Reply to Paterson, R.R.M. Comment on "Castillo et al. Is the Causal Agent of Basal Stem Rot in Oil Palm in Colombia. 2022, , 230".

Reader Q: There was no morphological information provided for the isolated specimens, and so it is not known if they are even Ganoderma [...

Is the Causal Agent of Basal Stem Rot in Oil Palm in Colombia.

Basal stem rot (BSR), caused by spp., is one of the most important emerging oil palm diseases in Colombia, and is restricted to two oil palm production areas in the country. To identify the causal agent of the disease, basidiocarp of oil palms affected by BSR were used to prepare isolates, and their pathogenicity was then assessed in pre-nursery plants.

A Dynamic Navigation Model for Unmanned Aircraft Systems and an Application to Autonomous Front-On Environmental Sensing and Photography Using Low-Cost Sensor Systems.

This paper presents an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) that uses a probabilistic model for autonomous front-on environmental sensing or photography of a target. The system is based on low-cost and readily-available sensor systems in dynamic environments and with the general intent of improving the capabilities of dynamic waypoint-based navigation systems for a low-cost UAS. The behavioural dynamics of target movement for the design of a Kalman filter and Markov model-based prediction algorithm are included.

Developing laboratory systems and infrastructure for HIV scale-up: A tool for health systems strengthening in resource-limited settings.

The rapid scale-up of HIV care and treatment in resource-limited settings has overwhelmed many public health laboratory services already burdened with human resource shortages, an aging and inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of quality systems. There is, however, a growing appreciation of the opportunity to use HIV-related laboratory strengthening as means to strengthen health systems in general. We briefly describe ongoing efforts to integrate HIV laboratory support into HIV care and treatment systems, thereby strengthening laboratory systems in support of both HIV scale-up and overall health systems strengthening.

Lack of technical specificity in the molecular diagnosis of toxoplasmosis.

The polymerase chain reaction amplification of a fragment of the B1 gene of Toxoplasma gondii coupled to hybridization was performed in 42 patients from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The results showed 50% of positivity in the IgM positive toxoplasmosis group, and 12.5% in the positive IgG and negative IgM individuals.