Resistance of the Soybean Cultivar Archer to Pythium Damping-Off and Root Rot Caused by Several Pythium spp.

Archer, a maturity group I soybean cultivar with demonstrated flood tolerance and resistance to Pythium ultimum, was compared with Hutcheson, a widely planted maturity group V cultivar in Arkansas, for resistance to P. ultimum, P. irregulare, P. aphanidermatum, P. vexans, and group HS. Emergence and establishment assays demonstrated that Archer had greater emergence and fewer disease symptoms after 10 days for all pathogenic species of Pythium than did Hutcheson. Archer also demonstrated higher root weights and fewer disease symptoms compared with Hutcheson in assays conducted for 6 weeks. Similar results were found using two different seed lots of the cultivars, suggesting that the results were not due to seed quality differences. This study indicates that resistance in Archer to Pythium damping-off and root rot compared with Hutcheson is robust, with efficacy over a number of Pythium spp. and a range of plant developmental stages.

Tardive dyskinesia: probing abnormal metabolism with promethazine.

Ten in-patients with tardive dyskinesia (TD) (mean AIMS score 16.7) and 8 controls were recruited to the study, and 3 h after oral administration of promethazine a blood sample was taken for assay of levels of promethazine and its immediate metabolites by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The TD group had a variety of indicators of impaired or slow metabolism compared to the controls. There was a significant difference in the ratio of promethazine to promethazine sulphoxide (P < 0.05) between patients with TD and the control group. The TD group but not the controls showed increasing metabolic impairment with age. This small study confirms the previous reports of impaired neuroleptic metabolism in TD, particularly in the elderly.

Catatonia, autism, and ECT.

We describe the clinical presentation, course, and treatment response of a 14-year-old boy with catatonic stupor. This patient, with a preexisting diagnosis of autism, displayed mutism, akinesia, and an extreme level of rigidity, waxy flexibility, posturing, including the psychological pillow, facial grimacing, and other involuntary movements of his upper extremities. In addition he had symptoms suggestive of a depressive disorder as well as some non-specific psychotic symptoms. Intravenous injection of sodium amytal failed to resolve any motor symptoms, although he showed a good response to the zolpidem test. A course of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) caused dramatic and sustained relief of catatonic stupor without a change in the symptoms of autism. The presentation of catatonia in autism and the use of ECT in children are discussed, and the available literature reviewed. This is the first description of the use of ECT in the treatment of catatonia coinciding with autism and we confirm its efficacy.

Unilateral temporal lobe damage and the partial Kluver-Bucy syndrome.

The characteristic behavioural constellation of Kluver-Bucy syndrome is believed to be diagnostic of bilateral temporal lobe damage, even in the partial syndrome. The case described is that of a 54 year old woman with gross atrophy of her right temporal lobe following neurosurgery who developed hyperphagia (with driven food-seeking behaviour), placidity and hyposexuality. Her case thereby meets criteria for the partial syndrome but without evidence of bilateral damage. The discussion covers the various presentations of hyperphagia, the significance of the symptom cluster of Kluver-Bucy syndrome and the management difficulties presented by hyperphagia.

Determination of skin:air partition coefficients for volatile chemicals: experimental method and applications.

The partition coefficient (PC) of a chemical in skin is an indicator of the capacity for a chemical in the skin and may reflect the rate at which a chemical penetrates the skin and enters into systemic circulation. In this study we present a simple method to measure the skin:air PC for volatile organic chemicals. Important considerations in the development of this method for a skin:air PC were the effect of size and shape of the skin sample, initial chemical concentration, and time to equilibrium in the skin. Clipped, whole-thickness skin was obtained from the dorsal surface of 8- to 16-week-old male F-344 rats. After removal of the hypodermis, skin was cut into strips and placed on the side of a glass vial. An organic chemical vapor was introduced into a sealed sample vial (initial concentration before equilibration was 203 ppm) and a corresponding reference vial, which were equilibrated at 32 degrees C. Headspace concentrations at equilibrium were used to determine a skin:air PC value. After developing the technique using dibromomethane, a skin:air PC value was determined for perchloroethylene, trichloroethylene, benzene, hexane, toluene, m-xylene, styrene, methyl chloroform, methylene chloride, carbon tetrachloride, halothane, and isoflurane. The skin:air PC values correlated with previously determined vapor permeability constants but correlated poorly with octanol/water PC values. This method provides a screening technique for predicting skin penetration of volatile chemicals.