In the course of a study initiated to elucidate the role of known abortifacient in ruminants in Southern Africa, Coxiella burnetti was identified in smears prepared from bovine and ovine placental tissues obtained from 12 farms. The organism was also isolated in embryonated eggs, and specific antibodies were demonstrated in sera of animals originating from these farms. In 7 of the 12 herds in which Q fever was diagnosed, other pathogens were identified concomitantly.
The effect of partial defoliation (33%) over the whole canopy from different developmental stages of the vine on development and distribution of roots of Vitis vinifera L. cv. Cabernet Sauvignon was investigated under field conditions. Partial defoliation significantly stimulated root density, commencing from berry set. Root density apparently increased the later during the growth season defoliation commenced. Yield and cane mass of partially defoliated vines tended to coincide with root densities. This relationship did not hold for non-defoliated vines. Root development in fine to medium diameter classes was increased by partial defoliation. However, the development of thick roots apparently decreased. Partial defoliation from pea size seemed to create the most effective root system. Early defoliation (from bud break and berry set) reduced root development compared to later defoliations (from pea size and veraison). Partially defoliated vines had higher total root numbers in all soil layers, although differences were not significant. Regardless of treatments, roots were mainly located in 0 to 800 mm soil layers, with deeper layers containing much less roots. Higher root densities and generally larger numbers of particularly fine roots in all soil layers for partially defoliated vines suggested a more efficient nutrient absorption capacity and utilization of soil for these vines. Partially defoliated vines responded to the loss in leaf area by forming new roots, which may improve vine performance.
This communication presents a new operational service providing archives and recent daily doses of UV. This
service has been set up on the SoDa website (www.soda-pro.com) to answer numerous requirements from users in
various applications in human health, agro-meteorology, phenology, or water quality.
The UV dose is computed from the shortwave downwelling radiation at surface, also known as broadband solar
radiation, using the already published method of Wald. This method has the advantage to be independent from the
geographical location. The operational service exploits the broadband irradiation data contained in the HelioClim-
3 version 5 database (HC3v5).HC3v5 is constructed from Meteosat images and makes use of the estimates of the
broadband irradiations in cloud-free conditions provided by the McClear service, within the Copernicus Atmo-
sphere Monitoring Service of the European Union. HC3v5 covers Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Arabian
peninsula, the Atlantic ocean and part of South America.
The new service provides daily doses of UV from 2004 up to current day-2. It benefits from the wide audience
received by the SoDa Service, whose reliability and robustness has been enhanced by mirroring approach and in-
vestment in computer resources. Four examples provided by users are given to illustrate the benefit of the service.
In example 1, the atmospheric effects on humans, and more precisely the link between UV radiation and Parkinson
disease were addressed. The aim of this study was to demonstrate that UV-B exposure, as a surrogate for vitamin
D levels, contributes to prevent from Parkinson disease.
Example 2 deals with the characterization of the climate for three sites in the Luberon, a mountainous area of
France, where a particular plant: “inula montana” is found. The influence of several meteorological variables on
this plant was studied, including UV doses.
Example 3 presents a study on the synthesis of protective compounds such as flavonoids in plants as a biological
response to abiotic stressors such as UV radiation and other meteorological variables in coastal areas in the Iberian
Peninsula. The study particularly addresses the color of iris flowers, as an answer to stress.
Example 4 reports on the development and toxicity of algae blooms in the Villerest water reservoir in France. The
study was originally based on broadband radiation. Preliminary results lead the authors to pay attention to UV-B
radiation, which was made possible with the new service.
An important aspect of the studies undertaken in bioelectromagnetism relates to the choice of exposure facility.The characteristics of a real electromagnetic environment are far more complex compared to the one plane wave irradiation set-up used in the majority of bioelectromagnetic studies.Moreover, biological requirements should represent the starting point in the design of an in vitro exposure system.Indeed it is important to avoid altering the electromagnetic properties of the exposure system in the presence of biological equipments.Related to these two essential points, this article contributes to show the advantages of a Mode Stirred Reverberation Chamber (MSRC) to guarantee a controlled electromagnetic environment around biological materials for in vitro experimentation.An example of irradiation of in vitro human skin cells cultures is considered to illustrate this paper.In order to show that the biological conditions and the physical requirements for in vitro experiments are checked, two aspects are described.Firstly we achieved the characterization of the electromagnetic field generated around the biological system (both equipments and cultures).Secondly the analysis of the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) inside the biological medium was evaluated both numerically and experimentally.Initially,
Exposing tomato plant to low amplitude high frequency electromagnetic field results in an immediate (15-60 minutes) and strong (3-7 fold) accumulation of stress-related transcripts. These accumulations are systemic, observed in exposed organ (local response) as well as in protected tissue (distant response). Tomato mutants deficient for abscisic acid display only the local response but lack the distant one. We propose that EMF exposition evokes the genesis of an informative signal, dependant upon ABA metabolism, that is rapidly widespread through the plant.