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Notizen: A multicentre trial for the treatment of dermatophyte onychomycosis of the toenails with terbinafine was carried out in Australia and New Zealand. Between eight and 12 nail samples were obtained from each of the 118 patients in the 48-week trial, and each sample was investigated by direct microscopy and culture for dermatophyte and non-dermatophyte fungi. Patients were randomized to treatment with terbinafine at 250 mg/day or placebo for the first 12 weeks of the study, then non- responders were offered a 12-week course of terbinafine from week 28. All patients had a dermatophyte infection. In 42 patients (36%) microscopy and mycological culture identified dermatophytes alone. In the remaining 76 patients (64%), a non-dermatophyte mould or yeast was also isolated at some stage during the trial, but in only three patients did the same non- dermatophyte persist in two or more successive nail specimens. The presence of a fungal con- taminant in addition to a dermatophyte had no apparent effect on the efficacy of treatment with terbinafine. We conclude that non-dermatophyte moulds and yeasts are generally found as contaminating organisms in dermatophyte onychomycosis, secondary to the dermatophytes, and that they do not infiuence the outcome of treatment.

Notizen: Acclimation of photosynthesis to growth at elevated CO2 concentration varies markedly between species. Species functionally classified as stress-tolerators (S) and ruderals (R), are thought to be incapable, or the least capable, of responding positively in terms of growth to elevated [CO2]. Is this pattern of response also apparent in leaf photosynthesis of wild S- and R-strategists? Acclimatory loss of a photosynthetic and growth response to elevated [CO2] is assumed to reflect limitation on capacity to utilize additional photosynthate. The doubling of pre-industrial global [CO2] is expected to coincide with a 3 °C increase in mean temperature which could stimulate growth; will photosynthetic capacity at elevated [CO2] be greater when the concurrent temperature increase is simulated? Five species from natural grassland of NW Europe and of contrasting ecological strategy were grown in hemispherical greenhouses, environmentally controlled to track the external microclimate. Within a replicated design, plants were grown at (i) current ambient [CO2] and temperature, (ii) elevated [CO2] (ambient + 340 μmol mol–1) and ambient temperature, (iii) ambient [CO2] and elevated temperature (ambient + 3 °C), or (iv) elevated [CO2] and elevated temperature. After 75–104 days, the CO2 response of light-saturated rates of photosynthesis (Asat) was analysed in controlled-environment cuvettes in a field laboratory. There was no acclimatory loss of photosynthetic capacity with growth in elevated [CO2] or elevated temperature over this period in Poa alpina (S), Bellis perennis (R) or Plantago lanceolata (mixed C-S-R strategist), and a significant (P ??bl 0.05) increase in capacity in Helianthemum nummularium (S) and Poa annua (R). Photosynthetic rates of leaves grown and measured in elevated [CO2] were therefore significantly higher than rates for leaves grown and measured in ambient [CO2], for all species. With the exception of Poa alpina, stomatal conductance and stomatal limitation on Asat showed no acclimatory response to growth in elevated [CO2].Carboxylation efficiency, determined from the initial slope of the response of Asat to intercellular CO2 concentration was significantly increased by elevated [CO2] and elevated temperature in H.nummularium, implying a possible increase in in vivo RubisCO activity. Increased carboxylation efficiency of this species was also reflected by an increase in the CO2- and light-saturated rates of photosynthesis, indicating an increased capacity for regeneration of the primary CO2 acceptor in photosynthesis. The results show that R-strategists and slow-growing S-strategists, are inherently capable of large increases in leaf photosynthetic capacity with growth in elevated [CO2] in contrast to expectations from growth studies. With the exception of P.annua, where there was a significant negative interaction between CO2 and temperature, concurrent increase in growth temperature had little effect on this pattern of response.