Fungal colonisation in middle-ear cleft cholesteatoma probably plays a significant role in disease progression. Moreover, saprophytic fungal colonisation in cholesteatoma keratin may be responsible for the fetor commonly associated with the ear discharge.

Background: Fungal rhinosinusitis has gained much attention in recent years. To our knowledge, no previous studies have addressed the role of fungus in primary atrophic rhinitis.Study design: Prospective case study. Patients and methods: All cases of primary atrophic rhinitis presenting to the out-patient department at El-Sahel Teaching Hospital over a five-month period were included in the study. Crusts and purulent secretions removed from patients' nasal cavities underwent microbiological analysis at the Medical Microbiology and Immunology department of the Cairo University Faculty of Medicine. Special emphasis was placed on fungal isolation.Results: Fourteen consecutive cases of primary atrophic rhinitis were studied in the five-month period starting 26 November 2007. Patients comprised eight females and six males, with an age range of 12 to 65 years (mean 37 years). Microscopy of the crusts and purulent secretions showed pus cells in most of the samples. Klebsiella species were isolated from nine patients (65 per cent), and other bacterial species were isolated in most of the remainder. Fungal elements, most commonly aspergillus species, were isolated in 13 patients (93 per cent).Conclusion: It is proposed that the initial trigger for primary atrophic rhinitis is a virulent bacterial infection of the nasal lining, which leads to damage of the ciliated epithelium. This initiates the cascade of events leading to inflammation of the mucosa and submucosa, with secondary pyogenic osteomyelitis of the turbinate bone. The persistence of purulent secretion, within the setting of impaired mucociliary clearance, leads to saprophytic fungal colonisation which contributes greatly to the clinical picture.

Jojoba seeds are processed to produce an oil of use in many industries. The cake left after oil extraction contains obnoxious substances which make it hazardous to use as animal fodder. In the present work, thermal analysis was used to identify the kinetics of biochar formation from the de-oiled residue. TG -DTG curves showed that decomposition takes place in two major steps corresponding to the devolatilization of hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin. The residual material left consists of biochar which undergoes cracking up to about 500 o C. The final ash constitutes about 17.2% of the dry material. Three isoconversional methods were used in that work to investigate the decomposition kinetics, namely the FWO, KSA and Friedman techniques. Results proved that while the first decomposition step followed first order kinetics with average activation energy values ranging from 86.19 to 90.11 kJ.mol -1 , the second step was controlled by reaction at interface with activation energies ranging from 93.26 to 99.37 kJ.mol -1 , depending on the kinetic model used.