Mycotoxins are a group of naturally occurring toxic chemical substances, produced by different fungal species, which can cause illness or even death due to their toxigenic, carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic effects. Though more than 400 mycotoxins are known to have toxic effects on human when ingested along with contaminated food, mycotoxins like aflatoxins, ochratoxins, zeralenone, trich...

ÐMeasurement of lepton contamination is achieved across a radiotherapy photon beam and peripheral doses using radiochromic ®lm. An extrapolation technique is used where several layers are suspended in air to measure incident contamination without the e€ects of phantom scatter. Surface dose was measured as 11% of Dmax for 6 MV beams at central axis and 9% for 10 MV photons for a 10 10 cm ®eld si...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether microbial contamination of door handles in two busy intensive care units and one high dependency unit was related to their design, location, and usage. DESIGN Observational study of the number of viable bacteria on existing door handles of different design at defined entry/exit points with simultaneous data collection of who used these doors and how often. SET...

Fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) indicative of fecal contamination in urban streams and recreational ocean beaches in Santa Barbara, California often exceed recreational water-quality standards. During low flow, FIB and human-specific Bacteroides concentrations in urban streams were associated with point discharges. FIB concentrations varied three-fold during diurnal sampling as a result of small...

BACKGROUND Addressing surgical site infection (SSI) is accomplished, in part, through studies that attempt to clarify the nature of many essential factors in the control of SSI. We sought to examine the link between multiple risk factors, including environmental factors, and SSI for prevention management. METHODS We conducted a longitudinal prospective study to identify SSIs in all patients w...

Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a major food safety concern for the beef industry. Several studies have provided evidence that cattle hides are the main source of beef carcass contamination during processing and that reductions in the E. coli O157:H7 load on the hides of cattle entering processing facilities will lead to reductions in carcass contamination. Bacteriophages have been proposed as a no...

Naphthalene, 1-methylnaphthalene, and 2-methylnaphthalene have been identified in at least 654, 36, and 412, respectively, of the 1,662 hazardous waste sites that have been proposed for inclusion on the EPA National Priorities List (NPL) (HazDat 2005). However, the number of sites evaluated for naphthalene, 1-methylnaphthalene, and 2-methylnaphthalene is not known. The frequency of these sites ...

The emotion of disgust, with feelings of revulsion and behavioral withdrawal, make it a prime emotion to aid in the avoidance of sources of contamination, including sources of potential infectious disease. We tested the theory that living in a region with a historically high prevalence of infectious diseases would promote higher levels of disgust and contamination sensitivity as a protective me...

The first positive detection of the X-ray background fluctuations at small angular scales is reported. ROSAT PSPC archive pointed observations are used to measure fluctuations at scales of 0. 03−0. 4. The pointings have been selected from an area free from galactic contamination. At separations below ∼ 0. 1 clusters of galaxies become a substantial source of the background fluctuations. The aut...