The relationships between a number of agronomic practices, Fusarium root rot (FRR) measurements and yield variables were characterized at different growth stages in 122 commercial bean fields in Zanjan, Iran. Mean FRR incidence, severity and index differed among growth stages and years. A lower FRR index at growth stage R9 and higher yields were detected in Red beans compared to Pinto and White beans. FRR severity affected the number of pods and seeds per plant. Despite the lack of an impact of initial drought on FRR and yield factors, FRR levels were higher following frequent irrigations at 2-3 days intervals than at longer intervals at R6-7. The highest FRR index at R6-7 (51.9%) and incidence at R9 (69.1%) were associated with the densest category of plant populations. Yield components differed significantly between the levels of plant density at R9. FRR levels at V3 were lower for June plantings than for May-second-week plantings. Lower FRR ratings and higher yields were detected at a seeding depth of 0-5 cm in comparison to 10-20 cm.At R9, FRR levels on beans following maize were lower than those following barley, bean, tomato or wheat. At V3, FRR severity was greater in fields that received 50-500 kg/ha of urea compared to nonfertilized fields. Greater mean FRR index at R6-7 and lower yield levels were associated with the greatest weed density compared to weed-free fields. This new information benefits the systematic understanding of interactions between bean yield, FRR and various agronomic variables at large-scale.

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Oak dieback is one of the most important diseases that presently affects the Kermanshah oak forests (West Iran). During the period from 2013 to 2015, oak trees exhibiting branch dieback were sampled, and fungal colonies resembling those of the Paecilomyces sp. were obtained from diseased tissues. Based on morphology, physiology, and phylogeny of the internal transcribed spacer rDNA, all isolates were identified as Paecilomyces formosus. Pathogenicity tests in vivo were made on 2-year-old seedlings, potted Q. brantii plants, and excised branch sections under controlled conditions. Inoculated seedlings produced characteristic symptoms, and subsequent pathogen recovery confirmed pathogenicity. We determined these to be thermophilic fungi, which may be related to warming and drought. This is the first report of Paecilomyces formosus as the causal agent of Q. brantii dieback in Iran and the world.

Recently, vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have received more attention in both academic and industry settings. One of the challenging issues in this domain is routing protocols. VANETs' unique characteristics such as high mobility with the constraint of road topology, fast network topology changes, frequently disconnected networks, and time-sensitive data exchange makes it difficult to design an efficient routing protocol for routing data in vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-toinfrastructure communications. Designing routing protocols for V2V commutations are more challenging due to the absence of infrastructure nodes in the communication procedure. They become even more challenging, when they get benefit from dynamic anchor computation method in which the anchor nodes (junctions or basic nodes for routing) are dynamic in their routing procedure. Positionbased routing protocols have been proven to be superior and outperform the other protocols since there is no requirement to establish and save a route between source and destination during the routing process which is suitable for dynamic nature of vehicular networks. In this paper, the performance of V2V dynamic anchor position-based routing protocols, which are proposed for the most challenging condition of packet routing in VANET, are investigated and evaluated under two different scenarios (i.e. various vehicle densities and velocities) through NS-2. The obtained results are then illustrated based on average delay, packet delivery ratio and routing overhead as routing performance indicators. Our objective is to provide a quantitative assessment of the applicability of these protocols in different vehicular scenarios. The comparison provided in this paper makes the research contribution of this survey paper quite higher than a regular survey paper only with explanations.Keywords Vehicular ad hoc networks Á Position-based routing Á Anchor-based Á Vehicle-to-vehicle

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During a screening of beneficial rhizobacteria strains with capability of suppressing Fusarium root rot and improving bean yield, 680 bacteria belonging to Bacillus, fluorescent and non-fluorescent Pseudomonas, and Rhizobium were isolated from commercial field soils and plant root nodules in Zanjan province, Iran. Of these, two hundred representative isolates were biochemically characterized and screened in vitro for inhibiting mycelia growth of Fusarium solani f. sp. phaseoli. Sixteen rhizobacteria isolates were able to strongly inhibit fungal growth. Five promising rhizobacteria were evaluated for suppressing the disease and promoting plant growth in greenhouse plants. Mixed inoculation of rhizobacteria caused greater increases in disease suppression, dry and fresh matter weight of plant (aerial part) and root, plant height, and pod number per plant compared to diseased control and absolute control. Treatments involving Bacillus subtilis produced higher number of pods compared to other single and dual treatments, except for Rhizobium-Pseudomonas treatment. Treating with rhizobacteria decreased disease severity ratings by 50 to 62% compared to untreated plants. Further examination of the rhizobacteria under field conditions is required to uncover their efficacy in biofertilization and viability as biocontrol agent in bean crops.

Pistachio dieback occurs in the main pistachio growing areas of Australia. Xanthomonas strains belonging to the translucens group have been identified as the causal agent of the disease and two distinct groups, A and B, have been recognised within the pathogen population. In this study, specific primers for amplification of DNA of the pathogen were developed by sequencing the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region of rDNA from strains representing groups A and B, as well as from X. translucens isolated from wheat in Australia and one Xanthomonas translucens strain from orchard floor grasses. Primers were designed for amplification of DNA sequences specific to each group and a multiplex PCR test was developed that identified and differentiated strains of each group in a single PCR assay. To determine the specificity of the primers, PCR was carried out with DNA from 65 strains of the pistachio pathogen, 31 type and reference strains of Xanthomonas, and from 191 phytobacteria commonly found in and around pistachio orchards. In the multiplex PCR, a 331 bp fragment was amplified from all strains belonging to group A and a 120 bp fragment from all strains in group B. No PCR products were obtained from the other bacteria tested except for the type strain of X. translucens pv. cerealis, which has not been found in Australia. The assay was used to detect strains from both groups of the pathogen in pistachio plant material.