Prevalence of cadmium resistance in Staphylococcus sciuri isolated from the Gray Treefrog, Hyla chrysoscelis (Anura: Hylidae)

We investigated the prevalence of cadmium resistance in 126different isolates of S. sciuri from H. chrysoscelis. Additional experiments were designed to determine if CadA, CadB, or CadD caused the resistance

Major Families of Multiresistant Plasmids from Geographically and Epidemiologically Diverse Staphylococci

Staphylococci are increasingly aggressive human pathogens suggesting that active evolution is spreading novel virulence and resistance phenotypes. Large staphylococcal plasmids commonly carry antibiotic resistances and virulence loci, but relatively few have been completely sequenced. We determined the plasmid content of 280 staphylococci isolated in diverse geographical regions from the 1940s to the 2000s and found that 79% of strains carried at least one large plasmid >20 kb and that 75% of these large plasmids were 20–30 kb. Using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis, we grouped 43% of all large plasmids into three major families, showing remarkably conserved intercontinental spread of multiresistant staphylococcal plasmids over seven decades. In total, we sequenced 93 complete and 57 partial staphylococcal plasmids ranging in size from 1.3 kb to 64.9 kb, tripling the number of complete sequences for staphylococcal plasmids >20 kb in the NCBI RefSeq database. These plasmids typically carried multiple antimicrobial and metal resistances and virulence genes, transposases and recombinases. Remarkably, plasmids within each of the three main families were >98% identical, apart from insertions and deletions, despite being isolated from strains decades apart and on different continents. This suggests enormous selective pressure has optimized the content of certain plasmids despite their large size and complex organization

Prevalence, antibiotic susceptibility, and genetic diversity of Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Escherichia coli O157:H7 collected at four Kansas beef cattle feedyards over 13 months

Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Eschericia coli O157:H7 are important foodborne pathogens, but longitudinal studies of their prevalence in beef cattle feedyards have not been done. Our long- term study involved 24,556 samples taken from beef cattle feedyards found overall prevalence’s of 4.87% for Salmonella, 20.1% for Campylobacter in hospital pen fecal samples, and 0.20% for E. coli O157:H7. Yard and pen differences (P<0.05) were detected. All 53 E. coli O157:H7 isolates were resistant to Talmicosin and Erythromycin, two antimicrobials used in food animal medicine. Their genetic diversity was high and did not indicate the presence of resident strains at the yards studied. Salmonella, Campylobacter, and E. coli O157:H7 were probably brought into the yards by shipments of new cattle. Many of these organismswere susceptible to antibiotics commonly used to treat beef cattle

The Alcohol Use Inventory : A Validational Study

A validational study of the Alcohol Use Inventory (AUI) for the purpose of differentiating the severity of problem drinking was replicated using a rural population. The variables, social class and age, were controlled statistically. It was found that (AUI) did significantly differentiate the severity of problem drinking on most AUI scales. The effect of controlling age and social class was to increase significantly the difference among severity levels on two AUI scales

Baylee\u27s Blog

I decided to make a blog that catered to college students are people with busy lives. Throughout my time as a college student, I have found it increasingly difficult to stay on top of both my physical and mental health. I want to create a space for people like me to feel like they have the ability to stay on top of their health. By doing this, I hope to create a community of people that want to make the most out of this one life that we have been given

Prevalence of cadmium resistance in Staphylococcus sciuri isolated from the Gray Treefrog, Hyla chrysoscelis (Anura: Hylidae)

We investigated the prevalence of cadmium resistance in 126different isolates of S. sciuri from H. chrysoscelis. Additional experiments were designed to determine if CadA, CadB, or CadD caused the resistance

A Novel Approach to the Isolation of Plant Mitochondria in the Introductory College Biology Laboratory

Abstract: Cellular organelles, such as mitochondria, are routinely discussed in the lecture component of introductory biology, but generally no attempt is made to isolate and study their function in the laboratory. In this exercise, a novel mitochondria isolation procedure was developed using equipment that is routinely found in introductory science laboratories. Using a benchtop clinical centrifuge, an active &quot;mitochondrial complex&quot; is obtained that has sufficient numbers of mitochondria to measure oxygen consumption. Thus, students gain &quot;hands-on&quot; experience in examining the role mitochondria play in cellular respiration

Diversity of the type 1 intron–its region of the 18s rrna gene in pseudogymnoascus species from the red hills of Kansas

Gypsum caves found throughout the Red Hills of Kansas have the state\u27s most diverse and largest population of cave-roosting bats. White-nose syndrome (WNS), a disease caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which threatens all temperate bat species, has not been previously detected in the gypsum caves as this disease moves westward from the eastern United States. Cave soil was obtained from the gypsum caves, and using the polymerase chain reaction, a 624-nucleotide DNA fragment specific to the Type 1 intron–internal transcribed spacer region of the 18S rRNA gene from Pseudogymnoascus species was amplified. Subsequent cloning and DNA sequencing indicated P. destructans DNA was present, along with 26 uncharacterized Pseudogymnoascus DNA variants. However, no evidence of WNS was observed in bat populations residing in these caves

Natural Convection Heat Transfer Between Cylindrical Tube Bundles and a Cubical Enclosure

Natural convection heat transfer from a fixed array of four isothermal, heated cylinders to an isothermal, cooled cubical enclosure was experimentally investigated for both a horizontal and vertical position of the array. Included in this study are heat transfer, flow visualization, and temperature profile results for Prandtl numbers in the range of .7 to 3.1 × 104 and Rayleigh numbers, based on gap width, in the range of 6.3 × 105 to 6.9 × 108. Several geometric effects were observed. The vertical configuration convected less heat than the horizontal while a rotation about the vertical axis for each of these configurations had negligible effect on the overall heat transfer. The heat transfer results were correlated and compared with previous enclosure results. The heat transfer correlations fit the data with an average deviation of less than 10 percent.</jats:p