Balamuthia mandrillaris amoebas are recognized as a causative agent of granulomatous amoebic encephalitis, a disease that is usually fatal. They were first recognized when isolated from the brain of a mandrill baboon that died in the San Diego Zoo Wild Life Animal Park. Subsequently, the amoebas have been found in a variety of animals, including humans (young and old, immunocompromised and immu...

during a search of burrows for the purpose of capturing rodents in 1972, a number of soil samples were inspected for the collection of sand fly larvae. in this study, a total of 472 plastic bags of soil samples were collected from different depths of 30 rodent burrows. fourteen of these samples were found positive, from which 27 larvae were removed. most of the larvae were found in the depths o...

The characterization of microbial communities that promote or suppress soil-borne pathogens is important for controlling plant diseases. We compared prokaryotic communities in soil with or without the signs of tomato bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum. Soil samples were collected from a greenhouse at two different depths because this pathogen is present in deep soil. We used sample...

Sun, H., Nelson, M., Chen, F. and Husch, J. 2009. Soil mineral structural water loss during loss on ignition analyses. Can. J. Soil Sci. 89: 603 610. Water loss from soil minerals has been known to cause errors in the determination of soil organic matter when the loss on ignition (LOI) method is used. Unfortunately, no known published studies reliably quantify the range of structural water in t...

Unwanted microbial interference in samples used for biological assays of P availability has routinely been eliminated by autoclaving samples before inoculation with algae. Twenty-three soils were selected to evaluate the relationship between algal growth in P-deficient solutions containing small quantities of soil and the level of P determined by a variety of tests used to evaluate P availabili...

Six strains of Bacillus cereus exhibiting antifungal activity were isolated from local environment and optimized for growth conditions. The isolates appeared neutrophiles, grew best at aeration and were represented by thermophiles and mesophiles. Growth inhibition zones of varying diameters were observed when the isolates were tested against Saccharomyces cerevisiae on nutrient agar. Largest in...