A second large plasmid encodes conjugative transfer and antimicrobial resistance in O119:H2 and some typical O111 enteropathogenic \u3ci\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/i\u3e strains

A novel and functional conjugative transfer system identified in O119:H2 enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) strain MB80 by subtractive hybridization is encoded on a large multidrug resistance plasmid, distinct from the well-described EPEC adherence factor (EAF) plasmid. Variants of the MB80 conjugative resistance plasmid were identified in other EPEC strains, including the prototypical O111:NM strain B171, from which the EAF plasmid has been sequenced. This separate large plasmid and the selective advantage that it confers in the antibiotic era have been overlooked because it comigrates with the virulence plasmid on conventional gels

The ‘visibility’ of unpaid care in England

Summary: Social work practice is increasingly concerned with support not just for service users but also for unpaid carers. A key aspect of practice is the assessment of carers’ needs. The Government has recently passed legislation that will widen eligibility for carers’ assessments and remove the requirement that carers must be providing a substantial amount of care on a regular basis. This article examines which carers are currently ‘visible’ or known to councils and which are not, and uses the results to examine the likely effects of the new legislation. In order to identify the characteristics of carers known to councils, the article uses large-scale surveys, comparing the 2009/10 Personal Social Services Survey of Adult Carers in England and the 2009/10 Survey of Carers in Households in England. Findings: Carers who are known to councils provide extremely long hours of care. Among carers providing substantial care who are known to councils, the majority care for 100 or more hours a week. The focus of councils on carers providing long hours of care is associated with a number of other carer characteristics, such as poor health. Applications: Councils' emphasis on the most intense carers is unlikely to be attributable solely to the current legislation. Therefore, dropping the substantial and regular clauses alone will not necessarily broaden access to carers' assessments and, in order to achieve this, considerable new resources may be needed. How far these resources are available will determine the extent to which practitioners can broaden access to carers' assessments

Future demand for long-term care, 2002 to 2041: projections of demand for long-term care for older people in England

The financing of long-term care raises a great many questions. How many older people are likely to require long-term care services in the coming decades? How much are these services likely to cost? Will the cost to public funds prove affordable? Who should pay? How should costs be divided between public expenditure and private sources of finance? In order to address these issues, reliable projections are needed of future demand for long-term care and future long-term care expenditure. This paper presents projections of demand for long-term care for older people in England to 2041 and associated future expenditure. The projections were produced using an updated and expanded version of the Personal Social Services Research Unit’s (PSSRU) long-term care projections model. The version of the model used here has a base year of 2002 and incorporates the 2004-based official population projections. The first part of the paper describes the PSSRU long-term care finance research programme and recent associated projects. The second part of the paper describes the updated and expanded PSSRU long-term care projections model, including details of the data used in this updated version. The third part presents a set of base case assumptions and the projections obtained using those assumptions. The fourth part investigates the sensitivity of the projections to changes in those assumptions. Section five discusses the findings. A final section sets out some conclusions

Barriers to receipt of social care services for working carers and the people they care for in times of austerity

Reconciliation of unpaid care and employment is an increasingly important societal, economic and policy issue, both in the UK and internationally. Previous research shows the effectiveness of formal social care services in enabling carers to remain in employment. Using quantitative and qualitative data collected from carers and the person they care for in 2013 and 2015, during a period of cuts to adult social care in England, we explore barriers experienced to receipt of social care services. The main barriers to receipt of services identified in our study were availability, characteristics of services such as quality, and attitudes of carer and care-recipient to receiving services. These barriers have particular implications for carers' ability to reconcile care and employment

Perceptions of unmet needs for community social care services in England. A comparison of working carers and the people they care for

Previous UK research has found expressed unmet need for services by unpaid working carers and among disabled and older people. There are, however, suggestions from research that views on unmet needs for services differ between carers and care-recipients. Working carers in the UK say that the care-recipient is sometimes reluctant to accept services and the few international comparative dyad studies that have been carried out find that carers perceive higher unmet need than care-recipients. Recent policy discussions in England have also recognised that there may be differences of opinion. We collected data in 2013 from working carer/care-recipient dyads in England about perceived need for services for the care-recipient, disability, unpaid care hour provision and individual and socio-demographic characteristics. We find that care-recipients as well as their carers perceive high unmet need for services, although carers perceive higher unmet need. For carers, unmet need is associated with the disability of the carer-recipient and being the daughter or son of the care-recipient; for care recipients it is associated with unpaid care hours, carers’ employment status and carers’ health. The majority of dyads agree on need for services, and agreement is higher when the working carer provides care for 10 hours or more hours a week. Services for care-recipients may enable working carers to remain in employment so agreement on needs for services supports the implementation of legislation, policy and practice that has a duty to, or aims to, support carer’s employment

Numbers of working carers whose employment is 'at risk' in England

Recent evidence suggests that a key threshold at which carers in England are at risk of leaving employment occurs when unpaid care is provided for 10 or more hours a week, a lower threshold than previously thought. Previous studies had shown that providing care for 20 or more hours a week had a negative effect on employment. One implication is that there are more working carers whose employment is at risk than previously thought. This paper aims to estimate the numbers of working carers whose employment is at risk because they provide care for 10 or more hours a week. A subsidiary aim is to estimate the numbers of working carers providing care for 10 or more hours a week to someone in a private household. Using the 2011 Population Census, Understanding Society (2010/11) and the Survey of Carers in Households (2009/10), we find that there are approximately 790,000 working carers aged 16-64 whose employment is at risk because they provide care for 10 or more hours a week. Of these, approximately 735,000 provide care to someone in a private household. There are nearly a quarter of a million more carers whose employment is at risk than previously thought

Comparison of Salmonella enterica Serovars Typhi and Typhimurium Reveals Typhoidal Serovar-Specific Responses to Bile.

Salmonella enterica serovars Typhi and Typhimurium cause typhoid fever and gastroenteritis, respectively. A unique feature of typhoid infection is asymptomatic carriage within the gallbladder, which is linked with S Typhi transmission. Despite this, S Typhi responses to bile have been poorly studied. Transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) of S Typhi Ty2 and a clinical S Typhi isolate belonging to the globally dominant H58 lineage (strain 129-0238), as well as S Typhimurium 14028, revealed that 249, 389, and 453 genes, respectively, were differentially expressed in the presence of 3% bile compared to control cultures lacking bile. fad genes, the actP-acs operon, and putative sialic acid uptake and metabolism genes (t1787 to t1790) were upregulated in all strains following bile exposure, which may represent adaptation to the small intestine environment. Genes within the Salmonella pathogenicity island 1 (SPI-1), those encoding a type IIII secretion system (T3SS), and motility genes were significantly upregulated in both S Typhi strains in bile but downregulated in S Typhimurium. Western blots of the SPI-1 proteins SipC, SipD, SopB, and SopE validated the gene expression data. Consistent with this, bile significantly increased S Typhi HeLa cell invasion, while S Typhimurium invasion was significantly repressed. Protein stability assays demonstrated that in S Typhi the half-life of HilD, the dominant regulator of SPI-1, is three times longer in the presence of bile; this increase in stability was independent of the acetyltransferase Pat. Overall, we found that S Typhi exhibits a specific response to bile, especially with regard to virulence gene expression, which could impact pathogenesis and transmission

Integrating Financial Therapy within Family-Owned Businesses: A Theoretical Case Vignette with Recommended Strategies for Consulting with Copreneurs

Broadly speaking, finances are often one of the most strenuous aspects of a relationship. One potential contributing factor to financial conflict experienced by couples are having different beliefs or attitudes towards money, coined previously as money scripts (Klontz, Kahler, & Klontz, 2008). Differing money scripts between partners can cause a breach in understanding of their partner\u27s internal experience around money that may lead to misunderstanding and conflict. This may be magnified for copreneurs, or romantic partners, who integrate a personal and working relationship within a business’s ownership structure. In this unique arrangement of personal and professional relationships, the traditional lines separating work and home life are either nonexistent or blurred. This paper serves to explore the conflict through a hypothetical case study and provides detailed financial therapy interventions that may be used to help copreneurs who are experiencing money conflict. The outline of interventions serves to aid financial therapists in their work with clients who are part of a family-owned business by helping these clients better communicate through the unique dynamics of a copreneur relationship

The golden death bacillus Chryseobacterium nematophagum is a novel matrix digesting pathogen of nematodes

Background: Nematodes represent important pathogens of humans and farmed animals and cause significant health and economic impacts. The control of nematodes is primarily carried out by applying a limited number of anthelmintic compounds, for which there is now widespread resistance being reported. There is a current unmet need to develop novel control measures including the identification and characterisation of natural pathogens of nematodes. Results: Nematode killing bacilli were isolated from a rotten fruit in association with wild free-living nematodes. These bacteria belong to the Chryseobacterium genus (golden bacteria) and represent a new species named Chryseobacterium nematophagum. These bacilli are oxidase-positive, flexirubin-pigmented, gram-negative rods that exhibit gelatinase activity. Caenorhabditis elegans are attracted to and eat these bacteria. Within 3 h of ingestion, however, the bacilli have degraded the anterior pharyngeal chitinous lining and entered the body cavity, ultimately killing the host. Within 24 h, the internal contents of the worms are digested followed by the final digestion of the remaining cuticle over a 2–3-day period. These bacteria will also infect and kill bacterivorous free-living (L1-L3) stages of all tested parasitic nematodes including the important veterinary Trichostrongylids such as Haemonchus contortus and Ostertagia ostertagi. The bacteria exhibit potent collagen-digesting properties, and genome sequencing has identified novel metalloprotease, collagenase and chitinase enzymes representing potential virulence factors. Conclusions: Chryseobacterium nematophagum is a newly discovered pathogen of nematodes that rapidly kills environmental stages of a wide range of key nematode parasites. These bacilli exhibit a unique invasion process, entering the body via the anterior pharynx through the specific degradation of extracellular matrices. This bacterial pathogen represents a prospective biological control agent for important nematode parasites