Tetracycline resistance genes in Salmonella from growing pigs and their relationship to antimicrobial use and resistance to other antimicrobials

The aim of this study was to describe the occurrence of three genes coding for tetracycline resistance in Salmonellae isolated from normal slaughter weight pigs, and to test for relationships between the occurrence of these genes, phenotypic resistance, and the use of antimicrobials in feed and water

Breaking Cosmological Degeneracies in Galaxy Cluster Surveys with a Physical Model of Cluster Structure

Forthcoming large galaxy cluster surveys will yield tight constraints on cosmological models. It has been shown that in an idealized survey, containing > 10,000 clusters, statistical errors on dark energy and other cosmological parameters will be at the percent level. It has also been shown that through "self-calibration", parameters describing the mass-observable relation and cosmology can be simultaneously determined, though at a loss in accuracy by about an order of magnitude. Here we examine the utility of an alternative approach of self-calibration, in which a parametrized ab-initio physical model is used to compute cluster structure and the resulting mass-observable relations. As an example, we use a modified-entropy ("pre-heating") model of the intracluster medium, with the history and magnitude of entropy injection as unknown input parameters. Using a Fisher matrix approach, we evaluate the expected simultaneous statistical errors on cosmological and cluster model parameters. We study two types of surveys, in which a comparable number of clusters are identified either through their X-ray emission or through their integrated Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. We find that compared to a phenomenological parametrization of the mass-observable relation, using our physical model yields significantly tighter constraints in both surveys, and offers substantially improved synergy when the two surveys are combined. These results suggest that parametrized physical models of cluster structure will be useful when extracting cosmological constraints from SZ and X-ray cluster surveys. (abridged)Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, accepted to Ap

Optimal Surfactant Selection for Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery in Low Temperature, Low Salinity, High Hardness Reservoirs

Based on the environmental properties of a crude oil reservoir, only 20-30 % of oil product can be recovered using primary and secondary extraction methods. The remaining stranded oil can only be recovered via various enhanced oil recovery methods. Chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) uses specialty chemicals to extract trapped oil in rock layers by generating in-situ microemulsion in the presence of reservoir brine and oil. In this case study, phase behavior tests are conducted for microemulsion formation between the surfactant solution and the oil. The phase behavior tests model reservoirs with low temperature and low salinity. In order to narrow the selection of surfactants for testing, phase behavior tests and interfacial tension experiments were used to determine the equivalent alkane carbon number (EACN) of the oil in this reservoir. Along with phase testing, extensive interfacial tension measurements were carried out with the model oil and the reservoir fluid at various salinities. The reservoir sample oil was determined to have an EACN of around 12, which effectively models the hydrocarbon part of the multicomponent crude oil similar to a dodecane system. These results facilitate in method development for EACN determination and in the selection of the surfactants that will create optimum emulsion for high efficiency oil recovery in low temperature and low salinity reservoirs typical to the Illinois basin in the United States

CodeVA Elementary Coaches Academy : Impact of Computer Science Implementation in K-5

Abstract This study investigated the impact of CodeVA’s elementary coach’s academy (ECA) on computer science implementation in elementary schools across the state of Virginia. The research took a multimethod qualitative and quantitative approach through surveys, focus groups, interviews and observations of ECA coaches and participants, along with the analysis of historical data provided by CodeVA. The capstone research questions were: “What is the impact of the elementary coaches academy?” and “What impacts the effectiveness of CodeVA’s elementary coaches academy?” In general, the data collected suggested that CodeVA has been effective in reaching its intended audience and meeting the needs of cohort participants, but there is still room for improvement. The review of the data resulted in five overarching anchors being identified that produced the following recommendations: “ use evidenced based coaching models to increase impact”; “utilize adult learning principles to create specific professional development”; “create a more structured professional learning community for ECA”; “improve advanced communication of ECA professional development opportunities” and “create a cache of resources to improve outside access to information for facilitators and coaches of the ECA” Keywords: CodeVA, computer science, elementary coaches academ

Ruminococcal cellulosome systems from rumen to human

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. The authors appreciate the kind assistance of Miriam Lerner (ImmunArray Ltd. Company, Rehovot, Israel) with experiments involving the MicroGrid II arrayer. This research was supported by a grant (No. 1349) to EAB also from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) and a grant (No. 24/11) issued to RL by The Sidney E. Frank Foundation also through the ISF. Additional support was obtained from the establishment of an Israeli Center of Research Excellence (I-CORE Center No. 152/11) managed by the Israel Science Foundation, from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), Jerusalem, Israel, by the Weizmann Institute of Science Alternative Energy Research Initiative (AERI) and the Helmsley Foundation. The authors also appreciate the support of the European Union, Area NMP.2013.1.1-2: Self-assembly of naturally occurring nanosystems: CellulosomePlus Project number: 604530 and an ERA-IB Consortium (EIB.12.022), acronym FiberFuel. HF and SHD acknowledge support from the Scottish Government Food Land and People programme and from BBSRC grant no. BB/L009951/1. In addition, EAB is grateful for a grant from the F. Warren Hellman Grant for Alternative Energy Research in Israel in support of alternative energy research in Israel administered by the Israel Strategic Alternative Energy Foundation (I-SAEF). E.A.B. is the incumbent of The Maynard I. and Elaine Wishner Chair of Bio-organic ChemistryPeer reviewedPostprin

Rumen cellulosomics : divergent fiber-degrading strategies revealed by comparative genome-wide analysis of six ruminococcal strains

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Expression of Cellulosome Components and Type IV Pili within the Extracellular Proteome of Ruminococcus flavefaciens 007

Funding: The Rowett Institute receives funding from SG-RESAS (Scottish Government Rural and Environmental Science and Analysis Service). Visit of M.V. was supported by research grants from FEMS and Slovene human resources development and scholarship funds. Parts of this work were funded by grants from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), Jerusalem, Israel – BSF Energy Research grant to E.A.B. and B.A.W. and Regular BSF Research grants to R.L. and B.A.W. – and by the Israel Science Foundation (grant nos 966/09 and 159/07 291/08). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD