This study compares the removal of a mixture of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and all three xylene isomers (BTEX) in mesophilic and thermophilic (50 degrees C) bioreactors. In the mesophilic reactor fungi became dominant after long-term operation, while bacteria dominated in the thermophilic unit. Microbial acclimation was achieved by exposing the biofilters to initial BTEX loads of 2-15 g m(...

The complement system is a crucial defensive network that protects the host against invading pathogens. It is part of the innate immune system and can be initiated via three pathways: the lectin, classical and alternative activation pathway. Overall the network compiles a group of recognition molecules that bind specific patterns on microbial surfaces, a group of associated proteases that initi...

Using a defaunating method which preserved bacteria and fungi in the rumen, the effect of protozoa on protein and fibre digestion was studied in six adult wethers in relation to the nature of the diet. Sheep were given daily, 42 g dry matter (DM)/kg metabolic body-weight (W0.75), one of two isonitrogenous diets: one contained ammonia-treated wheat straw as the only energy source (diet S) and th...

Production of renewable chemicals from cellulosic biomass is a critical step towards energy sustainability and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Microbial cells have been engineered for producing fuels and chemicals from cellulosic sugars. Among these chemicals, 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BDO) is a compound of interest due to its diverse applications. While microbial production of 2,3-BDO with high yi...

Microbially mediated insoluble technetium (Tc) formation was studied using surface water covering paddy fields. Surface water samples were collected from three kinds of flooded paddy soils: andosol, gley soil, and gray lowland soil. Insoluble Tc (> 0.2 μm in size) was formed in all surface water samples and the amounts ranged from 48.7 ± 2.2% of total Tc (gley soil) to 88.5 ± 3.1% (gray lowland...

introduction: the aim of this in vitro study was to compare the effectiveness of three intracanal medicaments in disinfecting the root canal and dentin of experimentally infected human teeth with enterococcus faecalis (ef). materials and methods: one hundred extracted human single-rooted teeth were used. after root canal preparation, teeth were mounted in epoxy resin. following sterilization, t...

Cut-elimination is one of the most important techniques in proof theory. Roughly speaking, eliminating cuts from a proof generates a new proof without lemmas, which essentially consists of the syntactic material of the proven theorem. Traditionally cutelimination served the purpose to show consistency of calculi and thus played a central role in metamathematics. In this traditional context the ...

Newton, in an unauthorized textbook, described a process for solving simultaneous equations that later authors applied specifically to linear equations. This method — that Newton did not want to publish, that Euler did not recommend, that Legendre called “ordinary,” and that Gauss called “common” — is now named after Gauss: “Gaussian” elimination. (One suspects, he would not be amused.) Gauss’s...

The gut microbiome plays a key role in human health, and alterations of the normal gut flora are associated with a variety of distinct disease states. Yet, the natural dependencies between microbes in healthy and diseased individuals remain far from understood. Here we use a network-based approach to characterize microbial co-occurrence in individuals with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and h...

Bacillus thuringiensis is the most widely applied biological insecticide and is used to manage insects that affect forestry and agriculture and transmit human and animal pathogens. This ubiquitous spore-forming bacterium kills insect larvae largely through the action of insecticidal crystal proteins and is commonly deployed as a direct bacterial spray. Moreover, plants engineered with the cry g...