Bunch bagging with triple protection reduce chilling injury of banana fruit ‘Nanica’ (Cavendish AAA sub-group) / Ensacamento do cacho com proteção tripla reduz a injúria pelo frio em frutos de banana ‘Nanica’ (Cavendish subgrupo AAA)

The bagging of banana bunch can control chilling injury (CI) in the field, which causes browning of fruit peel. The investigation aimed to evaluate the reduce chilling injury in 'Nanica' banana bunches with the use de triple protection. The experiment was conducted in Jacupiranga, SP, Brazil, in a design was completely randomized with two treatments, bunch without protection (no protection) and triple protection, with thirteen replications. Triple protection consisted of brown paper with polythene coating (layer closest to the fruit), blue transparent polyethylene (median layer) and black opaque polyethylene (outermost layer).The bagging was made before of opening of the bracts of inflorescence. In the coldest day, when the temperature inside the canopy reached 4.23oC, the triple protection raised the temperature the surface of the peel by 3.06oC in relation to no protection fruits. On the hottest day, triple protection did not increase the temperature of the skin of the fruit excessively. There were no losses from sunburn fruits. Bunches with triple protection and no protection did not differ in terms of mass that had an average value of 30.87 Kg planta-1. No protection bunches were harvested an average of ten days. There were differences between unprotected fruits and triple protection in terms of chilling injury index (CI index), brightness (L*) and hue angle (ho) of peel. Triple protection reduced CI index and promoted fruits with bright green peel at harvest and bright yellow at ripening. The materials used in triple protection can be recycled or reused.

Meningeal management for optimal revascularization from middle meningeal artery

Numerous surgical techniques have been developed and refined for the treatment of moyamoya disease. Among the indirect techniques of revascularization, encephaloduroarteriosynangiosis has been recognized as effective in promoting revascularization and reversing symptomatology. Neovascularization occurs between the donor artery, either the superficial temporal artery or the occipital artery, and the underlying ischemic cortex. Additionally, the middle meningeal artery and its dural branches have also been shown to contribute to collateral blood supply. In this report the authors describe an integrated management of the meninges for optimal revascularization. They emphasize the importance of recognizing the 3 major layers of the dura and describe a technique of dural splitting at the locus minoris resistentiae between the dura mater's vascular (middle) layer and internal median layer. Applying the dura's vascular layer to the surface of the brain after opening of the arachnoid is designed to optimize dural-pial synangiosis related to middle meningeal artery branches.

Studies in the genus Riccia (Marchantiales) from southern Africa. 25. A new species in subgenus Ricciella, section Ricciella

Riccia sibayenii Perold is a new species, recently collected in Mpumalanga, near Sibayeni and has been named for this town, which is close to the Mozambique border and is in the summer rainfall area. R. sibayenii is distinguished by lime- green, medium-sized to quite large thalli with a chlorophyllose dorsal epidermis, air pores that soon enlarge and lead into mostly 6-sided air chambers below; ventrally with a thin median layer of storage tissue; ventral scales absent and the rhizoids all smooth. The spores are winged and polar, the distal face completely or incompletely reticulate and the proxi­mal face ornamented with fine to coarse, sometimes spinose granules.

The ultrastructure of the cuticle and sheath of infective juveniles of entomopathogenic steinernematid nematodes

The ultrastructure of the cuticle of infective juveniles (IJs) of Steinernema carpocapsae (newly emerged and 80-day-old) and newly emerged IJs of S. riobravis, S. feltiae and S. glaseri was examined using transmission electron microscopy. The thickness of four distinctive layers of the cuticle was measured: epicuticle, cortical and median layer, striated layer and fibrous mat. The thickness of the cuticle was correlated with the size of the IJ. In the case of newly emerged IJs, the smallest species, S. carpocapsae, had a cuticle thickness of c. 270 nm compared with c. 460 nm for S. glaseri, the largest of the four species. The overall thickness of the cuticle or the thickness of the cuticle layers was not correlated with the ability of the IJs of the four species to survive desiccation per se. The major difference between newly emerged IJs of the four species was that S. carpocapsae had a proportionately thicker striated layer compared with the other three species. The significance of this is not known but it may be an adaptation involving the nictation behaviour of this species. A substantial change was observed in the cuticle of aged (80-day-old) IJs of S. carpocapsae, whereby the thickness of the cortical and median layer increased by more than 100% and the overall thickness of the cuticle increased by about 50%. Two possible explanations for this increase are: (i) new material was synthesized; or (ii) the fluid content of this layer increased due to an increase in the permeability of the outer layers of the cuticle. The ultrastructure of the sheaths of S. feltiae and S. glaseri was also examined and, apart from S. glaseri having a thicker sheath, the structure of the sheath in both species was similar, with the epicuticle and striated layer still visible.

Internal structure of Cambrian Conodonts

Based on material of the Upper Cambrian of Sweden the internal structure of proto-, para- and euconodonts has been investigated. The protoconodontidsGapparodusandGumellashow some special development of the median unit of the skeletal tissue. InGapparodus, long, parallel-running lamellae suggest a continuous growth, even of previously secreted lamellae, until their eventual outcropping. InGumellathe fibrous median layer decreases considerably during growth until its complete reduction, which coincides with the disappearance of the posterior wall. Paraconodonts also produced several specialities in their mode of growth. Elements with lateral processes such asProacodusandSerratocambriadeveloped by allometric growth. The lamellae are much more widely spaced in the process than in the main cusp to attain the required length of the former. InSerratocambriaadditional lamellae are inserted in the process. Thin sections of tricuspidate westergaardodinids reveal paraconodontid growth with lamellar remains in the tip of the median denticle, which are isolated from the growth lines in the lateral denticles. Based on this observation a hypothetical growth model explains the lamellar development as a result of stress and strain. The Ordovician euconodontidChosonodinaclearly shows white matter and is thus unrelated, but homeomorphic toWestergaardodina. Cambropustulafrom the lower Upper Cambrian is the oldest euconodont yet but it lacks white matter. The latter was an evolutionary novelty, which progressively developed in the euconodont line.The systematic position of conodonts is briefly discussed; the studied material cannot contribute to the hypothesis of neural crest derived skeletal tissue.