Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins are a group of naturally occurring neurotoxic alkaloids produced among several genera of primarily freshwater cyanobacteria and marine dinoflagellates. Although saxitoxin (STX) and analogs are all potent Na(+) channel blockers in vertebrate cells, the functional role of these compounds for the toxigenic microorganisms is unknown. Based upon the known i...

The case report in this issue by Forgacs and colleagues (8) is particularly timely in view of the resurgence of tuberculosis and the promise of new therapeutic approaches (15). Much of the current attention on tuberculosis has focused on the close association of tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, where a huge proportion of the population ...

A 76-year-old man, who was in the hospital for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and was receiving gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist treatment for prostate cancer, developed fever and hypoxemia. Imaging revealed diffuse interstitial shadows, and PCR of the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was positive for Pneumocystis jirovecii. The patient's absolute CD4-positive lymphocyte cou...

Mobile genetic elements are essential for the acquisition of new genetic information and genomic recombination. Among these, integrons and ICEs of the SXT/R391 family are involved primarily in antibiotic resistance diffusion and in other adaptive functions in Vibrio. Many studies indicate that mobile genetic elements are also important factors of genetic variability and suggest their role as po...

We review the current status of the ’Parker hypothesis’ which suggests that the solar corona is heated by a multitude of small flare-like events called nanoflares. Space-born coronal imagers such as SXT, EIT or TRACE have allowed to test Parker’s hypothesis observationally. Combining the results from different authors it seems that we are close to falsifying the hypothesis, i.e. there are not e...

Aerococcus urinae is often misclassified in routine diagnostic laboratories. A. urinae shares features with staphylococci, streptococci and enterococci as the bacterium grows in clusters, displays a-haemolysis when grown on blood agar, and is resistant to sulphonamide. We report here, a case study of A. urinae, which initially was misdiagnosed. Identification and susceptibility testing were per...

An Impulsive Heating Multiple Strand (IHMS) Model is able to reproduce the observational characteristics of EUV (∼ 1MK) active region loops. This model implies that some of the loops must reach temperatures where X-ray filters are sensitive (> 2.5MK) before they cool to EUV temperatures. Hence, some bright EUV loops must be preceded by bright X-ray loops. Previous analysis of X-ray and EUV acti...