Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of dermatophytes - Comparison of the agar macrodilution and broth microdilution tests

Fifty dermatophyte strains, recently obtained from clinical material, belonging to 4 different species were examined for their susceptibility to 5 systemic or topical antimycotic agents using both an agar macrodilution and a broth microdilution test. Antimycotics compared were griseofulvin, itraconazole, sertaconazole, terbinafine and ciclopiroxolamine. A comparison of the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) clearly showed differences between the two test methods applied. For all 5 antimycotics, MIC data were three- to seventyfold lower in the microdilution test system. These differences, depending on the test method, have to be taken into account when comparing MIC data in the literature or when relating the in vitro data to the tissue concentrations determined in vivo

Authentication and Authorization in Microservice-Based Applications

The development of microservice-based applications adds challenges when using different cloud services. One such challenge is the integration of authentication and authorization among different systems. In this publication, we describe the development of a software as a service solution with the focus on the integration of authentication and authorization. For the development of the business logic, the integration platform as a service MuleSoft is used. The identity and access management as a service solution Okta is used to provide the necessary means for authentication. To perform authorization decisions, JSON Web Tokens and API proxies are used

SOA-aware Authorization Control

The question how to handle authorization of digital identities in a service-oriented architecture (SOA) remains an open issue. In this paper we present a design pattern for the integration of legacy systems with SOA using out-of-the-box (unmodified) application servers and discuss how the architecture has to be extended by an Identity Management (IdM) infrastructure. We claim that the IdM infrastructure itself must be designed in a service-oriented way to fit into the overall SOA approach. We introduce a possibility how to decouple the policy enforcement point from the application server and propose an architectural design pattern to seamlessly integrate the SOAs business-related functionality and the IdM infrastructure. An implementation case study illustrates how to apply the invocation pattern for secured web services

Synchronization of Directory Services with the Event Propagation Framework

This case study introduces the most relevant directory service standard LDAP and the approach how to synchronize these directory services using the Event Propagation Framework (EPF) of iC Consult to establish a cooperate directory service as it is done at Daimler Chrysler

The pH of the skin surface and its impact on the barrier function

The `acid mantle' of the stratum corneum seems to be important for both permeability barrier formation and cutaneous antimicrobial defense. However, the origin of the acidic pH, measurable on the skin surface, remains conjectural. Passive and active influencing factors have been proposed, e. g. eccrine and sebaceous secretions as well as proton pumps. In recent years, numerous investigations have been published focusing on the changes in the pH of the deeper layers of the stratum corneum, as well as on the influence of physiological and pathological factors. The pH of the skin follows a sharp gradient across the stratum corneum, which is suspected to be important in controlling enzymatic activities and skin renewal. The skin pH is affected by a great number of endogenous factors, e. g. skin moisture, sweat, sebum, anatomic site, genetic predisposition and age. In addition, exogenous factors like detergents, application of cosmetic products, occlusive dressings as well as topical antibiotics may influence the skin pH. Changes in the pH are reported to play a role in the pathogenesis of skin diseases like irritant contact dermatitis, atopic dermatitis, ichthyosis, acne vulgaris and Candida albicans infections. Therefore, the use of skin cleansing agents, especially synthetic detergents with a pH of about 5.5, may be of relevance in the prevention and treatment of those skin diseases. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Base