An Evaluation of Techniques for Sampling Skin Flora

Three methods of sampling skin bacteria were evaluated to determine whether the large differences observed from adjacent areas of the back were real or due to variability in sampling methods. It was found that in addition to actual differences in the skin flora populations of adjacent areas, there were significant differences in populations obtained by different sampling techniques and significant differences between individuals. Equally high bacterial populations were recovered from skin by the Teflon spatula method and the rayon swab method; however, scrubbing with rayon swabs gave the most consistent results

Patterns of Interactions in Complex Social Networks Based on Coloured Motifs Analysis

Coloured network motifs are small subgraphs that enable to discover and interpret the patterns of interaction within the complex networks. The analysis of three-nodes motifs where the colour of the node reflects its high – white node or low – black node centrality in the social network is presented in the paper. The importance of the vertices is assessed by utilizing two measures: degree prestige and degree centrality. The distribution of motifs in these two cases is compared to mine the interconnection patterns between nodes. The analysis is performed on the social network derived from email communication

Primary and secondary cases in Escherichia coli O157 outbreaks: a statistical analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Within outbreaks of <it>Escherichia coli </it>O157 (<it>E. coli </it>O157), at least 10–15% of cases are thought to have been acquired by secondary transmission. However, there has been little systematic quantification or characterisation of secondary outbreak cases worldwide. The aim of this study was to characterise secondary outbreak cases, estimate the overall proportion of outbreak cases that were the result of secondary transmission and to analyse the relationships between primary and secondary outbreak cases by mode of transmission, country and median age.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Published data was obtained from 90 confirmed <it>Escherichia coli </it>O157 outbreaks in Great Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, Canada, the United States and Japan, and the outbreaks were described in terms of modes of primary and secondary transmission, country, case numbers and median case age. Outbreaks were tested for statistically significant differences in the number of ill, confirmed, primary and secondary cases (analysis of variance and Kruskal-Wallis) and in the rate of secondary cases between these variables (Generalised Linear Models).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The outbreaks had a median of 13.5 confirmed cases, and mean proportion of 0.195 secondary cases. There were statistically significant differences in the numbers of ill, confirmed, primary and secondary cases between modes of primary transmission (p < 0.021), and in primary and secondary cases between median age categories (p < 0.039) and modes of secondary transmission (p < 0.001).</p> <p>Secondary case rates differed statistically significantly between modes of secondary and primary transmission and median age categories (all p < 0.001), but not between countries (p = 0.23). Statistically significantly higher rates of secondary transmission were found in outbreaks with a median age <6 years and those with secondary transmission via person to person spread in nurseries. No statistically significant interactions were found between country, mode of transmission and age category.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our analyses indicated that ~20% of <it>E. coli </it>O157 outbreak cases were the result of secondary spread, and that this spread is significantly influenced by age and modes of primary and secondary transmission, but not country. In particular, the results provide further data emphasising the importance of simple but effective preventive strategies, such as handwashing, that can reduce the risk of secondary spread, particularly amongst young children in nurseries.</p

Large-scale pathways-based association study in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a devastating neurodegenerative disease, most likely results from complex genetic and environmental interactions. Although a number of association studies have been performed in an effort to find genetic components of sporadic ALS, most of them resulted in inconsistent findings due to a small number of genes investigated in relatively small sample sizes, while the replication of results was rarely attempted. Defects in retrograde axonal transport, vesicle trafficking and xenobiotic metabolism have been implicated in neurodegeneration and motor neuron death both in human disease and animal models. To assess the role of common genetic variation in these pathways in susceptibility to sporadic ALS, we performed a pathway-based candidate gene case-control association study with replication. Furthermore, we determined reliability of whole genome amplified DNA in a large-scale association study. In the first stage of the study, 1277 putative functional and tagging SNPs in 134 genes spanning 8.7 Mb were genotyped in 822 British sporadic ALS patients and 872 controls using whole genome amplified DNA. To detect variants with modest effect size and discriminate among false positive findings 19 SNPs showing a trend of association in the initial screen were genotyped in a replication sample of 580 German sporadic ALS patients and 361 controls. We did not detect strong evidence of association with any of the genes investigated in the discovery sample (lowest uncorrected P-value 0.00037, lowest permutation corrected P-value 0.353). None of the suggestive associations was replicated in a second sample, further excluding variants with moderate effect size. We conclude that common variation in the investigated pathways is unlikely to have a major effect on susceptibility to sporadic ALS. The genotyping efficiency was only slightly decreased (∼1%) and genotyping quality was not affected using whole genome amplified DNA. It is reliable for large scale genotyping studies of diseases such as ALS, where DNA sample collections are limited because of low disease prevalence and short survival time. © 2007 The Author(s)

Meta-analysis reveals that pollinator functional diversity and abundance enhance crop pollination and yield

How insects promote crop pollination remains poorly understood in terms of the contribution of functional trait differences between species. We used meta-analyses to test for correlations between community abundance, species richness and functional trait metrics with oilseed rape yield, a globally important crop. While overall abundance is consistently important in predicting yield, functional divergence between species traits also showed a positive correlation. This result supports the complementarity hypothesis that pollination function is maintained by non-overlapping trait distributions. In artificially constructed communities (mesocosms), species richness is positively correlated with yield, although this effect is not seen under field conditions. As traits of the dominant species do not predict yield above that attributed to the effect of abundance alone, we find no evidence in support of the mass ratio hypothesis. Management practices increasing not just pollinator abundance, but also functional divergence, could benefit oilseed rape agriculture.This study was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) under research programme NE/N018125/1 ASSIST–Achieving Sustainable Agricultural Systems www.assist.ceh.ac.uk. ASSIST is an initiative jointly supported by NERC and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Additional funding for field studies was from the Wessex Biodiversity Ecosystem Services Sustainability (NE/J014680/1) project within the NERC BESS programme. Other data sets were generated from research funded by: (a) the Insect Pollinators Initiative programme funded by BBSRC, Defra, NERC, the Scottish Government and the Wellcome Trust, under the Living with Environmental Change Partnership; (b) Defra project BD5005: Provision of Ecosystem services in the ES scheme; and (c) Irish Government under the National Development Plan 2007–2013 administered by the Irish EPA

"Author! Author!" : Shakespeare and biography

Original article can be found at: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t714579626~db=all Copyright Informa / Taylor &amp; Francis Group. DOI: 10.1080/17450910902764454Since 1996, not a year has passed without the publication of at least one Shakespeare biography. Yet for many years the place of the author in the practice of understanding literary works has been problematized, and even on occasions eliminated. Criticism reads the “works”, and may or may not refer to an author whose “life” contributed to their meaning. Biography seeks the author in the works, the personality that precedes the works and gives them their characteristic shape and meaning. But the form of literary biography addresses the unusual kind of “life” that puts itself into “works”, and this is particularly challenging where the “works” predominate massively over the salient facts of the “life”. This essay surveys the current terrain of Shakespeare biography, and considers the key questions raised by the medium: can we know anything of Shakespeare's “personality” from the facts of his life and the survival of his works? What is the status of the kind of speculation that inevitably plays a part in biographical reconstruction? Are biographers in the end telling us as much about themselves as they tell us about Shakespeare?Peer reviewe

A whole genome screen for association with multiple sclerosis in portuguese patients

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is common in Europe affecting up to 1:500 people. In an effort to identify genes influencing susceptibility to the disease, we have performed a population-based whole genome screen for association. In this study, 6000 microsatellite markers were typed in separately pooled DNA samples from MS patients (n = 188) and matched controls (n = 188). Interpretable data was obtained from 4661 of these markers. Refining analysis of the most promising markers identified 10 showing potential evidence for association.SERONO (Portugal).Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - grant FRH/BD/9111/2002.British Council/ICCTI.Wellcome Trust, Multiple Sclerosis Societies of the United States and Great Britain, Multiple Sclerosis International Federation - GAMES project - grant 057097

Possible origins of macroscopic left-right asymmetry in organisms

I consider the microscopic mechanisms by which a particular left-right (L/R) asymmetry is generated at the organism level from the microscopic handedness of cytoskeletal molecules. In light of a fundamental symmetry principle, the typical pattern-formation mechanisms of diffusion plus regulation cannot implement the "right-hand rule"; at the microscopic level, the cell's cytoskeleton of chiral filaments seems always to be involved, usually in collective states driven by polymerization forces or molecular motors. It seems particularly easy for handedness to emerge in a shear or rotation in the background of an effectively two-dimensional system, such as the cell membrane or a layer of cells, as this requires no pre-existing axis apart from the layer normal. I detail a scenario involving actin/myosin layers in snails and in C. elegans, and also one about the microtubule layer in plant cells. I also survey the other examples that I am aware of, such as the emergence of handedness such as the emergence of handedness in neurons, in eukaryote cell motility, and in non-flagellated bacteria.Comment: 42 pages, 6 figures, resubmitted to J. Stat. Phys. special issue. Major rewrite, rearranged sections/subsections, new Fig 3 + 6, new physics in Sec 2.4 and 3.4.1, added Sec 5 and subsections of Sec

The first catalog of active galactic nuclei detected by the Fermi large area telescope

We present the first catalog of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT), corresponding to 11 months of data collected in scientific operation mode. The First LAT AGN Catalog (1LAC) includes 671 ?-ray sources located at high Galactic latitudes (|b|&gt;10°) that are detected with a test statistic greater than 25 and associated statistically with AGNs. Some LAT sources are associated with multiple AGNs, and consequently, the catalog includes 709 AGNs, comprising 300 BL Lacertae objects, 296 flat-spectrum radio quasars, 41 AGNs of other types, and 72 AGNs of unknown type. We also classify the blazars based on their spectral energy distributions as archival radio, optical, and X-ray data permit. In addition to the formal 1LAC sample, we provide AGN associations for 51 low-latitude LAT sources and AGN "affiliations" (unquantified counterpart candidates) for 104 high-latitude LAT sources without AGN associations. The overlap of the 1LAC with existing ?-ray AGN catalogs (LBAS, EGRET, AGILE, Swift, INTEGRAL, TeVCat) is briefly discussed. Various properties—such as ?-ray fluxes and photon power-law spectral indices, redshifts, ?-ray luminosities, variability, and archival radio luminosities—and their correlations are presented and discussed for the different blazar classes. We compare the 1LAC results with predictions regarding the ?-ray AGN populations, and we comment on the power of the sample to address the question of the blazar sequenc