Mercury (Hg) is one of the main chemicals currently altering Mediterranean ecosystems. Red mullet (Mullus barbatus and M. surmuletus) have been widely used as quantitative bio-indicators of chemical contamination. In this study, we reassess the ability of these species to be used as efficient bio-indicators of Hg contamination by monitoring during 18 months Hg concentrations in muscle tissue of...

In vitro culture of pathogens has been used for over a century to identify the causative organisms responsible for a variety of diseases (Koch 1881; Bass & Johns 1912; Dobell & Laidlaw 1926; Diamond 1960; Kocan 1969). For in vitro culture to correctly identify pathogenic organisms and/or determine infection prevalence, the parasite should be isolated in pure culture with a high degree of certai...

The collection of maternal placental intervillous blood (IVB), without contamination of fetal blood and with an accurate mononuclear cell profile, is essential for immunological studies of placental malaria and other infectious diseases of the placenta. We have compared five documented methods of IVB collection: perfusion, incision, biopsy, tissue grinding, and puncture (prick) for fetal blood ...

surgical wound infections are usually encountered due to the endogenous rather than the exogenousinfective sources. the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a distant inoculated infective source on the contamination of surgical wounds. thirty white new zealand rabbits divided randomly into three control and three treatment equal groups. in treatment groups 24 hrs before surgica...

A method is described for direct analysis of lead in blood utilizing the carbon rod atomizer. Aliquots of whole blood are analyzed without pre-treatment. Resuits are comparable to those for a similar non-flame technique in which whole blood samples were prediluted with “Triton X-100.” The small sample volumes required and the minimal sample preparation further diminish the possibility of spurio...

A geostatistical method was developed to examine the correlation, or lack of it, between the levels of cadmium (Cd) detected in farm soils and those detected in the human specimens collected from residents around the contaminated areas in Changhua County where cadmium contamination of staple rice has been documented. We used the Taiwan EPA environment data in 2002 and human data which were gene...

PCBs are a group of synthetic organochlorine chemicals widely used as dielectric and coolant fluids in transformers and capacitors. In 1977, the U.S. banned the production of PCBs out of concern for their persistence in the environment as well as evidence indicating that PCBs were bioaccumulative and has the potential to cause toxic impacts. Though PCBs are no longer produced, there are continu...

Aluminium, iron and copper are all implicated in the aetiology of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease. However, there are very few large cohort studies of the content of these metals in aged human brains. We have used microwave digestion and TH GFAAS to measure aluminium, iron and copper in the temporal, frontal, occipital and parietal lobes of 60 brains donated to the Cogn...

The removal of central nervous system (CNS) tissues as part of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) risk material is one of the highest priority tasks to avoid contamination of the human food chain with BSE. No currently available method enables the real-time detection of possible CNS tissue contamination on carcasses during slaughter. The fluorescent pigment lipofuscin is a heterogeneous, hi...

purpose: to evaluate bacterial and fungal contamination of donor corneas before and after decontamination at eye bank of i.r. of iran based on cultures. methods: this descriptive study was performed on 131 donor eyes (whole globe or cut cornea) used for corneal transplantation at labbafinejad hospital during a 6-month period. microbiologic culture was performed at three stages: before enucleati...