Staphylococcus aureus infection causes bovine mastitis, the inflammation of the mammary gland. S. aureus has a number of virulence factors, but the specialized type VII system is thought to confer increased antibiotic resistance in some S. aureus strains. Understanding the mechanism used by S. aureus to evade host cell immune responses is crucial in preventing the spread of infection amongst cattle. Decreased milk production and increased expenditure due to mastitis have caused huge economic losses (Dominique Bergonier et al., 2014). This project will investigate the intracellular survival of S. aureus strains, using mammalian cell cultures and advanced microscopic techniques. This will help characterize the structural, and functional features of different S. aureus strains.

Despite the increasing sales of children’s magazines and their established place in the popular culture, they have been largely overlooked in British media and culture studies. Amongst academics, there seems to be a perception that magazines for children are ‘genderless’ (not being preoccupied with gender identities of both its characters and its audience), in contrast to men’s or women’s magazines which have been much more scrutinized. This study thus attempts to challenge this by exploring how children magazines code for gender, race and class identities. Evaluating and using the concept of ‘gaze’ and the concept of socialization and media reception, four copies of the Ben’s and Holly’s Little Kingdom magazine were analysed. This study highlights how besides counting, writing and colouring, through the processes of identification and socialization, this magazine helps young children and especially young girls to learn how to do gender. Through different body shapes and same-sex alignment it constructs both genders as inherently different. More specifically, masculinity is represented as more active, rational, in charge and more ‘at work’, whereas femininity means being passive – looking rather than doing – as well as caring, doubting, being vulnerable and more ‘at home’. Similarly, the relations of power are tangible not only in gender relations, but also among different ethnicities, when racist gaze is coding non-white ethnicities as inferior. Hence also children’s magazines are as preoccupied with gender, class and race identities as women’s and men’s magazines are.

: Despite the importance of understanding weather patterns on extrasolar planets when assessing their habitability, there is yet to exist a simple method for doing so. We present a new technique for detecting weather patterns, making use of the phase curves published by Ernst et al (2013). When observing a two-body stellar system, consisting of a planet and its host star, the optical light we receive is not entirely composed of light from the star. A small, yet measurable, portion is contributed by the planet, through light reflected from the planetary surface. Cloud-like phenomena can significantly change the amount of reflected light, and so will dictate the flux we receive. Variability in the phase curves for an exoplanet should therefore be indicative of changing weather. Furthermore, periodic variability could be used to infer some form of weather pattern or cycle. The method presented has been tested primarily on the Hot Jupiter, HAT-P-7b, and involves fitting a sinusoidal model to sections of the phase curve for small blocks of the available data. Parameters such as the amplitude and phase of the fits were measured over time. It was found that the amplitudes vary between (6±6)x10-6 and (6.6±0.5)x10-5, whilst the phase has extremal values of (3.7±0.3) and (6.1±0.3). Comparing these ranges to the much smaller average errors, ±(6x10-7) and ±0.02 respectively, we can say with confidence that there is variation in the phase curves for HAT-P-7b over time. The technique can now be tested on other Hot Jupiters, a prime candidate being KOI-13b.

All multicellular organisms, including plants, have cells consisting of a specific set of organelles. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is one of the major organelles involved in the processing and delivery of proteins into a functional environment. It is composed of a dynamic network of membrane sheets and tubules that determine the function of the organelle. The aim of this project is to understand the machinery involved in shaping this network and to model the relationship between the two main ER structures and functions.

Transgenic plant lines with a fluorescently labelled endoplasmic reticulum were developed to reveal the architecture of this organelle. In vivo confocal microscopy will be used to image real-time transition between the two major shapes of the ER, tubules and sheets. Some of these plant lines are overexpressing reticulons, a membrane protein that is important in the formation of ER tubules. An image dataset will be produced to develop models about the geometry and architecture of the endoplasmic reticulum. Mutant plant lines will be generated to assess whether the up- or downregulation of reticulons will affect the biosynthetic capacity of the endoplasmic reticulum.

Please note the project will be carried out in summer 2015. This abstract will be edited to reflect the results obtained and the conclusions that were drawn.

There is an international drive to rapidly eliminate a number of neglected tropical diseases in poor populations. Yaws is such a disease, infecting only 2.5 million people, but causing them considerable pain and discomfort. This poorly understood disease mainly affects young children, with an incubation period of between 9 and 90 days. There is currently no published transmission model for Yaws and this impedes the design of effective control policies. The project will develop transmission and household models, using a vast array of mathematical tools, which will be analysed to see how the assumptions in the model lead to the observed dynamics.

The questions we seek to answer are what is the impact of earlier diagnosis? How does this compare with mass drug administration? And, how fast could we eradicate the disease? The study will allow us to add to the evidence supporting decisions about the best use of resources in tackling Yaws and under what condition the eradication target of 2020 set by the World Health Organization (WHO) is achievable.

The results of the project tell us that the WHO’s target is unrealistic and an adapted strategy is needed if eradication by 2020 is to be achievable and cost effective. The data and models also suggest that schools should be the targeted location for treatment. However we realize that our model has limitations and the disease displays complex endemic and epidemic characteristics which are not fully captured by the model.

Schistosomiasis and Leishmaniasis are neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) caused by schistosome helminths (Schistosoma spp.) and trypanosome protozoa (Leishmania spp.), respectively. Worldwide, 243 million and 350 million people are respectively affected- leading to debilitating clinical manifestations e.g. hepatosplenic and mucocutaneous lesions._x000D_ Water-rodents, including Nectomys squamipes and Holochilus brasiliensis, act as alternative hosts for completion of the S. mansoni and L. braziliensis life cycles, due to their exposure to infectious snail hosts and sandfly, respectively. However, it is unknown whether water-rats can naturally maintain these transmission cycles in the absence of humans, and/or whether they act as an amplifying host in the presence of human transmission.

Prepared rodent serum and tissue samples from 600 geo-referenced micro-chipped live mark-recaptured rodents (from Amaraji, Pernambuco state over an 18-month period) will undergo qPCR to detect S.mansoni and L. braziliensis DNA, respectively, using validated primer sets, and antibodies by ELISA. A semi-automated liquid handling station will be used to help standardise qPCR infection burden estimates between samples with data analysis completed using statistical.

Being the first known longitudinal study of rodents from varying habitats (peridomestic, sylvatic and plantations), the results will report the patterns of infection and how parasite burden varies through time.

At the moment, there hasn't been done enough research on European financial market, which makes it interesting for me. My project will show how liquidity commonality of European stocks has been changing over the last 7 years, since the entrance of CHI-X platform. When it entered the market, it gradually started trading all European stocks on one platform. Entrance of Chi-X has overall decreased transaction costs and improved liquidity, but does liquidity of say, UK stocks now is more related to the liquidity of French and German stocks? My project will answer this question.

I have noticed that scholars often overlook works of art of smaller scale produced during the reign of Augustus Caesar, such as gems and cameos, and tend to concentrate on the works either of monumental scale or wider presence in the Early Roman Empire. My project aims to fill this gap in current scholarly research as it investigates the culture of early Roman Imperial cameos executed in the court of Augustus Caesar with a particular focus on the Gemma Augustea and the Blacas Cameo – privately owned objects and small-scale. Considering the aspects of patronage, iconography, technique and precious materials the project attempts to explain the initial function of ancient cameos and to explore the imperial values they projected. In addition to this, the project introduces a unique interdisciplinary approach, which investigates how these objects were collected and are displayed in their current locations, the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna) and the British Museum (London), and explore their modern receptions.