Spatiotemporal replication dynamics of Salmonella during systemic disease

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) causes a systemic disease in susceptible mouse strains that is widely used as a model of human typhoid fever. I developed a reporter system based on fluorescence dilution that measures bacterial replication directly at both the population and single cell level. To understand how S. Typhimurium colonises host tissues during disease, I applied fluorescence dilution to study S. Typhimurium replication during acute murine typhoid, following oral inoculation. Bacteria that had not replicated were found in the Peyer’s patches (PP), mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) and spleen. Hence, replication is not a prerequisite for S. Typhimurium to traverse the intestinal wall and reach deeper tissues. Furthermore, non-replicating bacteria were found to persist for long periods of time within the intestine and, to a smaller extent, in the spleen, suggesting that these bacteria may represent dormant reservoirs that cause chronic infections. Bacteria replicated rapidly upon invasion of the PP, while the MLN represented a more restrictive niche for bacterial replication. In addition, the spleen was seeded preferentially by bacteria that had already replicated elsewhere. Further analysis of bacterial replication in the spleen provided insights into the contribution of the Salmonella-encoded pathogenicity island-2 type III secretion system to replication in this organ. Experiments also showed that S. Typhimurium preferentially colonised and replicated within macrophages within the spleen. Therefore, the use of fluorescence dilution has provided detailed insights into the relationship between the replication of S. Typhimurium and its colonisation of host tissues, and has revealed the existence and localisation of non-replicating bacteria that could persist during chronic infections

Retrospective characterization of geriatric patients with fractures below the hip, and comparison of this patient population with geriatric hip fracture patients [abstract]

Hip fractures are commonly responsible for increased morbidity and mortality in the geriatric population. Many studies have discussed the management and outcomes of geriatric hip fracture patients. However, little attention has been given to the management of elderly patients with lower extremity fractures below the subtrochanteric region of the femur. The purpose of the study was to retrospectively characterize the population of geriatric-below-the-hip fracture patients and to compare this patient population to the geriatric hip fracture population at the University Hospital over the same period of time. The data collected on 142 patients included patient demographics, pre-fracture residential status, injury characteristics, hospitalization characteristics, discharge status and outcomes. Broad descriptive based statistical measures were used to assess the data and etect significance. Statistical analysis of this study's data is pending

Unified approach to cosmic acceleration

We present a unified framework for the study of late time cosmic acceleration. Using methods of effective field theory, we show that existing proposals for late time acceleration can be subsumed in a single framework, rather than many compartmentalized theories. We construct the most general action consistent with symmetry principles, derive the background and perturbation evolution equations, and demonstrate that for special choices of our parameters we can reproduce results already existing in the literature. Lastly, we lay the foundation for future work placing phenomenological constraints on the parameters of the effective theory. Although in this paper we focus on late time acceleration, our construction also generalizes the effective field theory of inflation to the scalar-tensor and multifield case for perturbatively constructed backgrounds

How should you manage an overweight breastfed infant?

Monitor the growth of exclusively breastfed babies by plotting routine weights and lengths on the World Health Organization (WHO) growth curve (strength of recommendation [SOR]: A, systematic reviews). Reassure parents that higher-than- normal weight gain in infants who are breastfeeding easily without supplementation has no known adverse effects. Advise parents to change behaviors that result in overfeeding or insufficient physical activity (SOR: C, expert opinion)

What about the Children: How Children of Same-Sex Couples are Left without State-Run Support (Comment)

Ultimately, the children of same-sex unions are left without the financial or emotional support of one of the parents, and with significantly fewer rights than children from opposite-sex unions. Part II of this Comment will provide a legal background for child support, including the requirements for states as set forth by the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act. Part III will explore the laws in a few select states that have defense of marriage acts versus those that do not, specifically Texas, Missouri, New York, California, Montana, Wisconsin, and Ohio. Part III will also discuss the various problems that arise for families as a result of the current laws. Part IV will propose that states should enact legislation that establishes same-sex partners as legal parents with the same rights and responsibilities to their children as opposite-sex partners

Intersectional identities and career progression in retail: The experiences of minority‐ethnic women

Contributing to scholarship on diversity and inclusion (D&I) and careers within UK retailing, this paper documents the lived experiences of minority-ethnic women working in retail. Given the extensive research on both the career obstacles faced by women in a highly feminized sector and the disadvantages experienced by minority-ethnic workers in the UK labor market more broadly, consideration of social identity categories beyond gender and their impact on retailing careers in the existing literature is limited. Here we use intersectionality theory to explain how individual-level identity categories, such as gender, ethnicity and religion, intersect with wider organisational practices, which disadvantage the career progression of minority-ethnic women in UK retail. In a service-driven sector dependent upon consumers, we conclude that there is a need to consider intersectional identity experiences and power relations within the customer-employee relationship, as this disproportionately affects minority-ethnic women and the realization of their career goals in retail

Complexion: skin, surface and depth in contemporary art practice

ABSTRACT In this thesis I explore the skin as material, medium and metaphor in contemporary art. In recognising the skin as Zeitgeist, I locate its significance in metaphors of abject frailty and hardened impenetrability, which emerges from contemporary crises of identity, boundary and limit as conditions of a ‘post-modern’, globalised culture. I show how these crises have emerged through modes of medical, scientific and artistic practices that have attempted to order, categorise and delimit the body, privileging visuality and rationality in particular. In this process the skin has been ‘separated’ from the body, both physically in the act of medical dissection, and metaphorically in the separation between skin and the psyche. I look to associated, and deeply relational, concepts of surface and depth (the abject); opticality and tactility (the haptic); intimacy and distance (scale). This opens up the potential for an embodied and phenomenological account of the skin, and for a knowledge gained through the act and experience of containing, protecting and feeling the limits of the body. I consider the work of two woman artists, Jeanne Silverthorne and Penny Siopis, who create ‘actual skins’ and evoke metaphors of skin in their respective oeuvres. In considering how my own body of work explores the notion of skin, I provide a critical framework for the reception of my body of work submitted for this degree