There is significant archaeological evidence marking the collapse of the Shijiahe culture in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in China during the late Neolithic Period. However, the causes for this cultural collapse remain unclear. Our sedimentary records from a 3.3 m long profile and 76 phytolith and charcoal samples from the Tanjialing archaeological sites provide records of interactio...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Melioidosis caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei is an emerging disease in India. This study examined the toxin activity of bacteria-free culture filtrate in three different cell lines (cytotoxic assay) and its effect on Caenorhabditis elegans (nematode toxicity assay). Endotoxic activity of the viable bacteria was also studied in C. elegans (co-culture killing assay). ...

Bananas that provide a staple food to the millions of people are adversely affected by several viruses such as Banana bunchy Top Virus (BBTV), Banana Streak Virus (BSV), and Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV). These viruses are known to have a devastating effect on crop production and constraint to the international exchange and conservation of banana germplasm-a cornerstone for breeding new cultivars...

When L1210 cells growing logarithmically were exposed for 8 hr to a nonlethal dose of 5-fluorouracil (FU) (0.25 microgram/ml), the percentage of cells in S phase increased from 74.9% in the asynchronous culture to 93% in the FU-treated culture. This resulted in increased cell-kill by S-phase-specific inhibitors [1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine (ara-C), 5-hydroxy-2-formylpyridinethiosemicarbaz...

Effective and easy-to-use methods for detecting Clostridium difficile spore contamination would be useful for identifying environmental reservoirs and monitoring the effectiveness of room disinfection. Culture-based detection methods are sensitive for detecting C. difficile, but their utility is limited due to the requirement of anaerobic culture conditions and microbiological expertise. We dev...

Most of the systematic studies used in the development of human embryo culture media have been done first on mouse embryos. The general use of NMRI outbred mice is a model for toxicology, teratology and pharmacology. NMRI mouse embryo exhibit the two-cell block in vitro. The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the effects of four kinds of culture media on the development of zygo...

OBJECTIVE To establish a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocol for the detection of urogenital C trachomatis infection and to compare it with the detection in cell culture. SPECIMENS Urethral specimens were collected from 62 male patients and cervical specimens from 106 female patients. SETTING Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität, Heidelberg. METHODS U...

The Taguchi design of experiments was used to test the relative importance of medium components and environmental factors on poly(β-hydroxybutyrate)(PHB) production by Ralstonia eutropha. The optimum condition was obtained as: fructose concentration, 15 g/L; C/N ratio, 7.4; agitation speed 200 rpm; culture time, 40 h; temperature, 25 ° C; seed age, 15 h. At optimu...