Case report A 9-year-old boy admitted our outpatient department suffering from urticarial lesions which develop only in the uncovered body areas, particularly in his hands and legs, within a short time after exposure to sunlight especially in the noon time. Hives were not triggered with exercise, sweating, hot water exposure or stress. His symptoms persisted for three months and urticarial lesi...

In toxigenic Vibrio cholerae, the cholera enterotoxin (CT) is encoded by CTXPhi, a lysogenic bacteriophage. The propagation of this filamentous phage can result in the origination of new toxigenic strains. To understand the nature of possible environmental factors associated with the propagation of CTXPhi, we examined the effects of temperature, pH, salinity, and exposure to direct sunlight on ...

Because of the considerable differences in the reported values for serum folate in normal subjects using Lactobacillus casei as assay organism the effect of daylight when preparing media for this assay was studied. It was found that the growth properties of the medium were destroyed by direct sunlight and impaired by bright reflected sunlight, therefore reducing the sensitivity of the assay. Ad...

What You Can’t See Can Hurt You! Summer is here, the weather is warm and thoughts turn to sandy beaches and sunbathing as well as outdoor sports. While we may think to protect our skin from sunlight, we tend to forget about the eye. Both visible and invisible or ultraviolet (UV) portions of sunlight can damage the eye, lids and surrounding skin. The nature of the injury varies with the amount a...

The transcriptional response of Staphylococcus aureus strain Newman to sunlight exposure was investigated under both oxic and anoxic conditions using RNA sequencing to gain insight into potential mechanisms of inactivation. S. aureus is a pathogenic bacterium detected at recreational beaches which can cause gastrointestinal illness and skin infections, and is of increasing public health concern...

Tryptophan (Trp) intake at breakfast promotes morning-typed circadian typology and higher sleep quality in Japanese children aged 0-6 yrs (Harada et al., 2007). This effect may be accelerated by morning exposure to sunlight, which has not yet been tested. This study aimed to investigate such an effect in Japanese children. In May, 2006, an integrated questionnaire was administered to 0-6-year-o...