All aspects of microbiology, including virology, are covered. Areas of special interest include: physiology, biochemistry and genetics (including molecular biology and 'omic' studies); biotechnology and synthetic biology; pathogenicity (including medical, veterinary and plant pathogens particularly those relating to food security); environmental microbiology (including ecophysiology, ecogenomics and meta-omic studies); virology; food microbiology (from food production and spoilage to food-borne pathogens); taxonomy and systematics (including publication of novel species and taxonomic reclassifications), and professional development (including education, training, CPD, research assessment frameworks, research metrics, best-practice and history of microbiology).

FEMS microbiology letters

Cultural heritage monuments may be discolored and degraded by growth and activity of living organisms. Microorganisms form biofilms on surfaces of stone, with resulting aesthetic and structural damage. The organisms involved are bacteria (including actinomycetes and cyanobacteria), fungi, archaea, algae, and lichens. Interactions between these organisms and stone can enhance or retard the overall rate of degradation. Microorganisms within the stone structure (endoliths) also cause damage. They grow in cracks and pores and may bore into rocks. True endoliths, present within the rock, have been detected in calcareous and some siliceous stone monuments and are predominantly bacterial. The taxonomic groups differ from those found epilithically at the same sites. The nature of the stone substrate and the environmental conditions influence the extent of biofilm colonization and the biodeterioration processes. A critical review of work on microbial biofilms on buildings of historic interest, including recent innovations resulting from molecular biology, is presented and microbial activities causing degradation are discussed.

Microbial deterioration of stone monuments--an updated overview

Microorganisms (bacteria, archaea and fungi), in addition to lichens and insect pests, cause problems in the conservation of cultural heritage because of their biodeteriorative potential. This holds true for all types of historic artefacts, and even for art made of modern materials, in public buildings, museums and private art collections. The variety of biodeterioration phenomena observed on materials of cultural heritage is determined by several factors, such as the chemical composition and nature of the material itself, the climate and exposure of the object, in addition to the manner and frequency of surface cleaning and housekeeping in museums. This study offers a review of a variety of well-known biodeterioration phenomena observed on different materials, such as stone and building materials, objects exhibited in museums and libraries, as well as human remains and burial-related materials. The decontamination of infected artefacts, exhibition rooms and depots incurs high expenditure for museums. Nevertheless, the question has to be raised: whether the process of biodeterioration of cultural heritage can or should be stopped under all circumstances, or whether we have to accept it as a natural and an implicit consecution of its creation. This study also highlights critically the pros and cons of biocide treatments and gives some prominent examples of successful and unsuccessful conservation treatments. Furthermore, an outlook on the future research needs and developments in this highly interesting field is given.

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Microbial deterioration of cultural heritage and works of art — tilting at windmills?

Friction welding is now well established as one of the most economical and highly productive methods in joining similar and dissimilar metals. It is widely used in automotive and aerospace industrial applications. Friction welding is often the only viable alternative in this field to overcome the difficulties encountered in joining the materials with widely varying physical characteristics. This process employs a machine that is designed to convert mechanical energy into heat at the joint to weld using relative movement between workpieces, without the use of electrical energy or heat from other sources. This review deals with the fundamental understanding of the process. The focus is on the mechanism of friction welding, types of relative motions of the process, influence of parameters, heat generation in the process, understanding the deformation, microstructure and the properties of similar and dissimilar welded materials.

Advances in friction welding process: a review

Twenty endophytic bacteria were isolated from the meristematic tissues of three varieties of strawberry cultivated in vitro, and further identified, by FAME profile, into the genera Bacillus and Sphingopyxis. The strains were also characterized according to indole acetic acid production, phosphate solubilization and potential for plant growth promotion. Results showed that 15 strains produced high levels of IAA and all 20 showed potential for solubilizing inorganic phosphate. Plant growth promotion evaluated under greenhouse conditions revealed the ability of the strains to enhance the root number, length and dry weight and also the leaf number, petiole length and dry weight of the aerial portion. Seven Bacillus spp. strains promoted root development and one strain of Sphingopyxis sp. promoted the development of plant shoots. The plant growth promotion showed to be correlated to IAA production and phosphate solubilization. The data also suggested that bacterial effects could potentially be harnessed to promote plant growth during seedling acclimatization in strawberry.

/pdf/isolation-of-micropropagated-strawberry-endophytic-bacteria-3ycde9ua7z.pdf

Isolation of micropropagated strawberry endophytic bacteria and assessment of their potential for plant growth promotion

Mural paintings in Carmona (Spain), Herberstein (Austria) and Greene (Germany), showing visible deterioration by microorganisms, were sampled to investigate the biodiversity of the heterotrophic bacteria present. Four hundred twenty-eight bacterial strains were isolated from which 385 were characterized by fatty acid methyl ester analysis (FAME). The isolates were grouped into 41 clusters on the basis of their FAME profiles, 20 isolates remained ungrouped. The majority (94%) of the isolates comprised the Gram-positive bacteria and the main clusters were identified as Bacillus sp., Paenibacillus sp., Micrococcus sp., Arthrobacter sp. and Staphylococcus sp. Other clusters contain nocardioform actinomycetes and Gram-negative bacteria, respectively. A cluster of the latter contained extreme halotolerant bacteria isolated in Herberstein. The FAME profiles of this cluster showed a high similarity with Halomonas.

The use of fatty acid methyl ester analysis (FAME) for the identification of heterotrophic bacteria present on three mural paintings showing severe damage by microorganisms

Constitutive equations are often used to describe the stress–strain behaviour of metallic materials. This allows the execution of parametric studies for various purposes. Despite the large number of developed stress–strain equations, all frequently applied ones fail to accurately describe a strain hardening behaviour in two distinct stages, which many metallic materials tend to show. For this purpose, the authors developed a new stress–strain model, based on the well-known Ramberg–Osgood equation, which focuses on this two-stage strain hardening behaviour. This article describes the model and its analytical background, along with a graphical method to derive suited model parameters. To validate the proposed methodology, it is applied on stress–strain curves of two high-strength steels, an aluminium alloy and a duplex stainless-steel alloy. Whereas a good correspondence for the stainless-steel alloy is confined to limited plastic strains, excellent agreements are observed for the steels and the aluminium alloy. Following the proposed method, it was possible to obtain model parameter values that give a good correspondence within a detectable strain range.

Rudi Denys

Papers

The use of fatty acid methyl ester analysis (FAME) for the identification of heterotrophic bacteria present on three mural paintings showing severe damage by microorganisms

A generic stress–strain model for metallic materials with two-stage strain hardening behaviour

Full-range stress–strain behaviour of contemporary pipeline steels: Part I. Model description

Evaluation and interpretation of ductile crack extension in SENT specimens using unloading compliance technique

Determination of CTOD resistance curves in side-grooved Single–Edge Notched Tensile specimens using full field deformation measurements