BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES The discrimination between the Staphylococcus epidermidis colonizing the deep seated indwelling devices and those which are mere commensals has always been a challenge for the clinical microbiologist. This study was aimed to characterize the S. epidermidis isolates obtained from device related infection for their phenotypic and molecular markers of virulence and to see w...

This study compared the difference in microbial community and power generation capacity of air-cathode MFCs enriched under anode aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Results showed that MFCs successfully started with continuous air inputting to anode chamber. The aerobic enriched MFC produced comparable and even more electricity with the fuels of acetate, glucose and ethanol compared to the anaero...

Ion back-bombardment is the dominant mechanism that limits the operating lifetime of DC high voltage GaAs photoelectron guns. In this work, an electrically isolated anode electrode was used to distinguish the QE damage contributions of ions produced within the cathode/anode gap and those produced downstream of the anode. This new anode design provides a means to suppress QE decay due to ionized...

We analyse the results of our experimental laboratory approximation of motorways networks with slime mould Physarum polycephalum. Motorway networks of fourteen geographical areas are considered: Australia, Africa, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Iberia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, The Netherlands, UK, USA. For each geographical entity we represented major urban areas by oat flakes and ino...

The MBCs of nafcillin, vancomycin, gentamicin and daptomycin (LY146032) were determined for three clinical isolates of coagulase-negative staphylococci grown in suspension and adherent to biomaterials. Strains studied were the slime-producing strain Staphylococcus epidermidis RP-12 (ATCC 35983), S. hyicus SE-360, and the non-slime-producing strain S. hominis SP-2 (ATCC 35982). All three strains...

A total of 187 isolates from several clinical specimens were identified to species level as 129 Staphylococcus aureus strains and 58 coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) strains by the API Staph System (Biomerieux). Slime production was detected both by the conventional Christensen's method as well as by the Congo red agar method. Seventy-two strains of staphylococci isolates (38.5%) were fou...

Physiological races of a fungal phytopathogen represent biotypes capable of attacking certain varieties of a susceptible host-species. Attempts to distinguish physiological races by other criteria have not yet been successful. On the other hand, strains of bacterial pathogens may often be identified using bacterial viruses (bacteriophage). Attempts to demonstrate a virus of a true fungus have n...

Previous work has shown the percentage of encapsulated bacteria increased when cattle were placed on a feed-lot bloat type diet (Jacobson et al., 1957) and a recent investigation has shown Streptococcus bovis and Peptostreptococcus elsdenii increases in numbers as the onset of bloat symptoms occurred in cases of feed-lot bloat (Gutierrez et al., 1959). Slime produced by ruminal microorganisms i...

This paper introduces a novel application of bionic engineering: a bionic musical instrument using Physarum polycephalum. Physarum polycephalum is a huge single cell with thousands of nuclei, which behaves like a giant amoeba. During its foraging behavior this plasmodium produces electrical activity corresponding to different physiological states. We developed a method to render sounds from suc...

Planaria are soft-bodied, bilateral flatworms of the phylum Platyhelminthes. They are covered in cilia and use ciliary-gliding to traverse the substratum while hunting. Their body surface is covered in a layer of viscous slime primarily derived from specialised secretory granules known as rhabdites. The slime must somehow stay associated with the surface of the animal in aqueous environments wh...