The use of high-throughput sequencing to investigate an outbreak of glycopeptide-resistant Enterococcus faecium with a novel quinupristin-dalfopristin resistance mechanism.

High-throughput sequencing (HTS) has successfully identified novel resistance genes in enterococci and determined clonal relatedness in outbreak analysis. We report the use of HTS to investigate two concurrent outbreaks of glycopeptide-resistant Enterococcus faecium (GRE) with an uncharacterised resistance mechanism to quinupristin-dalfopristin (QD).Seven QD-resistant and five QD-susceptible GRE isolates from a two-centre outbreak were studied. HTS was performed to identify genes or predicted proteins that were associated with the QD-resistant phenotype. MLST and SNP typing on HTS data was used to determine clonal relatedness.Comparative genomic analysis confirmed this GRE outbreak involved two distinct clones (ST80 and ST192). HTS confirmed the absence of known QD resistance genes, suggesting a novel mechanism was conferring resistance. Genomic analysis identified two significant genetic determinants with explanatory power for the high level of QD resistance in the ST80 QD-resistant clone: an additional 56aa leader sequence at the N-terminus of the lsaE gene and a transposon containing seven genes encoding proteins with possible drug or drug-target modification activities. However, HTS was unable to conclusively determine the QD resistance mechanism and did not reveal any genetic basis for QD resistance in the ST192 clone. This study highlights the usefulness of HTS in deciphering the degree of relatedness in two concurrent GRE outbreaks. Although HTS was able to reveal some genetic candidates for uncharacterised QD resistance, this study demonstrates the limitations of HTS as a tool for identifying putative determinants of resistance to QD

Philosophie der Aufklärung - Aufklärung der Philosophie | Gesammelte Studien. Zu seinem 70. Geburtstag hrsg. von Frank Grunert

Über Jahrzehnte hinweg hat Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Werner Schneiders (Münster) mit seinem philosophischen und philosophiegeschichtlichen Werk die deutsche wie die internationale Aufklärungsforschung stimuliert. Seine monographischen Studien - genannt seien nur Naturrecht und Liebesethik, Aufklärung und Vorurteilskritik, Die wahre Aufklärung oder Hoffnung auf Vernunft - gehören längst zu den ebenso grundlegenden wie wegweisenden Standardwerken der Forschung. Der 70. Geburtstag von Werner Schneiders ist nun der willkommene Anlaß, eine bisher vermißte Sammlung von verstreut publizierten und nicht immer leicht zugänglichen Aufsätzen des Jubilars zusammenzustellen.Die getroffene Auswahl soll einen repräsentativen Überblick geben und dabei ein philosophisches Werk sichtbar machen, das die philosophiegeschichtliche Fragestellung ernstnimmt und zugleich über sie hinausweist: Die Philosophie der Aufklärung ist weder Selbstzweck noch bloßes Mittel der philosophischen Reflexion, vielmehr wird sie für die Aufklärung der Philosophie produktiv gemacht. Dabei wird die Philosophie der Aufklärung an ihrem historischen Ort belassen und als eine eigenständige, wesentlich philosophisch geprägte Bewegung begriffen, die auf eine rationale Aufklärung des Verstandes und auf emanzipative Selbstbefreiung gleichermaßen zielt. So wird die Philosophie der Aufklärung in ein Philosophieren einbezogen, das für Werner Schneiders in einer letztlich existenziellen Perspektive nichts anderes darstellt als eine um Orientierung bemühte Selbst- und Weltreflexion, die am Ende - und zwar bestenfalls - zu einer »Erweiterung meines Horizontes durch Klärung einiger Problemstellungen, durch Entwicklung von Denkmöglichkeiten und Deutungsschemata« führt

Frei José Mariano da Conceição Veloso e a divulgação de técnicas industriais no Brasil colonial: discussão de alguns conceitos das ciências químicas Friar José Mariano da Conceição Veloso and the promotion of industrial techniques in colonial Brazil: discussion of some concepts from the chemical sciences

Na virada para o século XIX, o botânico mineiro frei Veloso desenvolveu intensa atividade de publicação de livros com intuito de divulgar aos colonos do império português técnicas para o melhoramento da produção agrícola e da incipiente indústria química. Este artigo aborda o primeiro tomo da Alographia dos alkalis fixos..., obra que contém artigos, capítulos de livros, cartas e patentes coligidos de uma dezena de autores, especialmente franceses e ingleses, sobre o conhecimento científico e técnico necessário para produção de carbonato de potássio a partir de cinza de plantas autóctones. Alguns conceitos e definições da época da Revolução Química são discutidos, levando em conta como Veloso os traduziu para o português e os introduziu no Brasil por meio de sua obra.<br>At the turn of the 19th century, Minas Gerais Botanist Friar Veloso worked intensely on the publication of books to promote among settlers from the Portuguese empire techniques for improving agricultural production and from the incipient chemistry industry. This article analyzes the first volume of the "Alographia dos alkalis fixos...", a work that includes articles, book chapters, letters and patents from ten authors, particularly French and English, about the scientific and technical knowledge needed for the production of potassium carbonate from the ash of native plants. Some concepts and definitions used at the time of the Chemical Revolution are discussed, considering that Veloso translated them to Portuguese and introduced them to Brazil through his work

'Aufklärung', freemasonry, the public sphere and the question of Enlightenment

That the Enlightenment was a movement reaching across at least three European countries (France, Germany and Britain) in the eighteenth century, with a similar platform in all three (social improvement on the basis of unassisted reason), is the current orthodoxy. Yet this view can only be accepted with qualifications. It is the intention of this essay to focus attention on these qualifications. A first objection lies with the fact that no platform of Enlightenment was articulated in any country in the eighteenth century apart from Germany. In the debate about Enlightenment initiated in the Berlinische Monatsschrift in 1783, Kant's insistence that Aufklärung must stay within political limits is considered characteristic not only of the German discussion, but indeed of all broadly Enlightenment thought from the beginning. In considering Koselleck's argument about the Enlightenment, which analysed this same conservatism, a second objection is apparent: the impulse to stay within the confines of the absolutist state suggests that eighteenth-century Enlightenment, politically speaking, was decidedly other than that which has subsequently been found within it