The Memory Mines

She is eighteen when she leaves home. She leaves shortly after her father’s inexplicable disappearance – an event she neither understands nor accepts. She does what everyone on the cusp of adulthood does: she moves abroad to forget her past. Now, ten years later, her ageing mother is taken away. The family home is empty. The young woman returns. It is here, in her childhood home, she makes the deliberate decision to remember. Even after so many years, the house is the same. Here, her childhood memories still live, in the spaces between walls, in the cracks in the floor, in the weft of the brocade curtains. Stories are awakened with the turn of a brass handle, the swing of a glass door, the scent of sour yogurt. The memories surface of their own will, appearing suddenly, sometimes violently. She moves through the house, reliving each memory with startling lucidity. The line between her parents’ memories and her own begin to blur. She remembers things she never knew

Multi-technique investigation of silicon nitride/aluminum membranes as optical blocking filters for high-energy space missions

X-ray detectors for space astrophysics missions are susceptible to noise caused by photons with energies outside the operating energy range; for this reason, efficient external optical blocking filters are required to shield the detector from the out-ofband radiation. These filters play a crucial role in meeting the scientific requirements of the X-ray detectors, and their proper operation over the life of the mission is essential for the success of the experimental activity. We studied thin sandwich membranes made of silicon nitride and aluminum as optical blocking filters for high-energy detectors in space missions. Here, we report the results of a multitechnique characterization of SiN membranes with thicknesses in the range from 40 nm to 145 nm coated with few tens of nanometers of aluminum on both sides. In particular, we have measured the X-ray transmission at synchrotron radiation beamlines, the rejection of ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared radiation, the amount of native oxide on the aluminum surfaces by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the morphology of the sample surfaces by atomic force microscopy, and the aging effects under proton irradiation

Improved eradication of Clostridium difficile spores from toilets of hospitalized patients using an accelerated hydrogen peroxide as the cleaning agent

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>C. difficle </it>spores in the environment of patients with <it>C. difficile </it>associated disease (CDAD) are difficult to eliminate. Bleach (5000 ppm) has been advocated as an effective disinfectant for the environmental surfaces of patients with CDAD. Few alternatives to bleach for non-outbreak conditions have been evaluated in controlled healthcare studies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study was a prospective clinical comparison during non-outbreak conditions of the efficacy of an accelerated hydrogen peroxide cleaner (0.5% AHP) to the currently used stabilized hydrogen peroxide cleaner (0.05% SHP at manufacturer recommended use-dilution) with respect to spore removal from toilets in a tertiary care facility. The toilets used by patients who had diarrhea with and without <it>C. difficile </it>associated disease (CDAD) were cultured for <it>C. difficile </it>and were monitored using an ultraviolet mark (UVM) to assess cleaning compliance on a daily basis 5 days per week. A total of 243 patients and 714 samples were analysed. The culture results were included in the analysis only if the UVM audit from the same day confirmed that the toilet had been cleaned.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our data demonstrated that the efficacy of spore killing is formulation specific and cannot be generalized. The Oxivir_TB^®AHP formulation resulted in statistically significantly (p = 0.0023) lower levels of toxigenic <it>C. difficile </it>spores in toilets of patients with CDAD compared to the SHP formulation that was routinely being used (28% vs 45% culture positive). The background level of toxigenic <it>C. difficile </it>spores was 10% in toilets of patients with diarrhea not due to CDAD. The UVM audit indicated that despite the enhanced twice-daily cleaning protocol for CDAD patients cleaning was not achieved on approximately 30 - 40% of the days tested.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our data indicate that the AHP formulation evaluated that has some sporicidal activity was significantly better than the currently used SHP formulation. This AHP formulation provides a one-step process that significantly lowers the <it>C. difficile </it>spore level in toilets during non-outbreak conditions without the workplace safety concerns associated with 5000 ppm bleach.</p