This article is the second of a three-part series that investigates the application of the ventilation equations to designing and testing cleanrooms. This part is concerned with the decay equation. The recovery test, described in ISO 14644-3 (2005) is discussed, and improvements recommended. The application of the decay equation to the ‘clean up’ requirement given in the EU GGMP (2008) is also ...

The flow of transgenes into landraces and wild relatives is an important biosafety concern. The case of transgene flow into local maize varieties in Mexico (the center of origin of maize) has been intensively debated over the past 15 years, including legal, political, and environmental disputes fanned by the existence of a significant scientific controversy over the methods used for the detecti...

Although core, animal-reminder, and contamination disgust are viewed as distinct "types" of disgust vulnerabilities, the extent to which individual differences in the three disgust domains uniquely predict contamination-related anxiety and avoidance remains unclear. Three studies were conducted to fill this important gap in the literature. Study 1 was conducted to first determine if the three t...

Microbiological quality of air can be considered as a mirror of hygienic conditions of any place, especially operating theatres. Nowadays the evaluation of the level of air microbial contamination in places at risk is considered to be a basic step towards prevention. The objective of this study was to determine the bacterial load and antibiotic susceptibility pattern of various isolates in oper...

Many small communities depend on groundwater sources for drinking water and they often use septic tanks for wastewater treatment and disposal. Nitrate and other pollutants leaking from poorly designed septic tank systems can percolate to the aquifers and alter quality of the groundwater. This study describes a groundwater model developed using Visual MODFLOW for an aquifer that is used as a wat...

The Great East Japan (Tohoku) Earthquake and consequent tsunami of March 11, 2011, caused immense damage and loss of life in Japan. It is estimated that over 15,000 people died and in excess of 2,500 persons are still unaccounted for (1, 2). The tsunami that struck the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) led to breakdown of the reactor cooling systems, resulting in overheating of fuel ...

Circulating, cell-free microRNAs (miRNAs) are promising candidate biomarkers, but optimal conditions for processing blood specimens for miRNA measurement remain to be established. Our previous work showed that the majority of plasma miRNAs are likely blood cell-derived. In the course of profiling lung cancer cases versus healthy controls, we observed a broad increase in circulating miRNA levels...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the contamination of vegetables, fruits and soil with zoonotic parasite eggs on organic and conventional farms in south-eastern Poland. To evaluate the contamination with eggs of zoonotic parasites, examinations were conducted on 8 conventional and 11 organic farms in south-eastern Poland from May-October in 2008 and 2009. The following fruit and vege...

Background: Water quality problems are one of the manifestations of poverty and most developing countries including Ethiopia suffering a lot of health problems associated with consumption of contaminated water. Although communities living in urban areas of Ethiopia have access to piped water supply, cross-contamination in the distribution system and unsafe storage are the major source of water ...