Molecular Genetic Typing of Staphylococcus aureus from Cows, Goats, Sheep, Rabbits and Chickens

End of project reportsS. aureus can also cause a number of infections in animals such as tick-associated pyaemia in lambs, staphylococcosis in rabbits, septicaemia, abscesses and chondronecrosis in chickens and pneumonia and osteomyelitis complex in turkeys. S. aureus is the most frequent cause of bovine mastitis, a disease that is of economic importance worldwide (Beck et al., 1992). Typically staphylococcal mastitis is chronic in nature, with subclinical mastitis being the most common form

Labour and socialism in Glasgow 1880-1914: the electoral challenge prior to democracy

From the emergence of the 'modern' Socialist movement in the 1880s through to the First World War, the majority of socialists in Britain regarded the achievement of particular reforms and the ultimate goal of Socialism itself, as being realisable only through the ballot box. The subject of this thesis is how that movement, i.e. for independent labour representation, was conducted and with what success in Glasgow prior to the First World War. The whole basis of this electoral strategy, however, is called into question by the sex and class biases inherent in the franchise system, as defined by the Reform Acts of the nineteenth century.The focus of the study falls upon local, municipal politics and particular attention is paid to the Independent Labour Party (ILP), as the largest socialist organisation and the body most associated with the movement of independent labour representation. Glasgow was chosen because of its working class complexion, the militant reputation it receive during and immediately after the First World War, and its emergence as an electoral stronghold of the Labour Party in the post-war period.To achieve its aim of securing elected representation, the ILP sought to promote alliances with other democratic' forces which were regarded as part of the working class movement: the trade unions, the co-operators, and the Irish. An alliance of this group was achieved in the 1890s and secured a level of Labour representation on Glasgow Town Council. The elements of this alliance, however, were fissiparious and the coalition eventually collapsed and with it Labour representation, until a more structured Labour Party was established in Glasgow in 1910-12.Even at its most successful, this electoral challenge was limited. This limitation is examined in relation to the franchise system. The class bias of the system operated most forcefully against the poorer working class, and the failure of British Socialism, and particularly the ILP, to campaign for complete democracy is seen as emanating from respectable' fears of the residuum or 'slum dwellers'. The limited impact made by Labour prior to 1914 is thrown into sharper relief by the massively expanded support it enjoyed post-1918 amongst the new mass electorate, which meant that Britain, for the first time, at least approximated to being a full democracy. That the forces of Labour had signally failed to make adult suffrage an important plank of its platform is seen as indicative of a Labour movement and politics unable to transcend the divisions within the working class, and posing only a limited and self-limiting challenge to the established order

Population and Virulence Factor Analysis of Staphylococcus aureus from Bovine Mastitis.

End of Project ReportsStaphylococcus aureus is a major cause of bovine mastitis and the disease is responsible for substantial economic losses in the dairy industry world-wide. A large number of commonly accepted virulence factors are associated with S. aureus but it is yet to be elucidated which of these are important for infection of the bovine udder. A rational and effective strategy for the control of intramammary infections may need to be directed against clones of S. aureus that commonly cause disease. The objective of this study was to characterise the genetic variance of S. aureus isolate populations from infected udders in Ireland using RAPD-PCR, ribotyping and multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE). Similar S. aureus isolates collected in the USA were also typed in order to compare strain differences in staphylococcal populations in a different environment. Phenotypic diversity based on a number of presumed virulence factors together with antibiotic sensitivity was examined and correlations between phenotype and genotype were identified, if present. In addition, a pathogenicity island encoding multiple superantigens was completely sequenced and characterised. Knockout mutants of these superantigens were also constructed and in vitro functional analysis performed. Laboratory animal experiments (mice and rabbits) were used to study the relative pathogenicity of individual staphylococcal strains (mice) and also to measure the immunological responses after prolonged exposure to the predominant strains (rabbits)

Reputations and national identity, or, what do our heroes say about us?

It seems appropriate to be writing this introduction in the same week as the new Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) is launched and the Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women celebrates the completion of the commissioning of its entries. Whatever scruples some historians may have over the worth or relevance of biography, there is no doubting its popularity; the tables and shelves of every bookshop groans under the weight of biographies and ghosted autobiographies of past and present f..

Reputations and national identity, or, what do our heroes say about us?

It seems appropriate to be writing this introduction in the same week as the new Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) is launched and the Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women celebrates the completion of the commissioning of its entries. Whatever scruples some historians may have over the worth or relevance of biography, there is no doubting its popularity; the tables and shelves of every bookshop groans under the weight of biographies and ghosted autobiographies of past and present f..

Predicting Postfire Sediment Yields of Small Steep Catchments Using Airborne Lidar Differencing

Predicting sediment yield from recently burned areas remains a challenge but is important for hazard and resource management as wildfire impacts increase. Here we use lidar-based monitoring of two fires in southern California, USA to study the movement of sediment during pre-rainfall periods and postfire periods of flooding and debris flows over multiple storm events. Using a data-driven approach, we examine the relative importance of terrain, vegetation, burn severity, and rainfall amounts through time on sediment yield. We show that incipient fire-activated dry sediment loading and pre-fire colluvium were rapidly flushed out by debris flows and floods but continued erosion occurred later in the season from soil erosion and, in ∼9% of catchments, from shallow landslides. Based on these observations, we develop random forest regression models to predict dry ravel and incipient runoff-driven sediment yield applicable to small steep headwater catchments in southern California

Electrocatalytic sensor devices: (I) cyclopentadienylnickel(II) thiolato Schiff base monolayer self-assembled on gold

The fabrication of a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of a cyclopentadienylnickel(II) thiolato Schiff base compound, [Ni(SC6H4NC(H)C6H4OCH2CH2SMe)(η5-C5H5)]2 on a gold electrode is described. Effective electronic communication between the Ni(II) centres and the gold surface was established by electrochemically cycling the Schiff base-doped Au electrode in 0.1 M NaOH from −200 mV to +600 mV. The SAM-modified electrode exhibited quasi-reversible electrochemistry. The integrity of this electrocatalytic SAM, with respect to its ability to block and electro-catalyse certain Faradaic processes, was interrogated using cyclic voltammetric experiments. The formal potential, E°′, varied with pH to give a slope of about −30 mV pH−1. The surface concentration, G, of the nickel redox centres was found to be 1.548×10−11 mol cm−2. By electrostatically doping the SAM using an applied potential of +700 mV versus Ag/AgCl, in the presence of horseradish peroxidase (HRP), it was fine-tuned for amperometric determination of H2O2. The electrocatalytic-type biosensor displayed typical Michaelis–Menten kinetics and the limit of detection was found to be 6.25 mM

Mediated amperometric immunosensing using single walled carbon nanotube forests

A prototype amperometric immunosensor was evaluated based on the adsorption of antibodies onto perpendicularly oriented assemblies of single wall carbon nanotubes called SWNT forests. The forests were self-assembled from oxidatively shortened SWNTs onto Nafion/iron oxide coated pyrolytic graphite electrodes. The nanotube forests were characterized using atomic force microscopy and resonance Raman spectroscopy. Anti-biotin antibody strongly adsorbed to the SWNT forests. In the presence of a soluble mediator, the detection limit for horseradish peroxidase (HRP) labeled biotin was 2.5 pmol ml[-1] (2.5 nM). Unlabelled biotin was detected in a competitive approach with a detection limit of 16 nmol ml[-1] (16 μM) and a relative standard deviation of 12%. The immunosensor showed low non-specific adsorption of biotin-HRP (approx. 0.1%) when blocked with bovine serum albumin. This immunosensing approach using high surface area, patternable, conductive SWNT assemblies may eventually prove useful for nano-biosensing arrays