Microbiology space

BACKGROUND: Street foods are any foods or drinks prepared or sold by street vendors in an open space. The purpose of this study was to determine the Bacteriological safety and antibiotic resistance patterns of Staphylococcus aureus and Enterobacteriaceae isolated from street foods. METHOD: A laboratory-based cross-sectional study was used from December 2022 to February 2023 on street foods of Addis Ababa, Hawassa, Dire Dawa, and Jimma towns of Ethiopia. 525 street foods and 175 water samples were taken from 175 street food vending stalls...

As a basic infrastructure, sewers play an important role in the innards of every city and town to remove unsanitary water from all kinds of livable and functional spaces. Sewer pipe failures (SPFs) are unwanted and unsafe in many ways, as the disturbance that they cause is undeniable. Sewer pipes meet manholes frequently, unlike water distribution systems, as in sewers, water movement is due to gravity and manholes are needed in every intersection as well as through pipe length. Many studies have been focused on sewer pipe failures and so on, but few investigations have been done to show the effect of manhole proximity on pipe failure...

SUMMARYInfectious bacteria have both intrinsic and acquired mechanisms to combat harmful biocides that enter the cell. Through adaptive pressures, many of these pathogens have become resistant to many, if not all, of the current antibiotics used today to treat these often deadly infections. One prominent mechanism is the upregulation of efflux systems, especially the resistance-nodulation-cell division class of exporters. These tripartite systems consist of an inner membrane transporter coupled with a periplasmic adaptor protein and an outer membrane channel to efficiently transport a diverse array of substrates from inside the cell to the extracellular space...

This study utilized X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) to investigate weathered gypsum rocks which can or do serve as a rock substrate for endolithic organisms, focusing on their internal pore-fracture microstructure, estimating porosity, and quantitative comparison between various samples. Examining sections and reconstructed 3D models provides a more detailed insight into the overall structural conditions within rock fragments and the interconnectivity in pore networks, surpassing the limitations of analyzing individual 2D images...

Ionic silver (Ag+ ) is being investigated as a residual biocide for use in NASA spacecraft potable water systems on future crewed missions. This water will be used to irrigate future spaceflight crop production systems. We have evaluated the impact of three concentrations (31 ppb, 125 ppb, and 500 ppb) of ionic silver biocide solutions on lettuce in an arcillite (calcinated clay particle substrate) and hydroponic (substrate-less) growth setup after 28 days. Lettuce plant growth was reduced in the hydroponic samples treated with 31 ppb silver and severely stunted for samples treated at 125 ppb and 500 ppb silver...

Ethanol can be produced by many microorganisms that colonize a dead body. Ethanol's concentration depends on the congener higher alcohols, 1-propanol, isobutanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol, and 1-butanol, as previous research has shown. This correlation is expressed by mathematical models which estimate the concentration of microbial ethanol. The aim of this contribution was to study the ethanol and higher alcohols' production in various laboratory bacterial and fungal cultures and the applicability of the bacterial and fungal models (which concern the bacteria E...

Tomatoes encounter many pathogens, such as fungi and bacteria, which reduce the yield and quality of plants and lead to large losses in production. The application of plant protection products (PPPs) is still an important and most effective measure to control plant diseases. However, the use of chemicals in agriculture contributes to environmental pollution and biodiversity loss, and it can also threaten non-target living organisms. Biological control is a widely accessible, environmentally safe, and cost-efficient alternative for the prevention and suppression of plant diseases...

Surgical site infections (SSIs) refer to infections in the incision, organ, or postoperative space. As common healthcare-associated infections, SSIs correlate with prolonged hospital stay, additional procedures, ICU stay, and higher mortality rates. Around 8-10% of gynecologic surgery patients may experience infectious complications, influenced by microbial contamination, surgical nature, and patient factors. The goal of this narrative review is to compare and merge recommendations from globally published guidelines concerning the utilization of antibiotics in the perioperative phase...

The protozoan parasite Leishmania donovani is the causative agent of visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a potentially fatal disease if left untreated. Given the limitations of current therapies, there is an urgent need for new, safe, and effective drugs. To discover novel antileishmanial compounds from previously unexplored chemical spaces, we conducted a high-throughput screening (HTS) of 2562 natural compounds, assessing their activity against L. donovani promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes. Utilizing the criteria of ≥70% parasite growth inhibition and ≥70% host cell (THP-1) viability, we selected 100 inhibitors for half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50 ) value determination...

Concrete infrastructure in coastal waters is increasing. While adding complex habitat and manipulating concrete mixtures to enhance biodiversity have been studied, field investigations of sub-millimetre-scale complexity and substrate colour are lacking. Here, the interacting effects of 'colour' (white, grey, black) and 'microtexture' (smooth, 0.5 mm texture) on colonisation were assessed at three sites in Australia. In Townsville, no effects of colour or microtexture were observed. In Sydney, spirorbid polychaetes occupied more space on smooth than textured tiles, but there was no effect of microtexture on serpulid polychaetes, bryozoans and algae...

The cell envelope of the poly-extremophile bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans is renowned for its highly organized structure and unique functional characteristics. In this bacterium, a precise regularity characterizes not just the S-layer, but it also extends to the underlying cell envelope layers, resulting in a dense and tightly arranged configuration. This regularity is attributed to a minimum of three protein complexes located at the outer membrane level. Together, they constitute a recurring structural unit that extends across the cell envelope, effectively tiling the entirety of the cell body...

BACKGROUND: The International Space Station (ISS) stands as a testament to human achievement in space exploration. Despite its highly controlled environment, characterised by microgravity, increased CO <mml:math xmlns:mml="https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msub><mml:mrow/> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub> </mml:math> levels, and elevated solar radiation, microorganisms occupy a unique niche. These microbial inhabitants play a significant role in influencing the health and well-being of astronauts on board...

Contractile injection systems (CISs) are phage tail-like machineries found in a wide range of bacteria. They are often deployed by bacteria to translocate effectors into the extracellular space or into target cells. CISs are classified into intracellular type VI secretion systems (T6SSs) and extracellular CIS (eCISs). eCISs are assembled in cytoplasm and released into the extracellular milieu upon cell lysis, while T6SSs are the secretion systems widespread among Gram-negative bacteria and actively translocate effectors into the environment or into the adjacent cell, without lysis of T6SS-producing cells...

Exosomes, which are small membrane-enclosed vesicles, are actively released into the extracellular space by a variety of cells. Growing evidence indicates that exosomes derived from virus-infected cells can selectively encapsulate viral proteins, genetic materials, or even entire virions. This enables them to mediate cell-to-cell communication and facilitate virus transmission. Classical swine fever (CSF) is a disease listed by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) Terrestrial Animal Health Code and must be reported to the organisation...

Colonization of the vaginal space with bacteria such as Gardnerella vaginalis and Mobiluncus mulieris is associated with increased risk for STIs, bacterial vaginosis, and preterm birth, while Lactobacillus crispatus is associated with optimal reproductive health. Although host-microbe interactions are hypothesized to contribute to reproductive health and disease, the bacterial mediators that are critical to this response remain unclear. Bacterial extracellular vesicles (bEVs) are proposed to participate in host-microbe communication by providing protection of bacterial cargo, delivery to intracellular targets, and ultimately induction of immune responses from the host...

Green roofs are promising tools in sustainable urban planning, offering benefits such as stormwater management, energy savings, aesthetic appeal, and recreational spaces. They play a crucial role in creating sustainable and resilient cities, providing both environmental and economic advantages. Despite these benefits, concerns persist about their impact on water quality, especially for non-potable use, as conflicting results are found in the literature. This study presents a comparative analysis of the quantity and quality of water drained from an extensive green roof against an adjacent conventional rooftop made of fiber-cement tiles in subtropical Brazil...

Obesity is a global health issue characterized by the excessive fat accumulation, leading to an increased risk of chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), which can progress from simple steatosis to steatohepatitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Currently, there are no approved pharmacological protocols for prevention/treatment of MAFLD, and due the complexity lying beneath these mechanisms, monotherapies are unlikely to be efficacious...

UNLABELLED: Anaerobic microbes play crucial roles in environmental processes, industry, and human health. Traditional methods for monitoring the growth of anaerobes, including plate counts or subsampling broth cultures for optical density measurements, are time and resource-intensive. The advent of microplate readers revolutionized bacterial growth studies by enabling high-throughput and real-time monitoring of microbial growth kinetics. Yet, their use in anaerobic microbiology has remained limited...

Free fatty acids receptors, with members among G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), are crucial for biological signaling, including the perception of the so called "fatty taste". In recent years, GPR120, a protein belonging to the GPCR family, drew attention as an interesting pharmacological target to cope with obesity, satiety and diabetes. Apart from long chain fatty acids, which are GPR120 natural agonists, other synthetic molecules were identified as agonists expanding the chemical space of GPR120's ligands...

Regulatory authorities recommend using residence time distribution (RTD) to address material traceability in continuous manufacturing. Continuous virus filtration is an essential but poorly understood step in biologics manufacturing in respect to fluid dynamics and scale-up. Here we describe a model that considers nonideal mixing and film resistance for RTD prediction in continuous virus filtration, and its experimental validation using the inert tracer NaNO3 . The model was successfully calibrated through pulse injection experiments, yielding good agreement between model prediction and experiment ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="https://www...