Taxonomy and chemical characterization of new antibiotics produced by Saccharothrix SA198 isolated from a Saharan soil

Actinomycete strain SA198, isolated from a Saharan soil sample of Algeria, exhibited antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, and phytopathogenic and toxinogenic fungi. The morphological and chemotaxonomic characteristics of the strain were consistent with those of the genus Saccharothrix. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain SA198 showed a similarity level ranging between 97.2 and 98.8% within Saccharothrix species, S. australiensis being the most closely related. Two new active products were isolated by reverse HPLC using a C18 column. The ultraviolet–visible (UV–VIS), infrared (IR), mass, and 1Hand 14C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra showed that these products were new bioactive compounds. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of these antibiotics showed a strong activity against fungi and moderate activities against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria

Oxyanion doping strategies to enhance the ionic conductivity in Ba2In2O5

In this paper we report the successful incorporation of phosphate and sulphate groups into the ionic conductor, Ba2In2O5, with the samples analysed through a combination of X-ray diffraction, NMR, TGA, Raman spectroscopy and conductivity measurements. The results show that such oxyanion incorporation leads to a conversion from an ordered brownmillerite-type structure to a disordered perovskite-type, and hence increases the conductivity at temperatures < 800○C. In wet atmospheres, there is evidence for a significant enhancement of the conductivity through a protonic contribution.\u

A Case Report of Twin Gallbladder Ascertained by Peritoneoscopy

After X-ray examinations of a case complaining of upper abdominal pain it was suspected of twin gallbladder, and subsequently it was confirmed by peritoneoscopy. This paper described about this unusual case. It was demonstrated that this case had a twin gallbladder one lobe in front of another each of which measured about 3cm of diamater. This corresponds to the bilobed gallbladder reported by S. Sherlock. The anterior lobe was hardly functioning and hence the bladder function was performed by the posterior lobe. This point was verified by roentgenographs of the gallbladder as well as by peritoneoscopy

Synthesis and characterisation of oxyanion-doped manganites for potential application as SOFC cathodes

In this paper we report the successful incorporation of borate and phosphate into CaMnO3 and borate into La1−ySryMnO3−δ. For CaMnO3, an increase in the electronic conductivity was observed, which can be correlated with electron doping due to the oxyanion doping favoring the introduction of oxide ion vacancies (as well as the higher valence of P5+ compared to Mn4+ in the case of phosphate doping). The highest conductivity at 800 °C was observed for CaMn0.95P0.05O3−δ, 43.0 S cm−1, in comparison with 7.6 S cm−1 for undoped CaMnO3 at the same temperature. For La1−ySryMnO3−δ the conductivity suffers a decrease for all compositions on borate doping, attributed to a reduction in the hole (Mn4+) concentration. In order to investigate the potential of these materials as SOFC cathodes, the chemical compatibility with Gd0.1Ce0.9O1.95 (CGO10) has also been investigated. For the calcium manganites, the lowest temperature examined without reaction was 900 °C, with minor amounts of Ca4Mn3O10 observed at 1000 °C. Composites of these cathode materials with 50% CGO10 were examined on dense CGO10 pellets and the area specific resistances (ASR) in symmetrical cells were determined. The ASR values, at 800 °C, were 1.50, 0.37 and 0.30 Ω·cm2 for CaMnO3, CaMn0.95B0.05O3−δ and CaMn0.95P0.05O3−δ, respectively. For the lanthanum strontium manganites, the B-doped compositions showed an improvement in the ASR values with respect to the parent compounds, despite the lower electronic conductivity. This may be due to an increase in ionic conductivity due to borate incorporation leading to the formation of oxide ion vacancies. Thus these preliminary results show that oxyanion doping has a beneficial effect on the performance of perovskite manganite cathode materials, and suggests that this doping strategy warrants further investigation in other perovskite cathode systems

Implication of proteasome in estrogen receptor degradation

In MCF-7 breast cancer cells, estradiol (E2) and pure antiestrogen RU 58668 down-regulate the estrogen receptor (ER). Interestingly, the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide (CHX) abrogated solely the effect of E2 suggesting a selective difference in the degradation of the receptor induced by estrogenic and antiestrogenic stimulations. A panel of lysosome inhibitors (i.e. bafilomycin, chloroquine, NH4Cl, and monensin), calpain inhibitors (calpastatin and PD 150606) and proteasome inhibitors (lactacystin and proteasome inhibitor I) were tested to assess this hypothesis. Among all inhibitors tested, lactacystin and proteasome inhibitor I were the sole inhibitors to abrogate the elimination of the receptor induced by both E2 and RU 58668; this selective effect was also recorded in cells prelabeled with [3H]tamoxifen aziridine before exposure to these ligands. Hence, differential sensitivity to CHX seems to be linked to the different mechanisms which target proteins for proteasome-mediated destruction. Moreover, the two tested proteasome inhibitors produced a slight increase of ER concentration in cells not exposed to any ligand, suggesting also the involvement of proteasome in receptor turnover. Copyright (C) 1999 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe