Microbial degradation of bitumen

Summary A blown bitumen Mexphalte R 90/40 with a high content of saturated hydrocarbons was degraded by several microorganisms to the same extent. In batch cultures ofSaccharomycopsis lipolytica, maximal biodegradation was estimated to be about 9% w/w, 3.2·10^–3 g/cm² and 3.1·10^–3 cm of degraded bitumen. The Mexphalte R 90/40 degradation rate was closely coupled to biofilm formation. The microbial activity concerned predominantly the oxidation of saturated hydrocarbons. A direct distillation bitumen 80/100 with a low content of saturated hydrocarbons and a high content of aromatic hydrocarbons and resins was more resistant to biodegradation.     

Abnormal pattern detected in fragile-X patients by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis.

The fragile-X syndrome is the most frequent inherited form of mental retardation, with an incidence of 1 in 1,500 males. It is characterized by the presence of a fragile site at Xq27.3 induced in vitro by folate deprivation or by inhibitors of deoxynucleotide synthesis. Its mode of inheritance is unusual for an X-linked trait, with incomplete penetrance in both males and females. Some phenotypically normal males transmit the mutation to all their daughters who rarely express any symptoms, but penetrance is high in sons and daughters of these carrier women. Genetic and physical mapping of the Xq27-q28 region has confirmed that the disease locus is located at or very near the fragile site. Hypotheses proposed to account for the abnormalities in the inheritance of the disease include sequence rearrangements by meiotic recombination or a mutation that affects reactivation of an inactive X chromosome during differentiation of female germ cells. To detect such rearrangements, or methylation changes that may reflect a locally inactive X chromosome, we used pulsed-field gel analysis of DNA from fragile-X patients with probes close to the fragile-X locus. The probe Do33 (DXS465) detected abnormal patterns in fragile-X patients, but not in normal controls or in non-expressing male transmitters.     

Host cell reactivation of ozone-treated T3 bacteriophage by different strains ofEscherichia coli

Summary Host cell reactivation capacity for ozone T3 phage was determined for differentE. coli strains deficient in one or more of the DNA repair mechanisms. The results indicate that DNA polymerase I appears to play a key role in the repair of damage produced on the DNA by ozone while thelexA gene product seems to play a minor one.This research was sponsored by the National Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada. One of us (PLH) acknowledges a scholarship from the NSERCof Canada.     

新世纪图书馆员社会角色转换研究综述

就近几年图书馆界关于新世纪馆员意识转换及社会角色转换等方面的研究进行了综述，指出新时期的馆员要实现自我社会角色的转换，首先是要明确转换的必要性，然后采取有效的策略逐步地、系统地推进转换，才能取得较好的效果。     

Truth and openness: an epistemology for interpretive systemology

Both an ontoepistemology for reductionist modern science (counter-ontoepistemology) and an ontology for interpretive Systemology have been outlined in the two preceding papers in this special issue ofSystems Practice. In the present article, the notion of “truth” is interpreted in terms of both the ontoepistemology of “reductionism” and the ontology of interpretive systemology. Both interpretations are discussed. Such a discussion represents the objective of this paper, that is, to outline the epistemological “face” of the ontoepistemology of interpretive systemology. In order to design that “epistemological face,” the relation between ontology and epistemology must be clarified. Such a relation is seen from the standpoint already provided by the ontology. After the discussion on the notion of truth, the general shape of a systemic-interpretive inquiring process is outlined.     

Structure of the detoxification catalyst mercuric ion reductase from Bacillus sp. strain RC607

Several hundred million tons of toxic mercurials are dispersed in the biosphere. Microbes can detoxify organo-mercurials and mercury salts through sequential action of two enzymes, organomercury lyase and mercuric ion reductase (MerA). The latter, a homodimer with homology to the FAD-dependent disulphide oxidoreductases, catalyses the reaction NADPH + Hg(II)----NADP+ + H+ + Hg(0), one of the very rare enzymic reactions with metal substrates. Human glutathione reductase serves as a reference molecule for FAD-dependent disulphide reductases and between its primary structure and that of MerA from Tn501 (Pseudomonas), Tn21 (Shigella), p1258 (Staphylococcus) and Bacillus, 25-30% of the residues have been conserved. All MerAs have a C-terminal extension about 15 residues long but have very varied N termini. Although the enzyme from Streptomyces lividans has no addition, from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Tn501 and Bacillus sp. strain RC607 it has one and two copies respectively of a domain of 80-85 residues, highly homologous to MerP, the periplasmic component of proteins encoded by the mer operon. These domains can be proteolytically cleaved off without changing the catalytic efficiency. We report here the crystal structure of MerA from the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus sp. strain RC607. Analysis of its complexes with nicotinamide dinucleotide substrates and the inhibitor Cd(II) reveals how limited structural changes enable an enzyme to accept as substrate what used to be a dangerous inhibitor. Knowledge of the mode of mercury ligation is a prerequisite for understanding this unique detoxification mechanism.     

Un curare d'une Erythrine africaine

Summary An alcaloid C₁₆H₁₉NO₃ has been isolated fromErythrina tholloniana; the iodohydrate of this erythroidine has a melting point of 225°C and 239°C for its chlorhydrate. It has a powerful curare-like action on the frog or on its isolated sciatic-sartorius preparation; at a concentration of less than 1/1,000,000, a complete neuromuscular block is produced: the electrical stimulation of the motor nerve does not produce any contraction, but the muscle reacts by an end-plate potential having the same characteristics (shape, duration, possibility of summation) as the electrical waves produced in the same preparation curarized by ordinary curare or by quaternary ammonium derivatives. Decurarization by veratrine 1/200,000 is accompanied by the same electrical reactions as those which have been described in preparations treated by curare.On mammals, the alcaloid has little curariform activity; on the isolated phrenic-diaphragm preparation of the rat, incomplete block was produced at a concentration of 1/5000.