Fleming's penicillin producing streain is not Penicillium chrysogenum but P. rubens

Penicillium chrysogenum is a commonly occurring mould in indoor environments and foods, and has gained much attention for its use in the production of the antibiotic penicillin. Phylogenetic analysis of the most important penicillin producing P. chrysogenum isolates revealed the presence of two highly supported clades, and we show here that these two clades represent two species, P. chrysogenum and P. rubens. These species are phenotypically similar, but extrolite analysis shows that P. chrysogenum produces secalonic acid D and F and/or a metabolite related to lumpidin, while P. rubens does not produce these metabolites. Fleming’s original penicillin producing strain and the full genome sequenced strain of P. chrysogenum are re-identified as P. rubens. Furthermore, the well-known claim that Alexander Fleming misidentified the original penicillin producing strain as P. rubrum is discussed

Continuity Culture: A Key Factor for Building Resilience and Sound Recovery Capabilities

This article investigates the extent to which Jordanian service organizations seek to establish continuity culture through testing, training, and updating of their business continuity plans. A survey strategy was adopted in this research. Primary and secondary data were used. Semistructured interviews were conducted with five senior managers from five large Jordanian service organizations registered with the Amman Stock Exchange. The selection of organizations was made on the basis of simple random sampling. Interviews targeted the headquarters only in order to obtain a homogenous sample. Three out of five organizations could be regarded as crisis prepared and have better chances for recovery. The other two organizations exhibited characteristics of standard practice that only emphasizes the recovery aspect of business continuity management (BCM), while paying less attention to establishing resilient cultures and embedding BCM. The findings reveal that the ability to recover following major incidents can be improved by embedding BCM in the culture of the organization and by making BCM an enterprise-wide process. This is one of few meticulous studies that have been undertaken in the Middle East and the first in Jordan to investigate the extent to which service organizations focus on embedding BCM in the organizational culture

Moderate Antiproteinuric Effect of Add-On Aldosterone Blockade with Eplerenone in Non-Diabetic Chronic Kidney Disease. A Randomized Cross-Over Study

Reduction of proteinuria and blood pressure (BP) with blockers of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) impairs the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The aldosterone antagonist spironolactone has an antiproteinuric effect, but its use is limited by side effects. The present study evaluated the short-term antiproteinuric effect and safety of the selective aldosterone antagonist eplerenone in non-diabetic CKD.Open randomized cross-over trial.Forty patients with non-diabetic CKD and urinary albumin excretion greater than 300 mg/24 hours.Eight weeks of once-daily administration of add-on 25–50 mg eplerenone to stable standard antihypertensive treatment including RAS-blockade.24 hour urinary albumin excretion, BP, p-potassium, and creatinine clearance.The mean urinary albumin excretion was 22% [CI: 14,28], P<0.001, lower during treatment with eplerenone. Mean systolic BP was 4 mmHg [CI: 2,6], P = 0.002, diastolic BP was 2 mmHg [CI: 0,4], P = 0.02, creatinine clearance was 5% [CI: 2,8], P = 0.005, lower during eplerenone treatment. After correction for BP and creatinine clearance differences between the study periods, the mean urinary albumin excretion was 14% [CI: 4,24], P = 0.008 lower during treatment. Mean p-potassium was 0.1 mEq/L [CI: 0.1,0.2] higher during eplerenone treatment, P<0.001. Eplerenone was thus well tolerated and no patients were withdrawn due to hyperkalaemia.Open label, no wash-out period and a moderate sample size.In non-diabetic CKD patients, the addition of eplerenone to standard antihypertensive treatment including RAS-blockade caused a moderate BP independent fall in albuminuria, a minor fall in creatinine clearance and a 0.1 mEq/L increase in p-potassium

Determining the neurotransmitter concentration profile at active synapses

Establishing the temporal and concentration profiles of neurotransmitters during synaptic release is an essential step towards understanding the basic properties of inter-neuronal communication in the central nervous system. A variety of ingenious attempts has been made to gain insights into this process, but the general inaccessibility of central synapses, intrinsic limitations of the techniques used, and natural variety of different synaptic environments have hindered a comprehensive description of this fundamental phenomenon. Here, we describe a number of experimental and theoretical findings that has been instrumental for advancing our knowledge of various features of neurotransmitter release, as well as newly developed tools that could overcome some limits of traditional pharmacological approaches and bring new impetus to the description of the complex mechanisms of synaptic transmission

New taxa of Neosartorya and Aspergillus in Aspergillus section Fumigati

Three new species of Neosartorya and one new Aspergillus of section Fumigati are proposed using a polyphasic approach based on morphology, extrolite production and partial β-tubulin, calmodulin, and actin gene sequences. The phylogenetic analyses using the three genes clearly show that the taxa grouped separately from the known species and confirmed the phenotypic differences. Neosartorya denticulata is characterized by its unique denticulate ascospores with a prominent equatorial furrow; N. assulata by well developed flaps on the convex surface of the ascospores which in addition have two distinct equatorial crests and N. galapagensis by a funiculose colony morphology, short and narrow conidiophores and ascospores with two wide equatorial crests with a microtuberculate convex surface. Aspergillus turcosus can be distinguished by velvety, gray turquoise colonies and short, loosely columnar conidial heads. The four new taxa also have unique extrolite profiles, which contain the mycotoxins gliotoxin and viriditoxin in N. denticulate; apolar compounds provisionally named NEPS in N. assulata and gregatins in N. galapagensis. A. turcosus produced kotanins. N.denticulata sp. nov., N. assulata sp. nov., N. galapagensis sp. nov., and A. turcosus sp. nov. are described and illustrated

Protocol-Inspired Hardware Testing

The relevance of protocol conformance testing techniques to hardware testing is discussed. It is shown that the ioconf (input-output conformance) approach used in protocol testing can be applied to generate tests for a synchronous hardware design using its formal specification. The generated tests are automatically applied to a circuit by a VHDL testbench, thus giving confidence that the hardware design meets its high-level formal specification. Case studies illustrate how the ideas can be applied to standard hardware verification benchmarks such as the Single Pulser and Black-Jack Dealer

Talaromyces atroroseus, a new species efficiently producing industrially relevant red pigments

Some species of Talaromyces secrete large amounts of red pigments. Literature has linked this character to species such as Talaromyces purpurogenus, T. albobiverticillius, T. marneffei, and T. minioluteus often under earlier Penicillium names. Isolates identified as T. purpurogenus have been reported to be interesting industrially and they can produce extracellular enzymes and red pigments, but they can also produce mycotoxins such as rubratoxin A and B and luteoskyrin. Production of mycotoxins limits the use of isolates of a particular species in biotechnology. Talaromyces atroroseus sp. nov., described in this study, produces the azaphilone biosynthetic families mitorubrins and Monascus pigments without any production of mycotoxins. Within the red pigment producing clade, T. atroroseus resolved in a distinct clade separate from all the other species in multigene phylogenies (ITS, β-tubulin and RPB1), which confirm its unique nature. Talaromyces atroroseus resembles T. purpurogenus and T. albobiverticillius in producing red diffusible pigments, but differs from the latter two species by the production of glauconic acid, purpuride and ZG-1494α and by the dull to dark green, thick walled ellipsoidal conidia produced. The type strain of Talaromyces atroroseus is CBS 133442

Role of calcium channel blocking agents in the prevention of atherosclerosis

Calcium channel blocking agents, although effective and widely used in the symptomatic therapy of hypertension and ischemic heart disease, have an uncertain effect on the development of coronary atherosclerosis, plaque rupture, and postrupture thrombosis. Both nifedipine and nicardipine have been shown to prevent the development of new coronary lesions but not the progression of existing lesions in prospective randomized angiographic studies. Verapamil, in contrast, failed to prevent the development of new coronary lesions and had no significant effect on the progression of existing lesions. Diltiazem, although not studied in patients with coronary atheroscleroses, has been shown to prevent the development of post-transplant coronary vascular disease. Despite the beneficial effects of nifedipine and nicardipine on new coronary lesion development, they have not been shown to reduce the incidence of recurrent ischemic events or mortality in the prospective randomized studies that demonstrated their effect on new coronary lesion development. A relatively new dihydropyridine calcium channel blocking agent, amlodipine, is hypothesized to prevent atherosclerosis due to its calcium channel blocking properties as well as by mechanisms independent of its calcium channel blocking properties. This agent has been selected for evaluation in the Prospective Randomized Evaluation of the Vascular Effects of Norvasc Trial (PREVENT) to explore whether the use of amlodipine over 3 years will reduce the incidence of early atherosclerotic lesions and, possibly, the progression of existing lesions in both the coronary and carotid arterial beds. Amlodipine could play an important future role in the secondary prevention of ischemic heart disease, but further study and a demonstration of a beneficial effect on recurrent ischemic events is required before any final conclusions concerning its effectiveness are reached.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44649/1/10557_2004_Article_BF00878569.pd

Estimates of live-tree carbon stores in the Pacific Northwest are sensitive to model selection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Estimates of live-tree carbon stores are influenced by numerous uncertainties. One of them is model-selection uncertainty: one has to choose among multiple empirical equations and conversion factors that can be plausibly justified as locally applicable to calculate the carbon store from inventory measurements such as tree height and diameter at breast height (DBH). Here we quantify the model-selection uncertainty for the five most numerous tree species in six counties of northwest Oregon, USA.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results of our study demonstrate that model-selection error may introduce 20 to 40% uncertainty into a live-tree carbon estimate, possibly making this form of error the largest source of uncertainty in estimation of live-tree carbon stores. The effect of model selection could be even greater if models are applied beyond the height and DBH ranges for which they were developed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Model-selection uncertainty is potentially large enough that it could limit the ability to track forest carbon with the precision and accuracy required by carbon accounting protocols. Without local validation based on detailed measurements of usually destructively sampled trees, it is very difficult to choose the best model when there are several available. Our analysis suggests that considering tree form in equation selection may better match trees to existing equations and that substantial gaps exist, in terms of both species and diameter ranges, that are ripe for new model-building effort.</p