To clean or not to clean: Cleaning mutualism breakdown in a tidal environment

Collection of urine specimens in general practice: to clean or not to clean?

The usefulness of preparatory vulval cleansing before urine specimen collection was evaluated in women aged 16 to 75 years attending a general practice. A total of 316 specimens were examined, 158 from women with symptoms of cystitis and 158 from controls. No significant differences were found in the numbers of contaminated or unreliable results between the specimens collected with and those co...

The right to a clean environment.

Pathways to mutualism breakdown.

Mutualisms are ubiquitous in nature despite the widely held view that they are unstable interactions. Models predict that mutualists might often evolve into parasites, can abandon their partners to live autonomously and are also vulnerable to extinction. Yet a basic empirical question, whether mutualisms commonly break down, has been mostly overlooked. As we discuss here, recent progress in mol...

Why Not Clean Milk?

Sir,?In the course of my holiday rambles in the North, I have come across dirty cows being milked in the dirtiest possible surroundings. I cannot too strongly express my horror to think that milk, probably to be seen, a few hours later, in brightly burnished churns on white tiles in some spotless city dairy shop, is being produced under unspeakably filthy conditions. I need not go into details ...

How to clean eyelids

Preparation • Dissolve 1 heaped teaspoonful of salt or sodium bicarbonate in a jug containing 500 ml of boiled water (half a litre); allow this solution to cool (Figure 1). • Pour a very small amount of the solution into a small sterile pot on a clean surface (Figure 2). Method 1 The eyelashes • Ask the patient to close both eyes. • Take a folded gauze swab or cotton bud. • Moisten the swab or ...