The goal of this work was the assessment of commercial vineyard water status using on-the-go thermal imaging. On-the-go thermal imaging acquisition was conducted with a thermal camera operating at 1.20 m distance from the canopy, mounted on a quad moving at 5 km/h. Canopy temperature, cross water stress index (CWSI) and stomatal conductance index (Ig) were strongly and significantly correlated to stem water potential (Ψstem) in east and west side of the canopy. For CWSI, the values of the coefficient of determination (R2) were 0.88*** and 0.73*** for east and west sides, respectively. As regards the index Ig, its relationships with Ψstem showed R2=0.89*** and R2=0.77*** for east and west sides, respectively. These results are promising and evidence the potential of on-the-go thermal imaging to become a new tool to evaluate the vineyard water status.

The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of a chicken-meat extract known as Essence of Chicken (EOC) on immune function in a normal and scalded animal model. In this experimental study, 120 rats were randomly allocated into three groups: a SHAM group (inflicted with a sham wound), a BURN group (inflicted with a full-thickness scald wound covering 30 % of total body surface area) and a CONTROL group. Rats in the SHAM and BURN groups were further divided into normal saline (NS)-fed and EOC-fed groups. They were fed by force-feeding with a feeding needle and blood samples were taken from each group on days 1, 8, 15 and 22 postburn. Serum IgG, IgA and IgM concentrations were determined by ELISA and the results of the EOC-fed and NS-fed cohorts of both the SHAM and BURN groups were compared. The level of significance was set at P<0·05. Serum IgG level of both SHAM-EOC and BURN-EOC cohorts showed significant elevation on day 8. IgA exhibited a significant increase in the SHAM-EOC group on day 15 and in the BURN-EOC group on day 22. A significant increase of IgM level was found on days 1 and 22 for the SHAM-EOC group and on day 15 for the BURN-EOC group. Conclusively, EOC was shown to have an enhancing effect on serum Ig levels for both normal and tissue-stressed rats. It is suggested that EOC may help improve immune function when the immune system is at normal status or when it faces a challenge.