Growth, inhibition and pathogenicity of microorganisms in enteral nutrient solutions

Enteral nutrient solutions (ENS) which are contaminated with microorganisms from exogenous sources or from the microbial flora of the patient's own gastrointestinal tract are associated with bacteraemia, diarrhoea, respiratory infections and septicaemia. These infections seriously undermine some of the advantages of enteral feeding by increasing patient morbidity, mortality and lengthening hospital stay. The strategies which have been employed to prevent contamination of enteral feeding systems and the subsequent incidence of disease have been shown to be ineffective or impractical in a clinical environment. Therefore, this thesis investigated the possibilities of using novel antimicrobial agents (oil of fennel and parabens) to inhibit the growth of microorganisms that commonly contaminate ENS and/or to alter the expression of products which mediate in their pathogenicity. In order to achieve this, the study of growth and the virulence determinants of microorganisms in enteral feeding solutions was necessary. Gram-negative bacteria are the most important group of microorganisms that contaminate ENS and therefore this group of bacteria and lipopolysaccharide, an important Gram-negative bacterial virulence determinant, were particularly singled out for study. The results showed that the growth of all test strains of microorganisms was similar in milk-based enteral nutrient solutions and laboratory media, while only Candida albicans and Klebsiella aerogenes grew in the "fruit-based" ENS. None of microbial strains were inhibited in milk-based ENS by the concentrations of oil of fennel or parabens used singly. However, oil of fennel and parabens used in combination had synergistic antimicrobial activity and inhibited the growth of all microbial strains. Growth in milk-based enteral nutrient solutions was found to alter the phenotypic expression and biological activity of lipopolysaccharide. Results showed differences in the O-polysaccharide portion of the lipopolysaccharide of bacteria cultured in milk-based enteral nutrient solutions compared to those cultured in laboratory media. Bacteria cultured in milk-based enteral feeds had increased serum resistance and also induced a significantly greater release of nitric oxide from a human monocyte cell line than bacteria cultured in laboratory media. The concentrations of oil of fennel and methyl parabens used in experiments did not alter the expression of O-polysacchande. Enteral nutrient solutions can therefore, not only support the growth of microorganisms but alter virulence determinants. This could have important consequences for immunocompromised patients who receive ENS

Coalmining, population and enclosure in the Seasale colliery districts of Durham (northern Durham), 1551-1810 : a study in historical geography.

In 2 volsAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D182674 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

A New Learning and Skills Landscape? The central role of the Learning and Skills Council

This is the first paper from a project which is part of the Economic and Social Research Council’s Programme of research into “Teaching and Learning”. The project, entitled “The Impact of Policy on Learning and Inclusion in the New Learning and Skills Sector”, explores what impact the efforts to create a single learning and skills system (LSS) are having on teaching, learning, assessment and inclusion for three marginalised groups of post-16 learners. Drawing primarily on policy documents and 62 in-depth interviews with national, regional and local policymakers in England, the paper points to a complex, confusing and constantly changing landscape; in particular, it deals with the formation, early years and recent reorganisation of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), its roles, relations with Government, its rather limited power, its partnerships and likely futures. While the formation of a more unified LSS is broadly seen as a necessary step in overcoming the fragmentation and inequalities of the previous post-16 sector, interviewees also highlighted problems, some of which may not simply abate with the passing of time. Political expectations of change are high, but the LSC and its partners are expected to carry through ‘transformational’ strategies without the necessary ‘tools for the job’. In addition, some features of the LSS policy landscape still remain unreformed or need to be reorganised. The LSC and its partners are at the receiving end of a series of policy drivers (eg planning, funding, targets, inspection and initiatives) that may have partial or even perverse effects on the groups of marginalised learners we are studying

A comparative study of herbage intake, ingestive behaviour and diet selection, and effects of condensed tannins upon body and wool growth in lambs grazing Yorkshire fog (Holcus lanatus) and annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) dominant swards

An experiment was carried out from August to early November 1994 to examine differences in diet selection, herbage intake, grazing behaviour and animal performance between weaned lambs rotationally grazing swards of annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum)/white clover (Trifolium repens) and Yorkshire fog (Holcus lanatus)/T. repens with or without Lotus corniculatus. There were four replicate groups of six lambs per treatment. The effects of condensed tannins (CT) on lamb production were assessed by twice-daily oral administration of 10g polyethylene glycol (PEG; molecular weight 4000) to half the lambs on each sward. The Lotus content of all swards was very low, and results are presented here for main sward comparisons meaned over lotus treatments. Overall mean estimates of pre-grazing herbage mass and sward surface height for the annual ryegrass and Yorkshire fog swards respectively, were 5820 v. 4360 +/- 190 kg DM/ha (P , P < 0.01) and liveweight gain (141 v. 120 +/- 4.3 g per lamb per day, P < 0.01), although differences in carcass weight (17.9 v. 18.2 +/- 0.3 kg) and FEC transformed values (9.6 v. 11.0 +/- 06 eggs/g fresh faeces) were not significant. The effects of CT on animal performance were greater in Yorkshire fog swards. CT had no significant effects on diet selection, herbage intake and grazing behaviour patterns

Learners in the English Learning and Skills Sector: the implications of half-right policy assumptions

The English Learning and Skills Sector (LSS) contains a highly diverse range of learners and covers all aspects of post-16 learning with the exception of higher education. In the research on which this paper is based we are concerned with the effects of policy on three types of learners – unemployed adults attempting to improve their basic skills in community learning settings, younger learners on Level 1 and 2 courses in further education colleges and employees in basic skills provision in the workplace. What is distinctive about all three groups is that they have historically failed in, or been failed by, compulsory education. What is interesting is that they are constructed as 'problem learners' in learning and skills sector policy documents. We use data from 194 learner interviews, conducted during 2004/5, in 24 learning sites in London and the North East of England, to argue that government policy assumptions about these learners may only be 'half right'. We argue that such assumptions might be leading to half-right policy based on incomplete understandings or surface views of learner needs that are more politically constructed than real. We suggest that policy makers should focus more on systemic problems in the learning and skills sector and less on problematising groups of learners

‘Modernisation’ and the role of policy levers in the Learning and Skills Sector

This paper examines the changing use of policy levers in the English post-compulsory education and training system, often referred to as the Learning and Skills Sector. Policy steering by governments has increased significantly in recent years, bringing with it the development of new forms of arms-length regulation. In the English context these changes were expressed during the 1980s and 1990s through neo-liberal New Public Management and, since 1997, have been extended through the New Labour government’s project to further ‘modernise’ public services. We look here at the changing use of policy levers (focussing in particular on the role of targets, funding, inspection, planning and initiatives) over three historical phases, paying particular attention to developments since the formation of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) in 2001. We conclude by considering the range of responses adopted by education professionals in this era of ‘modernisation’