Isolation and characterization of Campylobacter bacteriophages from retail poultry

The ability of phages to survive processing is an important aspect of their potential use in the biocontrol of Campylobacter in poultry production. To this end, we have developed a procedure to recover Campylobacter bacteriophages from chilled and frozen retail poultry and have validated the sensitivity of the method by using a characterized Campylobacter phage (i.e., NCTC 12674). By using this method, we have shown that Campylobacter phages can survive on retail chicken under commercial storage conditions. Retail chicken portions purchased in the United Kingdom were screened for the presence of endogenous Campylobacter phages. Thirty-four Campylobacter bacteriophages were isolated from 300 chilled retail chicken portions, but none could be recovered from 150 frozen chicken portions. The phage isolates were characterized according to their lytic profiles, morphology, and genome size. The free-range products were significantly more likely to harbor phages (P < 0.001 by single-factor analysis of variance) than were standard or economy products. This study demonstrates that Campylobacter bacteriophages, along with their hosts, can survive commercial poultry processing procedures and that the phages exhibited a wide range of recovery rates from chicken skin stored at 4°C

‘Savage times come again’ : Morel, Wells, and the African Soldier, c.1885-1920

The African soldier trained in western combat was a figure of fear and revulsion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. My article examines representations of African soldiers in nonfictional writings by E.D. Morel about the Congo Free State (1885-1908), the same author’s reportage on African troops in post-First World War Germany, and H.G. Wells’s speculative fiction When the Sleeper Wakes (1899, 1910). In each text racist and anti-colonialist discourses converge in representing the African soldier as the henchman of corrupt imperialism. His alleged propensity for taboo crimes of cannibalism and rape are conceived as threats to white safety and indeed supremacy. By tracing Wells’s connections to the Congo reform campaign and situating his novel between two phases of Morel’s writing career, I interpret When the Sleeper Wakes as neither simply a reflection of past events in Africa or as a prediction of future ones in Europe. It is rather a transcultural text which reveals the impact of European culture upon the ‘Congo atrocities’, and the inscription of this controversy upon European popular cultural forms and social debates

Detection of Two Anaerobic Periodontopathogens in Children by Means of the BANA and ELISA Assays

The mouths of young children become colonized by a variety of bacteria, but there have been only a few studies that have sought the presence of periodontopathic species in this population. Almost all of these studies used culturing techniques rather than the newer detection methodologies for various periodontopathogens. Studies in adults have shown that Treponema denticola and Porphyromonas (Bacteroides) gingivalis can be detected in dental plaque by use of the BANA and ELISA diagnostic tests. In the present study, plaque samples from four subgingival sites in each of 157 children (aged from two to 18 years) were tested for BANA hydrolysis with a BANA reagent card, and for T. denticola and P. gingivalis with an ELISA assay. Anaerobic periodontopathogens hydrolyzing the BANA substrate were found to be present in at least one of four plaque samples in 88 children (56%). T. denticola and/or P. gingivalis were detected by ELISA in at least one plaque sample in each of 135 children (86%). This study shows that children are widely colonized by these micro-organisms. A higher proportion of Black children than Caucasian children was colonized by these BANA-positive organisms. Also, children having a parent with a documented history of periodontal disease were more likely to be BANA-positive than were children of parents with unknown periodontal status.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67961/2/10.1177_00220345910700070701.pd

Risk factors of impaired neuropsychological outcome in school-aged survivors of neonatal critical illness

__Objective__ Until now, long-term outcome studies have focused on general cognitive functioning and its risk factors following neonatal extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and/or congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). However, it is currently unknown which neuropsychological domains are most affected in these patients, and which clinical variables can be used to predict specific neuropsychological problems. This study aimed to identify affected neuropsychological domains and its clinical determinants in survivors of neonatal ECMO and/or CDH. __Design__ Prospective follow-up study. __Setting__ Tertiary university hospital. __Patients__ Sixty-five eight-year-old survivors of neonatal ECMO and/or CDH. __Interventions__ None. __Measurements and Main Results__ Intelligence, attention, memory, executive functioning and visuospatial processing were evaluated

Locked and Unlocked Chains of Planar Shapes

We extend linkage unfolding results from the well-studied case of polygonal linkages to the more general case of linkages of polygons. More precisely, we consider chains of nonoverlapping rigid planar shapes (Jordan regions) that are hinged together sequentially at rotatable joints. Our goal is to characterize the families of planar shapes that admit locked chains, where some configurations cannot be reached by continuous reconfiguration without self-intersection, and which families of planar shapes guarantee universal foldability, where every chain is guaranteed to have a connected configuration space. Previously, only obtuse triangles were known to admit locked shapes, and only line segments were known to guarantee universal foldability. We show that a surprisingly general family of planar shapes, called slender adornments, guarantees universal foldability: roughly, the distance from each edge along the path along the boundary of the slender adornment to each hinge should be monotone. In contrast, we show that isosceles triangles with any desired apex angle less than 90 degrees admit locked chains, which is precisely the threshold beyond which the inward-normal property no longer holds.Comment: 23 pages, 25 figures, Latex; full journal version with all proof details. (Fixed crash-induced bugs in the abstract.

Prognostic significance of precordial ST segment depression during inferior myocardial infarction in the thrombolytic era: Results in 16,521 patients

Objectives. We examined the prognostic significance of precordial ST segment depression among patients with an acute inferior myocardial infarction. Background. Although precordial ST segment depression has been associated with a poor prognosis, this correlation has not been adequately quantified, partly because of small sample sizes and methodologic limitations in previous studies. Methods. We examined the clinical and angiographic outcomes of 16,521 patients with an acute inferior myocardial infarction who underwent thrombolysis in the Global Utilization of Streptokinase and t-PA for Occluded Coronary Arteries (GUSTO-I) study. Patients were classified into those without precordial ST segment depression (n = 6,422 [38.9%]), those with ST segment depression in leads V1 to V3 only (n = 5,850 [35.4%]), those with ST segment depression in leads V4 to V6 only (n = 876 [5.3%]) and those with ST segment depression in both leads V1 to V3 and leads V4 to V6 (n = 3,373 [20.4%]) on initial electrocardiography. Outcome measures included postinfarction complications (second- or third-degree heart block, congestive heart failure or shock) and 30-day and 1-year mortality. Results. Patients with precordial ST segment depression had larger infarctions, more postinfarction complications and a higher mortality rate than those without precordial ST segment depression (4.7% vs. 3.2% at 30 days; 5.0% vs. 3.4% at 1 year; both p < 0.001), regardless of whether ST segment depression was noted in leads V1 to V6 or in leads V4 to V6. The magnitude of precordial ST segment depression (sum of leads V1 to V6) added significant independent prognostic information after adjustment for clinical risk factors; the risk of 30-day mortality increased by 36% for every 0.5 mV of precordial ST segment depression. Conclusions. Assessment of the magnitude of precordial ST segment depression is useful for acute risk stratification in patients with an inferior myocardial infarction

Offshore wind forcing in the Gulf of Tehuantepec, Mexico: the asymmetric circulation

Since the early surveys carried out by the Eastern Tropical Pacific (EASTROPIC) and Scripps Tuna Oceanographic Research (STOR) projects in the tropical Pacific off Mexico, the northerly winds which blow over the Gulf of Tehuantepec were described as an Important factor controlling the dynamics of this coastal ocean. In January-February 1989 an international team carried out the experiment Tehuano, designed to study the response of the gulf to these wind pulses. The complete evolution of the coastal ocean after an event of moderate intensity was observed. The forcing is characterized by a mostly symmetric, fanshaped, offshore wind jet, which in turn produces a remarkably asymmetric upper ocean response. While analytical results based on Ekman theory forced by a symmetric offshore wind predict the formation of a symmetric dipolar circulation, the observed flow consists mainly of a large (200 km in diameter) anticyclonic warm-core eddy in the western gulf, with only a weak cyclonic counterpart in the eastern gulf. Intense surface cooling under the wind jet is caused by entrainment of subsurface water into the upper layer. The thermocline in the west deepens with the development of the eddy, which is formed initially by the advection of warm surface waters from west of the gulf. East of the axis of the wind, the mixed layer deepens due to wind-induced entrainment, while, at the same time, shoaling and compression of the deeper isotherms by curl-induced upwelling (Ekman pumping) strengthen the thermocline

Estimation of surface winds from upward looking acoustic doppler current profilers

Three upward looking acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP) were deployed beneath meteorological buoys in the Gulf of Tehuantepec, Mexico, during winter 1988-1989. Hourly averaged wind speed data from the buoys and from ship when in the vicinity were compared with surface acoustic backscatter intensity recorded at the ADCPs. The backscatter was found to be a significant predictor of wind speeds from both buoy and ship, the latter when within 50 km of the mooring site. There was no apparent saturation of the backscatter signal at the maximum wind speeds (< 15 m/s). The results cast doubt on the ability of near-surface Doppler directional information to provide reliable estimates of wind direction

Purkinje cell-specific ablation of CaV2.1 Channels is sufficient to cause cerebellar ataxia in mice

The Cacna1a gene encodes the α1A subunit of voltage-gated CaV2.1 Ca2+ channels that are involved in neurotransmission at central synapses. CaV2.1-α1- knockout (α1KO) mice, which lack CaV2.1 channels in all neurons, have a very severe phenotype of cerebellar ataxia and dystonia, and usually die around postnatal day 20. This early lethality, combined with the wide expression of CaV2.1 channels throughout the cerebellar cortex and nuclei, prohibited determination of the contribution of particular cerebellar cell types to the development of the severe neurobiological phenotype in Cacna1a mutant mice. Here, we crossed conditional Cacna1a mice with transgenic mice expressing Cre recombinase, driven by the Purkinje cell-specific Pcp2 promoter, to specifically ablate the CaV2.1- α1A subunit and thereby CaV2.1 channels in Purkinje cells. Purkinje cell CaV2.1-α1A-knockout (PCα1KO) mice aged without difficulties, rescuing the lethal phenotype seen in α1KO mice. PCα1KO mice exhibited cerebellar ataxia starting around P12, much earlier than the first signs of progressive Purkinje cell loss, which appears in these mice between P30 and P45. Secondary cell loss was observed in the granular and molecular layers of the cerebellum and the volume of all individual cerebellar nuclei was reduced. In this mouse model with a cell type-specific ablation of CaV2.1 channels, we show that ablation of CaV2.1 channels restricted to Purkinje cells is sufficient to cause cerebellar ataxia. We demonstrate that spatial ablation of CaV2.1 channels may help in unraveling mechanisms of human disease