Addressing the workplace needs of Western Australian midwives: a Delphi study.

Objective: To determine the workplace needs of Western Australian midwives working in public metropolitan secondary hospitals.

Method: Using a three-round Delphi approach, Round 1 incorporated focus groups and a questionnaire. Fifteen focus groups were conducted with midwives also having the option of contributing through an open-ended questionnaire.

Removal of microorganisms and their chemical metabolites from water using semiconductor photocatalysis.

Semiconductor photocatalysis has been applied to the remediation of an extensive range of chemical pollutants in water over the past 30 years. The application of this versatile technology for removal of micro-organisms and cyanotoxins has recently become an area that has also been the subject of extensive research particularly over the past decade. This paper considers recent research in the application of semiconductor photocatalysis for the treatment of water contaminated with pathogenic micro-organisms and cyanotoxins.

Variables to be considered when assessing the photocatalytic destruction of bacterial pathogens.

The current study sought to assess the importance of three common variables on the outcome of TiO(2) photocatalysis experiments with bacteria. Factors considered were (a) ability of test species to withstand osmotic pressure, (b) incubation period of agar plates used for colony counts following photocatalysis and (c) chemical nature of suspension medium used for bacteria and TiO(2). Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella ser.