Plasmids carry a wide range of genes that are often involved in bacterial social behaviour. The question of why such genes are frequently mobile has received increasing attention. Here, we use an explicit population genetic approach to model the evolution of plasmid-borne bacterial public goods production. Our findings highlight the importance of both transmission and relatedness as factors dri...

Very little work has been done on the systematic evaluation of effect of compression on the accuracy of DEM derived using satellites imageries. Most of studies have been carried out for aerial images and models have been developed which relate DEM accuracy with compression. One such model predicts effect of compression on DEM accuracy as 0.2% of flight height for CR up to 15:1 but these models ...

Lyme disease and Tick-Borne Encephalitis (TBE) are two emergent tick-borne diseases transmitted by the widely distributed European tick Ixodes ricinus. The life cycle of the vector and the number of hosts involved requires the development of complex models which consider different routes of pathogen transmission including those occurring between ticks that co-feed on the same host. Hence, we co...

Noise immissions with predominant low frequency sound components may exert considerably disturbing effects in dwellings. This applies in particular to sounds which are excitated by transmission of structure-borne noise, and to low frequency sounds emitted by ventilators. Exposed persons usually declare such immissions as being "intolerable" even at very low A-weighted sound levels. If mechanica...

Theoretical analysis of the mechanism of action of chemical aerial disinfectants reveals that the rapid killing action which is obtained cannot be accounted for by a collision process between germicidal aerosol particles and the air-borne bacteria. However, a mechanism involving condensation of germicide molecules in the vapor state on to the bacteria-containing droplets results in a theoretica...

All viruses infecting ticks (with one possible exception) are arboviruses; their life cycle depends on infection and replication in both tick and vertebrate host cells. Little is known of arbovirus-tick cell interactions even though tick-borne viruses spend most of their existence in ticks. A distinct selection pressure on tick-borne viruses is the intracellular process of bloodmeal digestion i...

nosocomial infection and its heavy financial cost is a well recognized problem. a variety of sources of organisms involved in nosocomial infection have been identified in recent years. one potential route of bacterial infection is contamination. in order to assess the importance of food contamination, we carried out a survey of bacterial examination of food and the kitchen environment of 14 hos...

one of the most important challenges in the development of urban railways network is the effects of railway vibrations on human and adjacent structures. although various investigations into the sources of railway vibrations have been conducted, very few research works have been reported on the influences of track geometry parameters on the level of vibrations. this is addressed in this research...

Introduction: Camping and hiking are popular worldwide recreational activities. All age groups, elderly or young, immunocompetent or immunosupressive people may engage in these activities. During these activities, individuals may get injured or be exposed to pathogens. There is also a strong possibility of experiencing mosquito, lice, or tick bites, bee stings, or being bitten ...

Infectious diseases are problematic for deployed military forces throughout the world, and, historically, more military service days have been lost to insect-vectored diseases than to combat. Because of the limitations in efficacy and availability of both vaccines and therapeutic drugs, vector management often is the best tool that military personnel have against most vector-borne pathogens. Ho...