ALBERT

Notizen: A variety of bactericidal tests are available for evaluating the antimicrobial activity of products. An often overlooked variable in these types of studies is adequate neutralization. Triclosan is a widely used antimicrobial agent and has been shown to be difficult to neutralize. Incomplete neutralization may overestimate the efficacy of triclosan-containing products.

Notizen: Abstract AnArthrobacter strain isolated from soil and selected for poor ability to utilize hexadecane as sole C-source was grown in a hexadecane (or pentadecane) — salts medium supplemented with yeast extract or corn steep liquor as the source of carbon for growth. It accumulated mono-hexadecanones (or pentadecanones). The percentages to which the individual ketones were accumulated depended on the distance of the carbonyl group from the terminal end of the substrate hydrocarbon; the greater the distance, the lower the percentage. The percentages did not depend on the composition of the medium. No other hydrocarbon oxidation products were observed. These results are discussed in relation to other reports of microbial conversions of alkanes to ketones.

Notizen: Abstract Several continuous salt processing options are available for use in molten salt fusion breeder blanket designs: fluorination only, fluorination plus reductive extraction, and fluorination, plus reductive extraction, plus metal transfer. The effects of processing on blanket performance have been assessed for these three levels of processing and various equilibrium uranium concentrations in the salt. A one-dimensional model of the blanket was used in the neutronics analysis, which incorporated transport calculations with time-dependent isotope generation and depletion calculations. The method of salt processing was found to have little affect on the level of radioactivity, toxicity, or the thermal behavior of the salt during operation of the reactor. The processing rates necessary to maintain the desired uranium concentrations in the suppressed-fission environment were quite low, which permitted only long-lived species to be removed from the salt. The effects of the processing therefore became apparent only after the radioactivity due to the short-lived species diminished. The effects of the additional processing (reductive extraction and metal transfer) could be seen after approximately 1 year of decay, but were not significant at times closer to shutdown. The reduced radioactivity and corresponding heat deposition were thus of no consequence in accident or maintenance situations. Net fissile production in the Be/MS blanket concept at a fusion power level of 3000 MW at 70% capacity ranged from 5100 kg/year to 5170 kg/year for uranium concentrations of 0.11% and 1.0%233U in thorium, respectively, with fluorination-only processing. The addition of processing by reductive extraction resulted in 5125 kg/year for the 0.11%233U case and 5225 kg/year for the 1.0%233U case.

Notizen: Summary A range of industrial peptones in combination with other carbon and nitrogen sources were investigated in order to define a medium for production of insecticide from Bacillus sphaericus, strain 2362. Industrial protein hydrolysates with an average peptide chain length above 30 were found to be poor substrates. Fermentation of B. sphaericus on protein-based media supplemented with glycerol resulted in production of 4–5x103 units of larvicide per ml fermentation broth, and toxicity of the larvicide up to 104 units per mg. Equally high larvicide production was obtained, when peptone was substituted with 30 mM l-glutamate and 2 mM proline. Addition of 2 mM l-arginine to this medium prevented sporulation and larvicide production.

Notizen: Zusammenfassung Nachweis, dass Ratten, aus normaler Lichtperiode abrupt in Dunkelheit versetzt, keine Zunahme der NATase-Aktivität im Pinealorgan zeigen und dass Isoproterenol-Injektion die Zunahme der NATase auslöst.

Notizen: Summary The authors describe two families from the upper Valais with a common ancestor who had lived in the beginning of the 19th century. After a consanguineous marriage in both families, four cases of myoclonic epilepsy occurred among the children (V/2 and 4; V/12 and 15). In the first sibship there were in addition five cases of pigmentary retinopathy associated in our propositus case to myoclonic epilepsy. In the second sibship, myoclonic epilepsy was not accompanied by any other disturbances. Parental consanguinity and familial occurrence of the disease clearly indicate a recessive transmission of myoclonic epilepsy and of pigmentary retinopathy. Myoclonias and the first epileptic fits occurred around the age of puberty and were soon followed by progressive dementia. Pigmentary retinopathy, studied particularly in the propositus, was rather atypical and consisted of pigment deposits in form of osteoblasts in the periphery and of some disseminated whitish foci reminiscent of retinitis punctata albescens. The electroretinogram was abolished in all cases. The pathological examination of the propositus, a woman who died at the age of 37, did not reveal the classical Lafora corpuscles. However, small, apparently free corpuscles were found in the neuropil, showing a rosette structure by PAS reaction. Furthermore, PAS-positive deposits (mucopolysaccharides) were found in several organs (myocard, small vessels of the spleen, Kupffer's and liver cells, skeletal muscle, kidneys). Neutral mucopolysaccharides were also present in the glia of the posterior pituitary lobe. There were no signs permitting to consider the association of myoclonic epilepsy and pigmentary retinopathy found in our propositus as a myoclonic form of familial amaurotic idiocy. It appears that this case should rather be connected with the already long list of retinal abiotrophies accompanying neurological disturbances. A fortuitous association of the two heredodegenerations, however, cannot be excluded. Whereas the distribution of the mucopolysaccharides in the nervous system and the other organs corresponds to the descriptions of the literature, the absence of Lafora corpuscles induces the authors to consider their propositus case as a new type of myoclonic epilepsy for which they propose the name “acorpuscular form”.

Notizen: Summary A 28-year-old man, whose infant son died of multiple malformations, was shown to have a balanced 13q-/18q+ translocation. He was phenotypically and mentally normal. Studies of the pedigree revealed the presence of bilateral microtia on the side of the spouse of the proband, transmitted in a dominant mode through four generations. Occasional cells from the proband and his mother exhibited an elongated long arm of a chromosome 16.

Notizen: Abstract Willow (Salix arctica) and sedges (Carex stans and Eriophorum triste) were the dominant plants available as forage for herbivores in the high Arctic of Greenland. Willow leaves were of high quality as forage in early stages, of phenology, but crude protein and digestibility declined markedly by late stages whereas sedges, remained high in forage quality throughout the growing season. Densities of fecal pellets indicated that muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) made heaviest use of sedge-dominated vegetation types in both winter and summer, although increased use of willow communities was observed in early summer. Hares (Lepus arcticus) favored willow-dominated communities in both winter and summer. Evidence of collared lemming (Dicrostonyx groenlandicus) winter use was mainly in willow-dominated communities where snow had accumulated, whereas in summer they were present in drier habitas dominated by willows, but with greater plant diversity. Analyses of plant tissues in feces indicated that graminoids composed over 60% of the diet of muskoxen in winter and over 40% in summer. Willows were of nearly equal importance in the muskox diet in summer, and forbs, Dryas integrifolia, and moss collectively composed over 20% of the diet in both summer and winter. Grass accounted for nearly 50% of the diet of hares in both summer and winter, with willows, forbs, and moss accounting for most of the remainder. Willows and graminoids dominated the diet of lemmings, with willows being somewhat more important in summer and graminoids in winter. Moss was a noteworthy dietary component of lemmings. Differences in body and digestive-tract morphology among the three mammalian herbivores account for differences in locomotive efficiency, predator avoidance, and foraging efficiency which interact with vegetation quality, density, and patchiness. The resulting patterns of use of the landscape result in minimal overlap in use of forage resources and help to explain the distribution and co-existence of high Arctic herbivores.

Notizen: Conclusions and Summary The authors begin with a historical review of the first genetic investigations concerning familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy in the North of Portugal by C. Andrade. Then they review the studies made by other authors about this curious hereditary disease. A dominant mode of transmission was found in all investigations and the area of Povoa de Varzim could be confirmed as the focus where the mutation took place for the first time. Later on the affection spread throughout the northern part of Portugal before finally migrating also to the American continent. The early inquiries of Andrade in 1951–52 were concerned with a still fairly limited number of cases (74 cases). A systematic genetic and statistical study became, however, necessary for the whole material collected over almost 30 years by C. Andrade et al. The individuals examined now amount to 623, 249 of whom are affected (153 males and 96 females, distributed over 148 sibships). After applying various methods of correction (maximum-likelihood-method and Weinberg's method) and while making a distinction between simple selection (k=0) and complete selection (k=1), the authors come to the following evaluations: for K=0, the average of individuals affected (corrected) per sibship is of 21.26±1.88% (method of maximum likelihood scores); for k=1, this value is of 30.84±2.26%. When considering separately within the sibships the male and female patients, the following figures are obtained: for k=0, respectively 13.06±1.33% for males and 8.20±0,98% for females; for k=1, 18,95±1.68% for males and 11.89±1.29% for females. The percentages obtained with Weinberg's method are more or less the same (21.26±1.75% and 31.39±2.50% for k=0 and k=1, respectively). Since the material was collected during a systematic survey of all families affected, the figures computed for k=1 (complete selection) must be considered correct (30.8% by the maximum-likelihood-method and 31.4% by Weinberg's method). In respect of the sex ratio in the families studied, a predilection for the male sex was revealed when all families with at least one member affected are taken into account. However, when considering the families with at least two members affected, the sex ratio corresponds to 1:1. As to morbidity risk, our values are clearly below those of Becker (1964): whereas the figures found by Becker range between 0.32 and 0.50, ours lie between 0.26 and 0.31. The discrepancy must be attributed to the fact that our material which was numerically more important than Becker's provided for a more equitable evaluation of the sex ratio and excluded the possibility of a sex controlled gene. According to our investigations, there is therefore no difference between the sexes as to the degree of penetrance of the affection. The discordance between the sexes is practically restricted to the age of manifestation of the disease, 33 years on an average for males and 44 years for females. The assumption must consequently be made that this one difference is sufficient to guarantee transmission of amyloidotic polyneuropathy through the generations, in spite of counterselection that operates to the detriment of the responsible gene.

Notizen: Abstract Valence bond theory is formulated in terms of second quantized operators and is related to the theory of the unitary group of spin-free orbital transformations. The construction of Weyl basis states, the evaluation of matrix elements, and the application to a linked-diagram valence bond perturbation theory are all discussed.