Publications by authors named "D L Van Tassel"

Article Synopsis
  • Soil microorganisms play a vital role in plant health, affecting resistance to pathogens, stress tolerance, and overall yield, but how factors like geography, climate, and plant genetics influence these microbial communities is still not fully understood.
  • A study involving 10 different sunflower genotypes across 15 sites in the Great Plains revealed that while location generally had a larger impact on the composition and richness of soil microbial communities, there were significant interactions with plant genotype at specific sites.
  • The findings suggest that variations in soil and climate across geographic regions influence microbial communities, which has important implications for improving plant breeding and agricultural practices targeting enhanced soil microbiomes.
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Intracellular plant defense against pathogens is mediated by a class of disease resistance genes known as NB-LRRs or NLRs (R genes). Many of the diseases these genes protect against are more prevalent in regions of higher rainfall, which provide better growth conditions for the pathogens. As such, we expect a higher selective pressure for the maintenance and proliferation of R genes in plants adapted to wetter conditions.

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Pigmented villonodular synovitis is an uncommon benign neoplastic proliferation associated with the synovium, bursa, or tendon sheaths; most commonly occurring in the third to fourth decade of life. It is rare in children and may be painful or painless. Magnetic resonance imaging is the diagnostic study of choice.

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Eucosma giganteana (Riley) is a native specialist pest of silflower, Silphium integrifolium Michx., which is currently being domesticated as a perennial oilseeds crop. The larvae of this moth attack silflower capitula and root crowns, causing both seed damage and long-term degradation of plants.

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While thyroid nodules are less common in children than in adults, they are more frequently malignant. However, pediatric data are scarce regarding the performance characteristics of imaging and cytopathology classification systems validated to predict the risk of malignancy (ROM) in adults and select those patients who require fine-needle aspiration (FNA) and possibly surgical resection. We retrospectively reviewed the electronic medical records of all patients 18 years of age or younger who underwent thyroid FNA at our institution from 1 July 2015 to 31 May 2022.

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