A contribution to study about millet (Pennisetum americanum L. Schum.) oil.

peer reviewe

Rapid quantification of viable Legionella in nuclear cooling tower waters using filter cultivation, fluorescent in situ hybridization, and solid phase cytometry

International audienceTo develop a rapid and sensitive method to quantify viable Legionella spp. in cooling tower water samples. A rapid, culture-based method capable of quantifying as few as 600 Legionella microcolonies per litre within 2 days in industrial waters was developed. The method combines a short cultivation step of microcolonies on GVPC agar plate, specific detection of Legionella cells by a fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) approach, and a sensitive enumeration using a solid-phase cytometer. Following optimization of the cultivation conditions, the qualitative and quantitative performance of the method was assessed and the method was applied to 262 nuclear power plant cooling water samples. The performance of this method was in accordance with the culture method (NF-T 90-431) for Legionella enumeration. The rapid detection of viable Legionella in water is a major concern to the effective monitoring of this pathogenic bacterium in the main water sources involved in the transmission of legionellosis infection (Legionnaires' disease). The new method proposed here appears to be a robust, efficient and innovative means for rapidly quantifying cultivable Legionella in cooling tower water samples within 48 h

Determination of Soret coefficient and heat of transport in a binary liquid mixture using X-ray microscopy

With a laboratory built X-ray microscope, analysis of a thermal diffusion process in a KBr solution has been performed. A solution of a salt submitted to a constant temperature gradient gives rise to a stationary concentration gradient of the species after a few hours: this is the so called Soret effect. From the digital image of the liquid, acquired in the steady state of the process, it is easy to obtain the concentration map of the species in the solution. The average concentration profile then deduced permits to reach the value of the Soret coefficient and the heat of transport of the binary compound. X-ray radiography is an alternative powerful technique to analyse this kind of complicated phenomenon where composition matter fluxes are driven by both temperature and composition gradient

Seasonal dynamics of freshwater pathogens as measured by microarray at Lake Sapanca, a drinking water source in the north-eastern part of Turkey

Monitoring drinking water quality is an important public health issue. Two objectives from the 4 years, six nations, EU Project μAqua were to develop hierarchically specific probes to detect and quantify pathogens in drinking water using a PCR-free microarray platform and to design a standardised water sampling programfrom different sources in Europe to obtain sufficient material for downstream analysis. Our phylochip contains barcodes (probes) that specifically identify freshwater pathogens that are human health risks in a taxonomic hierarchical fashion such that if species is present, the entire taxonomic hierarchy (genus, family, order, phylum, kingdom) leading to it must also be present, which avoids false positives. Molecular tools are more rapid, accurate and reliable than traditional methods, which means fastermitigation strategies with less harm to humans and the community.We present microarray results for the presence of freshwater pathogens from a Turkish lake used drinking water and inferred cyanobacterial cell equivalents from samples concentrated from 40 into 1 L in 45 min using hollow fibre filters. In two companion studies from the same samples, cyanobacterial toxins were analysed using chemical methods and those dates with highest toxin values also had highest cell equivalents as inferred from this microarray study