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In 2002, several plants of Hebe x franciscana cv. Variegata, grown in a public garden near Rome, Italy, showed wilting and severe stunting. Symptoms on affected plants started with yellowing and browning of the lower leaves, followed by wilting of one or more branches. Stunting and death of plants were sometimes observed. Longitudinal sections of stems showed discoloration of vascular tissues extending from the base upwards. Isolations were attempted directly from discolored vascular tissues on potato dextrose aga rose. Fungal colonies were consistently obtained and identified as Verticillium dahliae on the basis of the morphology of conidia, conidiophores and microsclerotia.

Background: Recent research in cognitive neurosciences highlights how the neural circuitries are activated during pain responses in empathic context., Aims: The present study was designed to test if healthy subjects and Fibromyalgia (FM) patients, both evaluated by Laser Evoked Potentials (LEPs) and Event-Related Spectral Perturbation (ERSP), might reveal the empathic response to the partner's nociceptive stimulation., Methods: The emphatic nociceptive paradigm was recorded through 64 channels EEG and laser stimulation of the right hand in a shared visual open setting (Open Condition) or in a blind setting (Blind condition) where the subjects didn't receive visual information about partner nociceptive condition. Twenty one healthy subjects and 19 FM patients were evaluated in pairs. All subjects were tested by the Empathy for Pain Scale (EPS)., Results: The averaged LEPs were similar between patients and controls in the different conditions. In attendance of the partner's stimulation, FM patients desynchronized the same fronto-central regions as before own stimulation, while healthy subjects shared the other's pain by activating scalp areas compatible with visual attention. These EEG features were more represented in subjects with higher EPS scores., Conclusions: While empathic features of healthy subjects seemed influenced by the specific visual attentional task, patients expressed an EEG pattern compatible with somatosensory circuits activation in the expectation of own and other's pain. The visual empathic involvement in other's noxious stimulation could evoke a different EEG response depending upon the experience of chronic pain., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Introduction: Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is a congenital condition with an underdeveloped left ventricle (LV) that provides inadequate systemic blood flow postnatally. The development of HLHS is postulated to be due to altered biomechanical stimuli during gestation. Predicting LV size at birth using mid-gestation fetal echocardiography is a clinical challenge critical to prognostic counseling., Hypothesis: We hypothesized that decreased ventricular filling in utero due to mitral stenosis may reduce LV growth in the fetal heart via mechanical growth signaling., Methods: We developed a novel finite element model of the human fetal heart in which cardiac myocyte growth rates are a function of fiber and cross-fiber strains, which is affected by altered ventricular filling, to simulate alterations in LV growth and remodeling. Model results were tested with echocardiogram measurements from normal and HLHS fetal hearts., Results: A strain-based fetal growth model with a normal 22-week ventricular filling (1.04 mL) was able to replicate published measurements of changes between mid-gestation to birth of mean LV end-diastolic volume (EDV) (1.1-8.3 mL) and dimensions (long-axis, 18-35 mm; short-axis, 9-18 mm) within 15% root mean squared deviation error. By decreasing volumetric load (-25%) at mid-gestation in the model, which emulates mitral stenosis in utero , a 65% reduction in LV EDV and a 46% reduction in LV wall volume were predicted at birth, similar to observations in HLHS patients. In retrospective blinded case studies for HLHS, using mid-gestation echocardiographic data, the model predicted a borderline and severe hypoplastic LV, consistent with the patients' late-gestation data in both cases. Notably, the model prediction was validated by testing for changes in LV shape in the model against clinical data for each HLHS case study., Conclusion: Reduced ventricular filling and altered shape may lead to reduced LV growth and a hypoplastic phenotype by reducing myocardial strains that serve as a myocyte growth stimulus. The human fetal growth model presented here may lead to a clinical tool that can help predict LV size and shape at birth based on mid-gestation LV echocardiographic measurements.

Apple trees in an orchard in Quebec, Canada were treated, following label directions, with the fungicide captan (1,2,3,6-tetrahydro-N-(trichloromethylthio)phthalimide) during the 2003 agricultural season. A total of 142 apples from three rows of trees were selected for determination of captan by GC/MS. Individual apples were found to contain captan levels ranging from 16.9 to 6350 ng g-1. Only two individual apple samples exceeded the Canadian maximum residue limit (5000 ng g-1) for captan in apples. Six composite samples, comprising half portions of eight individual apples, were analysed from each of the three experimental rows. Composite samples ranged in concentration from 166 to 2620 ng g-1. The greatest uncertainty associated with the measured concentrations was due to variability among apples rather than the measurement of residue levels.

Azinphos-methyl, phosalone, and phosmet were applied individually to separate rows of trees within a commercial apple orchard in Quebec, Canada, during the 2003 agricultural season. Apples were collected for residue analysis immediately prior to the harvesting of the remaining apples for market distribution and were prepared for analysis as both individual apples and as composites of eight individuals. Analysis of the three applied compounds, as well as five organophosphate insecticides that were not applied, was performed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Azinphos-methyl, phosalone, and phosmet, which were applied, were detected in all samples analyzed at concentrations ranging from 0.004 ng/g to 2260 ng/g. Methidathion was not observed in any sample. Chlorpyrifos, diazinon, dimethoate, and malathion concentrations ranged from below method detection limits to 0.71 ng/g, and the detection frequency for these compounds ranged from 20% to 100%. Residues measured in this study were all below the Canadian maximum residue limit for apples. Variability factors ranged from 2 to 19 for all compounds observed in this study. Composite samples may not accurately reflect the extremes of exposure from consumption of single servings of apples.