The model generally shows how sensory information can be selectively routed depending on its frequency components.”
“Staphylococcus aureus, an important human pathogen, is particularly adept at producing biofilms on implanted medical devices. Although antibiotic treatment of nonsusceptible bacteria will not kill these strains, the consequences

should be studied. The present study focuses on investigating the effect of vancomycin on biofilm formation by vancomycin-non-susceptible S. aureus. Biofilm adherence assays and scanning electron microscopy demonstrated that biofilm formation was significantly enhanced following vancomycin treatment. Bacterial autolysis of some subpopulations was observed and was confirmed by the live/dead staining and confocal Napabucasin laser scanning microscopy.

A significant increase in polysaccharide intercellular adhesin (PIA) production was observed by measuring check details icaA transcript levels and in a semi-quantitative PIA assay in one resistant strain. We show that the release of extracellular DNA (eDNA) via cidA-mediated autolysis is a major contributor to vancomycin-enhanced biofilm formation. The addition of xenogeneic DNA could also significantly enhance biofilm formation by a PIA-overproducing S. aureus strain. The magnitude of the development of the biofilm depends on a balance between the amounts of eDNA and PIA. In conclusion, sublethal doses of cell wall-active antibiotics like vancomycin induce biofilm formation through an autolysis-dependent mechanism

in vancomycin-non-susceptible S. aureus.”
“We report the synthesis of new alloys of the composition RCu4Be derived by substituting Be for Cu in the well known parent binary RCu5 (R rare earth) compounds. For R = Nd, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, and Y, the as cast RCu4Be compounds form in the hexagonal CaCu5 type structure. ErCu4Be and TmCu4Be adopt the cubic AuBe5 type symmetry like their parent compounds. The magnetic properties of RCu4Be compounds have been probed by magnetization, electrical resistivity, and heat capacity measured down to 1.8 K. With the exception BV-6 datasheet of TmCu4Be and nonmagnetic YCu4Be the compounds order magnetically with the highest transition temperature of 56 K observed in GdCu4Be. The nature of the magnetic ordering is predominantly ferromagnetic though the corresponding RCu5 compounds are mostly antiferromagnetic with relatively low magnetic ordering temperatures. The thermal variation of the electrical resistivity is in conformity with their metallic nature and reflects the transition into the magnetically ordered state. The evidence for the bulk nature of the magnetic ordering is further elucidated from the heat capacity data which show anomalies at the magnetic transition. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.