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Summary: Three white trumpet‐flowered species of Lilium native to the Ryukyu Islands, Japan, L. longiflorum and the critically endangered endemics L. nobilissimum and L. ukeyuri have been extensively confused in the literature. These are fully described, their history and nomenclature are discussed and a key and full descriptions are provided for identification. Lectotypes are designated for the names Lilium harrissii Carrière, L. japonicum f. nobilissimum Makino, L. longiflorum var. suaveolens Edwards, L. longiflorum var. wilsonii T. Moore and L. ukeyuri R. Hogg. A neotype is designated for the name L. eximium Siebold ex Courtois. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of speech identification studies examining the abilities of listeners to distinguish African American and European American voices shows that Americans can recognize many African American voices with a high degree of accuracy even in the absence of stereotypical morphosyntactic and lexical features. Experiments to determine what cues listeners use to distinguish ethnicity have not yielded such consistent results, perhaps suggesting that listeners may access a wide variety of cues if necessary. An experiment involving African Americans with features of a European American vernacular demonstrated that African Americans with atypical features are difficult for listeners to identify. Analysis suggested that vowel quality and intonation could have misled respondents but did not rule out timing and voice quality as factors in identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of detecting the stochastic non-stationarity in time series, successive Yule-Walker estimates are considered for general seasonal ARIMA models and their asymptotic laws are obtained. This extends results known on least squares estimates for stable-unstable ARMA. Furthermore, these asymptotic laws are then compared with analogous results obtained under some additive seasonal model that corresponds to the case of deterministic seasonal behaviour. These results, combined with a simulation study, reveal that successive autoregressions provide a very useful tool both for identifying seasonal ARIMA processes and for distinguishing between stochastic and deterministic seasonal behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identity of black alder (Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn.) ectomycorrhizas was investigated using PCR/RFLP analysis of the ITS region from 16 morphotypes sampled at a 60-yr-old black alder stand. A comparison was made with restriction patterns from sporocarps of 28 mycobionts, of which 16 originated from the same stand, the remaining 12 came from two geographically distant alder stands. Eight of the mycorrhizal types could thus be identified, whereas eight mycorrhizal types remained unidentified. The identified mycorrhizas belonged to the genera Russula, Lactarius, Naucoria and Cortinarius. Four of the identified ectomycorrhizal types had identical PCR/RFLP profiles to corresponding fruit bodies from all investigated stands with no detectable intraspecific variation between sporocarps from the different locations was detected in Paxillus rubicundulus, mycorrhizas of which were not found. The diversity of fruiting alder mycobionts at the main experimental plot only partly matched the diversity observed from mycorrhizas when comparing their PCR/RFLP analyses and ecological aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morphologically similar ectomycorrhizas between Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) seedlings and different geographic isolates of Suillus variegatus (Fr.) O. Kuntze and Suillus bovinus (Fr.) O. Kuntze were synthesized under semi-aseptic conditions in a sand and peat growth mixture containing ureaformaldehyde as the organic nitrogen source. Fourteen weeks after inoculation significant increases in shoot height were recorded in most of the infected seedlings and in two inoculated treatments where no mycorrhizal infection was detected. Based on the assumption that 50% of the dry mass of these ectomycorrhizas was of fungal origin, the soluble protein content of the synthesized ectomycorrhizas was found to be between 10- and 15-fold greater than in equivalent amounts of the non-symbiotic tissues (short roots and axenically grown mycelium of S. variegatus and S. bovinus). Extracts from individual ectomycorrhizas exhibited considerable esterase (EST) and peptidase (PEP) isozyme activities following PAGE and it was confirmed that diagnostic species-specific fungal isozymes, reproducibly detected in these extracts, were present in extracts of excised sheath tissue. Acid phosphatase (ACP isozyme activities were also detected in the ectomycorrhizas but were restricted to a single isozyme known to be common to both fungal species. In addition to the identification of taxonomically useful diagnostic fungal isozymes. the lack of detectable host PEP or ACP isozymes in these individual ectomycorrhizas, which also exhibited induced isolate-specific EST isozymes, provides further information on the biochemical relationships in the ectomycorrhizas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CHROMagar Candida is a new differential culture medium that allows selective isolation of yeasts and simultaneously identifies colonies of Candida albicans, Candida glabrata, Candida tropicalis and Candida krusei. We evaluated this medium and compared it with a reference medium, Sabouraud glucose agar, for the presumptive identification of yeast species isolated directly on the medium from 1150 clinical specimens. A total of 731 specimens showed no growth, 299 isolates (70.2%) showed growth to the same extent on both media. Forty mixed cultures were detected on both media. More than one isolate was detected in 30 of the tested specimens on either CHROMagar (26 specimens) or Sabouraud glucose agar (four specimens). We found a sensitivity of 98.8% and a specificity of 100% for C. albicans, 66.7% and 99.8% for C. tropicalis, 100% and 100% for C. krusei, and 98% and 95.7% for C. glabrata. Regarding these results, CHROMagar Candida is recommended as a useful isolation medium capable of the presumptive identification of yeasts and better detection of mixed cultures in clinical specimens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein profiles of sonicated cells for 9 species of yeasts isolated from oral samples were obtained by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), and visualized with a silver stain. The profiles obtained on 12% acrylamide gels we re distinct, and characteristic for 6 species of Candida, and Torulopsis glabrata, Yarrowia lipolytica, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Using this method, 79 fresh isolates of yeasts from saliva samples were identified; 58 as Candida albicans, 9 as Candida parapsilosis, 1 as Candida tropicalis, and 11 as T. glabrata. SDS-PAGE offers a rapid, convenient alternative or adjunct to yeast identification systems based on carbohydrate assimilation tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]