Sensitive and specific detection of viable Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in raw milk by the Peptide-mediated magnetic separation (PMS)-phage assay

This study describes further validation of a previously described Peptide-mediated magnetic separation (PMS)-Phage assay, and its application to test raw cows’ milk for presence of viable Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP). The inclusivity and exclusivity of the PMS-phage assay were initially assessed, before the 50% limit of detection (LOD50) was determined and compared with those of PMS-qPCR (targeting both IS900 and f57) and PMS-culture. These methods were then applied in parallel to test 146 individual milk samples and 22 bulk tank milk samples from Johne’s affected herds. Viable MAP were detected by the PMS-phage assay in 31 (21.2%) of 146 individual milk samples (mean plaque count of 228.1 PFU/50 ml, range 6-948 PFU/50 ml), and 13 (59.1%) of 22 bulk tank milks (mean plaque count of 136.83 PFU/50 ml, range 18-695 PFU/50 ml). In contrast, only 7 (9.1%) of 77 individual milks and 10 (45.4%) of 22 bulk tank milks tested PMS-qPCR positive, and 17 (11.6%) of 146 individual milks and 11 (50%) of 22 bulk tank milks tested PMS-culture positive. The mean 50% limits of detection (LOD50) of the PMS-phage, PMS-IS900 qPCR and PMS-f57 qPCR assays, determined by testing MAP-spiked milk, were 0.93, 135.63 and 297.35 MAP CFU/50 ml milk, respectively. Collectively, these results demonstrate that, in our laboratory, the PMS-phage assay is a sensitive and specific method to quickly detect the presence of viable MAP cells in milk. However, due to its complicated, multi-step nature, the method would not be a suitable MAP screening method for the dairy industry.

Individual differences in speech and language ability profiles in areas of high deprivation

Speech and language ability is not a unitary concept; rather, it is made up of multiple abilities such as grammar, articulation and vocabulary. Young children from socio-economically deprived areas are more likely to experience language difficulties than those living in more affluent areas. However, less is known about individual differences in language difficulties amongst young children from socio-economically deprived backgrounds. The present research examined 172 four-year-old children from socio-economically deprived areas on standardised measures of core language, receptive vocabulary, articulation, information conveyed and grammar. Of the total sample, 26% had difficulty in at least one area of language. While most children with speech and language difficulty had generally low performance in all areas, around one in 10 displayed more uneven language abilities. For example, some children had generally good speech and language ability, but had specific difficulty with grammar. In such cases their difficulty is masked somewhat by good overall performance on language tests but they could still benefit from intervention in a specific area. The analysis also identified a number of typically achieving children who were identified as having borderline speech and language difficulty and should be closely monitored

Det är alltid bäst innan förändring : En studie om motivation vid förändring, individens upplevelse & ledares påverkan

Förändringar är vanligt förekommande i organisationer och forskning visar att många förändringsinitiativ tyvärr misslyckas. Genomförandet av förändringar som fokuserar på individens motivation är lyckosamma i bemärkelsen att personalen trivs och att arbetet inte blir lidande. Studien syftar till att ta reda på hur ledare kan arbeta för att främja medarbetares motivation vid organisationsförändringar. Genom ett kvalitativt perspektiv och en deduktiv ansats har vi undersökt vad som påverkar och främjar medarbetares motivation vid organisationsförändringar. Undersökningen har genomförts på två avdelningar i ett stort företag i Gästrikland som vid tiden för insamling av data, genomgick en förändring. Studien är en fallstudie med avsikt att undersöka den specifika skiftformsförändringen som företaget genomgick. Tillvägagångssättet för insamlingen av material är en process som ämnar att, genom delaktighet och diskussion ta reda på vad som motiverar medarbetare under förändringar. Analysen av resultatet visar att individernas grundläggande behov i arbetet, till viss del inte varit uppfyllda vilket har lett till att en del personal givit uttryck för att de är omotiverade och att de känner ett motstånd mot förändringen. Det upplevda motståndet består i en rad olika känslor, bland annat; chock, oro och förvirring som uppkommer på grund av osäkerhet och brist på kontroll rörande individens arbetssituation. Känslorna hämmar motivationen och kan ge en upplevelse av att de grundläggande behoven i arbetet inte är uppfyllda, även fast de kan vara det. Studien visar att ledare kan påverka motståndet och främja medarbetares motivation under förändringar dels genom att bjuda in till delaktighet i ett så tidigt stadie som möjligt i förändringsprocesssen och dels genom att på ett tydligt sätt kommunicera och informera kring förändringens innebörd. Det gör att individen upplever kontroll över sin framtid i arbetet vilket påverkar upplevelsen av att de grundläggande behoven inte skulle vara uppfyllda och gynnar motivationen. Ledare behöver även vara lyhörda för att alla upplever förändringar olika och läsa av behov och önskemål och anpassa eventuellt stöd efter det.

Mandevillian Intelligence: From Individual Vice to Collective Virtue

Abstract Mandevillian intelligence is a specific form of collective intelligence in which individual cognitive vices (i.e., shortcomings, limitations, constraints and biases) are seen to play a positive functional role in yielding collective forms of cognitive success. In this talk, I will introduce the concept of mandevillian intelligence and review a number of strands of empirical research that help to shed light on the phenomenon. I will also attempt to highlight the value of the concept of mandevillian intelligence from a philosophical, scientific and engineering perspective. Inasmuch as we accept the notion of mandevillian intelligence, then it seems that the cognitive and epistemic value of a specific social or technological intervention will vary according to whether our attention is focused at the individual or collective level of analysis. This has a number of important implications for how we think about the cognitive impacts of a number of Web-based technologies (e.g., personalized search mechanisms). It also forces us to take seriously the idea that the exploitation (or even the accentuation!) of individual cognitive shortcomings could, in some situations, provide a productive route to collective forms of cognitive and epistemic success. Speaker Biography Dr Paul Smart Paul Smart is a senior research fellow in the Web and Internet Science research group at the University of Southampton in the UK. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society, a professional member of the Association of Computing Machinery, and a member of the Cognitive Science Society. Paul’s research interests span a number of disciplines, including philosophy, cognitive science, social science, and computer science. His primary area of research interest relates to the social and cognitive implications of Web and Internet technologies. Paul received his bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of Nottingham. He also holds a PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Sussex.

Constructing stability landscapes to identify alternative states in coupled social-ecological agent-based models

The resilience of a social-ecological system is measured by its ability to retain core functionality when subjected to perturbation. Resilience is contextually dependent on the state of system components, the complex interactions among these components, and the timing, location, and magnitude of perturbations. The stability landscape concept provides a useful framework for considering resilience within the specified context of a particular social-ecological system but has proven difficult to operationalize. This difficulty stems largely from the complex, multidimensional nature of the systems of interest and uncertainty in system response. Agent-based models are an effective methodology for understanding how cross-scale processes within and across social and ecological domains contribute to overall system resilience. We present the results of a stylized model of agricultural land use in a small watershed that is typical of the Midwestern United States. The spatially explicit model couples land use, biophysical models, and economic drivers with an agent-based model to explore the effects of perturbations and policy adaptations on system outcomes. By applying the coupled modeling approach within the resilience and stability landscape frameworks, we (1) estimate the sensitivity of the system to context-specific perturbations, (2) determine potential outcomes of those perturbations, (3) identify possible alternative states within state space, (4) evaluate the resilience of system states, and (5) characterize changes in system-scale resilience brought on by changes in individual land use decisions.

Exercise Prescription for Patients with Non-specific Chronic Low Back Pain: a Qualitative Study of Patients' Experiences in Decision Making

Background The culture of current clinical practice calls for collaboration between therapists and patients, sharing power and responsibility. This paper reports on the findings of a qualitative study of exercise prescription for patients with NSCLBP, taking into account issues such as decision making and how this accords with patient preferences and experiences. Objective To understand the treatment decision making experiences, information and decision support needs of patients with NSCLBP who have been offered exercise as part of their management plan. Design A qualitative study using a philosophical hermeneutic approach. Methods Semi-structured interviews with eight patients (including use of brief patient vignettes) was undertaken to explore their personal experiences of receiving exercise as part of the management of their NSCLBP, and their involvement in decisions regarding their care. Findings The findings provide a detailed insight into patients’ perceptions and experiences of receiving exercise-based management strategies. Four themes were formed from the texts: (1) patients’ expectations and patients’ needs are not synonymous, (2) information is necessary but often not sufficient, (3) not all decisions need to be shared, and (4) wanting to be treated as an individual. Conclusions Shared decision making did not appear to happen in physiotherapy clinical practice, but equally may not be what every patient wants. The overall feeling of the patients was that the therapist was dominant in structuring the interactions, leaving the patients feeling disempowered to question and contribute to the decision making.

Atitudes e práticas de professores do ensino secundário face à inclusão de alunos com Currículo Específico Individual

O conceito de Escola Inclusiva reforça o direito de todos os alunos frequentarem o mesmo tipo de ensino, preconizando um modelo de atendimento adequado a cada um. Com a publicação de nova legislação entre 2009 e 2012, a escola, ao nível do ensino secundário, encontra-se perante o repto de responder a um grupo de alunos cada vez mais heterogéneo, nomeadamente a alunos com Currículo Específico Individual (CEI). O que implica a existência de novos desafios para as escolas e para os professores. Este estudo essencialmente quantitativo, visa identificar e descrever as atitudes e práticas de professores do ensino secundário, relativamente à inclusão de alunos com CEI na sala de aula, assim como identificar e descrever as dificuldades sentidas pelos mesmos. No que diz respeito à recolha da informação, recorreu-se à opção do inquérito por questionário a 94 professores do ensino secundário. Os resultados obtidos mostram-nos que, no geral, os professores revelam atitudes e práticas favoráveis à inclusão dos alunos com CEI na sala de aula, no entanto, quando se aprofunda a questão, nos itens de resposta descritiva, as atitudes e práticas não são tão favoráveis como as perguntas fechadas pareciam revelar. Concluiu-se que as variáveis “género” e “idade” exercem influência sobre as atitudes, enquanto o “grau académico” e a “experiência profissional a lecionar turmas com alunos com CEI” influenciam as práticas pedagógicas dos professores inquiridos. Por sua vez, a “formação na área da Educação Especial (EE)” influência de forma significativa as atitudes dos professores inquiridos, bem como de forma menos significativa as práticas. Os professores referem como principais dificuldades a existência de um número elevado de alunos por turma, a falta de equipamento pedagógico/didático adequado, a falta de formação em EE e de técnicos, bem como dificuldades na elaboração de um Currículo Específico Individual e na gestão do currículo. As dificuldades sentidas são influenciadas pelas variáveis “funções desempenhadas” e “formação na área da EE”. Sendo esta última essencial para a superação das dificuldades sentidas.

Neural representations of social and non-social uncertainty in human decision making

The social landscape is filled with an intricate web of species-specific desired objects and course of actions. Humans are highly social animals and, as they navigate this landscape, they need to produce adapted decision-making behaviour. Traditionally social and non-social neural mechanisms affecting choice have been investigated using different approaches. Recently, in an effort to unite these findings, two main theories have been proposed to explain how the brain might encode social and non-social motivational decision-making: the extended common currency and the social valuation specific schema (Ruff & Fehr 2014). One way to test these theories is to directly compare neural activity related to social and non-social decision outcomes within the same experimental setting. Here we address this issue by focusing on the neural substrates of social and non-social forms of uncertainty. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we directly compared the neural representations of reward and risk prediction and errors (RePE and RiPE) in social and non- social situations using gambling games. We used a trust betting game to vary uncertainty along a social dimension (trustworthiness), and a card game (Preuschoff et al. 2006) to vary uncertainty along a non-social dimension (pure risk). The trust game was designed to maintain the same structure of the card game. In a first study, we exposed a divide between subcortical and cortical regions when comparing the way these regions process social and non-social forms of uncertainty during outcome anticipation. Activity in subcortical regions reflected social and non-social RePE, while activity in cortical regions correlated with social RePE and non-social RiPE. The second study focused on outcome delivery and integrated the concept of RiPE in non-social settings with that of fairness and monetary utility maximisation in social settings. In particular these results corroborate recent models of anterior insula function (Singer et al. 2009; Seth 2013), and expose a possible neural mechanism that weights fairness and uncertainty but not monetary utility. The third study focused on functionally defined regions of the early visual cortex (V1) showing how activity in these areas, traditionally considered only visual, might reflect motivational prediction errors in addition to known perceptual prediction mechanisms (den Ouden et al 2012). On the whole, while our results do not support unilaterally one or the other theory modeling the underlying neural dynamics of social and non-social forms of decision making, they provide a working framework where both general mechanisms might coexist.

DOCUMENT CONTROL OF NATIONAL MAPPING AND METRIC STUDIES CHARACTERIZING NATIONAL IDENTITY AND INDIVIDUAL. I STAGE

This is a project of the School of Library, Documentation and Information of the National University, is performed to support the initiative of UNESCO to build the Memory of the World (UNESCO, 1995) and to help provide universal access to documentation. To this end, the School of Library Science students has promoted the realization of final graduation work on documentary control of domestic production. This project has the following objectives:Objectives1. Conduct mapping national documentary through the identification, analysis, organization and access to documentary heritage of Costa Rica, to contribute to the Memory of the World.2. Perform bibliometric analysis of documentary records contained in the integrated databases.This project seeks to bring undergraduate students graduating from the school, in making final graduation work on document control. Students have the opportunity to make final graduation work on the documentary production of Costa Rica on a specific theme or on a country's geographical area.Desk audits aimed at identifying the document using access points and indicate its contents to allow recovery by the user.The result is the production of a new document, other than the original, a secondary document: the bibliography. The records in the database each control documentation completed work will be integrated into a single database to be placed on the website of EBDI, for consultation of researchers and interested users.

Relations among Topic Knowledge, Individual Interest, and Relational Reasoning, and Critical Thinking in Maternity Nursing

Critical thinking in learners is a goal of educators and professional organizations in nursing as well as other professions. However, few studies in nursing have examined the role of the important individual difference factors topic knowledge, individual interest, and general relational reasoning strategies in predicting critical thinking. In addition, most previous studies have used domain-general, standardized measures, with inconsistent results. Moreover, few studies have investigated critical thinking across multiple levels of experience. The major purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which topic knowledge, individual interest, and relational reasoning predict critical thinking in maternity nurses. For this study, 182 maternity nurses were recruited from national nursing listservs explicitly chosen to capture multiple levels of experience from prelicensure to very experienced nurses. The three independent measures included a domain-specific Topic Knowledge Assessment (TKA), consisting of 24 short-answer questions, a Professed and Engaged Interest Measure (PEIM), with 20 questions indicating level of interest and engagement in maternity nursing topics and activities, and the Test of Relational Reasoning (TORR), a graphical selected response measure with 32 items organized in scales corresponding to four forms of relational reasoning: analogy, anomaly, antithesis, and antinomy. The dependent measure was the Critical Thinking Task in Maternity Nursing (CT2MN), composed of a clinical case study providing cues with follow-up questions relating to nursing care. These questions align with the cognitive processes identified in a commonly-used definition of critical thinking in nursing. Reliable coding schemes for the measures were developed for this study. Key findings included a significant correlation between topic knowledge and individual interest. Further, the three individual difference factors explained a significant proportion of the variance in critical thinking with a large effect size. While topic knowledge was the strongest predictor of critical thinking performance, individual interest had a moderate significant effect, and relational reasoning had a small but significant effect. The findings suggest that these individual difference factors should be included in future studies of critical thinking in nursing. Implications for nursing education, research, and practice are discussed.

Effects of gamma and electron-beam irradiation on the individual phenolics of Viola tricolor L. edible flowers.

Edible flowers are being used in culinary preparations to improve the sensorial and nutritional qualities of food, besides improving human health due to the profusion in bioactive compounds [1]. Nevertheless, edible flowers are highly perishable and must be free of insects, which is difficult because they are usually cultivated without using pesticides [2]. Food irradiation is an economically viable technology to extend shelf life of foods, improving their hygiene and quality, while disinfesting insects [3]. The efficiency and safety of radiation processing (using Co-60 or electronaccelerators) have been approved by legal authorities (FDA, USDA, WHO, FAO), as also by the scientific community, based on extensive research [4]. Viola tricolor L. (heartseases), from Violaceae family, is one of the most popular edible flowers. Apart from being used as food, it has also been applied for its medicinal properties, mainly due to their biological activity and phenolic composition [5]. Herein, the phenolic compounds were analyzed by HPLC-DAD-ESI/MS and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was performed to compare the results from flowers submitted to different irradiation doses and technologies (Co-60 and electron-beam). Quercetin-3-O-(6-O-rhamnosylglucoside)-7-O-rhamnoside (Figure 1) was the most abundant compound, followed by quercetin-3-O-rutinoside and acetyl-quercetin-3-O (6-O-rhamnosylglucoside)-7-O-rhamnoside. In general, irradiated samples (mostly with 1 kGy) showed the highest phenolic compounds content. The LDA outcomes indicated that differences among phenolic compounds effectively discriminate the assayed doses and technologies, defining which variables contributed mostly to that separation. This information might be useful to define which dose and/or technology optimizes the content in a specific phenolic compound. Overall, irradiation did not negatively affect the levels of phenolic compounds, providing the possibility of its application to expand the shelf life of V. tricolor and highlighting new commercial solutions for this functional food.

Essays on Uncertainty, Imperfect Information, and Investment Dynamics

Understanding how imperfect information affects firms' investment decision helps answer important questions in economics, such as how we may better measure economic uncertainty; how firms' forecasts would affect their decision-making when their beliefs are not backed by economic fundamentals; and how important are the business cycle impacts of changes in firms' productivity uncertainty in an environment of incomplete information. This dissertation provides a synthetic answer to all these questions, both empirically and theoretically. The first chapter, provides empirical evidence to demonstrate that survey-based forecast dispersion identifies a distinctive type of second moment shocks different from the canonical volatility shocks to productivity, i.e. uncertainty shocks. Such forecast disagreement disturbances can affect the distribution of firm-level beliefs regardless of whether or not belief changes are backed by changes in economic fundamentals. At the aggregate level, innovations that increase the dispersion of firms' forecasts lead to persistent declines in aggregate investment and output, which are followed by a slow recovery. On the contrary, the larger dispersion of future firm-specific productivity innovations, the standard way to measure economic uncertainty, delivers the ``wait and see" effect, such that aggregate investment experiences a sharp decline, followed by a quick rebound, and then overshoots. At the firm level, data uncovers that more productive firms increase investments given rises in productivity dispersion for the future, whereas investments drop when firms disagree more about the well-being of their future business conditions. These findings challenge the view that the dispersion of the firms' heterogeneous beliefs captures the concept of economic uncertainty, defined by a model of uncertainty shocks. The second chapter presents a general equilibrium model of heterogeneous firms subject to the real productivity uncertainty shocks and informational disagreement shocks. As firms cannot perfectly disentangle aggregate from idiosyncratic productivity because of imperfect information, information quality thus drives the wedge of difference between the unobserved productivity fundamentals, and the firms' beliefs about how productive they are. Distribution of the firms' beliefs is no longer perfectly aligned with the distribution of firm-level productivity across firms. This model not only explains why, at the macro and micro level, disagreement shocks are different from uncertainty shocks, as documented in Chapter 1, but helps reconcile a key challenge faced by the standard framework to study economic uncertainty: a trade-off between sizable business cycle effects due to changes in uncertainty, and the right amount of pro-cyclicality of firm-level investment rate dispersion, as measured by its correlation with the output cycles.

The importance of EN ISO 15189 accreditation of allergen-specific IgE determination for reliable in vitro allergy diagnosis

International audience

Polyporus squamosus (Huds.) Fr from different origins: chemical characterization, screening of the bioactive properties and specific antimicrobial effects against Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Wild mushrooms are mainly collected during the rainy season and valued as a nutritious food and sources of natural medicines and nutraceuticals. The aim of this study was to determine the chemical composition and bioactive properties (antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxicity) of Polyporus squamosus from two different origins, Portugal and Serbia. The sample from Portugal showed higher contents of as protein (17.14 g/100 g), fat (2.69 g/100 g), ash (3.15 g/100 g) and carbohydrates (77.02 g/100 g); the same sample gave the highest antioxidant activity: highest reducing power, DPPH radical scavenging activity, and lipid peroxidation inhibition in both β-carotene/linoleate and TBARS assay. These results could be related to its higher content in total tocopherols (1968.65 μg/100 g) and phenolic compounds (1.29 mg/100 g). Both extracts exhibited antibacterial activity against all the tested organisms. The samples from Serbia gave higher overall antibacterial activity and showed excellent antibiofilm activity (88.30 %). Overall, P. squamosus methanolic extracts possessed antioxidant, antimicrobial, antibiofilm and anti-quorum sensing activity, and without toxicity for liver cells. This investigation highlights alternatives to be explored for the treatment of bacterial infections, in particular against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This study provides important results for the chemical and bioactive properties, especially antimicrobial activity of the mushroom P. squamosus. Moreover, to the authors’ knowledge this is the first report on sugars, organic acids, and individual phenolic compounds in P. squamosus.

DEVELOPMENT OF A NUCLEIC ACID-BASED SPECIFIC GROWTH MODEL FOR JUVENILE BLUE CRAB, CALLINECTES SAPIDUS

The evaluation and identification of habitats that function as nurseries for marine species has the potential to improve conservation and management. A key assessment of nursery habitat is estimating individual growth. However, the discrete growth of crustaceans presents a challenge for many traditional in situ techniques to accurately estimate growth over a short temporal scale. To evaluate the use of nucleic acid ratios (R:D) for juvenile blue crab (Callinectes sapidus), I developed and validated an R:D-based index of growth in the laboratory. R:D based growth estimates of crabs collected in the Patuxent River, MD indicated growth ranged from 0.8-25.9 (mg·g-1·d-1). Overall, there was no effect of size on growth, whereas there was a weak, but significant effect of date. These data provide insight into patterns of habitat-specific growth. These results highlight the complexity of the biological and physical factors which regulate growth of juvenile blue crabs in the field.