University of Bath

About: University of Bath is a education organization based out in Bath, Bath and North East Somerset, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 15830 authors who have published 39608 publications receiving 1358769 citations. The organization is also known as: Bath University.

Epidemic of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae in Europe is driven by nosocomial spread

Abstract: Public health interventions to control the current epidemic of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae rely on a comprehensive understanding of its emergence and spread over a wide range of geographical scales. We analysed the genome sequences and epidemiological data of >1,700 K. pneumoniae samples isolated from patients in 244 hospitals in 32 countries during the European Survey of Carbapenemase-Producing Enterobacteriaceae. We demonstrate that carbapenemase acquisition is the main cause of carbapenem resistance and that it occurred across diverse phylogenetic backgrounds. However, 477 of 682 (69.9%) carbapenemase-positive isolates are concentrated in four clonal lineages, sequence types 11, 15, 101, 258/512 and their derivatives. Combined analysis of the genetic and geographic distances between isolates with different β-lactam resistance determinants suggests that the propensity of K. pneumoniae to spread in hospital environments correlates with the degree of resistance and that carbapenemase-positive isolates have the highest transmissibility. Indeed, we found that over half of the hospitals that contributed carbapenemase-positive isolates probably experienced within-hospital transmission, and interhospital spread is far more frequent within, rather than between, countries. Finally, we propose a value of 21 for the number of single nucleotide polymorphisms that optimizes the discrimination of hospital clusters and detail the international spread of the successful epidemic lineage, ST258/512.

Privacy, trust, and self-disclosure online

Abstract: Despite increased concern about the privacy threat posed by new technology and the Internet, there is relatively little evidence that people's privacy concerns translate to privacy-enhancing behaviors while online. In Study 1, measures of privacy concern are collected, followed 6 weeks later by a request for intrusive personal information alongside measures of trust in the requestor and perceived privacy related to the specific request (n = 759). Participants' dispositional privacy concerns, as well as their level of trust in the requestor and perceived privacy during the interaction, predicted whether they acceded to the request for personal information, although the impact of perceived privacy was mediated by trust. In Study 2, privacy and trust were experimentally manipulated and disclosure measured (n = 180). The results indicated that privacy and trust at a situational level interact such that high trust compensates for low privacy, and vice versa. Implications for understanding the links between privacy attitudes, trust, design, and actual behavior are discussed.

How cells change their phenotype

Abstract: Recent attention has focused on the remarkable ability of adult stem cells to produce differentiated cells from embryologically unrelated tissues. This phenomenon is an example of metaplasia and shows that embryological commitments can be reversed or erased under certain circumstances. In some cases, even fully differentiated cells can change their phenotype (transdifferentiation). This review examines recently discovered cases of metaplasia, and speculates on the potential molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie the switches, and their significance to developmental biology and medicine.