INDOOR AEROMYCOFLORA OF THE CENTRAL LIBRARY OF VISVA-BHARATI, SANTINIKETAN WITH REFERENCE TO BOOK DETERIORATION

Indoor aeromycoflora of the Central Library, Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan was studied by using both Burkard personal volumetric air sampler and Andersen two stage sampler from August, 2016 to March, 2017. A total of 16 fungal spore types were identified from Burkard sampling and fungal colonies of 25 species were recorded from exposed petridishes containing PDA medium using Andersen sampler. Isolated fungi were identified on the basis of their character with the help of authentic literatures. In Burkard sampling, maximum fungi were recorded in October (16000 spores/m3 ) and minimum in January (4200 spores/m3 ). In Andersen petriplate method maximum fungal colonies were found in October (1836 CFU/m3 ) and minimum in August (423 CFU/m3 ). Biodeterioration is an undesirable change in the properties of a material caused by the vital activities of the deteriorating organisms. The present study was undertaken to find out the aeromycoflora of the library environment which are responsible to decay books and manuscript. A total of 10 book deteriorating fungi were isolated, of which Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus glaucus, Penicillium brefeldianum and Penicillium oxalicum showed their positive activity of cellulose degradation which is the major component of paper material. Aspergillus ochraceus showed no cellulose degrading activity, while Penicillium oxalicum exhibited maximum degradation of cellulose among other fungi. Key Words: Aeromycoflora, Book deterioration, cellulose degrading activity, Central library, Santiniketan, West Bengal

Soil N-transformation Rates in Two Differently Managed Dry Deciduous Forests of West Bengal, India

N-mineralization is crucial to supply available N for plant growth and productivity in forest ecosystem. A study was conducted to estimate the soil N-transformation rates (N-mineralization and nitrification) in two differently managed dry deciduous forest ecosystems. The study areas included Ballavpur Wildlife Sanctuary (created and protected 23deg39#3925quotN to 87deg41#3939quotE) in Birbhum district and Garhjungle (natural and sacred 23deg40#3954.4quotN to 87deg40#3920.2quotE) in Burdwan district of West Bengal, India. Soil samples were collected for an annual cycle divided in three seasons (winter, summer and rainy) during January 2014 to September 2014. Both N-mineralization and nitrification rates were higher in Ballavpur than Garhjungle. The annual mean for N-mineralization rate was 14.9 and 20.5 microg g-1 month-1 and nitrification rate was 11.8 and 16.7 microg g-1 month-1 in Garhjungle and Ballavpur, respectively. N-mineralization and nitrification rates as well as soil moisture content were highest in rainy season and lowest in summer season. These rates were significantly positively correlated with soil moisture and negatively with soil mineral-N content. The result suggested that the variation in the rates soil N-transformations were related to the differences in soil moisture content, nutrient status, organic matter content and vegetation types

International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortiu (INICC) report, data summary of 43 countries for 2007-2012. Device-associated module

We report the results of an International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) surveillance study from January 2007-December 2012 in 503 intensive care units (ICUs) in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. During the 6-year study using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) U.S. National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) definitions for device-associated health care–associated infection (DA-HAI), we collected prospective data from 605,310 patients hospitalized in the INICC's ICUs for an aggregate of 3,338,396 days. Although device utilization in the INICC's ICUs was similar to that reported from ICUs in the U.S. in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals: the pooled rate of central line–associated bloodstream infection in the INICC's ICUs, 4.9 per 1,000 central line days, is nearly 5-fold higher than the 0.9 per 1,000 central line days reported from comparable U.S. ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia was also higher (16.8 vs 1.1 per 1,000 ventilator days) as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (5.5 vs 1.3 per 1,000 catheter days). Frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas isolates to amikacin (42.8% vs 10%) and imipenem (42.4% vs 26.1%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (71.2% vs 28.8%) and imipenem (19.6% vs 12.8%) were also higher in the INICC's ICUs compared with the ICUs of the CDC's NHSN