Effect of Barberry Eradication on Changes in Populations of Puccinia graminis in Minnesota.

Proportions of formae speciales of Puccinia graminis in collections of aeciospores from barberry were determined from cereal rust survey records from 1912 to 2002 in Minnesota. The frequency of P. graminis f. sp. avenae in aeciospore collections fluctuated between 0 and 10% from 1920 to 2002, even though oat was the dominant small grain crop in Minnesota until 1970. In early years, P. graminis f. sp. tritici was common, but the frequency of P. graminis f. sp. tritici in aeciospore collections declined to a low of 4% in the 1980s, whereas P. graminis f. sp. secalis increased to 96%. After 1990, the frequency of P. graminis f. sp. tritici increased and P. graminis f. sp. secalis declined in aecial collections, possibly indicating a changing proportion of P. graminis f. sp. secalis and tritici on wild grasses near barberry bushes. Diversity of races among uredinial collections of P. graminis f. sp. tritici from wheat in Minnesota declined sharply from 1912 to 1930 and remained low to 2002. Although the races of P. graminis f. sp. tritici most common in uredinial collections also were most common in the aecial collections in five of nine decades from 1912 to 1999 as well in the years 2000 to 2002, the diversity of races was greater among aecial than uredinial collections. Diversity in aecial collections remained nearly constant for 90 years, indicating a continuing contribution of the sexual stage to diversity of P. graminis f. sp. tritici.

Prevalence and Distribution of Common Barberry, the Alternate Host of Puccinia graminis, in Minnesota.

A federal and state program operated from 1918 until the 1980s to eradicate common barberry (Berberis vulgaris), the alternate host of Puccinia graminis, from the major areas of cereal production in the United States. Over 500 million bushes were destroyed nationally during the program, approximately 1 million in Minnesota. Some sites in Minnesota where barberry bushes were destroyed remained in the "active" class when eradication was phased out in the 1980s. Active sites were defined as those on which there was still a possibility of emergence of barberry seedlings or sprouts arising from the parent bush. In the present study, from 1998 to 2002, 72 of the approximately 1,200 active sites in Minnesota were surveyed. Areas within 90 m of mapped locations of previously destroyed bushes were searched carefully at each site. Reemerged barberry plants were found on 32 sites. The reproductive status and GPS coordinates were recorded for each reemerged bush. More than 90% of the barberry bushes were found in counties with less than 400 ha of wheat per county, mostly in southeastern Minnesota, but one bush was found in a major wheat-producing county in northwestern Minnesota. Reemergence of barberry may serve as a source of new wheat stem rust races in future epidemics.

Molecular identification of the turf grass rapid blight pathogen.

Rapid blight is a newly described disease on turf grasses, primarily found on golf courses using suboptimal water for irrigation purposes. On the basis of shared morphological characteristics, it has been proposed that the rapid blight pathogen belongs to a genus of stramenopiles, Labyrinthula, which had been known to cause disease of marine plants only. We have collected 10 isolates from four species of turf grass in five states and sequenced portions of the SSU (18S) rDNA gene from each to provide a definitive taxonomic placement for rapid blight pathogens. We also included sequences from Labyrinthuloides yorkensis, Schizochytrium aggregatum, Aplanochytrium sp., Thraustochytrium striatum, Achlya bisexualis and several nonturf-grass isolates of Labyrinthula. We found that rapid blight isolates indeed are placed firmly within the genus Labyrinthula and that they lack detectable genetic diversity in the 18S rDNA region. We propose that the rapid blight pathogens share a recent common ancestor and might have originated from a single, infected population.

Prevalence and Ecological Association of Foliar Pathogens of Cucumber in North Carolina, 1996-1998.

During the fall growing seasons of 1996-98, 5,400 leaves exhibiting leaf spots were collected from cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) fields and microscopically examined to identify the organisms associated with these symptoms. Five fungal pathogens were associated with leaf lesions: Alternaria cucumerina, Colletotrichum orbiculare, Corynespora cassiicola, Didymella bryoniae, and Pseudoperonospora cubensis; D. bryoniae and C. orbiculare occurred most frequently. When pathogens were paired on five or more leaves, associations between pathogen pairs were tested for independence via a 2-by-2 contingency table χ2 analysis. In all, 66 two-way pathogen associations were tested. Of these, 39 associations were negative (occurred together less often than expected at random), 1 was positive (occurred together more often than expected at random), and, in 16 cases, the pathogens were not associated. An association between C. orbiculare and D. bryoniae occurred 24 times and, each time, the relationship was negative. This result, combined with different environmental requirements for infection, suggests that these pathogens either occupy different niches in the plant canopy or are antagonistic. No relationship between the cultivars grown or the fungicides applied and the pathogens isolated from specific field sites was found. Information on the dominant pathogens responsible for leaf spot epidemics in North Carolina's cucumber fields will be useful to target breeding and disease control strategies.

E.M. Freeman: early research on cereal diseases and the rise of plant pathology at the University of Minnesota.

E.M. Freeman's role in early cereal disease research and the beginning of plant pathology at the University of Minnesota has been overshadowed largely by the enormous prestige of his student, E.C. Stakman. During the first decade of the twentieth century, Freeman was responsible for the transferral from Europe to the United States and the subsequent nurturing of important conceptual and technical developments in the area of cereal disease pathology. Under Freeman's leadership, these ideas would come to shape the direction of plant pathology research at the University of Minnesota for decades to follow.

Prevalence of physical illness among psychiatric inpatients who die of natural causes.

OBJECTIVE: The state psychiatric hospital is experiencing an increase in medically sick and aging patients who die of natural causes while hospitalized. This study explored the "medicalization" of the state hospital by examining the prevalence of medical illness and its relationship with psychiatric illness and age among state hospital psychiatric inpatients who died of natural causes--deaths that were not accidents, homicides, or suicides. METHODS: A total of 179 inpatients who died of natural causes at Western State Hospital in Washington State between 1989 and 1994 were studied retrospectively through case file review. Their demographic and institutional characteristics and psychiatric diagnoses were compared with those of others treated at the hospital (N=9,258). The medical diagnoses of patients who died were analyzed by age and psychiatric condition. RESULTS: The patients who died were much older than the other patients treated during the study period. Two-thirds of those who died had organic mental disorders, mostly dementia, whereas only a fifth of the other patients had these disorders. The patients who died had a mean of eight physical illnesses, with a range from none to 21. Circulatory and respiratory conditions were most prevalent, affecting half to two-thirds of patients; these conditions had high rates of comorbidity with organic mental disorders. CONCLUSIONS: The characteristics of the state hospital population and the services provided are shifting in response to mental health reform and new policies on patient self-determination. Increased emphasis on medical care added to traditional psychiatric services will require increased financial and personnel resources.

Racial differences in the utilization of public mental health services in Washington State.

This study analyzed racial differences in the use of public outpatient mental health services in four regions of Washington State. Patients in this study were enrolled in the state's mental health management information system, which contains detailed information about patient characteristics and service utilization. There were distinct racial differences with respect to baseline characteristics, and even after adjusting for these characteristics and region of the state as well, racial differences in the type and amount of services used persisted. In particular, African-Americans were more likely to use crisis services and were less likely to use individual or group treatment. This previously reported finding requires further exploration.

Frank Lamson-Scribner: botanist and pioneer plant pathologist in the United States.

Frank Lamson-Scribner, in 1885, became the first scientist commissioned by the United States Department of Agriculture with the responsibility to study diseases of economic plants. His innovative approach established the foundation for applied plant pathology at the USDA. In an early international cooperative effort in plant pathology, he detailed the life history of the grape black rot pathogen. His early studies with the Bordeaux mixture introduced the American farmer to the modern era of chemical control. Scribner became the botanist and director of the University of Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station. He published the first book written on the subject of plant diseases in the United States, and described a new nematode disease of potato. He asserted that the practical value of plant pathology to farmers would only follow meticulous studies of the life history of pathogens.

Beverly T. Galloway: visionary administrator.

With a career that began at the University of Missouri in the early 1880s and culminated at the USDA in the 1930s, Beverly Galloway devoted his life to practical botany and agriculture. He became a driving force in the movement for "New Botany" during a period that stressed an experimental approach as well as new disciplines such as plant pathology. As administrator and scientist, he was arguably the single, most influential figure involved in the early growth and development of plant pathology and the plant sciences generally in the USDA. From assistant mycologist in the Section of Mycology to Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry to Assistant Secretary of the USDA, Galloway displayed exceptional administrative acumen. His administrative and scientific skills were instrumental in laying the foundations for the science of plant pathology during its formative period in the United States.

Erythro-9-(2-hydroxy-3-nonyl)adenine inhibits cyclic-3',5'-guanosine monophosphate-stimulated phosphodiesterase to reverse hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction in the perfused rat lung.

Erythro-9-(2-hydroxy-3-nonyl)adenine (EHNA) was shown to reverse the hypoxic pressor response (HPR) in the isolated, blood-perfused rat lung model. EHNA, an adenosine deaminase inhibitor, showed reversal of the HPR in a dose-dependent manner (EC50 = 129 +/- 30 microM). We found that the reversal of HPR by EHNA was not mediated by the adenosine receptors because the EHNA effect was not blocked by the adenosine receptor antagonist, 8-p-sulfophenyl-theophylline (67 microM; n = 6). Pretreatment with a cy-clic-3',5'-adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase inhibitor, Rp-adenosine-3',5'-cyclic monophosphorothioate (0.5 mM; n = 4), blocked EHNA reversal of the HPR. As an alternative mechanism of action, EHNA inhibition of cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase(s) isozymes was studied in endothelium intact and denuded pulmonary arteries. Using anion-exchange chromatography the cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase (PDE) separated into predominantly PDE families 2 and a mixture of 3 and 4. DEAE fractions showing cAMP hydrolysis activated by 5 microM cyclic-3',5'-guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) had a Km for cAMP of 6.3 microM and an apparent Kact for cGMP of 1.4 microM. EHNA was shown to inhibit PDE2 competitively. In intact vessels, the IC50 for EHNA was 3.3 microM using 0.03 microM [3H]-cAMP substrate assayed in the presence of 2 microM cGMP and in denuded vessels 3.7 microM at 0.03 microM [3H]-cAMP substrate in the presence of 5 microM cGMP. Fractions in which cAMP hydrolysis was inhibited or not affected by 5 microM cGMP (PDE3 and 4, respectively) showed an IC50 of > 200 microM for EHNA. We conclude that reversal of the hypoxic pressor response by EHNA in the isolated, perfused rat lung model occurs with a mechanism involving in part inhibition of smooth muscle PDE2.

Use of state hospital staff to provide training for staff of community residential facilities.

State hospital staff and other hospital resources in a region of Washington State were used to train staff of community residential facilities in the care of persons with serious mental illness. Forty-six staff members from 17 community facilities received week-long training in the program's first year. Participants expressed a high level of satisfaction with the program, and facility administrators indicated that it had a positive impact on the overall quality of services in their facility. The annual staff turnover rate among participants was dramatically lower than among other staff in the community facilities.

Simulated scaphoid proximal pole fracture.

Five fresh cadaver upper extremities were studied with use of a static positioning frame, pressure-sensitive film, a microcomputer-based videodigitizing system, and a Sun station image analysis system to assess the load bearing characteristics of the scaphoid in the proximal carpal joint. Specimens were studied in their normal condition, after a proximal pole osteotomy of the scaphoid, and after resection of the proximal pole of the scaphoid. The amount of contact area born through the scaphoid fossa was essentially the same whether the scaphoid was intact, or after a simulated scaphoid fracture of its proximal pole, or after resection of the proximal pole. The scaphoid contact area and pressure, although overall relatively constant, was redistributed after osteotomy, resulting in increased contact area under the distal fragment and no change or a slight decrease in the contact area under the proximal fragment of the scaphoid. After resection of the proximal fragment, all scaphoid contact area and pressure was born by the distal scaphoid fragment. The contact area and pressure characteristics of the lunate remained unchanged in all conditions compared with the normal condition. There were no significant changes in the locations of the centroids of the scaphoid segments and the lunate in any of the conditions tested.

The silicone scaphoid: a biomechanical study.

Five fresh cadaver upper extremities were studied by use of a static positioning frame, pressure-sensitive film, and a microcomputer-based videodigitizing system, to assess the load-bearing characteristics of a scaphoid silicone implant within the radioulnarcarpal joint. Specimens were studied in their "normal" condition, after resection of the scaphoid, after placement of a scaphoid implant, and with a scaphoid implant and a simulated capitate-lunate-triquetrum-hamate fusion. The scaphoid silicone implant bore significant, although less, load than the normal scaphoid. Decreasing the size of the scaphoid implant decreased the load born by the implant. Decreased load through the scaphoid implant was compensated by the lunate. The addition of a limited carpal fusion did not significantly decrease the load born by a scaphoid implant. Therefore, the silicone scaphoid implant is a load-bearing implant even when undersized or placed in association with a limited carpal fusion.

Effects of distal radius fracture malunion on wrist joint mechanics.

An experimental model using a static positioning frame, pressure-sensitive film (Fuji), and a microcomputer-based videodigitizing system was used to measure contact areas and pressures in the wrist. Contact areas and pressures were compared in a group of wrists between the normal state and with simulated distal radius fracture malunions of varying degrees. In simulated malunions, radial shortening to any degree slightly increased the total contact area in the lunate fossa, and was significant at 2 mm of shortening. By angulating the distal radius more than 20 degrees either palmar or dorsal, there was a dorsal shift in the scaphoid and lunate high pressure areas, and the loads were more concentrated, but there was no change in the load distribution between the scaphoid and lunate. Decreasing the radial inclination shifted the load distribution so that there was more load in the lunate fossa and less load in the scaphoid fossa.

Effects of radioulnar instability on the radiocarpal joint: a biomechanical study.

Five fresh cadaver upper extremities were studied with use of a static positioning frame, pressure-sensitive film and a microcomputer-based videodigitizing system to assess the effect of increasing radioulnar instability on the load distribution within the proximal carpal joint. Three stages of radioulnar instability were studied: (1) an avulsion fracture at the base of the ulna styloid; (2) an avulsion fracture at the base of the ulna styloid plus disruption of the dorsal portion of the distal radioulnar joint capsule; and (3) an avulsion fracture at the base of the ulna styloid, disruption of the dorsal portion of the distal radioulnar joint capsule, and disruption of the radioulnar interosseous membrane. All stages of radioulnar instability demonstrated a decrease in the lunate contact area in positions with the forearm in supination. In stage 3 instability there was also less lunate contact area in positions with the forearm in neutral pronation/supination. In stage 3 instability the lunate high pressure area centroid was abnormally palmar in all positions and the scaphoid high pressure area centroid was abnormally palmar in positions with the forearm in pronation or supination.

Ulnar-sided perilunate instability: an anatomic and biomechanic study.

A staging system for ulnar-sided perilunate instability is presented based on a series of cadaver dissections and load studies. Stage I: partial or complete disruption of the lunotriquetral interosseous ligament, without clinical and/or radiographic evidence of dynamic or static volar intercalated segment instability deformity; stage II: complete disruption of the lunotriquetral interosseous ligament and disruption of the palmar lunotriquetral ligament, with clinical and/or radiographic evidence of dynamic volar intercalated segment instability deformity; and stage III: complete disruption of the lunotriquetral interosseous and the palmar lunotriquetral ligaments, attenuation or disruption of the dorsal radiocarpal ligament, with clinical and/or radiographic evidence of static volar intercalated segment instability deformity.

Evaluation of the biomechanical efficacy of limited intercarpal fusions for the treatment of scapho-lunate dissociation.

An experimental model that uses a static positioning frame, pressure-sensitive film, and a microcomputer-based videodigitizing system was used to measure the contact areas and pressures in a group of wrists in their "normal" state, after ligament sectioning, which resulted in stage III perilunate instability and then following different types of simulated carpal fusions. Compared with a normal wrist, there is an overall decrease in load in the lunate fossa and a significant increase in load in the scaphoid fossa in the wrist with stage III perilunate instability. Scaphoid-trapezium-trapezoid and scaphoid-capitate fusions transmitted almost all load through the scaphoid fossa. Scaphoid-lunate, scaphoid-lunate-capitate, and capitate-lunate fusions all distributed load more proportionately through both scaphoid and lunate fossae. The positioning of the carpal bones within a limited carpal fusion was also found to affect the load distribution in the wrist. The scaphoid-lunate, scaphoid-lunate-capitate, or capitate-lunate fusions, with attention to the relative carpal alignment within the limited fusion seem to offer more promise for treatment of perilunate instability biomechanically than the scaphoid-trapezium-trapezoid or scaphoid-capitate fusions.

Ethnic populations: community mental health services ten years later.

In a replication of a series of studies conducted by Sue and colleagues in the mid-1970s, demographic and service data were retrieved for the Seattle-King County area from the Washington Mental Health Information System. Caucasian clients were compared against Asian, black, Hispanic, and Native American client groups, and, where possible, against the findings reported earlier by Sue. These clients were compared in terms of basic demographic characteristics, characteristics of staff providing the services, dropout rates, and average number of services received. The most notable findings are (a) that failure-to-return rates are dramatically lower for the current sample than for Sue's and not greatly different for minorities than for Caucasians, (b) that variability in failure-to-return rates is most strongly related to level of functioning and not related to minority status, and (c) that although Asian Americans still average fewer services than Caucasians (other minorities do not differ significantly), the mean number of services had increased substantially for all groups but more for minorities than for Caucasians.