Phagocytosis and intracellular killing by bovine polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) are important host defence mechanisms against mastitis caused by Staphlylococcus aureus. We compared the phagocytosis and overall killing of a non slime-producing (NSP) S. aureus and its slime-producing (SP) variant by blood PMN, using an in vitro bacteriological assay. Seven clinically healthy Holstein-Friesian...

An extracellular exopolysaccharide (slime) is produced by Vibrio cholerae O139 MO10 in response to nutrient starvation. The presence of this slime layer on the cell surface and its subsequent release have been shown to be associated with biofilm formation and the change from a normal smooth colony morphology to a rugose one. An immunoelectron microscopic examination demonstrated that there is a...

The study of the combustion characteristics single slime fuels is basis for achieving clean solid fuels. This paper uses a combination experimental and theoretical analysis, combined with Coats-Redfen integration method, to influence ash content heating rate on kinetic parameters coal slime, solve parameters. results show that under same rate, activation energy gradually increases. As increases...

The Phychip project is a collaborative European research initiative to design and implement computation using the organism Physarum polycephalum; it is funded by the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) by the European Commission within CORDIS and the FET Proactive scheme. Included in this abstract are details the development of a Physarum based biosensor and biological logic gate, offering signif...

Staphylococci are ubiquitous microorganisms that predominate in normal skin and mucosal flora. Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis have been identified as a major cause of nosocomial infections, especially in patients with predisposing factors such as indwelling or implanted foreign bodies. The ability of both S. epidermidis and S. aureus to produce biofilm was compared between...

Roman Empire is renowned for sharp logical design and outstanding building quality of its road system. Many roads built by Romans are still use in continental Europe and UK. The Roman roads were built for military transportations with efficiency in mind, as straight as possible. Thus the roads make an ideal test-bed for developing experimental laboratory techniques for evaluating man-made trans...

Introduction Coagulase negative staphylococci (CoNS) are commensals of non-sterile sites in humans and become pathogenic mostly when the host is immunocompromised by prior diseases or invasive surgical or related procedures [1]. Slime or biofilm production by CoNS has been identified as an important factor in the pathogenesis of infections as bacteria organized in biofilms are protected from th...

Slime mould Physarum polycephalum is a large single cell capable for distributed sensing, concurrent information processing, parallel computation and decentralised actuation. The ease of culturing and experimenting with Physarum makes this slime mould an ideal substrate for real-world implementations of unconventional sensing and computing devices. In the last decade the Physarum became a swiss...

A plasmodium of acellular slime mould Physarum polycephalum is a large single cell with many nuclei. Presented to a configuration of attracting and repelling stimuli a plasmodium optimizes its growth pattern and spans the attractants, while avoiding repellents, with efficient network of protoplasmic tubes. Such behaviour is interpreted as computation and the plasmodium as an amorphous growing b...