I have a thing for kitchen appliances. I’d like to imagine myself as someone who’d embrace the clean simplicity of minimalism, but the truth is this: When it comes to my kitchen, I want nearly every gadget I come across. Just this weekend, I picked up a sous vide circulator for a screaming deal. Sure, some of [...]
Construction and renovation projects in office settings can adversely affect building occupants by the release of airborne particulates, biological contaminants, and gases. Careful planning for IEQ and the prevention of exposure during these activities is essential. Particulates Particulate material such as dusts and fibers are likely to be produced during construction and renovation activities. [...]
Abstract Background Previous research has documented an increased risk of subfertility in areas of sub-Saharan Africa, as well as an ecological association between urogenital schistosomiasis prevalence and decreased fertility. This pilot project examined reproductive patterns and the potential effects of childhood urogenital Schistosoma haematobium infection and individual treatment experience on adult subfertility among women who were long-term [...]
Researchers from the University of Bristol say they have combined synthetic biology and chemistry to create a modern technology platform to allow the production of novel antibiotics to combat increasing microbial drug resistance. The team is working on derivatives of pleuromutilin, with the core pleuromutilin isolated from the mushroom Clitopilus passeckerianus. Pleuromutilin derivatives are potent antibacterial [...]
While Flint made headlines two years ago when 12 people died due to high lead levels in the city's water, more than 1,000 water systems across the US have drinking water that fails safety standards for lead. For the BBC's America First? series, the BBC's Aleem Maqbool is exploring health and social issues where the [...]
Some of you may have read my EMJ blog titled ‘The Four Pillars of Living Well with COPD’, which was published last year. Since then, I have travelled to many places, talking to patients and respiratory professionals about how I manage my disease. What has become apparent to me is the lack of importance placed [...]
Abstract Chronic coinfections of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa frequently fail to respond to antibiotic treatment, leading to significant patient morbidity and mortality. Currently, the impact of interspecies interaction on S. aureus antibiotic susceptibility remains poorly understood. In this study, we utilize a panel of P. aeruginosa burn wound and cystic fibrosis (CF) lung isolates to demonstrate that P. aeruginosa alters S. aureus susceptibility to bactericidal antibiotics in a variable, strain-dependent [...]
Harvard Medical School researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital have reversed type 1 diabetes in mice by infusing blood stem cells pretreated to produce more of a protein called PD-L1, which is deficient in mice and people with type 1 diabetes. The stem cells curbed the autoimmune reaction in cells from both mice and humans and [...]
A bacterium called Wolbachia could stop the bloodsucking insects from spreading diseases like Zika and dengue fever. In the summer of 1922, as Simeon Burt Wolbach and Marshall Hertig slid their scalpels into 13 common house mosquitoes, they had no idea that they were about to stumble across one of the most successful microbes on the planet, [...]
Abstract Background Planning interventions to respond to cholera epidemics requires an understanding of the major transmission routes. Interrupting short-cycle (household, foodborne) transmission may require different approaches as compared long-cycle (environmentally-mediated/waterborne) transmission. However, differentiating the relative contribution of short- and long-cycle routes has remained difficult, and most cholera outbreak control efforts focus on interrupting long-cycle transmission. [...]
