1 Tissue Engineering and Reparative Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Cardiff University, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4XY, UK
2 School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3US, UK
...3 School of Medicine, University of West Virginia, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
Biofilms provide a reservoir of potentially infectious micro-organisms that are resistant to antimicrobial agents, and their importance in the failure of medical devices and chronic inflammatory conditions is increasingly being recognized. Particular research interest exists in the association of biofilms with wound infection and non-healing, i.e. chronic wounds. In this study, fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) was used in combination with confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) to detect and characterize the spatial distribution of biofilm-forming bacteria which predominate within human chronic skin wounds ( Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Staphylococcus aureus , Streptococcus sp. and Micrococcus sp.). In vitro biofilms were prepared using a constant-depth film fermenter and a reconstituted human epidermis model. In vivo biofilms were also studied using biopsy samples from non-infected chronic venous leg ulcers. The specificity of peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes for the target organisms was confirmed using mixed preparations of planktonic bacteria and multiplex PNA probing. Identification and location of individual bacterial species within multi-species biofilms demonstrated that P. aeruginosa was predominant. CLSM revealed clustering of individual species within mixed-species biofilms. FISH analysis of archive chronic wound biopsy sections showed bacterial presence and allowed bacterial load to be determined. The application of this standardized procedure makes available an assay for identification of single- or multi-species bacterial populations in tissue biopsies. The technique provides a reliable tool to study bacterial biofilm formation and offers an approach to assess targeted biofilm disruption strategies in vivo .
Correspondence Sladjana Malic malics{at}cardiff.ac.uk
Abbreviations: CLSM, confocal laser scanning microscopy; CDFF, constant-depth film fermenter; CVLU, chronic venous leg ulcer; FISH, fluorescent in situ hybridization; PNA, peptide nucleic acid; RHE, reconstituted human epidermis
Love Island is a reality television series structured as a dating game, where participants compete to form romantic relationships. This article puts the show in conversation with theories and ...philosophies of love to draw between them an idea of love as a singular moral event that is constrained by cultural imperatives. What emerges is an existential phenomenology of love in three parts: first, romantic love is framed as an opening on to moral life; then, it is argued that moral life is enacted through a love for the neighbour that constitutes and animates our being in the world; and finally, it is shown that narcissism is not straightforwardly a negative condition but a balancing force in moral life. The article concludes with reflections on what this conceptual work might offer to analyses of relationships played out on reality television.
Media analyses of the aesthetic presentation of news frequently and persuasively demonstrate the skewed ethics of news production, where those in need who are distant and dissimilar are often ...presented in ways that do not fully humanize their condition. However, it is argued here, they also locate too fully the locus of moral responsibility in the production and presentation of the media text. This article explores the moral demands inherent in two kinds of media presentation: the explicit focus on shock and awe over intimacy; and minimal presentations that substitute bare information (such as statistics or maps) for affective stories. It is argued that in both cases a moral encounter with the other can be motivated despite the news presentation and it is concluded that an excessive emphasis on the role of the news in generating moral responsibility justifies a spectatorish inertia that should be resisted.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of time-of-day and morning vs. evening chronotype on the relationships between mood state and performance of extreme intensity cycling ...exercise. A quasi-experimental between-groups design was used to test the hypothesis that there would be an effect of time-of-day on mood state and physical performance, that mood state and physical performance would be interrelated, and that the relationships would be influenced by participants' morning
. evening chronotype. From 74 university students who volunteered, 7 were identified as morning types (M-types) and 7 as evening types (E-types). They completed the Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaire and performed a 30 s Wingate test on three different days, once at 08h00, once at 14h00, and once at 20h00. The main performance measure, work done in the Wingate test, increased across the day (16.4 ± 4.8 kJ < 17.0 ± 5.0 kJ < 17.6 ± 5.2 kJ;
< .01). For the M-types, individual changes in performance from the morning to the afternoon were correlated with individual changes in the POMS score for vigor (
= 0.81;
= .03) and changes in performance from the afternoon to the evening were correlated with individual changes in fatigue (
= - 0.85,
= .02). For the E-types, the opposite was true, as morning-to-afternoon changes in performance were correlated with individual changes in fatigue (
= - 0.70,
= .08) and afternoon-to-evening changes in performance were correlated with individual changes in vigor (
= 0.78,
= .04). Results demonstrate a time-of-day effect on morning
. evening chronotype-dependent relationships between mood state and cycling performance.
The use of safe spaces in universities has become increasingly controversial over the last few years. Safe spaces are set up to offer an environment in which marginalised identities and hidden ...experiences can be given a voice, allowing for acceptance and affirmation. Their critics charge that they are at odds with the university as a site of debate; that their use has a chilling effect on free speech; and even that safe spaces are harmful to liberal democratic society itself. This article draws on social and cultural theory in order to counter these attacks on safe spaces. Working with Max Weber, Judith Butler and Emmanuel Levinas, the first section introduces the idea of communication as a moral vocation, calling for greater recognition of the need to balance the universal (freedom of speech) with a responsibility to hear voices that are not already amplified. Building on this, and drawing additionally on Jacques Derrida and Sara Ahmed, the second section introduces the idea of debate fetishism, which serves to negate the moral function of communication, naturalise the dominance of privileged voices, and neutralise the struggles of the struggling to be heard. It is concluded that safe spaces pose no threat to freedom of speech but that the stigmatisation of their use acts to further disadvantage underrepresented identities.
Platforms are digital ecosystems that bring together various actors to form multi-sided markets. This bringing together entails an organisation of trajectories that in turn organises those moved by ...them into experiential and existential orders. This article sets out a general account of trajectories under these conditions, first identifying three kinds that animate a system of platform capitalism: (1) Data Trajectory as the movement and representation of information; (2) Logistical Trajectory as the movement and organisation of commodities; and (3) Moral Trajectory as the movement of bodies that are moved by and towards others. Each kind is then given form by three properties: (i) the traject picks out what is in motion and how it is moving; (ii) trajectography is the space that is co-constituted by this movement; and (iii) trajectivity refers to the subjective positions that are encouraged by mobility through (or occupation of) these spaces. The article demonstrates the application of this schema through the example of the retail platform Amazon, showing as it goes how data and logistical trajectories combine to congest, reroute or derail moral trajectories.
It has been suggested that we turn to solar geoengineering to counter global warming, which would consequently transform the relationship of terrestrial plant-life to the sun. This is an article not ...about geoengineering as such, but instead what is called photosynethics, or, thinking about our moral relationship to the light - in particular, as it is mediated by plants. Working from within but then extending the idea of responsibility found in the work of Emmanuel Levinas, it is argued here that, since the plant cultivates the conditions of life on earth by photosynthesis, its relationship to the sun is then a relation of giving to others that is properly moral. The plant's existence is an exposure so out of kilter with human ways of understanding existence that it interrupts our own and brings us into a relation of responsibility. It is concluded that rather than redirecting the sun's radiation, we should turn to plants to reconsider how we live with the light on a heating planet. This first means separating moral responsibility from human vision so that we might encounter light on its own terms, and not simply as an element of rationality or sentiment or discipline.
Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE), including KPC-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (KPC-Kpn), are an increasing threat to patient safety.
To use WGS to investigate the extent and ...complexity of carbapenemase gene dissemination in a controlled KPC outbreak.
Enterobacteriaceae with reduced ertapenem susceptibility recovered from rectal screening swabs/clinical samples, during a 3 month KPC outbreak (2013-14), were investigated for carbapenemase production, antimicrobial susceptibility, variable-number-tandem-repeat profile and WGS short-read (Illumina), long-read (MinION). Short-read sequences were used for MLST and plasmid/Tn4401 fingerprinting, and long-read sequence assemblies for plasmid identification. Phylogenetic analysis used IQTree followed by ClonalFrameML, and outbreak transmission dynamics were inferred using SCOTTI.
Twenty patients harboured KPC-positive isolates (6 infected, 14 colonized), and 23 distinct KPC-producing Enterobacteriaceae were identified. Four distinct KPC plasmids were characterized but of 20 KPC-Kpn (from six STs), 17 isolates shared a single pKpQIL-D2 KPC plasmid. All isolates had an identical transposon (Tn4401a), except one KPC-Kpn (ST661) with a single nucleotide variant. A sporadic case of KPC-Kpn (ST491) with Tn4401a-carrying pKpQIL-D2 plasmid was identified 10 months before the outbreak. This plasmid was later seen in two other species and other KPC-Kpn (ST14,ST661) including clonal spread of KPC-Kpn (ST661) from a symptomatic case to nine ward contacts.
WGS of outbreak KPC isolates demonstrated blaKPC dissemination via horizontal transposition (Tn4401a), plasmid spread (pKpQIL-D2) and clonal spread (K. pneumoniae ST661). Despite rapid outbreak control, considerable dissemination of blaKPC still occurred among K. pneumoniae and other Enterobacteriaceae, emphasizing its high transmission potential and the need for enhanced control efforts.
The oligosaccharide OligoG, an alginate derived from seaweed, has been shown to have anti-bacterial and anti-biofilm properties and potentiates the activity of selected antibiotics against multi-drug ...resistant bacteria. The ability of OligoG to perturb fungal growth and potentiate conventional antifungal agents was evaluated using a range of pathogenic fungal strains. Candida (n = 11) and Aspergillus (n = 3) spp. were tested using germ tube assays, LIVE/DEAD staining, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and high-throughput minimum inhibition concentration assays (MICs). In general, the strains tested showed a significant dose-dependent reduction in cell growth at ≥6% OligoG as measured by optical density (OD600; P<0.05). OligoG (>0.5%) also showed a significant inhibitory effect on hyphal growth in germ tube assays, although strain-dependent variations in efficacy were observed (P<0.05). SEM and AFM both showed that OligoG (≥2%) markedly disrupted fungal biofilm formation, both alone, and in combination with fluconazole. Cell surface roughness was also significantly increased by the combination treatment (P<0.001). High-throughput robotic MIC screening demonstrated the potentiating effects of OligoG (2, 6, 10%) with nystatin, amphotericin B, fluconazole, miconazole, voriconazole or terbinafine with the test strains. Potentiating effects were observed for the Aspergillus strains with all six antifungal agents, with an up to 16-fold (nystatin) reduction in MIC. Similarly, all the Candida spp. showed potentiation with nystatin (up to 16-fold) and fluconazole (up to 8-fold). These findings demonstrate the antifungal properties of OligoG and suggest a potential role in the management of fungal infections and possible reduction of antifungal toxicity.
Neuroticism is a heritable trait composed of separate facets, each conferring different levels of protection or risk, to health. By examining mitochondrial DNA in 269,506 individuals, we show ...mitochondrial haplogroups explain 0.07-0.01% of variance in neuroticism and identify five haplogroup and 15 mitochondria-marker associations across a general factor of neuroticism, and two special factors of anxiety/tension, and worry/vulnerability with effect sizes of the same magnitude as autosomal variants. Within-haplogroup genome-wide association studies identified H-haplogroup-specific autosomal effects explaining 1.4% variance of worry/vulnerability. These H-haplogroup-specific autosomal effects show a pleiotropic relationship with cognitive, physical and mental health that differs from that found when assessing autosomal effects across haplogroups. We identify interactions between chromosome 9 regions and mitochondrial haplogroups at P < 5 × 10
, revealing associations between general neuroticism and anxiety/tension with brain-specific gene co-expression networks. These results indicate that the mitochondrial genome contributes toward neuroticism and the autosomal links between neuroticism and health.
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