Exploration of Alternative Approaches to Phenotyping of Late Leaf Spot and Groundnut Rosette Virus Disease for Groundnut Breeding.

Late leaf spot (LLS), caused by (Berk. & M.A Curt.

Including refugees in disease elimination: challenges observed from a sleeping sickness programme in Uganda.

Background: Ensuring equity between forcibly-displaced and host area populations is a key challenge for global elimination programmes. We studied Uganda's response to the recent refugee influx from South Sudan to identify key governance and operational lessons for national sleeping sickness programmes working with displaced populations today. A refugee policy which favours integration of primary healthcare services for refugee and host populations and the availability of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) to detect sleeping sickness at this health system level makes Uganda well-placed to include refugees in sleeping sickness surveillance.

Knowledge and practices related to plague in an endemic area of Uganda.

Background: Plague is a virulent zoonosis reported most commonly from Sub-Saharan Africa. Early treatment with antibiotics is important to prevent mortality. Understanding knowledge gaps and common behaviors informs the development of educational efforts to reduce plague mortality.

Patterns of Human Plague in Uganda, 2008-2016.

Plague is a highly virulent fleaborne zoonosis that occurs throughout many parts of the world; most suspected human cases are reported from resource-poor settings in sub-Saharan Africa. During 2008-2016, a combination of active surveillance and laboratory testing in the plague-endemic West Nile region of Uganda yielded 255 suspected human plague cases; approximately one third were laboratory confirmed by bacterial culture or serology. Although the mortality rate was 7% among suspected cases, it was 26% among persons with laboratory-confirmed plague.

Successful Treatment of Human Plague with Oral Ciprofloxacin.

The US Food and Drug Administration recently approved ciprofloxacin for treatment of plague (Yersina pestis infection) based on animal studies. Published evidence of efficacy in humans is sparse. We report 5 cases of culture-confirmed human plague treated successfully with oral ciprofloxacin, including 1 case of pneumonic plague.

What drives fruit growth?

Cell division, endoreduplication (an increase in nuclear DNA content without cell division) and cell expansion are important processes for growth. It is debatable whether organ growth is driven by all three cellular processes. Alternatively, all could be part of a dominant extracellular growth regulatory mechanism.

Fruit illumination stimulates cell division but has no detectable effect on fruit size in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum).

Light affects plant growth through assimilate availability and signals regulating development. The effects of light on growth of tomato fruit were studied using cuvettes with light-emitting diodes providing white, red or blue light to individual tomato trusses for different periods during daytime. Hypotheses tested were as follows: (1) light-grown fruits have stronger assimilate sinks than dark-grown fruits, and (2) responses depend on light treatment provided, and fruit development stage.

A multilevel analysis of fruit growth of two tomato cultivars in response to fruit temperature.

Fruit phenotype is a resultant of inherent genetic potential in interaction with impact of environment experienced during crop and fruit growth. The aim of this study was to analyze the genetic and physiological basis for the difference in fruit size between a small ('Brioso') and intermediate ('Cappricia') sized tomato cultivar exposed to different fruit temperatures. It was hypothesized that fruit heating enhances expression of cell cycle and expansion genes, rates of carbon import, cell division and expansion, and shortens growth duration, whereas increase in cell number intensifies competition for assimilates among cells.