Four nitrite-dissimilating strains, isolated from Weser Estuary sediments, were investigated using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that these strains belong to the 'Betaproteobacteria' and are related to the genus Alcaligenes. The highest level of sequence similarity (100 %) was found with strain M3A (=ATCC 700596), a dimethyl su...

Dr Murray ends his article by asking medical students to create a contemporary version of Osler's bedside books for medical students. All current medical students at McGill University were therefore invited to suggest written works that they felt every medical student should read to help them in their development as future physicians. Despite the wide diversity in backgrounds of today's medical...

Twenty-eight tidal creeks along the South Carolina coast were sampled during the summer of 1995 to determine the levels of sediment contamination including organic chemicals (i.e., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [PAHs], polychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs], and DDT and its metabolites) associated with different types and varying levels of watershed development (i.e., industrial/urban, suburban, f...

The photosynthetic membrane is the microscopic powerhouse of our biosphere. It transforms the sun’s energy into the energy of universal biological fuel, ATP and NADPH (light reactions) that is used for the synthesis of Glc from CO2 (dark reactions). Oxygenic photosynthesis, the process that enabled the explosive diversity of heterotrophic organisms on our planet, oxidizes water in order to driv...

This Issue of LJPC shows how writing, painting, the arts and stories can reveal different, complementary aspects of health. Together they can build up rich pictures that are invisible to any one expression and different from the insights gained from facts and statistics about diseases. They can do more than reveal aspects of health; they can improve it. Claire Brash interviewed Stephen Bergman,...

A dynamic “two-site” model was formulated and tested for simulating the elution histories of copper Cu2+ and lead Pb2+ from a contaminated soil treated by poly amidoamine dendrimers. In the model, the metal sorption sites of the soil were divided into two compartments: one with a fast desorption rate and the other with a slow desorption rate. The model was tested for simulating and predicting C...

I ntramembrane-cleaving proteases (I-CLiPs) are a class of hydrolytic enzymes that cleave hydrophobic substrates within the lipid bilayer (1). Unlike their well understood soluble or membrane-tethered counterparts, I-CLiPs are integral membrane proteins, with catalytic residues thought to lie within the confines of the membrane. Although the identities of these residues have suggested membrane-...

Many years ago, the second time I attended a meeting on biological rhythms, I met a fellow who asked me how long I’d been in the field and whether I was connected to Pittendrigh. I didn’t really think of rhythms as a field at the time, more like a problem, maybe an area—I thought of my field as Neuroscience, subfield Neuropharmacology, area Receptors and signal transduction, system rat Pineal g...

High emissions from soil fumigants increase the risk of detrimental impact on workers, bystanders, and the environment, and jeopardize future availability of fumigants. Efficient and cost-effective approaches to minimize emissions are needed. This study evaluated the potential of surface water application (or water seal) to reduce 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D) emissions from soil (Hanford sandy l...