[Purpose] This study investigated efficacy of virtual reality (VR)-based balance training on enhancing balance and postural reactions of adults as a low-cost new modality compared to the established Biodex Balance System (BBS). [Subjects] Thirty normal adults of both genders were divided randomly into two equal-sized experimental groups of 15: BBS balance training and VR balance training. [Methods] The training programmes were conducted in 12 sessions, three 15-min sessions per week. The Nintendo® Wii Fit Plus (NWFP) and its balance board were used to train of the VR group. Each participant answered a questionnaire concerning usability, enjoyment, balance improvement, and fatigue at the end of the training programs. [Results] The study found a significant increase the measure of mean overall balance (OLB) in both groups. No significant difference was found between the groups, but a significant decrease in the mean balance-test time was found for both groups, with no significant difference between the two training methods. The VR programme was rated highly enjoyable by 81.8% of the group. [Conclusion] The Wii Fit Plus system with the balance board as a new VR balance-training technique, can be considered an effective and enjoyable tool for the training of adults’ body balance.

New isolates of spore -forming bacilli from larvae and pupae of 3 species of mosquitoes are recorded in central Iraq.

Texture profile analysis (TPA) was conducted on seventy balady bread samples collected from different five Egyptian governorates (i.e. Cairo, Giza, Beheira, Sharkia and Beni Suef) with the aim of developing a new and fast method to assess the staling of the Egyptian flat balady bread as a function of different TPA parameters. Results obtained from the TPA were compared against the classical Alkaline Water Retention Capacity (AWRC) method of bread staling determination over a storage period of three days. Hardness, adhesiveness, resilience and chewiness were found to increase as the storage period of bread samples increased, while cohesiveness decreased with the storage. The obtained results of TPA showed that among different TPA parameters, hardness, adhesiveness, cohesiveness and chewiness were highly correlated with the staling rate (SR) during a three days storage period with values of correlation coefficients ranging from 0.821 to 0.973, while other TPA parameters (i.e. gumminess, resilience and springiness) were weakly correlated with the staling rate. Moreover, moisture content was linearly decreased as the storage of bread increased from 36.78 at the zero time to 33.19% at the third day. Derived mathematical models to calculate the AWRC and SR were significant and of the linear type with moisture content, time (day), hardness, cohesiveness, adhesiveness and chewiness as independent variables, with reasonable adjusted R 2 (0.55 and 0.41), and adequate precision values (31.57 and 18.68) for AWRC and SR, respectively. Validation of the new method, as assessed by ttest, showed that the differences between AWRC and SR values obtained by our method were not significantly different (P<0.05) from those of their counterparts obtained by the classical AWRC method at the different storage times of bread. Our new method can be used as an alternative to the classical AWRC method with reliable, fast and accurate calculated values of both AWRC and SR.

This study was conducted on pepper plants, Capsicum annuum L under greenhouse condition, in the farm of El Qassaseen Horticulture Research Station, Ismailia Governorate during the two successive winter seasons of 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 to survey the main piercing-sucking pests and associated natural enemies, also determine the population density and occurrence percentage for main species of pests and associated natural enemies. The obtained results showed that, the homopterous insects were the dominant piercingsucking pests recorded 85.87 % (at the 1 st season) followed by order Acarina family Tetranychidae (the two spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urtica Koch.) recorded 14.32 % (at the 2 nd season), but the order Thysanoptera, family Thrpidae (Onion thrips, Thrips tabaci Lind.) was occurred by lowest occurrence percentage 2.82 % of the total numbers of surveyed pests recorded at the 2 nd season. While the Aphididae was the dominant homopterous family presented with 80.96 % (at the 1 st season) of the total surveyed pests with three aphid species (green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulz.), potato aphids, Macrosiphum euphorbiae (Thomas) and cotton aphids, Aphis gossypii Glov.), the Cicadellidae recorded lowest percentage of 0.99 % at the1 st season. The M. persicae found colonized plants terminals with high percentage of 72.80 % than on leaves by 27.20%; in contrast with M. euphorbiae which recorded 83.85% on leaves and 16.14% on terminals, while A. gossypii found on flowers only. The highest peak (as grand mean of the three aphid species) of 165.67 individuals /plant was recorded at 11 st March during the 1 st season. The highest parasitizem percentage on aphid species of 85.00 % was recorded at 22 nd June during the 2 nd season. The highest peaks for whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Genn.) of 12.00 individuals / leaf were recorded at 8 th February and 16 th June during the 2 nd season. The leafhoppers, Empoasca spp. gave two weak peaks throughout the short activity period during the two study seasons. In the same trend, the population of T. tabaci recorded relatively high peak of 7.00 individuals/ leaf at 22 nd April during the 1 st season. Also, the T. urtica recorded the relatively high peak of 30.33 individuals/ inch 2 at 22 nd April during the 1 st season. The highest peak of the general mean of insect predators (Coccinella spp. and Syrphus spp.) and that of grand mean of insect plus mite predators were recorded at 25 th March with 22.00 individuals/plant and 25.67 individuals/plant throughout the 1 st season for the two means, respectively. The peaks of predators were congruent in time with high activity period of pests that may be play main role in suppress piercing-sucking pests. The statistical analysis results showed that, the highest effect as explained variance, EV % = 67.92 and 59.94 % were recorded for the effect of each of parasitoid and total insect predators on aphids species during the 1 st season. So, it could be recommended to use each of parasitoids and predators to control piercing-sucking pests i...

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