196,052 research outputs found
A study on the microbial quality of sealed products for feminine hygiene
No full textIntroduction. Sanitary tampons have been in existence for over 60 years. Their use may present certain health risks, potentially associated with an abnormal change of microbial flora in the vagina (e.g., toxic shock syndrome). Tampon production and marketing are regulated differently in different countries. In Australia, Canada and the USA, tampons are classified as Class-II medical devices and their marketing requires pre-clinical and clinical studies, including microbiological trials. In Europe, tampons are considered consumer products and safety-related data are provided only if the manufacturer deems them to be useful. Sterility of these products is not requested by law; thus they may represent a potential vehicle for microorganisms.Due to the lack of data on microbial characteristics of tampons, an analytical investigation was carried out to characterize and quantify the microbial flora present on sealed tampons of various brands present on the market in Italy.Methods. Traditional cultural methods were used to characterize and quantify bacteria and fungi. Identification of colonies was performed with biochemical techniques.Results. Results showed low microbial concentrations in 93% of the positive samples. A rare presence of opportunistic pathogens was detected and a few samples (6%) were characterized by bacterial species of human origin.Conclusions. In the light of these data, the examined tampons were found to have good hygienic quality; nevertheless, to minimize the microbial risks linked to the use of these products, strict hygienic rules during their production and manipulation have to be adopted
Survival of different microbial strains in pure and diluted tattoo inks
No full textSeveral microorganisms can be found in tattoo inks injected into the skin, despite the ink matrix being considered inhospitable to microbial growth. Studies on the microbial quality of tattoo inks have reported the presence of microorganisms in most of the samples. This study aimed to assess the survival of environmental and human microbial species, selected on the specific criteria, in tattoo inks. Undiluted sterile black ink and serial dilutions (10-fold/100-fold) were each separately seeded with four bacterial strains (Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus pumilus, Mycobacterium fortuitum), one yeast (Candida albicans), and one mould (Fusarium solani). Their survival was periodically tested using cultural methods. No tested microorganisms were able to survive in undiluted ink, except for B. pumilus that survived up to 3 weeks. All the tested species, except for S. aureus, showed survivability for up to 10 weeks in 100-fold diluted inks, and P. aeruginosa, M. fortuitum, and C. albicans were even able to grow. B. pumilus and F. solani had good rates of survival even at the smallest dilution. The ability of microorganisms to survive and grow in tattoo inks could have health implications if contaminated ink dilutions are used during tattooing practices and stored for a long time
AN INNOVATIVE SYSTEM BASED ON BIOIMPEDANCE MEASUREMENTS TO DEFINE THE BLADDER VOLUME
No full textObjectives: Alteration of the bladder sense of fullness due to spinal cord injury or radical cystectomy leads to the inability to plan micturition timing. The development of a system for the fullness detection would be highly desirable and would enable autonomous and spontaneous management of micturition by the patient. Here the design of an innovative system of bladder volume monitoring based on bioimpedance measurements is presented.
Methods: Bioimpedance measurements are performed on ex-vivo bladder tissue using traditional ECG sensors. Two couples of electrodes in different arrangements were applied on the bladder walls to detect degree of filling by 50ml step, from 0ml to 300ml. The bioimpedance values are obtained for frequencies ranging from 1 kHz to 2 MHz. Moreover, different compositions of artificial urine were tested, by varying relevant ions concentration.
Results: The impedance variations were recorded around 20ohm in average from empty to full status. However, the impedance variation was dependent to ion concentration in urine.
Discussion: The experiment shows the feasibility of this approach and the need to find the sensors arrangement able to normalize measurements with respect to urine composition.
Conclusions: A novel system to detect the bladder filling based on bioimpedence measures is reported. This approach could be feasible both in presence of natural or artificial/reconstructed bladder. Future work will target accurate volume estimation independently on urine composition, as well as combination with other sensing strategies.
Acknowledgements: The authors acknowledge INAIL (Istituto Nazionale Assicurazioni Infortuni sul Lavoro) for providing their collaboration within the BioSUP project
Behavior of pseudomonas aeruginosa and enterobacter aerogenes in water from filter jugs
No full textCareless use conditions of filter jugs were applied to simulate and evaluate the behavior of two ubiquitous aquatic bacterial species, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter aerogenes. According to a reference protocol, nine different jugs of popular brands sold in the Italian market were used for the test. Separately, a suspension of the two bacteria was spiked in water used for filling the jugs. The concentration of the test organisms and total aerobic microbial count (TAMC) was measured daily in the filtered water along a period corresponding to the cartridge lifetime. Results showed a different trend of bacterial behavior. E. aerogenes was detectable exclusively on the first day after jug filling, while P. aeruginosa confirmed its persistence over time in all the jugs and its ability to potentially colonize surfaces and cartridges. The TAMC was detected at a concentration range from 102 to 107 CFU/100 mL in all the tests, high values that were not far from those raised in bottled flat natural mineral water weeks after bottling
Remarkable harvestmen from the Czech Republic
No full textThe fauna of harvestmen of the Czech Republic is relatively well-known (SILHAVY 1956, MARTENS 1978). Still, species new for the country have recently been found both in natural (KLlMES & BEZDECKA 1995) and synanthropic habitats (KLlMES 1995). Our knowledge of the distribution of most species is, however, far from complete. For several species, including ones found relatively frequently, only a few localities have been reported from the Czech Republic up to now. In this paper we present some interesting findings of harvestmen in Bohemia (western Czech Republic) and Moravia (eastern part) which may stimulate further faunistic research in the territory (fig. 1)
Dr. Duane M. Jackson, Morehouse College, July 2011
No full textThis video is a conversation with Dr. Duane M. Jackson. Dr. Jackson talks about his paper, "Recall and the Serial Position Effect: The Role of Primacy and Recency on Accounting Students' Performance." Jackie Daniel, AUC Woodruff Library, is the interviewer
"Reflections on the subject of Emigration from Europe with a view to Settlement in the United States" By M. Carey.
No full text"Reflections on the subject of Emigration from Europe with a view to Settlement in the United States: containing bried sketches of the moral and political character of those states.
By M. Carey, member of the American philosophical, and of the American Antiquarian Society, and author of The Olive Branch, Cindiciae Hibernicae, essays on banking, on political economy, and on internal improvement.
To which are now added the English editor's comments on the subject; together with Important Advice to Emigrants, and Cautions Against Impositions Practiced in the Outports
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Dr. Glendon Swarthout
No full textHosted by Roger M. Busfield, MSU Assistant Professor of Speech and Theater, Meet the Author is designed to introduce a general audience to a contemporary author and their work through in-depth interviews. This episode features a conversation between Dr. Glendon Swarthout, prolific author and English professor at MSU, and assistant professors Sam S. Baskett and Theodore B. Strandness
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