4 Material und Umwelt
Filtern
Dokumenttyp
- Posterpräsentation (147) (entfernen)
Referierte Publikation
- nein (147)
Schlagworte
- Biocides (19)
- Corrosion (10)
- Antimicrobial resistance (9)
- Biofilm (8)
- Methanogens (7)
- Persistence (7)
- Biocide (6)
- Horizontal gene transfer HGT (6)
- Microbiology (6)
- Resistance (6)
Organisationseinheit der BAM
- 4 Material und Umwelt (147) (entfernen)
Emission testing of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from materials and products is commonly based on emission test chamber measurements. To ensure the comparability of results from different testing laboratories their measurement performance must be verified. For this purpose, Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) organizes an international proficiency test every two years using well-characterised test materials (one sealant, one furniture board and four times a lacquer) with defined VOC emissions. The materials fulfilled the requirements of homogeneity, reproducibility, and stability. Altogether, 41 VOCs were included of which 37 gave test chamber air concentrations between 10 and 98 µg/m³. This is the typical concentration range to be expected and to be quantified when performing chamber tests. Four compounds had higher concentrations between 250 and 1105 µg/m³. The relative standard deviations (RSD) of BAM proficiency tests since 2008 are compared and the improvement of the comparability of the emission chamber testing is shown by the decrease of the mean RSD down to 23% in 2021. In contrast, the first large European interlaboratory comparison in 1999 showed a mean RSD of 51%.
Bacterial adhesion on surfaces of medical, water and food applications may lead to infections, water or food spoilage and human illness. In comparison to traditional static and macro flow chamber assays for biofilm formation studies, microfluidic chips allow in situ monitoring of biofilm formation under various flow regimes, have better environment control and smaller sample requirements.
In this work, a novel microfluidic platform is developed to investigate biofilm adhesion under precisely controlled bacteria concentration, temperature, and flow conditions. This platform central unit is a single-inlet microfluidic flow cell with a 5 mm wide chamber designed and tested to achieve ultra-homogenous flow in the central area of chamber. Within this area, defined microstructures are integrated that will disturb the homogeneity of the flow, thus changing bacterial adhesion pattern.
Here we present the monitoring of bacterial biofilm formation in a microfluidic chip equipped with a microstructure known as micro-trap. This feature is based on a 3D bacteria trap designed by Di Giacomo et al. and successfully used to sequester motile bacteria.
At first, fluorescent particles similar in size to Escherichia coli (E. coli) are used to simulate bacteria flow inside the flow cell and at the micro-trap. The turbulences induced by the trap are analyzed by imaging and particle tracking velocimetry (PTV). Secondly, the model strain E. coli TG1, ideal and well described for biofilm studies, is used to analyze biofilm formation in the micro-trap. Therefore, a stable fluorescent strain E. coli TG1-MRE-Tn7-141 is constructed by using Tn7 transposon mutagenesis according to the method described by Schlechter et al. Sequestering of E. coli cells within the micro-trap was followed using epifluorescence microscopy.
The novel microfluidic platform shows great potential for assessment of bacterial adhesion under various flow regimes. The performance of structural feature with respect to the generation of turbulences that promote or reduce bacterial adhesion can be systematically examined.
The combination of flow analysis and fluorescent strain injection into the microfluidic chip shows that the micro-trap is useful for capturing bacteria at defined positions and to study how flow conditions, especially micro-turbulences, can affect biofilm formation. It represents a powerful and versatile tool for studying the relation between topography and bacteria adhesion.
This study details a thorough analysis of leaky and waveguide modes in biperiodic diffractive nanostructures. By tuning diffraction orders and subsequently confining local density of optical states at two distinct resonance wavelengths, we present a highly sensitive refractive index biosensing platform that can resolve 35.5 to 41.3 nm/RIU of spectral shift for two separate biological analytes.
Algal biofilm façades are an alternative to traditional green façades which can help to improve biodiversity and air quality within cities. They present a low maintenance approach in which subaerial algae are grown directly on concrete substrates. The intrinsic bioreceptivity of the substrate is a critical factor in successful facade colonisation. Existing research has identified several environmental and material properties which influence concrete bioreceptivity, however a consensus has yet to be made on which properties are most influential and how the interaction between properties may promote algal biofilm growth under specific conditions.
Aschen und Schlacken aus der thermischen Abfallbehandlung enthalten eine Vielzahl von Schwermetallverbindungen. Für Antimon, Chrom, Kupfer, Molybdän und Vanadium werden in der neuen Ersatzbaustoffverordnung Eluatgrenzwerte für die Verwertung festgelegt. Aschen und Schlacken werden aus der Abfallverbrennungsanlage nass ausgetragen und vor einer Verwertung in der Regel mehrere Wochen gelagert. Dabei finden hydraulische Reaktionen statt und enthaltenes CaO wird zu einem Großteil in Calciumcarbonat umgewandelt. Während wässrige Eluate von frischen Aschen pH-Werte von 12 und höher aufweisen, sind die Eluate nach einigen Wochen weniger stark alkalisch. Die gemessenen Schwermetallkonzentrationen sind daher dann auch deutlich niedriger, mit Ausnahme von Antimon (Sb) und Vanadium (V). Hier steigen die Konzentration mit der Lagerungsdauer. Grund sind sinkende Konzentrationen von Ca-Ionen, die sonst zu einer Ausfällung von Antimonaten und Vanadaten führen. Zu hohe Eluatwerte von Sb und V können durch Sorption an Eisenoxidverbindungen gemindert werden. Als besonders wirkungsvoll hat sich Schwertmannit (Eisen-Oxyhydroxysulfat) erwiesen. Es entsteht durch Oxidation von pyrithaltigem Material durch Mikroorganismen und wird deshalb in Gebieten gefunden, in denen Braunkohle abgebaut wurde, z.B. in der Lausitz. Weitere untersuchte Eisenoxidverbindungen waren Hämatit und Schlämme aus der Abtrennung von Eisen und Mangan in Wasserwerken.
The amount of plant-available phosphorus (P) in soil strongly influences the yield of plants in agriculture. Therefore, various simple chemical extraction methods have been developed to estimate the plant-available P pools in soil. More recently, several experiments with the DGT technique have shown that it has a much better correlation to plant-available P in soils than standard chemical extraction methods (e.g. calcium-acetate-lactate (CAL), Colwell, Olsen, water) when soils with different characteristics are considered. However, the DGT technique cannot give information on the plant-available P species in the soil. Therefore, we combined DGT with solution 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. This was achieved by using a modified DGT device in which the diffusive layer had a larger pore size, the binding layer incorporated an adsorption material with a higher capacity, and the device had a larger exposure area. The spectroscopic investigation was undertaken after elution of the deployed DGT binding layer in a NaOH solution. Adsorption tests using solutions of known organic P compounds showed that a sufficient amount of these compounds could be adsorbed on the binding layer in order for them to be analyzed by solution 31P NMR spectroscopy. Furthermore, various intermediates of the hydrolysis of trimetaphosphate in soil could be also analyzed over time.
Biocides are used for a wide range of purposes, including disinfectants or preservatives. They play a major role in the prevention of microbial infections in healthcare and animal husbandry. The use of biocides often leads to the discharge of active biocidal substances into wastewater streams, causing the exposure of wastewater microbial communities to subinhibitory concentrations. In turn, it is known that wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are hotspots for antibiotic resistant bacteria. Since similar mechanisms confer resistance to biocides and antibiotics, exposure to biocides can result in co-selection of antibiotic resistant bacteria in WWTP Here, we want to investigate co-selection processes of antibiotic resistance in natural WWTP microbial communities upon biocide exposure. Microbial communities were sampled at the WWTP Ruhleben in Berlin and characterized regarding their susceptibility against different clinically relevant antibiotics. To investigate the link between biocide exposure and antibiotic resistance, changes in the susceptibility level after exposure to environmentally relevant concentrations of the commonly used biocide didecyldimethylammonium chloride (DDAC) will be determined by enumerating resistant and non-resistant E. coli on selective plates with and without antibiotics and DDAC. In case of antibiotics, clinical breakpoint concentrations according to EUCAST will be used to discriminate between susceptible and resistant strains. In case of DDAC (and biocides in general), clinical breakpoints do not exist. Therefore, we determined a cut-off concentration at which the majority of naturally-occurring E. coli strains cannot grow anymore based on (I) the MIC (minimal inhibitory concentration) distribution, and (II) by plating wastewater communities onto selective indicator agar plates loaded with increasing DDAC concentration. Additionally, antibiotic cross-resistance will be determined by spotting single colonies, isolated from DDAC-selective plates onto antibiotic plates. The results of our experiments will help to determine selective concentrations and to estimate the risk of antibiotic co-selection and cross-resistance in microbial WWTP communities upon biocide exposure.
Im Verbundprojekt R-Rhenania wird eine industrielle Demonstrationsanlage am Standort der Monoverbrennungsanlage Altenstadt der Firma Emter errichtet und im Jahr 2024 den Betrieb aufnehmen. Die vorhandene Rostfeuerung-Monoverbrennung wird so umgebaut, dass ein neues thermochemisches Verfahren integriert werden kann, welches hochwirksame und schadstoffarme Dünger produziert (bis zu 17.000 t/a). Die thermochemischen Produkte werden in Gefäß- und Feldversuchen im ökologischen Landbau auf ihre Düngewirkung getestet. Die Umweltverträglichkeit der Demonstrationsanlage wird untersucht, wie auch die Übertragbarkeit des Verfahrens auf weitere Regionen.
Background. Disinfection is an important mitigation strategy to control and prevent the spread of infections. Incomplete or incorrect usage of disinfection may promote evolution of resistance against disinfectants and antibiotics. Ideally, disinfection reduces the number of surviving bacteria and the chance for resistance evolution. Resistance describes the ability to grow in previously inhibitory concentrations of an antimicrobial, whereas tolerance is associated with enhanced survival of lethal doses. Individual bacteria from the same population can display considerable heterogeneity in their ability to survive treatment (i.e. tolerance) with antimicrobials, which can result in unexpected treatment failure.
Objective. In this study, we investigated six active substances of disinfectants, preservatives, and antiseptics against a population of E. coli to identify the presence of a tolerant subpopulation.
Methods. We performed time-kill experiments and analyzed the data with a mathematical model to statistically infer whether the data is best explained by the presence of a tolerant subpopulation.
Results. The analysis identified bimodal kill kinetics for benzalkonium chloride, didecyldimethylammonium chloride, and isopropanol. In contrast, kill kinetics by chlorhexidine, glutaraldehyde, and hydrogen peroxide were best explained by unimodal kill kinetics. These findings have implications for the risk of disinfection failure. In addition, we are currently performing adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) experiments with the different disinfectants to investigate the potential consequences of tolerant sub-populations for the evolution of antimicrobial resistance and tolerance.