Development and validation of a quantitative confirmatory method for 30 β-lactam antibiotics in bovine muscle using liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry

peer-reviewedA method was developed for the confirmatory and quantitative analysis of 30 β-lactam antibiotic residues in bovine muscle. The method includes 12 penicillins (amoxicillin, ampicillin, cloxacillin, dicloxacillin, mecillinam, methicillin, nafcillin, oxacillin, penicillin G, penicillin V, piperacillin, ticarcillin), 12 cephalosporins (cefacetrile, cefadroxil, cephalexin, cefalonium, cefazolin, cefoperazone, cefotaxime, cefquinome, cefuroxime, desacetyl cephapirin, desfuroylceftiofur cysteine disulfide, desfuroylceftiofur dimer), five carbapenems (biapenem, doripenem, ertapenem, imipenem, meropenem) and faropenem. Samples were extracted using a simple solvent extraction with acetonitrile:water (80:20, v/v) and C18 dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE) clean-up, followed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS/MS) detection. Chromatography was performed on a reversed phase CSH C18 column, using a binary gradient separation comprising of 0.01% formic acid and 0.2 mM ammonium acetate in water (mobile phase A) and 0.01% formic acid in acetonitrile (mobile phase B). The mass spectrometer was operated in the positive electrospray ionisation mode (ESI(+)). Validation was performed following the 2002/657/EC guidelines. Trueness ranged between 69% and 143% and precision ranged between 2.0% and 29.9% under within-laboratory reproducibility conditions. The developed method uses minimal sample preparation and 30 test samples can be analysed by a single analyst in a single day. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first method for carbapenems in foodstuff that does not require derivatisation.FIRM programm

Balancing risk and professional identity, secondary school teachers' narratives of violence

Violence against teachers is seen as a growing problem by both professional bodies and the media. However, this account fails to acknowledge differing views about what actually constitutes violence and how those that experience violence comprehend it. Drawing on literature on workplace violence and fear of crime, this article seeks to identify how we can begin to understand better violence against teachers. Furthermore, by examining secondary school teachers’ own narratives in depth, it is identified that a number of factors influence the meanings that they attach to their own experiences of workplace violence. This includes their professional identity, feelings about their pupils and their role as a teacher, their own sense of vulnerability, levels of experience and general feelings about schools and young people today