Variation in Susceptibility to Downy Mildew Infection in Spanish Minority Vine Varieties.

Downy mildew is one of the most destructive diseases affecting grapevines (Vitis vinifera L.). Caused by the oomycete Plasmopara viticola (Berk. and Curt.) Berl. and de Toni, it can appear anywhere where vines are cultivated. It is habitually controlled by the application of phytosanitary agents (copper-based or systemic) at different stages of the vine growth cycle. This, however, is costly, can lead to reduced yields, has a considerable environmental impact, and its overuse close to harvest can cause fermentation problems. All grapevines are susceptible to this disease, although the degree of susceptibility differs between varieties. Market demands and European legislation on viticulture and the use of phytosanitary agents (art. 14 of Directive 128/2009/EC) now make it important to know the sensitivity of all available varieties, including minority varieties. Such knowledge allows for a more appropriate use of phytosanitary agents, fosters the commercial use of these varieties and thus increases the offer of wines associated with different terroirs, and helps identify material for use in crop improvement programmes via crossing or genetic transformation, etc. Over 2020-2021, the susceptibility to P. viticola of 63 minority vine varieties from different regions of Spain was examined in the laboratory using the leaf disc technique. Some 87% of these varieties were highly susceptible and 11% moderately susceptible; just 2% showed low susceptibility. The least susceptible of all was the variety Morate (Madrid, IMIDRA). Those showing intermediate susceptibility included the varieties Sanguina (Castilla la Mancha, IVICAM), Planta Mula (Comunidad Valenciana, ITVE), Rayada Melonera (Madrid, IMIDRA), Zamarrica (Galicia, EVEGA), Cariñena Roja (Cataluña, INCAVI), Mandrègue (Aragón, DGA) and Bastardo Blanco (Extremadura, CICYTEX). The highly susceptible varieties could be differentiated into three subgroups depending on sporulation severity and density.

All-inkjet-printed thin-film transistors: manufacturing process reliability by root cause analysis.

We report on the detailed electrical investigation of all-inkjet-printed thin-film transistor (TFT) arrays focusing on TFT failures and their origins. The TFT arrays were manufactured on flexible polymer substrates in ambient condition without the need for cleanroom environment or inert atmosphere and at a maximum temperature of 150 °C. Alternative manufacturing processes for electronic devices such as inkjet printing suffer from lower accuracy compared to traditional microelectronic manufacturing methods. Furthermore, usually printing methods do not allow the manufacturing of electronic devices with high yield (high number of functional devices). In general, the manufacturing yield is much lower compared to the established conventional manufacturing methods based on lithography. Thus, the focus of this contribution is set on a comprehensive analysis of defective TFTs printed by inkjet technology. Based on root cause analysis, we present the defects by developing failure categories and discuss the reasons for the defects. This procedure identifies failure origins and allows the optimization of the manufacturing resulting finally to a yield improvement.

Application of an e-tongue to the analysis of monovarietal and blends of white wines.

This work presents a multiparametric system capable of characterizing and classifying white wines according to the grape variety and geographical origin. Besides, it quantifies specific parameters of interest for quality control in wine. The system, known as a hybrid electronic tongue, consists of an array of electrochemical microsensors-six ISFET based sensors, a conductivity sensor, a redox potential sensor and two amperometric electrodes, a gold microelectrode and a microelectrode for sensing electrochemical oxygen demand--and a miniaturized optofluidic system. The test sample set comprised eighteen Catalan monovarietal white wines from four different grape varieties, two Croatian monovarietal white wines and seven bi- and trivarietal mixtures prepared from the Catalan varieties. Different chemometric tools were used to characterize (i.e., Principal Component Analysis), classify (i.e., Soft Independent Modeling Class Analogy) and quantify (i.e., Partial-Least Squares) some parameters of interest. The results demonstrate the usefulness of the multisensor system for analysis of wine.