“
“Aerated lagoons are commonly used for domestic

and industrial wastewater treatment due to their tow cost and minimal need of operational requirements. However, little information is known regarding microbial communities that inhabit these ecosystems. In this study, a 16S-DGGE approach was used to estimate bacterial. diversity and to monitor community changes in two aerated lagoons from VX-770 a wastewater treatment plant receiving urban and industrial effluents. Pronounced shifts between bacterial communities collected in winter-spring and summer-autumn months were detected. Temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO) and pH were the variables that most influenced the bacterial communities. Phylogenetic affiliation of predominant members was assessed by the determination of the 16S rDNA sequence of correspondent bands. Affiliations to Cytophaga-Flexibacter-Bacteroides (CFB) group, Firmicutes, and beta- and epsilon-proteobacteria were found. (C) 2007 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.”
“Neonatal lupus erythematosus is an

immune-mediated disease caused by transplacental passage of maternal autoantibodies, primarily anti-Ro selleck kinase inhibitor (SSA) and anti-La (SSB). The major clinical manifestations are congenital heart block, cutaneous lupus lesions, and hematologic problems. Hepatic, pulmonary, and neurological involvements are rare. We report a 5-day-old male neonate, born to a clinically asymptomatic mother, presenting with conjugated hyperbilirubinemia, cutaneous lupus lesions, congenital heart block, and thrombocytopenia. Both the neonate and his mother had high titers

of antinuclear antibodies (1:640), anti-Ro (SSA), and anti-La (SSB) antibodies. The thrombocytopenia improved with prednisolone (2 mg/kg/day) for 14 days. The skin lupus rashes and bilirubin resolved 2 months later, and liver enzymes were completely normal by 6 months.”
“We describe the disruption of amyloid fibrils of Alzheimer’s amyloid-beta peptides by ultrasonic cavitation. For this purpose, we performed nonequilibrium all-atom molecular dynamics simulations with sinusoidal pressure and visualized the process with movies. When the pressure is negative, a bubble is formed, usually at hydrophobic residues in the transmembrane region. Most beta-strands maintain their secondary structures in the bubble. When the pressure becomes positive, the bubble YH25448 collapses, and water molecules crash against the hydrophilic residues in the nontransmembrane region to disrupt the amyloid. Shorter amyloids require longer sonication times for disruption because they do not have enough hydrophobic residues to serve as a nucleus to form a bubble. These results agree with experiments in which monodispersed amyloid fibrils were obtained by ultrasonication.”
“Over several decades, the mouth of the Mejerda River (northern Tunisia) has received large amounts of mining tailings mainly containing Pb, Zn and Ba.