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More than 600 Prunus samples were examined by using a nonradioactive digoxigenin‐labelled RNA probe specific for hop stunt viroid (HSVd). Prunus salicina and Prunus armeniaca appeared to be better hosts than Prunus persica. The weak viroid concentration in flowers and young leaves of peach trees growing in the field did not permit its detection in such samples. The diagnosis was more reliable (about 85%) with bark and leaves aged 4 months and more, from regrowths of GF 305 peach seedlings inoculated and kept in the greenhouse. Detection of HSVd in leaves and bark of apricot and Japanese plum plants aged 3 months or more also proved reliable (about 80% and 90%, respectively). HSVd could be transmitted in apricot, peach and plum nucleic acid preparations to GF 305 peach seedlings by repeated stem slashing, and to cherries (Prunus avium and Prunus serrulata) by approach grafting with an infected P. salicina source. The viroid was eliminated from 18% of the clones obtained after thermotherapy. In the course of this study, 25 selected Prunus accessions suspected to be infected by unusual diseases were analysed by hybridization with a HSVd‐specific probe and by indexing on GF 305 peach seedlings in the greenhouse. Fifteen of these accessions were found to be infected by HSVd, 19 induced reddish marbling, and four induced small blackish spots on the leaves aged about 4 months. Repeated assays showed that these foliar symptoms were not caused by the viroid. Peach red marbling (PRMa) has not been associated with any known virus and seems to be caused by an infectious agent not yet described. That could also be the case with the agent of peach sooty ringspot (PSRS). PRMa and PSRS symptoms were reproduced by grafting and indexing, and their causal agents eliminated by thermotherapy in a significant fraction of the treated plants. They behave like viral agents and can infect the different Prunus species studied.

Background/Introduction: Marijuana has been used for its psychotropic effects including enhanced relaxation and perceptual alterations. However, the use of synthetic cannabis (marijuana) leads to more frequent and drastic side effects than the typical use of regular marijuana, owing to the fact that synthetic cannabis has a shorter duration and an earlier peak of action. Despite all the potential adverse health effects associated with synthetic cannabis use, current health policies on synthetic cannabis are very limited. It is believed that the popularity of synthetic cannabis has increased, due to its easy accessibility in the US and the lack of detection in typical urine drug screens for Tetrahydrocannabinol derivatives (THC). Case Report: One case is presented of a young adult patient, with histories of recurrent synthetic cannabis and recreational cannabis use, who had developed drastic physiological and psychiatric symptoms, including the development of acute-onset psychosis. Conclusion/Discussion: This case, as many others nationwide, exemplifies the impact of synthetic cannabinoid use and abuse in adolescents. Side effects and adverse health consequences of synthetic cannabinoid use warrants stricter regulations and policies in order to decrease psychiatric hospital admissions and associated healthcare costs.

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PWC (Process Window Centering) is an efficient methodology to validate or adjust and center the overall process window for a particular lithography layer by detecting systematic and random defects. The PWC methodology incorporates a defect inspection and analysis of the entire die that can be automated to provide timely results. This makes it a good compromise between FEM (Focus Exposure Matrix), where centering is based only on CD (critical dimension) measurements of a few specific structures and PWQ (Process Window Qualification) which provides very detailed defect inspection and analysis, but is more time consuming for lithography centering. This paper describes the application of the PWC methodology for 22 nm lithography centering in IBM's Albany and EastFishkill development facilities using KLA-Tencor's 28xx brightfield defect inspection system. 978-1-4244-6519-7/10/$26.00