[The nurse consultation in a Swiss university paediatric emergency department].

In Switzerland, overcrowding in tertiary emergency departments is a frequent problem, resulting in lengthy waiting times, lower satisfaction on the part of families and a risk for patient's safety. The setting up of a nurse consultation in a university paediatric emergency centre has helped to improve the quality of care in this context.

The Chlamydomonas heat stress response.

Heat waves occurring at increased frequency as a consequence of global warming jeopardize crop yield safety. One way to encounter this problem is to genetically engineer crop plants toward increased thermotolerance. To identify entry points for genetic engineering, a thorough understanding of how plant cells perceive heat stress and respond to it is required.

Systems-wide analysis of acclimation responses to long-term heat stress and recovery in the photosynthetic model organism Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

We applied a top-down systems biology approach to understand how Chlamydomonas reinhardtii acclimates to long-term heat stress (HS) and recovers from it. For this, we shifted cells from 25 to 42°C for 24 h and back to 25°C for ≥8 h and monitored abundances of 1856 proteins/protein groups, 99 polar and 185 lipophilic metabolites, and cytological and photosynthesis parameters. Our data indicate that acclimation of Chlamydomonas to long-term HS consists of a temporally ordered, orchestrated implementation of response elements at various system levels.

Identification and validation of protein-protein interactions by combining co-immunoprecipitation, antigen competition, and stable isotope labeling.

Co-immunoprecipitation (coIP) in combination with mass spectrometry (MS) is a powerful tool to identify potential protein-protein interactions. However, unspecifically precipitated proteins usually result in large numbers of false-positive identifications. Here we describe a detailed protocol particularly useful in plant sciences that is based on (15)N stable isotope labeling of cells, (14)N antigen titration, and coIP/MS to distinguish true from false protein-protein interactions.

Systems Analysis of the Response of Photosynthesis, Metabolism, and Growth to an Increase in Irradiance in the Photosynthetic Model Organism Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

We investigated the systems response of metabolism and growth after an increase in irradiance in the nonsaturating range in the algal model Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. In a three-step process, photosynthesis and the levels of metabolites increased immediately, growth increased after 10 to 15 min, and transcript and protein abundance responded by 40 and 120 to 240 min, respectively. In the first phase, starch and metabolites provided a transient buffer for carbon until growth increased.