Response to Mr. Batini’s comments on Davison (2018) Australas Plant Pathol 47:245–257

This reply refers to the comment available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s13313-018-0581-

Carrot export growth depends on keeping cavity spot under control

Cavity spot is the most serious disease affecting carrot production in Ly Western Australia. With carrots now being the State\u27s most important horticultural export, Agriculture Western Australia has undertaken extensive research to ensure the export market continues to grow

Survival of Phytophthora cinnamomi and P. multivora in Lime-amended Bioclay® (LaBC®) and LaBC® plus organic material

Lime–amended BioClay® (LaBC®) is a high pH product developed as a soil amendment for use on Bassendean Sands of the Swan Coastal Plain. Composted mulch is used to clean equipment used in its production and lower the pH of the final product. If this composted mulch is contaminated with Phytophthora cinnamomi (the dieback fungus) this soil borne pathogen might be inadvertently spread to uninfested properties. In order to determine the likelihood of this occurring, pine plugs colonised by either P. cinnamomi or the similar pathogen P. multivora, were incubated in LaBC® or LaBC® + organic material for up to 21 days. P. cinnamomi survived for less no more than 6 days in both products, while P. multivora survived for no more than than 6 days in LaBC®, and for no more than than 14 days in LaBC® + organic material. This experiment shows that there is minimal risk of LaBC® or LaBC® + organic material being a source of these pathogens

Amanita wadulawitu (Basidiomycota), a new species from Western Australia, and an expanded description of A. kalamundae

A new species of Amanita Pers. is documented from Western Australia. Amanita wadulawitu L.E.McGurk, E.M.Davison & E.L.J.Watkin is described from the Perth IBRA subregion. Amanita kalamundae O.K.Mill. is redescribed to include additional collections, drawing attention to the presence of clamp connections in the lamellae and at the base of basidia. A BLASTn search has shown that there are no exact matches of the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of either species in GenBank

Neotypification and redescription of Amanita preissii (Basidiomycota), and reconsideration of the status of A. griseibrunnea

Amanita preissii (Fr.) Sacc. is redescribed. Re-examination of collections of A. griseibrunnea O.K.Mill. show that they do not differ significantly from A. preissii and the two species are combined. This species is common in the Perth IBRA subregion. Sequence data from the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, 28S nuclear ribosomal large subunit rRNA (28S) region, RNA polymerase II (RPB2) region, β-tubulin region and translation elongation factor 1-α (EF1-α) region have been deposited in GenBank

Amanita drummondii and A. quenda (Basidiomycota), two new species from Western Australia, and an expanded description of A. walpolei

Three species of Amanita Pers. are documented from Western Australia. Amanita drummondii E.M.Davison is described from the south-west region; it appears to be widespread but infrequent. Amanita quenda E.M.Davison is described from the Perth Metropolitan area. Amanita walpolei O.K.Mill. is redescribed to include additional collections, drawing attention to the presence of clamp connections in all tissues. A BLASTn search has shown that there are no exact matches of the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of each species with those in GenBank

Prevalence, knowledge and factors associated with e-cigarette use among parents of secondary school children

OBJECTIVES Identify prevalence rates and attitudes towards e-cigarette use among parents to inform prevention strategies designed to reduce uptake in young people. STUDY DESIGN A mixed methods sequential study guided by the Theory of Planned Behaviour. METHODS This research involved two phases. Phase one was an elicitation study using focus groups, interviews and open-ended questionnaires (N = 17) to elicit parental behavioural, normative, and control beliefs around e-cigarette use. Findings from phase 1 were used to inform a questionnaire administered to a sample of 612 parents in phase 2. The aim of phase 2 was to identify and explain factors that influence parental attitudes and motivations towards e-cigarette use. Parents were recruited through post-primary schools and were sent a link to an online survey. RESULTS Approximately 19% of parents had tried an e-cigarette, with 9% reporting current use. Sociodemographic variables, TPB constructs and knowledge of e-cigarettes, accounted for 43% and 60% of ever use and intention to use an e-cigarette, respectively. Intention, gender, age and free school meal entitlement were associated with ever use. Intention to use an e-cigarette was related to lower educational level, current smoking of traditional cigarettes, more positive attitudes, greater social pressure, having greater control over use and knowledge. CONCLUSIONS Prevention strategies designed to reduce uptake in young people should raise awareness of the health risks of e-cigarette use, legislation and regulations and highlight the role parents play in encouraging young people to abstain from using an e-cigarette

Permutation criteria to evaluate multiple clinical endpoints in a proof-of-concept study: lessons from Pre-RELAX-AHF

Clinically relevant endpoints cannot be routinely targeted with reasonable power in a small study. Hence, proof-of-concept studies are often powered to a primary surrogate endpoint. However, in acute heart failure (AHF) effects on surrogates have not translated into clinical benefit in confirmatory studies. Although observing an effect on one of many endpoints due to chance is likely, observing concurrent positive trends across several outcomes by chance is usually unlikely. Pre-RELAX-AHF, which compared 4 relaxin doses with placebo in AHF, has shown favourable trends versus placebo (one-sided P <0.10) on six of nine clinical endpoints in the 30 mu g/kg/day group. To illustrate evaluation of multiple, correlated clinical endpoints for evidence of efficacy and for dose selection, a permutation method was applied retrospectively. By randomly re-assigning the treatment group to the actual data for each of the 229 subjects, 20,000 permutation samples were constructed. The permutation P value for at least six favourable trends among nine endpoints in any dose groups was 0.0073 (99.9% CI 0.0053-0.0093). This is higher than would be expected if the endpoints were uncorrelated (0.00026), but much lower than the probability of observing one of nine comparisons significant at the traditional two-sided P <0.05 (0.74). Thus, the result was unlikely due to correlated endpoints or to chance. Examining consistency of effect across multiple clinical endpoints in a proof-of-concept study may identify efficacious therapies and enable dose selection for confirmatory trials. The merit of the approach described requires confirmation through prospective application in designing future studies