Equivalent reduction of Escherichia coli by rinsing hands with cold and warm water.

Objective: Hand washing is considered an important public health intervention to reduce the burden of communicable diseases such as gastrointestinal and respiratory tract infections. Washbasins in public restrooms are often only equipped with cold water and it can be observed that people only rinse their hands briefly after using the toilet instead of washing them properly with soap. As there are no recommendations on the optimal water temperature for efficacy, we measured the efficacy of simple hand rinsing with cold (4°C) and warm (40°C) water for 10 and 20 seconds compared to the European Norm EN 1499 reference hand wash.

Optimising Transformation Efficiency in Unravelling the Role of the Restriction-Modification System of and .

spp. are transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected tick. In Europe, and are the main causative agents of Lyme borreliosis, one of the most prevalent tick-borne diseases in the northern hemisphere.

Acoustic COVID-19 Detection Using Multiple Instance Learning.

In the COVID-19 pandemic, a rigorous testing scheme was crucial. However, tests can be time-consuming and expensive. A machine learning-based diagnostic tool for audio recordings could enable widespread testing at low costs.

Paradoxical peeling patterns.

Processes ranging from fracture of crystals to peeling of tape have been known for many decades to emit light through a mechanism believed to be associated with electrical charging of separating surfaces. This topic, broadly termed fractoluminescence, has been proposed to be involved in several remarkable phenomena, including medical diagnostics and the generation of X-rays in the lab and earthquake lightning in nature. Here we add the paradoxical finding that two separating surfaces produce entirely different charge patterns, despite originating from the same interface.