Biofilms act as a reservoir of infection, and periodically release cells in vicinity that are capable of developing new biofilm colonies and disseminate infection. Many chronic bacterial infections are serious that are associated with biofilms and have high morbidity and mortality, partly due to their higher resistance to antimicrobial agents, and partly due to lack of strong biocides which can efficiently treat and inhibit biofilm formation. We recently demonstrated that nonequilibrium non-thermal dielectric-barrier discharge plasma (Plasma) can also be applied to control pathogens via applying treated-liquids, and these liquids acquire broad-spectrum antimicrobial properties. In present studies we demonstrated a range of plasma-activated simple chemical solutions which significantly inhibited biofilm formation by multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens. Plasma-activated methionine solution exhibited strong inhibitory activity against the biofilms of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, metallo-β-lactamase (NDM1)-positive Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Enterococcus faecalis, and prevented the formation of biofilms by about 70% as compared to untreated controls in single exposure. In addition to inhibition of biofilm formation, a complete inactivation of biofilm-embedded bacterial cells was observed in less than 30 minute's exposure to candidate plasma-activated methionine solution. These findings suggest that plasma-activated solutions have a potential to prevent biofilm formation, and as biofilm inhibitor.
Often identified as the first work of James's celebrated late style, The Spoils of Poynton (1897) has been widely read as a "perversion" of the conventions of the realist novel; indeed, it is marked by a to describe the objects that James declared formed "the very centre" of it. This structuring absence mobilizes an atmosphere of a sexual secret in the novel, yet the eroticism that James associates with the objects and interiors that bring the novel's two arty women together has not been fully examined. In the context of James's passionate correspondence with the sculptor Hendrik Andersen and the late-nineteenth-century nexus of aestheticism and homoeroticism, the novel's exploration of possession and possessions is, this essay argues, inextricably bound up with James's attempt to represent the subject of same-sex desire in the wake of the Wilde scandal and on the cusp of James's belated friendships with gay men.
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