High-Throughput Feeding Bioassay for Lepidoptera Larvae

Finding plant cultivars that are resistant or tolerant against lepidopteran pests, takes time, effort and is costly. We present here a high throughput leaf-disk consumption assay system, to screen plants for resistance or chemicals for their deterrence. A webcam capturing images at regular intervals can follow the feeding activities of 150 larvae placed into individual cages. We developed a computer program running under an open source image analysis program to analyze and measure the surface of each leaf disk over time. We further developed new statistical procedures to analyze the time course of the feeding activities of the larvae and to compare them between treatments. As a test case, we compared how European corn borer larvae respond to a commercial antifeedant containing azadirachtin, and to quinine, which is a bitter alkaloid for many organisms. As expected, increasing doses of azadirachtin reduced and delayed feeding. However, quinine was poorly effective at the range of concentrations tested (10–5 M to 10–2 M). The model cage, the camera holder, the plugins, and the R scripts are freely available, and can be modified according to the users’ needs.

A New Frame for Orienting Infants With Cleft Lip and Palate During 3-Dimensional Facial Scanning

Background: Nonradiographic 3-D assessment of soft tissue facial structures is an ideal tool to measure 3-D facial change and smartphone apps like Bellus 3D have brought these technologies to our doorsteps. Although this app works well for adults, it doesn’t do so well with infants as their stabilization is difficult thus proper alignment becomes problematic often leading to distortion. This seriously hampers the repeatability and reliability of the whole process. Material and Method: A stainless steel rod of 150-cm length is curved into a semicircle of a radius of 42.5 cm. Bases are fabricated at both the ends to firmly hold the stand on the table. A Teflon ring of one inch is made for adjusting the diameter of the camera holder. A camera holder is then attached to the Teflon ring. The mobile holder mounted is free to move within the arc. A 3-D facial scan of a single patient was carried out with the camera mounted on the frame and once without the frame. The same was compared using side-by-side comparison and superimposition of the .STL files from the frontal, profile, and worm’s eye view. Result and Conclusion: It was found that considerable distortion was noted around the nasal and paranasal areas when the scan was performed without the frame as compared to the one that was taken with the frame. This technique avoided distortion and the difficulty in turning the baby’s head to record the lateral portion of the face.

Solo Surgery in Single Incision Laparoscopic Myomectomy

Background The intracorporeal suture during single incision laparoscopic surgery is challengeable. Since laparoscopic myomectomy requires not only one assistant to hold a camera but also other to hold the uterine manipulator, it is difficult to perform solo surgery in single port laparoscopic myomectomy through intracorporeal suture.ResultsThe three patients underwent single incision laparoscopic myomectomy. The size of the largest myoma was 4.8-5.6cm. The operation was performed by the surgeon alone without assistants. The passive camera holder was positioned near the patient's body. Without using uterine manipulator, the uterus was hung from the abdominal wall using a thread. The uterine myoma was enucleated, which was removed from the outside with the umbilicus incision site. The uterine wound was double sutured to avoid any uterine defects. The outer suture of wound was sutured by a method such as simple continuous suture, Lembert suture, or baseball suture. The operation time was 95-105 minutes.There were no specific complications associated with the surgery. The patients were discharged on the second day after surgery.ConclusionsSolo surgery in single incision laparoscopic myomectomy using camera holder was successfully performed without using a uterine manipulator.