Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella, have been implicated in numerous food poisoning outbreaks associated with the consumption of fresh produce. An understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the establishment of pathogenic bacteria in or on vegetable plants is critical for understanding and ameliorating this problem as well as ensuring the safety of our food supply. While previous studies have described the growth and survival of enteric pathogens in the environment and also the risk factors associated with the contamination of vegetables, the molecular events involved in the colonization of fresh produce by enteric pathogens are just beginning to be elucidated. This review summarizes recent findings on the interactions of several bacterial pathogens with leafy green vegetables. Changes in gene expression linked to the bacterial attachment and colonization of plant structures are discussed in light of their relevance to plant-microbe interactions. We propose a mechanism for the establishment and association of enteric pathogens with plants and discuss potential strategies to address the problem of foodborne illness linked to the consumption of leafy green vegetables.Leafy green vegetables have been identified as a source of foodborne illnesses worldwide over the past decade. Human enteric pathogens, such as  E. coli strain O157:H7. Approximately 10,000 cases were reported in at least 14 different locations in Japan; the most affected individuals were children  of some common sanitizers, and the possibility of utilizing novel technologies, such as irradiation and ozone to enhance the safety of produce , 47. In Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 with leafy green vegetables. The microbial genes involved in the interactions of foodborne pathogens with fresh produce are discussed along with the global gene expression profiles associated with their persistence and the colonization of plant structures. We propose a mechanism for the establishment of E. coli and other enteric pathogens in plants and discuss potential strategies to address the problems of foodborne illnesses linked to the consumption of leafy green vegetables.The availability of modern and high throughput molecular tools has provided researchers with the opportunity to study the molecular fabric of microorganisms residing in natural environments and gain an understanding of the intimate interactions between foodborne pathogens and plants. This review summarizes recent findings on the molecular interactions between enteric pathogens and leafy green vegetables. We begin by briefly describing the routes of contamination and factors influencing the survival and persistence of enteric pathogens in fresh vegetables. We then present a synopsis of recent studies that examined the molecular events mediating the interactions of et al.  and also commercially grown leafy green vegetables. Since the experimental objectives, design, bacterial strains, and analytical methods used in these studies were so diverse, it confounded a complete understanding of the factors controlling the fate of E. coli in these environments. The frequent association of E. coli and Salmonella with worldwide food poisoning outbreaks strongly suggests that these microbes possess mechanisms for long-term survival and growth in both the phyllosphere and rhizosphere of leafy green vegetables  or entry in natural openings on the plant surface (including stomata and lenticels), or sites of biological or physical damage. The apoplast refers to the free diffusional space outside the plasma membrane that facilitates water movement inside plants. Once internalized, human pathogens may employ several mechanisms to exploit plant nutrients and ensure their persistence inside tissues. One hypothesis suggests that enteric bacteria living in the apoplastic space of the plant are able to degrade cell wall polysaccharides to obtain sugars and other essential compounds (E. coli O157:H7 near the stomata is mediated by the same type three secretion system (TTSS) used by this pathogen to colonize the gut epithelium . Bacteria can remain in the VBNC state for long periods of time, during which they switch off most activities characteristic of growing organisms, but maintain a low level of metabolic activity without being capable of growing on typical microbial media . Severalet al.  reportedon chain . Listerinditions . Dinu et , and interactions with resident bacteria in the phyllosphere. A study by Brandl et al.  demonstrce heads . These fet al.  as well as in the rhizosphere of plants grown in compost. The E. coli O157:H7 cells internalized or tightly attached to lettuce leaves had higher metabolic activity than the cells weakly bound to the leaf surface. Based on these findings, it was proposed that pathogenic E. coli cells not only persisted on the phyllosphere and rhizosphere of lettuce, but also actively metabolized plant-derived nutrients , the majority of the plant isolates clustered with the B1 phylogroup. In contrast, E. coli strains of animal origin clustered mainly with phylogroups A and B2 , which states that certain environments select for rpoS mutants in E. coli, generating strains with lower tolerance to stresses, but higher nutrient scavenging capabilities. Increased nutrient scavenging allows E. coli to survive and adapt to new environments. Hence, it is possible that mutations in rpoS gene were selected when O157:H7 strains were exposed to the bagged spinach environment, and the increased nutrient scavenging ability of these cells allowed them to survive outside their normal host and infect humans . Some virulence genes, such as intimin and stx genes, were induced on lettuce leaves  have been shown to mediate the binding of these organisms to lettuce leaves and alfalfa seedlings  and O-antigen capsule assembly and translocation (yihO)  , 4. In Enization . In cont , an adhesin expressed from a Salmonella pathogenicity island (misL), a cellulose synthase subunit (bcsA), and a putative ATP/GTP binding protein (yidR). In spite of the decreased survival of the stfC mutants on lettuce leaves, these cells displayed attachment and biofilm formation phenotypes similar to those of the wild type strain. In contrast, misL, bcsA and yidR were defective at surface attachment on lettuce leaves and had reduced biofilm formation phenotypes. These results are consistent with the physiological roles of misL, bcsA, and yidR, which have previously been shown to mediate the attachment of Salmonella to various surfaces. The findings of these studies indicated that the genes involved in surface attachment and biofilm formation in S. enterica are important for survival on and colonization of the lettuce phyllosphere.While several research groups have studied the transcriptional responses of i et al.  examinedy, RIVET , and idemisL encodes an intestinal colonization factor that binds fibronectin, and is essential for the persistence of S. enterica in a mouse infection model , curli subunits (csgA) and flagella (fliN) were necessary in E. coli K-12 for its attachment to and colonization of roots , cell envelope (pspABC), and nutrient limitation (rpoS) regulons (Expression profiling data on enteric microbe-plant interactions indicate that the association with leafy greens triggers the differential expression of many genes involved in survival and adaptation to harsh conditions. Therefore, one of the crucial steps necessary for colonization and persistence in hostile plant environments is the induction of strong stress responses. Some of the stress responses characteristic of adaptations to the plant environment involve the oxidative (regulons , 62, 75.regulons , 62, 75.Studies on the molecular events triggered by the association of enteric pathogens with leafy green vegetables have improved our understanding of the mechanisms by which these organisms survive outside their normal host. One of the most relevant findings from transcriptional analyses and mutational studies was that enteric bacteria may colonize vegetables using the same cellular structures that mediate attachment to animal cells , 64, 82.E. coli O157:H7, upon exposure to injured leaves, has been shown to activate transcriptional responses that enhance its resistance to oxidative agents (Another finding obtained from functional genomics studies is that enteric pathogens can grow on damage vegetable tissues , 62. In Plant cultivars have been shown to influence the metabolic activity and colonization capabilities of enteric bacteria associated with leafy greens , 79. SimThe ability to produce biofilms as well as the differential expression of genes involved in biofilm modulation, are characteristics linked to the association between and colonization potential of certain human pathogens on leafy greens. Moreover, biofilm formation on the surface of lettuce and spinach has been shown to reduce the efficacy of sanitation treatments in food processing plants . It is tE. coli O157:H7. Although methods to identify cells in the VBNC state have only been developed for scientific research, novel molecular technologies present an opportunity to further enhance the applicability, accuracy, and accessibility of these techniques. While the transmission of pathogens in the VBNC state through foods has been suggested, very few studies have addressed this issue. Therefore, the VBNC state remains an area of food safety research that should be further explored. Detailed knowledge of the magnitude of the VBNC state and of the food safety risk associated with the non-culturable response, in addition to improved detection methods, is of critical importance for developing effective intervention strategies and ameliorating leafy-green contamination by human pathogens.Enteric foodborne pathogens can enter the VBNC state while interacting with foods at different stages of the food production chain , 31, 65.


Poor maternal and child health indicators have been reported in Nigeria since the 1990s. Many health system interventions have been instituted to reverse the trend and ensure that Nigeria is on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. This systematic review aims to describe the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) interventions that have been implemented in Nigeria since the 1990s.PubMed was searched from inception in 1990 up to January 2014 to identify reports of interventions targeting MNCH in Nigeria.We identified 33 eligible studies from 835 studies, after applying pre-defined exclusion criteria to title/abstract and full text. Two interventions included all regions of the country whereas the others were conducted at the regional level, most of them in a rural setting. All included studies presented a quasi-experimental design and most of them using a community-based (n=24) or a hospital-based (n=8) approach. Most of the interventions targeted women of childbearing age, under-five children, and health system issues. The outcomes of the different interventions included maternal health promotion ), prevention of obstetric complications , child health promotion , prevention of childhood diseases ), and health system strengthening .Heterogeneous approaches for the same target groups have been conducted. Most of the interventions lacked a control group thereby compromising the measurement of their effectiveness. The true impact of these strategies cannot be assessed unless by indirect methods, precluding the generalizability of the results. We hope that the results of this systematic review will provide more insights on areas of improvement in order to achieve better health for all Nigerians particularly for women and children.


The cell envelope represents the main line of host defense that viruses encounter on their way from one cell to another. The cytoplasmic membrane in general is a physical barrier that needs to be crossed both upon viral entry and exit. Therefore, viruses from the three domains of life employ a wide range of strategies for perforation of the cell membrane, each adapted to the cell surface environment of their host. Here, we review recent insights on entry and egress mechanisms of viruses infecting archaea. Due to the unique nature of the archaeal cell envelope, these particular viruses exhibit novel and unexpected mechanisms to traverse the cellular membrane. Members of the three domains of life, Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya, are all subject to viral infections. Viruses have been isolated from various environments, where they are often abundant, outnumbering prokaryotic cells by a factor of 10 . VirusesThe cell envelope represents a major barrier for all viruses. In fact, the cell membrane has to be traversed twice by viruses to establish successful infection, first upon entry and secondly during exit. In order to cross the cell envelope, viruses have developed various strategies, each adapted to the membrane environment of their host.The combination of high-throughput approaches with more classical techniques has shed light on the process of viral entry and release in some archaeal virus-host model systems. However, the detailed molecular mechanisms underlying the various stages of the viral life cycle remain poorly understood in archaea in general . RecentlThe cell surface of archaea is fundamentally different from bacteria . ArchaeaThe first studies on archaeal viral entry and egress have shown that some archaeal viruses employ entry strategies that superficially resemble those of bacterial viruses , while oA virus is able to infect only a few strains or species. Such specificity in interaction of viruses with their host is determined by the characteristics of entry, which in turn rely on the nature and structural peculiarities of the cell envelope. Adsorption as the first key step of the viral cycle is one of the most restrictive in terms of host range, depending on the accessibility and number of receptors present at the cell surface . StructuLipothrixviridae family have been classified into four different genera partly based on the virion core and terminal structures. Indeed, the exposed filaments can vary in number from one  to six  or even form complex structures like claws (AFV1) or brushes  was also shown to bind host pili by the three terminal fibers of virions. SIRV2 is one of the more appealing models to study virus-host interactions in archaea  was reported to exist in different states: isolated particles, incorporated in typical rosette-like aggregates or even bound to cell-derived membrane , exhibit more pleomorphic virions with three or four thick, slightly curved fibers (Acidianus bottle-shaped virus), from the Ampullaviridae family, is involved in attachment to membrane vesicles and formation of virion aggregates  resembles fuselloviruses with virions extruded from host cells as lemon-shaped. However, ATV has been classified within the Bicaudaviridae partly due to its peculiar life cycle  and SIRV2  has been studied in high molecular detail. Both employ a release mechanism that relies on the formation of pyramidal shaped egress structures, which are unique to archaeal systems . At firsS. islandicus and S. solfataricus respectively (Infection by SIRV2 and STIV1 leads to formation of several pyramidal shaped structures on the cell membrane of ectively . These vectively –D. At thectively . The basectively . This prectively . PVAP haectively .Nucleation of the PVAP-induced structure starts on the cell membrane, most likely with the formation of a heptamer of PVAP subunits . The strThe ultrastructure of VAPs of SIRV2 was studied by whole cell cryo-tomography and subtomogram averaging. This revealed the presence of two layers, of which the outer one is continuous with the cell membrane and presumably formed by the N-terminal transmembrane domain ,F. The iThe described VAP-based egress mechanism is archaeal specific. Homologues of PVAP are only found amongst some archaeal viruses . HoweverWhile the first isolated archaeal viruses were lytic, subsequent characterization of more viruses revealed that the large majority do not cause lysis of the host cell. To date, lytic viruses make up half of the viruses infecting euryarchaeota, and only three in crenarchaea . In addiInoviridae that egress without causing cell lysis (In contrast to the situation in archaea, the majority of bacterial viruses are lytic. Almost all bacterial viruses exit via the holin based mechanism described above. However, an exception to the rule are the bacterial filamentous viruses belonging to the ll lysis . The majll lysis . Virallyll lysis . A barrell lysis . Alternall lysis . Even thll lysis . TherefoPyrobaculum spherical virus; Interestingly, lipid-containing archaeal viruses are quite common . There aThe most common scission machinery employed by eukaryotic viruses is the ESCRT system . In eukaThe last few years have shown a steady increase in an understanding of archaeal virus-host interactions, therefore revealing the first insights into viral interactions with the archaeal membrane. Viruses have developed various strategies to cross the membrane. These strategies are adapted to the nature of the cell envelope of their host. Some archaeal viruses employ fascinating novel mechanisms, while others appear to rely on processes that at first sight are analogous to their bacterial counterparts. Additional research will help to determine to which extent bacterial, eukaryotic and archaeal virospheres are evolutionary related. The uniqueness of the archaeal cell surface, and the diversity of the currently described archaeal entry and egress mechanisms, argue in favor of future discovery of more innovative and surprising molecular mechanisms.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.


Swarm intelligence (SI) represents the collective behavior of decentralized, self-organized systems. SI systems consist typically of a population of simple agents that interact locally with one another and with their environment. The inspiration of SI originates from biological systems. The agents follow very simple rules, and although there is no centralized control structure dictating how individual agents should behave, local, and to a certain degree random, interactions between such agents lead to the emergence of intelligence, unknown to the individual agents. Natural examples of SI include ant colonies, bird flocking, animal herding, bacterial growth, and fish schooling. Besides the applications to conventional optimization problems, SI is employed in various fields such as library materials acquisition, communications, medical dataset classification, dynamic control, heating system planning, moving objects tracking, pattern recognition, and statistical prediction.The main objective of this special issue is to provide the readers with a collection of high quality research articles that address the broad challenges in application aspects of swarm intelligence and reflect the emerging trends in state-of-the-art algorithms.The paper authored by Z.-C. Wang and X.-B. Wu (Tongji University) investigates the applicability and performance of biogeography-based optimization (BBO) for integer programming. They find that the original BBO algorithm does not perform well on a set of benchmark problems of integer programming. Hence, they modify the mutation operator and/or the neighborhood structure of the algorithm, resulting in three new BBO-based methods, named BlendBBO, BBO_DE, and LBBO_LDE, respectively. Computational experiments show that these methods are competitive approaches to solve integer-programming problems, and the LBBO_LDE shows the best performance on the benchmark problems.In the paper by J. Wang et al. (North China Electric Power University), they model the complex process-planning problem as a combinatorial optimization problem with constraints. An ant colony optimization (ACO) approach is developed to deal with process planning problem by simultaneously considering activities such as sequencing operations, selecting manufacturing resources, and determining setup plans to achieve the optimal process plan. A weighted directed graph is conducted to describe the operations, precedence constraints between operations, and the possible visited path between operation nodes. A representation of process plan is described based on the weighted directed graph. Ant colony goes through the necessary nodes on the graph to achieve the optimal solution with the objective of minimizing total production costs. Two cases are carried out to study the influence of various parameters of ACO on the system performance. Extensive comparative experiments are conducted to demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed approach.R. Kalatehjari et al.  apply particle swarm optimization (PSO) in three-dimensional (3D) slope stability problem to determine the critical slip surface (CSS) of soil slopes. A detailed description of adopted PSO is presented to provide a good basis for more contribution of this technique to the field of 3D slope stability problems. A general rotating ellipsoid shape is introduced as the specific particle for 3D slope stability analysis. A detailed sensitivity analysis is designed and performed to find the optimum values of parameters of PSO. Example problems are used to evaluate the applicability of PSO in determining the CSS of 3D slopes. The first example presents a comparison between the results of PSO and PLAXI-3D finite element software. The second example compares the ability of PSO to determine the CSS of 3D slopes with other optimization methods from the literature. The results demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of PSO in determining the CSS of 3D soil slopes.Another paper is by Y. Sun et al. . It focuses on how to outsource computation task to the cloud securely and proposes a secure outsourcing multiparty computation protocol on lattice-based encrypted data in two-cloud-server scenario. The main idea is to transform the outsourced data, respectively, encrypted by different users' public keys to the ones encrypted by the same two private keys of the two assisted servers, so that it is feasible to operate on the transformed cipher-texts to compute an encrypted result following the function to be computed. In order to keep the privacy of the result, the two servers cooperatively produce a custom-made result for each user that is authorized to get the result, so that all authorized users can recover the desired result while other unauthorized ones including the two servers cannot. Compared with previous research, the protocol is completely noninteractive between any users. Both of the computation and the communication complexities of each user in their solution are independent of the computing function.In their paper, M.-Y. Ju et al.  propose a hybrid evolutionary algorithm using scalable encoding method for path planning problems. The scalable representation is based on binary tree structure encoding. To solve the problem of hybrid genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization, the “dummy node” is added to the binary trees to deal with the different lengths of representations. The experimental results show that the proposed hybrid method uses fewer turning points than traditional evolutionary algorithms and generate shorter collision-free paths for mobile robot navigation.The paper by H. Mo et al.  proposes a novel constrained multiobjective biogeography optimization algorithm (CMBOA). It is the first biogeography optimization algorithm for constrained multiobjective optimization. In CMBOA, a disturbance migration operator is designed to generate diverse feasible individuals, in order to promote the diversity of individuals on Pareto front. Infeasible individuals nearby feasible region are evolved to feasibility by recombining with their nearest nondominated feasible individuals. The convergence of CMBOA is proved by using probability theory. The performance of CMBOA is evaluated on a set of 6 benchmark problems. The experimental results show that the CMBOA performs better than or similar to the classical NSGA-II and IS-MOEA.The paper authored by I. C. Obagbuwa and A. O. Adewumi  introduces the hunger component to the existing cockroach swarm optimization (CSO) algorithm, to improve its searching ability and population diversity. The original CSO is modelled with three components: chase-swarming, dispersion, and ruthlessness; additional hunger component modelled using partial differential equation (PDE) method is included. The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested on well-known benchmarks and compared with the existing CSO, modified cockroach swarm optimization (MCSO), roach infestation optimization RIO, and hungry roach infestation optimization (HRIO). The comparison results show clearly that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing algorithms.In the paper by L. Liu et al. (Harbin Engineering University), they propose a distribution model of ant colony foraging, through analysis of the relationship between the position distribution and food source in the process of ant colony foraging. They design a continuous domain optimization algorithm based on the model. They give the form of solution for the algorithm, the distribution model of pheromone, the update rules of ant colony position, and the processing method of constraint condition. The algorithm is tested against a set of test trials by unconstrained optimization test functions and a set of optimization test functions. The results of other algorithms are compared and analyzed, to verify the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.A. Shabri and R. Samsudin  propose a hybrid model integrating wavelet and multiple linear regressions (MLR) for crude oil price forecasting. In this model, Mallat wavelet transform is first selected to decompose an original time series into several subseries with different scale. Then, the principal component analysis (PCA) is used in processing subseries data in MLR for crude oil price forecasting. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) is used to adopt the optimal parameters of the MLR model. To assess the effectiveness of this model, daily crude oil market and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) are used as the case study. Time-series prediction capability performance of the WMLR model is compared with the MLR, ARIMA, and GARCH models using various statistics measures. The experimental results show that the proposed model outperforms the individual models in forecasting of the crude oil prices series.In their paper, F. A. Ahmad et al.  propose a new approach based on integrated intelligent system inspired by foraging of honeybees applied to multimobile robot scenario. This integrated approach caters for both working and foraging stages for known/unknown power station locations. Swarm mobile robot inspired by honeybee is simulated to explore and identify the power station for battery recharging. The mobile robots will share the location information of the power station with each other. The results show that mobile robots consume less energy and less time when they are cooperating with each other for foraging process. The optimizing of foraging behavior will result in the mobile robots spending more time to do real work.The paper by J.-Q. Li et al. (Northeastern University and Liaocheng University) proposes a hybrid algorithm that combines particle swarm optimization (PSO) and iterated local search (ILS) for solving the hybrid flow-shop scheduling (HFS) problem with preventive maintenance (PM) activities. In the proposed algorithm, different crossover operators and mutation operators are investigated. In addition, an efficient multiple insert mutation operator is developed for enhancing the searching ability of the algorithm. Furthermore, an ILS-based local search procedure is embedded in the algorithm to improve the exploitation ability of the proposed algorithm. The detailed experimental parameter for the canonical PSO is tuning. The proposed algorithm is tested on the variation of 77 Carlier and Néron's benchmark problems. Detailed comparisons with the present efficient algorithms, including hGA, ILS, PSO, and IG, verify the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.The paper authored by Q. Xu et al. (Shandong University) proposes a fast elitism Gaussian estimation of distribution algorithm (FEGEDA). The Gaussian probability model is used to model the solution distribution. The parameters of Gaussian come from the statistical information of the best individuals by fast learning rule, which enhances the efficiency of the algorithm. An elitism strategy is used to maintain the convergent performance. The performances of the algorithm are examined based upon several benchmarks. In the simulations, a one-dimensional benchmark is used to visualize the optimization process and probability model learning process during the evolution, and several two-dimensional and higher dimensional benchmarks are used to testify the performance of FEGEDA. The experimental results indicate the capability of FEGEDA, especially in the higher dimensional problems, and the FEGEDA exhibits a better performance than some other algorithms and EDAs. Finally, FEGEDA is used in PID controller optimization of PMSM and is compared with the classical PID and GA.In the paper by K. S. Lim et al. , their research incorporates the concept of multiple nondominated leaders to further improve the vector evaluated particle swarm optimization (VEPSO) algorithm. Multiple nondominated solutions that are best at a respective objective function are used to guide particles in finding optimal solutions. The improved VEPSO is measured by the number of nondominated solutions found, generational distance, spread, and hypervolume. The results from the conducted experiments show that the proposed VEPSO significantly improves the existing VEPSO algorithms.Z. Yin et al. (Harbin Institute of Technology) focus on multiuser detection in tracking and data relay satellite (TDRS) system forward link. Minimum mean square error (MMSE) is a low complexity multiuser detection method, but MMSE detector cannot achieve satisfactory bit error ratio and near-far resistance, whereas artificial fish swarm algorithm (AFSA) is expert in optimization and it can realize the global convergence efficiently. Therefore, a hybrid multiuser detector based on MMSE and AFSA (MMSE-AFSA) is proposed. The result of MMSE and its modified formations are used as the initial values of artificial fishes to accelerate the speed of global convergence and reduce the iteration times for AFSA. The simulation results show that the bit error ratio and near-far resistance performances of the proposed detector are much better, compared with MF, DEC, and MMSE, and are quite close to OMD. Furthermore, the proposed MMSE-AFSA detector also has a large system capacity.In their paper, S. Molla-Alizadeh-Zavardehi et al. (Islamic Azad University and University of Tehran) deal with a problem of minimizing total weighted tardiness of jobs in a real-world single batch-processing machine (SBPM) scheduling in the presence of fuzzy due date. First, a fuzzy mixed integer linear programming model is developed. Then, due to the complexity of the problem that is NP hard, they design two hybrid metaheuristics called GA-VNS and VNS-SA applying the advantages of genetic algorithm (GA), variable neighborhood search (VNS), and simulated annealing (SA) frameworks. Besides, they propose three fuzzy earliest due date heuristics to solve the given problem. Through computational experiments with several random test problems, a robust calibration is applied on the parameters. Finally, computational results on different-scale test problems are presented to compare the proposed algorithms.c1 and c2 in the standard PSO (SPSO) are eliminated to reduce the parameters sensitivity of solved problems. Experimental results on 28 benchmark functions, which consist of unimodal, multimodal, rotated, and shifted high-dimensional functions, demonstrate the high performance of the proposed algorithm in terms of convergence accuracy and speed with lower computation cost.The paper by H. Liu et al.  presents a human behavior-based PSO, which is called HPSO. There are two remarkable differences between PSO and HPSO. First, the global worst particle is introduced into the velocity equation of PSO, which is endowed with random weight that obeys the standard normal distribution; this strategy is conducive to trade off exploration and exploitation ability of PSO. Second, the two acceleration coefficients The paper authored by B. Crawford et al.  presents a novel application of the artificial bee colony algorithm to solve the nonunicost set covering problem. The artificial bee colony algorithm is a recent swarm metaheuristic technique based on the intelligent foraging behavior of honey bees. Experimental results show that the artificial bee colony algorithm is competitive in terms of solution quality with other recent metaheuristic approaches for the set covering problem.In the paper by J.-S. Wang et al. (University of Science & Technology Liaoning), they propose an echo state network (ESN) based fusion soft-sensor model optimized by the improved glowworm swarm optimization (GSO) algorithm, for predicting the key technology indicators (concentrate grade and tailings recovery rate) of flotation process. Firstly, the color feature (saturation and brightness) and texture features  based on grey-level cooccurrence matrix (GLCM) are adopted to describe the visual characteristics of the flotation froth image. Then, the kernel principal component analysis (KPCA) method is used to reduce the dimensionality of the high-dimensional input vector composed by the flotation froth image characteristics and process datum and extracts the nonlinear principal components in order to reduce the ESN dimension and network complex. The ESN soft-sensor model of flotation process is optimized by the GSO algorithm with congestion factor. Simulation results show that the model has better generalization and prediction accuracy to meet the online soft-sensor requirements of the real-time control in the flotation process.B. Li et al. (Shandong University and Qilu University of Technology) propose a novel KELM learning algorithm using the PSO approach to optimize the parameters of kernel functions of neural networks, which is called the AKELM learning algorithm, for improving the prediction accuracy of robot execution failures. The simulation results with the robot execution failures datasets show that, by optimizing the kernel parameters, the proposed algorithm has good generalization performance and outperforms KELM and the other approaches in terms of classification accuracy. Other benchmark problems simulation results also show the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.In the paper by T. S. Kiong et al. , their research considers the adaptive beamforming technique used to cancel interfering signals (placing nulls) and produce or steer a strong beam toward the target signal according to the calculated weight vectors. Minimum variance distortion response (MVDR) beamforming is capable of determining the weight vectors for beam steering; however, its nulling level on the interference sources remains unsatisfactory. Beamforming can be considered as an optimization problem, such that optimal weight vector should be obtained through computation. Hence, in their paper, a new dynamic mutated artificial immune system (DM-AIS) is proposed to enhance MVDR beamforming for controlling the null steering of interference and increase the signal to interference-noise ratio (SINR) for wanted signals.Finally, F. Zou et al.  present a new teaching-learning-based optimization (TLBO) variant called barebones teaching-learning-based optimization (BBTLBO), to solve the global optimization problems. In their method, each learner of teacher phase employs an interactive learning strategy, which is the hybridization of the learning strategy of teacher phase in the standard TLBO and Gaussian sampling learning based on neighborhood search, and each learner of learner phase employs the learning strategy of learner phase in the standard TLBO or the new neighborhood search strategy. To verify the performance of their approaches, 20 benchmark functions and 2 real-world problems are utilized. Conducted experiments can be observed that the BBTLBO performs significantly better than, or at least comparable to, TLBO and some existing bare-bone algorithms. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm is competitive to some other optimization algorithms. We expect that this special issue offers a comprehensive and timely view of the area of applications of SI and that it will offer stimulation for further research.


Fourth, the model correctly predicted the temporal dynamics of tissue lactate, of tissue glucose and oxygen consumption, and of the BOLD signal as reported in human studies. These findings not only support the ANLS hypothesis but also provide a quantitative mathematical description of the metabolic activation in neurons and glial cells, as well as of the macroscopic measurements obtained during brain imaging.Glucose is the main energy substrate in the adult brain under normal conditions. Accumulating evidence, however, indicates that lactate produced in astrocytes  can also fuel neuronal activity. The quantitative aspects of this so-called astrocyte-neuron lactate shuttle (ANLS) are still debated. To address this question, we developed a detailed biophysical model of the brain’s metabolic interactions. Our model integrates three modeling approaches, the Buxton-Wang model of vascular dynamics, the Hodgkin-Huxley formulation of neuronal membrane excitability and a biophysical model of metabolic pathways. This approach provides a template for large-scale simulations of the neuron-glia-vasculature (NGV) ensemble, and for the first time integrates the respective timescales at which energy metabolism and neuronal excitability occur. The model is constrained by relative neuronal and astrocytic oxygen and glucose utilization, by the concentration of metabolites at rest and by the temporal dynamics of NADH upon activation. These constraints produced four observations. First, a transfer of lactate from astrocytes to neurons emerged in response to activity. Second, constrained by activity-dependent NADH transients, neuronal oxidative metabolism increased first upon activation with a subsequent delayed astrocytic glycolysis increase. Third, the model correctly predicted the dynamics of extracellular lactate and oxygen as observed  The brain has remarkable information processing capacity, yet is also very energy efficient. How this metabolic efficiency is achieved given the spatial and metabolic constraints inherent to the designs and energy requirements of brain cells is a fundamental question in neurobiology. The major cell classes in mammalian nervous systems include neurons, glia and the microvasculature that supplies the molecular substrates of energy and metabolism. Together, this neuron-glia-vasculature (NGV) ensemble constitutes the functional unit that underlies the cost infrastructure of computation. In spite of its importance, a comprehensive understanding of this dynamic system remains elusive. While it is well established that glucose feeds the brain, few of the details regarding the destiny of glucose intermediates in metabolic pathways are known. Controversy remains regarding the degree of cooperativity between glia and neurons in sharing lactate, the product of aerobic glycolysis (Warburg effect) and one of the substrates for further energy extraction by oxidative processes. Specifically, while experimental data support the occurrence of a flow of lactate from glia to neurons, the astrocyte-neuron lactate shuttle (ANLS), some theoretical considerations have been proposed to support the occurrence of lactate transport in the other direction (NALS). Our computational model is the first to integrate multiple timescales of the NGV unit. It provides a quantitative mathematical description of metabolic activation in neurons and astrocytes, and of the macroscopic measurements obtained during brain imaging that uses metabolism as a proxy for neuronal activity. The mammalian brain exhibits remarkable processing power. It is at the same time energy efficient. The design features that allow such efficient computation are mapped in cellular and molecular components and their roles in information processing. Concurrently, these features are anchored in, and constrained by, the universal metabolic chains that provide energy to cells. Deciphering the metabolic code and the neural code are thus tandem requirements for a comprehensive understanding of brain function. Understanding the metabolic underpinnings of information processing is also of added value to understanding the etiology and progression of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders , 2. The Glutamate, the brain’s major neurotransmitter, effects numerous cascades and processes in brain cells , 4. AmonThe role of astrocytes and how they metabolically interact with neurons is well supported experimentally; some mostly theoretical considerations, however, have challenged this view. Magistretti and colleagues proposed that clearance of glutamate from the synaptic cleft by astrocytes could be coupled to glycolysis and subsequent lactate production . LactateThe existence of an extracellular pool of lactate likely used as an energy reservoir at the onset of stimulation has been observed in rats and humans , 17. The+, or NADH), is a workhorse cofactor that acts as a central electron broker for metabolic redox cycles including glycolysis, the citric acid cycle  and oxidative phosphorylation. Owing to its high UV wavelength absorption, it is also responsible for cellular auto-florescence. This coincidence makes it a useful indicator of metabolic activity. NADH is an important metabolic signal because it is produced or used during both mitochondrial activity and activation of the glycolytic pathway, and because it cannot diffuse freely through the mitochondrial membrane but needs to be transported by appropriate shuttles. Fluctuations of the NADH concentration measured in the appropriate cellular compartments can then indicate increased or decreased oxidative and glycolytic metabolism. A critical previous finding in this regard was the observation of early and late activity-dependent phases of metabolic activity with the early phase taking the form of a NADH “dip” and the late phase appearing as a NADH “overshoot” with a longer time constant of decay . The second time step (∂t = 1 sec) is small enough for the slow metabolic processes and maintains simulation time and memory usage to reasonable values for an average desktop PC. Simulations take a couple of minutes to execute on a recent laptop.The simulations were run in MATLAB . The model was integrated with the ordinary differential equation solver with fixed and optimized parameters (ode15s) that is adapted to stiff systems. We used a time step ∂t = 10We developed a model of the coupling between neuronal activity and metabolic response in neurons and astrocytes. The model employed to simulate the neural-glial-vascular (NGV) functional system is composed of four distinct computational units representing a neuron, an astrocyte, a capillary and the extracellular space . The corWe first tested the model for its responsiveness to an excitatory stimulus  and recoWe then examined the time course of critical intermediates in energy metabolism in response to the same excitatory stimulus. We first focused on the concentration changes of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and phosphocreatine (PCr) in the glial and neuronal compartments . In bothNext, we examined the trajectories of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) in response to the stimulation in the astrocytic, neuronal and mitochondrial compartments . The dasThe initial dip in the neuronal mitochondria is the result of consumption of NADH to produce ATP. A recovery and rebound results when NADH is produced from the consumption of lactate imported into the neuronal cytosol from the extracellular space . In bothThe utilization of glucose and oxygen by neurons and astrocytes during this 20 sec stimulation episode is shown in in vivo situation and compare the predictions of the mathematical model we designed in the precedent sections to two experiments carried out in rats. Tissue oxygen and lactate during stimulus   , as well or OGI)  all suppThe model qualitatively and to some extent quantitatively predicted well-known features of these various macroscopic observables, including the BOLD signal , 60, desThere is mounting evidence in support of a metabolic link between neurons and glial cells. The most prominent experimentally-based conceptual model of neuron-glia metabolic coupling, the astrocyte-neuron lactate shuttle (ANLS), has raised controversies, not so much for the proposed energy-dependent link between the two cell types, but because certain details and mechanisms are debated , 62. Altin vivo in rats. Fourth, the model correctly predicts with good quantitative precision the temporal dynamics of tissue lactate, CMRglc, CMRO2 and of the BOLD signal as reported in human studies. These findings not only support the ANLS hypothesis but also provide a quantitative mathematical description of the metabolic activation in neurons and astrocytes, as well as the macroscopic measurements obtained with brain imaging techniques.Our detailed biophysical model of the NGV ensemble expands on previous models in four distinct ways. First, a shuttling of lactate from astrocytes to neurons emerged in response to activation. Second, the model is consistent with increased neuronal oxidative metabolism and delayed increased astrocytic glycolysis for generating the activity-dependent NADH transients. Third, the model correctly predicts the dynamics of tissue lactate and oxygen as observed The blood oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal which forms the basis of the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology reports fluctuations in brain activity, the molecular and cellular mechanisms of which are still incompletely understood , 63. AltRecent modeling of the neuron-astrocyte cross-talk during oscillations linked to blood oxygenation levels verified the possibility that the slow fMRI BOLD signals might reflect the spontaneous ongoing activity of neuroglial networks . Our resin vivo experimental findings while being only loosely constrained by in vitro experimental findings and by the imposed compartmentalization of glucose uptake between neurons and astrocytes. As argued in Jolivet et al. [in vitro mechanisms support that compartmentalization includes the existence of glutamate-induced glycolysis in astrocytes [As noted in the introduction, controversy surrounds the directionality of lactate flow in the brain with a neuron-to-astrocyte direction proposed by some. Here, following the arguments delineated in Jolivet et al. , we impot et al. , metabolt et al. . This metrocytes , 69, glutrocytes  and the trocytes . Howevertrocytes  for furtMetabolic phenotypes have been suggested that convey a metabolic identity depending on how they utilize the various oxidative and non-oxidative pathways . The re-in vitro and in vivo [Neurons do not appear to suffer functional consequences as a result of their metabolic peculiarities. Lactate can sustain prolonged firing in neurons more efficiently than glucose in culture and can preferentially support activity in both resting and active states  in vivo , 31, 74. in vivo . It is n in vivo , and as  in vivo  and it iin vitro in neurons and in vivo [Astrocytes also support memory formation by supplying neurons with lactate . So cent in vivo . Further in vivo .We present here the first temporal multi-scale model of the NGV that accurately reflects experimental observations in multiple settings and organisms. These findings not only support the ANLS hypothesis but also provide a quantitative mathematical description of the metabolic activation in neurons and astrocytes, as well as of the macroscopic measurements obtained with functional brain imaging techniques.


After several decades of research on the subject, we now know when the first livestock reached southern Africa but the question of how they got there remains a contentious topic. Debate centres on whether they were brought with a large migration of Khoe-speakers who originated from East Africa; or whether the livestock were traded down-the-line among hunter-gatherer communities; or indeed whether there was a long history of diverse small scale population movements in this part of the world, one or more of which ‘infiltrated’ livestock into southern Africa. A new analysis of the distribution of stone toolkits from a sizeable sample of sub-equatorial African Later Stone Age sites, coupled with existing knowledge of the distribution of the earliest livestock remains and ceramics vessels, has allowed us to isolate two separate infiltration events that brought the first livestock into southern Africa just over 2000 years ago; one infiltration was along the Atlantic seaboard and another entered the middle reaches of the Limpopo River Basin. These findings agree well with the latest results of genetic research which together indicate that multiple, small-scale infiltrations probably were responsible for bringing the first livestock into southern Africa. With with them–8. Sincewith them, 9–11. Bwith them–14? Or wwith them–21? Or iwith them–24? Relawith them–30.th parallel shows that around 2000 years ago sheep and cattle were first infiltrated into southern Africa by small groups of hunter-herders on two separate fronts. In the extreme west, sheep were infiltrated southwards along the Atlantic seabord and as far as the southern tip of Africa by hunter-herders carrying a northern stone toolkit. Contemporary with this event, sheep and cattle as well as the art of pottery entered the middle Limpopo River Basin with a smaller infiltration of northern hunter-herders who crossed the watershed from the Zambezi River Basin  sequences remained unchanged . Indeed,er Basin . RapidlyHxaro gift exchange in the recent Kalahari [The dispersion of new ideas, practices and products is a motor of societal change . The impKalahari  providedAt the sub-continental scale of our study, demic diffusion and infiltration are important mechanisms for the diffusion of innovations. At the smaller sub-regional scales, however, individual mobility probably was a more important mechanism. Indeed all three of these mechanisms simultaneously can be active in the spread of innovations: Infiltration can form a bow wave ahead of demic diffusion, and individual frontier mobility can diffuse innovation ahead of the infiltrators. The boundaries between these three mechanisms can be vague and arbitrary. One can imagine them as ill-defined regions on a scalar continuum of diffusion of innovation with, at one extreme, innovations diffusing with the agency of many accompanying people (demic diffusion and folk migration), and at the other extreme no significant population displacement being involved in the diffusion of new traits . In the grey middle ground of this continuum, infiltrationrefers to the diffusion of innovations by small groups of people. How many is many and how small is small? Different researchers would no doubt divide the continuum differently. In sociological and economic studies the spread of innovations can be objectively measured in time, scale and directionality . In due We divide our region of interest into major drainage basins . Of inteIn this space and time of interest, archaeological research coverage is of variable quality and quantity. We will concentrate on the Later Stone Age (LSA) archaeological sites and ignore the Iron Age sites which mostly post-date our main focus and mostly relate to Bantu-speaking farmers who apparently played no direct role in the earliest spread of livestock and ceramics into southern Africa , 49. DifFor stone tools we focus on two major classes. Formal stone tools refer to stone flakes which were retouched to re-sharpen an edge and/or to produce a desired and standardized form. The two major classes of formal tools under examination are scrapers  and backIt is important to note that scraping, cutting or piercing with stone does not require that the tool be retouched. As ethnographic and experimental studies show , freshlyIt has been known for some time that variations in the distribution of retouched scrapers and backed tools in southern African Later Stone Age sites produce significant chronological and geographic patterns, and several attempts had been made to explain their different distributions in functional terms , 52, 63.Our sample for analysis is restricted to Later Stone Age sites located in the drainage basins mentioned above. Site components that are associated with radiocarbon dates from the period between ca. 4000–1000 years ago, and that contain more than 20 formal stone tools are included in this study. A few sites and components that are not directly associated with dates, but whose age can be accurately estimated, have been included in our list. In the literature survey undertaken to date, a total of 123 archaeological site components fit our requirements. Many more Later Stone Age site components have been excavated in these drainage basins, but often they are not absolutely dated, have produced too few formal tools, or their stone tool counts have not been published. Such sites and components may provide supporting arguments but do not contribute to the quantitative analyses and the mapped data. Details of the sites used in our quantitative study are provided in In phase 1, backed-rich toolkits were dominant in the Zambezi River Basin, the Kalahari Drainage Basin and in the northern part of the Namibian Coastal Basin . AlthougPhase 1 scraper-rich toolkits predominate in the Limpopo River Basin, the Orange River Basin as well as the Eastern and Southern Coastal Basins of South Africa. This pattern was also evident in the few thousand years preceding our phase 1 so a scraper-rich toolkit can be seen as a cultural emblem of southern Later Stone Age populations. There are a few interesting exceptions. The southern backed-rich toolkits found in phase 1 of Bambata Cave (Limpopo Basin), Jagt Pan and Blydefontein (Orange Basin) might represent small enclaves of the northern population from early (pre-livestock) infiltrations into the south. In fact, given that the dates from Bambata Cave are close to the phase 2 boundary see , its bacIn the central Namibian Coastal Basin, scraper-rich as well as backed-rich assemblages are present, but the two are spatially discrete. As Wadley  noted, iAt the interface of phases 1 and 2, in the last centuries BC, livestock simultaneously breached the north-south boundary in two different locations; along the Atlantic seaboard and from the Zambezi into the middle reaches of the Limpopo River Basin. In the Namibian Coastal Basin, the stone toolkits from the Brandberg northwards remained backed-rich into phase 2 . Most ofFurther south, in the relatively warm period at the dawn of phase 2, few dated sites are known from Namaqualand but at the site of Spoegrivier Cave the phase 1 scraper-rich assemblage was replaced with a backed-rich one, accompanied with sheep bones and ceramic vessels . One of Die Kelders Cave  at the wCeramic vessels probably first reached the sites in the Western and Southern Coastal Basins along with the earliest sheep, from the Namibian Coastal Basin: The very early, perhaps locally invented fibre-tempered pottery typical of phase 2 in the Orange River Basin , 149 is On the other front, the first sheep probably arrived in the Limpopo River Basin with a smaller scale infiltration of herders from adjacent areas in the Zambezi River Basin. We have already seen that a backed-rich toolkit appeared at Bambata Cave in the last few centuries BC. In the first few centuries AD, Bambata Cave and Tuli Lodge both show a backed-rich toolkit. The former includes sheep bones which unfortunately remain undated. Both sites contain a type of thin-walled mineral tempered pottery known as Bambata ware. Bambata ware diffused throughout the upper Limpopo River Basin among local scraper-rich communities of LSA hunter-gatherers and isolated sherds of Bambata pots are found as far as Manyana in south-eastern Botswana and Jubilee Cave near Pretoria , 151. InConsidering the sub-continental scale, our data points for this study are few but we can use them as a basis for interpolating the distributions of scraper-rich and backed-rich toolkits in sub-equatorial Africa over the period of interest. Using QGIS software (version 2.8.2) and its standard plug-ins , a routiIn this paper we have seen that the sub-equatorial African Later Stone Age sites of the last two millennia BC, our phase 1, can be divided into a backed-rich tradition in the north and a scraper-rich one in the south. Others had already noted this division , 99, 102These conclusions, based on faunal remains, stone tool types and pottery styles, echo several of the latest findings from genetic studies. Two studies of autosomal DNA diversity in southern African Khoisan populations divide those in the northwest Kalahari Basin (Ju speakers:! Xun and Ju|'hoansi) from those in the southeast , and date this split to the last 30,000 years , 157. ThThere is also some genetic evidence to support the linguistic hypothesis  that theThe diversity of the infiltration events can be gauged to some extent by examining the types of genetic admixture in Khoisan populations. A potential East African genetic candidate is mtDNA haplogroup L5, common in East Africa and present exclusively in the Shua and Tshwa at 5% and 18%, respectively . These tThe scale of the infiltrations can perhaps be gauged by examining the proportions of genetic admixture in Khoisan populations. To provide a basis for comparison, it is worth noting that the Bantu migrations, which are clearly evident in the archaeological record are also strongly recorded in the genetic data. In south-western Angola, among some of the most admixed Bantu-speaking populations of southern Africa, the patterns of lineage sharing and admixture estimates suggest that around 75% of mtDNA variation can be traced back to West-Central Africa, which indicates a significant population migration and not a minor infiltration . In geneIn contrast, the diversity of the mtDNA and autosomal genepool among the Khoe-speakers indicates a much more complex series of small-scale population movements, perhaps of the scale that we have classified in the archaeological record as infiltrations and individual frontier mobility. Of the different East African genetic components, for example, the Afro-Asiatic component is largest in the Nama where it only reaches 11%; and the East African ancestry does not exceed 6% in the other southern African Khoisan groups. The NamThe chronology of all these genetic contributions is relatively imprecise. Estimates based on shared E-M293 haplotypes indicate that gene flow between eastern and southern African populations most likely occurred between 1200 and 2700 years ago (standard error bounded by 40–5000 years ago ). The ad


Broomrapes are plant-parasitic weeds which constitute one of the most difficult-to-control of all biotic constraints that affect crops in Mediterranean, central and eastern Europe, and Asia. Due to their physical and metabolic overlap with the crop, their underground parasitism, their achlorophyllous nature, and hardly destructible seed bank, broomrape weeds are usually not controlled by management strategies designed for non-parasitic weeds. Instead, broomrapes are in current state of intensification and spread due to lack of broomrape-specific control programs, unconscious introduction to new areas and may be decline of herbicide use and global warming to a lesser degree. We reviewed relevant facts about the biology and physiology of broomrape weeds and the major feasible control strategies. The points of vulnerability of some underground events, key for their parasitism such as crop-induced germination or haustorial development are reviewed as inhibition targets of the broomrape-crop association. Among the reviewed strategies are those aimed (1) to reduce broomrape seed bank viability, such as fumigation, herbigation, solarization and use of broomrape-specific pathogens; (2) diversion strategies to reduce the broomrape ability to timely detect the host such as those based on promotion of suicidal germination, on introduction of allelochemical interference, or on down-regulating host exudation of germination-inducing factors; (3) strategies to inhibit the capacity of the broomrape seedling to penetrate the crop and connect with the vascular system, such as biotic or abiotic inhibition of broomrape radicle growth and crop resistance to broomrape penetration either natural, genetically engineered or elicited by biotic- or abiotic-resistance-inducing agents; and (4) strategies acting once broomrape seedling has bridged its vascular system with that of the host, aimed to impede or to endure the parasitic sink such as those based on the delivery of herbicides via haustoria, use of resistant or tolerant varieties and implementation of cultural practices improving crop competitiveness. Orobanche and Phelipanche in the Orobanchaceae family . Promising new control strategies have been investigated though the majority of them are under development or remain as prototypes to which farmers have not access. Although some examples of successful control do exist for some crops, the majority of commercially available control methods are either not fully effective or not applicable to many of the affected crops, especially in the case of low-input crops . Their absolute dependence on host-derived nutritive resources for successful seedling establishment and consequent growth makes necessary the synchronization of parasitic germination with the growth of its host. In order to achieve such synchrony they evolved mechanisms that release seed from dormancy triggering germination upon detection of specific molecules contained in host root exudates  in pe weeds . GA actspe weeds . Howeverpe weeds  and stripe weeds . A betteFigure 2D). The papillae form a crown around the apical cells that remain non-papillate but later will become intrusive cells with an essential function in the penetration process. This surface is covered by carbohydrate secretion that sticks the haustorium to the host surface. This structure is described as the external anchorage device of the pre-penetrated haustorium to the host surface . The apical cells in the radicle apex develop into intrusive cells, which successively invade host root cortex, endodermis, and the central cylinder. During the host penetration process, broomrape does not dissolve the host cells in its way toward vascular cylinder. Mechanical force exerted by the haustorium development toward host vascular cylinder combined with enzymatic secretion promotes the separation of host cells without their lysis .Shortly after host penetration and connection, the parasite begins its heterotrophic growth at the expense of host resources. Broomrape acts as a strong sink, depriving the host from water, mineral, and organic nutrients with the consequent negative impact on the growth of the host plant . Few dayThe transfer of nutrients from host to broomrape is performed through a continuous vascular system at the host-parasite interface. A continuous phloem system between broomrape and its host has been microscopically observed at the terminal haustoria. Sieve elements of both organisms are already interconnected by interspecific sieve pores at early stages of parasitism. It allows the parasite to quickly start tapping carbohydrates, amino acids, and organic acids from its host . AlthougNitrogen metabolism remains largely unknown in broomrape. Activity of some nitrogen assimilating enzymes has been reported low in broomrapes. Nitrate reductase is not detectable  and actiUnderstanding the key processes of host recognition, haustorium development and maturation and metabolic regulation of the parasitic sink allow virulence predictions and the design and implementation of highly calibrated, feasible, and durable control strategies leading to the arrest of broomrape parasitism minimizing simultaneously environmental impact and yield losses.Table 1 review the major feasible control measures for broomrape control.Successful broomrape control should target the underground broomrapes at their earlier life stages, prior attachment or as soon as it attach to the host, because of their highest vulnerability at those stages and the avoidance of yield loss in the current crop. The majority of strategies aimed to manage autotrophic weeds do not necessarily work for broomrapes and those that provide a degree of success for broomrape need to be optimized for each broomrape-crop species combination, local environmental conditions and broomrape population. Due to the high broomrape fecundity, long seed viability and for some weedy broomrape species, broad host range, the seed bank is easily replenished and long lasting. Therefore an integrated and sustained management strategy composed by several control methods acting at different broomrape life stages is highly recommended to keep away the broomrape weed problem in a durable manner . The folFigures 2A,B), multiplies the chances of the next generation to encounter a host and achieve successful parasitism  when managed properly as a catch crop can result in up to a 30% reduction in the size of broomrape seed bank  effectively controls preattached stages of broomrapes  but is hongation . Incorpoongation .Natural pesticides derived of microbial and plant origin are considered to be less harmful because they usually biodegrade quicker, resulting in less pollution-related problems. Several toxins have been identified with inhibitory activity on broomrape parasitism by interfering with broomrape germination and radicle elongation . SpecialCertain amino acids strongly inhibit the early development of broomrape without phytotoxic effects in the host . The amiSynthetic analogs of growth regulators can be successfully used to reduce parasitism by hampering the synchronization of the parasitic seed bank with the growth of the host. Inhibition of seed conditioning and subsequent germination mediated by inhibitors of GA synthesis reduces the receptivity of broomrape seeds to germination-inducing factors. In addition, inhibitors of ABA catabolism inhibit the germination-triggering effect of host-derived strigolactones. For example, soil application of uniconazole, a triazole that is commercially used for growth regulation has proved to reduce parasitism by inhibiting seed conditioning and subsequent germination .in vitro to seeds of P. ramosa and O. minor, they bypass the effect of germination-inducing factors, promoting broomrape germination in absence of host or any germination stimulant , presents potential for broomrape control by promoting rapid cessation of broomrape radicle growth and therefore inhibiting its ability to reach the host. In addition it promotes the development of a layer of papillae at the radicle apex in the absence of host contact, morphology that resembles the attachment organ  acts as a functional analog of SA and activates defense responses in susceptible hosts leading to lignification of the endodermis and a consequent inhibition to up to 98% broomrape parasitism  also described as systemic acquired resistance (SAR) induces hypersensitive responses in many plant species against fungal, bacterial and viral diseases. SA promotes resistance to broomrape. Abiotic inducers of SAR thus represent an innovative approach to control broomrape parasitism. Benzo--thiadiazole-7-carbothioic acid rasitism . Commerc tobacco , crops fproteins . The abiRhizobium leguminosarum induces defense mechanisms based on elevated induction of the phenylpropanoid pathway conferring mechanical and chemical barriers to the parasite penetration  and enol-pyruvylshikimate phosphate synthase (EPSPS) enzymes are able to kill broomrape.Four broomrape features define the post-attachment herbicidal strategy in comparison with non-parasitic weeds. First, broomrape weeds are achlorophyllous and therefore those herbicides that target photosynthetic process, e.g., triazines or substituted urease [C group in the Herbicide Resistance Action Committee (HRAC) classification], will have only limited effect on broomrapes. Second, broomrape weed exerts their damage underground right after attachment and therefore, contact herbicides applied after broomrape emergence, e.g., 2,4-Current chemical control of post-attached broomrape life stages is mainly achieved with foliar applications of systemic herbicides inhibiting ALS  or EPSPS (glyphosate) to the leaves of crop varieties carrying target-site resistances to those herbicides to avoid direct injury of their metabolism. The target-site herbicide-resistance is based on a modification of the enzyme in such a way that it binds to its normal substrate in the amino acid biosynthesis pathway but not to the herbicide. This kind of resistance is more interesting than other mechanisms of resistance that usually involve translocation and enhanced metabolism, resulting in lower herbicide concentration in the sap of the host plant. With target-site resistance, the herbicide translocates unmetabolised to the underground broomrape via the haustorium inflicting its suppressive action in the parasite .2).Target-site resistances have been successfully developed in crops either by classical breeding such as sunflower, by screening mutagenized crop populations such as the case of oilseed rape or by transgenic techniques such as tomato, tobacco, carrots, and oilseed rape . Such taGressel, 2009An alternative to the selective use of herbicides when target-site resistance is not available for a specific crop is the touchy use of repeated applications of non-selective herbicidal doses to promote sublethal effects for the crop but lethal effects to the initial stages of post-attached parasitism . This stDeath of the young broomrape tubercles shortly after nutritive flow initiation has been observed in cultivars carrying post-haustorial resistance in the form of growth arrest and necrosis of young tubercles. Several mechanisms underlying this resistance have been described at this stage such as production of gel-like substances within host vessels blocking the transfer of nutrients, host-encoded toxic-compounds delivered into the parasitic tissue though the vascular system and hormonal incompatibility that leads to abnormal haustorial maturation with scarce vascular connections , 2009. TTolerant varieties are able to endure infection with minor losses on productivity. Crops that reach their seed filling period earlier than broomrape initiates its underground bud development are able to restrict parasitic sink and endure parasitic damage , 2012a. If left uncontrolled during one or a few seasons, broomrape weeds build a hardly destructible seed bank in agricultural soils that further renovates at a rate of millions of seeds per ha each year a susceptible crop is infested. In addition, their mixed traits of weed and underground pathogen, make their control tricky. Even the easiest method of control, herbicides, requires broomrape specific-optimization for each cropping system to target the most vulnerable broomrape life stage, the young attachments while preserving the crop. It seems more and more obvious that a single strategy has low probability to control broomrapes. Instead an integrated control program including a battery of broomrape-specific measurements is preferable.We have seen that several opportunities to stop the cycle of the parasite have been explored. The development of the solutions has usually not been conducted to their end so that many potential ways of controlling broomrape are not on the market. What we have often seen is that the solution has to propose a modification that makes the parasitic life cycle unfit to that of the crop. Still, as the parasite is synchronized on the crop development this means in some cases that the change disfavoring the parasite could also limit the maximum potential yield for the crop. As a consequence, except when deeply infested, the farmer (and thus the market) will not retain a solution that has economical negative drawbacks. This may well-explain why some several decades of parasitic plant research have not end up with satisfying and largely available tools for controlling this parasitic plant.Orobanche, the external factors influencing it either through molecular dialog between the parasite and the crop or the soil and climatic environmental conditions naturally opens the way toward the potential effect of the cropping system in limiting broomrape parasitism: choice of the crop, timing, plant protection, soil perturbation, fertilization, etc. This lead us to build the list of the major feasible components that a model designed to quantify the effects of cropping systems on pest dynamics should include for specific broomrape control. Such a model would be a valuable tool to synthesize knowledge on broomrape life-cycle, to design and test management strategies and better predict the variability in effects observed for a given environment and set of agricultural practices. One future development would be to evaluate what could be the emerging risk at cultivating different crops, one of which may stimulate germination while the other offers opportunities for haustorium fixation. This would open the work on parasitism toward more community ecology and what can be considered the realistic nature of parasitism.The advances yielded as intense research made connects the major critical steps of the life cycle of MF-A wrote the paper. XR and SG-L additional text, editing, and comments.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.