Hydrocarbon contamination of groundwater resources has become a major environmental and human health concern in many parts of the world. Our objectives were to employ both culture and culture-independent techniques to characterize the dynamics of microbial community structure within a fluidized bed reactor used to bioremediate a diesel-contaminated groundwater in a tropical environment. Under n...

In previous work, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium strain SL1344 was exposed to sublethal concentrations of three widely used farm disinfectants in daily serial passages for 7 days in an attempt to investigate possible links between the use of disinfectants and antimicrobial resistance. Stable variants OXCR1, QACFGR2, and TOPR2 were obtained following treatment with an oxidizing compound...

Combustion sampling for toxicological assessment often requires that large (greater than 100 mg) lots of complex organic mixtures of wide volatility range be rapidly recovered from high temperature gases without contamination. A new sampler, meeting these criteria for studies of public health interest, has been developed and demonstrated. The device provides high sampling rates and intimate con...

A multichannel fluorescence detector used to detect nitroaromatic explosives in aqueous phase has been developed, which is composed of a five-channel sample-sensor unit, a measurement and control unit, a microcontroller, and a communication unit. The characteristics of the detector as developed are mainly embedded in the sensor unit, and each sensor consists of a fluorescent sensing film, a lig...

Fundamental insight into the unique fluorescence and nucleobase-mimicking properties of the fluorescent nucleobase analogues of the tC family is not only vital in explaining the behaviour of these probes in nucleic acid environments, but will also be profitable in the development of new and improved fluorescent base analogues. Here, temperature-dependent fluorescence quantum yield measurements ...

Nitroaromatic compounds enter the environment through their use as explosives, pesticides, solvents, and synthetic intermediates in the manufacturing of dyes, perfumes, and drugs. Recent studies have found that many nitroaromatic compounds are strongly retained by smectites, especially K+-saturated smectites. Sorption occurs when nitroaromatic compounds replace water associated with the clay an...

The cytochrome P450 (CYP) superfamily of enzymes catalyse one of the first steps in the metabolism of carcinogens such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nitroaromatics and arylamines. Polymorphisms within the CYP1A1 gene have been shown to be associated with lung cancer risk, predominantly among Asian populations. Despite functional evidence of a possible role of CYP1B1 in lung cancer suscep...