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Risk and Uncertainty,

Production and characterisation of yeast cell wall preparations with binding activity against Salmonella and Escherichia coli.

A rise in food safety and production standards (e.g. the ban on antibiotics) has led to a search for alternative natural products to achieve a high yielding, safe method of meat production. Mannan oligosaccharides (MOS) are one such class of product that can potentially provide this. Abundant in the cell wall of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as well as other yeast species, MOS have the capacity to inhibit type 1 fimbriae containing pathogenic bacteria from binding to host tissue and thus prevent infection. Alterations in the growing conditions of several yeast strains, including Saccharomyces, Kluyveromyces, Candida, Schizosaccharomyces, Pichia, and Rhodotorula were examined to determine if by varying simple fermentation constituents it was possible to change yeast cell wall composition and increase its MOS content. The cell wall monosaccharide content (e.g. glucose and mannose) of a number of samples was significantly altered depending on the sole carbon source in the growth medium. However, the effect of carbon source on the cell wall monosaccharide content was strain specific. A quantitative assay to assess the efficacy of MOS type products to bind bacteria in vitro was developed. Initially, agglutination of bacteria to MOS was observed on a microscope slide for a number of type 1 fimbriae containing strains of Salmonella and Escherichia coli. The method was transferred to a 96 well plate format and optimised. The binding activity assay was shown to be repeatable and reproducible for Salmonella and E. coli strains. Yeast cell wall samples generated in this study were screened using the developed assay. S. cerevisiae 695, K. lactis 752, and Schiz. pombe 70572 cell wall samples had significantly higher binding activity than the control MOS used to develop the assay. The relationship between the yeast cell wall saccharide content and binding activity varied between strains indicating that the structure and not necessarily the quantity of the saccharides were more important in binding type 1 fimbriae containing bacteria. Analysis of the N-glycan profile of the samples with high binding activity revealed the presence of both common and unique mannan oligosaccharides. These unique mannan oligosaccharides may be responsible for the increased binding activity of these samples

Communication System For Firefighters

Currently firefighters use two-way radios to communicate on the job, and they are forced to write reports based on their memory because there is not an easy way to record the communications between two-way radios. Firefighters need a system to automatically document what happened while they were responding to a call. To save them a significant amount of time when creating reports, our solution is to implement an application that allows firefighters to take pictures, record video and communicate in real time with their team of on-site responders. The proposed system will use a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) hosted on the fire truck itself to act as an access point (AP) to which the firefighters can connect. This AP will also save communication between firefighters to a local storage location. Upon return to the fire station, the AP will route all of the information stored locally to a larger database. For now, Wi-Fi will be our communication medium, with a prediction that our technology can eventually be extended to include radio signal

Effect of irrigation practices on stream depletion in the Arikaree River, eastern Colorado

2004 Summer.Includes bibliographical references (pages 98-106).Irrigated agriculture is of paramount importance to the economy and livelihoods of those living in much of Eastern Colorado. Here, wells feeding center pivot systems draw groundwater from the High Plains Aquifer, and are commonly employed to supplement the meager amounts of natural precipitation. It is commonly accepted that a well actively pumping in the vicinity of a natural stream or river could, under certain circumstances, divert water from the stream itself and/or divert baseflow away from the river. Recent studies conducted on the Arikaree River, located in Yuma County, Colorado, have shown a clear pattern of stream drying during the growing season. The river, fully connected and flowing during the winter months, eventually becomes a series of standing pools and dry runs until the return of flow late in the calendar year. The river is almost entirely fed by groundwater via springs and seeps along its reach. In order to preserve the riparian ecosystem in the Arikaree River valley (including a threatened species of fish, Hybognathus hankinsoni also known as the Brassy Minnow), the true nature of the stream depletion must first be found. Irrigation practices of several farmers in the vicinity of the Arikaree were determined for 2003, while stage height in the river was monitored. It was found that initial declines in stage height were nearly temporally identical for 2002 and 2003 . It was also found that most irrigation began 2-4 weeks later in 2003 than it had in 2002. Thus, the change in irrigation practices did not appear to impact stream depletion rates between these two years. Most stage height declines appeared in the record several weeks before the onset of the bulk of high-capacity pumping in the area, suggesting that there may be other factors besides irrigated agriculture contributing to the seasonal stream depletion. Results of a simplified stream-depletion model currently used for water rights administration are presented, as well as data regarding the permeability of the Arikaree streambed at various locations along its reach. Recommendations are also made concerning future research and data collection to further determine the effect of irrigation on the Arikaree River

Operations Research in the High Tech Military Environment: A Survey

The use of operations research as a technology to solve many of the problems of government and industry has become a major field of study within the very short span of the last fifty years. In the paper entitled, Operations Research in the High Tech Military Environment: A Survey, the reader is provided with a better understanding of the tenets of operations research through an examination of a representative sample of the latest operations research applications developed for the high tech environment. Initially, this involves providing the reader with some fundamental insights into what operations research is, what its practitioners do, and how the state-of-the-art has evolved to its present form. It then involves providing a brief description of what is meant by the term, high tech military environment. A survey, which constitutes the bulk of the material presented, focuses on how various operations research methodologies are being used within that environment. The paper concludes with a discussion of the possible directions operations research will take in the future, based on the present state-of-the-art

Workers of the Sunshine State Unite!: The Florida Socialist Party During the Progressive Era, 1900-1920

Florida, whether under Democratic or Republican political control, has always appeared to most outside observers as a haven for political conservatism. Outward appearances, however, often prove to be quite deceptive. Florida politics during the Progressive Era may be such a case. In 1912, the Socialist presidential candidate, Eugene Debs, garnered more votes in Florida than Theodore Roosevelt or William Howard Taft, and Florida was the only state of the former Confederacy where this minor party finished as high as second place in the total vote. A canvass of Progressive Era voting results reveals the steady growth of Socialist electoral strength in Florida from 1900 to 1912, before tapering off from 1912 to 1920. From 1904 to 1920 Florida was the only southern state registering more than 2,000 radical votes in every presidential election. Florida recorded the highest percentage of left-winged votes for any ex-Confederate state in four presidential elections: 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920. Only Arkansas\u27s returns, in 1916, interrupted the sunshine state\u27s claim as the home of southern radicalism.

A Case Study Exploration of Blue-Collar Worker Retirement Plan Investment Decisions

The finances of blue-collar workers were the most acutely impacted as these workers lost their jobs during the Great Recession of 2007 through 2009. The literature revealed a minimal understanding of how blue-collar workers allocated funds for their retirement, and what their investments might be when they invested. To address this problem, the current qualitative study addressed (a) how blue-collar workers chose to invest or not invest for retirement and (b) how blue-collar workers diversified their portfolio if they chose to invest. Theoretical foundations of the study were based on regret theory and prospect theory. A nonrandom purposeful sample of 10 blue-collar worker participants answered 19 open-ended questions. Data from these questions were analyzed inductively. Findings revealed that, as participants reached the age of 30, they started to consider investing for their retirement. Participants under the age of 30 were not as likely to invest. Only one person over the age of 30 did not invest for retirement. The factors that contributed to these blue-collar workers’ investment decisions for retirement were based on an employer-provided retirement accounts, the fear of running out of money later in life during retirement, and the addition of new family members. One of the most popular retirement investment products for the participant group, which included mechanics, laborers, and material movers, was the U.S. Treasury bonds. Other popular investments were mutual funds, 401(k)s, and IRAs. These findings may inform researchers who are conducting a study on the investment decisions of blue-collar workers. The findings can also be beneficial for other blue-collar workers by showing them that other blue-collar workers do invest, and by revealing their rationales in doing so

Distribution and incidence of viruses in Irish seed potato crops

peer-reviewedVirus diseases are of key importance in potato production and in particular for the production of disease-free potato seed. However, there is little known about the frequency and distribution of potato virus diseases in Ireland. Despite a large number of samples being tested each year, the data has never been collated either within or across years. Information from all known potato virus testing carried out in the years 2006–2012 by the Department of Agriculture Food and Marine was collated to give an indication of the distribution and incidence of potato virus in Ireland. It was found that there was significant variation between regions, varieties, years and seed classes. A definition of daily weather data suitable for aphid flight was developed, which accounted for a significant proportion of the variation in virus incidence between years. This use of weather data to predict virus risk could be developed to form the basis of an integrated pest management approach for aphid control in Irish potato crops

Evacuated Enclosure Mounted Acoustic Actuator and Passive Attenuator

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77190/1/AIAA-2002-1355-680.pd