Some features of coagulase positive staphylococci from bovine milk. II. Comparison of conventional techniques and the API Staph system

A total of 150 isolates of Staphylococcus aureus were subjected to the tests on the API Staph system. Of these, 50 were also tested by conventional methods, using the same tests as those found on the API Staph strips. Applying the principles of numerical taxonomy, the relationship between these isolates was 82 % and more. Tests for the metabolism of sucrose and N-acetyl-glucosamine and for the production of argenine dihydrolysate and urease appear to be superfluous in the identification of S. aureus in this system.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.lmchunu2014mn201

Ionization degree of the electron-hole plasma in semiconductor quantum wells

The degree of ionization of a nondegenerate two-dimensional electron-hole plasma is calculated using the modified law of mass action, which takes into account all bound and unbound states in a screened Coulomb potential. Application of the variable phase method to this potential allows us to treat scattering and bound states on the same footing. Inclusion of the scattering states leads to a strong deviation from the standard law of mass action. A qualitative difference between mid- and wide-gap semiconductors is demonstrated. For wide-gap semiconductors at room temperature, when the bare exciton binding energy is of the order of T, the equilibrium consists of an almost equal mixture of correlated electron-hole pairs and uncorrelated free carriers.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure

Phocine Distemper Virus in Seals, East Coast, United States, 2006

: Phocine Distemper Virus in Seal

The First VERITAS Telescope

The first atmospheric Cherenkov telescope of VERITAS (the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) has been in operation since February 2005. We present here a technical description of the instrument and a summary of its performance. The calibration methods are described, along with the results of Monte Carlo simulations of the telescope and comparisons between real and simulated data. The analysis of TeV $\gamma$-ray observations of the Crab Nebula, including the reconstructed energy spectrum, is shown to give results consistent with earlier measurements. The telescope is operating as expected and has met or exceeded all design specifications.Comment: Accepted by Astroparticle Physic

Very-high energy gamma-ray astronomy: A 23-year success story in high-energy astroparticle physics

Very-high energy (VHE) gamma quanta contribute only a minuscule fraction - below one per million - to the flux of cosmic rays. Nevertheless, being neutral particles they are currently the best "messengers" of processes from the relativistic/ultra-relativistic Universe because they can be extrapolated back to their origin. The window of VHE gamma rays was opened only in 1989 by the Whipple collaboration, reporting the observation of TeV gamma rays from the Crab nebula. After a slow start, this new field of research is now rapidly expanding with the discovery of more than 150 VHE gamma-ray emitting sources. Progress is intimately related with the steady improvement of detectors and rapidly increasing computing power. We give an overview of the early attempts before and around 1989 and the progress after the pioneering work of the Whipple collaboration. The main focus of this article is on the development of experimental techniques for Earth-bound gamma-ray detectors; consequently, more emphasis is given to those experiments that made an initial breakthrough rather than to the successors which often had and have a similar (sometimes even higher) scientific output as the pioneering experiments. The considered energy threshold is about 30 GeV. At lower energies, observations can presently only be performed with balloon or satellite-borne detectors. Irrespective of the stormy experimental progress, the success story could not have been called a success story without a broad scientific output. Therefore we conclude this article with a summary of the scientific rationales and main results achieved over the last two decades.Comment: 45 pages, 38 figures, review prepared for EPJ-H special issue "Cosmic rays, gamma rays and neutrinos: A survey of 100 years of research

Controlled release strategies for bone, cartilage, and osteochondral engineering: part I: recapitulation of native tissue healing and variables for the design of delivery systems

The potential of growth factors to stimulate tissue healing through the enhancement of cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation is undeniable. However, critical parameters on the design of adequate carriers, such as uncontrolled spatiotemporal presence of bioactive factors, inadequate release profiles, and supraphysiological dosages of growth factors, have impaired the translation of these systems onto clinical practice. This review describes the healing cascades for bone, cartilage, and osteochondral interface, highlighting the role of specific growth factors for triggering the reactions leading to tissue regeneration. Critical criteria on the design of carriersfor controlled release of bioactive factors are also reported, focusing on the need to provide a spatiotemporal control over the delivery and presentation of these molecules.The authors thank Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia for V.E.Santo's PhD grant (SFRH/BD/39486/2007). This work was carried out under the scope of the European FP7 Project Find and Bind (NMP4-SL-2009-229292) and Project MIT/ECE/0047/2009

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types

Driver Fusions and Their Implications in the Development and Treatment of Human Cancers.

Gene fusions represent an important class of somatic alterations in cancer. We systematically investigated fusions in 9,624 tumors across 33 cancer types using multiple fusion calling tools. We identified a total of 25,664 fusions, with a 63% validation rate. Integration of gene expression, copy number, and fusion annotation data revealed that fusions involving oncogenes tend to exhibit increased expression, whereas fusions involving tumor suppressors have the opposite effect. For fusions involving kinases, we found 1,275 with an intact kinase domain, the proportion of which varied significantly across cancer types. Our study suggests that fusions drive the development of 16.5% of cancer cases and function as the sole driver in more than 1% of them. Finally, we identified druggable fusions involving genes such as TMPRSS2, RET, FGFR3, ALK, and ESR1 in 6.0% of cases, and we predicted immunogenic peptides, suggesting that fusions may provide leads for targeted drug and immune therapy