OBJECTIVE Numerous types of water-occluding earplugs are available as a means of preventing infection in patients with external and middle ear disease. However, little is known about the comparative efficacies of these earplugs with prolonged water exposure. In this study, we assessed the water impermeability of various earplug materials to prolonged water exposure. MATERIALS AND METHODS Nine...

The three major fungal pests of grapevine, powdery and downy mildew and grey mould are mostly controlled through the application of fungicides. Some of those are particularly active against the grey mould agent Botrytis cinerea. The panel of fungicides authorized in France comprise since many years anilinopyrimidines, benzimidazoles, dithiocarbamates, dicarboximides, phenylpyrroles and pyridina...

Slime mould has been proven to be a fruitful living substrate for implementing a wide range of computing circuits from computational geometry to collision-based logical circuits to robot control. It is apparent, however, that constructing working real-time universal processors from the slime mould is non-trivial task. We explore here similarities between development of slime mould protoplasmic ...

Humid indoor environments may be colonised by allergenic filamentous microfungi (moulds), Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp., Cladosporium spp., and Alternaria spp. in particular. Mould-induced respiratory diseases are a worldwide problem. In the last two decades, mould allergens and glucans have been used as markers of indoor exposure to moulds. Recently, mould allergens Alt a 1 (Alternaria al...

the making of ear mould for hearing aids is generally considered to be a safe process. however, there are a few reported cases of complications caused during mould making. we report the case of a man with 69 years age, where the process of making the mould for a hearing aid led to the perforation of the tympanic membrane and pouring of mould material into the middle ear, necessitating surgical ...

AIMS The aims were to compare a novel conjunctival mould used to assist the delivery of intravitreal drugs to a conventional technique with respect to patient, surgeon and cost benefit. METHODS A prospective review of 200 intravitreal injections was undertaken, 100 using a 'conventional' freehand technique (group 1) and 100 using a novel conjunctival mould (group 2). Intraoperative visual ana...

Physarum polycephalum is a macroscopic single celled plasmodial slime mould. We employ plasmodial phototactic responses to construct laboratory prototypes of NOT and NAND logical gates with electrical inputs/outputs and optical coupling; the slime mould plays dual roles of computing device and electrical conductor. Slime mould logical gates are fault tolerant and resettable. The results present...

BACKGROUND Exposure to mould or dampness at home has been associated with adverse respiratory effects in all age groups. This exposure has also been related to insomnia in adults. We aimed to investigate the association between exposure to visible mould or dampness at home and sleep problems in children. METHODS The study population consisted of 1719 10-year-old children from the German popul...

Mould mite numbers were successfully monitored in tissue culture laboratories using black tape where numbers of mites were high. Natural diamite and Parafilm “M” were the best barriers for preventing mould mite contamination. Treating surfaces with a miticide-containing paint (Artilin 3A) or bendiocarp prevented mites from entering containers holding food suitable for mould mites. Mites were no...