Detachment of Listeria innocua and Pantoea agglomerans from cylinders of agar and potato tissue under conditions of Couette flow

Cylinders of raw potato or agar were contacted with suspensions of Listeria innocua and Pantoea agglomerans and then used as replacement rotors in a rheometer in order to investigate detachment under the influence of known shear forces. These shear forces were functions solely of the rotational speed of the rotor and the fluid (glycerol) in which the cylinders were caused to rotate. With this system surface shear forces ranging from 1.3 to 125 Pa could be generated corresponding to rotational speeds of 12.5 to 775 rpm. Under these conditions detachment phenomena were quite rapid with in most cases complete detachment being achieved over timescales of the order of 30 s. In general, lower shear forces were required to detach L. innocua from both agar and potato. For agar cylinders an applied shear force of only 1.3 Pa was sufficient to achieve 98 % detachment of L. innocua after 20 s. By contrast, relatively high shear forces were required to detach P. agglomerans particularly from potato; under an applied shear force of 2.8 Pa only 9.5 % detachment was achieved after 30 s. The results obtained at the highest shear forces studied here (125 Pa) with potato cylinders were suggestive of mass transfer into glycerol of one or more constituents present in potatoes that caused detached cells to aggregate causing an apparent decrease in percentage detachment. The data obtained could be used as a basis for the rational design of washing processes for fresh ready to eat food products

The impact of remote and virtual laboratories in engineering education: a workshop

Current developments in information and communication technology (ICT) can be successfully embedded in the pedagogical design of engineering laboratories. This can open new horizons in the learning experience and widen participation. The development of virtual and remote laboratories are examples of embedding modern ICT in education which are becoming more and more widely accepted in engineering education. This workshop aims to corroborate the impact of virtual and remote laboratories on the development of knowledge and transferable skills in engineering students. The workshop will commence with introductions to the concepts of remote and virtual laboratories describing the pedagogical framework that supports the applications of these technologies to traditional and nontraditional student

Delivering Optimal Care to People with Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson’s Disease: A Qualitative Study of Patient, Caregiver, and Professional Perspectives

Background: Cognitive impairment is common in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and associated with lower quality of life. Cognitive impairment in PD manifests differently to other dementia pathologies. Provision of optimal care requires knowledge about the support needs of this population. // Methods: Eleven people with PD and cognitive impairment (PwP), 10 family caregivers, and 27 healthcare professionals were purposively sampled from across the United Kingdom. Semistructured interviews were conducted in 2019–2021, audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. // Results: Cognitive impairment in PD conveyed increased complexity for clinical management and healthcare interactions, the latter driven by multifactorial communication difficulties. Techniques that helped included slow, simple, and single messages, avoiding topic switching. Information and emotional support needs were often unmet, particularly for caregivers. Diagnostic pathways were inconsistent and awareness of cognitive impairment in PD was poor, both contributing to underdiagnosis. Many felt that PwP and cognitive impairment fell through service gaps, resulting from disjointed, nonspecific, and underresourced services. Personalised care was advocated through tailoring to individual needs of PwP and caregivers facilitated by flexibility, time and continuity within services, and supporting self-management. // Conclusions: This study highlights unmet need for people with this complex condition. Clinicians should adapt their approach and communication techniques for this population and provide tailored information and support to both PwP and caregivers. Services need to be more streamlined and collaborative, providing more time and flexibility. There is a need for wider awareness and deeper understanding of this condition and its differences from other types of dementia

Witnessing-condition Heterogeneity and Witnesses’ Versus Investigators’ Confidence in the Accuracy of Witnesses’ Identification Decisions

©American Psychological Association, [2000]. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. Please do not copy or cite without author's permission. The final article is available, upon publication, at: [https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1023/A:1005504320565]Undergraduate participants were tested in 144 pairs, with one member of each pair randomly assigned to a “witness” role and the other to an “:investigator” role. Each witness viewed a target person on video under good or poor witnessing conditions and was then interviewed by an investigator, who administered a photo lineup and rated his or her confidence in the witness. Witnesses also (separately) rated their own confidence. Investigators discriminated between accurate and inaccurate witnesses, but did so less well than witnesses' own confidence ratings and were biased toward accepting witnesses' decisions. Moreover, investigators' confidence made no unique contribution to the prediction of witnesses' accuracy. Witnesses' confidence and accuracy were affected in the same direction by witnessing conditions, and there was a substantial confidence–accuracy correlation when data were collapsed across witnessing conditions. Confidence can be strongly indicative of accuracy when witnessing conditions vary widely, and witnesses' confidence may be a better indicator than investigators'Funder 1,This research was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grant to the first author || Funder 2, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grant to the third author

Treatment of trichomoniasis in pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa does not appear to be associated with low birth weight or preterm birth

Objectives. To determine whether treatment of trichomoniasis increases the risk of prematurity. Design. Sub-analysis of a randomised trial. Setting. We analysed data from HPTN 024, a randomised trial of antenatal and intrapartum antibiotics to reduce chorioamnionitis-related perinatal HIV transmission. Subjects. Pregnant women from four sites in Africa. Outcome measures. Gestational age at the time of delivery or mean birth weight. Results. Of 2 428 women-infant pairs included, 428 (18%) had trichomoniasis at enrolment. There were no differences in infant age or birth weight between women with or without trichomoniasis. By randomisation group, there were no differences in gestational age at birth or birth weight. Of the 428 women diagnosed with trichomoniasis, 365 (83%) received antibiotics and 63 (15%) did not. In analysis of actual use of antibiotics, women with trichomoniasis who received no treatment were more likely to deliver a preterm infant when the symphysis-fundal height was used to estimate gestational age (36% v. 23%; p=0.03), but not when the Ballard score was used (16% v. 21%; p=0.41). There were no differences in mean birth weight between groups. Conclusions. In pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa, most of whom were HIV-infected, neither trichomoniasis nor its treatment appears to influence the risk of preterm birth or a low-birth-weight infant

Will a catch share for whales improve social welfare?

We critique a proposal to use catch shares to manage transboundary wildlife resources with potentially high non-extractive values, and we focus on the case of whales. Because whales are impure public goods, a policy that fails to capture all nonmarket benefits (due to free riding) could lead to a suboptimal outcome. Even if free riding were overcome, whale shares would face four implementation challenges. First, a whale share could legitimize the international trade in whale meat and expand the whale meat market. Second, a legal whale trade creates monitoring and enforcement challenges similar to those of organizations that manage highly migratory species such as tuna. Third, a whale share could create a new political economy of management that changes incentives and increases costs for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to achieve the current level of conservation. Fourth, a whale share program creates new logistical challenges for quota definition and allocation regardless of whether the market for whale products expands or contracts. Each of these issues, if left unaddressed, could result in lower overall welfare for society than under the status quo

A Global lake ecological observatory network (GLEON) for synthesising high-frequency sensor data for validation of deterministic ecological models

A Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON; www.gleon.org) has formed to provide a coordinated response to the need for scientific understanding of lake processes, utilising technological advances available from autonomous sensors. The organisation embraces a grassroots approach to engage researchers from varying disciplines, sites spanning geographic and ecological gradients, and novel sensor and cyberinfrastructure to synthesise high-frequency lake data at scales ranging from local to global. The high-frequency data provide a platform to rigorously validate processbased ecological models because model simulation time steps are better aligned with sensor measurements than with lower-frequency, manual samples. Two case studies from Trout Bog, Wisconsin, USA, and Lake Rotoehu, North Island, New Zealand, are presented to demonstrate that in the past, ecological model outputs (e.g., temperature, chlorophyll) have been relatively poorly validated based on a limited number of directly comparable measurements, both in time and space. The case studies demonstrate some of the difficulties of mapping sensor measurements directly to model state variable outputs as well as the opportunities to use deviations between sensor measurements and model simulations to better inform process understanding. Well-validated ecological models provide a mechanism to extrapolate high-frequency sensor data in space and time, thereby potentially creating a fully 3-dimensional simulation of key variables of interest

Photon echo studies of photosynthetic light harvesting

The broad linewidths in absorption spectra of photosynthetic complexes obscure information related to their structure and function. Photon echo techniques represent a powerful class of time-resolved electronic spectroscopy that allow researchers to probe the interactions normally hidden under broad linewidths with sufficient time resolution to follow the fastest energy transfer events in light harvesting. Here, we outline the technical approach and applications of two types of photon echo experiments: the photon echo peak shift and two-dimensional (2D) Fourier transform photon echo spectroscopy. We review several extensions of these techniques to photosynthetic complexes. Photon echo peak shift spectroscopy can be used to determine the strength of coupling between a pigment and its surrounding environment including neighboring pigments and to quantify timescales of energy transfer. Two-dimensional spectroscopy yields a frequency-resolved map of absorption and emission processes, allowing coupling interactions and energy transfer pathways to be viewed directly. Furthermore, 2D spectroscopy reveals structural information such as the relative orientations of coupled transitions. Both classes of experiments can be used to probe the quantum mechanical nature of photosynthetic light-harvesting: peak shift experiments allow quantification of correlated energetic fluctuations between pigments, while 2D techniques measure quantum beating directly, both of which indicate the extent of quantum coherence over multiple pigment sites in the protein complex. The mechanistic and structural information obtained by these techniques reveals valuable insights into the design principles of photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes, and a multitude of variations on the methods outlined here

G2i Knowledge Brief: A Knowledge Brief of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience

Courts are daily confronted with admissibility issues – such as in cases involving neuroscientific testimony – that sometimes involve both the existence of a general phenomenon (i.e., “G”) and the question of whether a particular case represents a specific instance of that general phenomenon (i.e., “i”). Unfortunately, courts have yet to carefully consider the implications of “G2i” for their admissibility decisions. In some areas, courts limit an expert’s testimony to the general phenomenon. They insist that whether the case at hand is an instance of that phenomenon is exclusively a jury question, and thus not an appropriate subject of expert opinion. In other cases, in contrast, courts hold that expert evidence must be provided on both the group-data issue (i.e., that the phenomenon exists) and what is called the “diagnostic” issue (i.e., that this case is an instance of that phenomenon). Consequently, the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience has prepared this knowledge brief to help courts manage the G2i divide. Specifically, we recommend that courts first determine whether proffered expert testimony concerns only the existence of the general phenomenon or instead concerns both that and the diagnosis that a particular case represents an instance of that phenomenon. Only after making that determination should the court make its admissibility decision (guided, for instance, by the Daubert factors for admitting scientific evidence)

Overview of the CCP4 suite and current developments.

The CCP4 (Collaborative Computational Project, Number 4) software suite is a collection of programs and associated data and software libraries which can be used for macromolecular structure determination by X-ray crystallography. The suite is designed to be flexible, allowing users a number of methods of achieving their aims. The programs are from a wide variety of sources but are connected by a common infrastructure provided by standard file formats, data objects and graphical interfaces. Structure solution by macromolecular crystallography is becoming increasingly automated and the CCP4 suite includes several automation pipelines. After giving a brief description of the evolution of CCP4 over the last 30 years, an overview of the current suite is given. While detailed descriptions are given in the accompanying articles, here it is shown how the individual programs contribute to a complete software package