Monthly Archives: November 2015

Spinbar® magnetic Stirring Bar Shapes and Performance Whether mixing is needed in a 10mm cuvette, a 1.5ml vial, a beaker, or a 50 gallon drum, there is a Spinbar® magnetic stirring bar that can do the job. Bel-Art Products offers the most comprehensive selection of magnetic stirring bars on the planet.

Desiccators are an economical and reliable way to assure dry, dust-free, and if necessary oxygen-free storage of humidity sensitive products, such as valuable reagents or electronics.

Depending upon what you are storing, optimal conditions can be achieved by selecting the type of desiccator that is most suitable for your applications. the four basic types of desiccators are standard, automatic, gas purge and vacuum.

Scienceware® plastic labware is designed to provide many years of useful service under normal laboratory conditions. The physical properties and chemical resistance of the plastics used in the manufacture of Scienceware® plastic labware are provided for your convenience. In addition, the following recommendations for cleaning and sterilization of plastic labware are designed to ensure their continuous, effective performance.

SABINE RÜSCH-GERDES National Reference Center for Mycobacteria, Borstel, Germany

S. KIRCHER, N. DICK, V. RITTER, K. STURM AND P. WARNS BD Diagnostics • 7 Loveton Circle • Sparks, MD, USA 21152 REVISED ABSTRACT BBL™ CHROMagar™ MRSA (CMRSA) is a unique medium designed for the direct detection of MRSA from specimens. CMRSA incorporates cefoxitin and chromogenic substrates as indicators of methicillin resistant S. aureus. As S. aureus grow, they convert the specific chromogenic substrate to a colored product. CMRSA was compared to BBL™ Oxacillin Screen Agar (Ox Screen), disk diffusion using the 1 μg Oxacillin (OX) and 30 μg Cefoxitin (FOX) disks, and Penicillin Binding Protein 2’ Latex Agglutination Test (PBP2’) (Oxoid Limited, Hampshire) for the identification of mecA- positive S. aureus (MRSA).

S. BRISSE, A. C. FLUIT, K. KUSTERS, M. KLOOTWIJK, S. DE VAAL, M. A. LEVERSTEIN-VAN HALL, J. VERHOEF AND D. MILATOVIC University Medical Centre Utrech, Utrech the Netherlands Contact. sbrissc@tabazunl

INTRODUCTION Reliable automated detection of antimicrobial resistance is of the utmost importance for clinical microbiology laboratories. The Phoenix™ Automated Microbiology System (BD Biosciences, Sparks, MD, USA), a new instrument combining identification and susceptibility testing, as evaluated for detection of two increasingly important antimicrobial resistance phenotypes: extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) production in gram negative organisms and ciprofloxacin resistance in non-fermenters.

L. A. COSENTINO, D. V. LANDERS AND S. L. HILLIER Magee-Womens Research Institute and The University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

OBJECTIVES

• To evaluate whether vaginal swab specimens were equivalent to cervical swabs for detection of Neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC) and Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) using the strand displacement amplification assay (SDA).