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Larvae of black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus), grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), and bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) were collected at a stationary location in the Changsha section of the Xiangjiang River from May, 2011 to July, 2020, and the relationships between abundance of the larvae and hydrological indices were analysed. Our results showed that the first appearance time of the larvae exhibited obvious annual differences, most of which were concentrated in mid-to-late May and early June, whereas 2016 was advanced to early May, which was the earliest year in the investigated 10 years. Moreover, the larval emergence was concentrated in mid-to-late May from 2017 to 2020, which was significantly earlier than those in early June of 2011-2013. Larval compositions of the four major carp species were significantly different between different years. Only water temperature significantly correlated with the compositions of the four major carp larvae. Water temperature significantly correlated with the catch-per-unit-of-effort of C. idella larvae, and rainfall for 3 consecutive days significantly correlated with the catch-per-unit-of-effort of H. nobilis larvae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Litchi (Litchi chinensis) pepper spot disease results in black spotting symptoms on litchi fruits. This disease was first observed on litchi cultivar Guiwei, in Guangzhou, China, in 2009, and then found widespread in other litchi‐growing regions of China. Colletotrichum isolates were consistently recovered from typical black spot lesions of diseased fruits with frequency ranging from 83% to 100%. Three representative Colletotrichum isolates from Maoming, Guangzhou and Shenzhen were selected for identification and pathogenicity testing in the field. Based on morphology and phylogenetic analysis using the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer region (ITS), glyceraldehyde‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), calmodulin (CAL), actin (ACT), β‐tubulin (TUB2) and glutamine synthetase (GS) gene sequences, the three isolates were identified as C. siamense. In the pathogenicity experiments, typical symptoms appeared on the inoculated litchi fruits, including black spots and green patches around these black spots. These symptoms were consistent with the symptoms originally observed in the field. Colletotrichum siamense was successfully reisolated from the typical black spot lesions of the inoculated litchi fruits. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report on characterization of C. siamense as the causal agent of litchi pepper spot disease in mainland China by successful inoculation on fruits under field conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To define the nature and incidence of minor anomalies in Chinese newborn infants and to evaluate the validity of the hypothesis that infants with three or more minor surface anomalies will also have a major malformation. Methods: A total of 3,345 Chinese newborn infants were examined based on a list of 67 items of minor anomalies. Results: About 44.9% of the newborn infants had at least one minor anomaly that was unrelated to gender, maternal age, or gestational age, but significantly associated with fetal presentation. Breech-presented newborn infants had double the risk of minor anomalies. Simian crease, upward slant and frontal bossing could be considered normal variants for Chinese newborn infants, because the incidence of each was higher than 4%. Conclusions: Although some studies have shown that approximately 90% of infants having three or more minor anomalies are associated with a major malformation, we found only a 10.1% predictive value based on this study. Nevertheless, we suggest that infants with three or more minor anomalies be carefully evaluated for the possibility of major malformation in order to provide early management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]