Assessment of alkylimidazolium chloride ionic liquid formulations for cleaning and disinfection of environmental surfaces.

Background: Surface disinfection is fundamental to good environmental hygiene and preventing infections. Development of newer formulations that can effectively kill and remove microorganisms from the surfaces is desired.

Methods: Here, we assessed the efficacy of 1-hexadecyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride [CMIM][Cl] ionic liquid (IL) and its formulation in ethanol for killing and removing bacteria from different environmental surfaces.

Dealers in Black Gold: Knowledge Attitude, and Practices Among Fecal Sludge Operators in Bengaluru, Southern Karnataka.

Background And Objectives: Fecal sludge management (FSM) is an unorganised sector, which is wrought with occupational health hazards for fecal sludge operators (FSOs). This study was conducted to identify the knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding FSM among FSOs.

Study Setting And Design: This cross-sectional study was conducted in a rural area of Anekal Taluk, Bengaluru Urban District, Karnataka and in Hosur, Krishnagiri District, Tamil Nadu.

Impulsively Excited Gravitational Quantum States: Echoes and Time-Resolved Spectroscopy.

We theoretically study an impulsively excited quantum bouncer (QB)-a particle bouncing off a surface in the presence of gravity. A pair of time-delayed pulsed excitations is shown to induce a wave-packet echo effect-a partial rephasing of the QB wave function appearing at twice the delay between pulses. In addition, an appropriately chosen observable [here, the population of the ground gravitational quantum state (GQS)] recorded as a function of the delay is shown to contain the transition frequencies between the GQSs, their populations, and partial phase information about the wave-packet quantum amplitudes.

Acid soluble extracellular matrix confers structural stability to marine Bacillus haynesii pellicle biofilms.

In natural and engineered settings, bacteria predominantly thrive in biofilms, which are complex microbial communities embedded in a self-produced extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) matrix. Pellicles are complex macroscopic biofilms floating at air-water interface. Though pellicle formation has been studied in detail in Bacillus subtilis, a soil bacterium, it is not reported in aquatic bacteria, which may use pellicle-growth as survival-strategy.

Microwave-controlled efficient Raman sub-harmonic generation.

We propose a novel scheme for efficient Raman sub-harmonic generation in a system of inhomogeneously broadened atomic vapor with atoms in a closed three-level Λ-configuration. The key feature underlying Raman sub-harmonics generation is microwave-induced hyperfine coherence between the two lower level metastable states. We show explicitly how the amplitude and phase of the microwave field generate controllable spectral amplitudes of Raman sub-harmonics.

Sudomotor function assessment as a screening tool for microvascular complications in type 2 diabetes.

Sudoscan, a non invasive, quick, and simple method to measure sweat function, was evaluated as a screening tool for microvascular complications in type 2 diabetes. AUC of the ROC curve for detection of microvascular complication was 0.75 for an autonomic risk score, with a sensitivity of 82% and a specificity of 61%.