Search

The antibacterial activity of Rhus coriarialeaf methanol extract was assayed against Gram‐positive and Gram‐negative bacteria; antimycotic activity was assayed against some Candidaspecies. MICs were determined by a broth microdilution assay in microlitre plates using Mueller–Hinton medium. MBCs were determined by plating 0.01 mL samples from clear 1 mL tubes onto agar plates. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The antibacterial activity of Rhus coriaria leaf methanol extract was assayed against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria; antimycotic activity was assayed against some Candida species. MICs were determined by a broth microdilution assay in microlitre plates using Mueller–Hinton medium. MBCs were determined by plating 0.01 mL samples from clear 1 mL tubes onto agar plates. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The concentrations of ceftazidime in serum were studied in 16 preterm and term neonates to whom a single dose of 50 mg/kg had been administered intramuscularly or intravenously. After intramuscular injection, concentrations of ceftazidime in serum were comparable to those obtained with the intravenous dose, although they were more variable. Peak serum levels ranging from 50 to 102 micrograms/ml were reached 30 to 60 min after intramuscular injection. The concentrations declined monoexponentially after the peak, with a mean half-life of 3.8 +/- 1.1 h. Concentrations of ceftazidime in serum declined biexponentially after intravenous injection, with a terminal half-life of 4.7 +/- 1.5 h.

EVIDENCE of past alpine glacial erosion in the south polar region of Mars appears in two photographs taken by Mariner 9 in early 1972. Although no glacial remnants show up in either photograph, the aretes, U-shaped valleys, and other glacial evidences closely resemble the ice-free features of the Cascade Mountains in the northwestern United States. Continental glaciers that exist near the Martian poles have been described previously1,2. Axial precession and changes in the orbital eccentricity are thought to be the cause of climatic variations on the Martian surface. Thus, the alpine glaciers responsible for the erosion of the features described herein could have recently disappeared because of a warming trend that did not eliminate the polar ice caps.

According to common beliefs, conventional anticancer chemotherapy is deleterious for the immune system. We have recently provided in vitro evidence indicating that conventional chemotherapy may potentiate, rather than impair, the long-term efficacy of γδ T cell-based anticancer immunotherapy.

Although γδ T cells are known to exert both tumor-preventing and tumor-promoting activity, there is still little information on the functional characteristics and clinical significance of γδ T cells isolated from the tumor site. In a recent study, we have investigated the distribution of different γδ T-cell populations in melanoma and their impact on disease outcome.

Background We describe here the sequencing, annotation and comparative analysis of an 8 Mb region of pig chromosome 17, which provides a useful test region to assess coverage and quality for the pig genome sequencing project. We report our findings comparing the annotation of draft sequence assembled at different depths of coverage.Results Within this region we annotated 71 loci, of which 53 are orthologous to human known coding genes. When compared to the syntenic regions in human (20q13.13-q13.33) and mouse (chromosome 2, 167.5 Mb-178.3 Mb), this region was found to be highly conserved with respect to gene order. The most notable difference between the three species is the presence of a large expansion of zinc finger coding genes and pseudogenes on mouse chromosome 2 between Edn3 and Phactr3 that is absent from pig and human. All of our annotation has been made publicly available in the Vertebrate Genome Annotation browser, VEGA. We assessed the impact of coverage on sequence assembly across this region and found, as expected, that increased sequence depth resulted in fewer, longer contigs. One-third of our annotated loci could not be fully re-aligned back to the low coverage version of the sequence, principally because the transcripts are fragmented over several contigs.Conclusion We have demonstrated the considerable advantages of sequencing at increased read depths and discuss the implications that lower coverage sequence may have on subsequent comparative and functional studies, particularly those involving complex loci such as GNAS.

For Abstract see ChemInform Abstract in Full Text.

The <it>in vitro</it> activity of faropenem, an oral penem, was compared with those of penicillin, co-amoxiclav, cefoxitin, clindamycin, erythromycin and metronidazole against 106 isolates of anaerobic pathogens involved in systemic infections. The organisms tested comprised <it>Porphyromonas</it> <it>gingivalis</it> (29), <it>Prevotella</it> spp. (eight), <it>Prevotella</it> <it>melaninogenica</it> (seven), <it>Prevotella</it> <it>intermedia</it> (five), <it>Actinomyces</it> spp. (25), <it>Fusobacterium nucleatum</it> (14), <it>Peptostreptococcus</it> spp. (11), <it>Bacteroides</it> <it>ureolyticus</it> (five) and <it>Bacteroides</it> <it>forsythus</it> (two). The antimicrobial properties of faropenem were investigated by studying MICs, MBCs, time–kill kinetics and post-antibiotic effect (PAE). Faropenem was highly active against all the anaerobes tested (MIC<inf>90</inf> ≤ 0.5 mg/L) and was bactericidal against both &bgr;-lactamase-positive and -negative anaerobes, with a maximum bactericidal effect at 10 × MIC at between 12 and 24 h. In addition, faropenem had an <it>in vitro</it> PAE on all the tested isolates and this was not influenced by &bgr;-lactamase production. Faropenem may be useful for treating infections caused by periodontal bacteria or oral flora.

To the Editor.—A compression fracture of the thoracic veterbrae during cardiac resuscitation by countershock and external cardiac massage appears to be an extremely unusual but serious complication. We know of only one previous report in the literature (203:369, 1968), and the article by Atcheson and Fred,1 which recently reviewed very thoroughly the complications of cardiac resuscitation, did not point out this extraordinary complication.Report of a Case.—A 54-year-old woman with acute anterior myocardial infarction lost consciousness in the ambulance, and ventricular fibrillation developed on arrival at the hospital. She was successfully resuscitated by external cardiac massage and two direct-current countershocks of 400 joules.Following the resuscitation, the patient complained of severe midback pain particularly when supine. There was diffuse swelling in the region of the sixth, seventh, and eighth thoracic vertebrae, and tenderness was elicited by deep palpation. The x-ray film of the thoracic spine demonstrated a

SINCE Glinski1 and Simmonds2 in 1913 and 1914 described pituitary abscesses accompanying systemic bacterial infection there have been only two such reports in the world literature.3,4We now report the case of a patient with diabetes mellitus and fatal Escherichia coli septicemia in whom severe hypoglycemic reactions developed. An abscess of the pituitary gland was found on postmortem examination.Report of a CaseA 47-year-old woman with a ten-year history of diabetes mellitus was admitted to the hospital because of agitation and disorientation. Her temperature was 38 C, pulse rate 120 beats per minute, and blood pressure 70/50 mm Hg.She had been taking 40 units of isophane insulin suspension daily, with good control of diabetes and without any history of hypoglycemia or ketoacidosis. On admission, blood glucose level was 400 mg/100 ml with glycosuria (3+ ) and albuminuria (3+ ), as well as many white blood cells (WBC)

A statistical model of the microearthquake occurrence in the Messina area, assuming periodic transitions among several Generalized Poisson states, is proposed. Four states are defined, of different duration, cluster mean rate and earthquake interdependence level. Their sequence is cyclically repeated with annual period. The findings of this work can be seen as a generalization of the approach of Bender (1984) who considered transition phenomena of the seismic temporal pattern among distinct states of the Simple Poisson type. Further, the investigation aims at identifying possible factors leading to the observed periodic changes in the earthquake statistical parameters and to the main ‘deviations’ of experimental data from the model. The rainfall and regional tectonic stress patterns appear to be reasonable candidates for explaining the microearthquake periodicity and the most relevant anomaly of the observed seismic temporal pattern with respect to the model, respectively.

The tectonic stress orientation is estimated in the lithosphere of northern Sicily, the southern Tyrrhenian sea and southern Calabria, and in the Wadati-Benioff zone below the Tyrrhenian, by inversion of fault-plane solutions of earthquakes covering a magnitude range from 2.5 to 7.1. Focal mechanisms of 97 earthquakes are taken from the literature, after a critical evaluation of their data quality. an average misfit of F = 13° indicates that the set of all shallow (<50km) earthquakes is generated by a heterogeneous stress field. For three subsets, based on regional and magnitude separation, F was small enough (2.8° ≤ F ≤ 5.9°) to support the assumption of a homogeneous stress direction; for an additional subset, with F = 7.4°, such a condition is close to being fulfilled even though some heterogeneity appears to be present. The number of earthquakes in these subsets ranged from nine to 22, and the uncertainties of the principal stress directions were generally of the order of 20° at the 90 per cent confidence level. The earthquakes with M ≥ 5 define a regional stress field with the greatest principal stress, σ1, dipping at a shallow angle to the south. In north-eastern Sicily and south-western Calabria the stress field estimated by earthquakes is extensional, with σ3 in a direction of WNW, and a near-vertical σ1, in agreement with the graben tectonics mapped geologically in this area. In western Sicily the σ1 direction is oriented WNW, but this result is judged less reliable than the others, based on the broader confidence limits of the solution and the average misfit of 7.4°. The earthquakes in the Wadati-Benioff zone define σ1 dipping at about 70° to the NW, subparallel to the zone, with σ2 horizontal and striking parallel to the zone.