Aerobiological monitoring for fungal spores in a rehabilitation hospital in Northern Italy

In the setting of an aerobiological study of confined environments and environmental prevention of nosocomial infections, aerobiological monitoring of 22 areas in Montescano Medical Rehabilitation Centre (Pavia) was performed in three different months: February, May, and August, 1994. A Lanzoni 3000 spore trap was used for the monitoring. Examination of the results showed that, in the environments monitored, the indoor presence of fungi increased progressively over the three periods considered. The behaviour of individual genera of fungi differed. In the winter periodPenicillium andAspergillus were the most commonly encountered genera.Cladosporium was the dominant genus from the spring to the summer while the yeasts had their maximum counts in the spring morning. The use of air conditioning, combined with the low air exchange between outdoors and indoors in some of the environments certainly played a part in the low concentrations of these latter aerofungi.     

Sedimentation loss of phytoplankton cells from the mixed layer: effects of turbulence levels

In this paper, we describe a study of the role of turbulencein the loss by sedimentation of phytoplankton cells from themixed layer. The approach presented allows the quantificationof the sedimentation rate of phytoplankton in the whole rangeof turbulence levels of this layer. Two types of phytoplanktercan be distinguished according to the effect that turbulencecan exert on their sedimentation rate. The rate of those cellswhose settling velocity is lower than –1 m day^–1will not be modified by turbulence. The sedimentation rate ofcells with higher settling velocities can, however, be modifiedby the level of turbulence. A set of dimensionless numbers isgiven to delimit several processes that are important in thedynamics of phytoplankton sedimentation in a turbulent regime.The use of these dimensionless numbers suggests that an increasein the turbulence level in the mixed layer does not always implya decrease in the sedimentation rate of phytoplankton cells.     

Bioavailability of selenium accumulated by selenite-reducing bacteria

The bioavailability of selenium (Se) was determined in bacterial strains that reduce selenite to red elemental Se (Se^o). A laboratory strain ofBacillus subtilis and a bacterial rod isolated from soil in the vicinity of the Kesterson Reservoir, San Joaquin Valley, CA, (Microbacterium arborescens) were cultured in the presence of 1 mM sodium selenite (Na₂SeO₃). After harvest, the washed, lyophilizedB. subtilis andM. arborescens samples contained 2.62 and 4.23% total Se, respectively, which was shown to consist, within error, entirely of Se^o. These preparations were fed to chicks as supplements to a low-Se, vitamin E-free diet. Three experiments showed that the Se in both bacteria had bioavailabilities of approx 2% that of selenite. A fourth experiment revealed that gray Se^o had a bioavailability of 2% of selenite, but that the bioavailability of red Se^o depended on the way it was prepared (by reduction of selenite). When glutathione was the reductant, bioavailability resembled that of gray Se^o and bacterial Se; when ascorbate was the reductant, bioavailability was twice that level (3–4%). These findings suggest that aerobic bacteria such asB. subtilis andM. arborescens may be useful for the bioremediation of Se-contaminated sites, i.e., by converting selenite to a form of Se with very low bioavailability.     

15N natural abundance in forest and pasture soils of the Brazilian Amazon Basin

The natural abundance of ¹⁵N was examined in soil profiles from forests and pastures of the Brazilian Amazon Basin to compare tropical forests on a variety of soil types and to investigate changes in the sources of nitrogen to soils following deforestation for cattle ranching. Six sites in the state of Rondônia, two sites in Pará and one in Amazonas were studied. All sites except one were chronosequences and contained native forest and one or more pastures ranging from 2 to 27 years old. Forest soil ¹⁵N values to a depth of 1 m ranged from 8 to 23 and were higher than values typically found in temperate forests. A general pattern of increasing ¹⁵N values with depth near the soil surface was broadly similar to patterns in other forests but a decrease in ¹⁵N values in many forest profiles between 20 and 40 cm suggests that illuviation of ¹⁵N-depleted nitrate may influence total soil ¹⁵N values in deeper soil where total N concentrations are low. In four chronosequences in Rondônia, the ¹⁵N values of surface soil from pastures were lower than in the original forest and ¹⁵N values were increasingly depleted in older pastures. Inputs of atmospheric N by dinitrogen fixation could be an important N source in these pastures. Other pastures in Amazonas and Pará and Rondônia showed no consistent change from forest values. The extent of fractionation that leads to ¹⁵N enrichment in soils was broadly similar over a wide range of soil textures and indicated that similar processes control N fractionation and loss under tropical forest over a broad geographic region. Forest ¹⁵N profiles were consistent with conceptual models that explain enrichment of soil ¹⁵N values by selective loss of ¹⁴N during nitrification and denitrification.     

On the existence of stable pairing distributions

We formulate and analyze pair-formation models for multiple groups with general pairing rates and arbitrary mixing probabilities. Under the assumption of constant recruitment rates and equal average duration of all types of partnerships, we have shown that the dynamics are relatively simple because of the monotonicity properties of the dynamical system associated with the pairing/mixing of heterogeneous populations of male and female individuals. In fact, we have shown that the corresponding asymptotic stable paired distribution is given precisely by the asymptotic values of the matrices that prescribe the mixing/contact structure. In other words, if the sizes of the mixing subpopulations of males and females are asymptotically constant and if the average durations of partnerships are about the same regardless of type, then the matrices that describe the mixing between subpopulations also characterize the distribution of paired types. Alternatively, if the distribution of the average duration of relationships between individuals has a large variance then it may be impossible to detect any relationship between the mixing/contact structure and the observed distribution of paired types. The study of models with constant per-capita recruitment rates give rise to homogeneous systems of degree one. The analysis of the dynamics of pairs for models with exponentially growing populations of singles is complicated. So far, we are only able to classify the stability of all non-strictly positive boundary exponential solutions. From our incomplete analysis, it is not possible to detect necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence and stability of strictly interior exponential solutions. We cannot rule out the possibility of oscillations. The mathematical problems associated with the stability of exponential solutions of dynamical systems of degree one are of relevance in demography, epidemiology, and population dynamics.On leave from University of Alabama in Huntsville     

Efficacy of transfer factor in treating patients with recurrent ocular herpes infections

Recurrent ocular herpes is an insoluble problem for the clinician. As cellular immunity plays an important role in controlling herpes relapses, and other studies have shown the efficacy of HSV-specific transfer factor (TF) for the treatment of herpes patients, an open clinical trial was undertaken in 134 patients (71 keratitis, 29 kerato-uveitis, 34 uveitis) suffering from recurrent ocular herpetic infections. The mean duration of the treatment was 358 days, and the entire follow-up period 189121 before, and 64062 days after TF treatment. The cell-mediated immune response to the viral antigens, evaluated by the lymphocyte stimulation test (LST) and the leucocyte migration test (LMT) (P<0.001), was significantly increased by the TF treatment. The total number of relapses was decreased significantly during/after TF treatment, dropping from 832 before, to 89 after treatment, whereas the cumulative relapse index (RI) dropped, during the same period, from 13.2 to 4.17 (P<0.0001). No side effects were observed. It is concluded that patients with relapsing ocular herpes can benefit from treatment with HSV-specific TF.     

Tidal flushing of ammonium from intertidal sediments of Ria Formosa,Portugal

Ammonium concentrations were determined in near-bottom water and intertidal surface sediments collected in February and July 1993 at five stations of Ria Formosa, a shallow meso-tidal coastal lagoon in southern Portugal. At each station, samples were taken a few minutes before tidal inundation, and subsequently 2, 10, 15 and 20 minutes thereafter. Ammonium concentration in near-bottom waters increased dramatically in the first 2 minutes followed by a decrease during the 18 minutes of flooding (maximum range 10.3-2.2 M). The highest levels in the flooding water were concomitant with a decrease of extractable ammonium recorded in the upper sediment layer (2 cm). Laboratory experiments indicated that ammonium is easily extracted from the sediment solids by physical perturbation, as one would expect when tidal water flushes over the intertidal area. This perturbation results in the export of ammonium from the sediment, by pulse mechanisms of short time intervals. On a daily scale this amount is two orders of magnitude higher than transport resulting from molecular diffusion.     

Detachment of transformed cells

A parallel-plate flow chamber was used to quantify the detachment of normal cloned rat embryo fibroblasts (CREF) fibroblasts,ras-transformed CREF fibroblasts (CREF T24), and CREF T24 fibroblasts transfected with a Krev/RAP1A suppressor gene (HK B1) from a confluent monolayer of normal CREF fibroblasts to determine if the expression patterns of CD44 variants (mol wt 110 and 140 kDa) corresponded with detachment properties and metastatic potential. In the detachment assay, known shear stresses ranging from 20–24 dyn/cm² were applied to the adherent cells and the number of cells detached from the monolayer after 180 s was determined. Results showed that cellular expression of CD44 variants correlated with the metastatic potential of the cells and with the cells’ ability to detach from a monolayer of normal cells. Western blot analysis showed a low level of expression of the CD44 variants in the normal cell line, CREF, and the lowly metastatic cell line, HK B1. Detachment studies showed a low percentage of detachment of both of these cell lines from a normal cell monolayer. Tumor-derived (HK B1-T) and lung nodule-derived (HK B1-M) cell lines were established and both formed tumors and metastasis with reduced latency periods as compared to HK B1, but still showed a markedly delayed latency period compared to the highly metastatic cell line, CREF T24. Both of these cell lines showed a higher expression of the CD44 variants as compared to CREF and HK B1, and detached easier than CREF and HK B1. CREF T24 showed a much higher level of expression of the variants and had a higher percentage detachment than all other cell lines. To further test the role of the CD44 variants in the ability of the cells to detach from the normal monolayer, CREF cells were transfected with a DNA construct that constitutively expresses the CD44 variants and the detachment properties of three randomly selected clones were studied. Clones 2 and 3 showed a low level of expression of the CD44 variants after transfection and detached from the normal monolayer similar to CREF. Clone 1 showed a high level of expression of the CD44 variants and the detachment of these cells was significantly higher than CREF. From these results, it is concluded that in the five cell lines studied, expression of the CD44 variants play a significant role in the ability of the cells to detach from a monolayer of normal cells. It is hypothesized that this detachment may be an important component of a cell’s ability to metastasize.