Online Student Engagement and Place Attachment to Campus in the New Service Marketplace: An Exploratory Study

Purpose: The pandemic has accelerated the use of virtual learning spaces and led to rethinking post-pandemic course delivery. However, it remains unclear whether students’ online engagement in e-servicescapes can influence attachment to a place, i.e. a physical servicescape. Our study conducts an exploratory study to inform place attachment and actor engagement literature in an online service context. Design/methodology/approach: This study employed quantitative survey design and collected 98 usable responses from undergraduate and postgraduate students at a major New Zealand university during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The questionnaire consisted of 23 items relating to three dimensions of online student engagement and 19 items referring to six dimensions of campus attachment. Findings: Results of the exploratory study indicate that classmate community in online lectures, referring to student–student interactions, can positively influence five of the dimensions of campus attachment, including place identity, place dependence, affective attachment, social bonding, and place memory, even though students are physically not on campus. However, it cannot influence place expectation. Moreover, instructor community (student–instructor interaction) and learning engagement (student–content interaction) in online lectures have insignificant impact on campus attachment. Research limitations/implications: This study emphasises the social dimension when interacting in e-servicescapes. Person-based interactions are more influential than contentbased interactions for student engagement. Educational service providers should integrate the eservicescape and the physical servicescape by encouraging more student–student interactions to contribute to ecosystem well-being at the micro, meso, and macro levels. Originality/value: This study indicates that customer-to-customer interaction serves to integrate customer engagement across the digital and physical realms for process-based services like education

Dogs as carriers of virulent and resistant genotypes of Clostridioides difficile

While previous research on zoonotic transmission of community-acquired Clostridioides difficile infection (CA-CDI) focused on food-producing animals, the present study aimed to investigate whether dogs are carriers of resistant and/or virulent C. difficile strains. Rectal swabs were collected from 323 dogs and 38 C. difficile isolates (11.8%) were obtained. Isolates were characterized by antimicrobial susceptibility testing, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and a DNA hybridization assay. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST), core genome MLST (cgMLST) and screening for virulence and antimicrobial resistance genes were performed based on WGS. Minimum inhibitory concentrations for erythromycin, clindamycin, tetracycline, vancomycin and metronidazole were determined by E-test. Out of 38 C. difficile isolates, 28 (73.7%) carried genes for toxins. The majority of isolates belonged to MLST sequence types (STs) of clade I and one to clade V. Several isolates belonged to STs previously associated with human CA-CDI. However, cgMLST showed low genetic relatedness between the isolates of this study and C. difficile strains isolated from humans in Austria for which genome sequences were publicly available. Four isolates (10.5%) displayed resistance to three of the tested antimicrobial agents. Isolates exhibited resistance to erythromycin, clindamycin, tetracycline and metronidazole. These phenotypic resistances were supported by the presence of the resistance genes erm(B), cfr(C) and tet(M). All isolates were susceptible to vancomycin. Our results indicate that dogs may carry virulent and antimicrobial-resistant C. difficile strains

Dogs as carriers of virulent and resistant genotypes of Clostridioides difficile

Abstract While previous research on zoonotic transmission of community-acquired Clostridioides difficile infection (CA-CDI) focused on food-producing animals, the present study aimed to investigate whether dogs are carriers of resistant and/or virulent C. difficile strains. Rectal swabs were collected from 323 dogs and 38 C. difficile isolates (11.8%) were obtained. Isolates were characterized by antimicrobial susceptibility testing, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and a DNA hybridization assay. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST), core genome MLST (cgMLST) and screening for virulence and antimicrobial resistance genes were performed based on WGS. Minimum inhibitory concentrations for erythromycin, clindamycin, tetracycline, vancomycin and metronidazole were determined by E-test. Out of 38 C. difficile isolates, 28 (73.7%) carried genes for toxins. The majority of isolates belonged to MLST sequence types (STs) of clade I and one to clade V. Several isolates belonged to STs previously associated with human CA-CDI. However, cgMLST showed low genetic relatedness between the isolates of this study and C. difficile strains isolated from humans in Austria for which genome sequences were publicly available. Four isolates (10.5%) displayed resistance to three of the tested antimicrobial agents. Isolates exhibited resistance to erythromycin, clindamycin, tetracycline and metronidazole. These phenotypic resistances were supported by the presence of the resistance genes erm(B), cfr(C) and tet(M). All isolates were susceptible to vancomycin. Our results indicate that dogs may carry virulent and antimicrobial-resistant C. difficile strains.1 Introduction 2 Methods 2.1 Sampling and ethics 2.2 Isolation and identification of Clostridioides difficile 2.3 Antimicrobial susceptibility testing 2.4 Whole-genome sequencing and comparative genomic analysis 2.5 Statistical analysis 3 Results 3.1 Prevalence of Clostridioides difficile and risk factors for shedding 3.2 Antimicrobial susceptibility testing and detection of antimicrobial resistance determinants 3.3 Genomic characterization of canine Clostridioides difficile 3.4 Genome annotation and comparison 4 Discussio

The genetic study of three population microisolates in South Tyrol (MICROS): study design and epidemiological perspectives

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is increasing evidence of the important role that small, isolated populations could play in finding genes involved in the etiology of diseases. For historical and political reasons, South Tyrol, the northern most Italian region, includes several villages of small dimensions which remained isolated over the centuries.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The MICROS study is a population-based survey on three small, isolated villages, characterized by: old settlement; small number of founders; high endogamy rates; slow/null population expansion. During the stage-1 (2002/03) genealogical data, screening questionnaires, clinical measurements, blood and urine samples, and DNA were collected for 1175 adult volunteers. Stage-2, concerning trait diagnoses, linkage analysis and association studies, is ongoing. The selection of the traits is being driven by expert clinicians. Preliminary, descriptive statistics were obtained. Power simulations for finding linkage on a quantitative trait locus (QTL) were undertaken.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Starting from participants, genealogies were reconstructed for 50,037 subjects, going back to the early 1600s. Within the last five generations, subjects were clustered in one pedigree of 7049 subjects plus 178 smaller pedigrees (3 to 85 subjects each). A significant probability of familial clustering was assessed for many traits, especially among the cardiovascular, neurological and respiratory traits. Simulations showed that the MICROS pedigree has a substantial power to detect a LOD score ≥ 3 when the QTL specific heritability is ≥ 20%.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The MICROS study is an extensive, ongoing, two-stage survey aimed at characterizing the genetic epidemiology of Mendelian and complex diseases. Our approach, involving different scientific disciplines, is an advantageous strategy to define and to study population isolates. The isolation of the Alpine populations, together with the extensive data collected so far, make the MICROS study a powerful resource for the study of diseases in many fields of medicine. Recent successes and simulation studies give us confidence that our pedigrees can be valuable both in finding new candidates loci and to confirm existing candidate genes.</p

Untersuchungen zur Plasmapolymerisation und zur Methanol-Diffusion ionenleitender Polymerelektrolytmembranen

In jüngerer Zeit hat die Polymerelektrolytmembran (PEM)-Brennstoffzelle eine rasante Entwicklung erfahren. Für eine breite Markteinführung muß aber der Membranpreis noch drastisch gesenkt werden. Bei der Direkt-Methanol-Brennstoffzelle (DMFC) verursacht die Methanol-Permeation durch die Membran Leistungsbußen. Hier sind Membranen mit geringerer Methanoldurchlässigkeit bei gleichzeitig hoher Protonenleitfähigkeit erwünscht. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war die Herstellung protonenleitender Membranen durch die Plasmapolymerisationsverfahren. Darüber hinaus sollte überprüft werden, inwieweit sich diese Membranen als Methanolbarriere eignen. Die Membranen wurden als dünne Filme direkt aus der Gasphase abgeschieden, indem ein PTFE-Target mit Hilfe eines Ionenstrahls zerstäubt wurde. Dabei verbinden sich freigesetzte Sekundärteilchen z.B. mit Schwefeldioxid und repolymerisieren anschließend als Film auf einem Substrat. Massenspektrometrische Untersuchungen zeigten, daß Schwefeldioxid im Plasma reduziert wird und nicht die gewünschte Oxidation zur Sulfonsäuregruppe erfährt. Deshalb wurden sechswertige Schwefel-Sauerstoff-Verbindungen vorgelegt und die Polymerisation unter schonenden Bedingungen durchgeführt. Die besten ionischen Leitfähigkeiten (>10 hoch minus 4 S/cm) zeigten Membranen, die mit Chlorsulfonsäure plasmapolymerisiert wurden. In dünnen Schichten auf Nafion eignen sich diese Plasmapolymere als wirksame Methanolbarriere. Durch die Beschichtung konnte der diffusive Methanoltransport im Verhältnis zum Protonentransport zurückgedrängt werden. Derartige Verbund-Membranen sollten in der DMFC Einsatz finden

Untersuchungen zur Plasmapolymerisation und zur Methanol-Diffusion ionenleitender Polymerelektrolytmembranen

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