The Isolation and Characterization of Bacteriophage Hasitha

Microbacteriophage Hasitha is a virus that infects Microbacterium foliorum, a bacterium associated with grasses that was first discovered in Germany. Hasitha was isolated from an enriched compost sample and is of particular interest due to its unusual growth pattern. Most bacteriophages require actively growing host cells to produce new phage progeny. However, Hasitha can infect and kill stationary (non-replicating) bacterial cells. We discovered this unusual characteristic through a fortuitous observation of infected lawns that were allowed to incubate in the lab workspace for approximately one month. During this time, a noticeable “halo” grew around the initial site of infection and consumed most of the lawn. Here we report the genomic sequence of Hasitha and its ultrastructural features. We also report the results of experiments to determine the mechanism for the expanding halos of growth. Our results suggest that Hasitha phage particles diffuse outward from the initial site of infection and continue to infect and lyse surrounding stationary host cells. We also found through analysis of bacteriophages closely related to Hasitha that the halos are genetic in nature, with genome annotation suggesting a few gene products of unknown function to have possibly hydrolytic properties. Lastly, thin sectioning determined that the bacterial hosts found in the developed halo are no longer in stationary phase. These findings elucidate previously unknown factors in phage infection of stationary phase bacteria and provide data to be expanded upon in future studies

Erratum to ‘Bateman's principles and human sex roles’

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Interventions in exclusive breastfeeding: a systematic review

Now recognised as a worldwide public health issue, the significance of promoting and encouraging exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) has been acknowledged by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Documented policies about the importance of facilitating the support of breastfeeding women is currently receiving worldwide recognition (WHO, 2011; WHO and UNICEF, 2003). This literature review will examine provision of support mechanisms for breastfeeding mothers, focusing on peer support in encouraging the starting and maintaining of EBF. Consideration will also be given to any barriers that may prevent higher success rates, as cultural and educational factors may have a significant impact on the starting and maintaining of EBF. These factors must be considered when starting support groups, networks or activities that aim to address this significant public health issue

A theoretical proposal for a perceptually driven, food-based disgust that can influence food acceptance during early childhood

Disgust is not thought to influence the acceptability of food during infancy and early childhood as the cognitive functioning needed to understand contagion and the nature and origin of a given disgust stimulus, has to have sufficiently developed. Despite this, studies have demonstrated the potential for disgust in children as young as two years of age. Furthermore, it seems that young children can demonstrate aspects of disgust, without having cognitive understanding of contagion. This review is the first paper to demonstrate how core disgust may influence the acceptability of foods from as young as late infancy. Using support from existing theory and research, the paper argues several factors exist to support the proposal. Firstly, food neophobia may act as a catalyst for disgust responses during late infancy/early childhood. Secondly, that disgust in young children can result from visual perceptual elements that are specifically related to foods (as opposed to a cognitive response based on non-food disgust stimuli). Thirdly, that some disliked foods have contaminating properties, much like non-food, adult disgust stimuli (e.g. insects). Fourthly, that the response reduces as the child ages and learns more about food and its variability between presentations. Finally, individual differences exist to explain why an individual child may be more or less likely to respond to a given food with a disgust response

Rejection of Known and Previously Accepted Foods During Early Childhood: An Extension of the Neophobic Response?

Children begin to reject new foods (food neophobia) at around 18 to 30 months. At this time parents also report the rejection of known and previously accepted foods. The studies presented here are the first to examine this rejection of accepted foods in isolation and presents a number of significant findings. Using a parental questionnaire, it was found that the rejection of known and previously accepted food begins towards the end of infancy, commonly occurs during nursery age, reduces in frequency after 30 months and most often involves the rejection of vegetables, mixed foods and fruit. It was hypothesised that known and previously accepted foods are rejected due to an extension of the neophobic response. When neophobia begins, infants become hyper-vigilant to the visual perceptual features of food in order to recognise the food given. Foods not matching learnt expectations, due to perceptual changes between servings, may be categorised as 'new' or 'different' and rejected in a neophobic response. A second study offers some support for this hypothesis, showing that those children who are reported as having rejected a known and previously accepted food score higher on a neophobia and 'pickyâ' eating scales. Implications are discussed.

Gender equality and gender gaps in mathematics performance

In a recent analysis of mathematics performance (Eriksson et al. 2020), national gender egalitarian values were positively associated with an increase in the average mathematics scores of high-school boys relative to girls. This study highlights that progressive gender egalitarian values at a national level might not translate into equality of opportunity at an individual level.PostprintNon peer reviewe

ANOPP programmer's reference manual for the executive System

Documentation for the Aircraft Noise Prediction Program as of release level 01/00/00 is presented in a manual designed for programmers having a need for understanding the internal design and logical concepts of the executive system software. Emphasis is placed on providing sufficient information to modify the system for enhancements or error correction. The ANOPP executive system includes software related to operating system interface, executive control, and data base management for the Aircraft Noise Prediction Program. It is written in Fortran IV for use on CDC Cyber series of computers

The Ontogeny of Anxiety-Like Behavior in Rats from Adolescence to Adulthood

In human beings, susceptibility to anxiety disorders can be relatively high during adolescence. Understanding the ontogeny of anxiety-like behavior in laboratory rodents has implications for developing anxiolytic drugs that are suitable for this age group. Given the dearth of information about adolescent rodents, this study examined the response of both male and female adolescent, late adolescent, young adult, and older adult rats to three tests of anxiety-like behavior: the emergence test (ET), open field (OF), and elevated plus-maze (EPM). The results showed that adolescent rats exhibited a higher anxiety-like response than adults on each test; the amount of locomotion in the OF and percentage of time spent on the open arms of the EPM increased across the age groups, while older adult rats made the fewest start box re-entries in the ET. These results support the hypothesis that adolescent rats have a more pronounced response to stressors than do adults. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 52: 731–739, 2010

The story of Josh : a novel

The Story of Josh is a novel in free verse drawing on the Jesus myth, but set in a modem North American context. The project was first inspired by Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red . The novel is written in verse lines because the symbolic resonance of poetry better lends itself to the re-telling of myth than prose. The novel tells the story of a Jewish boy growing up in North American; the text leaves most settings unnamed to preserve some of the universality that the Christ myth has come to represent. The story explores the idea of being 'chosen.' The Western ideal of the individual as reigning supreme (as signified by Christ) - the shift of focus from communal identity to individual identity - creates both an inflated sense of self and a deep sense of isolation in the Western psyche. The novel examines the cultural consequences of the historically dominant concept of mind/body dualism in the Western psyche. The perspective of the individual as dual, with the mind posited as higher, divine, and predominantly masculine, and the body posited as lower, profane, and predominantly feminine, has informed imbalances of power throughout history. Through the character of Isobel, a childhood friend of Joshua's, the novel incorporates the historically dismissed and mistreated symbolic and embodied feminine into the concept of personhood as represented by the Christ-figure. The novel draws on C. G Jung's concepts of the personal and collective unconscious, the archetypes, and the project of individuation