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California's coastal climate is characterized by rainy winters followed by a dry summer season that is supplemented by frequent fog. While rising temperatures and drought caused massive tree mortality in central California during the 2011–2015 extreme drought, dying trees were less common in the central coast region. We hypothesized that cooler, maritime-ameliorated temperatures reduced the effects of drought stress on coastal vegetation. To test this, weekly measurements of water potential and stomatal conductance were made on two coast evergreen tree species, Arbutus menziesii and Quercus agrifolia, throughout the summer 2014 dry season. Water potential remained generally constant during this period but stomatal conductance declined in both species as the dry season progressed. Species' resistance to embolism was determined using the centrifuge method, and showed Q. agrifolia to be more vulnerable to embolism than A. menziesii. The stem vulnerability curves were consistent with species' seasonal water relations as well as their anatomy; the ring-porous Q. agrifolia had substantially larger conduits than the diffuse-porous A. menziesii. Leaf turgor loss points differed significantly as did other pressure-volume parameters but these data were consistent with the trees' seasonal water relations. Overall, the two species appear to employ differing water use strategies; A. menziesii is more profligate in its water use, while Q. agrifolia is more conservative, with a narrower safety margin against drought-induced loss of xylem transport capacity. Despite the extended drought, these species exhibited neither branch die-back nor any obvious symptoms of pronounced water-stress during the study period, implying that the maritime climate of California's central coast may buffer the local vegetation against the severe effects of prolonged drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: ARDS is a highly morbid condition characterized by diffuse pulmonary inflammation, which results in hypoxemic respiratory failure. Approximately 25% of patients with ARDS develop right ventricular dysfunction, with cor pulmonale being a common final pathway in a significant number of non-survivors. ARDS-related right ventricular dysfunction occurs due to acute elevation in ventricular afterload caused by mechanisms that are associated with increased pulmonary dead space fraction. Thus, we hypothesized that changes in pulmonary dead space fraction may reflect changes in pulmonary hemodynamics. METHODS: This was a prospective single-center study of 21 subjects with ARDS who underwent serial determination of pulmonary dead space fraction and pulmonary hemodynamics via transthoracic echocardiography. Linear mixed-effects modeling was performed to test for an association between a change in pulmonary dead space and a change in pulmonary hemodynamics. RESULTS: The tricuspid regurgitation velocity to right ventricular outflow track velocity time integral ratio, an echocardiographic surrogate for pulmonary vascular resistance, increased by 0.16 Wood units (Coefficient 0.16, 95% CI 0.09 - 0.23; P < .001), and the tricuspid regurgitation pressure gradient increased by 3.7 mm Hg (Coefficient 3.7, 95% CI 1.74 -5.63, P < .001) for every 10% increase in pulmonary dead space fraction. CONCLUSIONS: Increases in the pulmonary dead space fraction were associated with relative increases in both the tricuspid regurgitation velocity to right ventricular outflow track velocity time integral ratio and the tricuspid regurgitation pressure gradient, which likely contributed to the high incidence of ARDS-related right ventricular dysfunction encountered in clinical practice. Pulmonary dead space monitoring may serve as a clinical indicator to identify patients with ARDS at risk of developing right ventricular dysfunction and acute cor pulmonale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to validate brief intake screens for serious mental illnesses among New Zealand male prisoners. Methods: A prospective survey of consecutively admitted male remanded and sentenced prisoners was conducted across two New Zealand sites. Participants completed the Brief Jail Mental Health Screen (BJMHS) and the English Mental Health Screen (EMHS) upon prison admission. The validation standard, the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), was completed for all positive screens and a random selection of negative screens. Results: A total of 1,292 brief screens and 530 MINI screens were completed. Fifty-one percent of the participants met MINI criteria for one of five targeted major mental disorders. In this study, the BJMHS performed with lower sensitivity, higher specificity, a lower false-positive rate, a significantly higher false-negative rate, and a much higher referral rate than in the validating U.S. study. And in this study the EMHS performed with lower sensitivity, less specificity, higher false-positive and false-negative rates, and a moderately higher overall referral rate than in the validating U.K. study. For the BJMHS and EMHS, the majority of false-negative cases involved a mood disorder and few involved psychosis. Conclusions: Although the BJMHS and EMHS did not perform well in terms of screening for MINI diagnoses, they appeared to be good at identifying a core group of prisoners who are psychotic and most likely to require urgent or semi-urgent intervention by mental health services. The most favorable clinical outcomes were achieved by defining a positive screen as one in which either the EMHS or the BJMHS criteria were fulfilled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statolith microstructure was studied in hatchlings of deepwater-spawned gonatid squid Gonatus onyx, caught between 1350 and 1420 m over a bottom depth of 2100 m in the San Clemente Basin off San Diego, California. It was found that the shape and size of the hatchling statolith were similar to those of the first-check statolith observed in paralarvae and small juveniles of G.onyx. The inner part of the bipartite postnuclear zone (= first-check statolith) is formed during late embryo-genesis, and the first check within the statolith microstructure must be considered as a starting point of increment counting for age estimation of Gonatus spp. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Options for managing southern blight of processing tomato (caused by Athelia rolfsii ) in California are limited. The objectives of this study were to: (i) evaluate grafting with the resistant rootstock Maxifort for southern blight management in processing tomato and (ii) evaluate increasing the height of the graft union to further reduce incidence of southern blight in grafted plants. We evaluated two cultivars (Heinz 5608 or Heinz 8504) and a grafting factor with three levels (grafted to Maxifort rootstock with standard scion height, grafted to Maxifort rootstock at a tall height, and nongrafted) in a field study with natural inoculum or in inoculated greenhouse experiments. Southern blight severity was low in both greenhouse experiments in 2018 and 2019, and no consistent trends were observed. In field experiments in 2018 and 2019, mean incidence in nongrafted plots was 6.2 to 17.0 times higher when compared with either the standard or tall grafted treatments. Southern blight was numerically lower in tall grafted plots compared with standard, but the magnitude was small and not statistically significant. Based on our studies, grafting can reduce losses of processing tomato in California to southern blight, but increasing the height of the graft union does not offer a tangible benefit., Competing Interests: The author(s) declare no conflict of interest.