Catholic church and state relations in French education in the 19th Century

This article traces the conflicts and compromises between the Catholic Church and the French state and the struggle for dominance in education between these two forces during the 19th century. It explores their varying relations up to the law of separation in 1905. It also poses the question as to why a country traditionally wedded to Catholicism came to be ideologically opposed to it. . Rather than inheriting an ideology opposed to religion per se, it is argued, the legacy from the French Revolution has been one of egalitarianism which has persisted. The Church during this period supported anti-revolutionary and reactionary political forces. This created hostility towards the Church and brought about popular support for anticlericalism

Impact of wild-type and genetically modified Pseudomonas fluorescens on soil enzyme activities and microbial population structure in the rhizosphere of pea

The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com. Copyright Blackwell Publishing DOI : 10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00367.xThe aim of this work was to determine the impact of wild type along with functionally and non-functionally modified Pseudomonas fluorescens strains in the rhizosphere. The wild type F113 strain carried a gene encoding the production of the antibiotic 2,4 diacetylphloroglucinol (DAPG) useful in plant disease control, and was marked with a lacZY gene cassette. The first modified strain was a functional modification of strain F113 with repressed production of DAPG, creating the DAPG negative strain F113 G22. The second paired comparison was a non-functional modification of wild type (unmarked) strain SBW25, constructed to carry marker genes only, creating strain SBW25 EeZY-6KX. Significant perturbations were found in the indigenous bacterial population structure, with the F113, (DAPG+) strain causing a shift towards slower growing colonies (K strategists) compared with the non-antibiotic producing derivative (F113 G22) and the SBW25 strains. The DAPG+ strain also significantly reduced, in comparison with the other inocula, the total Pseudomonas populations but did not affect the total microbial populations. The survival of F113 and F113 G22 were an order of magnitude lower than the SBW 25 strains. The DAPG+ strain caused a significant decrease in the shoot to root ratio in comparison to the control and other inoculants, indicating plant stress. F113 increased soil alkaline phosphatase, phosphodiesterase and aryl sulphatase activities compared to the other inocula, which themselves reduced the same enzyme activities compared to the control. In contrast to this, the -glucosidase, -galactosidase and N-acetyl glucosaminidase activities decreased with the inoculation of the DAPG+ strain. These results indicate that soil enzymes are sensitive to the impact of GMM inoculation.Peer reviewe

Older wiser safer: evaluation of the long-term impact of an adolescent sexual health intervention programme (MEMA kwa Vijana) in Mwanza, Tanzania

Background: The UNGASS target to reduce HIV prevalence by 25% among 15-25 year olds living in the most affected countries by 2005 has not been met. In the absence of a vaccine or cure, behavioural interventions are the main strategy for HIV control. The ability of specific behaviour change interventions to reduce HIV/STI incidence and unplanned pregnancies in young people remains unproven. Methods: Since January 1999, an adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) intervention has been implemented in 10 randomly selected intervention communities in rural Tanzania, within a community randomised trial. The intervention consisted of teacher-led, peer-assisted in school education, youth-friendly health services, community activities and youth condom promotion and distribution. Process evaluation in 1999-2002 showed high intervention quality and coverage. From June 2007 to July 2008, in the specific research reported in this thesis, the long-term impact of the intervention was evaluated among 13,814 young people aged 17-27 years who had attended trial schools between 1999 and 2002. Findings: Prevalences of HIV and HSV2 were 1.8% and 25.9% in males and 4.0% and 41.4% in females, respectively. The intervention did not significantly reduce risk of HIV (males adjusted prevalence ratio(aPR)=0.91; 95%CI:0.50-1.65; females aPR=1.07; 95%CI:0.68-1.67) or HSV2 (males aPR=0.94;95%CI:0.77-1.15; females aPR=0.96; 95%CI:0.87-1.06). The intervention was associated with a reduction in number of lifetime sexual partners reported by males (aPR=0.87; 95%CI:0.78-0.97) and an increase in reported condom use at last sex with a non-regular partner among females (aPR=1.34; 95%CI:1.07-1.69). There was a clear and consistent beneficial impact on knowledge, but no significant impact on reported attitudes to sexual risk, reported pregnancies or other reported sexual behaviours. Interpretation: SRH knowledge can be improved and retained long-term, but this intervention had little effect on reported behaviour or HIV/STI prevalence. Youth interventions integrated within intensive, community-wide risk reduction programmes may be more successful and should be evaluated

Substitution of Ti3+ and Ti4+ in hibonite (CaAl12O19)

The structures of eight synthetic samples of hibonite, with variable Ti oxidation state and Ti concentration (2.4–15.9 wt% TiO2) that span the range reported for natural hibonite found in meteorites, were determined by Rietveld refinements of neutron powder diffraction data. Ti3+ was found to exclusively occupy the octahedral face-sharing M4 site irrespective of the presence or absence of Ti4+. Ti4+ partitions between the trigonal bipyramidal M2 site and the M4 site. The ratio (Ti4+ on M2):(Ti4+ on M4) appears to be constant for all the samples, with an average of 0.18(2) irrespective of the concentrations of Ti3+ and Ti4+. These substitutional sites were shown to be the most stable configurations for Ti in hibonite from calculations using density functional theory, although the predicted preference of Ti4+ for M4 over M2 is not as strong as is observed. This is attributed to the different Ti contents of the experimental and calculated structures and suggests that the Ti site occupancies might change between these concentrations. Furthermore, it is shown that Ti has a preference to occupy neighboring M4 sites such that Ti-Ti interactions occur with stabilization energies of 83 kJ/mol for Ti3+-Ti3+ and at least 15 kJ/mol for Ti4+-Ti4+. Features in optical spectroscopy and electron spin resonance data from meteoritic and synthetic hibonites that have been used to infer Ti3+/Ti4+ are shown to actually derive from these Ti-Ti interactions. The amount of Ti4+ in hibonite can be determined from the unit-cell parameters if ∑Ti is determined independently. Ti3+/Ti4+ in hibonite may record the oxygen fugacity (fO2) of the early solar nebula, however, the existence of Ti3+-Ti3+ and Ti4+-Ti4+ interactions and the potential for Ti4+-Ti3+ interactions need to be considered when interpreting spectroscopic data in terms of Ti valence state and fO2. Hibonite as a single-mineral oxybarometer must be used with caution due to the potential role of crystal chemistry (including Ti-Ti interactions) to stabilize Ti oxidation states independently of fO2

Detergent and sanitizer stresses decrease the thermal resistance of Enterobacter sakazakii in infant milk formula

Infant milk formula has been identified as a potential source of Enterobacter sakazakii. This bacterium can cause a severe form of neonatal meningitis and necrotizing entercolitis. This study determined the effect of acid, alkaline, chlorine and ethanol stresses on the thermal inactivation of E. sakazakii in infant milk formula. Stressed cells were mixed with reconstituted powdered infant milk formula (PIMF) at temperatures between 52 and 58°C for various time periods or mixed with PFMF prior to reconstitution with water at temperatures between 50 and 100°C. The D- and z-values of the cells were determined using linear regression analysis. Detergent and sanitizer stresses decreased the thermal resistance of E. sakazakii in powdered and reconstituted infant milk formula. The values for Z)- acid, alkaline, chlorine and ethanol stressed E. sakazakii at 52-58°C were 14.57-0.54, 12.07-0.37, 10.08-0.40 and 11.61-0.50 min, respectively. The values of alkaline, chlorine and ethanol stressed cells were significantly lower than those of unstressed cells. Only the z-value (4.4°C) of ethanol stressed E. sakazakii was significantly different than that of unstressed cells (4.12°C). Reconstitution at 60°C did not significantly reduce the number of pre-stressed E. sakazakii cells compared with unstressed control cells, whereas significant decreases were obtained at 70°C. Using water at 70°C during the preparation of reconstituted PIMF before feeding infants, may be a suitable and applicable means of reducing the risk of E. sakazakii in the formula. The results of this study may be of use to regulatory agencies, infant milk producers and infant caregivers to design heating processes to eliminate E. sakazakii that may be present in infant milk formula

In Arabidopsis thaliana codon volatility scores reflect GC3 composition rather than selective pressure

Background: Synonymous codon usage bias has typically been correlated with, and attributed to translational efficiency. However, there are other pressures on genomic sequence composition that can affect codon usage patterns such as mutational biases. This study provides an analysis of the codon usage patterns in Arabidopsis thaliana in relation to gene expression levels, codon volatility, mutational biases and selective pressures. Results: We have performed synonymous codon usage and codon volatility analyses for all genes in the A. thaliana genome. In contrast to reports for species from other kingdoms, we find that neither codon usage nor volatility are correlated with selection pressure (as measured by dN/dS), nor with gene expression levels on a genome wide level. Our results show that codon volatility and usage are not synonymous, rather that they are correlated with the abundance of G and C at the third codon position (GC3). Conclusions: Our results indicate that while the A. thaliana genome shows evidence for synonymous codon usage bias, this is not related to the expression levels of its constituent genes. Neither codon volatility nor codon usage are correlated with expression levels or selective pressures but, because they are directly related to the composition of G and C at the third codon position, they are the result of mutational bias. Therefore, in A. thaliana codon volatility and usage do not result from selection for translation efficiency or protein functional shift as measured by positive selection

Patterns of Individual Shopping Behavior

Much of economic theory is built on observations of aggregate, rather than individual, behavior. Here, we present novel findings on human shopping patterns at the resolution of a single purchase. Our results suggest that much of our seemingly elective activity is actually driven by simple routines. While the interleaving of shopping events creates randomness at the small scale, on the whole consumer behavior is largely predictable. We also examine income-dependent differences in how people shop, and find that wealthy individuals are more likely to bundle shopping trips. These results validate previous work on mobility from cell phone data, while describing the unpredictability of behavior at higher resolution.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Influence of the metal/metal oxide redox cycle on the catalytic activity of methane oxidation over Pd and Ni doped hydroxyapatite

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. The methane oxidation reaction was investigated over Pd and Ni doped hydroxyapatite (HAP) catalysts. All catalysts were evaluated in both their reduced and oxidised forms, and the behaviour of the metals in the reaction was investigated. The obtained results demonstrated that the reaction proceeds through a redox cycle between metal oxide and reduced metal, however more stable catalysts with higher conversions were observed when the catalysts were pre-treated in oxygen. After CH 4 oxidation, all the samples were tested towards coke formation using TGA analysis; results showed that all the catalysts were resistant to the coking process under the conditions studied

High purity FAU-type zeolite catalysts from shale rock for biodiesel production

FAU-type zeolite was prepared using Irish shale rock and tested as a catalyst in the liquid-phase esterification of oleic acid (a model test reaction for biodiesel production). A systematic study was conducted (over the stated preparation ranges) by varying the water:shale ratio (4:1–15:1 by mass), and mixing (1–24 h), aging (6–48 h) and hydrothermal treatment times (6–72 h) to determine the optimal parameters. XRD confirmed that the product purity was highly dependent on the experimental conditions used. The BET surface area of the calcined FAU-type zeolite was 571 m2 g−1 and its crystal purity was comparable to that of a commercial zeolite Y. The prepared zeolite was catalytically active in the esterification of oleic acid with ethanol reaching a maximum of 78% conversion after 90 mins, which is practically identical to that recorded for commercial zeolite Y

Where to for Sexual Health Education for Adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Rachel Jewkes discusses disappointing results from a school-based sexual health intervention study in Tanzania and their implications for future health education programs