Publications by authors named "Myra D Williams"

Antimicrobial coatings can inhibit the transmission of infectious diseases when they provide a quick kill that is achieved long after the coating application. Here, we describe the fabrication and testing of a glass coating containing AgO microparticles that was prepared from sodium silicate at room temperature. The half-lives of both methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and on this coating are only 2-4 min.

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A framework is needed to account for interactive effects of plumbing materials and disinfectants on opportunistic pathogens (OPs) in building water systems. Here we evaluated free chlorine, monochloramine, chlorine dioxide, and copper-silver ionization (CSI) for controlling and as two representative OPs that colonize hot water plumbing, in tests using polyvinylchloride (PVC), copper-PVC, and iron-PVC convectively-mixed pipe reactors (CMPRs). Pipe materials vulnerable to corrosion (i.

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In-building disinfectants are commonly applied to control the growth of pathogens in plumbing, particularly in facilities such as hospitals that house vulnerable populations. However, their application has not been well optimized, especially with respect to interactive effects with pipe materials and potential unintended effects, such as enrichment of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) across the microbial community. Here, we used triplicate convectively mixed pipe reactors consisting of three pipe materials (PVC, copper, and iron) for replicated simulation of the distal reaches of premise plumbing and evaluated the effects of incrementally increased doses of chlorine, chloramine, chlorine dioxide, and copper-silver disinfectants.

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Some very effective antimicrobial coatings exploit copper or cuprous oxide (CuO) as the active agent. The aim of this study is to determine which species is the active antimicrobial - dissolved ions, the CuO solid, or reactive oxygen species. Copper ions were leached from CuO into various solutions and the leachate tested for both dissolved copper and the efficacy in killing Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

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Antimicrobial coatings have a finite lifetime because of wear, depletion of the active ingredient, or surface contamination that produces a barrier between the pathogen and the active ingredient. The limited lifetime means that facile replacement is important. Here, we describe a generic method for rapidly applying and reapplying antimicrobial coatings to common-touch surfaces.

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Antimicrobial coatings can be used to reduce the transmission of infectious agents that are spread by contact. An effective coating should kill microbes in the time between users, which is sometimes minutes or less. Fast killing requires fast transport, and our proposed method of fast transport is a porous coating where the contaminated liquid imbibes (infiltrates) into the pores to achieve rapid contact with active material inside the pores.

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Desiccation-tolerance of cells of four strains of and individual strains of , , , and were measured by two methods. The survival of water-acclimated cells both in filter paper and on the surface of stainless-steel coupons were measured. In filter paper at 40% relative humidity at 25 °C, survival of patient isolates of and cells was 28% and 34% after 21 days of incubation, whereas it was 100% for the Sorin 3T isolate of .

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Transparent antimicrobial coatings can maintain the aesthetic appeal of surfaces and the functionality of a touch-screen while adding the benefit of reducing disease transmission. We fabricated an antimicrobial coating of silver oxide particles in a silicate matrix on glass. The matrix was grown by a modified Stöber sol-gel process with vapor-phase water and ammonia.

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Antimicrobial coatings are one method to reduce the spread of microbial diseases. Transparent coatings preserve the visual properties of surfaces and are strictly necessary for applications such as antimicrobial cell phone screens. This work describes transparent coatings that inactivate microbes within minutes.

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is capable of an adaptive, reversible response to high-temperature survival depending on its growth temperature. Trehalose concentrations of cells grown at 42 °C were significantly higher compared to those of cells grown at 25 °C. Further, the survival of cells of grown at 42 °C and exposed to 65 °C were significantly higher than the survival of cells grown at 25 °C.

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Cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) is widely used to decontaminate water samples for the cultivation of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). The rationale for using CPC is that it kills more non mycobacteria than NTM and thereby prevents the outgrowth and detection of mycobacterial colonies on solid media. The few CPC-susceptibility measurements that have been published, suggest that CPC-decontamination does kill significant numbers of NTM.

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Lung disease caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) is an emerging infectious disease of global significance. Epidemiologic studies have shown the Hawaiian Islands have the highest prevalence of NTM lung infections in the United States. However, potential environmental reservoirs and species diversity have not been characterized.

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Objective/background: A published survey of bacteria in showerhead biofilm samples revealed that Methylobacterium spp. and Mycobacterium spp. seldom coexisted in biofilms.

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Recent studies have shown that respiratory isolates from pulmonary disease patients and household water/biofilm isolates of Mycobacterium avium could be matched by DNA fingerprinting. To determine if this is true for Mycobacterium intracellulare, household water sources for 36 patients with Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) lung disease were evaluated. MAC household water isolates from three published studies that included 37 additional MAC respiratory disease patients were also evaluated.

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Strain comparison is important to population genetics and to evaluate relapses in patients with Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) lung disease, but the "gold standard" of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) is time-consuming and complex. We used variable-number tandem repeats (VNTR) for fingerprinting of respiratory isolates of M. intracellulare from patients with underlying bronchiectasis, to establish a nonsequence-based database for population analysis.

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