Historically, marine invertebrates have been a prolific source of unique natural products, with a diverse array of biological activities. Recent studies of invertebrate-associated microbial communities are revealing microorganisms as the true producers of many of these compounds. Inspired by the human microbiome project, which has highlighted the human intestine as a unique microenvironment in ...

Clay rocks are being considered for radioactive waste disposal, but relatively little is known about the impact of microbes on the long-term safety of geological repositories. Thus, a more complete understanding of microbial community structure and function in these environments would provide further detail for the evaluation of the safety of geological disposal of radioactive waste in clay roc...

AIM This study evaluates the effect of surface application of dried Class A biosolids on microbial populations within copper mine tailings. METHODS AND RESULTS Mine tailing sites were established at ASARCO Mission Mine close to Sahuarita Arizona. Site 1 (December 1998) was amended with 248 tons ha(-1) of Class A biosolids. Sites 2 (December 2000) and 3 (April 2006) were amended with 371 and 2...

BACKGROUND Quality control (QC) in diagnostic microbiology is a matter of effective, efficient, accurate reporting in the expected turnaround time. Major stages of the analytical "standard operational procedures" where QC could be easily affected include organism identification and antibacterial susceptibility testing. AIM The objective of this experiential technical note is to provide an evi...

This paper presents 10 recommendations for improving the European Medicines Agency's guidance for environmental risk assessment of human pharmaceutical products. The recommendations are based on up-to-date, available science in combination with experiences from other chemical frameworks such as the REACH-legislation for industrial chemicals. The recommendations concern: expanding the scope of t...

Wastewater from wine-related industries is characterised by high variability in COD and pH. Disposal of these effluents with little or no treatment could lead to heavy financial penalties or pollution of soil and water resources. A pilot-scale rotating biological contactor (RBC) was evaluated for the treatment of winery effluent, with specific focus on the biofilms that formed on the RBC discs....

Vancomycin is commonly added as empiric therapy for febrile neutropenia. A retrospective chart review was conducted at a large community teaching institution to evaluate vancomycin use in oncology patients. The results revealed that a majority of empiric vancomycin therapy was inappropriate, raising concern for antibiotic resistance and prompting opportunities for improvement.

Previous evaluations of the molecular GenoType tests have promoted their use to detect resistance to first- and second-line antituberculosis drugs in different geographical regions. However, there are known geographic variations in the mutations associated with drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and especially in South America, there is a paucity of information regarding the frequen...

BACKGROUND Since the publication of the Prophlyactic Penicillin Study II in 1995, the management of penicillin prophylaxis for children with sickle cell disease (SCD) after 5 years of age has been controversial. In this study, we sought to describe current practice patterns of pediatric hematologists related to cessation of penicillin prophylaxis for children with SCD after 5 years of age. PR...