Microbially facilitated nitrogen cycling in tropical corals.

Tropical scleractinian corals support a diverse assemblage of microbial symbionts. This 'microbiome' possesses the requisite functional diversity to conduct a range of nitrogen (N) transformations including denitrification, nitrification, nitrogen fixation and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA). Very little direct evidence has been presented to date verifying that these processes are active within tropical corals.

Coral skeletons reveal the history of nitrogen cycling in the coastal Great Barrier Reef.

Anthropogenic nutrient discharge to coastal marine environments is commonly associated with excessive algal growth and ecosystem degradation. However in the world's largest coral reef ecosystem, the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), the response to enhanced terrestrial nutrient inputs since European settlement in the 1850's remains unclear. Here we use a 333 year old composite record (1680-2012) of N/N in coral skeleton-bound organic matter to understand how nitrogen cycling in the coastal GBR has responded to increased anthropogenic nutrient inputs.

Detection and isolation of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O104 from sprouts.

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains belonging to serogroup O104 have been associated with sporadic cases of illness and have caused outbreaks associated with milk and sprouts. An outbreak that occurred in Europe in 2011 linked to fenugreek sprouts was caused by E. coli O104:H4 that had characteristics of an enteroaggregative E.

Concurrent outbreak of multidrug-resistant and susceptible subclones of Acinetobacter baumannii affecting different wards of a single hospital.

Background And Objective: Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged as an opportunistic pathogen among acutely ill patients, especially those with thermal injury. A prospective 8-month study was conducted to describe the clinical and molecular epidemiology of multidrug-resistant A. baumannii affecting a single hospital.

Colonization with extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli among nursing home residents and its relationship to fluoroquinolone resistance.

In a cross-sectional fecal prevalence survey involving 49 residents of a Veterans Affairs nursing home, 59% of subjects were colonized with extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC), 22% were colonized with adhesin-positive E. coli, and 51% were colonized with fluoroquinolone-resistant E. coli.