Environmental contamination of hospital rooms is well recognized as a reservoir for highly resistant nosocomial pathogens such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureu (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE), which can be transferred to patients through contact with healthcare providers and contaminated surfaces. Numerous studies dedicated to environmental cleaning and disinfection have found promising results with several novel technologies, including vaporized hydrogen peroxide and ultraviolet over-head lighting or wands. We conducted a pilot study of one such device, the Sterilray Disinfection Wand (Healthy Environment Innovations), a handheld ultraviolet (UV) room decontamination wand. The Sterilray device claims to generate UV radiation in the far-UV spectrum (185-230 nm), resulting in the rapid killing of contaminant bacteria. The goal of this pilot was to collect preliminary data on the efficacy of this device in reducing surface contamination, particularly of common nosocomial pathogens, in an active hospital setting.

We introduce the SMC in space and time, a large coordinated space and ground-based program to study star formation processes and history, as well as variable stars, structure, kinematics and chemical evolution of the whole SMC. Here, we present the Colour-Magnitude Diagrams (CMDs) resulting from HST/ACS photometry, aimed at deriving the star formation history (SFH) in six fields of the SMC. The fields are located in the central regions, in the stellar halo, and in the wing toward the LMC. The CMDs are very deep, well beyond the oldest Main Sequence Turn-Off, and will allow us to derive the SFH over the entire Hubble time.

There are many techniques for 3D imaging of biological specimens such as confocal, two-photon and, wide-field fluorescence microscopy, CAT scan, MRI, and optical coherence tomography. There are also many derivatives of these techniques, each having its strengths and weaknesses. Due to the differences in resolution, depth-of-field, and field-of-view, it is often difficult to compare images from the relatively high-resolution microscopy methods to the latter lower-resolution high-volume imaging methods. Effectively making this comparison could be very powerful in relating organ or organism level information to cellular level processes.