studies have shown that long-term bisphosphonate use may result in a number of mechanical alterations in the bone tissue including a reduction in compositional heterogeneity and an increase in microcrack density. There are limited number of experimental and computational studies in the literature that evaluated how these modifications affect crack initiation and propagation in cortical bone. Therefore, in this study, the entire crack growth process including initiation and propagation was simulated at the microscale by using the cohesive extended finite element method. Models with homogeneous and heterogeneous material properties (represented at the microscale capturing the variability in material property values and their distribution) as well as different microcrack density and microstructure were compared. The results showed that initiation fracture resistance was higher in models with homogeneous material properties compared to heterogeneous ones, whereas an opposite trend was observed in propagation fracture resistance. The increase in material heterogeneity level up to 10 different material property sets increased the propagation fracture resistance beyond which a decrease was observed while still remaining higher than the homogeneous material distribution. The simulation results also showed that the total osteonal area influenced crack propagation and the local osteonal area near the initial crack affected the crack initiation behavior. In addition, the initiation fracture resistance was higher in models representing bisphosphonate treated bone (low material heterogeneity, high microcrack density) compared to untreated bone models (high material heterogeneity, low microcrack density), whereas an opposite trend was observed at later stages of crack growth. In summary, the results demonstrated that tissue material heterogeneity, microstructure, and microcrack density influenced crack initiation and propagation differently. The findings also elucidate how possible modifications in material heterogeneity and microcrack density due to bisphosphonate treatment may influence the initiation and propagation fracture resistance of cortical bone.     

Effect of phenolic acids and phenolics from plant cell walls on rumenlike fermentation in consecutive batch culture.

Information on the interaction between mixed populations in the rumen and plant phenolics is required to fully elucidate the limitations of phenolic compounds on forage digestibility. The objective of this study was to examine the degradation of Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum L.) hay incubated with mixed ruminal populations in consecutive batch culture (CBC) with or without phenolic acids or phenolic compounds extracted from plant cell walls. Each CBC consisted of a series of 10 cultures (3 replicates per culture) inoculated (10%, vol/vol) in sequence at 48-h intervals with microbial suspension from the previous set of cultures. All cultures were grown on a semidefined medium containing Italian ryegrass hay, and each CBC was initiated with an inoculum from the rumen. Rumenlike fermentation characteristics were maintained in control CBCs by repeated inoculum transfer. Treatment CBCs were transferred as described above, but cultures 5, 6, and 7 were incubated in the presence of trans-p-coumaric, cis-p-coumaric, or trans-ferulic acid or phenolics extracted from the cell walls of maize stem or barley straw. Mean apparent dry matter disappearance in control CBC cultures was 495 mg per g of hay, whereas the presence of phenolics reduced the initial dry matter disappearance by 6.3 to 25.6%. trans-p-Coumaric acid and, to a lesser extent, the phenolics from cell walls of maize stem were the most inhibitory compounds for dry matter disappearance and for the production of volatile fatty acids; trans-p-coumaric acid altered the molar ratio of acetate/propionate/butyrate. The CBC further showed variations in the ability of the rumen microbial population to adapt to phenolic compounds.     

Analysis of taxonomic and geographic patterns of Turkish Veronica orientalis using nuclear and plastid DNA and morphological data

Veronica orientalis and related species form one of the taxonomically most challenging subgroups within the genus Veronica. Hybridization and polyploidization on the one hand and convergent character evolution on the other have made delimitation of species difficult. Amplified fragment length polymorphisms and plastid DNA markers were used in conjunction with 54 morphological characters to study relationships among 35 accessions of V. orientalis Mill. as well as other closely related species of Veronica occurring in Turkey and adjacent areas of Georgia and Armenia. In addition, ploidy levels were estimated for 15 accessions using flow cytometry. Diploid to hexaploid individuals were detected in V. orientalis. Analysis of DNA markers demonstrated the non-monophyly of V. orientalis, especially with regard to V. fuhsii and V. multifida from Eastern Turkey, but nuclear and plastid DNA markers are largely incongruent. Neither demonstrates a clear biogeographic pattern. The morphological analysis reveals the distinction of V. orientalis subsp. carduchorum, which is weakly retrieved in some molecular analyses and some clustering according to geography. V. multifida is not monophyletic likely due to parallel evolution of pinnatifid leaves east and west of the Anatolian diagonal.