Air pollution and forestry in czechoslovakia

One third of the territory of Czechoslovakia is covered by forests. A substantial part of them is damaged in various degrees by air pollution. The air pollution influence on forests developed to a very serious problem during the last 40 years. The main pollutant at present is SO₂ acting directly, but the improtance of soil changes due to acid deposition increases. The consequences are increased mortality and decreased increment in the forests, further consequences are the loss of valuable ecotypes, impact on water management and decreased stability of the landscape. There are limited possibilities of the forest sector to reduce the consequences.Contribution from Fourth World Wilderness Congress—Acid Rain Symposium, Denver (Estes Park), Colorado, September 11–18, 1987.     

Characterization of microbial communities from coastal waters using microarrays

Molecular methods, including DNA probes, were used to identify and enumerate pathogenic Vibrio species in the Chesapeake Bay; our data indicated that Vibrio vulnificus exhibits seasonal fluctuations in number. Our work included a characterization of total microbial communities from the Bay; development of microarrays that identify and quantify the diversity of those communities; and observation of temporal changes in those communities. To identify members of the microbial community, we amplified the 16S rDNA gene from community DNA isolated from a biofilm sample collected from the Chesapeake Bay in February, 2000. The resultant 75 sequences were 95% or more similar to 7 species including two recently described Shewanella species, baltica and frigidimarina, that have not been previously isolated from the Chesapeake. When the genera of bacteria from biofilm after culturing are compared to those detected by subcloning amplified 16S fragments from community DNA, the cultured sample exhibited a strong bias. In oysters collected in February, the most common bacteria were previously unknown. Based on our 16S findings, we are developing microarrays to detect these and other microbial species in these estuarine communities. The microarrays will detect each species using four distinct loci, with the multiple loci serving as an internal control. The accuracy of the microarray will be measured using sentinel species such as Aeromonas species, Escherichia coli, and Vibrio vulnificus. Using microarrays, it should be possible to determine the annual fluctuations of bacterial species (culturable and non-culturable, pathogenic and non-pathogenic). The data may be applied to understanding patterns of environmental change; assessing the health of the Bay; and evaluating the risk of human illness associated with exposure to and ingestion of water and shellfish.     

Biologie und Biochemie des Elements Selen

The importance of selenium as an essential trace element has progressively emerged during the last years due to the analysis of selenium deficiency diseases and to the identification and characterization of a number of selenoenzymes. Selenium is incorporated in the catalytic site of the enzymes as an integral selenocysteine residue. The pathway of selenocysteine biosynthesis and incorporation has been elucidated recently for Escherichia coli. This article presents an overview on these subjects and describes the mechanisms which confer selenocysteine specificity in the framework of protein biosynthesis. In addition, some considerations concerning the phylogeny of selenocysteine incorporation are presented and a model for the evolution of the selenocysteine pathway is proposed.     

Online-Patentrecherchen — schnelle Antworten auf kritische Fragen

Online searching in publically available patent files opens up interesting possibilities to provide a rapid response to critical questions. A computerized analysis of all patents of leading German pharmaceutical companies over the last decade in important indication areas is described. Supported by subsequent manual processing of individual patents it is shown that duplicate experiments on animals practically never occur.