Phylogenetic identification and in situ detection of individual microbial cells without cultivation.

1. Discussion Alkalinity of a water is its acid-neutralizing capacity. It is the sum of all the titratable bases. The measured value may vary significantly with the end-point pH used. Alkalinity is a measure of an aggregate property of water and can be interpreted in terms of specific substances only when the chemical composition of the sample is known. Alkalinity is significant in many uses and treatments of natural waters and wastewaters. Because the alkalinity of many surface waters is primarily a function of carbonate, bicarbonate, and hydroxide content, it is taken as an indication of the concentration of these constitutents. The measured values also may include contributions from borates, phosphates, silicates, or other bases if these are present. Alkalinity in excess of alkaline earth metal concentrations is significant in determining the suitability of a water for irrigation. Alkalinity measurements are used in the interpretation and control of water and wastewater treatment processes. Raw domestic wastewater has an alkalinity less than, or only slightly greater than, that of the water supply. Properly operating anaerobic digesters typically have supernatant alkalinities in the range of 2000 to 4000 mg calcium carbonate (CaCO3)/L. 1

Standard methods for the examination of water and waste water.

What do a seventeenth-century mortality table (whose causes of death include "fainted in a bath," "frighted," and "itch"); the identification of South Africans during apartheid as European, Asian, colored, or black; and the separation of machine- from hand-washables have in common? All are examples of classification -- the scaffolding of information infrastructures. In Sorting Things Out, Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star explore the role of categories and standards in shaping the modern world. In a clear and lively style, they investigate a variety of classification systems, including the International Classification of Diseases, the Nursing Interventions Classification, race classification under apartheid in South Africa, and the classification of viruses and of tuberculosis. The authors emphasize the role of invisibility in the process by which classification orders human interaction. They examine how categories are made and kept invisible, and how people can change this invisibility when necessary. They also explore systems of classification as part of the built information environment. Much as an urban historian would review highway permits and zoning decisions to tell a city's story, the authors review archives of classification design to understand how decisions have been made. Sorting Things Out has a moral agenda, for each standard and category valorizes some point of view and silences another. Standards and classifications produce advantage or suffering. Jobs are made and lost; some regions benefit at the expense of others. How these choices are made and how we think about that process are at the moral and political core of this work. The book is an important empirical source for understanding the building of information infrastructures.

https://www.reciis.icict.fiocruz.br/index.php/reciis/article/download/794/1436

Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences

Overview of membrane science and technology membrane transport theory membrane and modules concentration polarization reverse osmosis ultrafiltration microfiltration gas separation pervaporation ion exchange membrane processes - electrodialysis carrier facilitated transport medical applications of membranes other membranes processed.

Membrane Technology and Applications

Bacteriocins of gram-positive bacteria.

SUMMARYThere has been very little work done on the physiology of fleshy Ascomycetes. Morchella esculenta, because of its possible role as a food mushroom, is of much general interest and it would b...

Studies on the Nutrition of Morchella Esculenta Fries

Data are presented on the purification and properties of the thermostable fructose-1,6-diphosphate aldolase of Thermus aquaticus, a nonsporulating, extreme thermophile. The enzyme shows little activity at temperatures below 60 C and optimal activity at about 95 C. The enzyme was purified 43-fold by diethylaminoethyl cellulose column chromatography and Sephadex G-200 gel filtration. The enzyme is activated by high concentrations of NH(4) (+) and low concentrations of Fe(2+) and Co(2+) and is strongly inhibited by ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). The activation by Fe(2+) and Co(2+) and the inhibition by EDTA are both reversed by dialysis. The enzyme is greatly activated by cysteine and less so by other sulfhydryl compounds. Activation by cysteine is reversible by dialysis. The purified enzyme had a molecular weight as determined by Sephadex G-200 gel filtration of 140,000; after incubation of enzyme with cysteine, another molecular species was also found with a molecular weight of 70,000. The purified enzyme is stable at low protein concentrations to 97 C but is rapidly inactivated at 105 C. In cysteine the enzyme is more heat labile; heat inactivation in the presence of cysteine is prevented by substrate, although, in the absence of cysteine, substrate partially labilizes the enzyme to heat. The temperature optimum for enzyme activity is several degrees lower in the presence of cysteine than in its absence, and the K(m) is threefold lower. It is concluded that the T. aquaticus enzyme resembles some other aldolases of Rutter's class II, except for its extreme heat stability. The T. aquaticus enzyme is compared with that of Bacillus stearothermophilus, a moderate thermophile. Although the T. aquaticus enzyme is considerably more heat stable, the enzymes from the two thermophiles have many similarities. New data are presented which show that the B. stearothermophilus aldolase is metal ion-dependent, in disagreement with earlier reports.

Thermostable Aldolase from Thermus aquaticus

Reducing sediments of Lake Mendota were challenged to demonstrate evidence of anaerobic conversion of l‐14C‐hexadecane to 14CO2. Low levels of 14CO2 were detected above formaldehyde controls in anoxic sediment and bottom waters and in surface water sparged with nitrogen. Aerobic incubation of the same sediment and water demonstrated extensive conversion of l‐14C‐hexade‐cane to 14CO2. The low levels of 14CO2 detected in anaerobic incubation were not increased by addition of nitrate or in a pre‐reduced medium containing nitrate and sulfate. An isotope‐recovery experiment demonstrated that 13.7% of added l‐14C‐hexadecane was converted to 14C‐cell carbon and 14CO2 after 375 h incubation.

Anaerobic metabolism of hexadecane in sediments

Steady-state growth rates of thermophilic algae can be determined directly in nature in the flowing waters of a hot spring channel by measuring the rate of loss of algal cells when the channel is darkened. The half time of the loss rate in the steady state is identical to the generation time. We studied the unicellular blue-green alga Synechococcus in Yellowstone National Park. Temperature and flow rate remained relatively constant throughout the experiment. Quantitative cores were taken and homogenized; the algal cells were then counted by use of a Petroff-Hausser counting chamber. After ascertaining that the algal population was in a steady state, the channel was darkened in such a way that neither flow rate nor temperature was altered. The population began to decrease within 1 day; the loss rate was exponential with time for 2 to 3 decades. Half times were then calculated from these loss rates. The growth rates found were considerably lower than those for the same organism in laboratory culture. The results suggest that in nature the organism may be an obligate phototroph. In two cases, after the algal populations decreased to an undetectable level, the dark covers were removed and the rate of recolonization was measured. The kinetics of recolonization were different from the kinetics of washout.

Measurement of Steady-State Growth Rates of a Thermophilic Alga Directly in Nature

During the summer months a dense population of green sulfur bacteria was observed in meromictic Knaack Lake, Wisconsin, at a depth where oxygen was not present. During the day, H/sub 2/S was also absent at this depth but built up at night. /sup 14/CO/sub 2/ studies revealed that in the light the green bacteria were photosynthetically active and oxidized the H/sub 2/S. The ratio of H/sub 2/S oxidized to CO/sub 2/ fixed was about 0.5, indicating that H/sub 2/S was completely oxidized to sulfate. In the dark, CO/sub 2/ fixation did not occur and H/sub 2/S accumulated. These results are related to the diurnal changes of H/sub 2/S in the lake and to sulfate reduction rates in the water column.

Thomas D. Brock

Papers

Studies on the Nutrition of Morchella Esculenta Fries

Thermostable Aldolase from Thermus aquaticus

Anaerobic metabolism of hexadecane in sediments

Measurement of Steady-State Growth Rates of a Thermophilic Alga Directly in Nature

The role of phototrophic bacteria in the sulfur cycle of a meromictic lake1