The effects of temperature, light, and water activity (aw) on the growth and fumitremorgin production of a heat-resistant mold, Neosartorya fischeri, cultured on Czapek Yeast Autolysate agar (CYA) were studied for incubation periods of up to 74 days. Colonies were examined visually, and extracts of mycelia and CYA on which the mold was cultured were analyzed for mycotoxin content by high-perfor...

Seed morph, abiotic conditions and time of germination can affect plant fitness, but few studies have tested their combined effects on plasticity of plant life history traits. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that seed morph, germination season and watering regime influence phenotypic expression of post-germination life history traits in the diaspore-heteromorphic cold desert winter annual/spring...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between body position, pulmonary function (PF) and bronchial blood flow (Q(aw)) in a group of heart failure (HF) and control subjects. METHODS Thirty-six subjects were studied: 24 stable, ambulatory HF patients (HF: LVEF=27±6%, age=65±9 yr) and 12 age- and sex-matched controls (CTRL: LVEF=60±7%, age=62±8 yr). Measures of Q˙(aw...

The aim of this study was to investigate in vitro and model the effect of temperature (T) and water activity (aw) conditions on growth and toxin production by some toxigenic fungi signaled in cheese. Aspergillus versicolor, Penicillium camemberti, P. citrinum, P. crustosum, P. nalgiovense, P. nordicum, P. roqueforti, P. verrucosum were considered they were grown under different T (0-40 °C) and ...

Hypocretin (Hcrt or orexin) somas are located in the hypothalamus and project widely to forebrain and brainstem regions, densely innervating monoaminergic and cholinergic cells. Loss of Hcrt function results in the sleep disorder narcolepsy. However, the normal pattern of Hcrt release across the sleep-wake cycle is unknown. We monitored Hcrt-1 release in the basal forebrain, perifornical hypoth...

Financial support: This work was supported by the following grants: A grant from the TheilerHaag Stiftung, Zurich to AW and LF. Grants from the Krebsliga Schweiz (Oncosuisse), Promedica Stiftung, the „Julius Müller Stiftung“, and from the “Kurt and Senta Herrmann Stiftung”, Vaduz, Lichtenstein to AW and MH. MH is also supported by an ERC Starting grant “LiverCancerMechanism”, the Hofschneider f...

Since the early 1970’s a number of large Salmonella outbreaks have been associated with low aw food products, including chocolate, cereal, peanut butter, spices, and powdered infant formula. This research is design to help the food industry to determine Salmonella survival in the production environment and thus understand the potential risk of cross contamination to the product. The studies sou...

We recently reported an association between stool consistency as measured by the Bristol Stool Scale (BSS) and major markers of the gut ecosystem, including microbial richness, enterotypes and bacterial growth rates in 53 healthy women. Meanwhile, the link between stool consistency and colon microbiota composition has been confirmed in two large-scale (n>1000) cohorts including individuals of b...

Recovery and colony formation by healthy and sublethally heat-injured cells of Zygosaccharomyces rouxii as influenced by the procedure for sterilizing recovery media (YM agar [YMA], wort agar, cornmeal agar, and oatmeal agar) were investigated. Media were supplemented with various concentrations of glucose, sucrose, glycerol, or sorbitol and sterilized by autoclaving (110 degrees C, 15 min) and...