Digital Disaster and the Ethics of Virtual Plant Pathology

2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
L. J. Stowell

The responsibility we take on as plant pathologists when we diagnose plant diseases is a serious one that impacts crop management strategies, pesticide use patterns, food and environmental safety. For this reason, our goal should always be to use all information available—about the plant, the microorganisms present, and the conditions that led to the problem–to ensure that the final diagnosis is as accurate as possible. Yet in the past few years, we have seen increasing adoption of the use of photographs and digital images as the sole source of information for a plant health diagnosis. Posted 28 June 2000.

2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Gerald Holmes ◽  
Tom Creswell ◽  
Tom Dyson

In the April 1999 issue of Phytopathology News, Larry Stowell argues that the use of photographs and digital images as the sole source of information for a plant health diagnosis is poor practice. He then lists many negative consequences of incorrect diagnoses and cites shrinking budgets as the reason that university extension programs have adopted this technology. Digital images are new and powerful tools in disease diagnosis. Their use is not the result of shrinking budgets but rather of increased funding to explore methods that improve the speed and accuracy of current methods. Posted 6 June 2000.


Author(s):  
Alan Covey ◽  
Sonia Alconini

This chapter is an editorial conclusion to Part 1, addressing the themes of Inca origins that emerged in chapters on colonial chronicles, Andean prehistory, and the material remains of the Inca transformation of the city of Cuzco and its surrounding region. The concluding chapter focuses on the interplay between documentary and archaeological reconstructions of Inca origins, which begin at different points in the past and offer distinct narrative scales. Although colonial histories provided the sole source of information on Inca origins for centuries, archaeology has introduced important new questions about the relationships between the Inca Empire and earlier Andean states.


2016 ◽  
pp. 52-65
Author(s):  
Patryk Kołodyński ◽  
Paulina Drab

Over the past several years, transplantology has become one of the fastest developing areas of medicine. The reason is, first and foremost, a significant improvement of the results of successful transplants. However, much controversy arouse among the public, on both medical and ethical grounds. The article presents the most important concepts and regulations relating to the collection and transplantation of organs and tissues in the context of the European Convention on Bioethics. It analyses the convention and its additional protocol. The article provides the definition of transplantation and distinguishes its types, taking into account the medical criteria for organ transplants. Moreover, authors explained the issue of organ donation ex vivo and ex mortuo. The European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine clearly regulates the legal aspects concerning the transplantation and related basic concepts, and therefore provides a reliable source of information about organ transplantation and tissue. This act is a part of the international legal order, which includes the established codification of bioethical standards.


HortScience ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 494f-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy M. Johnson ◽  
Greg D. Hoyt

An experiment was established to determine the effect of different tillage practices, vegetable crop rotations, and pest management strategies on crop yield, plant diseases, pest and beneficial arthropods, weed species changes over time, and soil environmental consequences. This poster describes nitrogen movement from the various treatments over a 3-year rotation. The treatments are: 1) conventional tillage with chemically based IPM; 2) conventional tillage with biologically based IPM; 3) conservation tillage with chemically based IPM; 4) conservation tillage with biologically based IPM; and 5) conventional tillage with no fertilizer or pest management. Mid-season soil analyses with depth showed chemical-fertilized plowed and conservation-tilled treatments with more soil available nitrogen at most depths compared to the biological-based IPM systems (soybean meal was used as a nitrogen source). However, the biological-based systems did supply enough soil nitrogen to produce similar yield results as the chemical-based systems. Less soil nitrate was measured in the 30- to 90-cm depths at harvest from the biological-based systems than chemical-based systems. Conservation-tilled systems had greater nitrate with depth compared to conventional-tilled systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 862
Author(s):  
Vittoria Catara ◽  
Jaime Cubero ◽  
Joël F. Pothier ◽  
Eran Bosis ◽  
Claude Bragard ◽  
...  

Bacteria in the genus Xanthomonas infect a wide range of crops and wild plants, with most species responsible for plant diseases that have a global economic and environmental impact on the seed, plant, and food trade. Infections by Xanthomonas spp. cause a wide variety of non-specific symptoms, making their identification difficult. The coexistence of phylogenetically close strains, but drastically different in their phenotype, poses an added challenge to diagnosis. Data on future climate change scenarios predict an increase in the severity of epidemics and a geographical expansion of pathogens, increasing pressure on plant health services. In this context, the effectiveness of integrated disease management strategies strongly depends on the availability of rapid, sensitive, and specific diagnostic methods. The accumulation of genomic information in recent years has facilitated the identification of new DNA markers, a cornerstone for the development of more sensitive and specific methods. Nevertheless, the challenges that the taxonomic complexity of this genus represents in terms of diagnosis together with the fact that within the same bacterial species, groups of strains may interact with distinct host species demonstrate that there is still a long way to go. In this review, we describe and discuss the current molecular-based methods for the diagnosis and detection of regulated Xanthomonas, taxonomic and diversity studies in Xanthomonas and genomic approaches for molecular diagnosis.


Medicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Gabriele Savioli ◽  
Iride Francesca Ceresa ◽  
Luca Caneva ◽  
Sebastiano Gerosa ◽  
Giovanni Ricevuti

Coagulopathy induced by major trauma is common, affecting approximately one-third of patients after trauma. It develops independently of iatrogenic, hypothermic, and dilutive causes (such as iatrogenic cause in case of fluid administration), which instead have a pejorative aspect on coagulopathy. Notwithstanding the continuous research conducted over the past decade on Trauma-Induced Coagulopathy (TIC), it remains a life-threatening condition with a significant impact on trauma mortality. We reviewed the current evidence regarding TIC diagnosis and pathophysiological mechanisms and summarized the different iterations of optimal TIC management strategies among which product resuscitation, potential drug administrations, and hemostatis-focused approaches. We have identified areas of ongoing investigation and controversy in TIC management.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen O’Brien Pott ◽  
Anissa S. Blanshan ◽  
Kelly M. Huneke ◽  
Barbara L. Baasch Thomas ◽  
David A. Cook

Abstract Background CPD educators and CME providers would benefit from further insight regarding barriers and supports in obtaining CME, including sources of information about CME. To address this gap, we sought to explore challenges that clinicians encounter as they seek CME, and time and monetary support allotted for CME. Methods In August 2018, we surveyed licensed US clinicians (physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants), sampling 100 respondents each of family medicine physicians, internal medicine and hospitalist physicians, medicine specialist physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants (1895 invited, 500 [26.3%] responded). The Internet-based questionnaire addressed barriers to obtaining CME, sources of CME information, and time and monetary support for CME. Results The most often-selected barriers were expense (338/500 [68%]) and travel time (N = 286 [57%]). The source of information about CME activities most commonly selected was online search (N = 348 [70%]). Direct email, professional associations, direct mail, and journals were also each selected by > 50% of respondents. Most respondents reported receiving 1–6 days (N = 301 [60%]) and $1000–$5000 (n = 263 [53%]) per year to use in CME activities. Most (> 70%) also reported no change in time or monetary support over the past 24 months. We found few significant differences in responses across clinician type or age group. In open-ended responses, respondents suggested eight ways to enhance CME: optimize location, reduce cost, publicize effectively, offer more courses and content, allow flexibility, ensure accessibility, make content clinically relevant, and encourage application. Conclusions Clinicians report that expense and travel time are the biggest barriers to CME. Time and money support is limited, and not increasing. Online search and email are the most frequently-used sources of information about CME. Those who organize and market CME should explore options that reduce barriers of time and money, and creatively use online tools to publicize new offerings.


1968 ◽  
Vol 11 (03) ◽  
pp. 314-315
Author(s):  
Merrick Posnansky

In October 1968, the University of Ghana commenced an extensive program in African archaeology. Graduate students from overseas are eligible to enroll for courses at the University, though no scholarships are presently available for non-Ghanaians. The Department of Archaeology of the University of Ghana was established in 1951 under the professorship of A. W. Lawrence. It presently has a senior teaching establishment of four together with a curator and two senior research fellows under the chairmanship of Professor Merrick Posnansky. The Department has a small specialist library, a museum, laboratory, dark room, workshops, and a team of trained technical staff. Most of the Department's research work is normally conducted in the dry season from November to May each year. In the past Professor Oliver Davies, author of the Quaternary of the Guinea Coast (1964) and West Africa before the Europeans (1967), conducted extensive fieldwork relating to the Stone Age and neolithic periods of Ghana's past and made large surface collections from all parts of Ghana which provide a rich topographical source of information on archaeology in Ghana. The Department has conducted extensive excavations in Ghana and its research fellows are presently engaged in writing up the results of the Volta Basin Research Project, in which more than thirty sites have been excavated since 1963 in advance of the formation of a large lake consequent upon the construction of the Volta Dam. The majority of the excavated sites have been of Iron Age date. In September 1968, Mr. C. Flight commenced a new season of excavations at “Neolithic” rock shelter sites at Kintampo, where occupations and burials dated to the middle of the second millennium B.C. were uncovered in 1967. Other excavations conducted during 1968 included work by Mr. D. Calvocoressi at the funerary terracotta site of Ahinsan and by Mr. Duncan Mathewson at the seventeenth-century A.D. Gonja site of Jakpasere. In 1969 a training excavation will be conducted at Elmina on the sixteenth- to eighteenth-century A.D. town in the vicinity of the Portuguese castle.


2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.J. Smith ◽  
M. Gomez-Heras ◽  
S. McCabe

The problem of the decay and conservation of stone-built heritage is a complex one, requiring input across many disciplines to identify appropriate remedial steps and management strategies. Over the past few decades, earth scientists have brought a unique perspective to this challenging area, drawing on traditions and knowledge obtained from research into landscape development and the natural environment. This paper reviews the crucial themes that have arisen particularly, although not exclusively, from the work of physical geographers — themes that have sought to correct common misconceptions held by the public, as well as those directly engaged in construction and conservation, regarding the nature, causes and controls of building stone decay. It also looks to the future, suggesting how the behaviour of building stones (and hence the work of stone decay scientists) might alter in response to the looming challenge of climate change.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6565
Author(s):  
Shama E. Haque

Phosphorus is an essential component of modern agriculture. Long-term land application of phosphorous-enriched fertilizers and animal manure leads to phosphorus accumulation in soil that may become susceptible to mobilization via erosion, surface runoff and subsurface leaching. Globally, highly water-soluble phosphorus fertilizers used in agriculture have contributed to eutrophication and hypoxia in surface waters. This paper provides an overview of the literature relevant to the advances in phosphorous management strategies and surface water quality problems in the U.S. Over the past several decades, significant advances have been made to control phosphorus discharge into surface water bodies of the U.S. However, the current use of phosphorus remains inefficient at various stages of its life cycle, and phosphorus continues to remain a widespread problem in many water bodies, including the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Erie. In particular, the Midwestern Corn Belt region of the U.S. is a hotspot of phosphorous fertilization that has resulted in a net positive soil phosphorous balance. The runoff of phosphorous has resulted in dense blooms of toxic, odor-causing phytoplankton that deteriorate water quality. In the past, considerable attention was focused on improving the water quality of freshwater bodies and estuaries by reducing inputs of phosphorus alone. However, new research suggests that strategies controlling the two main nutrients, phosphorus and nitrogen, are more effective in the management of eutrophication. There is no specific solution to solving phosphorus pollution of water resources; however, sustainable management of phosphorus requires an integrated approach combining at least a reduction in consumption levels, source management, more specific regime-based nutrient criteria, routine soil fertility evaluation and recommendations, transport management, as well as the development of extensive phosphorus recovery and recycling programs.


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