We examined microbial correlates of health outcomes in building occupants with a sarcoidosis cluster and excess asthma. We offered employees a questionnaire and pulmonary function testing and collected floor dust and liquid/sludge from drain tubing traps of heat pumps that were analyzed for various microbial agents. Forty-nine percent of participants reported any symptom reflecting possible gra...

Rates of biodegradation of sorbed chemicals are usually lower in soil than in aqueous systems, in part because sorption reduces the availability of the chemical to microorganisms. Biodegradation, sorption, and diffusion occur simultaneously and are tightly coupled. In soil, the rate of biodegradation is a function of a chemical's diffusion coefficient, sorption partition coefficient, the distan...

Very diverse research fields frequently deal with the analysis of multiple clustering results, which should imply an objective detection of overlaps and divergences between the formed groupings. The congruence between these multiple results can be quantified by clustering comparison measures such as the Wallace coefficient (W). Since the measured congruence is dependent on the particular sample...

This study aimed to separate the respective contributions of root and microbial respiration to soil respiration in a rape field in Southwest China. The soil respiration was measured with a closed chamber technique and a regression method was used to apportion root and microbial respiration. Microbial and root respiration ranged from 70.67 to 183.77 mg CO2/m 2/h and 21.99 to 193.09 mg CO2/m 2/h,...

Biological degradation of phenolic compounds by a mixed bacterial culture was investigated. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis were the two strains used in the study. pH and the temperature for the growth of bacteria was found to be 70.2 and 372C, respectively. The mixed microbial culture was able to degrade 250 mgl of phenol and wattle completely within 36 and 48 hours, respectivel...

A rapid method for estimating the extent of microbial contamination on food and on food processing equipment is described. Microbial cells are rinsed from food or swab samples with sterile diluent and concentrated on the surface of membrane filters. The filters are incubated on a suitable bacteriological medium for 4 hr at 30 C, heated at 105 C for 5 min, and stained. The membranes are then dri...

DNA sequence diversities of soil microbial communities in rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere of 1 6 years Panax ginseng were evaluated by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Total genomic DNA of soil samples were amplified by twenty-four out of two hundred random primers. The products were separated in agarose gel, and 359 and 181 reliable fragments were generated, of which, 324 and 123 were ...

A fluidized bed bioreactor has been used to carry out biological denitrification in the present work as it offers many advantages over other types of reactors. Plastic beads of low density (1055 kg/m3) were used as fluidizing media with Pseudomonas stuzeri, a denitrifying microorganism immobilized on them. The denitrification rate under different operating conditions was studied. The results of...

Running tittle: Comparison of methods for biofilm quantification Summary Three methods for determining the total biofilm amount in biphasic cultures have been compared: dry weight by filtration after solvent treatment, optical density with a biomass probe and protein content. The activity of the biofilm was estimated through mineral nitrogen consumption. Calculation of the coefficients of varia...