Oral Lactobacillus plantarum NCIMB 8825 inhibits adhesion, invasion and metabolism of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B and affords anti-inflammatory and cytotoxic protection to nasopharyngeal epithelial cells

In this study, we investigate the potential for oral Lactobacilli (LB) to afford innate protection against nasopharyngeal coloniser Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B (NmB), which causes the bulk of UK meningococcal disease. Oral isolates of L. plantarum, L. salivarious, L. casei, L. rhamnosus, L. gasseri and gut probiotic L. rhamnosus GG were assessed for their ability to suppress nasopharyngeal epithelial inflammatory responses to pathogenic NmB. The specificity of attenuation was examined using TLR 2 ligand, Pam3Cys, and early response cytokine IL1β; and the mechanism of attenuation was explored using heat-killed organisms and conditioned medium. Pro-inflammatory IL-6 and TNFα cytokine secretion was quantified by ELISA and associated cell death was quantified by PI staining and LDH release. NmB adhesion, invasion and metabolism were determined using standard gentamicin protection with viable counts, and bioluminescence, respectively. L. plantarum and L. salivarious suppressed IL-6 and TNFα secretions from NmB-infected epithelial cells. LB did not need to be alive and could suppress using secretions, which were independent of TLR2 or IL1β receptor signalling. L. plantarum, in particular, reduced NmB-induced necrotic cell death of epithelial monolayers. Like L. salivarious, it significantly inhibited NmB adhesion but uniquely L. plantarum abolished NmB invasion. Using bioluminescence as a reporter of pathogen metabolism, L. plantarum and its secretions were found to inhibit NmB metabolism during cell invasion assays. We conclude that oral L. plantarum and its secretions could be used to help reduce the burden of meningococcal disease by removing the intracellular nasopharyngeal reservoir of NmB

Factors that Influence Financial Capability and Effectiveness: Exploring Financial Counsellors’ Perspectives

The financial capability of the community has become a topical issue in recent years around the globe. The role financial education plays improving financial capability is recognised by the G20 countries. With a plethora of programs, workshops, seminars and other resources available in the community, we find that there is little research that measures the impact/usefulness of these programs including what should be included in such programs. This study seeks to contribute to the understanding of the underlying determinants of financial capability by exploring the factors that influence this. Focus groups were conducted with financial counsellors in Queensland, Australia to explore factors that inhibit and promote financial capability. This included factors that impede the development of capability and the others that impact on the development of intention to engage in financially effective behaviour. We report that financial counsellors view confidence, self-esteem and self-belief as equally important determinants of financial capability. Also, gender and family socio economic status influence an individual’s ability to engage in financially effective behaviour. The results also found that adopting a short-term focus, rather than future orientation, is a key inhibitor of financial effectiveness. Consequently it is suggested that those developing financial capability programs address these behavioural and contextual factors rather than concentrating purely on literacy

Belief and Investing: Preferences and Attitudes of the Faithful

This Australian study seeks to better understand the disparity between the positive attitudes towards Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) and the level of investment in SRI (Saulwick &Associates 2001; Watmore & Bradley 2001; Williams 2007; Arjalies 2010), by examining both the attitudes to SRI and the investment choices that are made. It is hypothesised that those who are more committed to religious belief principles are more likely to invest in SRI.To test this 322 people from two large Queensland organisations were surveyed in relation to their investment attitudes and preferences. Results show that those who are more religious are no more likely to invest in SRI, and that the level of importance placed on SRI and financial criteria are similar in most instances for the more and less religious. In addition, women who are religious place more importance on conservative general investment criteria than less ornon-religious women

Socially Responsible Investing: the green attitudes and grey choices of Australian investors

This Australian study seeks to better understand the disparity between the positive attitudes towards Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) and the level of investment in SRI, by examining both the attitudes to SRI and the investment choices that are made. It is hypothesised that those who are more committed to principles of environmental sustainability are more likely to invest in SRI. To test this, 318 people from two large Queensland organisations are surveyed in relation to their investment attitudes and preferences. We find that there are significant differences in investment attitudes with environmentalists placing more importance on SRI investment criteria. However, there was no significant difference between environmentalists and non-environmentalists in terms of utility scores from an investment selection experiment with the environmentalists placing higher importance on financial performance criteria than SRI criteria, making choices similar to those with the lowest level of environmental activism. Furthermore, the observed lack of congruency between attitudes and choices in relation to environmental criteria may have implications for the growth of SRI funds. Copyright (c) 2007 The Authors; Journal compilation (c) 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.