This study was conducted to evaluate the histological alternations induced by gamma irradiation in the alimentary tract of the 4 th instar larvae of cowpea beetle Callosbruchus maculates (cowpea weevil). Using gamma rays at doses of 0.25kGy, 0.50 kGy, 0.75 kGy, 1.0 and 1.5 kGy, and mortality was recorded at 48 and 96 hours after irradiation. The highest mortality 100% had been recorded at 1.5 kGy gamma irradiation, there was no significant difference (P ≥ 0.05) between irradiation at 1kGy and 1.5kGy, but the significance was observed (P ≤ 0.05) compared with other treatments. The lethal dose (LD 50 ) of gamma irradiations at 48 and 96 hours were 0.4663 kGy and 0.4275kGy respectively. Results revealed that the mortality augmented by increasing the radiation doses; indicating that the effectiveness of the application was dose-dependent. Histological variations triggered by irradiation showed obvious deformations, cytoplasmic vacuolization and apical degeneration of cells. Also, The tissues exhibited marked signs of lysis and necrosis of cells. Hence, gamma irradiation could be incorporated into the control strategy of C. maculatus as a physical control means for the reduction of loss caused by stored product insects.

Purpose: This study aimed at assessing the shortterm effect of corneal collagen crosslinking on higher order aberrations of cornea in patients with keratoconus using corneal topography. Patients and Methods: The study was a prospective cohort study that was conducted in a private specialized eye hospital on 40 eyes of 28 keratoconus patients. Each patient was fully assessed preoperatively including doing corneal topography using Pentacam® HR. Transepithelial accelerated CXL was done to all patients. Postoperative corneal topography was done at six months and data was retrieved and analyzed. Results: RMS HOA recorded a higher mean value preoperatively, with a high statistically significant difference (p=0.00). All elements of HOAs showed lower postoperative values except for trefoil 30º. The difference was statistically significant in comma 0º, comma 90º, spherical aberrations and fifth order comma 90° (p=0.026, p= 0.003, p=0.005, and p=0.001 respectively). Conclusion: Transepithelial corneal collagen cross-linking improves corneal higher order aberrations. The maximum effect of the procedure is on comma 0º, comma 90º, spherical aberrations and fifth order comma 90° elements.

Background Biological control of insect pests is an economic, eco-friendly and harmless approach to integrated pest management strategies. Bracon hebetor (Say) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) considers a polyphagous ectoparasitoid of various pests of the order Lepidoptera. The parasitized host insects' defense mechanisms are triggered as a result of the parasitic wasps' injury and penetration. Thus, induce the host cellular and humoral immune responses through a blend of secretions injected into the host body. The present study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of B. hebetor on the immune response of the parasitized full grown larval instar of the rice moth, Corcyra cephalonica (Stainton) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) under natural envenomation. Results On cellular level, the ultrastructure examination of the hemocytes displayed a considerable structural deformation in hemocyte morphology of the detected types of the hemocytes. Moreover, the effects of parasitism on both differential hemocyte counts (DHCs) and total hemocyte counts (THCs) were investigated. The number of prohemocytes (PR) (40.33 ± 5.61, 43 ± 8.33 and 26 ± 2.31) was statistically differed after (24, 48 and 72 h) of parasitism, respectively, compared to unparasitized (31.33 ± 6.49) larvae. Similar observations were recorded in plasmatocytes (PL) before and after the parasitism. However, Spherulocytes (SP) and Oenocytoids (OE) were recorded in the hemolymph with little abundance. On the other side, the quantitative analysis of total hemolymph proteins (THP) provoked a significant effect of considering parasitized and non-parasitized larvae. As the Phenoloxidase (PO) cascade plays a critical role in immune defenses, so the substantial activation of PO in the host's hemolymph following successive hours of parasitism compared to unparasitized larvae using L-DOPA as a substrate indicated the induction of larval immune system. The parasitized larvae showed a gradual increase in the PO activity (0.442 ± 0.103) after 24 h reached up to (1.482 ± 0.272) at the end of parasitism (72 h) in comparable to unparasitized larvae (0.177 ± 0.0.044). Conclusion The present investigations clarified the efficacy of B. hebetor parasitism on the host immune mechanism, which will enable the progress of sustainable stored product protection approaches for the control of an important pest rice moth C. cephalonica.