We used Ar plasma-sterilization at a temperature below 80 °C to examine its effects on the viability of microorganisms when intermixed with tested soil. Due to a relatively low temperature, this method is not thought to affect the properties of a soil, particularly its organic component, to a significant degree. The method has previously been shown to work well on spacecraft parts. The selected...

two hundred and fifty day-old broiler chickens were housed in a high altitude farm and divided in two experimental groups (cold-exposed and control). at the age of 3 and 4 d, the cold-exposed chickens were exposed to 15?c for 3 h, while the control birds were reared under normal condition. during the period between 14 and 28 days, both groups of chickens were exposed to a low environmental temp...

Although sterilization by steam under pressure and by hot air are procedures which are now well understood and efficient when properly conducted, there is an increasing number of objects in medical or surgical use which are too heat labile to be so treated. It is for such items as plastic catheters, disposable plastic syringes, and prostheses that ethylene oxide has been proposed as a convenien...

UNLABELLED Raman spectroscopy and phase-contrast microscopy were used to examine calcium dipicolinate (CaDPA) levels and rates of nutrient and nonnutrient germination of multiple individual Bacillus subtilis spores treated with cold atmospheric plasma (CAP). Major results for this work include the following: (i) >5 logs of spores deposited on glass surfaces were inactivated by CAP treatment for...

background and objective: tubal sterilization is the most popular method of permanent female contraception, yet there is considerable debate concerning the influence of this procedure on the women’s health and menstrual pattern.   methods: we randomized 1358 women to one of the five methods of tubal sterilization; unipolar electrocauterization, bipolar electrocauterization, minilaparatomy, pome...