The Power Control Rack: A Modular Solution for Building Power Systems

LDRD proposal presentation to ETA ALD at LBNL. Proposing use of SST to create a modular efficient single point of common coupling for buildings

Being Polish/Becoming European: Gender and The Limits of Diffusion in Polish Accession to the European Union.

Why do some ideas and discourses diffuse easily while others do not? The literature on diffusion is extensive, especially regarding European Union integration. However, these accounts do not typically address, much less explain, diffusion’s limits. My dissertation seeks to fill this gap by accounting for a critical case: Poland's problematic implementation of the European Union’s gender equality directives, particularly in contrast to other parts of the accession mandate. Relying on triangulated empirical research, and employing media archives, parliamentary transcripts, qualitative interviews, and public opinion research, I argue that resistance to that implementation is grounded in conceptions of Polish national identity that became crucial issues during the accession process. Poland is a case of successful resistance to ideational diffusion in this area, because domestic implementation of the gender acquis differed in significant ways from other parts of the accession mandate in terms of domestic cooperation and compliance. In the Polish case, the most active resistance to EU requirements coalesced around social issues such as gender equality, and was effective as a political strategy to channel public frustration and inter-party competition into symbolic confrontations. I argue that, rather than successfully diffusing its own vision of gender equality, the EU's policy agenda instead created conditions that allowed Polish policy-makers to retraditionalize gender policy. This leads to the conclusion that diffusion does not always "work," not even in the pre-accession period when the EU has the coercive power of conditionality to call upon. I demonstrate that some of the ideas germane to the gender equality agenda are embedded within privileged national discourses that occupy a central position in the construction of identity, and are therefore resistant to displacement by competing discourses. I propose a method for determining actors' receptivity (or lack thereof) to competing normative discourses in a specific context by evaluating both the epistemic strength of that discourse and its resonance with local cultural schemas. This highlights the need for additional analysis of the cultural dimensions of European integration, towards identifying not only the mechanisms, but also the criteria for new discourses to be taken up and integrated into local knowledge.Ph.D.SociologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86261/1/alexaz_1.pd

Household composition across the new Europe: Where do the new Member States fit in?

In this paper we present indicators of household structure for 26 of the 27 countries of the post-enlargement European Union. As well as broad indicators of household type, we present statistics on single-person and extended-family households, and on the households of children and older people. Our main aim is to assess the extent to which household structure differs between the "old" and "new" Member States of the European Union. We find that most of the Eastern European countries may be thought of as lying on the same North-North-Western-Southern continuum defined for the "old" EU Member States, and constituting an "extreme form" of the Southern European model of living arrangements, which we term the "Eastern" model. However, the Baltic states do not fit easily onto this continuum

Prevalence and WGS-based characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus in the nasal mucosa and pastern of horses with equine pastern dermatitis.

BACKGROUND Many contributing factors are involved in the development of equine pastern dermatitis (EPD). Among the most frequently suspected is Staphylococcus aureus, known for its pathogenic potential in skin and soft tissue infections. We therefore investigated the association between S. aureus carriage and EPD. RESULTS One hundred five EPD-affected horses and 95 unaffected controls were examined for the presence of methicillin-resistant and -susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA and MSSA) on the pastern skin and in the nostrils. S. aureus isolates were cultivated from swab samples on selective MSSA and MRSA chromogenic agar and identified using MALDI-TOF MS. Isolates were analysed by Illumina whole genome sequencing for genetic relatedness (cgMLST, spa typing), and for the presence of antimicrobial resistance and virulence determinants. A markedly higher proportion of samples from EPD-affected horses proved positive for S. aureus, both from the pastern (59.0 % vs. 6.3 % in unaffected horses; P<0.001), and from the nose (59.0 % vs. 8.4 %; P<0.001). Isolates belonged to 20 sequence types (ST) with lineages ST15-t084 (spa) (18 %), ST1-t127 (13 %), and ST1-t1508 (12 %) being predominant. Eight S. aureus were MRSA ST398-t011 and ST6239-t1456, and contained the staphylococcal cassette chromosome SCCmecIVa. Antimicrobial resistance genes were almost equally frequent in pastern and in nasal samples, whereas some virulence factors such as the beta-hemolysin, ESAT-6 secretion system, and some enterotoxins were more abundant in isolates from pastern samples, possibly enhancing their pathogenic potential. CONCLUSIONS The markedly higher prevalence of S. aureus containing specific virulence factors in affected skin suggests their contribution in the development and course of EPD

Application of an antibiotic spectrum index in the neonatal intensive care unit

Antimicrobial stewardship programs typically use days of therapy to assess antimicrobial use. However, this metric does not account for the antimicrobial spectrum of activity. We applied an antibiotic spectrum index to a population of very-low-birth-weight infants to assess its utility to evaluate the impact of antimicrobial stewardship interventions

Building Trustworthy AI Solutions: A Case for Practical Solutions for Small Businesses

Building trustworthy AI solutions, whether in academia or industry, must take into consideration a number of dimensions including legal, social, ethical, public opinion and environmental aspects. A plethora of guidelines, principles and toolkits have been published globally, but have seen limited grassroots implementation, especially among small and medium sized enterprises (SME), mainly due to lack of knowledge, skills, and resources. In this paper, we report on qualitative SME consultations over two events to establish their understanding of both data and AI ethical principles and to identify the key barriers SMEs face in their adoption of ethical AI approaches. We then use independent experts to review and code 77 published toolkits designed to build and support ethical and responsible AI practices, based on 33 evaluation criteria. The toolkits were evaluated considering their scope to address the identified SME barriers to adoption, human-centric AI principles, AI lifecycle stages, and key themes around responsible AI and practical usability. Toolkits were ranked based on criteria coverage and expert inter-coder agreement. Results show that there is not a one-size-fits-all toolkit that addresses all criteria suitable for SMEs. Our findings show few exemplars of practical application, little guidance on how to use/apply the toolkits and very low uptake by SMEs. Our analysis provides a mechanism for SMEs to select their own toolkits based on their current capacity, resources, and ethical awareness levels focusing initially at the conceptualization stage of the AI lifecycle and then extending throughout

Acinetobacter baumannii isolates from pets and horses in Switzerland: molecular characterization and clinical data

Objectives We investigated whether Acinetobacter baumannii isolates of veterinary origin shared common molecular characteristics with those described in humans. Methods Nineteen A. baumannii isolates collected in pets and horses were analysed. Clonality was studied using repetitive extragenic palindromic PCR (rep-PCR) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). PCR and DNA sequencing for various β-lactamase, aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme, gyrA and parC, ISAba1 and IS1133, adeR and adeS of the AdeABC efflux pump, carO porin and class 1/2/3 integron genes were performed. Results Two main clones [A (n = 8) and B (n = 9)] were observed by rep-PCR. MLST indicated that clone A contained isolates of sequence type (ST) ST12 (international clone II) and clone B contained isolates of ST15 (international clone I). Two isolates of ST10 and ST20 were also noted. Seventeen isolates were resistant to gentamicin, 12 to ciprofloxacin and 3 to carbapenems. Isolates of ST12 carried blaOXA-66, blaADC-25, blaTEM-1, aacC2 and IS1133. Strains of ST15 possessed blaOXA-69, blaADC-11, blaTEM-1 and a class 1 integron carrying aacC1 and aadA1. ISAba1 was found upstream of blaADC (one ST10 and one ST12) and/or blaOXA-66 (seven ST12). Twelve isolates of different STs contained the substitutions Ser83Leu in GyrA and Ser80Leu or Glu84Lys in ParC. Significant disruptions of CarO porin and overexpressed efflux pumps were not observed. The majority of infections were hospital acquired and in animals with predisposing conditions for infection. Conclusions STs and the molecular background of resistance observed in our collection have been frequently described in A. baumannii detected in human patients. Animals should be considered as a potential reservoir of multidrug-resistant A. baumanni

Pyrosequencing-based analysis reveals a novel capsular gene cluster in a KPC-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae clinical isolate identified in Brazil

Background: An important virulence factor of Klebsiella pneumoniae is the production of capsular polysaccharide (CPS), a thick mucus layer that allows for evasion of the host's defense and creates a barrier against antibacterial peptides. CPS production is driven mostly by the expression of genes located in a locus called cps, and the resulting structure is used to distinguish between different serotypes (K types). in this study, we report the unique genetic organization of the cps cluster from K. pneumoniae Kp13, a clinical isolate recovered during a large outbreak of nosocomial infections that occurred in a Brazilian teaching hospital.Results: A pyrosequencing-based approach showed that the cps region of Kp13 (cps(Kp13)) is 26.4 kbp in length and contains genes common, although not universal, to other strains, such as the rm/BADC operon that codes for L-rhamnose synthesis. cpsKp13 also presents some unique features, like the inversion of the wzy gene and a unique repertoire of glycosyltransferases. in silico comparison of cps(Kp13) RFLP pattern with 102 previously published cps PCR-RFLP patterns showed that cpsKp13 is distinct from the C patterns of all other K serotypes. Furthermore, in vitro serotyping showed only a weak reaction with capsular types K9 and K34. We confirm that K9 cps shares common genes with cps(Kp13) such as the rm/BADC operon, but lacks features like uge and Kp13-specific glycosyltransferases, while K34 capsules contain three of the five sugars that potentially form the Kp13 CPS.Conclusions: We report the first description of a cps cluster from a Brazilian clinical isolate of a KPC-producing K. pneumoniae. the gathered data including K-serotyping support that Kp13's K-antigen belongs to a novel capsular serotype. the CPS of Kp13 probably includes L-rhamnose and D-galacturonate in its structure, among other residues. Because genes involved in L-rhamnose biosynthesis are absent in humans, this pathway may represent potential targets for the development of antimicrobial agents. Studying the capsular serotypes of clinical isolates is of great importance for further development of vaccines and/or novel therapeutic agents. the distribution of K-types among multidrug-resistant isolates is unknown, but our findings may encourage scientists to perform K-antigen typing of KPC-producing strains worldwide.LNCC, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilUniv Fed Rio de Janeiro, Inst Microbiol Paulo de Goes, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilUniv Estadual Londrina, Dept Patol Clin Anal Clin & Toxicol, Londrina, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Lab ALERTA, Div Doencas Infecciosas, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Lab ALERTA, Div Doencas Infecciosas, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Erklärvideo “Online-Betrug” – Nach nur fünf Minuten Phishing E-Mails nachweislich signifikant besser erkennen

Betrüger haben schon immer das Vertrauen von unvorsichtigen Personen ausgenutzt und versucht diese zu betrügen. Im Zeitalter der Computer wurden die Möglichkeiten der Betrüger erweitert und sie können nun jede beliebige Person, die im Besitz einer E-Mail Adresse ist, zu ihrem Ziel machen. Die Betrüger passen ihre Phishing-Nachrichten gezielt auf ihre Opfer an und verschleiern Täuschung und Betrug so gut wie möglich. Daraus folgernd wird die Sensibilisierung der Nutzer in Bezug auf das Thema Phishing und die erfolgreiche Erkennung dessen von immer größerer Wichtigkeit. Unsere bisher entwickelten Phishing Awareness-Programme adressieren bestehende Fehlannahmen und Missverständnisse bezüglich Phishing und können gezielt dabei helfen, die Erkennung solcher Nachrichten zu verbessern. Der größte Nachteil dieser Awareness-Programme stellt die dafür aufzuwendende Zeit dar. Deshalb haben wir ein Phishing Awareness Video entwickelt und evaluiert, welches in fünf Minuten über das Thema Phishing informiert. Nach dem Ansehen des Videos konnten Probanden in unserer Untersuchung Phishing-Nachrichten signifikant zuverlässiger erkennen (verglichen mit der Erkennung vor dem Ansehen des Videos). Diese Fähigkeit konnte auch nach einer achtwöchigen Pause in einer abschließenden Befragung nachgewiesen werden

Genome-wide DNA methylation analysis of Metarhizium anisopliae during tick mimicked infection condition

Background: The Metarhizium genus harbors important entomopathogenic fungi. These species have been widely explored as biological control agents, and strategies to improve the fungal virulence are under investigation. Thus, the interaction between Metarhizium species and susceptible hosts have been explored employing different methods in order to characterize putative virulence determinants. However, the impact of epigenetic modulation on the infection cycle of Metarhizium is still an open topic. Among the different epigenetic modifications, DNA methylation of cytosine bases is an important mechanism to control gene expression in several organisms. To better understand if DNA methylation can govern Metarhizium-host interactions, the genome-wide DNA methylation profile of Metarhizium anisopliae was explored in two conditions: tick mimicked infection and a saprophytic-like control. Results: Using a genome wide DNA methylation profile based on bisulfite sequencing (BS-Seq), approximately 0.60% of the total cytosines were methylated in saprophytic-like condition, which was lower than the DNA methylation level (0.89%) in tick mimicked infection condition. A total of 670 mRNA genes were found to be putatively methylated, with 390 mRNA genes uniquely methylated in the tick mimicked infection condition. GO terms linked to response to stimuli, cell wall morphogenesis, cytoskeleton morphogenesis and secondary metabolism biosynthesis were over-represented in the tick mimicked infection condition, suggesting that energy metabolism is directed towards the regulation of genes associated with infection. However, recognized virulence determinants known to be expressed at distinct infection steps, such as the destruxin backbone gene and the collagen-like protein gene Mcl1, were found methylated, suggesting that a dynamic pattern of methylation could be found during the infectious process. These results were further endorsed employing RT-qPCR from cultures treated or not with the DNA methyltransferase inhibitor 5-Azacytidine. Conclusions: The set of genes here analyzed focused on secondary metabolites associated genes, known to be involved in several processes, including virulence. The BS-Seq pipeline and RT-qPCR analysis employing 5- Azacytidine led to identification of methylated virulence genes in M. anisopliae. The results provided evidences that DNA methylation in M. anisopliae comprises another layer of gene expression regulation, suggesting a main role of DNA methylation regulating putative virulence determinants during M. anisopliae infection cycle