BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) in elderly patients affected by Alzheimer's disease based on the formal reality orientation therapy (ROT) protocol. METHODS Our study was carried out at an Alzheimer's centre for 6 months. A homogeneous sample (age, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS)) of 5...

The root rots of wheat, oats, barley, and rye are among the least conspicuous diseases of cereals, but they are among the most destructive. They are caused by many species of fungi, which are widespread and live on or in seed, soil, and dead plant refuse. They attack a large number of hosts and thrive under a wide range of conditions. To the many types of root rots in cereal crops many names ha...

To establish the effect of low (11 mM) and high (55 mM) glucose concentrations (G11, G55) on Jurkat cells exposed to rotenone (ROT, a class 5 mitocan). We demonstrated that ROT induces apoptosis in Jurkat cells cultured in G11 by oxidative stress (OS) mechanism involving the generation of anion superoxide radical (O2(∙-), 68%)/hydrogen peroxide (H2O2, 54%), activation of NF-κB (32%), p53 (25%),...

The availability of a complete peach genome assembly and three different peach genome sequences created by our group provide new opportunities for application of genomic data and can improve the power of the classical Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) approaches to identify candidate genes for peach disease resistance. Brown rot caused by Monilinia spp., is the most important fungal disease of ston...

Grape sour (bunch) rot is a polymicrobial disease of vineyards that causes millions of dollars in lost revenue per year due to decreased quality of grapes and resultant wine. The disease is associated with damaged berries infected with a community of acetic acid bacteria, yeasts, and filamentous fungi that results in rotting berries with high amounts of undesirable volatile acidity. Many insect...

Metallic silver nanoparticles have been reduced from silver nitrate by employing the extracellular enzymatic machinery of edible White button Mushroom (Agaricus bisporus). The physical properties of these particles, size and shapes have been determined using techniques like TEM, FTIR and XRD and were reported in our earlier report. But, what stands of paramount importance in the presen...

Brown rot, a quarantine disease caused by Ralstonia solanacearum race 3, biovar 2, comprises a major threat to the Dutch potato production chain. To avoid export losses, the Dutch government has implemented a costly control policy. However, it is unknown whether this policy is optimal from a cost-effective point of view. This thesis describes the development of a bio-economic model that can be ...

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, the causal agent of Sclerotinia stem rot, is a devastating fungal pathogen of soybean that can cause significant yield losses to growers when environmental conditions are favorable for the disease. The development of resistant varieties has proven difficult. However, poor resistance in commercial cultivars can be improved through additional breeding efforts and underst...

The effects of alkaline copper quaternary (ACQ) and zinc borate (ZB) on the resistance of corn stalk fiber (CSF)-reinforced high-density polyethylene (HDPE) composites to biodegradation were examined. Both biocides could inhibit termites, mold fungi, and wood-decay fungi, even at high CSF formulations (i.e., 60%). Additionally, ACQ enhanced the resistance of the composite materials to certain b...

Interest in understanding how brown-rot fungi degrade wood chas received increasing attention in recent years because of a need to identify novel targets that can be inhibited for the next generation of antifungal wood preservatives. Brown-rot fungi are unique in that they can degrade holocellulose (cellulose and hemicellulose) in wood without first removing the lignin, Furthermore, they degrad...