The importance of the carboxyl portion of the Apx toxins of actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae in eliciting toxin-neutralizing antibodies

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae is the organism responsible for porcine pleuropneumonia. The primary virulence factors of A. pleuropneumoniae are three secreted Apx toxins. Apx I and II are cytolytic and hemolytic, while Apx III is only cytolytic. The Apx toxins are pore-forming toxins that promote bacterial multiplication by harming phagocytes infiltrating the respiratory tract of infected swine. Apx-mediated phagocyte damage further intensifies the inflammatory tissue damage associated with porcine pleuropneumonia. The Apx toxins are members of a group of toxins known as RTX toxins. Another RTX toxin previously worked with in this laboratory is the leukotoxin of Pasteurella haemoltyica, which is known to be a primary virulence factor involved in pneumonic pasteurellosis. Several functional domains of the Apx toxins and other RTX toxins have been identified. The carboxyl region containing the repeat domain was of particular interest. This study attempted to answer some preliminary questions about the Apx toxins in relation to work previously done with P. haemolytica leukotoxin in this laboratory. This information will allow future work with the Apx toxins in this laboratory to be more focused on particular aspects of the proteins. The first objective of this study was to examine cross-recognition between the Apx toxins and leukotoxin. This was done by using murine mAbs; ltx-2, ltx-4, and ltx-35, known to neutralize leukotoxin, as well as different samples of rabbit antisera generated against GST-fused peptides of the carboxyl one-third of the IktA, Apx lA, and Apx IIA genes, respectively. Monoclonal antibodies did not cross-react with the Apx toxins. However, rabbit antisera samples did cross-react between the Apx toxins and leukotoxin. The second objective was to evaluate the ability of fusion proteins, containing peptides of the carboxyl portion of Apx I and Apx II, respectively, to elicit anti-Apx toxin antibodies as well as Apx toxin-neutralizing antibodies. Results from these experiments showed that Apx toxin-reactive antibodies can be stimulated by the peptides used, as well as toxin-neutralizing antibodies. The results support earlier reports that the hemolytic and cytotoxic activities of the Apx toxins are independent of each other, as well. This study also confirms previous work from this laboratory showing the importance of the carboxyl portion of the RTX toxins in eliciting toxin-neutralizing antibodies, as well as the finding that post-translational modification of RTX toxin proteins is not required for recognition nor for the capability of the proteins to generate toxin-neutralizing antibodies

The Leadership Factor in Management Education: Examining the Impact of an Industry Speakers Series on Leadership Efficacy in a Minority Serving MBA Program

Management education has changed considerably over the last few decades. MBA programs are coming to the realization that providing just quantitative and analytical training is insufficient. Upon conferral of their graduate degree, their alumni will add more value through their ability to lead and manage others than through their talents and abilities as individual contributors. In these more senior roles, an entirely different interpersonal skill set is required. However, faculty in one minority serving MBA program found that the “leadership efficacy factor” – self-confidence and belief in the ability to succeed as a leader – needed to first be addressed. One program that was recently implemented to impact students’ leadership efficacy was an industry speaker series. With the use of a pre- and postsurvey, this research will examine the findings and lessons learned from this progra

Clinical measurement and modulation of microregional tumour blood flow

Modification of the tumour microenvironment by improving tumour blood flow and oxygenation may be a method of enhancing cure rates. Pre-clinical studies have shown the combination of carbogen and nicotinamide can effectively radiosensitize, however, the mechanism of action for this remains unclear. Carbogen enhances tumour oxygenation primarily by increasing the amount of oxygen dissolved in blood. Animal studies suggest it may also improve tumour blood flow. In murine tumours nicotinamide reduces the occurrence of temporal fluctuations in blood flow. Commercially available laser Doppler microprobes have now made possible the direct real-time measurement of erythrocyte flux in human tumours, allowing the influence of carbogen and nicotinamide on microregional blood flow to be assessed. Red blood cell flux was measured using the Oxford Array multiple channel laser Doppler system (Oxford Optronix, Oxford, UK). Measurements were taken for 60 minutes in thirteen patients (control group), eight also breathed carbogen for 10 minutes. A further ten patients were pre-treated with nicotinamide prior to carbogen. Fluctuations in erythrocyte flux were a common event, 62% of sampled areas showed a change of 1.5 fold or more. Both increases and decreases were seen. Carbogen caused small, tumour dependent changes in flux with both increases and decreases. Nicotinamide did not significantly alter changes in microregional blood flow but when combined with carbogen an overall increase in flux of 22% was seen, with all but one tumour showing an increase. The improvement in microregional perfusion seen with the combination of carbogen and nicotinamide could have important clinical implications for both radiotherapy and the delivery of systemic agents

Strength of the Sweep: Exploring the Cleaning Culture of Black Women Consumers

This qualitative research study delves into the rich cleaning culture among Black women consumers, aiming to uncover the underlying motivations, beliefs, and practices that shape their household cleaning behaviors. Through in-depth interviews, the research explores how cultural heritage, community expectations, and personal empowerment inform Black women’s cleaning rituals and product preferences. The study employs a grounded theory approach to analyze participants’ narratives, revealing a complex interplay between societal norms, familial traditions, and individual agency. The findings highlight the role of cleaning as a form of self-expression, a means to preserve cultural legacy, and a powerful avenue for fostering a sense of control and pride within domestic spaces. By illuminating the unique perspectives and experiences of Black women in the realm of domestic cleanliness, this study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of consumer behavior. It offers valuable insights for brands aiming to engage with this community respectfully and authentically

Student and Faculty Preferences Regarding Instructional Modalities at an HBCU Business School as a Result of Covid-19 – A Change Management Approach and Mindset

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the higher education community, especially the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). At a micro-level, the HBCU business schools have felt the effects as well, particularly in critical areas such as instructional modalities and the overall classroom experience. Since COVID-19 has changed the educational game, what do key stakeholder groups now prefer regarding instructional modalities in the HBCU business school? This study will answer this question and more while incorporating a change management approach and mindset for leadership and decision-making

Reducing the costs of alcohol in the workplace: the case for employer policies

More than 90% of the UK workforce drink alcohol and as many as 30% of male employees and 23% of female employees could be consuming quantities above ‘safe limits’. Survey results also indicate that the vast majority of dependent drinkers are in employment, Current evidence suggests that alcohol consumption, in or out of work time, can result in lower productivity, increased absenteeism and sickness absence, and increased accident rates. The annual value of industrial days lost though alcohol consumption in the UK since 1987 is estimated to be over £1.7 billion, excluding the value of lost productivity, accidents and injury. Alcohol acts as a depressant, impairing reasoning, memory, perception, balance and coordination skills even at very moderate levels of consumption. Physical and intellectual ability decline as more alcohol is consumed either at work or at leisure. In the longer run, continued consumption can lead to disease, emotional and social problems, chronic illness and even premature death. Because the majority of drinkers are in employment, these effects will have an impact in the workplace. Some adverse consequences at work are related to excessive alcohol misuse by a minority of employees, but most are associated with the moderate but inappropriate drinking behaviour of the majority. Existing evidence implies that alcohol is involved in at least one fifth of all UK industrial accidents. The probability of an accident increases six fold for the average man who has consumed two pints of beer, and risk-taking behaviour increases and decision making skills decrease even with low levels of consumption. One in ten men and one in twenty women report feelings the effects of a hangover at work and in one UK study, a quarter of all of the men interviewed reported regular lunchtime drinking. Up to 60% of USA corporations have introduced formal workplace policies of different types in order to reduce employment costs associated with alcohol consumption. However, less than 20% of UK firms have taken similar action. Workplace policies are designed to identify problem drinkers at an early stage and to provide treatment, avoiding the need for disciplinary procedures. Although many USA studies have shown workplace policies to be cost-effective, some studies report conflicting results using different definitions of successful outcome and policy goals. Many studies suffer from statistical defects and the poor definition of appropriate policy goals. The economic case for increasing the number and type of workplace policies in the UK cannot be confirmed without a consistent framework for evaluating cost-efficiency. Evidence of employment costs associated with alcohol consumption are examined in this paper and the need for further information identified. A framework for evaluating costs and benefits is outlined as a basis for future policy discussion, and the economic evaluation of alcohol workplace policies in the UK.alcohol, policy

Circles, columns and screenings: mapping the institutional, discursive, physical and gendered spaces of film criticism in 1940s London

This article revisits the period considered within ‘The Quality Film Adventure: British Critics and the Cinema 1942-1948’, mapping the professional cultures, working contexts and industry relationships that underpinned the aesthetic judgements and collective directions which John Ellis has observed within the critics published writings. Drawing on the records of the Critics’ Circle, Dilys Powell’s papers and Kinematograph Weekly, it explores the evolution of increasingly organised professional cultures of film criticism and film publicity, arguing that the material conditions imposed by war caused tensions between them to escalate. In the context of two major challenges to critical integrity and practice – the evidence given by British producer R.J. Minney in front of the 1948 Royal Commission on the Press and an ongoing libel case between a BBC critic and MGM – the different spaces of hospitality and film promotion became highly contested sites. This article focuses on the ways in which these spaces were characterised, used, and policed. It finds that the value and purpose of press screenings were hotly disputed and observes the way the advancement of women within one sector (film criticism) but not the other (film publicity) created particular difficulties, as key female critics avoided the more compromised masculine spaces of publicity, making them harder for publicists to reach and fuelling trade resentment. More broadly, the article asserts the need to consider film critics as geographically and culturally located audiences, who experience films as ‘professional’ viewers within extended and embodied cultures of habitual professional practice and physical space

Alternative internet(s) – what are they and do they have a future?

This is the first post in a series on alternative internet(s), following a workshop on the topic at the LSE in September, organised by Mélanie Dulong de Rosnay, Francesca Musiani, Alison Powell and Panayotis Antoniadis. The authors introduce the key topics that will be covered in the series here

The presentation of women in early English drama

This study is a survey of the presentation of women in English drama from 1300 - 1600, and of the relationship between stage views and contemporary attitudes to women during this period. Its purpose is twofold. It sets out to investigate whether the questioning of current ideas about women which has been well documented in the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries was also a feature of earlier drama. It also examines whether the account put forward by Lawrence Stone, in The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500 - 1800, of the way in which major social changes at the time of the Reformation affected the status of marriage and of women is substantiated by evidence -from contemporary drama. Research for the study has been carried out mainly through reading or more detailed analysis of most of the 300 surviving plays from the period, with reference to relevant secondary sources of literary criticism and social history. The work is presented in four chapters. Chapter 1 considers attitudes to women in the life and drama of the Pre-Reformation period. After an Introduction summarising views of women in mediaeval religious, legal and economic life, it examines the way in which women were presented in the Mystery and Morality plays. Finally, it considers in detail the few but significant interludes produced by dramatists of the Thomas More circle shortly before the Reformation. Chapter 2 examines what I have called the Testing Plays: the wave of didactic plays which promoted the new Protestant ideal of the obedient wife. They demonstrated how young women should be educated for wifehood, and the way in which the virtues of the perfect wife should withstand stringent testing. The chapter begins with a summary of the importance of the education element in the plays. It then examines the earlier type of Testing Play, in which the husband torments his wife in order to test her constancy, before moving to the later plays concerned with the test of chastity, in which a woman or couple is threatened by the desire of a powerful social superior. Chapter 3 examines drama's response to the contemporary debate on the correct reasons for marriage. It starts with a study of the artistic influences of romance and classical comedy which enabled dramatic treatment of the topic, before moving to a detailed study of the way in which the plays reflected and explored the whole spectrum of opinion. Chapter 4 considers the presentation of women in tragedy throughout the period. It examines the limiting influences inherited from classical tragedy and the extent to which they continued to dominate later tragedy. Finally, it looks in detail at three plays which offer an early indication of the genre's potential eventually to produce exciting heroines.The study concludes that discussion and questioning of current attitudes to women has been an important feature of English drama from its earliest origins. The particularly close relationship between society and drama is demonstrated by the exactness with which contemporary drama reflects Lawrence Stone's account of social changes during the period of the study. However, while Shakespeare's predecessors and contemporaries undoubtedly questioned and investigated current views about women, no-one else seems to have transcended them and shown the insight that he did. The reasons for the uniqueness of his vision remain as difficult to identify as ever

Moult of overwintering Wood Warblers <i>Phylloscopus sibilatrix</i> in an annual-cycle perspective

Wood Warblers, an Afro-Palearctic migrant species, are declining steadily in Europe likely due to mortality outside their breeding grounds. However, little is known about their overwintering, and records about the sensitive life-cycle stage of moult in Africa are practically absent. To fill this gap, we report on moult of Wood Warblers captured over two winters (January–February) in 2019–2020 in Cameroon. We caught 14 individuals, of which 12 were monitored for flight feather moult. All inspected individuals showed advanced stages of flight feather renewal. Despite low sample sizes, Underhill-Zucchini moult models aptly explained variation in primary and secondary moult (R2 = 0.61). Estimated moult onset date was 26 December, completion date was 25 February, and moult duration was 61 days. These findings fit well with experimental data on the annual cycle and the timing of recently published migration tracks of Wood Warblers. Jointly, the data suggest that moult timing is set by an internal programme, which enables Wood Warblers to organise their multi-stage migration such that they reach suitable moulting habitat in time, and can depart in time with a fresh plumage for the breeding grounds. In our study, moult occurred during the peak of the dry season, which in Cameroon nonetheless shows high relative humidity. During our mist-netting on 28 cocoa plantations of varying shade cover, Wood Warblers were caught on 6 farms whose canopies were comparatively open. These data suggest that the birds encounter in Cameroon relatively stable climatic conditions for moult, and do not measurably prefer closed-canopy forests. Our findings are important, because successful moult increases survival prospects and because moult needs to be safely embedded in a migratory life cycle. Hence, information on moult timing and location is essential for identifying year-round vulnerabilities of Wood Warblers.<br/