Isolation of Streptococcus Mutans and its Bacteriophage from Human Plaque Samples

Background: Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) is one of the main agents of caries formation, mainly because of the ability to form biofilms on the tooth surface. Bacteriophage of S. mutans are viruses that can attack and limit the pathogenic activity of S. mutans, hence limiting their cariogenic effect and preventing dental caries. There is a deficiency in the literature on the successful isolation of phage against S. mutans. Aims: The purpose of this study is to isolate S. mutans strains from clinical plaque samples, screen those samples for phage and test them against laboratory type cultures for phage. Methods: Thirty-eight clinical plaque samples were collected from participants using ESwab (Copan Italia, Brescia, Italy) and cultured on Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) and Tryptone-yeast-cysteine-sucrose-bacitracin (TYCSB) agars to isolate S. mutans strains. Following isolation and identification by Gram stain and PCR, phage screening by spot assay against laboratory type cultures was carried out. Six NCTC S. mutans strains (10832, 10919, 10920, 10923, 11060, 11061) and twelve type strains provided by Newcastle University (S. mutans UA159, 10449, UA140, Ingbritt, GS5, sobrinus 12279, gordonii DL1, sanguinis SK36, oralis 34, tigurinus JP1BV1, oligofermentans LR11BV4 and Actinomyces oris MG1) were all used for spotting. Results: The isolation of S. mutans strains from the clinical samples was successful. TYCSB agar showed to be selective for S. mutans while BHI media showed rich growth of different colonies. Gram stain was performed on the suspected colonies and confirmed later by PCR for S. mutans. On spot assay, no evidence of phage lysis was found within pooled filtrate samples against NCTC type strains and Newcastle type strains. Conclusion: The isolation of S. mutans from clinical samples was achieved using TYCSB media. Phage isolation was unsuccessful from the 38 clinical plaque samples probably due to low frequency of their natural occurrence. Isolation of Streptococcus mutans and bacteriophage from human plaque sample

A Wolf in Sheep\u27s Clothing: The Plastics Industry\u27s Public Interest Role in Legislation and Litigation of Plastic Bag Laws in California

In recent years, single-use plastic bag reduction ordinances have emerged as a lasting icon for the environmental movement. Despite fierce resistance from the plastics industry, premised primarily on the argument that such ordinances could potentially have harmful effects on the environment, the momentum to pass these ordinances remains strong. The plastics industry has spent millions lobbying against local ordinances and for statewide preemption of local ordinances, engaged in epic public relations campaigns, and sued or threatened to sue virtually every California municipality that has recently taken steps to adopt a plastic bag ordinance. Plastic bag manufacturers also sued a reusable bag manufacturer for “talking trash” about plastic bags. The seriousness with which the plastics industry is taking environmentalists’ attempts to restrict plastic bags demonstrates that this is a “tipping point” issue for the plastics industry, and the battle is far from over. Part II of this Article explores the idea of plastic bag ordinances as an icon for a greater movement. Part III discusses types of plastic bag ordinances and briefly examines the most notable locations that have pursued each type. Part IV discusses how the plastic bag industry has used CEQA to defeat and delay local plastic bag ordinances in California. Part V examines the Manhattan Beach decision in detail and discusses what effect the decision may have on similar ordinances going forward. The Article concludes by discussing the social climate when the court decided the Manhattan Beach case, including legislation introduced at state and local levels, mobilization of advocacy groups focusing on plastic pollution, and concurrent litigation

A Wolf in Sheep\u27s Clothing: The Plastics Industry\u27s Public Interest Role in Legislation and Litigation of Plastic Bag Laws in California

In recent years, single-use plastic bag reduction ordinances have emerged as a lasting icon for the environmental movement. Despite fierce resistance from the plastics industry, premised primarily on the argument that such ordinances could potentially have harmful effects on the environment, the momentum to pass these ordinances remains strong. The plastics industry has spent millions lobbying against local ordinances and for statewide preemption of local ordinances, engaged in epic public relations campaigns, and sued or threatened to sue virtually every California municipality that has recently taken steps to adopt a plastic bag ordinance. Plastic bag manufacturers also sued a reusable bag manufacturer for “talking trash” about plastic bags. The seriousness with which the plastics industry is taking environmentalists’ attempts to restrict plastic bags demonstrates that this is a “tipping point” issue for the plastics industry, and the battle is far from over. Part II of this Article explores the idea of plastic bag ordinances as an icon for a greater movement. Part III discusses types of plastic bag ordinances and briefly examines the most notable locations that have pursued each type. Part IV discusses how the plastic bag industry has used CEQA to defeat and delay local plastic bag ordinances in California. Part V examines the Manhattan Beach decision in detail and discusses what effect the decision may have on similar ordinances going forward. The Article concludes by discussing the social climate when the court decided the Manhattan Beach case, including legislation introduced at state and local levels, mobilization of advocacy groups focusing on plastic pollution, and concurrent litigation

Enhancing Feedback: key Issues and Solutions From the Literature to Help New Lecturers in Higher Education

The National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 highlights that whilst modularisation has allowed for greater flexibility, it has also produced some problems including fragmentation of programmes with large numbers of modules leaving students feeling over assessed and staff burdened (Hunt, 2011). Nicol & Macfarlene-Dick (2006) have argued that formative assessment can promote better student learning and that assessment can be used more effectively by embedding ‘feedback’ and ‘feedforward’ in curriculum practices. Their studies identify how formative feedback does not have to solely come from the teacher, but can also be provided by peers and even generated by the students themselves. The Irish National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (NFETLHE) has put forward similar arguments to enhance learning if we move away from a purely ‘Assessment OF’ approach and shift towards a more ‘Assessment FOR’ and ‘Assessment AS Learning’ approach, giving the students a more central role (NFETLHE, 2017). Figure 1 below illustrates these concepts and highlights the dynamic relationship between formative assessment and learning (NFETLHE, 2017)

Learning spaces in community-based dental education

In response to various institutional and national policy drivers (University College Cork, 2018; Department of Health, 2019), a community-based dental education (CBDE) initiative in a non-dental setting has been proposed as a new curriculum offering in Paediatric Dentistry in University College Cork. The student-led clinic for children aged 0-5 years will be located in a new primary healthcare centre, which serves as a community hub for health and wellbeing services. The innovative use of learning spaces to imbue a culture of community-engaged scholarship in higher education is widely encouraged (Campus Engage, 2014; Galvin, O’Mahony, Powell & Neville, 2017). This work seeks to explore the features of the proposed learning environment, which may impact upon teaching and learning practice

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Whole-genome sequence-based analysis of thyroid function

Tiina Paunio on työryhmän UK10K Consortium jäsen.Normal thyroid function is essential for health, but its genetic architecture remains poorly understood. Here, for the heritable thyroid traits thyrotropin (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4), we analyse whole-genome sequence data from the UK10K project (N = 2,287). Using additional whole-genome sequence and deeply imputed data sets, we report meta-analysis results for common variants (MAF >= 1%) associated with TSH and FT4 (N = 16,335). For TSH, we identify a novel variant in SYN2 (MAF = 23.5%, P = 6.15 x 10(-9)) and a new independent variant in PDE8B (MAF = 10.4%, P = 5.94 x 10(-14)). For FT4, we report a low-frequency variant near B4GALT6/ SLC25A52 (MAF = 3.2%, P = 1.27 x 10(-9)) tagging a rare TTR variant (MAF = 0.4%, P = 2.14 x 10(-11)). All common variants explain >= 20% of the variance in TSH and FT4. Analysis of rare variants (MAFPeer reviewe