An Extended Method for Saccadic Eye Movement Measurements Using a Head-Mounted Display.

Saccadic eye movementis an important ability in our daily life and is especially important in driving and sports. Traditionally, the Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test and the King-Devick (K-D) test have been used to measure saccadic eye movement, but these only involve measurements with "adjusted time". Therefore, a different approach is required to obtain the eye movement speed and reaction rate in detail, as some are rapid eye movements, while others are slow actions, and vice versa. This study proposed a extended method that can acquire the "rest time" and "transfer time", as well as the "adjusted time", by implementing a virtual reality-based DEM test, using a FOVE virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display, equipped with an eye-tracking module. This approach was tested in 30 subjects with normal vision and no ophthalmologic disease by using a 2-diopter (50-cm) distance. This allowed for measurement of the "adjusted time" and the "rest time" for focusing on each target number character, the "transfer time" for moving to the next target number character, and recording of the gaze-tracking log. The results of this experiment showed that it was possible to analyze more parameters of the saccadic eye movement with the proposed method than with the traditional methods.

Burkholderia gladioli strain NGJ1 deploys a prophage tail-like protein for mycophagy.

Fungal pathogens are responsible for approximately two third of the infectious plant diseases. Historically they have been associated with several devastating famines, causing death and disabilities in humans. Mostly fungal diseases are being controlled by using fungicides which otherwise have adverse side effects on the health of consumers as well as environment. Due to extensive usages, pathogens have evolved resistance against most of the commonly used fungicides and rendered them ineffective. Controlling fungal disease in a sustainable and eco-friendly fashion remains a challenge. The antifungal biocontrol agents are being considered as potent, alternative and ecofriendly approach to manage fungal diseases. In our recent work, we have identified a rice associated bacterium; Burkholderia gladioli strain NGJ1 which demonstrates broad spectrum fungal eating (mycophagous) property. We determined that the bacterium utilizes its type III secretion system (Injectisome) machinery to deploy a prophage tail-like protein (Bg_9562) into fungal cells to devour them. The purified Bg_9562 protein from over-expressing recombinant E. coli strain demonstrates broad spectrum antifungal activity. Overall our study opens up a new opportunity to exploit prophage tail-like protein as potent antifungal compound to control plant as well as animal fungal diseases.