Rat striatal dopamine and tetrahydrobiopterin content following an intrastriatal injection of manganese chloride

Injection of manganese into the rat corpus striatum causes a rapid fall in the biopterin and dopamine (DA) content ipsilateral to the lesion. Two weeks after the lesion both biopterin and DA are partially recovered. Controls, injected with saline or magnesium, do not show alterations in their DA or cofactor levels. It is proposed that the fall in DA levels results from a rapid displacement of the amine from its storage sites by manganese followed by a decrease in the rate of DA synthesis causes by the drop in cofactor levels.     

Seasonal study of the fungal biota of the fur of dogs

During a one year period, 944 dogs from the Municipal kennel of Barcelona were examined to detect animals with suspected dermatophytosis. Only a few animals (1.8%) presented skin lesions but none of them had dermatophytosis. A representative number of dogs without visible skin lesions (n=172), selected at random, were used to carry out a seasonal study of the mycobiota of their fur. Fifteen isolates belonging to the genera Microsporum and Trichophyton were isolated from 14 of the 172 (8.1%) dogs without lesions. The identity of these fungi was Microsporum gypseum (6/15), Trichophyton terrestre (4/15), M. canis (2/15), M. cookei (2/15) and Trichophyton ajelloi (1/15) (one strain each of M. gypseum and T. ajelloi were isolated from one dog). Species of Penicillium (% prevalence=89.5%), Alternaria (86.6%), Cladosporium (84.9%), Aspergillus (77.3%), Scopulariopsis (65.7%) and Chrysosporium (64.5%) were the most prevalent. No significant differences in the fungal biota were observed with respect to age, gender, hair length or between mixed and pure breed dogs. A large number of isolates, including species belonging to the genera Beauveria, Chrysosporium, Malbranchea and Scopulariopsis, that macroscopically and/or microscopically resemble dermatophytes and may be mistaken for them, produced a red color change in Dermatophyte Test Medium. No significant seasonal difference was detected among the isolates belonging to the the most frequently encountered genera, with the exception of Scopulariopsis (higher in summer and autumn) and Chrysosporium (higher in summer). Species from other genera, with lower occurrence also presented significant differences in their seasonal distribution. Arthrinium, Aureobasidium, Chaetomium and Phoma spp. presented maximum prevalence peaks in spring, Fusarium, Paecilomyces, Phoma and Rhizopus spp. in summer and Geotrichum and Mucor spp. in autumn. The Microsporum and Trichophyton species were more frequently isolated in summer.     

Dyes as fungal inhibitors: effect on colony diameter.

The effects of a wide range of concentrations of 13 dyes on the colony diameters of nine fungal strains (including members of the Deuteromycetes and Zygomycetes) were evaluated. Auramine at a concentration of 50 ppm (50 micrograms/ml), methylene blue at a concentration of 500 ppm, gentian violet at a concentration of 5 ppm, and phenol red at a concentration of 50 ppm performed as well as the commonly used dyes dichloran at a concentration of 2 ppm and rose bengal at a concentration of 50 ppm in that they allowed adequate colony development of the Deuteromycetes strains tested and controlled rapidly spreading fungi.     

Distribution of Ochratoxin A producing strains in the A. niger aggregate

Ochratoxin A (OA) production of 92 isolates belonging to the A. niger aggregate was tested. All these isolates were grouped into the two proposed species A. niger and A. tubingensis, according to their ITS-5.8S rDNA RFLP patterns. The distribution of the isolates into the two species was very similar since 52.2% were classified as pattern T (corresponding to A. tubingensis), and 47.8% were classified as pattern N (corresponding to A. niger). Six out of the 92 isolates studied produced OA. All the OA producing strains were classified as pattern N while none of the isolates classified as pattern T produced OA.     

Taxonomy and identification of the species involved in nosocomial aspergillosis

Although Aspergillus fumigatus is the most common etiological agent of invasive aspergillosis, other Aspergillus spp. such as A . flavus, A. niger, A. terreus and A. nidulans (Emericella nidulans) among others, have been also implicated. In this article, the taxonomy of the genus Aspergillus and the characteristics of the species most frequently isolated from patients with nosocomial aspergillosis are reviewed.     

Efficient Nash Equilibrium Resource Allocation Based on Game Theory Mechanism in Cloud Computing by Using Auction

One of the most complex issues in the cloud computing environment is the problem of resource allocation so that, on one hand, the cloud provider expects the most profitability and, on the other hand, users also expect to have the best resources at their disposal considering the budget constraints and time. In most previous work conducted, heuristic and evolutionary approaches have been used to solve this problem. Nevertheless, since the nature of this environment is based on economic methods, using such methods can decrease response time and reducing the complexity of the problem. In this paper, an auction-based method is proposed which determines the auction winner by applying game theory mechanism and holding a repetitive game with incomplete information in a non-cooperative environment. In this method, users calculate suitable price bid with their objective function during several round and repetitions and send it to the auctioneer; and the auctioneer chooses the winning player based the suggested utility function. In the proposed method, the end point of the game is the Nash equilibrium point where players are no longer inclined to alter their bid for that resource and the final bid also satisfies the auctioneer’s utility function. To prove the response space convexity, the Lagrange method is used and the proposed model is simulated in the cloudsim and the results are compared with previous work. At the end, it is concluded that this method converges to a response in a shorter time, provides the lowest service level agreement violations and the most utility to the provider.     

An experimental test of the defensive role of sticky traps in the carnivorous plant Pinguicula moranensis (Lentibulariaceae)

It has been sustained that the sticky traps present in some carnivorous plants could have evolved from ancestor species bearing leaves covered with secreting glands formerly associated with a defensive function. In this study, we evaluated the interaction of the carnivorous plant Pinguicula moranensis with its insect herbivores to assess the defensive role of the glandular trichomes. Firstly, we estimated the standing levels of insect herbivory in field conditions. We also evaluated the response of herbivore insects to the removal of the secreting glands from the leaves of P. moranensis in field and laboratory conditions. The mean damage was 1.61%, and half of the sampled plants showed no damage. The low level of herbivory in the field suggests that P. moranensis has an efficient defense ability. In the field experiment, after 25 d of exposure to natural damage, treated glandless plants received 18 times more damage than control plants. In the laboratory, the consumption of glandless tissue was three times higher during a 6 h evaluation period. Overall, our results provide evidence that secreting trichomes in Pinguicula are not only associated with prey capture but also have a defensive role. The defensive function could have favored the evolution of the sticky traps, the most extended prey‐capture strategy among carnivorous plants.     

Percentage reward in an operant analogue to foraging

Pigeons (Columba livia) responding on an operant, conditioning analogue to foraging could either accept or reject a variable-interval 20-s schedule which always led to food or a variable-interval 5-s schedule which led to food on only a percentage of trials. The probability of accepting the certain alternative increased as the percentage of food trials for the uncertain alternative decreased. The probability of accepting the uncertain alternative increased with the percentage of food trials for this alternative. Subjects receiving all of their food in the experiment (‘closed economy’) and those requiring supplementation (‘open economy’) preferred whichever alternative provided the higher overall mean rate of reinforcement.     

Protocol of a prospective study on the diagnostic value of transcranial duplex scanning of the substantia nigra in patients with parkinsonian symptoms

Background  

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. As there is no definitive diagnostic test, its diagnosis is based on clinical criteria. Recently transcranial duplex scanning (TCD) of the substantia nigra in the brainstem has been proposed as an instrument to diagnose PD. We and others have found that TCD scanning of substantia nigra duplex is a relatively accurate diagnostic instrument in patients with parkinsonian symptoms. However, all studies on TCD so far have involved well-defined, later-stage PD patients, which will obviously lead to an overestimate of the diagnostic accuracy of TCD.