In this research paper the in vitro antimicrobial and antibiofilm activity of phage cocktail against the coagulase negative Mammaliicoccus sciuri was investigated. Three M. sciuri isolates obtained from clinical bovine mastitis samples were characterized and identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Bacteriophages with lytic activity against M. sciuri isolates were isolated from dairy farm effluents. Two typical phages were isolated using standard enrichment and plaque assay techniques, purified by polyethylene glycol precipitation, and morphologically characterized based on shape and size using transmission electron microscopy. This was followed by determination of host range using spot tests and stability to varying temperature, pH and UV treatment. The phage cocktail suppressed bacterial activity within 30 min of exposure. Crystal violet assay showed that the tested phages and their cocktail significantly reduced the biofilm biomass of all three M. sciuri strains compared to the untreated control in vitro within 24 h with a single dosing. Transmission electron micrography of the purified phage particle revealed an icosahedral head and a rigid contractile tail, characteristic of the class Caudoviricetes. The findings open new avenues in phage-based antimicrobial approaches for controlling contagious and teat skin opportunistic bacteria causing bovine mastitis.

Probably the biggest legal news of the period under consideration was the judgment of the Supreme Court in R (AAA (Syria) & Ors) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] UKSC 42, [2023] WLR 4433, in which it held unanimously that the Government's policy of sending asylum-seekers to Rwanda was unlawful. One critical issue was that under section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998, it is unlawful for a public authority to act in a way that is incompatible with a right under the ECHR – and the Secretary of State is a public authority for that purpose.

The foliicolous lichen Gallaicolichen pacificus exhibits unique goniocystangia-like structures named peltidiangia and peltidia. Its taxonomic classification within the Ascomycota has been unclear due to the absence of ascomata and lack of molecular data. Here we clarify the phylogenetic affinities of Gallaicolichen pacificus by analyzing mitochondrial small subunit ribosomal RNA (mtSSU) sequences obtained from specimens collected in New Caledonia. Ascomata and ascospores of G. pacificus, previously unknown, are described and illustrated for the first time. The results from the molecular and morphological analyses clearly indicate that Gallaicolichen pacificus belongs to the Porinaceae and is closely related to Porina guianensis. This is a remarkable extension of the already known, wide morphological diversity of thalli and diaspores produced within this family.

Insufficient data are available about the association between prepartum risk factors including dietary cation–anion difference (DCAD) status and postpartum outcomes of Holstein dairy cows within commercial management systems. The first objective of this experiment was to assess the association between postpartum serum calcium (Ca) dynamics and the risk of metritis development. The second objective was to identify the association of risk factors, including DCAD status of prepartum ration, prepartum serum macrominerals and parity, with the development of subclinical hypocalcemia (SCH) in two commercial herds. Herd A (n = 32) fed a negative DCAD close-up ration and herd B (n = 30) fed a positive DCAD close-up diet. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was run to evaluate the association of serum Ca concentration at 1, 2, and 4 DIM with the risk of developing metritis. A second ROC curve was also created to assess the association of prepartum serum Mg, P, and Ca concentration with the postpartum serum Ca concentration dichotomized into normocalcemic (>8.82 mg/dl) and subclinical hypocalcemic (≤8.82 mg/dl). A logistic regression model was created to assess prepartum DCAD status (negative vs. positive) and parity (classified into a 3-level variable as first, second and third or greater lactations) as potential predictors of SCH classification. Serum Ca concentration at DIM 4 was a significant predictor of metritis (area under the curve = 0.87; P < 0.01). Cows fed positive vs. negative prepartum DCAD diet were more likely to be classified as SCH at 4 DIM. Parity did not show a significant association with the classification of SCH at 4 DIM. Our results demonstrate the importance of the DIM of blood Ca concentration assessment in connection with the diagnosis of metritis, which is crucial for the most accurate categorization of SCH and the related risk factors.

Adam Maor and Yonatan Levy’s chamber opera The Sleeping Thousand refashions the Palestinian–Israeli conflict as a futuristic science-fiction political fantasy. Adopting a critical and satirical perspective, the opera develops ad absurdum an imaginative state of affairs out of which a utopian and dystopian situation unfolds. My argument is that in The Sleeping Thousand, children are central and, furthermore, that the image construed for them is new to the medium of opera. The image is disconcerting. The child is positioned in a troubled, brutal world and catalyses the portrayal of a violent, cursed, unethical, and estranged world inhabited by adults. Children are not assigned a voice but rather are reported on; in the report, they are said to be possessed by a dybbuk. In The Sleeping Thousand, a dybbuk phenomenon forms operatic children and, through them, infiltrates the opera as a whole.

This article investigates the cultural politics of the Beijing subway. Drawing on diverse sources, we trace the evolution of the subway over the last half-century to reveal that it transcends its fluctuating, time-specific practicalities to serve as a potent conduit through which the Chinese state consistently shapes subjecthood. The article begins with the subway’s Cold War inception as a military enterprise, spotlighting its deliberate concealment to safeguard the echelons of power and obscure both international and domestic tensions. The second section delves into the subway’s rebirth in the wake of China’s opening-up reform and rapid economic rise, as it transforms into a mobile gallery of political aesthetics that extols China’s cultural heritage and triumphs, cultivating national pride under siege from unleashed market and social forces. The final section dissects the subway’s orchestration of undesirable passengers, sculpting a socioeconomic hierarchy in the city’s commuting system. As a multifaceted prism, the Beijing subway encapsulates a range of covert and overt, pragmatic and aesthetic, and inclusive and exclusive elements in the cultural politics of Chinese infrastructure at large; and it illustrates the sustained centrality of state power in shaping individual subjectivities and defining the cultural and representational significance of Chinese infrastructure, albeit amid growing contestation.

Like other European countries, Austria introduced employment restrictions for foreigners after World War I. Access to the labor market was to be reserved primarily for Austrian citizens. These new regulations related exclusively to dependent employees and allowed exceptions in view of family reunification, among other things. They were based on official labor market categories and reflected widely accepted imaginations of gender-specific abilities and responsibilities. However, many foreigners earned their living in a household context and their activities hardly matched the official categories of work and family. Since decision-making on employment permits required unambiguous categorization, this situation posed a dilemma for the authorities in charge. Given the vast variety of work arrangements and relations, they struggled to clearly draw the line between “employed” and “not employed” workers. Using the example of domestic help and Bulgarian gardeners, this article investigates administrative authorities' attempts to make such distinctions and it examines migrants' efforts to occupy labor market niches. While migrants un/intentionally circumvented regulations and made their living in Austria, the ongoing disputes paradoxically contributed to an enforcement of restrictions. Administrative authorities gradually increased their endeavor to locate unauthorized foreign workers even within households and they sharpened the criteria for their categorization.

The death of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement agents in 2020 and the racial tensions that followed it have again reignited the contentious debate about racism and society’s inability to find an enduring solution. This article is a novel effort to situate the debate in an interreligious context and contribute meaningfully to the search for a solution. Drawing from the Joseph and Potiphar’s wife story in Genesis 39 and Surah 12 of the holy Qur’an, the article shows the intersections of this patriarchal material with the axes of identity and marginality. Drawing from the multiple junctures of this intersectionality that include race, ethnicity, identity, and microaggressions, the article identifies in the scriptural texts seven resonances of contemporary racism that are often ignored or poorly understood in race discourse. Taking into consideration some meaningful solutions suggested by legal luminaries and behavioral scientists in their respective fields, the article augments these with a religious solution, pointing in the direction of a true penitential spirit, like the one demonstrated by Potiphar’s wife in the Qur’an. The suggestion is that a genuine turnaround (conversion) is also in the spirit of the ecclesial repentance that was practiced in the early church before some medieval abuses crept in. The article concludes that human agencies aside, ultimately it is God’s ability to bring good out of evil, the way God did with Joseph, that can bring an enduring solution to victims of racism.

This article performs a multimodal digital discourse analysis to examine how the 2020 social media political campaign called ‘Settle for Biden’ successfully encouraged young Progressives to vote for Joe Biden. In contrast to previous US presidential campaigns that highlight the extraordinary capabilities of their candidates, this campaign utilized the scalar and chronotopic production of normativity to highlight Biden's ‘mediocre’ capabilities. The campaign's focus on ‘settling’ for a mediocre candidate was feasible only in the sociopolitical context of 2020, at a time when Donald Trump's leadership had come to be perceived as chaotic and dangerous. While using humor to make salient the normal nature of Biden, the campaign used semiotic strategies appealing to interconnected unmarked normativities associated with class, age, race, and gender. To draw on Hall (2021), the campaign produces ‘language in the middle’, constructing Biden as neither extraordinary nor reprehensible yet preferable to the abnormality of his competitor. (Normativity, scales, chronotopes, multimodality, intertextuality, politics, social media)*

Sidonius Apollinaris’ Epist. 3.12 tells how one day, while leaving Lyons, he caught a couple of gravediggers about to violate his grandfather Apollinaris’ grave, which had become unrecognizable over time. He instructs the addressee, his nephew Secundus, to restore the tomb mound and provide it with a stone for which he attaches the text. Whereas this letter is usually interpreted as a piece of self-promotion by the author for his filial piety and expert storytelling, this article suggests that there is a significant subtext to be found in Lucan's Pharsalia which makes the letter first and foremost a rehabilitation of Apollinaris while strongly suggesting that the latter was executed. There follow some rather more tentative thoughts trying to grasp the precise critical moment in time for this rehabilitation. It is argued that this could be Sidonius’ departure for Clermont, in 469/470 to take on the episcopate, after his term as City Prefect of Rome and a stay in Lyons with Bishop Patiens. The letter is aimed at bolstering family cohesion in the conflict of interests between Auvergne and Provence and at securing Sidonius’ position as incumbent bishop.