In November 2019, an outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 was detected in South Yorkshire, England. Initial investigations established consumption of milk from a local dairy as a common exposure. A sample of pasteurised milk tested the next day failed the phosphatase test, indicating contamination of the pasteurised milk by unpasteurised (raw) milk. The dairy owner agreed to immediately cease production and initiate a recall. Inspection of the pasteuriser revealed a damaged seal on the flow divert valve. Ultimately, there were 21 confirmed cases linked to the outbreak, of which 11 (52%) were female, and 12/21 (57%) were either <15 or >65 years of age. Twelve (57%) patients were treated in hospital, and three cases developed haemolytic uraemic syndrome. Although the outbreak strain was not detected in the milk samples, it was detected in faecal samples from the cattle on the farm. Outbreaks of gastrointestinal disease caused by milk pasteurisation failures are rare in the UK. However, such outbreaks are a major public health concern as, unlike unpasteurised milk, pasteurised milk is marketed as ‘safe to drink’ and sold to a larger, and more dispersed, population. The rapid, co-ordinated multi-agency investigation initiated in response to this outbreak undoubtedly prevented further cases.

Large scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are carried out to investigate the failure response of nanocrystalline Mg using the EAM potential under conditions of uniaxial tensile stress and uniaxial tensile strain loading. The MD simulations are carried out at a strain rate of 109s-1 for grain sizes in the range of 10 nm to 30 nm. The effect of grain size on the strength of the metal is investigated and the critical grain size for transition to inverse Hall-Petch regime is identified.

For many cancers, liver metastasis is common and usually indicates poor prognosis. Gastro-enteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEPNETs) of the midgut are a heterogeneous group of cancers that typically remain asymptomatic until they metastasize to the liver. However, the mechanisms by which these usually indolent cancers establish distal metastasis remain unclear.

To begin to elucidate this process, we performed standard in vitro assays to assess cell motility, transendothelial migration, and invasion using BON cells, a widely used model GEPNET cell line. In addition, transmission electron microscopy was used in combination with a novel ex vivo organ slice xenograft model to reveal ultrastructural details of the initial events of BON cell extravasation and re-distribution within the liver. The ultrastructural resolution of the extravasation process revealed the route, sequence, and time course by which tumor cells migrated from the sinusoidal lumen into the hepatic parenchyma in this organ slice model. Both standard in vitro assays and our organ slice model indicated that tumor cells migrated through the discontinuous sinusoidal endothelium to invade the liver parenchyma.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, August 7–August 11, 2011.

Tata is a household name in India. Starting well over a century ago, the Tatas began their foray into industry, and the brand represents more than a diversifed conglomerate. The Tatas are well-respected, having endeared themselves in every walk of Indian life. Their businesses are all-pervasive, from building automobiles and generating electric power to making steel and building supercomputers. Their charitable trusts and endowments are as extensive as their businesses. They have founded and funded outstanding educational institutions and human welfare organizations, and they have supported research on alleviating human suffering. The incumbent of the Tata Group is Ratan Naval Tata, a Cornell University graduate in architecture. In the 20 years since he took over the mantle, he has set the Tata industries on a steep growth trajectory, increasing the revenue of the Tata industries 12-fold, making automobiles—the famed Nano—available at very affordable prices in India, and introducing effcient steelmaking. The business empire he heads, the Tata Group, has over 90 companies with footholds in 80 countries. In the midst of his busy globe-trotting schedule, we managed to steal an hour of his time at the Tatas' “Bombay House” headquarters for him to tell us how he sees the global energy challenges and the opportunities they create.

New productive variants (PV) with physiological and morphological characters distinctly different from their original counterparts (OR) were isolated under disruptive selection in Brassica campestris cv Brown Sarson. Two new breeding approaches were tested—mating (PV × OR) F1 lines with selected cultivars, and mating disruptive with two-directional selection lines. The resulting superior three- and two-way hybrid populations, when advanced through large-scale inter-mating, produced double the yield potential of the existing controls. The genetic principles behind these breeding approaches are discussed.

Spasm of the pharyngo-oesophageal segment is one of the important causes of tracheo-oesophageal voice failure. Traditionally it has been managed by either prolonged speech therapy, surgical pharyngeal myotomy or pharyngeal plexus neurectomy with varying degrees of success. Botulinum neurotoxin has been found to be effective in relieving pharyngo-oesophageal segment spasm. Since 1995, we have used botulinum toxin injection on 10 laryngectomees with either aphonia or hypertonicity due to pharyngo-oesophageal segment spasm. Early results were analysed by the Sunderland Surgical Voice Restoration Rating scale. Seven of the 10 patients, who were previously completely aphonic, developed voice following this therapy and are using their valve choice as their only method of communication. Out of the three patients who were treated for hypertonic voice, two did derive some benefit from the procedure. One patient developed a hypotonic voice, which lasted for a few months.

—Organophosphorus-derived pesticides are commonly used to control Culex quinquefasciatus, the principal vector of filariasis in India. This paper reports on the susceptibility of C. quinquefasciatus from Madurai city, Tamil Nadu and its environs, to the organophosphate Malathion. It was observed that both larval and adult mosquitoes had low levels of resistance to the pesticide, with resistance ratios at LC50, LC90, and LC95 varying from 0.94 to 3.07 in larvae, and 0.93 to 34.68 in adults. This observation indicates the possibility of higher resistance developing in C. quinquefasciatus populations, the limitation of organophosphorus compounds as larvicides in mosquito breeding sites as a measure to control filariasis, and the importance of research into alternative measures for managing C. quinquefasciatus.

Lemierre’s syndrome is a recognized but infrequently seen complication of acute oropharyngitis. In this case report the patient presented with acute sore throat that led to a bacteraemia with internal jugular vein thrombosis and subsequent cranial nerve palsies.

The vulnerabilities inherent in choosing an innovative material for a design can make for technological catastrophe. The points of weakness are not dependent on the technical nature of the innovation, but instead are intrinsic to human problem-solving and decision-making. We present a computational approach for managing and containing this fallibility using ideas from cognitive science and artificial intelligence, in particular, understanding how the boundedly rational behavior of humans and organizations leads to specific kinds of errors that affect the choice and use of materials.

Materials choice in an industrial setting is often the result of a long chain or network of circumstances whose origins lie in many domains—from traditional engineering practice to the very latest innovation, from the commercial to the technical. In turn, every materials-selection decision has a long chain of consequences that are difficult to compute. This lengthy chain of consequences of a single decision gives rise to numerous points of error. What is particularly troublesome about these errors is not that they arise because of incomplete scientific engineering knowledge, but rather that they occur in spite of the fact that all (or at least, almost all) of the technically relevant information is available and sometimes even known to the technical personnel on the project. We will illustrate this approach by using a historical example of a major materials failure. Advances in database-systems design present an opportunity for integrating the ontology of material attributes with properties data. This may enable the design of more appropriate validation procedures required in proving a material for an artifact.