Publications

Invasive alien invertebrate pests and microbial diseases of woody plants cause serious damage to the economy and the environment, but most of these pests were unknown prior to their introduction. Sentinel plants are a new tool to identify pests in the country of origin, which may inform pest risk analysis and allow development of measures to mitigate the risk of introduction.

The Final Report presented is a first important step for the evaluation of suburban building quality in Europe. The comparison between the experiences of different countries provides an overall survey of the functional and technical quality of European post-war multi-family housing stock, and cooperation between countries will encourage an integrated building refurbishment strategy. Hence this report, complemented with other parallel publications, should serve as a valuable tool for the improvement of suburban building stock. It should truly be the key to providing a leap in the quality of life of the inhabitants.

At the first meeting of Working Group 2, organized by IVALSA Institute at the CNR (National Research Council) Area of Florence of May 10-12, 2007, scientists from 14 European Countries presented 24 lectures, dealing with various aspects of plant cryopreservation, from the development of efficient procedures to their application on germplasm collections in Europe. Keynote lectures on cryotheraphy, cryopreservation, of invertebrate organisms and germplasm cryopreservation in Argentina completed the programme. This special Issue of Advances in Horticultural Science presents a selection of 21 papers from the Meeting, carefully revised from a Scientific Committee composed by some of the major European experts on plant cryopreservation.