University of Winnipeg

About: University of Winnipeg is a education organization based out in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 3235 authors who have published 6413 publications receiving 150564 citations. The organization is also known as: U of W.

The Evolution of Virulence in Non-O157 Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia Coli

Abstract: Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are zoonotic foodborne and waterborne pathogens that are a serious public health concern because they cause outbreaks and the potentially fatal hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). The most common STEC serotype associated with human disease is O157:H7, but there is a growing recognition of over one hundred non-O157 serotypes that also may result in human illness. Some of these non-O157 STEC strains cause outbreaks and severe disease such as HUS and hemorrhagic colitis, whereas others are associated with only mild diarrhea or with no human disease at all. The relative scarceness of whole genome sequence data for non-O157 STEC has limited the scientific discovery into the genetic basis of these differences in virulence. Uncovering the scope of genetic diversity and phylogeny of the non-O157 STEC through targeting sequencing of clinically relevant isolates will offer new biological insight to the pathogenic behavior of these emerging pathogens. These approaches would also enable molecular risk assessment strategies to rapidly identify and respond to emerging non-O157 STEC that pose a serious public health risk to humans.

Stability and the justification of social inequality

Abstract: Modern society is rife with inequality. People's interpretations of these inequalities, however, vary considerably: Different people can interpret, for example, the existing gender gap in wages as being the result of systemic discrimination, or as being the fair and natural result of genuine differences between men and women. Here, we examine one factor that may help explain differing interpretations of existing social inequalities: perceptions of system stability. System justification theory proposes that people are often motivated to rationalize and justify the systems within which they operate, legitimizing whatever social inequalities are present within them. We draw on theories and evidence of rationalization more broadly to predict that people should be most likely to legitimize inequalities in their systems when they perceive those systems as stable and unchanging. In one study, participants who witnessed stability, rather than change, in the domain of gender equality in business subsequently reported less willingness to support programs designed to redress inequalities in completely unrelated domains. In a second study, exposure to the mere concept of stability, via a standard priming procedure, led participants to spontaneously produce legitimizing, rather than blaming, explanations for existing gender inequality in their country. This effect, however, emerged only among politically liberal participants. These findings contribute to an emerging body of research that aims to identify the conditions that promote, and those which prevent, system-justifying tendencies. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Visible/near-infrared spectral diversity from in situ observations of the Bagnold Dune Field sands in Gale Crater, Mars

Abstract: As part of the Bagnold Dune campaign conducted by Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity, visible/near-infrared reflectance spectra of dune sands were acquired using Mast Camera (Mastcam) multispectral imaging (445–1013 nm) and Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) passive point spectroscopy (400–840 nm). By comparing spectra from pristine and rover-disturbed ripple crests and troughs within the dune field, and through analysis of sieved grain size fractions, constraints on mineral segregation from grain sorting could be determined. In general, the dune areas exhibited low relative reflectance, a weak ~530 nm absorption band, an absorption band near 620 nm, and a spectral downturn after ~685 nm consistent with olivine-bearing sands. The finest grain size fractions occurred within ripple troughs and in the subsurface and typically exhibited the strongest ~530 nm bands, highest relative reflectances, and weakest red/near-infrared ratios, consistent with a combination of crystalline and amorphous ferric materials. Coarser-grained samples were the darkest and bluest and exhibited weaker ~530 nm bands, lower relative reflectances, and stronger downturns in the near-infrared, consistent with greater proportions of mafic minerals such as olivine and pyroxene. These grains were typically segregated along ripple crests and among the upper surfaces of grain flows in disturbed sands. Sieved dune sands exhibited progressive decreases in reflectance with increasing grain size, as observed in laboratory spectra of olivine size separates. The continuum of spectral features observed between the coarse- and fine-grained dune sands suggests that mafic grains, ferric materials, and air fall dust mix in variable proportions depending on aeolian activity and grain sorting.