The ability to assess green biomass is of particular interest in a number of wheat breeding environments. However, the measurement of this and similar traits is either tedious and time-consuming or requires the use of expensive, sophisticated equipment, such as field-based spectroradiometers to measure vegetation indices (VIs). Here, conventional digital cameras are proposed as affordable and easy-touse tools for gathering field data in wheat breeding programmes. Using appropriate software, a large set of images can be automatically processed to calculate a number of VIs, based on the performance of simple colour operations on each picture. The purpose of this study was to identify a set of picture-derived vegetation indices (picVIs) and to evaluate their performance in durum wheat trials growing under rainfed and supplementary irrigation conditions. Here, zenithal pictures of each plot were obtained roughly 2 weeks after anthesis, and the picVIs that were calculated were compared with the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), an index derived from spectroradiometrical measurements, and with the grain yield (GY) from the same plots. The picVIs that performed best were the Hue, CIE-Lab a* and CIE-Luv u* components of the average colour of each picture, the relative green area (GA) and the 'greener area', similar to GA but excluding the more yellowish-green pixels. Our results showed a high correlation between all these picVIs and the NDVI. Moreover, in rainfed conditions, each picVI provided an estimation of GY similar to or slightly better than that provided by the NDVI. However, in irrigated conditions during anthesis, neither these picVIs nor the NDVI provided a good estimation of GY, apparently because of the saturation of the VI response in conditions of complete soil cover and high plant density.

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NLR is potentially an unrecognized predictor of subclinical atherosclerosis in patients with psoriasis. Future studies assessing the prognostic significance of NLR on cardiovascular event rates in psoriasis patients would be of great interest.

Disease incidence and severity was studied for winter wheat variety Bezostaya 1 and susceptible checks based on data from international nurseries from 1969 to 2010 and from 51 countries across major winter wheat production regions totalling 1,047 reports. The frequency of leaf rust and stripe rust occurrence was stable over time with marked increases in severity in 2001-2010 especially in Europe and Central and West Asia. Substantial global reductions in stem rust occurrence were recorded and attributed primarily to use of resistance genes although the recent emergence of race Ug99 makes wheat more vulnerable. The occurrence of powdery mildew remained globally stable over time. It was the most important foliar disease in Western and Southern Europe, where the frequency was very high for all time periods coupled with slight increases in severity during 2001-2010. The durable resistance of variety Bezostaya 1 to all four diseases was demonstrated in the study using comparisons of disease severities of Bezostaya 1 and the most susceptible entries. The Lr34/Yr18/Pm38 pleiotrophic set possessed by Bezostaya 1 is currently an important target for selection because it is now amenable to molecular selection. Increased use of genes like Lr34 combined with strategies to minimize Eur J Plant Pathol (2012) 132:323-340

The correlation of coronary artery disease (CAD) with pro-oxidant/antioxidant balance and oxidative DNA damage was investigated.Seventy-seven patients with CAD and 44 healthy individuals as control were included in this study. The comparative ratios of ubiquinol-10/ubiquinone-10, 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine/deoxyguanosine and the level of MDA measured by HPLC and the activities of GPX and SOD by colorimetric approach in blood samples obtained from patients with CAD were unraveled.8-OHdG/dG ratios, serum MDA level and GPX activity were found significantly elevated level in serum of CAD patients compared to control group. The SOD activity was observed in stable levels in CAD patients. Ubiquinol-10/ubiquinone-10 ratio was significantly lower in patients with CAD than the controls.The positive correlation was observed between 8-OHdG/dG ratios in both MDA levels and GPX activity, while the significant negative correlation was seemed between the ratio of 8-OHdG/dG and ubiquinol-10/ ubiquinone-10 as well as MDA levels and ubiquinol-10/ ubiquinone-10 ratio.We conclude that, both the disruption of pro-oxidant/antioxidant balance and oxidative stress in DNA may play an important role in the pathogenesis of coronary artery disease.