A New Method for the Rapid Isolation of Streptococcus Bovis from Water

The importance of the fecal streptococci as indicators of water pollution has come under increasing scrutiny. in the past decade. This has been due in part to improved methods of detection of fecal streptococci. Also, the fecal coliform and total coliform tests and· their significance have been questioned. The fecal streptococci may furnish a more reliable means of identifying sources of pollution. The fecal streptococci are those gram-positive cocci which occur in the intestinal tract of man and animals. The Sherman criteria for identification of the fecal streptococci are used in Bergey\u27s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology to differentiate the viridans and enterococci from the other streptococci. The enterococcus group includes Streptococcus faecalis, S- faecium, and S- faecium var. durans. The viridans group includes two species of interest in this study, Streptococcus bovis and S. equinus . All of the above mentioned species of Streptococcus contain Lancefield\u27s group D antigen and occur in nature in the intestinal tract of man and animals. Like the fecal coliforms, the fecal streptococci are indicators of pollution in water. The characteristics of an indicator include: (1) the organism must be found in feces and sewage, (2) the organism is found in polluted water, (3) the organism is not found in pure water sites away from man and animals, and (4) the organism does not multiply outside the host in water or soil. The usefulness of the fecal streptococci does not end here, however. The fecal streptococci can be used to identify either human or an animal source of pollution. This is illustrated by the fact that S. faecalis strains are found predominantly in the normal flora of the human intestinal tract. · In contrast, S.equinus and S. bovis are found predominantly in the caecum of horses and the rumen of cattle, respectively. Although S. bovis has been isolated, identified, and reported by various authors, an improved method for isolating this particular species was not devised until Koupal modified existing methods of isolating fecal streptococci. Koupal\u27s method of isolating S. bovis was relatively crude, in that it requires many steps and a refined substrate was never utilized. It is the purpose of this investigation to develop a new method of isolating S. bovis and to evaluate the usability of these improvements in tracing ruminant water pollution. These improvements would include a rapid method for detection and enumeration of S. bovis for quantitation of this organism from surface waters as an indicator of bovine fecal pollution

Inclusive interaction design: bridging the gap between information visualization perception and color vision deficiency users

It’s becoming increasingly important to design for Inclusivity, meaning building products that are accessible to all type of users, namely color vision deficiency (CVD) deuteranope users. Along with that, we can say that Information Visualization plays a big role in the understanding of how ou world functions, since the amount of produced data (2.5 exabytes) is increasing every day. In this way, this project aims to bridge the gap between Information Visualization perception and color vision deficiency users, by exploring the effects that saturation as a variable, applied through an interaction design methodology approach, has on human visual perception. An interactive system was designe in order to explore the effects saturation had in both user’s perception. To perform the experiment, 12 trichromatic male participants were recruited and the selected graph’s colours were simulated into colours a CVD user would normally perceive. This experiment enabled to reach a range in which both trichromatic and CVD users perceive the information of a specific graph in an optimal way. Serving as a first assessment in potentially reaching a range that ensures the optimal visual perception of all types of Information Visualizations for both CVD an trichromatic users, this project intends to be used as a reference in future investigations, in order to improve the quality of life of users affected by this visual constraint

Effect of maternal depression on infant-directed speech to prelinguistic infants: Implications for language development

The nature and timing of caregivers' speech provides an important foundation for infant attention and language development in the first year of life. Infant-directed speech is a key component of responsive parent-infant communication that is typically characterised by exaggerated intonation and positive affect. This study examines the effect of postnatal depression on the expression of positive vocal affect and pitch, the quantity of mothers' infant-directed speech input and the timing of vocal responses between mother and infant. Postnatal mothers currently experiencing symptoms of depression (n = 13) were matched to postnatal mothers who were not experiencing symptoms of depression (n = 13), and audio-recorded while playing with their 6-month-old infants. Compared with depressed mothers, non-depressed mothers used a higher mean pitch and pitch range, spoke more, gave faster verbal responses and were rated as expressing more positive valence in their voice. These preliminary findings indicate that mothers experiencing low mood use less infant-directed speech and less exaggerated pitch with prelinguistic infants. Postnatal depression is a major health issue that adversely impacts the parent and child. Early interventions for PND may benefit from identifying ways to support the timing of conversations and mothers' use of appropriate vocal pitch and infant-directed speech modifications. Further research is needed to confirm whether these strategies support early conversations

Reconstructing the nucleon-nucleon potential by a new coupled-channel inversion method

A second-order supersymmetric transformation is presented, for the two-channel Schr\"odinger equation with equal thresholds. It adds a Breit-Wigner term to the mixing parameter, without modifying the eigenphase shifts, and modifies the potential matrix analytically. The iteration of a few such transformations allows a precise fit of realistic mixing parameters in terms of a Pade expansion of both the scattering matrix and the effective-range function. The method is applied to build an exactly-solvable potential for the neutron-proton $^3S_1$-$^3D_1$ case.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

A qualitative investigation of consumer experiences of the child directed interaction phase of parent–child interaction therapy with toddlers

Background: Parent–child interaction therapy with toddlers (PCIT-T) is an adaptation of standard PCIT, developed to treat young children (12–24 months) with disruptive behaviours. The aim of this study was to gather preliminary qualitative data to gauge parental perceptions about the program. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five parents who received the first phase of the program, ‘child directed interaction-Toddler’ (CDI-T) at a community based child behaviour treatment clinic. Interview transcripts were analysed thematically. Results: Participants were initially motivated to seek treatment because of concerns about and difficulties managing child behaviour. All participants reported a range of positive gains as a result of CDI-T including new parenting strategies, improved parental confidence and improved parent–child relationship quality. Live coaching from behind the one-way mirror, the relationship with the therapist and the home-based practice of skills between sessions were identified as important treatment components. Many participants spoke, however, about the difficulties they experienced with continuing to implement the home practice after program completion. Conclusions: Results suggest that CDI-T is perceived positively by consumers, and highlight a number of key program components

Evaluating SOAP for High Performance Business Applications: Real-Time Trading Systems

Web services, with an emphasis on open standards and flexibility, may provide benefits over existing capital markets integration practices. However, web services must first meet certain technical requirements including performance, security and fault--tolerance. This paper presents an experimental evaluation of SOAP performance using realistic business application message content. To get some indication of whether SOAP is appropriate for high performance capital markets systems, the results are compared with a widely used existing protocol. The study finds that, although SOAP performs relatively poorly, the difference is less than in scientific computing environments. Furthermore, we find that in realistic business applications it is possible for text--based wire formats to have comparable performance to binary, and that the text--based nature of XML is not sufficient to explain SOAP's inefficiency. This suggests that further work may enable SOAP to become a viable wire format for high performance business applications

Probabilistic Metamodels for an Efficient Characterization of Complex Driving Scenarios

To validate the safety of automated vehicles (AV), scenario-based testing aims to systematically describe driving scenarios an AV might encounter. In this process, continuous inputs such as velocities result in an infinite number of possible variations of a scenario. Thus, metamodels are used to perform analyses or to select specific variations for examination. However, despite the safety criticality of AV testing, metamodels are usually seen as a part of an overall approach, and their predictions are not questioned. This paper analyzes the predictive performance of Gaussian processes (GP), deep Gaussian processes, extra-trees, and Bayesian neural networks (BNN), considering four scenarios with 5 to 20 inputs. Building on this, an iterative approach is introduced and evaluated, which allows to efficiently select test cases for common analysis tasks. The results show that regarding predictive performance, the appropriate selection of test cases is more important than the choice of metamodels. However, the choice of metamodels remains crucial: Their great flexibility allows BNNs to benefit from large amounts of data and to model even the most complex scenarios. In contrast, less flexible models like GPs convince with higher reliability. Hence, relevant test cases are best explored using scalable virtual test setups and flexible models. Subsequently, more realistic test setups and more reliable models can be used for targeted testing and validation.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figures, 1 table, associated dataset at https://github.com/wnklmx/DSIO

Qualitative evaluation of Australian Caregiver's experiences of parent–child interaction therapy delivered in a community-based clinic setting

Background: Parent–child interaction therapy (PCIT) is a short-term, evidence-based parent training program for parents of children aged 2–7 years with disruptive behaviour disorders (DBDs). The evidence-base for the effectiveness of PCIT is extensive but to date most studies have been quantitative in nature and conducted in university research clinics within the United States. Thus, understanding of the effectiveness and acceptability of PCIT in community-based settings in other countries, including Australia, is limited. Objective: This study used a qualitative methodology to explore Australian caregiver's perceptions of a standard PCIT program delivered at a community-based PCIT clinic. Method: Participants were nine mothers and one father who completed the PCIT program at the clinic for treatment of child DBD. Results: Thematic analysis yielded four major themes, namely “Parenting challenges before PCIT”; “Positive treatment outcomes” (sub-themes: improved child behaviour, increased parental confidence, increased insight into the child needs, and improved relationships with partner); “Program strengths” (sub-themes: child-directed interaction, parent-directed interaction, home practice, therapeutic relationship); and “Challenges experienced.”. Conclusions: These findings highlight the benefits of the PCIT program for families who are struggling with DBD in early childhood, and point to the potential positive impacts of disseminating PCIT within clinical settings more widely across Australia