Genetic comparison of Campylobacter coli resulting from pigs and poultry with isolates resulting from human campylobacteriosis

133 isolates of Campylobacter coli isolated from Brittany in France and collected in 2003 were analysed by RFLP/PFGE. They came from pig (65), poultry (56) and human campylobacteriosis (12). No pulsotype common to the 3 origins could be detected but the analysis of the genetic similarity at 80% of the isolates made it possible to build 19 groups of similarity in 3 cases. Poultry isolates were found in groups containing human isolates. Neverthless, the pig isolates were always in groups different from the poultry isolates and the human ones. These results tend to indicate that the two animal productions would have their own genotype and that the campylobacters from pigs are rarely responsible of human campylobacteriosis

Pressure-induced switching properties of the iron(iii) spin-transition complex [FeIII(3-OMeSalEen)2]PF6

We investigated the effect of an externally applied pressure on the iron(III) Schiff-base compound [Fe(3-OMeSalEen)2]PF6 (H-3-OMeSalEen, condensation product of 3-methoxy-substituted salicylaldehyde and N-ethylethylenediamine), which at ambient pressure displays a thermal spin transition with a 3 K wide hysteresis loop centered at 164 K. Raman spectrometry revealed the occurrence of a complete spin-state switching process for a pressure of P1/2 = 8–9 kbar at room temperature. The evolution of lattice parameters as a function of pressure was followed by X-ray diffraction measurements on single crystals, highlighting the important microscopic aspects at the origin of the pressure-induced transition, i.e. an anisotropic response and a high compressibility of the HS molecular lattice. Variable temperature magnetic susceptibility measurements at different applied pressures revealed the smoothening of the spin transition curves and a linear increase of the transition temperatures by ca. 16.4 (1.0) K kbar?1, in good agreement with the Clausius–Clapeyron law. The non-negligible influence of the pressure transmitting oils on the intrinsic transition properties was also evidenced and attributed to mechanical interactions between the particles and the solidified matrix

The working families' tax credit and some European tax reforms in a collective setting

A framework for simplified implementation of the collective model of labor supply decisions is presented in the context of fiscal reforms in the UK. Through its collective form the model accounts for the well known problem of distribution between wallet and purse, a broadly debated issue which has so far been impossible to model due to the limitations of the unitary model of household behavior. A calibrated data set is used to model the effects of introducing two forms of the Working Families’ Tax Credit. We also summarize results of estimations and calibrations obtained using the same methodology on data from five other European countries. The results underline the importance of taking account of the intrahousehold decision process and suggest that who receives government transfers does matter from the point of view of labor supply and welfare of household members. They also highlight the need for more research into models of household behavior

Modeling Abnormal Priming in Alzheimer's Patients with a Free Association Network

Alzheimer's Disease irremediably alters the proficiency of word search and retrieval processes even at its early stages. Such disruption can sometimes be paradoxical in specific language tasks, for example semantic priming. Here we focus in the striking side-effect of hyperpriming in Alzheimer's Disease patients, which has been well-established in the literature for a long time. Previous studies have evidenced that modern network theory can become a powerful complementary tool to gain insight in cognitive phenomena. Here, we first show that network modeling is an appropriate approach to account for semantic priming in normal subjects. Then we turn to priming in degraded cognition: hyperpriming can be readily understood in the scope of a progressive degradation of the semantic network structure. We compare our simulation results with previous empirical observations in diseased patients finding a qualitative agreement. The network approach presented here can be used to accommodate current theories about impaired cognition, and towards a better understanding of lexical organization in healthy and diseased patients