When comparing the average citation impact of research groups, universities and countries, field normalisation reduces the influence of discipline and time. Confidence intervals for these indicators can help with attempts to infer whether differences between sets of publications are due to chance factors. Although both bootstrapping and formulae have been proposed for these, their accuracy is u...

Due to the difficulties in testing for specific pathogens, water samples are tested for the presence of nonpathogenic indicator organisms to determine whether a water supply has been contaminated by fecal material. An implicit assumption in this approach is that where pathogenic microorganisms are present fecal indicator organisms are present as well; yet surprisingly few studies have been cond...

The electronic transmission properties of DNA molecules are believed to play a significant role in many physical phenomena taking place in living organisms [1]. Here we study the charge transport (CT) properties of cancer-related genes, including some of the most important tumor suppressors. We find that the changes in averaged CT around the sites of pathogenic and cancerous mutations are stati...

The potential for a revolution in microbial testing can be perceived with the near on-line detection of indicator microorganisms. By definition, these are microorganisms present in significant numbers within a food which, while not pathogenic, can be related through increasing count to the increased probability of pathogen contamination. We have used recombinant lux+ bacteriophage to detect ent...

Effective sanitization is important in viral epizootic outbreaks to avoid further spread of the pathogen. This study examined thermal inactivation as a sanitizing treatment for manure inoculated with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H7N1 and bacteriophages MS2 and 6. Rapid inactivation of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H7N1 was achieved at both mesophilic (35°C) and thermophilic...

Occurrence of antimicrobial resistant bacterial strains is a key issue for therapeutic outcome both in human and veterinary medicine. Moreover, when considering food animals the risk of their contribution to antibiotic resistance in humans has to be taken into account. Consequently surveys are needed to describe evolution of drug sensitivity in pathogens and indicator bacteria obtained from the...

A combined constructed wetland formed by a facultative pond (FP), a surface flow wetland (SF) and a subsurface flow wetland (SSF) was studied from December 2004 until September 2005 in north-western Spain in order to evaluate their efficiency in the removal of pathogenic and indicator microorganisms and to determine their relationships. Microbial removal ranged from 78% for coliphages to over 9...