Your search resulted in 531 documents. Displaying 25 entries per page.
Mold fungi - Major impediments to cleaning/repairing flood and rain-damaged homes
2008 - IRG/WP 08-40427
Damage to homes by hurricanes that make landfall in the south and southeastern United States, or sub-tropical and tropical regions, during the hot, humid summer months is compounded by the growth of mold fungi on wetted building materials. Most homeowners are better equipped to deal with construction problems associated with storm damage than to control the growth of mold fungi. Following hurrican...
T L Amburgey
Effect of a biological treatment on below ground decay of Douglas-fir pole sections
2008 - IRG/WP 08-40433
The use of exogenous sugars to accelerate microbial growth and eventually limit available oxygen in soil surrounding wood in soil contact was investigated on untreated Douglas-fir poles exposed over a 3 year period in Western Oregon. Isolation frequencies differed markedly between treated and untreated poles and the treatment did appear to shift the frequency of some basidiomycetes. The treatment ...
C Freitag and J J Morrell
Discovering anti-fungal agents in New Zealand native plants for use in wood protection
2009 - IRG/WP 09-10692
Extracts from Hinau (Elaeocarpus dentatus) leaves were tested in the laboratory for antifungal activity. In addition, the anatomical structure of the leaf was also examined by a combination of light and scanning electron microscopy. Chemical characterisation of the extracts and investigation into potential use of its components for wood protection is underway. A combination of light microscopy (...
C Rickard, T Singh, A Singh, R Newman
The effect of different foundation systems against fungal flora in the crawl space of a new wooden Japanese house
2009 - IRG/WP 09-10700
In order to establish novel preventive measures against damage of wooden houses by decay fungi with less-use or no-use of chemicals, we periodically monitored the fungal flora in the crawl space of a new wooden Japanese house build with recyclable and low-environmental load materials at the Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University. We employed either a layer of concrete or...
A Toyoumi, S Horisawa, T Yoshimura, S Doi,Y Imamura
Postia placenta gene expression of oxidative and carbohydrate metabolism related genes during growth in furfurylated wood
2009 - IRG/WP 09-10701
A range of studies the last decade have shown that modified wood can provide excellent protection against a range of wood deteriorating organisms, including decay fungi. However, we still lack information about why the modified wood is protected from microbial attack. Several hypotheses have been put forward e.g. inhibition of action of specific enzymes, but they still need testing. An understandi...
G Alfredsen, C G Fossdal
Durability and fungal colonisation patterns in wood samples after six years in soil contact evaluated with qPCR, microscopy, TGA, chitin- and ergosterol assays
2009 - IRG/WP 09-20402
There is a need to establish new objective and sensitive methods for early detection and quantification of decay fungi in wood materials. Molecular methods have proven to be a useful tool within wood protection issues, however, this field is still poorly explored and so far relatively few have used these methods within the field of wood deterioration. Among the techniques used in the indirect quan...
A Pilgård, G Alfredsen, I Børja, C Björdal
Effect of Preservative Treatment on Fungal Colonization of Teak, Redwood, and Western Red Cedar
2009 - IRG/WP 09-20404
Fungal flora present in preservative treated samples or non-treated samples from sapwood and heartwood of teak, western red cedar, redwood, and southern yellow pine was assessed after 6 to 18 months of exposure near Hilo, Hawaii. The objectives were to compare fungal composition and diversity between treated and non-treated samples, and to examine the use of molecular techniques for assessing fung...
Y Cabrera, C Freitag, J J Morrell
Building with termites: The challenge of biomimetic design for carbon neutral buildings.
2009 - IRG/WP 09-20405
The main aim of this paper is to present humanity and termites as design partners in the creation of a new dimension of ecosystem understanding. “Beyond biomimicry: What termites can tell us about realizing the living building”, Turner and Soar (2008) opens up a new era in how we think of human habitations, not only on earth, but maybe on other planets, and using the termite model as the corne...
J R J French, B M Ahmed (Shiday)
Fungal decay resistance and durability of wood products made from borax-impregnated wood and bonded with corn starch and tannin adhesive
2009 - IRG/WP 09-30494
At present, the production of wood composites mainly relies on the petrochemical-based and formaldehyde-based adhesives such as phenol formaldehyde (PF) resins and urea formaldehyde (UF) resins, which are non-renewable and therefore ultimately limited in supply. This paper concerns the decay resistance of wood products bonded with a new, environment-friendly adhesive derived from abundant and rene...
A Moubarik, A Pizzi, A Allal, F Charrier, B Charrier
Potential synergy between natural product extracts for limiting fungal decay
2009 - IRG/WP 09-30495
Natural products often exhibit tremendous potential for inhibiting various microorganisms when they are tested in petri dish tests, but perform poorly when tested in vivo. The failures can often be attributed to a lack of broad spectrum activity against the range of organisms present in a natural environment. One method for overcoming this challenge is to use extracts from a number of sources with...
M Maoz, C Freitag, J J Morrell
Synthesis of a rosin amide and its resistance to wood decay fungi
2009 - IRG/WP 09-30517
Rosin was reacted with diethyltriamine (DETA) after being modified by acryl acid with the weight ratio of 4.5:1 and a rosin amide (RA) derivative was produced at the conditions as follows: modified rosin and DETA mole ratio of 1:3.5, dimethylbenzene as water carrying agent, reaction temperature of 160-180°C, and reaction time of 8h. The chemical structure of the product as RA was identified by F...
Shuangyue Li, Shujun Li, Jing Wang
Biological Treatment to Improve Wood Product Quality and Durability - Fifteen Years of Effort and Experience at FPInnovations-Forintek Division
2009 - IRG/WP 09-40444
Wood plays an important role in the world economy. However, wood is subject to attack from wood-degrading fungi and insects and durability and quality of wood products are becoming increasing concerns for consumers. Development of effective and low environmental impact technologies to improve wood product quality and durability will be required to address these concerns. The application of a bio...
Dian-Qing Yang
Estimating the heat treatment intensity through various properties of thermally modified timber (TMT)
2009 - IRG/WP 09-40459
The suitability of different measures for prediction of the heat treatment intensity was investigated. Therefore, the resistance to impact milling (RIM), the lightness L*, the equilibrium moisture content (EMC), the anti swelling efficiency (ASE) and the total amount of soluble carbohydrates (TSC) of heat treated specimens were correlated with corresponding fungal resistance achieved by heat treat...
C R Welzbacher, C Brischke, A O Rapp
Fungal Attack on Lignin and Cellulose: Elucidation of Brown- and White-Rot Mechanisms Comparing Biomimetic and In-Vivo Degradation Patterns
2010 - IRG/WP 10-10714
This paper examines research and hypotheses that have been developed over several years on wood degradation mechanisms. This information is combined with new data and analyses to explain why wood decay patterns caused by brown-rot fungi and specific types of white-rot fungi are different. New data, including work with both biomimetic studies on low molecular weight compounds, degradative enzymes, ...
V Arantes, B Goodell, A M F Milagres, Yuhui Qian, T Filley, J Jellison, S Kelley
Control of Reticulitermes grassei as a pest in Spain: Termite distribution in an urban area
2010 - IRG/WP 10-10719
The European subterranean termite Reticulitermes grassei Clément, 1978, has been an important pest in Palenciana, a locality in the southern province of Cordoba (Spain) for a long time. The different stages of the pest elimination process have been studied and are presented here. Firstly, a through inspection of all town dwellings was conducted in order to determine a theoretical affected area of...
E Alcaide, R Molero, J Diz, M Gaju
Seasonal shifts of fungal community structure at the interface of treated or untreated wood and soil
2010 - IRG/WP 10-10721
Many wood species are degraded rapidly in soil by the fungal community. In order to preserve wood and structures in which it is used, chemical preservatives are used. Little is known about the interaction of treated wood and the surrounding soil fungal community. For this work, presented at IRG 41, wooden specimens (Pinus sylvestris sapwood, sizes 25 mm x 50 mm x 500 mm (longitudinal)) were treate...
M Noll, I Stephan
Frequency of fungal decay in softwood windows in Germany
2010 - IRG/WP 10-10725
Knowing how often fungal decay occurs is a fundamental basis for general recommendations of preservative measures. To optimize the German recommendations for chemical wood preservation of windows made out of pine or spruce more than 2000 windows have been inspected. All windows had an opaque coating and were between 2 and 17 years old. The selection of the inspected windows was kept as randomly as...
D Lukowsky, O Moarcas, A Luette
Estimating the age of subterranean termite attack and damage in buildings
2010 - IRG/WP 10-10727
This paper describes physical and experimental methods and a mathematical model (Rotramel 2003) to assist in estimating the age of subterranean termite attack and damage to building structures. Timber, building and termite management industries have to develop new strategies to assess and estimate termite attack and damage in the current climate of global warming. A case study will be used as an e...
J R J French, B M Ahmed Shiday, J Thorpe
Chemical mediated depolymerization of cotton cellulose for the understanding of non-enzymatic fungal decay
2010 - IRG/WP 10-10731
Small, low molecular weight non-enzymatic compounds have been linked to the early stages of brown rot decay as the enzymes involved with holocellulose degradation are found to be too large to penetrate the S3 layer of intact wood cells. The most pronounced of these which were analyzed in this study are hydrogen peroxide, iron, and oxalic. The compounds related to the Fenton reaction: the combinati...
A C Steenkjær Hastrup, B Jensen, F Green III
Postia placenta gene expression during growth in furfurylated wood
2010 - IRG/WP 10-10734
Modified wood can provide protection against a range of wood deteriorating organisms. But we still lack information about why the modified wood is protected from microbial attack. Several hypotheses have been put forward for the mode of action against wood decaying fungi, including inhibition of action of specific enzymes, but they still need further testing. In this study gene expression of the b...
G Alfredsen, C G Fossdal
Natural durability of African Padauk and Niove. Comparison of new trials and former data from the CIRAD database
2010 - IRG/WP 10-10743
African Padauk (Pterocarpus soyauxii) and Niove (Staudia kamerunensis) were tested in laboratory against Basidiomycetes. The results were calculated according to the requirements of EN 350-1 (1994) and XP CEN/TS 15083-1 (2006). Padauk samples showed a high durability and very small variations between trees and within tree. Niove presented a high durability, but with notable differences according ...
Y N N’Kolo Meze’e, N Leménager, C Baudassé, M-F Thévenon
Measurements of rot fungal activity as a function of moisture content by isothermal calorimetry
2010 - IRG/WP 10-20428
Measurements of heat production rate have been made on wood samples with the brown rot fungus Postia placenta at different moisture contents. The results clearly indicate that the heat production rate (a measure of respiration rate and activity) is moisture dependent. When the moisture content is decreased, less heat is produced, and when the moisture content is increased, more heat is produced. I...
L Wadsö, A Pilgård, G Alfredsen
Third Party Quality Control and Laboratory Procedures in the United States
2010 - IRG/WP 10-20430
With over 5 billion treated board feet produced in the United States each year, there is a need for an established set of Quality Control and Laboratory procedures for independent agencies. These QC procedures ensure retailer and consumers that treated wood products have met conformance standards. These procedures provide treating facilities with guidelines on the production and service of treated...
C Barber, T Greer
Detection of Wood Destroying Fungi Using DNA Microarray Technology
2010 - IRG/WP 10-20435
Wood decay fungi of the phylum Basidiomycota cause serious damage to wooden constructions and building elements. The elimination and the appraisement of fungal decay require an assured species identification. Conventional fungal diagnostics are mainly based on morphological characteristics by macro- and microscopy analysis. For some years, standardised and highly sensitive molecular methods focuss...
K Jacobs, N Rangno, W Scheiding, B Weiss, D Müller, C Hiller, W Brabetz
Profiling fungal community in wood decay ecosystem by Denaturing High-Performance Liquid Chromatography
2010 - IRG/WP 10-20443
A DNA-based fingerprinting technique, Denaturing High Performance Liquid Chromatography (DHPLC) was developed to profile fungal communities colonizing indoor timber. Molecular fungal diversity was assessed using amplification based on the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS1) rDNA of 74 wood samples collected from infected buildings in France. Due to its high sensitivity, the PCR-DHPLC technique was ...
S Maurice, G Le Floch, M Le Bras-Quéré, J P Rioult, G Barbier