UNLABELLED Clostridium difficile is a leading cause of nosocomial infections worldwide and has become an urgent public health threat requiring immediate attention. Epidemic lineages of the BI/NAP1/027 strain type have emerged and spread through health care systems across the globe over the past decade. Limiting person-to-person transmission and eradicating C. difficile, especially the BI/NAP1/0...

Effects of Fe and Trichoderma harzianum Bi strain on plant growth and development of Spathiphyllum were investigated. Experiments were carried out in an glasshouse and in pots filled with soil, perlite and coco peat (1:1:1) were used as the growing medium. Plant roots (seedlings with three leaves) were inoculated with Trichoderma (0 and 8% w/w) as media mixture. Fe spray (0, 0.75, 1.5, 3 g/L), ...

Equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) was utilized to process a Bi‒42Sn eutectic alloy at room temperature using processing route A for 1, 2, 4, and 8 passes. Tensile testing was performed at room temperature under initial strain rates in the range of 1.0 × 10 -5 to 1.0 × 10 -2 s -1 . The results demonstrate that processing by ECAP improves the ductility in this material and the elongations to ...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) enters cells via a pH- and clathrin-dependent endocytic pathway. Scavenger receptor BI (SR-BI) and CD81 are important entry factors for HCV internalization into target cells. The SR-BI gene gives rise to at least two mRNA splice variants, SR-BI and SR-BII, which differ in their C termini. SR-BI internalization remains poorly understood, but SR-BII is reported to endocyto...

A new method of assessing the bactericidal activity of quinolones and other antibacterial agents, known as the bactericidal index or BI, is introduced and discussed. The BI represents total bacterial kill over a drug concentration range limited to levels achievable in vivo. This method allows the bactericidal activity of drugs to be readily compared. Calculation of BI produces a single value pe...

Two-phase bimetal composites contain both grain boundaries and bi-phase interfaces between dissimilar crystals. In this work, we use a crystal plasticity finite element framework to explore the effects of grain boundary interactions on the plastic stability of bi-phase interfaces. We show that neighboring grain interactions do not significantly alter interface plastic stability during plane str...

In this study we investigated the effects of Bi addition on the microstructure and mechanical properties of an electrodeposited nanocrystalline Ag coating. Microstructural features were investigated with transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results indicate that the addition of Bi introduced nanometer-scale Ag-Bi solid solution particles and more internal defects to the initial Ag micros...

Clostridium difficile is the leading cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea and a major burden to healthcare services worldwide. In recent years, C. difficile strains belonging to the BI/NAP1/027 type have become highly represented among clinical isolates. These so-called 'hypervirulent' strains are associated with outbreaks of increased disease severity, higher relapse rates and an expanded ...