Early in the 18 century, variolation (referred to then as ‘inoculation’) was introduced to Britain and New England to protect people likely to be at risk of infection with smallpox. This triggered a number of important developments. Among them were early examples of what we refer to today as ‘evidence-based medicine’ – immunization, and quantitative measures of disease severity. Establishing th...

The antifungal action of different concentrations of white-colored mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) against Candida albicans was assessed in vitro. Fresh mix of MTA was prepared at concentrations varying from 0.78 mg/ml to 50 mg/ml by dilution with 10 ml molten agar at 45 degrees C. The MTA-agar compound was thoroughly mixed and the uniform mix was then poured into sterile Petri dishes and allo...

Rectal/vaginal specimens (n = 97) were collected in parallel using ESwab and Liquid Stuart (LS) rayon fiber wrapped swab collection devices. Each collection device was used to directly inoculate culture medium and LIM broth. Medium inoculation by ESwab was conducted using the Walk-Away specimen processor (WASP). Medium inoculation by the LS device was conducted manually. The sensitivities of ES...

The symbiotic characteristics of Rhizobium trifolii strains 1-01 and 2-01 were evaluated both individually and in various combinations on two cultivars (Mt. Barker and Woogenellup) of subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L.). Nodules were observed on day 8 independent of cultivar or strain. Cultivar differences were measured in nodulating efficiency by 1-01 since 54% of the primary nodul...

Early life stimulation is known to produce long-lasting changes in the brain and behavior. One such early stimulation method is the neonatal novelty exposure procedure which allows the isolation of the novelty effect from several prominent confounding factors inherent to the neonatal handling procedure. In two previous studies, we found long-lasting novelty effects on different sets of function...

Four commercial kits, Oxi/Ferm (OF), API 20E (AP), Minitek (MT; BBL Microbiology Systems), and Flow N/F (NF), were evaluated, without additional tests, for identification of 258 gram-negative nonfermentative rods. OF and MT were read after 48 h of incubation, and AP and NF were read after both 24 and 48 h of incubation, respectively. Overall, OF correctly identified 51% of strains, with 46% as ...

We present a method for selecting entire microbial ecosystems for bioremediation and other practical purposes. A population of ecosystems is established in the laboratory, each ecosystem is measured for a desired property (in our case, degradation of the environmental pollutant 3-chloroaniline), and the best ecosystems are used as 'parents' to inoculate a new generation of 'offspring' ecosystem...

To study the effect of chemical and biological fertilizers on growth and essential oil content of lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Mill.), the present work was conducted in 2012-2013 at the experimental field of Alborz Research Station of the Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Karaj, Iran. The experiment was conducted in factorial in the form of a randomized complete block design wit...

In order to evaluate the tuber fresh weight and some physiological attributes of Agria potato cultivar in response to water deficit stress and mycorrhiza inoculation, a field trial was conducted as a split plot scheme based on randomized complete block design with three replications at the research site of Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch in 2012. Four water levels including: irrigation a...

Bio-fertilizers are naturally occurring soil bacteria that aggressively colonize plant roots and benefit plants by providing growth promotion. This investigation was aimed at determining the effect of Nitroxin bio-fertilizer application on growth, inoculation and yield production of corn hybrids. An experiment was conducted as split plot on the basis of randomized complete block design with fou...