Characterisation of attaching-effacing Escherichia coli isolated from animals at slaughter in England and Wales

Escherichia coli isolates were recovered from faecal samples taken from cattle, sheep and pigs at slaughter in England and Wales. Isolates (n = 1227) selected at random from this collection were each hybridised in colony dot-blot experiments with an eae gene probe that presumptively identified attaching-effacing E. coli (AEEC). Of the 99 (8.1%) eae positive isolates 72 were of ovine origin, 24 were of bovine origin and three of porcine origin. None were typed as O157:H7 whereas 78 were assigned to 23 serogroups and 21 were untypable. The most frequently isolated eae positive serogroups were O156 (10), O26 (8), O103 (8), O108 (7) O56 (6) and O168 (6) of which serogroups O103 and O156 only were recovered from all three animal species. In tissue culture adherence assays, 36 representatives of eae positive isolates of all serogroups and host of origin tested induced intimate attachment with varying degrees of actin accumulation and pedestal formation in the HEp-2 cells. The identity of the eae type for these 36 was determined by specific PCR and the most prevalent intimin types were caebeta (15), eaegamma (12) and eaeepsilon (4). Isolates were examined by PCR for the presence of other virulence determinants and five possessed stx1 but none possessed stx2. One O115 eaeepsilon isolate possessed cnf1 and 2, hlyA, etpD and katP genes which is a novel combination of virulence determinants.

UK innovation systems for new and renewable energy technologies: drivers, barriers and systems failures

A better understanding of the systemic processes by which innovation occurs is useful, both conceptually and to inform policymaking in support of innovation in more sustainable technologies. This paper analyses current innovation systems in the UK for a range of new and renewable energy technologies, and generates policy recommendations for improving the effectiveness of these innovation systems. Although incentives are in place in the UK to encourage innovation in these technologies, system failures—or ‘gaps’—are identified in moving technologies along the innovation chain, preventing their successful commercialisation. Sustained investment will be needed for these technologies to achieve their potential. It is argued that a stable and consistent policy framework is required to help create the conditions for this. In particular, such a framework should be aimed at improving risk/reward ratios for demonstration and pre-commercial stage technologies. This would enhance positive expectations, stimulate learning effects leading to cost reductions, and increase the likelihood of successful commercialisation.

Ubiquitous grid resource monitoring

In any wide-area distributed system there is a need to communicate and interact with a range of networked devices and services ranging from computer-based ones (CPU, memory and disk), to network components (hubs, routers, gateways) and specialised data sources (embedded devices, sensors, data-feeds). In order for the ensemble of underlying technologies to provide an environment suitable for virtual organisations to flourish, the resources that comprise the fabric of the Grid must be monitored in a seamless manner that abstracts away from the underlying complexity. Furthermore, as various competing Grid middleware offerings are released and evolve, an independent overarching monitoring service should act as a corner stone that ties these systems together. GridRM is a standards-based approach that is independent of any given middleware and that can utilise legacy and emerging resource-monitoring technologies. The main objective of the project is to produce a standardised and extensible architecture that provides seamless mechanisms to interact with native monitoring agents across heterogeneous resources.

Using Interlibrary Loan Data as a Section Tool: ILL Trails Provide Collection Clues

This article describes analyzing Interlibrary Loan data to help inform collection management decision and offers guidance for formulating policies for discerning borrowed titles indicative of gaps in the library from special-interest pursuits beyond the scope of the university curriculum.

Um estudo da transição entre regimes de previdência no Brasil: Aspectos Macroeconômicos e custos sociais

Neste trabalho é estudada a trajetória de transição de variáveis macroe- conômicas e os efeitos sobre o bem-estar causados por uma mudança no sistema de previdência social. É utilizado um modelo com incerteza e restrição a crédito, para o qual é desenvolvido um método para simular a transição. Inicialmente é feita uma comparação de steady states para identificar o sistema ótimo no longo prazo. Com a inserção de um fator fixo, terra, na função de produção, é elimi- nada a possibilidade de ineficiência dinâmica e os resultados indicam um sistema de capitalização plena como ótimo. Na transição, a presença do fator fixo gera uma valorização inesperada dos ativos, devido ao preço da terra ser baseado na trajetória futura da renda. Isto vale tanto para uma transição inesperada quanto anunciada. A simulação da transição parte de dois casos extremos: encerrando-se os benefícios inesperadamente e baseando-se no direito adquirido para as gerações vivas. Também são simulados os casos intermediários. Uma contribuição impor- tante deste trabalho é a mensuração e comparação das variações de bem-estar de cada processo de transição através da taxa de desconto social correspondente. Esta taxa seria a necessária para tornar a sociedade indiferente à reforma, o que é medido através de um cálculo de utilidade total. As simulações indicam que a transição que minimiza as perdas sociais é aquela em que os inativos são taxados em 30%.