Enhanced assessment of chest pain and related symptoms in the primary care setting through the use of a novel personalized medicine genomic test: results from a prospective registry study.

Novel approaches for assessing patients with chest pain and related symptoms may improve outpatient care. The REGISTRY I study measured the impact of a personalized gene expression score (GES) on subsequent cardiac referral decisions by primary care providers. Of the 342 stable, nonacute patients evaluated, the mean age was 55 years, 53% were female, and mean (SD) GES was 16 (±10) (range = 1-40).

Phenology of mixed woody-herbaceous ecosystems following extreme events: net and differential responses.

Ecosystem responses to key climate drivers are reflected in phenological dynamics such as the timing and degree of "green-up" that integrate responses over spatial scales from individual plants to ecosystems. This integration is clearest in ecosystems dominated by a single species or life form, such as seasonally dynamic grasslands or more temporally constant evergreen forests. Yet many ecosystems have substantial contribution of cover from both herbaceous and woody evergreen plants.

Complementation of daptomycin dptA and dptD deletion mutations in trans and production of hybrid lipopeptide antibiotics.

Daptomycin is a lipopeptide antibiotic produced by Streptomyces roseosporus and recently commercialized as Cubicin (daptomycin-for-injection) for treatment of skin and skin-structure infections caused by Gram-positive pathogens. Daptomycin is synthesized by a non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) encoded by three overlapping genes, dptA, dptBC and dptD. The dptE and dptF genes, immediately upstream of dptA, are likely to be involved in the initiation of daptomycin biosynthesis by coupling decanoic acid to the N-terminal Trp.

Regional vegetation die-off in response to global-change-type drought.

Future drought is projected to occur under warmer temperature conditions as climate change progresses, referred to here as global-change-type drought, yet quantitative assessments of the triggers and potential extent of drought-induced vegetation die-off remain pivotal uncertainties in assessing climate-change impacts. Of particular concern is regional-scale mortality of overstory trees, which rapidly alters ecosystem type, associated ecosystem properties, and land surface conditions for decades. Here, we quantify regional-scale vegetation die-off across southwestern North American woodlands in 2002-2003 in response to drought and associated bark beetle infestations.

Seasonal patterns of acid fluctuations and resource storage in the arborescent cactus Opuntia excelsa in relation to light availability and size.

We investigated relationships between light availability, diel acid fluctuation, and resource storage in the arborescent cactus Opuntia excelsa growing in western Mexico. We compared canopy and understory individuals from a deciduous forest as well as open-grown plants of the same approximate size as those in the understory. During the wet season light availability and daily fluctuations in titratable acidity (an index of carbon uptake) were lower in the understory than in unshaded habitats.