Detecting earthquake-induced damage in historic masonry towers using continuously monitored dynamic response-only data

The paper summarizes the results obtained during the continuous dynamic monitoring of two iconic Cultural Heritage towers -the Gabbia tower in Mantua and the San Pietro bell-tower in Perugia. The two towers, exhibiting different architectural and structural characteristics, were monitored over a similar time period (of about 2 years) by Politecnico di Milano and University of Perugia, respectively, and similar methodologies of automated operational modal analysis and structural health monitoring were adopted by the two Research Teams. During the monitoring, both the towers underwent far-field seismic events which caused slight structural damage. In both case studies, the limited number of accelerometers installed in the towers allows the tracking of automatically identified modal frequencies and to distinguish between environmental and damage effects on the natural frequencies. Furthermore, the occurrence of structural anomalies corresponding to small drops in frequencies is confirmed through multivariate statistical analysis, based on principal component analysis and novelty detection

Antibacterial spectra of drugs used for chemotherapy of mycobacterial infections

The mechanism of action of many antimycobacterial agents is poorly understood. To obtain preliminary information on whether the targets for some of these drugs might also occur in other bacteria, the in vitro activities of selected agents against Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus were determined. Dapsone, p-aminosalicylic acid and thiacetazone failed to inhibit the above organisms (MIC values > 100 micrograms/ml) that may therefore lack targets for these drugs. Capreomycin, viomycin and clofazimine demonstrated activity against some of the organisms (MIC values < 100 micrograms/ml) suggesting that the targets of these drugs may not be restricted to mycobacterial species. The agents were all potent inhibitors of Mycobacterium bovis bacille Calmette-Guéri

Stability of plasmid content in Salmonella wien in late phases of the epidemic history

Prevalence, genetic characteristics, and EcoRI cleavage analysis of plasmids identified in clinical strains of Salmonella wien isolated in recent years showed that the plasmid content in this serotype has remained uniform and stable over more than a decade and also late in the epidemic history. No correlation between decrease in S. wien isolations and naturally occurring systematic changes in the DNA of its most common FIme plasmid was structurally detectabl

pUB2380: Characterization of a ColD-like resistance plasmid

A detailed analysis of the mobilizable, ColE1-like resistance plasmid, pUB2380, is reported. The 8.5-kb genome encodes six (possibly seven) major functions: (1) a ColD-like origin of replication, oriV, with associated replication functions, RNAI and RNAII; (2) a set of active mobilization functions highly homologous to that of ColE1, including the origin of transfer, oriT; (3) a ColE1-like multimer resolution site (cer); (4) a kanamycin-resistance determinant, aph, encoding an aminoglycoside-3'-phosphotransferase type 1; (5) an insertion sequence, IS1294; and (6) two genes, probably cotranscribed, of unknown function(s). The GC content of the various parts of the genome indicates that the plasmid is a hybrid structure assembled from DNA from at least three different sources, of which the replication region, the mobilization functions, and the resistance gene are likely to have originated in the enterobacteriacea