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La seguridad de las organizaciones se ha convertido en un aspecto fundamental en la actualidad. La cantidad de información compartida y el internet de todo generan un gran flujo de datos en la red cada día. Sin embargo, a pesar del avance de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación, no todas las empresas cuentan con un diseño y parámetros de seguridad debidamente implementados para garantizar la protección de la información que se encuentra disponible en sus equipos. Lo anterior, debido a que algunos equipos y la implementación de parámetros y diferentes factores de seguridad son costosos para las pequeñas y medianas organizaciones y requieren de profesionales expertos para su implementación, gestión y monitoreo. Por lo anterior, el objetivo general de esta investigación fue la implementación de políticas de seguridad informática en la entidad FUNTRAEV que permita establecer parámetros de seguridad de acceso a la información. Para lo anterior se llevó a cabo una metodología estructurada en 4 fases, por medio de la cual es posible el análisis previo de la red, para posteriormente diseñar, implementar y operar las diferentes políticas necesarias para garantizar la seguridad en la red. Como resultado principal, se logró la definición de políticas en la red y la capacitación de los empleados de la organización respecto al uso adecuado de la información en la red. Finalmente, al realizar la distribución de políticas y la capacitación respecto a la importancia de la seguridad en la red los empleados de la organización observaron la mejoría en la red.

This chapter traces the origins of federal immigration policy to the Civil War. The Coolie Trade Prohibition Act (1862) banned American ships from transporting unfree Chinese workers to foreign destinations. This law classified Chinese migrant workers in the American West as free and did not affect immigration to the United States. Yet Chinese immigrants faced intense hostility, including discriminatory taxes, exclusionary laws, and a ban on testifying against white witnesses (upheld by the California Supreme Court in People v. Hall in 1854). Under the Act to Encourage Immigration (1864), the federal government recognized short-term contracts for European contract workers. The American Emigrant Company, the main recruiting agency, provoked opposition to contract labor by importing strikebreakers after the Civil War. Restrictionists in the 1860s and 1870s, meanwhile, claimed that all Chinese laborers were coolies and should be excluded on antislavery grounds. White European workers who came to American voluntarily became the archetypal immigrants, while Chinese laborers were characterized as inherently unfree.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the federal government exercised extensive power over immigration. Yet, as the Supreme Court confirmed in Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1896), immigrants residing in the United States enjoyed equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment even if they were not naturalized citizens. Their American-born children, moreover, were citizens by birthright, a principle the court upheld in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898). The federal government controls national borders today, but cities and states continue to regulate immigrants’ lives via their local police power. Measures like California’s Proposition 187 (1994) and Arizona’s SB 1070 (2010) monitored and punished immigrants and their children, yet other states exert their sovereignty to provide benefits and sanctuary and refuse to act as agents of federal law enforcement. Local attempts to protect immigrants, the epilogue concludes, represent a reassertion of state sovereignty as a potential counterweight to federal power.

Until the 1870s, the federal government played almost no role in regulating immigration. The states controlled mobility within and across their borders. Defenders of slavery feared that if Congress had power to control immigration, it could also regulate the movement of free black people and perhaps the interstate slave trade as well. The Civil War removed the political and constitutional obstacles to a national immigration policy, and Chinese immigration was the catalyst for federal action. In 1875, Congress passed the Page Act, targeting Chinese prostitutes. To justify the exclusion of Chinese laborers, the Court ruled in Chae Chan Ping v. United States (1889) that power over immigrant admissions was inherent in national sovereignty. The federal government continues to control admissions and exclusions today, while cities and states regulate immigrants after they arrive. Some monitor and punish immigrants; others offer sanctuary and refuse to act as agents of federal law enforcement, thereby reasserting local sovereignty as a counterweight to federal power.

This chapter explains how the federal government assumed control over immigration in the 1870s and 1880s. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in 1875 that state laws taxing immigrants violated federal power over foreign commerce. The Immigration Act (1882), the first general immigration act at national level, levied a tax on every passenger entering the United States, following the model of local antebellum laws. Antislavery arguments for immigration restriction culminated in the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) suspending immigration by Chinese laborers for ten years; the Foran Act (1885) prohibiting employers from importing contract workers; and the Scott Act (1888) barring Chinese from reentering the United States even if they held return certificates under previous legislation. The anti-Chinese laws had precedents in antebellum measures controlling the mobility of free black people. In Chae Chan Ping v. United States (1889), the Supreme Court ruled that Congress and the executive branch had a plenary power over immigration, inherent in national sovereignty and largely immune from judicial interference.

This chapter examines a series of antebellum court cases concerning the mobility of black people and immigrants. In Commonwealth v. Aves (1836), the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that an enslaved person brought into a free state was automatically free. In Groves v. Slaughter (1841), the US Supreme Court examined congressional and local power over the interstate slave trade. In Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842), the Court ruled that states could not infringe on the federal government’s power to return fugitive slaves, but neither did they have to enforce federal laws. Northern states passed new personal liberty laws in response, while southern states demanded a stronger fugitive slave act. In the Passenger Cases (1849), the Supreme Court invalidated two state immigration laws as violations of federal commerce power, but the four dissenters, led by Chief Justice Roger Taney, defended these laws as legitimate exercises of police power and warned that southern states risked losing control over black mobility.

Reconstruction, this chapter demonstrates, had a double-edged impact on Chinese immigrants. They gained new rights under civil rights laws and the Fourteenth Amendment, which extended citizenship to all persons born in the United States and guaranteed due process and equal protection to aliens as well as citizens. The Burlingame-Seward Treaty (1868) allowed free migrants to move back and forth between China and the United States, though not to naturalize as citizens. Yet the Chinese also faced a racist backlash, with restrictionists demanding their exclusion on the grounds that they were inherently unfree. The Naturalization Act of 1870 extended the right to naturalize to people of African descent but maintained the ban on Chinese immigrants becoming citizens. With state laws subject to review by the Supreme Court, restrictionists realized that the expanded national government created by Reconstruction could exclude the Chinese much more effectively and called on Congress to act. The Page Act of 1875, directed primarily at Chinee prostitutes, marked a decisive step in the transition to federal control over immigration.

This chapter examines what it meant for the early United States to be both a haven for European immigrants and a slaveholding republic. The Constitution recognized and protected slavery through the fugitive slave clause, the three-fifths clause, and the migration or importation clause, which prohibited Congress from outlawing the importation of enslaved persons for twenty years. Strangely for a country that attracted so many foreigners, however, the Constitution offered no guidelines on the admission, exclusion, or removal of immigrants. It authorized Congress to devise a naturalization policy for immigrants after they arrived, which Congress restricted to white people. Yet the Constitution did not define citizenship, and the states rather than the federal government controlled mobility and political membership in the early republic. Tensions over which level of government controlled mobility—by immigrants, free black people, or slaves—peaked during the crises over the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) and Missouri’s admission to the Union (1820–1821).

During the political crisis of the 1850s, as this chapter demonstrates, the Supreme Court drew a stark line between Americans of European and African descent. In Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), Roger Taney ruled not only that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional but also that black Americans, whether free or enslaved, could never be citizens of the United States. Irish immigrants, by contrast, faced a nativist backlash from the Know-Nothing Party, yet—like all European immigrants—they enjoyed basic civic political and privileges denied to African Americans born on the soil, including the right to travel and to naturalize as citizens. After Dred Scott, Abraham Lincoln warned that the Supreme Court might prevent free states, as well as territories, from excluding slavery. The case of Lemmon v. New York was pending when eleven slave states seceded from the Union in 1860–61, which Alexander Stephens celebrated as heralding a new civilization founded on slavery.

This chapter examines the tensions between local and federal regulation of mobility in the antebellum era. Southern and midwestern states used their police power to impose bonds, taxes, and registration on free black people. The Seamen Acts jailed free black sailors who entered southern ports from abroad, or from other states, for the duration of their stay. Critics objected that these acts violated the commerce clause, the treaty-making power of the United States, and the privileges and immunities of black citizens. When John Marshall defined federal commerce power in Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) to include navigation, Southerners feared that Congress might use this power to regulate the mobility of free and enslaved black people. Slaveholders therefore welcomed the decision in New York v. Miln (1837) upholding a state immigration law as a legitimate exercise of police power, similar to laws regulating the mobility of free black people. Immigration, black mobility, and slavery remained tightly intertwined throughout the antebellum era.

Immigration presented a constitutional and political problem in the nineteenth-century United States. Until the 1870s, the federal government played a very limited role in regulating immigration. The states controlled mobility within and across their borders and set the rules for community membership. This book demonstrates how the existence, abolition, and legacies of slavery shaped immigration policy as it moved from the local to the national level. Throughout the antebellum era, defenders of slavery feared that if Congress controlled immigration, it could also regulate the movement of free black people and the interstate slave trade. The Civil War removed the political and constitutional obstacles to a national immigration policy. Admission remained the norm for European immigrants until the 1920s, but Chinese immigrants fell into a different category. Starting in the 1870s, the federal government excluded Chinese laborers, deploying techniques of registration, punishment, and deportation first used against free black people in the antebellum South. To justify these measures, the Supreme Court ruled that authority over immigration was inherent in national sovereignty and required no constitutional justification. The federal government continues to control admissions and exclusions today, while the states play a role in regulating immigrants’ lives, varying by politics and location. Some monitor and punish immigrants; others offer sanctuary and refuse to act as agents of federal law enforcement. By examining the history of immigration in a slaveholding republic, this book reveals the tangled origins of border control, incarceration, deportation, and ongoing tensions between local and federal authority in the United States.

The nature of Ireland's place within the British Empire continues to attract significant public and scholarly attention. While historians of Ireland have long accepted the complexity of Ireland's imperial past as both colonised and coloniser, the broader public debate has grown more heated in recent months, buffeted by Brexit, the Decade of Centenaries and global events. At the same time, the imperatives of social movements such as Black Lives Matter and Decolonising the Curriculum have asked us to reflect on the assumptions, hierarchies and norms underpinning the structures of society, including the production of knowledge and the higher education system. This round table brings together scholars from diverse disciplinary and methodological backgrounds to examine the prospects, possibilities and challenges of what decolonising Irish history might mean for our field. It sets these discussions within broader frameworks, considering both the relationship of Irish historical writing to postcolonial theory and the developments in the latter field in the last twenty years. It also reflects on the sociology of our discipline and makes suggestions for future research agendas.

We investigated the relationship between the presence of helminth parasites in European badgers, and their tuberculosis (TB) status, culled as part of the bovine TB eradication programme in Ireland. Data on the worm burden or faecal egg or larval count was available for all helminth taxa recorded. Lymph node tissue samples were taken from the badgers and tested for TB. We then explored the correlation, in full-grown badgers, between the likelihood of

Antibody-detecting tests for Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP) have low sensitivity and imperfect specificity for detection of infection. Sensitivity increases as the disease progresses. Aside from infection status and stage of disease, several factors affect test performance. These factors have not yet been studied in dairy cows producing lower volumes of milk with higher solids concentration, such as those managed in low-input, pasture-based production systems. Furthermore, the effect of correcting for these associations on individual and herd test status is also unknown. The first objective of this study was to examine the relationship between MAP antibody response in milk and milk yield, somatic cell count (SCC), fat and protein contents, and stage of lactation in dairy cows enrolled in the national Johne's Disease Control Programme (JDCP) in Ireland. The second objective was to examine the effect of correcting the antibody response for these associations on the test status of individual cows and herds, given that individual tests are often used to define a herd's status. Data were extracted for herds in the JDCP from January 2014 to December 2015 inclusive, consisting of 42,657 milk recordings from 18,569 cows across 187 dairy herds. Two linear regression models were constructed to investigate the association between log-transformed MAP sample-to-positive ratio and milk recording data and in primi- and multiparous cows. Days in milk was modeled as a B-spline in each model, and cow and herd were included as random effects. Across both models, natural log-transformed MAP antibody response was negatively associated with milk yield, positively associated with protein and fat production, and had a curvilinear association with log-transformed SCC. The association between MAP antibody response and days in milk varied over the course of the lactation. However, when combined, these variables explained only 5.1% of the variation in the antibody response of the population. After correcting for these associations, 93 multiparous cows and 20 primiparous cows changed category (negative, suspect, or positive). When considered at the herd-test level, out of a total of 531 herd tests, 1 herd changed from negative to positive, and 5 herds changed from positive to negative. This study provides useful information to aid in the interpretation of antibody results for herds testing animals for the presence of MAP infection. At an overall population level, correction of the serological response for non-disease-associated factors has the potential to change the status of only a small number of cows. At the herd level, the proportion of herds changing status was minimal. However, depending on the implications of a herd-level serological diagnosis, consideration should be given to correcting for these non-disease-associated variables within the context of national JD control programs.

Vaccination of badgers with Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) has been shown to protect badgers against tuberculosis in experimental trials. During the 3-year County Kilkenny BCG vaccine field study, badgers were treated orally with placebo (100% in Zone A), BCG (100% in Zone C) or randomly assigned 50%: 50% treatment with BCG or placebo (Zone B). At the end of the study, 275 badgers were removed from the trial area and subjected to detailed post-mortem examination followed by histology and culture for M. bovis. Among these badgers, 83 (30.2%) were captured for the first time across the three zones, representing a non-treated proportion of the population. Analysis of the data based on the infection status of treated animals showed a prevalence of 52% (95% CI: 40%-63%) infection in Zone A (placebo), 39% (95% CI: 17%-64%) in Zone B (placebo) and 44% (95% CI: 20%-70%) in Zone B (BCG vaccinated) and 24% (95% CI: 14%-36%) in Zone C (BCG vaccinated). There were no statistically significant differences in the proportion of animals with infection involving the lung and thoracic lymph nodes, extra-thoracic infection or in the distribution and severity scores of histological lesions. Among the 83 non-treated badgers removed at the end of the study, the infection prevalence of animals in Zone A (prevalence = 46%, 95% CI: 32%-61%) and Zone B (prevalence = 44%, 95% CI: 23%-67%) was similar to the treated animals in these zones. However, in Zone C, no evidence of infection was found in any of the untreated badgers (prevalence = 0%, 95% CI: 0%-14%). This is consistent with an indirect protective effect in the non-vaccinated badgers leading to a high level of population immunity. The results suggest that BCG vaccination of badgers could be a highly effective means of reducing the incidence of tuberculosis in badger populations.

En la presente investigación se desarrolló e implementó un sistema informático de control y gestión empresarial en la compañía “Logística de Carga Intermodal (LDCI)”. Esta compañía ubicada en Managua, Nicaragua es un agente de carga, courier y aduana que lleva a cabo sus procesos de cotizaciones, inventario y facturación con herramientas computacionales pero que no satisfacen las demandas de la compañía. Primeramente, las fases de desarrollo de este sistema constituyen un proceso investigativo, que inició desde la fase de análisis, con la recolección de la información mediante instrumentos de evaluación como entrevistas, observación y análisis documental, necesarios para determinar los requerimientos y en apoyo a estos, establecer las herramientas y términos de referencia del sistema, todo esto de acuerdo a las necesidades primordiales de la compañía. Luego, en la fase de desarrollo se llevó a cabo el diseño y la codificación del sistema, avanzando en la entrega de prototipos funcionales. El producto final fue evaluado mediante un instrumento basado en las reglas heurísticas de Jakob Nielsen, a partir del cual se logró determinar la aceptación del cliente en cuanto a interfaces, funcionalidades y procesos

We describe application of whole genome sequencing (WGS) to a collection of 197 Mycobacterium avium subsp paratuberculosis (MAP) isolates gathered from 122 cattle herds across 27 counties of the island of Ireland. We compare WGS to MAP diversity quantified using mycobacterial interspersed random unit - variable number tandem repeats (MIRU-VNTR). While MIRU-VNTR showed only two major types, WGS could split the 197 isolates into eight major groups. We also found six isolates corresponding to INMV 13, a novel MIRU-VNTR type for Ireland. Evidence for dispersal of MAP across Ireland via cattle movement could be discerned from the data, with mixed infections present in several herds. Furthermore, comparisons of MAP WGS data from Ireland to data from Great Britain and continental Europe revealed many instances of close genetic similarity and hence evidence for international transmission of infection. BEAST MASCOT structured coalescent analyses, with relaxed and strict molecular clocks, estimated the substitution rate to be 0.10-0.13 SNPs/site/year and disclosed greater transitions per lineage per year from Europe to Ireland, indicating transmission into Ireland. Our work therefore reveals new insight into the seeding of MAP infection across Ireland, highlighting how WGS can inform policy formulation to ultimately control MAP transmission at local, national and international scales.

Control of bovine tuberculosis (bTB), caused byMycobacterium bovis, in the Republic of Ireland costs €84 million each year. Badgers are recognized as being a wildlife source forM. bovisinfection of cattle. Deer are thought to act as spillover hosts for infection; however, population density is recognized as an important driver in shifting their epidemiological role, and deer populations across the country have been increasing in density and range. County Wicklow represents one specific area in the Republic of Ireland with a high density of deer that has had consistently high bTB prevalence for over a decade, despite control operations in both cattle and badgers. Our research used whole-genome sequencing ofM. bovissourced from infected cattle, deer and badgers in County Wicklow to evaluate whether the epidemiological role of deer could have shifted from spillover host to source. Our analyses reveal that cattle and deer share highly similarM. bovisstrains, suggesting that transmission between these species is occurring in the area. In addition, the high level of diversity observed in the sampled deer population suggests deer may be acting as a source of infection for local cattle populations. These findings have important implications for the control and ultimate eradication of bTB in Ireland.

Extracellular microRNAs (miRNAs) are detectable in the peripheral blood and have been touted as potential biomarkers for a range of maladies. The presence and biomarker potential of miRNAs in other biofluids has been less thoroughly explored, particularly in the veterinary realm. Faecal miRNAs are a case in point; while they have been identified largely in rodents and humans, they have not been reported in cattle but may have prognostic or diagnostic value for Johne’s Disease (JD) in cattle, a chronic granulomatous inflammation of the ileum caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP). The aim of this study was thus to characterise the bovine faecal miRNome and to determine the utility of these transcripts as biomarkers for JD. Real-time PCR arrays consisting of 752 miRNA targets, optimised for detection of human miRNA, were used to screen RNA purified from faecal samples obtained from confirmed JD clinical cases vs. healthy controls. Two hundred and fifty-eight miRNAs were detected in bovine faeces, three of which are potentially novel orthologs of known human miRNAs. Differential abundance of three miRNA was evident in animals with clinical JD as compared to healthy controls. Our study has therefore identified a variety of miRNAs in bovine faeces and has demonstrated their utility in differentiating healthy animals from those with late-stage JD, providing potential biomarkers for MAP infection and disease progression.

Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) causes Johne’s Disease (JD), a chronic enteritis, in cattle. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) has been applied to many pathogen systems, where its unprecedented resolution has greatly enhanced our understanding of the molecular epidemiology of pathogen transmission. However, WGS has seen limited application to MAP; understanding the transmission dynamics of MAP will inform control of JD. We report the first study into the application of WGS to MAP in Ireland. DNA was extracted from 167 MAP isolates sourced from cattle across Ireland. Libraries were prepared and sequenced on an Illumina-NextSeq500 platform. Sequencing data were processed using an in-house bioinformatic pipeline, which trimmed reads, aligned them to the reference genome MAP K10, followed by variant calling, quality filtering and construction of a maximum-likelihood phylogeny. DNA extracts were also used for MIRU-VNTR typing. The resulting phylogeny shows that the MAP population present in Irish cattle is genetically diverse, which may have resulted from importation of MAP strains from across Europe into Ireland. Similar diversity was observed in a WGS study that noted the impact of cattle imports on the Canadian MAP population. Some Irish isolates were genetically similar to European and Canadian isolates. Comparing our WGS data with MIRU-VNTR indicates that MIRU-VNTR has limited resolution for discriminating MAP strains, and often does not distinguish isolates to sufficient resolution. The genomic data presented here provide the first snapshot of genetic diversity of Irish MAP and a baseline for future studies into spread and persistence of MAP in Irish cattle.

The Irish Bovine Tuberculosis (bTB) eradication programme operates under national legislation and fulfills OIE and EU trade requirements. Tuberculin purified protein derivative (PPD), a preparation obtained from the heat-treated products of growth and lysis of Mycobacterium bovis or Mycobacterium avium (as appropriate), is critical to the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB). Standardization of Tuberculin PPD potency, the relative activity in sensitized animals compared to a reference standard, is essential to underpin the reliability of certification for international trade and to ensure that disease eradication programmes are effective and efficient. A Bovine International Standard Tuberculin PPD (BIS) was established by the WHO in 1986 and is used to determine comparative potencies of Tuberculin PPDs. Ideally, Tuberculin PPD potency should be evaluated in the species in which the tuberculin will be used but due to practical difficulties in performing potency assays in cattle, for routine PPD production, they are usually assayed in guinea pigs. Low potency tuberculin PPD is less efficient and thus inferior for bTB diagnosis. Difficulties experienced in the Irish bTB eradication programme have included the supply of sub-standard potency, and thus inferior, bovine (M. bovis) Tuberculin PPD in the late 1970s. The purpose of this paper is to outline the critical role of Tuberculin PPD assays carried out on naturally infected tuberculous cattle, as required by the OIE and under EU legislation in the quality control for the Irish Bovine Eradication Programme. Such assays ensure that the Tuberculin PPD used meets the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity requirements to underpin a successful national eradication programme.

Herd classification is a key component of national Johne's disease (JD) control programs. Herds are categorized on the basis of test results, and separate sub-programs are followed for test-positive and test-negative herds. However, a test-negative herd result does not necessarily equate to JD freedom for reasons relating to disease pathogenesis and available diagnostic tests. Thus, in several countries, JD control programs define test-negative herds as having a "low risk" of infection below a specified prevalence. However, the approach is qualitative, and little quantitative work is available on herd-level estimates of probability of freedom in test-negative herds. This paper examines the effect over time of alternative testing strategies and bio-exclusion practices on JD risk in test-negative herds. A simulation model was developed in the programming language R. Key model inputs included sensitivity and specificity estimates for 3 individual animal diagnostic tests (serum ELISA, milk ELISA, and fecal culture), design prevalence, testing options, and testing costs. Key model outputs included the probability that infection will be detected if present at the design prevalence or greater (herd sensitivity; SeH), the probability that infection in the herd is either absent or at very low prevalence (i.e., less than the design prevalence; ProbF), the probability of an uninfected herd producing a false-positive result [P(False+)], and mean testing cost (HerdCost) for different testing strategies. The output ProbF can be updated periodically, incorporating data from additional herd testing and information on cattle purchases, and could form the basis for an output-based approach to herd classification. A high ProbF is very difficult to achieve, reflecting the low sensitivity of the evaluated tests. Moreover, ProbF is greatly affected by any risk of introduction of infection, decreasing in herds with poor bio-exclusion practices despite ongoing negative test results. The value of P(False+) was substantial when tests with imperfect specificity were used. Testing strategies can substantially influence testing costs but with little effect on test performance. This study illustrates an output-based approach to herd classification, with potential for national and field applications.

BACKGROUND: The methadone protocol placed responsibility on general practitioners (GPs) for the methadone treatment of stabilised drug-addicted patients. The protocol emphasised a medico-pharmacological model with minor reference to psychotherapeutic treatment. AIM: This qualitative study investigated how primary care GPs in Ireland use psychotherapeutic interventions in the treatment of methadone patients. METHOD: A grounded theory methodology was used. FINDINGS: There is a wide variation in the beliefs and knowledge of methadone-prescribing GPs regarding the efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions for patients on methadone maintenance. GPs do not formally integrate psychotherapeutic interventions into methadone patient treatment. Accessing psychotherapeutic services raises concerns for GPs in terms of availability, location and quality. Primary care GPs who offer methadone maintenance view opiate abuse as a health issue similar to other such issues within their community. They take a holistic view of their methadone patient and, without formal guidelines, develop individual approaches to the use of psychotherapeutic interventions. The absence of a framework for the use of psychotherapeutic interventions in primary care methadone treatment in Ireland militates against the development of a basis for improving practice.

Although the single intradermal comparative tuberculin skin test (SICTT) remains the most effective assay for detecting cattle infected with Mycobacterium bovis, not all infected animals are detected with the SICTT. This has made it difficult to control bovine tuberculosis using a single assay. Use of the gamma interferon assay in conjunction with the SICTT has improved the level of detection but some infected animals still go undetected. This could be in part attributable to both assays being reliant on a cell-mediated immune response. The present study was undertaken to determine if a multiplex assay can improve the level of detection of infected animals when used in combination with the SICTT. The Enferplex TB assay is a multi-antigen ELISA designed for the detection of antibody in animals at different stages of infection and disease. Sixty cattle that were confirmed by histopathology and/or culture to be infected with M. bovis and that were SICTT negative (43.3%) or difficult to evaluate (56.7% inconclusive) were used in the study. Fifty-three (88.3%) of the animals were positive in multiplex ELISA. The results show that the level of detection of M. bovis–infected animals can be improved by the combined use of the SICTT and the multiplex ELISA.

Efforts to develop a better diagnostic assay for bovine tuberculosis have shown that the sensitivity and specificity of an assay can be improved by the use of two or more antigens. As reported here, we developed a multiplex chemiluminescent immunoassay that can simultaneously detect antibody activity to 25 antigens in a single well in a 96-well plate array format. The chemiluminescent signal is captured with a digital imaging system and analyzed with a macro program that tracks each serum for its pattern of antibody activity for Mycobacterium bovis antigens. The comparison of sera from 522 infected and 1,489 uninfected animals showed that a sensitivity of 93.1% and a specificity of 98.4% can be achieved with a combination of antigens. The assay system is rapid and can be automated for use in a centralized laboratory.

Sprint is one of the telecommunications industry leaders in the deployment of hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) systems to provide backup power for their mission critical wireless network facilities. With several hundred fuel cells commissioned in California, states in the gulf coast region, and along the upper eastern seaboard. A strong incentive for advancing the integration of fuel cells into the Sprint network came through the award of a Department of Energy (DOE) grant focused on Market Transformation activities for project (EE0000486). This grant was funded by the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The funding provided by DOE ($7.295M) was allocated to support the installation of 260 new HFC systems, equipped with an on-site refillable Medium Pressure Hydrogen Storage Solution (MPHSS), as well as for the conversion of 21 low pressure hydrogen systems to the MPHSS, in hopes of reducing barriers to market acceptance.

The American Irish: A History, is the first concise, general history of its subject in a generation. It provides a long-overdue synthesis of Irish-American history from the beginnings of emigration in the early eighteenth century to the present day. While most previous accounts of the subject have concentrated on the nineteenth century, and especially the period from the famine (1840s) to Irish independence (1920s), The American Irish: A History incorporates the Ulster Protestant emigration of the eighteenth century and is the first book to include extensive coverage of the twentieth century. Drawing on the most innovative scholarship from both sides of the Atlantic in the last generation, the book offers an extended analysis of the conditions in Ireland that led to mass migration and examines the Irish immigrant experience in the United States in terms of arrival and settlement, social mobility and assimilation, labor, race, gender, politics, and nationalism. It is ideal for courses on Irish history, Irish-American history, and the history of American immigration more generally.