30 years trends of microplastic pollution: Mass-quantitative analysis of archived mussel samples from the North and Baltic Seas.

Microplastics (MP) are ubiquitous throughout the environment as a result of an ongoing, increasing, but also lavish use, of plastics over time and its inherent persistence. In contrast, there are almost no data that allow drawing conclusions about the evolution of plastic pollution in the environment over the past decades. This study investigates the MP load in blue mussels from the North and Baltic Sea archived by the German Environmental Specimen Bank in a time series covering almost 30 years.

Does simulation-based training in medical education need additional stressors? An experimental study.

The increased curricular integration of simulation-based training (SBT) in medical education is accompanied by researchers' calls to examine the effectiveness of SBT. We address conflicting results regarding effects of an added stressor on learning outcomes. In an experimental setting, one group of medical students ( = 20) performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on a patient simulator.

Rifampicin induces MDR1 expression in Candida albicans.

Objectives: Overexpression of efflux pumps such as MDR1 has been identified as an important mechanism contributing to fluconazole resistance in Candida albicans. This phenomenon is frequently observed in fluconazole-resistant strains isolated from AIDS patients treated with various pharmaceuticals. Therefore, we hypothesized that some of these compounds might influence the expression of genes responsible for fluconazole resistance.

Development and characterization of chloroplast microsatellite markers in Macaranga (Euphorbiaceae).

As part of our study on the phylogeography of the ant-plant genus Macaranga, we have screened for polymorphic regions in the chloroplast genome. Initially, ten universal PCR primer pairs targeted at chloroplast microsatellite loci were applied to a small set of specimens, covering various taxonomic levels from intrafamilial to intraspecific. Eight primer pairs produced PCR fragments that behaved as single and discrete bands on agarose gels.