Using a novel data linkage approach to investigate potential reductions in motor vehicle crash severity - An evaluation of strategic highway safety plan emphasis areas.

Introduction: With the significant number of motor-vehicle fatalities occurring on the nation's roadways in recent years, there exists a need to integrate a more complete range of data sources, available at a regional or statewide level, to effectively evaluate existing safety concerns and quantify their impacts. Crash data alone does not provide ample crash-associated citation, injury, and roadway characteristics; therefore, a more cohesive dataset is required to accurately and completely analyze the true impacts of motor-vehicle crashes. Previously developed strategies linked crash data with citation and roadway inventory data to enhance the identification and optimization of highway safety strategies.

Perspectives and challenges from the 20th century.

ABSTRACT The magnitude of change in our understanding of tree diseases during the past century is almost incomprehensible. This does not mean to imply that we know everything, but the science of forest pathology has come a long way in the past 100 years. This remarkable progress was driven by three events: (i) an investment in the early 1900s in federal and state experiment stations, which established the need for, and benefits of, research in tree diseases; (ii) veterans acquiring an education under the GI Bill, which created a pool of forest pathologists and students eager to solve the devastation caused by diseases such as chestnut blight, white pine blister rust, Dutch elm disease, and oak wilt; and (iii) the McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Program, which established a strategy for the federal government to assist the financing of forestry research in the universities.

Complete sequence of the genome of two dsRNA viruses from Discula destructiva.

Complete nucleotide sequences were determined for the four dsRNA segments present in isolate 247 of Discula destructiva from South Carolina. The largest dsRNA (dsRNA 1) was 1787 bp in length with a single open reading frame (ORF) that coded for a putative RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). The dsRNA 2 was 1585 bp in length with a single ORF that coded for a putative viral coat protein.

Coryneum Twig Canker on Southern Live Oak in Florida.

In May 2001, following several years of severe drought, a depressed twig canker was observed on southern live oak (Quercus virginiana) in central Florida. Disease symptoms included twig and branch canker and dieback, distortion of young leaves, and premature leaf drop. Observation of conidia from sporulating acervuli revealed that Coryneum japonicum was associated with the cankers (1,2).

First Report of Phytophthora cinnamomi on Quercus laurifolia.

In May 2001, bleeding cankers were observed on several laurel oak (Quercus laurifolia) trees in central Florida. Affected trees had chlorotic leaves, sparse canopies, and little new growth. Multiple cankers were present on the trunk and extended from the soil line up to approximately 5 m.