Mycobacterium tuberculosis lineage: a naming of the parts

There have been many reports of groups of related Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains described variously as lineages, families or clades. There is no objective definition of these groupings making it impossible to define relationships between those groups with biological advantages. Here we describe two groups of related strains obtained from an epidemiological study in Tanzania which we define as the Kilimanjaro and Meru lineages on the basis of IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), polymorphic GC rich sequence (PGRS) RFLP and mycobacterial interspersed repeat unit (MIRU) typing. We investigated the concordance between each of the typing techniques and the dispersal of the typing profiles from a core pattern. The Meru lineage is more dispersed than the Kilimanjaro lineage and we speculate that the Meru lineage is older. We suggest that this approach provides an objective definition that proves robust in this epidemiological study. Such a framework will permit associations between a lineage and clinical or bacterial phenomenon to be tested objectively. This definition will also enable new putative lineages to be objectively tested

Genetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated from tuberculosis patients in the Serengeti ecosystem in Tanzania

SummaryThis study was part of a larger cross-sectional survey that was evaluating tuberculosis (TB) infection in humans, livestock and wildlife in the Serengeti ecosystem in Tanzania. The study aimed at evaluating the genetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from TB patients attending health facilities in the Serengeti ecosystem. DNA was extracted from 214 sputum cultures obtained from consecutively enrolled newly diagnosed untreated TB patients aged ≥18 years. Spacer oligonucleotide typing (spoligotyping) and Mycobacterium Interspersed Repetitive Units and Variable Number Tandem Repeat (MIRU-VNTR) were used to genotype M. tuberculosis to establish the circulating lineages. Of the214 M. tuberculosis isolates genotyped, 55 (25.7%) belonged to the Central Asian (CAS) family, 52 (24.3%) were T family (an ill-defined family), 38 (17.8%) belonged to the Latin American Mediterranean (LAM) family, 25 (11.7%) to the East-African Indian (EAI) family, 25 (11.7%) comprised of different unassigned (‘Serengeti’) strain families, while 8 (3.7%) belonged to the Beijing family. A minority group that included Haarlem, X, U and S altogether accounted for 11 (5.2%) of all genotypes. MIRU-VNTR typing produced diverse patterns within and between families indicative of unlinked transmission chains. We conclude that, in the Serengeti ecosystem only a few successful families predominate namely CAS, T, LAM and EAI families. Other types found in lower prevalence are Beijing, Haarlem, X, S and MANU. The Haarlem, EAI_Somalia, LAM3 and S/convergent and X2 subfamilies found in this study were not reported in previous studies in Tanzania

FedEx Case Study: Links in the Chain

Supply chain management improves competition by controlling costs and shortening product delivery cycles.supply chain, global supply chain, FedEx, supply chain management, Tennessee, logistics

Supply Chain Management Overview: A Global Team Effort

Supply chains have eliminated U.S. manufacturing jobs but created many new jobs coordinating supply chain efforts.supply chain management

Distribution Mecca of the Southeast: Rutherford County

ue to the crossroads of three interstates, Rutherford County has become a warehousing and distribution hub.supply chain management

Questions and Answers: Nissan Case Study

A Nissan spokesperson responds to questions about the company’s supply chain issues.supply chain management

Processing Change: Tales of Mice and Penguins

A brief essay on the difficulty and importance of successful change in any organization and specifically in a higher education institution.supply chain management

Tennessee Logistics: Importance to the Economy

This article briefly examines the importance of the distribution sector in Tennessee.supply chain management

A fully digital power supply noise thermometer

Power Supply Noise (PSN) is one of the main concerns in scaled technology circuits, both if performance reliability must be assured and if power supply is to be dynamically reduced for dissipation regulation. In this paper we propose a new system for digitally sensing Power Supply and Ground levels that can be both transferred to the output for verification purposes and used by a control block within the circuit under test (CUT) for the activation of power aware policies. The sensor system shows very low overhead in terms of power and area, and works at the nominal CUT frequency. It allows to change on-site the Power Supply and Ground ranges to be sensed and, after a fine tuning, can be arranged for a process variation aware measures. This sensor is fully digital and standard cell based and can be used for every type of architecture on a systematic basis for PSN measure as scan chains are for fault verification. It thus represents a change of paradigm in the way in which PSN measure systems are thought nowaday

UA94/6/1 Scrapbook

Scrapbook of clippings regarding the 1980 WKU football team and season