Previous field and laboratory studies have identified the alga Lobophora variegata as a good candidate for biomonitoring metal contamination in the New Caledonia lagoon which is subjected to intensive and extensive metal inputs from land-based mining activities. The aim of this work was to further assess the bioindicative potential of this species by investigating, in the field, its bioaccumula...

Cadmium and lead have been identified as very toxic metals, which are widely present in the environment due to natural and anthropogenic emissions. Many studies have shown that the food chain is the main pathway of cadmium and lead transfer from the environment to humans. It is well documented that many factors will affect their transfer through food chains. Previous investigations on heavy met...

Seagrass bed ecosystems occupy the most important part of coastal shelf in the French West Indies. They also constitute nurseries for many invertebrates and fishes harvested by local fisheries. In Guadeloupe, coastal fish stocks are declining meanwhile several agroecosystems revealed to be heavily contaminated by pollutants (agricultural lands, rivers, mangroves, seagrass beds, and coral reefs)...

Ancient human DNA has been treated cautiously ever since the problems related to this type of material were exposed in the early 1990s, but as sequential genetic data from ancient specimens have been key components in several evolutionary and ecological studies, interest in ancient human DNA is on the increase again. It is especially tempting to approach archaeological and anthropological quest...

Analyzing gray matter diffusion properties can be challenging due to possible measurement biases originating from averaging of gray matter (GM) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) signals. Therefore, a better characterization of CSF contamination effects in different cortical regions is required in order to disentangle actual changes in microstructure of GM itself from changes due to other effects su...

BACKGROUND Nuts are one of the main consumed snacks worldwide and also have an important role among Iranian's food habits. Natural contamination of nuts with aflatoxin is unavoidable and causes a special challenge for nuts safety and quality. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this research was to study the aflatoxin contamination in commercially-available nuts (pistachio, walnut and peanut) in the ma...

BACKGROUND Blood cultures are the most direct method of detecting bacteraemia. Reducing contamination rates improves the specificity and positive predictive value of the blood culture. Clinical performance dashboards have been shown to be powerful tools in improving patient care and outcomes. OBJECTIVES To determine whether prospective surveillance of bloodstream infections (BSIs), introducti...

The recent Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak has created interest in personal protective equipment (PPE) content and usage. PPE testing has historically been done by individual component, rather than as a bundle for contact isolation. Fluorescent agents are commonly used in training for infection control techniques. The purpose of our study was to compare 2 PPE bundles and to evaluate the feas...

This paper addresses the noticeable increase of 137Cs activity concentrations in soil and fallout in the area surrounding Zagreb (Croatia) that occurred at the time of the 2011 Fukushima accident. This topic is important for public health as 137Cs is highly toxic due to its long half-life of radioactive decay and chemical similarity to potassium. 137Cs concentrations in fallout were much greate...