Global patterns of biodiversity intrigue biologists to investigate their origins and common mechanisms and causes underlying the patterns through studies of evolutionary histories, processes, drivers that might have shaped the patterns of species diversification. The eastern Asi…
Polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are highly stable organic compounds, which contain multiple carbon-fluorine bonds. They are used in various commercial products, including aqueous fire-fighting foams (AFFF) and products with non-stick coatings. However, thes…
The tuberculin skin test (TST) is the standard test for detecting latent tuberculosis infection. With the HIV epidemic and the resurgence of tuberculosis (TB), identifying and treating persons with latent infection has been found to be important to prevent the development of act…
Background: Critically ill patients are at particular risk of developing bloodstream infection. Such infections are associated with the development of sepsis, leading to a marked increase in mortality rate. Early detection of the causative organism and appropriate antibiotic tre…
The spatial spread of populations is one of the most visible and fundamental processes in population and community ecology. Due to the potential negative impacts of spatial spread of invasive populations, there has been intensive research into understanding the drivers of ecolog…
Determining the postmortem interval (PMI) remains one of the most important but challenging factors to establish in a suspicious death investigation. Unfortunately, as time passes current methods lose accuracy and only allow investigators to approximate how long ago death occurr…
A relatively new mosquitocidal strain of Bacillus thuringiensis, Bacillus thuringiensis jegathesan (Btj, strain 367), isolated from Malaysia was assayed for its larvicidal efficacy against field-derived early fourth-instar larvae of the southern house mosquito Culex quinquefasci…
Many thermophilic bacteria have now been identified. Only a few of these bacteria are alkalithermophiles, which grow at temperatures above 50°C and at pH levels above 8.0 In an effort to identify and characterize additional alkalithermophilic bacteria, 25 samples were collected …
The Gram negative Myxoccocus xanthus bacteria provide an ideal model system for the understanding of social behavior in prokaryotes, as these bacteria respond to stress signals by social communication, Upon starvation, M. xanthus cells aggregate to form fruiting bodies within wh…
Sexually transmitted infections are among the most common illnesses in the world. In women of childbearing age, sexually transmitted infections (excluding HIV) are second only to maternal mortality as causes of disease, death and years of healthy life lost. Sexually transmitted …
Epiphytic pathogenic bacteria on the thorns of native LRGV plants may provide a defense mechanism for the plants. To test this, plant thorns were collected from LRGV plant species and aerobic and anaerobic bacteria were isolated in thioglycollate medium. Tests were performed to …
Objective of this study was to evaluate effect of UV-C radiation (0, 1.16 and 3.21 kJ/cm2), pomegranate (Punica granatum) seed essential oil (PGEO) and lemon (Citrus lemonum) plant essential oil (CLEO) on decontamination of Candida albicans, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcu…
Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is a well known biodegradable polymer that can be applied for short term packaging in food and cosmetics. However, PLA is brittle, which significantly limit its industrial packaging applications. Blending PLA and other polymers serve as one of the alterna…
The objectives of this dissertation were to: 1) characterize the effect of several different silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on the ammonia oxidizing bacterium (AOB) Nitrosomonas europaea and investigate possible mechanisms for toxicity, 2) test the effects of consumer product AgNP…
A complex system is a group or organization in which many components interact to perform functions that a single component cannot. The study of the evolution of complex systems can reveal the pattern of interactions, the dependencies between entities, the impacts on the system’s…