The purple dye murex Bolinus brandaris is a commercially valuable gastropod in Portugal. However, there is a lack of knowledge on the reproductive cycle in Atlantic populations of this species. In this context, the reproductive cycle of B. brandaris from the Ria Formosa lagoon, southern Portugal, was studied using standard histology and light microscopy and the calculation of bio-physiological ...

Following a laboratory audit, a significant number of Treponema pallidum particle agglutination assay (TPPA)-negative sera were identified when TPPA was used as a confirmatory assay of syphilis enzyme immunoassay (EIA) screening-reactive sera (SSRS). Sera giving such discrepant results were further characterized to assess their significance. A panel of 226 sera was tested by the Abbott Murex IC...

A cubozoan jellyfish, Morbakka fenneri gen. nov., sp. nov. is described. Morbakka differs from other genera and species in the Carybdeida by having a large, warty body; flat, ribbon-shaped tentacles; a prominent upward-pointing ‘thorn’ at the bend of the pedalial canal, and conspicuous broadening of the canal where it meets the tentacle; frown-shaped or dumbbell-shaped rhopalial niche ostium; l...

Limited, Murex, and the Cape Asbestos Company Limited. Thus in his work he was confronted by the numerous and varied medical hazards of the fine chemicals, metallurgical, and asbestos industries. To all the emerging problems he brought a wide and mature experience, which was enhanced by careful observation, accurate recording, and shrewd judgment. He made important contributions to knowledge of...

OBJECTIVES We have evaluated the recently Conformité Européenne (CE)-marked Bio-Rad Geenius human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)1/2 as a rapid and simple alternative to western blot for confirmation of HIV screening results. METHODS A total of 160 serum samples were tested: 44 HIV-1 reactive samples by a fourth-generation Murex HIV Ag/Ab and/or Vidas HIV Duo Ultra, five HIV-2 reactive samples, ...

BACKGROUND To reduce human errors and subjective interpretation, automation is currently a trend. However, replacing any tests with automation must first be validated. OBJECTIVE Evaluate the EIA tests performance characteristics of three commercially available enzyme immunoassays; Enzygnost Syphilis (Dade Behring Ltd), Syphilis EIA 480 (Newmarket Laboratory Ltd) and ICE* Syphilis (Abbott Mure...

The soil moisture content is of great importance for numerical weather forecasts and has been identified as one of the parameter products of EUMETSAT’s Satellite Application Facility on Land Surface Analysis (Land SAF). Soil moisture strongly affects the surface energy balance and therefore near surface temperature and humidity. Conversely, temperature observations may be used to infer the soil...

LETTERS Hepatitis B and C viral infections among STD clinic patients in India While many studies from other countries 1 2 document hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection rates in STD clinic patients, very few data are available from India. In the present report, we have analysed the rate of HBV and HCV infections in STD patients by using serologi-cal and molecular methods...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Several recent studies have reported a high rate of previous hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). However, it appears that there are marked geographical differences in the prevalence of HCV among NHL patients. There is further controversy concerning a possible pathogenetic link between HCV and certain histologic lymphoma subty...