Evaluation of RNA Interference for Control of the Grape Mealybug (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae).

The grape mealybug (Ehrhorn, 1900) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) is a significant pest of grapevines ( spp.) and a vector of disease-causing grape viruses, linked to its feeding on phloem sap. The management of this pest is constrained by the lack of naturally occurring resistance traits in .

Development of a real-time physician-patient communication data collection tool.

Objectives: To design a tool to assess and improve physician communication, provide physicians with personalised feedback in real time, and relate specific communication behaviours to patient experience measures. It was hypothesised that performance of fundamental communication behaviours would correlate with individual patient experience scores as measured by the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) surveys.

Design: Prospective observational study.

A QTL associated with leaf trichome traits has a major influence on the abundance of the predatory mite in a hybrid grapevine population.

The abundance of predatory phytoseiid mites, , important biological control agents of spider mite pests in numerous crops, is positively influenced by the density of leaf trichomes and tuft-form domatia in vein axils. Identification of the genetic regions controlling both trophic levels could facilitate the improvement of predatory mite habitat in breeding programs. The abundance of and non-glandular trichomes was measured in a segregating F family derived from the cross of the complex hybrid, 'Horizon', with Illinois 547-1 ( B38 ×  B9), finding positive correlation among traits.

Behavioral evidence for contextual olfactory-mediated avoidance of the ubiquitous phytopathogen Botrytis cinerea by Drosophila suzukii.

Herbivorous insects may benefit from avoiding the smell produced by phytopathogens infecting plant host tissue if the infected tissue reduces insect fitness. However, in many cases the same species of phytopathogen can also infect host plant tissues that do not directly affect herbivore fitness. Thus, insects may benefit from differentiating between pathogen odors emanating from food and nonfood tissues.