INTRODUCTION Touch-screen mobile phones/devices (TMPs/Ds) are increasingly used in hospitals. They may act as a mobile reservoir for microbial pathogens. The rates of microbial contamination of TMPs/Ds and keypad mobile phones (KMPs) with respect to different variables including use by healthcare workers (HCWs)/non-HCWs and the demographic characteristics of users were investigated. METHODOLO...

in the current engineering practices, buildings are commonly designed for an effective lifetime of 50 years. this lifetime can increase the cost of buildings with short lifetimes and can reduce the safety level of buildings with large lifetimes. in this paper, a “service-life factor” has been defined. applying this factor into the nominal values of live, earthquake, wind, and snow loads, the ef...

Introduction / objectives Reprocessing single use devices is the process to be applied to hospital/medical objects which allows their reuse; in order to reuse them it is necessary to include steps in order to ensure that the catheters are clean, without organic matter, reducing the microbial load, pyrogens and biofilm. To develop and validate a cleaning protocol for objects from a cardiology se...

Hydrogen-producing thermophilic cellulolytic microorganisms were isolated from cow faeces. Rates of cellulose hydrolysis and hydrogen formation were 0.2 mM L(-1) h(-1) and 1 mM L(-1) h(-1), respectively. An enzymatic fuel cell (EFC) with a hydrogenase anode was used to oxidise hydrogen produced in a microbial bioreactor. The hydrogenase electrode was exposed for 38 days (912 h) to a thermophili...

Following the intravenous injection of live Yersinia enterocolitica O:8, 50-69% of SHR rats developed arthritis; these rats were antibody free against all rat pathogens tested. In contrast, only 20-25% of SHR rats which had serum antibodies against Bacillus piliformis, Kilham rat virus, and Toolan H-1 virus developed arthritis. The results indicate that the microbial load of the host has a prof...

Intensification of land use and urbanisation in New Zealand are compromising the quality of surface waters. Managing the environmental load of microbes from diffuse sources, such as agriculture, is particularly challenging. Microbial contamination of water is a complex area of environmental management, and our understanding of the subject is incomplete. Many different stakeholders are involved ...

plant extracts are rich sources of natural antioxidant and antibacterial compounds. in recent decades, the need for using natural antioxidants in foods, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics has promopted extensive scientific research. the purpose of this study was to investigation of effect of different percentages of rosemary extract (0, 1, 2.5 and 5%) on the quality, chemical and microbial of the pr...

BACKGROUND Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) are one of the most frequent complications occurring in healthcare facilities. Contaminated environmental surfaces provide an important potential source for transmission of many healthcare-associated pathogens, thus indicating the need for new and sustainable strategies. AIM This study aims to evaluate the effect of a novel cleaning procedure...