Epidemiologic typing of Escherichia coli using RAPD analysis, ribotyping and serotyping

AbstractObjectiveTo compare random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis and ribotyping with serotyping for epidemiologic typing of Escherichia coli.MethodsThirty-two epidemiologically unrelated strains, nine cerebrospinal fluid isolates with the O7K1 serotype from nine patients, and nine sets of epidemiologically related E. coli isolates from nine patients were typed by RAPD analysis, ribotyping and serotyping.ResultsAmong the 32 epidemiologically unrelated E. coli isolates, 29 types were distinguished by RAPD analysis, 25 by ribotyping and 27 by serotyping. Indistinguishable patterns were obtained by RAPD analysis and ribotyping within the collection of nine cerebrospinal fluid isolates. For the epidemiologically related isolates, intrapatient variation was only found by RAPD analysis among the isolates of one set and by ribotyping among the isolates of two sets. No interpatient variation was observed between three sets of isolates. With serotyping, the epidemiologically related isolates yielded similar typing relationships to those obtained by RAPD analysis and ribotyping.ConclusionsRAPD analysis had the highest discriminatory capacity for typing E. coli isolates. RAPD analysis, ribotyping and serotyping can all be used for assessment of strain relationships

Scenario’s voor materiaalvoorraden en stromen in gebouwen: update recycling, aanvulling milieu-impact & uitbreiding naar verbouwwerkzaamheden

Industrial Ecolog

Support for Redistribution in Western Europe: Assessing the role of religion

Previous sociological studies have paid little attention to religion as a central determinant of individual preferences for redistribution. In this article we argue that religious individuals, living in increasingly secular societies, differ in political preferences from their secular counterparts. Based on the theory of religious cleavages, we expect that religious individuals will oppose income redistribution by the state. Furthermore, in contexts where the polarization between religious and secular individuals is large, preferences for redistribution will be lower. In the empirical analysis we test our predictions in a multilevel framework, using data from the European Social Survey 2002–2006 for 16 Western European countries. After controlling for a wide range of individual socio-economic factors and for welfare-state policies, religion plays and important explanatory role. We find that both Catholics and Protestants strongly oppose income redistribution by the state. The cleavage between religious and secular individuals is far more important than the difference between denominations. Using a refined measure of religious polarization, we also find that in more polarized context the overall level of support for redistribution is lower

The effects of soaking for DNA recovery on the striation patterns of fired cartridge cases

© 2019, © 2019 Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences. The recovery of trace DNA from fired cartridge cases has recently gained increased interest throughout the literature, with a variety of methods currently being explored. Soaking fired cartridge cases in a lysis buffer holds potential in producing meaningful DNA profiles; however, chemical interactions between the lysis buffer and brass cartridge cases may limit the efficacy of this method. This preliminary study examines the effects of soaking on the microscopic striation detail of brass and nickel 9 mm Parabellum (9 mmP) calibre and.22 Long Rifle (.22LR) calibre fired cartridge cases. Headstamp and coarse striation patterns on 9 mmP fired cartridge cases and finer striation patterns along the outer wall of.22LR fired cartridge cases were microscopically examined prior to and following soaking. Soaking was performed by submerging the fired cartridge cases in 380 µl of ATL buffer (Qiagen, Germany) for 20 minutes. Microscopic analysis of brass and nickel 9 mmP and.22LR fired cartridge cases showed that coarse and fine striation detail remain unaffected following soaking. These results indicate that comparative ballistics examinations may be performed following DNA recovery using the soaking method

Een raamwerk voor het Grondstoffen Informatie Systeem

Industrial Ecolog

Vleesconsumptie en klimaatbeleid

In deze studie wordt de mogelijke invloed van dieetveranderingen op de kosten van ambitieuze klimaatdoelstellingen verkend. Doel van de studie is uitsluitend om in te schatten wat de wereldwijde bijdrage van dieetverandering kan zijn. De vleesconsumptie wordt aangepast in vier varianten van dieetverandering: GeenHerkauwers (geen vlees van herkauwers), GeenVlees (geheel geen vlees), GeenDierproducten (geen enkel dierlijk product) en WilettDieet (een 'gezond' dieet). Hiervoor wordt het geïntegreerde model IMAGE (Integrated Model to Assess the Global Environment) gebruikt. Ook worden resultaten voor landgebruik en biodiversiteit gegeve

Scenariostudie materiaal-voorraad, vraag en secundair aanbod in gebouwen: Onderdeel van het werkprogramma Monitoring & Sturing Circulaire Economie

Industrial Ecolog

Harnessing RNA sequencing for global, unbiased evaluation of two new adjuvants for dendritic-cell immunotherapy

Effective stimulation of immune cells is crucial for the success of cancer immunotherapies. Current approaches to evaluate the efficiency of stimuli are mainly defined by known flow cytometry-based cell activation or cell maturation markers. This method however does not give a complete overview of the achieved activation state and may leave important side effects unnoticed. Here, we used an unbiased RNA sequencing (RNA-seq)-based approach to compare the capacity of four clinical-grade dendritic cell (DC) activation stimuli used to prepare DC-vaccines composed of various types of DC subsets; the already clinically applied GM-CSF and Frühsommer meningoencephalitis (FSME) prophylactic vaccine and the novel clinical grade adjuvants protamine-RNA complexes (pRNA) and CpG-P. We found that GM-CSF and pRNA had similar effects on their target cells, whereas pRNA and CpG-P induced stronger type I interferon (IFN) expression than FSME. In general, the pathways most affected by all stimuli were related to immune activity and cell migration. GM-CSF stimulation, however, also induced a significant increase of genes related to nonsense-mediated decay, indicating a possible deleterious effect of this stimulus. Taken together, the two novel stimuli appear to be promising alternatives. Our study demonstrates how RNA-seq based investigation of changes in a large number of genes and gene groups can be exploited for fast and unbiased, global evaluation of clinical-grade stimuli, as opposed to the general limited evaluation of a pre-specified set of genes, by which one might miss important biological effects that are detrimental for vaccine efficacy

Evaluation of soaking to recover trace DNA from fired cartridge cases

© 2020, © 2020 Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences. The recovery of trace DNA from cartridge cases is of common interest across many jurisdictions. Soaking offers improved profiling success rates over traditional methods. We evaluated the effects of firing, calibre, and metal composition on controlled and handled DNA samples utilizing a soaking method. Our results show that firing decreases the quantities of DNA recoverable from cartridge cases and higher quantities of DNA are recoverable from nickel ammunition compared to brass. In spiked samples, calibre of ammunition had no significant effect on DNA recovery. Despite slight to moderate DNA degradation and variable profiling success rates, spiked unfired and fired nickel cartridges resulted in more usable profiles than brass cartridges. These findings can aid in triaging the types of ammunition subjected to DNA testing