wenty one Fusarium spp. isolates, collected from potato tubers showing typical dry rot symptoms, taken from three regions in Egypt, were found to belonging to four species, i.e. F. sambucinum, F. solani, F. oxysporum and F. culmorum. The pathogenic ability of these isolates on healthy potato tubers (cv. Spunta) revealed that 17 ones were pathogenic and 4 were non-pathogenic. The most aggressive isolate of each Fusarium species was chosen for further studies.Host range studies revealed that carrot is not susceptible for infection; meanwhile taro, eggplant and sweet potato were susceptible for infection by Fusarium spp.Eight potato cultivars were evaluated for their reaction to dry rot disease infection. Obtained results showed significant differences among tested cultivars. Valor cultivar recorded the highest level of resistance; meanwhile cv. Galactica was the most susceptible one. The rest of tested cultivars showed different levels of susceptibility.The enzymatic activity in two potato cultivars, i.e. Galactica and Valor, as a response to dry rot infection, showed increments in peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase and phenylalanine ammonia lyase in the resistant cultivar (Valor) compared with the susceptible one (Galactica). These measurements could explain resistance and susceptibility in tested potato cultivars.

lternaria solani (Ellis and Martin) Jones and Grout, the causal of tomato early blight, attacks all tomato hybrids and varieties, either in open field or in greenhouse, causing a serious damage that led to decrease in tomato yield. The fungus A. solani was isolated from tomato leaves and fruits, showing typical symptoms of early blight, collected from different locations distributed in six Egyptian Governorates. Pathological studies cleared that A. solani isolate taken from Menufiya was the most aggressive one; meanwhile, Ismailiya isolate was the lowest one in this concern. Disease control experiments revealed that all the tested fungicides inhibited, to different degrees, the in vitro growth of A. solani and decreased early blight severity under greenhouse conditions. The contact fungicides were more effective than the systematic ones, in controlling tomato early blight. Moreover, mancozeb 64% + metalaxyl 4% and copper hydroxide were the most effective ones, followed by systematic fungicides shirlan and dolphin Alfa.

Efficiency of fungicides; Shirlan 50% SC, Ranman 40% SC, Revus 25% SC, Leimay 20% SC, Vegeclean 15% WG and Evito 48% SC against tomato late blight disease was conducted In vitro and In vivo tests. The variation in the aggressiveness of the two isolates of P. infestans could be clearly differentiated to most aggressive one (PhK-2) and least aggressive (PhK-1). Medium effective concentrations (EC 50) of the candidate fungicides indicated that Shirlan 50% SC was the superior fungicides against mycelial growth of PhK-1 and PhK-2 isolates. Revus 25% SC and Ranman 40% SC were less efficiency against mycelial growth of PhK-1 and PhK-2 isolates, respectively. The tested fungicides gave excellent control of tomato late blight disease under greenhouse conditions especially Evito 48% SC and vegeclean 15% WG when applied as protective or curative. The candidate fungicides were used separately at their recommended rates of application against late blight disease on tomato plants during the season of 2015-2016 in two different locations (Fayoum and Sharkia Governorates). In Sharkia Governorate, all the candidate fungicides gave excellent control of late blight disease, which their efficiency ranged between 80.03 and 85.93% except Revus 25% SC gave 63.67% only. Efficiency of Leimay 20% SC and Shirlan fungicides against late blight disease was increased from 63.73 and 65.61% in Fayoum trial to 80.03 and 80.69% in Sharkia trial, respectively. Efficacy percentages of tested fungicides were highly correlated with area under the disease progress curve (AUDPC) values. All candidate fungicides when treated as curative were effective in controlling late blight disease except Revus 25% SC.

No abstract

Objectives: To develop and implement a health education program for health care providers (HCPs) in geriatric homes about nutrition in Elderly and to evaluate the program in terms of: HCP's knowledge before and after the program, and to assess nutritional status of elderly served by HCP before and after the program and also to measure the frequency of different malnutrition risk factors in elderly at geriatric homes. Subjects and methods: Randomized Clustered Controlled Clinical Trial was conducted on 240 elderly residing in 6 geriatric homes randomly selected. Three homes were assigned randomly to study group and three for control group. Elderly residing in the assessd geriatric homes aged between 60-75 years were included in the study. Health care providers (HCP) recruited was subdivided into 2 groups; study group and control group. HCP in the study group were subjected to a nutrition education program that was not administered to the control group. Results: There was improvement in knowledge of HCPs after the intervention health education program regarding elderly nutrition compared to the baseline knowledge and also to control group (p<0.005). There was a statistical significant difference in the rate of weight loss which was declined over a period of 4 months from the beginning of the study on June 2012 till October 2012 in both groups (p <0.001), but the rate of weight loss had declined after the intervention at the end of the study in the study group compared to the control group. Most of the elderly were overweight BMI >30 (67.1%). Nearly half of the elderly (52.9%) were at risk of malnutrition with the MNA (Mini Nutritional Assessment) score (17.1-23.5). The majority of the elderly 98.8 % were at risk of significant weight loss of at least 5% within 6 months by using the Appetite Assessment tool score with sum of score <=14. The majority of the elderly (98.3%) had a dental problem as(loss of teeth, eating difficulty, dry mouth or lesions) that may affect health and nutritional well-being with a score of >=2 by using Dental screening tool. There was improvement in physical aspect of quality of life in terms of activities and instrumental activities of daily living after implementation of the nutrition health education program in the study group compared to control group (p<0.001) Conclusion: Geriatric homes need continuous monitoring and reinforcement of health education of the health care providers and this will be reflected on the nutritional status and well being of the elderly residing in these Geriatric homes. Raising the awareness of the elderly is needed to improve not only the nutritional state but also the physical and psychological aspects of quality of life to have better health outcomes and good healthy elders.