Hydroxychromium montmorillonites were prepared from solutions containing chromium nitrate and varying amounts of NaOH. The reactant Cr ions were hydrolyzed and, in some experiments, were dimerized to a significant extent. The extent of polymerization in the product formed from a solution containing a maximum amount of [Cr2(H2O)8(OH)2]4+ was compared with that in products obtained from solutions containing monomer, [Cr(H2O)5OH]2+, and lesser amounts of the dimer. Despite the uncertainty about the nature and amounts of product interlamellar species, the catalytic effect of the montmorillonite interlayer on the hydrolysis and polymerization of Cr(III) appears to be independent of the nature of the reactant species. The validity of this conclusion depends to a large extent on the reliability of water determination in the clay mineral species, which is estimated to be no better than 5%. The assumption that H2O+ is 'combined’ and H2O— is 'free’ water is shown to be partially true, thereby causing some uncertainty in the interpretations of interlayer compositions.

The Numeniini is a tribe of 13 wader species (Scolopacidae, Charadriiformes) of which seven are Near Threatened or globally threatened, including two Critically Endangered. To help inform conservation management and policy responses, we present the results of an expert assessment of the threats that members of this taxonomic group face across migratory flyways. Most threats are increasing in intensity, particularly in non-breeding areas, where habitat loss resulting from residential and commercial development, aquaculture, mining, transport, disturbance, problematic invasive species, pollution and climate change were regarded as having the greatest detrimental impact. Fewer threats (mining, disturbance, problematic native species and climate change) were identified as widely affecting breeding areas. Numeniini populations face the greatest number of non-breeding threats in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, especially those associated with coastal reclamation; related threats were also identified across the Central and Atlantic Americas, and East Atlantic flyways. Threats on the breeding grounds were greatest in Central and Atlantic Americas, East Atlantic and West Asian flyways. Three priority actions were associated with monitoring and research: to monitor breeding population trends (which for species breeding in remote areas may best be achieved through surveys at key non-breeding sites), to deploy tracking technologies to identify migratory connectivity, and to monitor land-cover change across breeding and non-breeding areas. Two priority actions were focused on conservation and policy responses: to identify and effectively protect key non-breeding sites across all flyways (particularly in the East Asian- Australasian Flyway), and to implement successful conservation interventions at a sufficient scale across human-dominated landscapes for species’ recovery to be achieved. If implemented urgently, these measures in combination have the potential to alter the current population declines of many Numeniini species and provide a template for the conservation of other groups of threatened species.

Among dialysis facilities participating in a bloodstream infection (BSI) prevention collaborative, access-related BSI incidence rate improvements observed immediately following implementation of a bundle of BSI prevention interventions were sustained for up to 4 years. Overall, BSI incidence remained unchanged from baseline in the current analysis.

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2016;37:863–866

The presence of yeasts in milk may cause physical and chemical changes limiting the durability and compromising the quality of the product. Moreover, milk and dairy products contaminated by yeasts may be a potential means of transmission of these microorganisms to man and animals causing several kinds of infections. This study aimed to determine whether different species of yeasts isolated from bovine raw milk had the ability to develop at 37°C and/or under refrigeration temperature. Proteinase and phospholipase activities resulting from these yeasts were also monitored at different temperatures. Five genera of yeasts (Aureobasidium sp., Candida spp., Geotrichum spp., Trichosporon spp. and Rhodotorula spp.) isolated from bovine raw milk samples were evaluated. All strains showed one or a combination of characteristics: growth at 37°C (99·09% of the strains), psychrotrophic behaviour (50·9%), proteinase production (16·81% of the strains at 37°C and 4·09% under refrigeration) and phospholipase production (36·36% of the isolates at 37°C and 10·9% under refrigeration), and all these factors may compromise the quality of the product. Proteinase production was similar for strains incubated at 37°C (16·81% of the isolates) and room temperature (17·27%) but there was less amount of phospholipase-producing strains at room temperature (15·45% of the isolates were positive) when compared with incubation at 37°C (36·36%). Enzymes production at 37°C by yeasts isolated from milk confirmed their pathogenic potential. The refrigeration temperature was found to be most efficient to inhibit enzymes production and consequently ensure better quality of milk. The viability of yeasts and the activity of their enzymes at different temperatures are worrying because this can compromise the quality of dairy products at all stages of production and/or storage, and represent a risk to the consumer.

Adults with intellectual disabilities experience high rates of obesity. Despite this higher risk, there is little evidence on the effectiveness of weight-loss interventions for adults with intellectual disabilities and obesity. The present study examined the effectiveness of the TAKE 5 multi-component weight-loss intervention. Adults with obesity were invited using specialist intellectual disability services to participate in the study. Obesity was defined as a BMI of 30 kg/m2 or greater. TAKE 5 included a daily energy-deficit diet of 2510 kJ (600 kcal), achieved via a personalised dietary prescription. Participants' body weight, BMI, waist circumference and levels of physical activity and sedentary behaviour were measured before and after the intervention. A total of fifty-four individuals consented to participate, of which forty-seven (87 %) completed the intervention in the study period. There was a significant decrease in body weight (mean difference − 4·47 (95 % CI − 5·91, − 3·03) kg; P < 0·0001), BMI ( − 1·82 (95 % CI − 2·36, − 1·29) kg/m2; P < 0·0001), waist circumference ( − 6·29 (95 % CI − 7·85, − 4·73) cm; P < 0·0001) and daily sedentary behaviour of participants ( − 41·40 (95 % CI − 62·45, − 20·35) min; P = 0·00 034). Of the participants who completed the intervention, seventeen (36·2 %) lost 5 % or more of their initial body weight. Findings from the study suggest that TAKE 5 is an effective weight-loss intervention for adults with intellectual disabilities and obesity. The effectiveness of TAKE 5 should be examined further in a controlled study.

Milk is the normal secretion of the mammary gland, practically free of colostrum and obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy animals. Mastitis is an inflammatory process of the mammary gland and it may cause alterations in the milk. The present work aimed to verify whether it is possible, by means of the counts of microorganism in the bulk raw milk in four selective culture media, to establish a correlation with the occurrence of mastitis and therefore, to monitor this disease in bovine dairy herds. The following selective culture media were used: KF Streptococcus Agar, Edwards Agar, Baird-Parker Agar, Blood Agar plus potassium tellurite. Spearman's correlation coefficient was calculated in order to compare the occurrence of mastitis (percentage) in each herd with respective selective culture media counts of microorganisms in bulk raw milk. Thirty-six possibilities were analysed (Tamis and CMT-positive rates were compared with the log-transformed count in four selective culture media) and there was a negative correlation between Tamis 3 and the Baird-Parker Agar plate count. The total results of microbiological tests showed that there were three correlations of the counts in selective culture media. Fifty-two possibilities were analysed and there was a negative correlation between no-bacterial-growth mastitis rates and log10 of KF Streptoccocus Agar plate count and there were two positive correlations between coagulase-positive staphylococci and log10 of Baird-Parker Agar plate count and Blood Agar plus potassium tellurite plate count.

Space-time interaction analysis was applied to data from 101 elementary school children who contracted variola minor during an epidemic in Bragança Paulista County, Brazil. One school had two and the other three shifts of students occupying the same classrooms each day. There was no evidence found for excessive numbers of cases to occur among unvaccinated students occupying the same desks or seated near the desks occupied by cases occurring during another shift. Only three cases occurred among the 31 unvaccinated students occupying desks of students with variola from other shifts. Only one of these three subsequent cases occurred at a time interval suggestive of transmission. For the three models tested there was no evidence of space-time interaction between time of onset of the disease and location of desk for pairs of students from different shifts.

The new species Echinotiara arabica is described and referred to the family Stomopneustidae Meissner, 1903. It is compared with other Liassic species of “Stomechinus” which are considered to be congeneric with it, and its relationships with the genera Stomechinus, Psephechinus and Jeannetia are discussed.

During a recent examination of some Coal Measure non-marine lamellibranchs in the collections of the British Museum (Natural History), my attention was drawn to a specimen from the Sowerby Collection labelled “Unio subconstrictus J. Sow., Coal Measures, Derbyshire”. On the back of the specimen were the remains of an original label, partly defaced, which some previous worker had endeavoured to read, for the words “Chapel … Sheffiel[d]” had been neatly copied on to another label affixed to the specimen.

The taxonomy of the Middle Jurassic ammonite genus Spiroceras Quenstedt, 1856, is critically assessed. It is found that the genus was originally proposed conditionally without any included species, and the type species is Spiroceras bifurcatum Hyatt, 1900, by subsequent monotypy. A neotype is now designated for that species, because Hyatt's figured holotype is lost.

An experimental study of the microwave backscatter and acoustic radiation from breaking waves is reported. It is found that the averaged microwave and acoustic measurements correlate with the dynamics of wave breaking. Both the mean-square acoustic pressure and the backscattered microwave power correlate with the wave slope and dissipation, for waves of moderate slope (S < 0.28). The backscattered power and the mean-square pressure are also found to correlate strongly with each other. As the slope and wavelength of the breaking wave packet is increased, both the backscattered power and the mean-square pressure increase. It is found that a large portion of the backscattered microwave power precedes the onset of sound production and visible breaking. This indicates that the unsteadiness of the breaking process is important and that the geometry of the wave prior to breaking may dominate the backscattering. It is observed that the amount of acoustic energy radiated by an individual breaking wave scaled with the amount of mechanical energy dissipated during breaking. These laboratory results are compared to the field experiments of Farmer & Vagle (1988), Crowther (1989) and Jessup et al. (1990).

An experimental and theoretical study of the propagation and stability of long nonlinear internal waves over slope–shelf topography is presented. A generalized Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) equation, including the effects of nonlinearity, dispersion, dissipation and varying bottom topography, is formulated and solved numerically for single and rank-ordered pairs of solitary waves incident on the slope. The results of corresponding laboratory experiments in a salt-stratified system are reported. Very good agreement between theory and experiment is obtained for a range of stratifications, topography and incident-wave amplitudes. Significant disagreement is found in some cases if the effects of dissipation and higher-order (cubic) nonlinearity are not included in the theoretical model. Weak shearing and strong breaking (overturning) instabilities are observed and found to depend strongly on the incident-wave amplitude and the stratification on the shelf. In some cases the instability of the lowest-mode wave leads to the generation of a second-mode solitary wave. The application of these findings to the prediction and interpretation of field data is discussed.