Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Many Uses (many + use)
Selected AbstractsTopical Antibacterial Agents for Wound Care: A PrimerDERMATOLOGIC SURGERY, Issue 6 2003Candace Thornton Spann MD Although often overlooked, topical antibiotic agents play an important role in dermatology. Their many uses include prophylaxis against cutaneous infections, treatment of minor wounds and infections, and elimination of nasal carriage of Stapylococcus aureus. For these indications, they are advantageous over their systemic counterparts because they deliver a higher concentration of medication directly to the desired area and are less frequently implicated in causing bacterial resistance. The ideal topical antibiotic has a broad spectrum of activity, has persistent antibacterial effects, and has minimal toxicity or incidence of allergy. [source] Application of molecular clocks in ornithology revisitedJOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY, Issue 6 2006A. Townsend Peterson Molecular clocks have seen many applications in ornithology, but many applications are uncritical. In this commentary, I point out logical inconsistencies in many uses of clocks in avian molecular systematics. I call for greater rigor in application of molecular clocks , clocks should only be used when clocklike behavior has been tested and confirmed, and when appropriate calibrations are available. Authors and reviewers should insist on such rigor to assure that systematics is indeed scientific, and not just storytelling. [source] Gluconic acid production by Aspergillus terreusLETTERS IN APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 3 2010C. Dowdells Abstract Aim:,Aspergillus terreus produces itaconic acid at low pH but lovastatin and other secondary metabolites at higher pH in the fermentation. The utilization of glucose as a carbon substrate was investigated for secondary metabolite production by A. terreus. Methods and Results:, With a starting pH of 6·5, glucose was rapidly metabolized to gluconic acid by the wild-type strain and by transformants harbouring Aspergillus niger genes encoding 6-phosphofructo-1-kinases with superior kinetic and regulatory properties for bioproduction of metabolites from glucose. On exhaustion of the glucose in batch fermentations, the accumulated gluconic acid was utilized as a carbon source. Conclusions:, A novel pathway of glucose catabolism was demonstrated in A. terreus, a species whose wild type is, without any strain development, capable of producing gluconic acid at high molar conversion efficiency (up to 0·7 mol mol,1 glucose consumed). Significance and Impact of the Study:,Aspergillus terreus is a potential novel producer organism for gluconic acid, a compound with many uses as a bulk chemical. With a new knowledge of glucose catabolism by A. terreus, fermentation strategies for secondary metabolite production can be devised with glucose feeding using feedback regulation by pH. [source] Stage, age and individual stochasticity in demographyOIKOS, Issue 12 2009Hal Caswell Demography is the study of the population consequences of the fates of individuals. Individuals are differentiated on the basis of age or, in general, life cycle stages. The movement of an individual through its life cycle is a random process, and although the eventual destination (death) is certain, the pathways taken to that destination are stochastic and will differ even between identical individuals; this is individual stochasticity. A stage-classified demographic model contains implicit age-specific information, which can be analyzed using Markov chain methods. The living stages in the life cycles are transient states in an absorbing Markov chain; death is an absorbing state. This paper presents Markov chain methods for computing the mean and variance of the lifetime number of visits to any transient state, the mean and variance of longevity, the net reproductive rate R0, and the cohort generation time. It presents the matrix calculus methods needed to calculate the sensitivity and elasticity of all these indices to any life history parameters. These sensitivities have many uses, including calculation of selection gradients. It is shown that the use of R0 as a measure of fitness or an invasion exponent gives erroneous results except when R0=,=1. The Markov chain approach is then generalized to variable environments (deterministic environmental sequences, periodic environments, iid random environments, Markovian environments). Variable environments are analyzed using the vec-permutation method to create a model that classifies individuals jointly by the stage and environmental condition. Throughout, examples are presented using the North Atlantic right whale (Eubaleana glacialis) and an endangered prairie plant (Lomatium bradshawii) in a stochastic fire environment. [source] Structure of XynB, a highly thermostable ,-1,4-xylanase from Dictyoglomus thermophilum Rt46B.1, at 1.8,Å resolutionACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION D, Issue 11 2000Andrew A. McCarthy Microorganisms employ a large array of enzymes to break down the cellulose and hemicelluloses of plant biomass. These enzymes, especially those with high thermal stability, have many uses in biotechnology. We have solved the crystal structure of a ,-1,4-xylanase, XynB, from the extremely thermophilic bacterium Dictyoglomus thermophilum, isolate Rt46B.1. The protein crystallized from 1.6,M ammonium sulfate, 0.2,M HEPES pH 7.2 and 10% glycerol, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 91.3, c = 44.9,Å and space group P43. The structure was solved at high resolution (1.8,Å) by X-ray crystallography, using the method of isomorphous replacement with a single mercury derivative, and refined to a final R factor of 18.3% (Rfree = 22.1%). XynB has the single-domain fold typical of family 11 xylanases, comprising a jelly roll of two highly twisted ,-sheets that create a deep substrate-binding cleft. The two catalytic residues, Glu90 and Glu180, occupy this cleft. Compared with other family 11 xylanases, XynB has a greater proportion of polar surface and has a slightly extended C-terminus that, combined with the extension of ,-strand A5, gives additional hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic packing. These factors may account for the enhanced thermal stability of the enzyme. [source] | ||||||||||