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Ceratitis capitata (Diptera:Tephritidae) is native to Africa, but has spread to other parts of the world including southern Europe, Australia, Middle east and the New World tropics. The Mediterranean fruit fly is considered to be one of the worlds most destructive fruit pests because of its global distribution, wide host range and rapid dispersal. Of the main pathways of entry of C. capitata in Bulgaria, the pathway of infested fruits is considered as the most important and entry along this pathway is assessed as likely. Spread is expected to be by both natural means and by trade in fruit. C. capitata is a strong flyer and this would facilitate its transfer to suitable hosts. The Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA) provided data from monitoring surveys in 15 regions of the country for the period 2014 - 2016. Despite the low density of C. capitata adults captured in Bulgaria, the results from the surveys are similar to the data on the seasonal occurence of population fluctuations obtained in neighboring countries (Northern Greece, Montenegro, Croatia, Romania) and Spain. BG; bg; EFSAfocalpoint@mzh.government.bg

This work deals with the study of human postural responses to external perturbations, performed using a novel mechatronic electro-pneumatic system. The device, which must be handled by a clinical operator, has been designed, developed and tested on human subjects. An Hardware-in-the-Loop equipment is designed and developed reproducing the behavior of the operator, the automatic perturbator and the subject. Results underline a good capability of the device to reproduce the reference of the impact force. https://youtu.be/ATUFuetf-cI

A new 3-D microwave imaging technique, based on compressive sensing, is proposed for use with sparse antenna arrays. It was designed to enable cost-effective 3-D imaging and tracking of people in an indoor environment. This algorithm is able to image both sparse and cluttered environments, through the use of wavelet transforms and compressive sensing techniques. The main advantage of the proposed technique is that it enables the use of much sparser antenna arrays than is possible with the traditional range-migration algorithm, reducing the cost of microwave imaging systems. Experiments show that the compressive sensing algorithm produced high quality 3-D images using antenna arrays that are 90 to 96% sparse. This reduces the cost of the antenna array by a factor of 10 to 25, when compared to traditional dense arrays, without a loss in image resolution.

This poster about SolACE was presented at the Agri Innovation Summit in Lisbon on October 11 and 12, 2017. More information about the summit is available on http://www.aislisbon2017.com.

Cucurbit aphid-borne yellows virus (CABYV) in Poland was identified in 2018 during monitoring of zucchini crops in Wielkopolskie and Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeships. Symptoms were observed on the harvested plants in the form of distorted leaves with severe chlorosis and necrosis, while the fruits were stunted and discolored. Biological, serological (DAS- and TAS-ELISA) and molecular (RT-PCR) tests were performed for the collected zucchini plant and fruit samples to identify virus species that could be the cause of the observed disease symptoms. In addition, next-generation total RNA sequencing was performed for 4 samples by an external company. Using the above methods, known viruses infecting zucchini were identified, i.e. Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), Watermelon mosaic virus (WMV), Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV) and CABYV, which is new to Poland. What's more, mixed infections were present in the overwhelming number of samples. In 2019, during monitoring of zucchini crops in the same locations also found CABYV in infected plants and zucchini fruits. PL; pl; PDF; kwarantanna@iorpib.poznan.pl

Since the adoption of the Bluetooth specification 4 in 2010, the Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE) subset has become practically universal in all electronic devices from smartphones to medical devices. The major advantage over previous Bluetooth specifications and other communication protocols is that communicating over BTLE requires practically no energy and certain devices can be powered by cell batteries for multiple years. This has made BTLE particulary popular in the world of the Internet of Things, and one of the principal reasons for its introduction was to enable convenient communication with a wider than traditional range of electronic devices such as head phones, heart rate monitors, and smart home devices such as the oft-cited refrigerator. This paper was written in 2017 as part of a research project at scip AG, Switzerland. It was initially published online at https://www.scip.ch/en/?labs.20170316 and is available in English and German. Providing our clients with innovative research for the information technology of the future is an essential part of our company culture.

ABSTRACT Amphibians inhabiting agricultural areas are constantly exposed to large amounts of chemicals, which reach the aquatic environment during the rainy season through runoff, drainage, and leaching. We performed a comet assay on the erythrocytes of tadpoles found in the surroundings of agricultural fields (soybean and corn crops), where there is an intense release of several kinds of pesticides in different quantities. We aimed to detect differences in the genotoxic parameters between populations collected from soybeans and cornfields, and between them and tadpoles sampled from non-agricultural areas (control group). Tadpoles collected from ponds located at soybean fields had significantly more DNA damage, followed by tadpoles collected from cornfields. In contrast, animals sampled from non-agricultural areas had the lowest incidence of DNA damage. In addition, we found a negative correlation between the parameters of the comet assay and the area of the ponds surrounding soybean. This correlation indicates a possible dilution effect in the concentration of pesticides. Finally, Physalaemus cuvieri Fitzinger, 1826 seems to be a good bioindicator for detecting the genotoxic effects of field agricultural insecticides; therefore, we suggest that this species should be used in environmental biomonitoring studies, since it is common and abundant where it occurs.

An increase in the incidence of Neonectria neomacrospora has been observed in northern and western European countries since 2008. The pathogen causes dieback of trees, mainly of the Abies (fir) genus. The biology and epidemiology of the fungus are largely unknown. It is believed that the disease spreads by means of ascospores moving with the wind, and conidial spores splashed by raindrops. Transmission of the pathogen via infected seeds is suspected. In Poland, N. neomacrospora poses a real threat to forest crops (fir forests), farms producing nursery stock, Christmas tree plantations and trees planted in parks and gardens. PL; pl; PDF; kwarantanna@iorpib.poznan.pl