A clinical study was undertaken to compare the surface microbial contamination associated with pens constructed of either a copper alloy or stainless steel used by nurses on intensive care units. A significantly lower level of microbial contamination was found on the copper alloy pens.

AIMS To determine the quantitative relation between the major risk factors for microbial keratitis of previous ocular surface disease and contact lens wear and central and peripheral infiltration, often associated with ulceration, in order to establish a rational chemotherapeutic management algorithm. METHODS Data from 55 patients were collected over a 10 month period. All cases of presumed m...

Restoration measures of deteriorated river ecosystems generally aim at increasing the spatial heterogeneity and connectivity of these systems in order to increase biodiversity and ecosystem stability. While this is believed to benefit overall ecological integrity, consequences of such restoration projects on biogeochemical processes per se (i.e. ecosystem functioning) in fluvial systems are rar...

Measuring microbial abundance in glacier ice and identifying its controls is essential for a better understanding and quantification of biogeochemical processes in glacial ecosystems. However, cell enumeration of glacier ice samples is challenging due to typically low cell numbers and the presence of interfering mineral particles. We quantified for the first time the abundance of microbial cell...

A novel design of a microbial fuel cell is realized by constructing bio-cocatalyst beads immobilized with riboflavin-secreting Escherichia coli and decoupling them from an anodic biocatalyst. A microbial fuel cell loaded with these bio-cocatalyst beads shows significantly enhanced performance without occupying an active electrode surface area.

  Background and Aims:Nosocomial infections cause considerable morbidity and mortality and pose high financial burden on healthcare systems. Although surface contact, surgical incisions, wounds and catheters are responsible for a high percentage of nosocomial infections, bacterial and fungal air contaminations in hospitals have an important role in development of hospital infections. The p...

this work studies the biosurfactants production which enables the diesel biodegradation byusing mixed microbial consortia from polluted sites. it was carried out by culturing three microbial consortia(named as xa, xb and xc) obtained from polluted soils, and enriched in diesel as sole carbon source.batchexperiments were done to study the effects of three variables (temperature,hydrocarbon conce...

Recent work in seasonally snow covered ecosystems has identified thawed soil and high levels of heterotrophic activity throughout the winter under consistent snow cover. We performed measurements during the winter of 1994 to determine how the depth and timing of seasonal snow cover affect soil microbial populations, surface water NO loss during snowmelt, and plant N availability early in the gr...

UNLABELLED The South Pacific Gyre (SPG) possesses the lowest rates of sedimentation, surface chlorophyll concentration, and primary productivity in the global oceans. As a direct result, deep-sea sediments are thin and contain small amounts of labile organic carbon. It was recently shown that the entire SPG sediment column is oxygenated and may be representative of up to a third of the global m...

Silver is composed of a large percentage of silver oxide due to their large ratio of surface to bulk silver atoms. Silver nanoparticles have been a potent antibacterial, antifungal, anti-viral and anti-inflammatory agent. A simple, eco-friendly, inexpensive biosynthetic method was employed to synthesize silver nanoparticles.  The present study aimed at the comparative study of silver nanopartic...