Florian Hutter, incrível.

 

 

Tenho assistido no YouTube as apresentações de um organista, ou tecladista, como quiserem, e como os títulos dos vídeos eram Wersi Gala, sempre pensei que fosse o nome do organista. Depois descobri que na verdade Wersi Gala era o nome de um canal do YouTube, e o nome do gênio musicista é Florian Hutter, e Wersi é a marca do teclado fabricado na Alemanha.

Quando ao Florian Hutter é realmente dono de uma virtuosidade ímpar ao teclado. O incrível é como ele domina os inúmeros controles, inclusive vários com o pé esquerdo. E também me impressiona como executa músicas do passado, como as dos Beatles, ABBA, e tantos mais. Parece até que viveu aquela época, mas nasceu em 1990. Vou procurar salvar todos os vídeos que puder porque não acredito que haja um outro que tenha a sua grande habilidade, o seu grande senso musical, e toca com uma facilidade incrível. Nos vídeos que tenho assistido parece ter uns 17 anos, hoje está com 24, e gostaria de ouvi-lo agora, mas parece que tomou outros rumos. 

Work with Brazilian citrus greening genome could aid Florida industry

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An Asian citrus psyllid feeds on a citrus tree, leaving a bacteria that will starve the tree of nutrients and eventually kill it.

A University of Florida researcher has mapped the DNA genome of a new strain of citrus greening that could further threaten Florida's beleaguered $9 billion citrus industry. Knowing the genetic makeup of the various strains is critical to finding a cure.

Dean Gabriel, a plant bacteriology specialist with UF/IFAS, helped sequence and map the genome of the most prevalent form of the disease in Florida, and now he and colleagues have done the same for a new strain of the disease discovered in Brazil.

There is no cure for either strain, although researchers believe that knowing the genetic makeup of the disease is critical to finding one. Gabriel said by having that "roadmap" of the bacteria genome, they will be certain there are no surprises in the Brazilian species, which has now been found in Texas. In addition, the mapping should help guide them to improvements in control methods and toward more usable genes and treatments.

"What the genome does, it lets you know everything that the organism has and doesn't have in its artillery for offense and defense -- and it lets you design a strategy to control it," Gabriel said.

Researchers often liken having the genetic sequence for an organism to having its list of parts.

"Having all the genetic information is like having a detailed roadmap of the organism," said Jackie Burns, director of the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred.

Citrus greening was first discovered by farmers in China in 1911 and made its first appearance in Florida in 2005. It is spread by a tiny insect called the Asian citrus psyllid that feeds on the trees, leaving bacteria that starve the tree of nutrients. Infected trees produce fruits that are unsuitable for sale as fresh fruit or for juice and most die within a few years. The disease has already affected millions of citrus trees in North America.

Gabriel's team's work will be outlined in a research paper that will be published in February in the journal Molecular Plant-Microbe Interaction. The genome map is already available online, at GenBank.

To map the bacteria's DNA genome, Gabriel's Brazilian colleagues first diced up and crushed tissue from the veins of infected citrus trees where the organism was most highly concentrated. They used chemicals to extract DNA and purified it. The team had to separate the tree DNA from that of the bacterium.

DNA comprises four nucleotides, which fall into an order to encode genes specific to an organism. Gabriel likened it to examining beads on a necklace: The beads come in only four colors, and the color sequence determines each gene -- in this case, the DNA greening "necklace" held 1,195,201 beads, or 1,044 genes.

To obtain the nucleotide sequence from the purified bacterial DNA, they used state-of-the-art sequencing machines at the UF Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research.

The research was funded by the Citrus Research and Development Foundation Inc., an affiliate of UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

In the battle against greening, UF/IFAS researchers have tried everything from working on ways to eradicate the psyllid to grafting trees that show better resistance to greening.

Frederick Gmitter, a citrus breeder and faculty member at IFAS' Citrus REC, said his research team has found new experimental rootstocks that seem to be supporting healthier trees -- even ones with citrus greening. In addition, his team is studying "escape trees," which are trees that remain unscathed, even when surrounded by thousands of infected tress.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Nelson Arno Wulff, Shujian Zhang, João C Setubal, Nalvo F Almeida, Elaine C Martins, Ricardo Harakava, Dibyendu Kumar, Luiz T Rangel, Xavier Foissac, Joseph Bove, Dean W GABRIEL. The complete genome sequence of Candidatus Liberibacter americanus, associated with citrus Huanglongbing.. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, 2013; 131107142521009 DOI: 10.1094/MPMI-09-13-0292-R

On The High Seas, China Moves "Unilaterally"

 

 

Seeded on Sun May 11, 2014 1:37 AM

China has not been shy in recent years about making broad claims to control much of the South China Sea. But by installing an expensive drilling rig in disputed waters, it now appears more willing to act first and invite diplomacy later. It is in effect creating “facts” in the water that its regional rivals, and ultimately the United States, must either accept or fight.

China signaled it would take unilateral steps last year, when it declared an air defense zone over parts of the East China Sea that includes islands at the center of a long-smoldering dispute with Japan. In the battle of wills with Vietnam, China has unleashed a new and potentially powerful tool in its battle for territory: its oil industry and the rigs a state oil-company official once called “our mobile national territory.”

Study validates air sampling techniques to fight bioterrorism

 

May 9, 2014

Saint Louis University

Air and surface sampling techniques currently used by the US government are effective in fighting bioterrorism and potentially saving lives, a former Department of Homeland Security medical officer finds. Air sampling has been readily accepted for similar uses such as measuring for particulate matter, however using it to detect bacteria in biological terrorism was a new concept instituted after the 9/11 attacks.

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Alexander Garza, M.D., MPH, is the associate dean for public health practice and associate professor of epidemiology at Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice.

Air and surface sampling techniques currently used by the US government are effective in fighting bioterrorism and potentially saving lives, a Saint Louis University researcher finds.

Results published in Biosecurity and Bioterrorism by Alexander Garza, M.D., MPH, former chief medical officer at the Department of Homeland Security and a team of researchers from Los Alamos National Lab reviewed the data from a series of experiments simulating a bioterrorism attack against the Pentagon. Garza is now the associate dean for public health practice and associate professor of epidemiology at Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice.

In 2005 and 2009, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA) in order to simulate a deliberate attack, staged the release of a harmless bacteria that is biological similar to Bacillus anthracis, the bacteria that causes the disease anthrax. They then evaluated the local response procedures to such an attack. In conjunction with this exercise, the Department of Homeland Security ran its own experiments to test the efficacy of an air and surface sampling system known as BioWatch in detecting these biological agents in the environment.

In the experiments, multiple kilograms of benign material were released, which included a small portion of the anthrax simulant. The team collected samples of the air through several portable sampling units and had them analyzed at specialized laboratories.

"We were able to detect the biological organisms released several kilometers from where the agent was originally released," Garza said. "We were not entirely surprised by the results. Since all of the modeling that had been done to date showed that air samplers should be able to detect these types of attack, what was missing was empirical evidence showing that these systems would work in real world conditions. We now have that evidence."

"The traditional way to detect that someone has been exposed to a biological agent is to wait until a person becomes symptomatic and then hope that the clinician is able to correctly diagnose the patient," Garza said, "which is exactly what happened during the anthrax attacks in 2001."

Garza points out the problem with this approach is that once people become sick they are likely to die, which can potentially lead to significant casualties in a large-scale attack.

"This experiment confirmed that a biological attack could be detected earlier using air sampling which means public health would have more time to respond."

Air sampling has been readily accepted for similar uses such as measuring for particulate matter, however using it to detect bacteria in biological terrorism was a new concept instituted after the 9/11 attacks. This type of sampling is now part of a sophisticated system used by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense.

However, in order for the system to work more efficiently in the real world, Garza believes the detection cycle, which currently takes between 12-36 hours, would need to produce results in a shorter time frame.

"The current process is labor-intensive and time-consuming. It takes a lot of manual labor and time to do the laboratory work," he said.

Since it usually takes at least a couple of days for a person to show symptoms from a biological attack, Garza emphasizes the importance of an improved detecting system that would give officials more time to investigate and ramp up a medical response plan to save lives.

"If we can detect a dangerous pathogen in the environment at an earlier stage, we can quickly start planning the response procedure for it like distributing antibiotics," Garza said. "The sooner we pick up clues, the sooner we can act and save more lives."

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Saint Louis University. The original article was written by Riya V. Anandwala. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Alexander G. Garza, Sheila M. Van Cuyk, Michael J. Brown, Kristin M. Omberg. Detection of the Urban Release of aBacillus anthracisSimulant by Air Sampling. Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science, 2014; 12 (2): 66 DOI: 10.1089/bsp.2013.0086

Citrus greening affects roots before leaves

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Orange blossoms at the UF Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred.

Although citrus greening enters trees through their leaves, University of Florida researchers have discovered that the deadly disease attacks roots long before the leaves show signs of damage -- a finding that may help growers better care for trees while scientists work to find a cure.

"The role of root infection by insect-carried bacterial pathogens has been greatly underestimated," said Evan Johnson, a research assistant scientist with UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

Hundreds of researchers throughout the world are rushing to find a viable treatment for citrus greening, which is devastating Florida's $9 billion citrus industry and has affected citrus production throughout North America.

Johnson was the lead author of a scientific paper outlining the research published in the April issue of the journal Plant Pathology. He and his fellow team members -- Jian Wu, a graduate student in soil and water science, researcher Diane Bright and Jim Graham, a professor of soil microbiology -- are based at the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred.

Citrus greening first enters the tree via a tiny insect, the Asian citrus psyllid, which sucks on leaf sap and leaves behind bacteria that spread through the tree. Johnson said the bacteria travel quickly to the roots, where they replicate, damage the root system and spread to the rest of the host tree's canopy. The disease starves the tree of nutrients, leaving fruits that are green and misshapen, unsuitable for sale as fresh fruit or juice. Most infected trees die within a few years.

It was originally thought that the leaves and fruit were affected first, but the team's research found that greening causes a loss of 30 to 50 percent of trees' fibrous roots before symptoms are visible above ground.

"This early root loss means that the health of a citrus tree is severely compromised before the grower even knows it is infected," Johnson said.

Experts say this research is significant in the fight against greening.

"Based on the work of Dr. Johnson and his colleagues, we now know how important roots are in the development of greening disease," said Jackie Burns, director of the CREC. "We hope further investigations on the role of roots in this disease will lead to future management solutions that help growers remain productive until a permanent solution can be found."

To battle greening, UF/IFAS researchers have attempted everything from trying to eradicate the psyllid to breeding trees that show better greening resistance. While Johnson's research is not a cure, it may help more trees survive as scientists continue their search.

"We are still trying to determine how the bacteria are killing the roots," Johnson said. "This finding suggests that growers should focus more effort on maintaining the health of the root system in relation to other soilborne pests and overall soil quality to maintain as much of the root system as possible."

Johnson suggested that growers increase the acidity levels of irrigation water and soil to match the optimum pH for the rootstock (preliminary results show that this improves root density compared to untreated groves) and water more frequently for shorter periods. Those treatments are being studied by UF researchers in Lake Alfred and at the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center in Immokalee.

He added that while psyllid control is essential, growers should make careful decisions on how many resources to devote to any management strategy for greening-infected trees, based on their economic means, until field trials have been completed.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. The original article was written by Kimberly Moore Wilmoth. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. E. G. Johnson, J. Wu, D. B. Bright, J. H. Graham. Association of ‘CandidatusLiberibacter asiaticus’ root infection, but not phloem plugging with root loss on huanglongbing-affected trees prior to appearance of foliar symptoms. Plant Pathology, 2014; 63 (2): 290 DOI: 10.1111/ppa.12109