Corrosion of steel reinforcement is one of the most prevalent causes of reinforced concrete (RC) structures deterioration in chloride-contaminated environments. As a result, evaluating the impact of any possible corrosion-induced damages to reinforced concrete bridges strongly affects management decisions: such as inspection, maintenance and repair actions. The corrosion propagation phase is a ...

Escherichia coli is a heterogeneous species that can be part of the normal flora of humans but also include strains of medical importance. Among pathogenic members, Shiga-toxin producing E. coli (STEC) are some of the more prominent pathogenic E. coli within the public sphere. STEC disease outbreaks are typically associated with contaminated beef, contaminated drinking water, and contaminated f...

On June 6, 2011, the Section of Epidemiology (SOE) of the Alaska Division of Public Health was notified of a case of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) in southeast Alaska. In collaboration with local partners, SOE investigated and identified a total of eight confirmed and 13 probable PSP cases that occurred during May--June 2011. Warnings to avoid noncommercially harvested shellfish were broa...

The mechanisms and kinetics of OH-initiated transformation of triclosan (TCS) in aquatic environments were modeled using high-accuracy molecular orbital theory. TCS can be initially attacked by OH in two ways, OH-addition and H-abstraction. Twelve OH-addition routes were reported, and the C atom adjacent to the ether bond in the benzene ring (RaddB1) was found as the most easily attacked positi...

Background: There has been increasing awareness throughout the world regarding the remarkable decrease in amphibian population. For such amphibian population decline several causes have been given. Cadmium, a heavy metal is released both from natural sources (leaching of cadmium rich soils) and anthropogenic activities to the aquatic and terrestrial environments. This study evaluated the toxici...

conclusions in this study, we isolated b. licheniformis producing an organic solvent-stable protease from oil-contaminated soil. the protease was stable and active in various organic solvents. by purification, the protease could be used as a biocatalyst for organic solvent-based enzymatic synthesis. results according to 16srdna sequencing, strain isa9 was identified as a new strain of bacillus ...

Methylation of mercury (Hg) is the crucial process that controls Hg biomagnification along the aquatic food chains. Aquatic sediments are of particular interest because they constitute an essential reservoir where inorganic divalent Hg (Hg II ) is methylated. Methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations in sediments mainly result from the balance between methylation and demethylation reactions, two oppo...

Heavy metal pollution in aquatic environments is a critical environmental concern, as the metals can accumulate in aquatic organisms and humans via the food chain, creating a risk to human health. Among the metals, Pb is one of the most toxic to aquatic organisms[1]. Pb is a naturally occurring substance, released as a consequence of geological weathering and volcanic activity, however, high co...