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Objective: Pathogens can be transmitted to banknotes due to the personal unhygienic habits. The aim of study was to find the possible pathogens on the banknotes circulating in the market and also to present their antibacterial resistance and their various virulence factors using genotypic and phenotypic methods., Methods: A total of 150 samples of bank-notes were randomly collected between August 2017 and March 2018. VITEK systems were used for identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing respectively. Antimicrobial resistance genes (mecA, van, extended-spectrum β-lactamase [ESBL] and carbapenemases) and staphyloccoccal virulence genes (staphyloccoccal enterotoxins [SEs], pvl, and tsst-1) were determined using with real-time PCR., Results: Staphylococcus aureus, coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), Enterococcus spp., Gram-negative enteric bacteria, non-fermentative Gram-negative bacteria and Candida spp. were detected 48%, 54.7%, 56%, 21.3%, 18.7%, and 4%, respectively. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus, vancomycin-resistant enterococci and ESBL producing Gram-negative were found 46.8%, 1.3%, and 28.7%, respectively. Pvl, tsst-1, and SEs genes were found in a 2.8/4.9%, 1.4/1.2%, and 100/ 87.8% of the S. aureus/CoNS strains, respectively. The sea gene was found the most common enterotoxigenic gene. blaTEM, blaSHV, blaCTX-M-2, blaCTX-M-1, blaKPC, and blaOXA-48 were found 55.8%, 46.5%, 41.2%, 18.6%, 18.6%, and 18.6%, respectively in Gram-negative strains., Conclusions: These results is very important to highlight hygienic status of paper currencies. This can be considered as an indication that banknotes may contribute to the spread of pathogens and antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, we may need to start using alternative products instead of banknotes., (©The Author 2020. Published by Sociedad Española de Quimioterapia. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).)

Background: The objective of this study to detect Plasmodium and a subspecies of Plasmodium using filter paper in malaria endemic province, Sanliurfa, in Turkey, compare the results of nested PCR (nPCR) with microscopy for the diagnosis of malaria and present the epidemiological data of malaria., Methods: This study was carried out in malaria-endemic Sanliurfa between 2008 and 2011. Finger prick blood samples, thick and thin Giemsa-stained blood smears, were collected from 153 malaria-suspected farmworkers. The Giemsa-stained blood smears were examined microscopically. The obtained DNA products, extracted from blood-spotted filter papers or from the thick blood smears, were analysed by nPCR to amplify the 18S ssrRNA Plasmodium gene with genus and specific primers. The results of the microscopy were compared to the nPCR results., Results: Of the specimens, 7.2 % were determined as Plasmodium-positive by microscopy, whereas 9.8 % were determined as Plasmodium-positive by nPCR. Of the positive Plasmodium specimens, 93.33 % were identified as P. vivax. Four out of the 15 specimens that were microscopically diagnosed as negative were Plasmodium-positive with nPCR. When compared to the microscopy, the sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive values of the nPCR were determined as 100, 97.2 and 73.3 %, respectively. nPCR was determined to be more sensitive and specific than microscopy., Conclusions: This study revealed that the accurate diagnosis of malaria by nPCR was compulsory in malaria-endemic Sanliurfa and nPCR should be applied routinely in laboratory studies.

A Penicillium camemberti strain isolated in our laboratory has been studied for its ability to degrade chlorinated pulping wastes, presumably containing a variety of chlorinated polyphenols. In batch tests, the highest removals (76% AOX, 61% color and 65% TOC) were obtained with 0.2 g/l feed acetate concentration. The tendency of the fungus to dechlorinate bleachery effluents better under non-shaking conditions and to attach onto surfaces suggested the use of immobilized cells rather than freely suspended ones in further exploitation of the process. An upflow glass wool packed column reactor established with this fungus could be operated for nearly two years in the laboratory. At best around 70% AOX could be removed from chlorinated pulping wastes in 7.3 h of contact with no aeration and with a minimal amount of carbon supplement (0.2 g/l). Finally, an asymptotic mathematical formula for determining Michaelis-Menten kinetic rates has been derived. The kinetic rates K(m) (the Michaelis constant or saturation constant for the substrate) and V(m) (the product of maximum rate for the enzymatic reaction and biomass concentration) were then calculated as 126.386 mg/l and 2.83017 mg/lh, respectively.

The aim of this study was to investigate the acute toxicity of pulp-paper industry wastewater using traditional and enrichment toxicity tests and to emphasize the importance of toxicity tests in wastewater discharge regulations. Enrichment toxicity tests are novel applications and give an idea of whether there is potential toxicity or growth-limiting and -stimulating conditions. Different organisms were used such as bacteria (floc and coliform bacteria), algae (Chlorella sp.), protozoa (Vorticella sp.), and fish (Lepistes sp.) to represent four trophic levels. Furthermore, chemical oxygen demand (COD) fractionation results were compared with these tests to assess the effect of COD subcategories on the determination of possible toxicity. The pulp-paper industry results revealed acute toxicity to at least two organisms in 6 of 20 effluent samples. The toxicity test results were assessed with chemical analyses such as COD, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), color, absorbable organic halogen (AOXs), and phenol. It was observed that the toxicity of the effluents could not be explained by using physicochemical analyses in four cases for the pulp-paper industry. The results clearly indicate that bioassay tests provide additional information on the toxicity potential of industrial discharges and effluents., (Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science (USA))