Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium hilA-lacZY fusion gene response to iron chelation or supplementation in rich and minimal media

Virulence expression of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium under iron limited condition was measured by beta-galactosidase (beta-gal) assay using a hilA-lacZY fusion strain and calculated as Miller units. hilA-lacZY beta-galactosidase assays were performed in brain heart infusion (BHI) and minimal media (M9), after iron chelation with 2, 2-dipridyl and iron-supplementation respectively. Before performing virulence assays, concentrations of iron in the media were estimated using ferrozine. Iron content was found to be more in BHI (42.6 microg dL(-1)) as compared to M9 (10.03 microg dL(-1)). beta-gal activity of Salmonella Typhimurium in BHI was generally less than that observed in M9. After exposure to various combinations of iron chelator in BHI, hilA-lacZY activity only increased at the highest concentration of chelator (2001 microM) but decreased in M9 media for all iron concentrations when compared to controls with no iron amendment. These results indicate that iron availability may influence S. Typhimurium hilA expression.     

Highlights of LNG risk technology

The authors have recently undertaken a major review of LNG consequence modeling, compiling a wide range of historical information with more recent experiments and modeling approaches in a book entitled “LNG Risk-Based Safety: Modeling and Consequence Analysis”. All the main consequence routes were reviewed – discharge, evaporation, pool and jet fire, vapor cloud explosions, rollover, and Rapid Phase Transitions (RPT’s). In the book, experimental data bases are assembled for tests on pool spread and evaporation, burn rates, dispersion, fire and radiation and effects on personnel and structures. The current paper presents selected highlights of interest: lessons learned from historical development and experience, comparison of predictions by various models, varying mechanisms for LNG spread of water, a modeling protocol to enable acceptance of newer models, and unresolved technical issues such as cascading failures, fire engulfment of a carrier, the circumstances for a possible LNG BLEVE, and accelerated evaporation by LNG penetration into water.     

An Ex Post Evaluation of Ohio’s Great Miami Water Quality Trading Program1

Newburn, David A. and Richard T. Woodward, 2011. An Ex Post Evaluation of Ohio’s Great Miami Water Quality Trading Program. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 48(1): 156‐169. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2011.00601.x Abstract: Market‐based approaches to address water quality problems have resulted in only limited success, especially in trading programs involving both point and nonpoint sources. We analyze one of the largest point‐nonpoint trading programs – the Great Miami Trading Program in Ohio, administered by the Miami Conservancy District (MCD). Our evaluation focuses on the economic and institutional aspects of the program, including cost effectiveness, efficiency of bidding, transaction costs, trading ratios, and innovation. We use a unique dataset consisting of all bids from agricultural nonpoint sources and interviews of soil and water conservation district (SWCD) agents in the watershed. We find that the MCD’s reliance on county‐level SWCD offices to recruit and advise farmers has been essential to achieve relatively high rates of farmer participation. Additionally, the MCD is able to partly free ride on the administrative costs that SWCD offices receive to assist federal conservation programs, which is helpful to lower costs for a fledgling trading program. However, the involvement of SWCD offices reduced the potential cost savings from the reverse auction structure because some agents were able to learn about the threshold price over the six rounds of bidding and help farmers bid strategically. Overall, the program structure serves as an effective model for future trading programs in other regions that seek to involve agricultural nonpoint sources.     

Decolorization and detoxification of two textile industry effluents by the laccase/1-hydroxybenzotriazole system

The aim of this work was to determine the optimal conditions for the decolorization and the detoxification of two effluents from a textile industry—effluent A (the reactive dye bath Bezactive) and effluent B (the direct dye bath Tubantin)—using a laccase mediator system. Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize textile effluents decolorization. A Box–Behnken design using RSM with the four variables pH, effluent concentration, 1-hydroxybenzotriazole (HBT) concentration, and enzyme (laccase) concentration was used to determine correlations between the effects of these variables on the decolorization of the two effluents. The optimum conditions for pH and concentrations of HBT, effluent and laccase were 5, 1 mM, 50 % and 0.6 U/ml, respectively, for maximum decolorization of effluent A (68 %). For effluent B, optima were 4, 1 mM, 75 %, and 0.6 U/ml, respectively, for maximum decolorization of approximately 88 %. Both effluents were treated at 30 °C for 20 h. A quadratic model was obtained for each decolorization through this design. The experimental and predicted values were in good agreement and both models were highly significant. In addition, the toxicity of the two effluents was determined before and after laccase treatment using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Bacillus cereus, and germination of tomato seeds.     

Glutamine synthetase and protease enzyme activities and growth response of ruminal bacterium Prevotella ruminicola strain B14 to nitrogen source and concentration

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of varying nitrogen sources and concentrations upon glutamine synthetase and protease activities in Prevotella ruminicola strain B₁4. Based on growth response it appears that ammonium chloride or pepticase limited P. ruminicola becomes nitrogen limited when nitrogen concentration is at 0.5 mM. However, when casein was provided as the sole source of nitrogen P. ruminicola becomes nitrogen limited at 2.5 mM. Glutamine synthetase activity was measured from mid‐log phase cells grown in either nitrogen‐limited or non‐limited conditions. No activity was detectable in the non‐limited treatments. However, in the N‐ limited treatments, pepticase had the highest activity (20.76 units), followed by ammonium chloride (18.72 units) and casein (14.42 units). Protease activity assays indicated that nitrogen‐limited cultures had higher proteolytic activity than non‐limited cultures. Moreover, these activities appeared to follow the same response pattern as the previously observed glutamine synthetase activities. The results of this study indicate that P. ruminicola strain B, 4 protease activity may be influenced by nitrogen concentration such that activity increases when nitrogen availability decreases.     

Recovery of a marker strain of Salmonella typhimurium in litter and aerosols from isolation rooms containing infected chickens

Abstract

Screening of poultry flocks for foodborne pathogen Salmonella contamination is critical for Salmonella control in preharvest stages of poultry production. In this study, two sampling methods (litter and air filter) were compared for detection of S. typhimurium from experimentally infected chicks some of which had received either a probiotic competitive exclusion culture or transfer of cecal contents from salmonellae‐free adult birds. At 4, 9, and 11 days after inoculation, S. typhimurium samples were enumerated by selective plating. For both types of sampling, the control birds yielded the greatest levels of environmental contamination followed by the samples from the probiotic inoculated birds with the birds receiving the cecal transfer culture having the lowest levels of contamination. Although the two sampling methods responded in a similar fashion, detection sensitivity needs to be increased for air filter sampling.     

Glutamine synthetase and protease enzyme activities and growth response of ruminal bacterium Prevotella ruminicola strain B(1)4 to nitrogen source and concentration

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of varying nitrogen sources and concentrations upon glutamine synthetase and protease activities in Prevotella ruminicola strain B(1)4. Based on growth response it appears that ammonium chloride or pepticase limited P. ruminicola becomes nitrogen limited when nitrogen concentration is at 0.5 mM. However, when casein was provided as the sole source of nitrogen P. ruminicola becomes nitrogen limited at 2.5 mM. Glutamine synthetase activity was measured from mid-log phase cells grown in either nitrogen-limited or non-limited conditions. No activity was detectable in the non-limited treatments. However, in the N-limited treatments, pepticase had the highest activity (20.76 units), followed by ammonium chloride (18.72 units) and casein (14.42 units). Protease activity assays indicated that nitrogen-limited cultures had higher proteolytic activity than non-limited cultures. Moreover, these activities appeared to follow the same response pattern as the previously observed glutamine synthetase activities. The results of this study indicate that P. ruminicola strain B(1)4 protease activity may be influenced by nitrogen concentration such that activity increases when nitrogen availability decreases.     

Spatial distribution of organochlorine contaminants in soil, sediment, and fish in Bikini and Enewetak Atolls of the Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean

Several nuclear tests were performed at Enewetak and Bikini Atolls in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958. The events at Bikini Atoll involved several ships that were tested for durability during nuclear explosions, and 24 vessels now rest on the bottom of the Bikini lagoon. Nine soil samples were collected from different areas on the two islands of the atoll, and eighteen sediment, nine fish, and one lobster were collected in the vicinity of the sunken ships. Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polychlorinated terphenyls (PCTs) in these samples were analyzed using gas chromatography/ion trap mass spectrometry (GC/ITMS). The average recoveries ranged from 78% to 104% for the different PCB congeners. The limits of detection (LOD) for PCBs, PCTs, DDE, DDT, and dieldrin ranged 10-50 pg g⁻¹. Some fish from Enewetak contained PCBs at a concentration range of 37-137 ng g⁻¹, dry weight (dw), and most of the soils from Enewetak showed evidence of PCBs (22-392 ng g⁻¹ dw). Most of the Bikini lagoon sediment samples contained PCBs, and the highest was the one collected from around the Saratoga, an aircraft carrier (1555 ng g⁻¹ dw). Some of the fish samples, most of the soil samples, and only one of the sediment samples contained 2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)-1,1-dichloroethylene (DDE) and PCBs. In addition to PCBs, the soils from Enewetak Atoll contained PCTs. PCTs were not detected in the sediment samples from Bikini Atoll. The results suggest local pollution sources of PCBs, PCTs, and OCPs.     

Variation in sex steroids and phallus size in juvenile American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) collected from 3 sites within the Kissimmee-Everglades drainage in Florida (USA)

This 3-year study was designed to examine variation in plasma sex steroids, phallus size, and the standard error (S.E.) associated with these endpoints in juvenile alligators collected from 3 sites within the Kissimmee-Everglades drainage (Florida, USA) with varying concentrations of sediment organochlorine contaminants. We hypothesized that decreased plasma sex steroid concentrations and phallus size would be observed in the higher contaminant site when compared to the intermediate and lower contaminant sites. Furthermore, we hypothesized that greater S.E. associated with these endpoints would be observed for the populations from more contaminated sites. We found that differences existed with females from the higher contaminant site exhibiting lower plasma estradiol-17beta (E2) and testosterone (T) concentrations. Males from the higher contaminant site exhibited smaller phallus sizes than males from the intermediate and lower contaminant sites. Smaller phallus size in this case differed from that reported in Lake Apopka male alligators [Gen. Comp. Endocrinol. 116 (1999) 356] in that a significant positive relationship between body size and phallus size existed. No difference among sites was observed in plasma T for males. Lower S.E. was associated with E2 and T concentrations in females from the higher contaminant site and in phallus size in males from the higher contaminant site. This pattern was opposite to what we had hypothesized. We concluded that variation in plasma E2 and T concentrations, phallus size, and the S.E. associated with these endpoints exists among the 3 sites with the patterns matching the patterns of organochlorine contamination, although S.E. patterns were opposite to what was predicted.