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The induction of secretory and inflammatory responses in calves bySalmonella typhimurium and Salmonella dublinstrains was compared, and the effects of mutations in theinvH and stn genes were assessed. S. typhimurium induced greater secretory and inflammatory responses than S. dublin in bovine ileal loops, despite the fact that these serotypes were recovered from bovine ileal mucosa in comparable numbers (P. R. Watson, S. M. Paulin, A. P. Bland, P. W. Jones, and T. S. Wallis, Infect. Immun. 63:2743–2754, 1995). These results implicate serotype-specific factors other than, or in addition to, intestinal invasion in the induction of enteritis. The secretory and inflammatory responses induced by S. typhimurium and S. dublin in bovine ligated ileal loops were not significantly altered by mutation of stn, which suggests that stn does not have a major role inSalmonella-induced enteritis. The invH mutation significantly reduced the secretory and inflammatory responses induced in bovine ileal loops, and this correlated with a reduction in the severity of enteritis following oral inoculation of calves. The attenuation associated with the invH mutation did not appear to be due to an increased susceptibility to the innate host defense mechanisms, because the resistance of S. typhimurium to the bactericidal action of either bovine polymorphonuclear leukocytes or bovine serum was not significantly altered. However, lysis of macrophages following infection withS. typhimurium was significantly reduced by theinvH mutation. The invH mutation prevented the normal secretion of several proteins, including SipC, by S. typhimurium, indicating that the function of theinv-spa-encoded type III protein secretion system was disrupted. Taken together, these observations implicateinv-spa-dependent effectors in mediation ofSalmonella-induced enteritis in cattle. Clearly, however, other undefined serotype-specific virulence factors are also involved in Salmonella-induced enteritis.
Salmonella-induced enteritis is a common disease of several mammalian species (20), but its study has been restricted by the lack of convenient and biologically relevant animal models. The pathology of enteric salmonellosis is similar in several susceptible animal species, including calves (8, 35), humans (9, 22), and rhesus monkeys (31). Pathological changes include shortening of, and edema within, intestinal villi and an abnormal extrusion of enterocytes. An intestinal inflammatory response is induced, as evidenced by a rapid and large influx of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) into the intestinal mucosa and lumen. The normal movement of electrolytes and water in the intestines is disrupted, and there is net fluid secretion into the intestinal lumen. These changes result in the main symptom of Salmonella-induced enteritis, namely, watery diarrhea.
The mechanism by which Salmonella serotypes disrupt the normal intestinal physiology is unclear. Several Salmonellaserotypes readily invade the intestinal mucosa, resulting in the delivery of endotoxin into the submucosa. It is probable that this invasion event will either induce or amplify the intestinal inflammatory response associated with infection. For example, intestinal invasion may trigger the production of proinflammatory cytokines or other mediators of inflammation in infected cells (19, 27). Several components of the inflammatory response are potentially disruptive to normal intestinal absorptive functions. Therefore, the inflammatory response associated with bacterial invasion may contribute to pathogenesis. In addition, the interaction ofSalmonella serotypes and epithelial cells, independent of bacterial invasion, can result in the recruitment of PMNs in vitro. This process is dependent on the inv-spa-encoded type III protein secretion system (21). Recently, we have identified a sip-dependent effector protein of Salmonella dublin, SopB, which influences the recruitment of inflammatory cells and the induction of fluid secretion, but not bacterial invasion, in bovine ileal loops (12). Several studies have shown that a functional inv-spa system represents an important virulence factor in mice (reviewed in reference 11), which is a model widely used to study systemic salmonellosis. To date, the relative contribution of inv-spa-dependent effector proteins to the induction of enteritis has not been clarified.
A role for enterotoxin production in Salmonella-induced enteritis has frequently been postulated but never proven. There are numerous reports of cytotonic and enterotoxic activities associated with Salmonella products (reviewed in reference20), but the role of such toxins remains unclear because the reports are often conflicting and nonreproducible. Thestn gene, which confers biological activity typical of an enterotoxin on cell lysates of Escherichia coli K-12, has been cloned from Salmonella typhimurium (6, 30). However, to date, the role of stn in the induction of enteritis has not been directly assessed.
The aim of this study was to define more clearly the contribution of bacterial factors to Salmonella-induced enteritis in cattle.S. typhimurium and S. dublin were chosen for study because both serotypes can cause enteritis in 2- to 6-week-old calves (38). The effects of a defined mutation ininvH, which has previously been shown to reduce the intestinal invasion of S. typhimurium in bovine ligated ileal loops (35), and of a defined mutation instn, were assessed. It is anticipated that the results of this study could be extrapolated to enteric salmonellosis in other serotype-host combinations.
Bacterial strains.Two strains each of S. typhimurium (ST4/74 and ST12/75) and S. dublin(SD2229 and SD3246), which are all bovine isolates, were routinely handled as previously described (35). The invHmutation in S. typhimurium ST4/74 and ST12/75, consisting of a TnphoA insertion in invH, has been described previously (35). Kanamycin and nalidixic acid were added to growth media at concentrations of 75 and 30 μg ml−1, respectively, when required. A mutant ofS. typhimurium resistant to nalidixic acid (termed ST12/75NalR) was prepared by subculturing the wild-type strain on Luria-Bertani (LB) agar containing nalidixic acid and incubating for 24 to 48 h at 37°C. One colony was selected and streaked to single colonies on fresh LB agar containing nalidixic acid.E. coli K-12 (36) was used as a control in the in vitro assays.
Construction of an insertion mutation in stn.A genetic construct, consisting of a kanamycin resistance (Kmr) cassette (Pharmacia Biotech, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom) flanked on each side by approximately 300 bp of DNA complementary to stn, was prepared and used to introduce the Kmr cassette into stn ofS. typhimurium by homologous recombination. The construct was cloned into plasmid pDM4 (24), which is a suicide vector requiring λpir for replication and which therefore will not survive in Salmonella species. Plasmid pDM4 encodes chloramphenicol resistance and also contains thesacB gene, whose product is lethal for bacterial cells grown in the presence of sucrose.
The preparation of the genetic construct in pDM4 is summarized in Fig.1. Four oligonucleotide primers, STN1 (5′-CTGTTGTCTCGAGATGACTGGCAACC-3′), STN2 (5′-CAGGTGCTGTTAGATCTGTACCTGAAC-3′), STN3 (5′-CAGATCTAACAGCACCTGACCAGATTCAGGGAGT-3′), and STN4 (5′-T TTTTGGCATGCGCGTTATCAGCGCT-3′), were designed to be complementary to the DNA sequence of the stngene of S. typhimurium (6) and to incorporate restriction cleavage sites for the enzymes XhoI,BglII, and SphI (shown in boldface). The underlined nucleotides in STN2 and STN3 are complementary to each other. Two PCRs were performed with chromosomal DNA from S. typhimurium ST12/75 as the template and with STN1 and STN2 or STN3 and STN4 as the primers. The resulting PCR products corresponded to nucleotides 355 to 666 and 754 to 1084 of stn, respectively. These PCR products were mixed together and used in a third PCR with STN1 and STN4 as the primers. The complementary regions in the PCR products caused them to anneal to each other, which resulted in their acting simultaneously as templates and primers in the initial PCR cycles. This generated a product of approximately 650 bp complementary to the central region of stn, but with a deletion of 100 bp, which was then amplified in the later cycles of PCR. This product was ligated into plasmid pDM4 following digestion of both the PCR product and pDM4 with XhoI and SphI. This recombinant plasmid was transformed into E. coli SY327 λpir(23). The Kmr cassette, which had been digested with BamHI, was ligated into the BglII site of the cloned PCR fragment. The resulting recombinant plasmid was designated pDM4stn::KmR and was transformed into E. coli SY327 λpir.
Plasmid pDM4stn::KmR was introduced into E. coli S17-1 λpir (32) and then conjugated into S. typhimuriumST12/75NalR. A transconjugant, designated ST12/75NalRstn-652::KmR, was selected on LB agar containing kanamycin, nalidixic acid, and 5% sucrose. The phenotype of ST12/75NalRstn-652::KmRresulted from the transfer of the Kmr cassette from plasmid pDM4stn::KmR to the chromosome ofS. typhimurium by a double homologous recombination event between stn on the chromosome and the complementary sequences flanking the Kmr cassette. The loss of plasmid pDM4 was confirmed by the inability of ST12/75NalRstn-652::KmRto grow in the presence of chloramphenicol. The stn mutation was transferred from ST12/75NalRstn-652::KmR toS. typhimurium ST4/74 and ST12/75 and S. dublin SD2229 and SD3246 by P22 transduction. The stnmutation and the transductants were checked by PCR using primers STN1 and STN4 and KMR1 and KMR2, which are shown in Fig. 1.
Bovine ligated ileal loop assay.The experimental techniques used in this assay have been described in detail elsewhere (34). All experiments were performed within the midilea of 28-day-old Friesian bull calves. The inocula were prepared by culturing bacteria overnight in brain heart infusion broth at 37°C with shaking at 150 rpm. The cultures were diluted 1:100 into fresh broth and incubated as before for 4 h. Bacteria were harvested by centrifugation (at 3,345 × g for 10 min at 4°C), resuspended in fresh broth, and injected into bovine ligated ileal loops 6 cm long. The lumen of the midileum was gently flushed with 0.9% NaCl prior to the construction of the loops in order to remove the intestinal contents. The inoculum injected into each loop was in the range of 1 × 109 to 2 × 109CFU. Approximately 50 ml of blood was removed from the calves 4 h after injection of the loops. PMNs were isolated, labelled with111In, and reinjected intravenously. The secretory response (volume of fluid within a loop/length of loop [ml cm−1]) and the influx of PMNs, as assessed by the magnitude of γ-irradiation emitted from 111In-labelled PMNs within each loop, were recorded 12 h after injection of the loops. The PMN influx ratio was defined as the PMN influx in the test loops/the PMN influx in the negative-control loops. The PMN influx ratio in the negative-control loops was therefore equal to 1.00.
Oral inoculation of calves with S. typhimurium.Twenty-eight-day-old Friesian bull calves were housed in single cubicles in a disease-secure animal unit and fed on a diet of powdered milk. None of the calves excreted salmonellas either 1 week before inoculation or immediately before inoculation, as assessed by enrichment of fecal samples in Rappaport broth (at 37°C for 18 h) and Selenite brilliant green broth (at 43°C for 18 h) followed by incubation of the enrichment cultures on modified brilliant green agar (Difco, West Molesey, Surrey, United Kingdom).
Bacterial cultures were prepared by inoculating Bacto Tryptose broth (17) with several bacterial colonies and incubating at 37°C statically for 18 h. Bacteria were harvested by centrifugation (at 2,500 × g, at 4°C for 10 min) and resuspended in fresh Bacto Tryptose broth to give a concentration in the range of 0.6 × 109 to 1 × 109CFU ml−1. The bacterial suspension (1 ml) was mixed with 20 ml of sterile double-distilled water containing 5% (wt/vol) Mg(SiO3)3, 5% (wt/vol) NaHCO3, and 5% (wt/vol) MgCO3. The mixture was administered orally to each calf with a syringe immediately before its morning feed.
The rectal temperature and the severity of diarrhea (termed scouring) were recorded every 12 h. A semiquantitative scoring system (16, 34) was used to record the severity of diarrhea. A scour score of 0 to 3 was assigned to the feces depending on their water content, with 0 denoting normalcy and 3 denoting the consistency of water. The presence of blood in the feces was given an additional score of 1, and the presence of sloughed intestinal mucosa or pseudomembrane formation was given an additional score of 2. A calf was killed for humane reasons if any of the following occurred during infection: anorexia, dehydration, or the inability to stand unaided. At postmortem the numbers of bacteria in the liver, spleen, lung, ileum, cecum, and colon, and in the lymph nodes associated with these sites, were determined by viable counts as described previously (34). All tissue samples were taken in triplicate, and the intestinal samples were washed gently in water to remove nonadherent bacteria from the luminal surface. One gram of tissue was homogenized in 9 ml of phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) containing 1% Triton X-100. Serial dilutions were performed, and 100 μl of each dilution was spread in triplicate onto modified brilliant green agar plates. The plates were incubated overnight at 37°C. The limit of detection for salmonellas was 2.0 log10 CFU g−1 of tissue, and samples which contained numbers of salmonellas below this limit were excluded from the calculation of mean CFU per gram.
The stability of the invH mutation in vivo was confirmed by replica plating 400 colonies, which had been isolated from four different types of tissues in two different calves, onto LB agar with and without kanamycin. All the colonies retained the kanamycin resistance phenotype, which is associated with carriage of TnphoA. In addition, it was confirmed that bacteria derived from 15 of these colonies (of a total of 15 colonies tested) had retained the phenotype of reduced invasion for Int 407 cells (data not shown), which is associated with the invH mutation, in a standard gentamicin protection assay (35).
Susceptibility of bacteria to killing by bovine PMNs and serum.Bovine PMNs were prepared by a modification of the method of Carlson and Kaneko (4) as follows. Approximately 60 ml of blood (each) was collected from 21-day-old Friesian bull calves in 1/10 its volume of 0.0132 M phosphate buffer (pH 6.8) containing 1.5% (wt/vol) EDTA and 0.7% (wt/vol) NaCl. The blood was centrifuged (at 1,000 × g, at 4°C for 15 min), and the plasma and buffy coat were discarded. The cell pellet was weighed, and 4 ml of sterile double-distilled water per g was added and mixed for 30 to 45 s to lyse the erythrocytes. Isotonicity was restored by adding 2 ml of 0.0132 M phosphate buffer (pH 6.8) containing 2.7% (wt/vol) NaCl per g of cell pellet. The PMNs were collected by centrifugation (at 200 × g, at 4°C for 10 min) and washed twice in 0.0132 M phosphate buffer (pH 6.8) containing 0.8% (wt/vol) NaCl. The concentration of the PMNs was adjusted to 107 cells ml−1. Bovine serum was prepared from each calf and was used in combination with PMNs from the same animal. Heat-inactivated serum was prepared by incubating normal serum at 65°C for 1 h. All sera were stored at −70°C until use.
The inocula were prepared by culturing bacteria overnight in LB broth at 37°C with shaking at 150 rpm. The cultures were diluted 1:100 into fresh broth and incubated as before for 4 h. Bacteria were harvested by centrifugation (at 2,500 × g, at 4°C for 10 min) and resuspended in PBS at a concentration of approximately 107 CFU ml−1. The following reaction mixtures were prepared in triplicate for each strain: 300 μl of normal or heat-inactivated serum, 100 μl of PMNs or phosphate buffer (pH 6.8) containing 0.8% (wt/vol) NaCl, and 100 μl of bacterial suspension. The reaction mixtures were incubated at 37°C for 90 min on a rolling platform at 120 rpm. PMNs were lysed by the addition of 55 μl of PBS containing 1% sodium deoxycholate, and bacteria were enumerated by viable count on MacConkey agar.
Quantification of Salmonella-induced macrophage lysis.Bovine alveolar macrophages were prepared and incubated by methods described elsewhere (13). The magnitude of macrophage lysis during infection with salmonellas was estimated by using the cytoTox 96 assay (Promega, Southampton, United Kingdom) as described previously (13). Briefly, overnight cultures of bacteria in LB broth were diluted 1:100 into fresh LB broth and incubated for 4 h at 37°C with shaking. The bacteria were diluted in prewarmed medium to give a ratio of 3 to 5 bacteria per macrophage at the time of infection. Bacteria were added to each macrophage monolayer, and the monolayers were incubated for 1, 2, or 3 h. Lysis buffer was added to three uninfected monolayers at 45 min before each time point. At each time point, the amount of lactate dehydrogenase released by damaged macrophages was determined by an enzymatic colorimetric reaction and measured by optical density. The percentage lysis of macrophages was calculated as follows: [A492(test strain) −A492(medium)]/[A492(macrophages + lysis buffer) − A492(medium + lysis buffer)].
Secretion of Sip proteins by S. typhimurium.The secretion of proteins by S. typhimurium was assessed by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis as described previously (37). Salmonella strains were grown overnight in LB broth at 25°C, diluted 1:10 into 50 ml of fresh LB broth, and incubated for 4 h at 37°C with shaking at 150 rpm. The numbers of bacteria in each culture were similar as assessed by spectrophotometry and by performing viable counts. Bacteria were removed by centrifugation (at 10,000 × g, for 20 min at 4°C), and the culture supernatants were filter sterilized with a 0.45-μm-pore-size filter. Proteins present in the supernatants were concentrated by precipitation with 10% (vol/vol) trichloroacetic acid and were resuspended in 50 μl of sample buffer. The resuspended proteins (10 μl) were separated on an SDS-polyacrylamide gel and were either stained with Coomassie brilliant blue or transferred to a nitrocellulose membrane. The presence of SipC on the membrane was detected by using an anti-SipC monoclonal antibody (26) as described previously (37).
Statistical analyses.Data from the bovine ligated ileal loop assays and the in vitro assays were examined by analysis of variance. In the oral inoculation study, there was an insufficient number of animals to allow a meaningful statistical comparison of the recovery of the two strains. Even when the data were pooled over the three different time points and the strain-time interaction was investigated, the analysis yielded insufficient degrees of freedom for estimating error. Where appropriate, all data are presented with the standard errors of the mean.
Characterization of stn mutants.Thestn gene in S. typhimurium ST4/74 and ST12/75 and in S. dublin SD2229 and SD3246 was disrupted by the insertion of a Kmr cassette. Correct insertion of the Kmr cassette into stn was confirmed by two different sets of PCRs. In the first set of reactions, primers complementary to the sequence of stn flanking the predicted site of insertion of the Kmr cassette (STN1 and STN4 [Fig. 1]) were used. The amplified PCR products of the mutants were approximately 1.2 kb larger than the products of the wild-type strains (Fig. 2). This increase corresponds to the insertion of the Kmr cassette (1.3 kb) and the deletion of approximately 100 bp of stn. In the second set of reactions, different combinations of STN1 and STN4 with two primers complementary to either end of the Kmr cassette (designated KMR1 and KMR2 [Fig. 1]) were used. The reactions were performed by using template DNA from only one strain (S. typhimurium ST4/74) and the corresponding mutant. A PCR product was obtained with the mutant but not with the wild-type strain, and only with two of the four combinations of primers (data not shown). This indicates that the Kmr cassette was correctly inserted in stn.
Intestinal secretory and inflammatory responses are reduced by mutation of invH, but not by mutation of stn.The induction of fluid secretion and PMN influxes by S. typhimurium and S. dublin within ligated ileal loops, and the effects of mutations in invH andstn on these responses, were assessed. Data from a total of 78 separate loops within six different calves are presented (Fig.3). In the first four calves, the secretory and inflammatory responses induced by either strain ofS. typhimurium or either strain of S. dublin were not significantly reduced by the stnmutation (P > 0.1). The secretory and inflammatory responses induced by both strains of S. typhimuriumwere significantly reduced by the invH mutation (P < 0.05) in all four animals in which the strains were tested. The two S. dublin strains induced lower secretory and inflammatory responses than the two S. typhimurium strains (P < 0.1) in all four calves in which the different serotypes were compared. Loops injected with sterile brain heart infusion broth did not induce a secretory response in any of the animals.
S. typhimurium-induced enteritis is reduced by theinvH mutation.The effect of the invHmutation on the severity of enteritis induced by S. typhimurium ST4/74 following oral inoculation was assessed in 11 calves. Five calves were inoculated with the wild-type strain, and six were inoculated with the invH mutant. Two calves from each group were killed at 18 h postinoculation. Two of the three remaining calves inoculated with the wild-type strain were killed at 54 h postinoculation, and the remaining calf was killed at 96 h postinoculation, because their symptoms had reached the level of severity described in Materials and Methods. Two calves inoculated with the invH mutant were also killed at each of these times in order to allow direct comparisons of tissue counts to be made between the strains, although none of these animals were exhibiting severe symptoms.
All the calves developed pyrexia following oral inoculation (Fig.4), but the onset of pyrexia was more rapid in the calves inoculated with the wild-type strain. There was some variation between animals in the severity of scouring following oral inoculation, but on average, the wild-type strain induced a more rapid onset and greater severity of scouring than the invHmutant (Fig. 5).
The number of salmonellas in selected intestinal and systemic sites at postmortem was determined (Fig. 6). It should be noted that these results are derived from only two calves per time point per strain (except for that for the wild-type strain at 96 h, which is from only one calf) and so should be interpreted accordingly. Despite this limitation, there are two general points to note. First, the wild-type strain is generally recovered in higher numbers from both intestinal and systemic sites than theinvH mutant. Second, as early as 18 h postinoculation, both the wild-type strain and the invH mutant are recovered in high numbers from the intestinal wall and intestinal nodes and in low numbers from some of the systemic sites.
InvH is required for lysis of bovine macrophages, but not for resistance to killing by PMNs or serum.The effect of theinvH mutation on the interaction of S. typhimurium ST4/74 with the bovine innate immune system was assessed. The recovery of S. typhimurium following incubation with PMNs in the presence of normal or heat-inactivated serum, or after incubation with normal serum alone, was not significantly affected (P > 0.1) by theinvH mutation (Fig. 7).E. coli K-12 was used as a control to confirm that the PMNs and serum were bactericidal.
The magnitude of macrophage lysis was significantly reduced (0.1 > P > 0.05 at 1 h after infection;P < 0.001 at 2 and 3 h after infection) by theinvH mutation (Fig. 8).E. coli K-12 did not induce lysis of macrophages. Quantification of the effect of the invH mutation on the uptake and persistence of S. typhimurium within macrophages was not attempted because this difference in macrophage lysis would make the results from a gentamicin assay difficult to interpret.
The mutation in invH affects the expression or secretion of Salmonella proteins.The invHgene is located adjacent to, but is transcribed in the opposite direction from, the inv-spa loci of Salmonellaspecies, which encode a type III protein secretion system (11). The involvement of the invH gene in this system was assessed by examining the secretion of proteins by theinvH mutant. Several proteins were absent in the concentrated culture supernatant of the S. typhimuriumST12/75 invH mutant compared to the wild-type strain (Fig.9A). Three of the most prominent of these proteins had molecular sizes similar to those reported for the secreted proteins SipA, SipC, and SipD (87, 42, and 36 kDa, respectively) (15). A band corresponding to the 42-kDa protein was identified by Western blotting with an anti-SipC monoclonal antibody (Fig. 9B). Similar results were obtained with S. typhimurium ST4/74 (data not shown).
The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanisms by whichS. typhimurium and S. dublin induce enteritis in calves by using defined mutations in putative virulence genes. The invH gene was selected for study because it affects bacterial invasion (1, 35), and the stngene was studied because it bestows enterotoxic activity onE. coli K-12 (30). Calves were selected as the animal model because, unlike more convenient laboratory animals such as mice, they exhibit typical symptoms of Salmonella-induced enteritis. In addition, cattle are a natural host animal for bothS. typhimurium and S. dublin.
Wild-type S. typhimurium induced significantly greater secretory and inflammatory responses than wild-type S. dublin in the bovine ligated ileal loop assay, despite the fact that both serotypes are highly invasive for bovine ileal mucosa (35). This suggests that factors independent of intestinal invasion influence the magnitude of the secretory and inflammatory responses and that these factors are serotype specific.
The magnitudes of the secretory and inflammatory responses induced by either S. typhimurium or S. dublin were not altered by the mutation in stn. This result suggests that stn is not required for the induction of these intestinal responses by either serotype. It is possible that, despite carrying the stn gene, neither strain of S. typhimurium or S. dublin expressed the Stn protein and so mutation of stn would have no effect on the bacterial phenotype. It is likely that Stn production is tightly regulated, and so the detection of Stn expression in vitro (7) would give no indication of its level of expression in vivo. However, bothS. typhimurium strains used in this study induce potent secretory and inflammatory responses in bovine ligated ileal loops within 12 h, and all four Salmonella strains used in this study induce severe salmonellosis in calves (this study and references 18 and 34). Therefore, if Stn is not expressed in these strains in vivo, then clearlyS. typhimurium and S. dublin are able to cause intestinal secretory and inflammatory responses in its absence. It is concluded that Stn is unlikely to be a major virulence factor in enteric salmonellosis in calves.
Mutations in invH reduce invasion by Salmonellastrains into eukaryotic cells (1, 35), but the effect of these mutations on virulence is not well established. A TnphoA mutation in invH did not affect the virulence of Salmonella choleraesuis following oral inoculation of mice (1, 10). Furthermore, an insertion mutation in invH had either a small effect or no effect (depending on the strain background) on the virulence of S. typhimurium following oral inoculation of chickens and did not affect the recovery of S. typhimurium from the ileum and spleen (29). However, a TnphoA mutation ininvH reduced the recovery of Salmonella enteritidis from chicken ileum and spleen following oral inoculation (3, 14). It is probable that the differences in these results are due to differences in the strains and animal models used. In the present study, the secretory and inflammatory responses induced by S. typhimurium in bovine ileal loops were almost completely eliminated by mutation of invH. This correlated to a reduction in the severity of enteritis following oral inoculation of calves associated with the invH mutation, although the invH mutant did induce pyrexia and mild diarrhea. It was not possible to complement the invHmutation by introducing the intact gene on a plasmid into the mutant (data not shown). This difficulty in complementing invH has been reported previously and was attributed to inappropriate expression of invH on the plasmid rather than to polar effects of the mutation on downstream genes (1). The effect of theinvH mutation in S. dublin was not studied because although S. dublin contains the invHgene, it was not possible to transfer this mutation into theS. dublin background (35).
The biological basis of the attenuation associated with theinvH mutation was assessed further. It has previously been demonstrated that the recovery of S. typhimurium from bovine mucosa was reduced significantly by the invH mutation (35). In this study, the effects of the invHmutation on other parameters, which could also potentially affect the induction of enteritis, were studied. The first parameter studied was resistance to the bactericidal activity of PMNs. Infection of the intestines results in a rapid and large PMN influx (33, 34); therefore, an increased sensitivity to PMN killing could limit the ability of a strain to induce enteritis. The resistance to the bactericidal activity of bovine serum was also studied, since it is likely that the intestinal inflammatory response will allow leakage of serum proteins into the intestinal mucosa. The invH mutation did not affect the resistance of S. typhimurium to the bactericidal activity of either PMNs, serum, or a combination of both.
Bacteria have frequently been observed within lamina propria macrophages of intestines infected with salmonellas (28, 35), and so the effect of the invH mutation on the interaction of S. typhimurium with bovine alveolar macrophages was assessed. Intestinal macrophages were the cells of choice to use for this experiment, but it was not possible to recover either a pure cell population or sufficient numbers for these experiments (data not shown). Alveolar macrophages can be isolated in high numbers and with high purity. They share some properties with intestinal macrophages in that they are resident tissue macrophages residing in a nonsterile environment. In addition, pneumonia often occurs during bovine salmonellosis (16, 38), which suggests that salmonellas will interact with alveolar macrophages during natural infections. The invH mutation significantly reduced the magnitude of macrophage lysis induced during infection withS. typhimurium. Lysis of lamina propria macrophages in infected intestines could contribute to the induction of enteritis, for example, by increasing the survival or spread of bacteria, or by altering the nature or magnitude of the intestinal inflammatory response, as has been proposed for Shigella species (39). It is possible that the reduction in macrophage lysis associated with the invH mutant may contribute to its reduced ability to induce enteritis. However, previous results suggest that this may not be the case, since the virulence plasmid fromS. dublin SD2229 has been implicated in the lysis of infected macrophages, but not in the induction of enteritis in cattle (13, 34). In bovine ileal loops, the invH mutants do not invade the mucosa sufficiently to reach lamina propria macrophages in large numbers (35). Therefore, it is unlikely that the reduction in macrophage lysis associated with theinvH mutation is responsible for the reduction in secretory and inflammatory responses.
It has previously been reported that mutations which alter the normal function of the inv-spa-encoded type III protein secretion system of Salmonella strains also alter the bacterial phenotypes of invasion of eukaryotic cells and lysis of murine macrophages (5, 25). In the present study theinvH mutation affected the secretion of the Sip proteins, which are dependent on the inv-spa-encoded type III protein secretion system. Therefore, it is likely that the invHmutation exerts its effects on intestinal invasion, macrophage lysis, and the induction of secretory and inflammatory responses by altering the normal function of the type III protein secretion system. However, what is not clear is whether the secreted proteins are directly involved in the induction of enteritis, or whether they have an indirect effect by mediating intestinal invasion. The relationship between intestinal invasion and the induction of enteritis has been directly assessed in only a few studies, and the results of such studies are contradictory. For example, intestinal invasion correlated to the induction of secretory and inflammatory responses by different strains of S. typhimurium in rabbit ileal mucosa (2), whereas no correlation was found between the invasion of cultured human cell monolayers and the induction of PMN migration across the monolayers or the induction of enteritis in humans by different Salmonella serotypes (21). Furthermore, a PMN influx into Salmonella-infected ileal mucosa does not per se result in fluid secretion (33), which implies that additional factors, other than the host-derived inflammatory mediators, are required for Salmonella-induced fluid secretion. Recent work in our laboratory has identified an effector protein, SopB, which is translocated into eukaryotic cells via asip-dependent pathway by S. dublin. Mutation of sopB significantly reduced the secretory and inflammatory responses induced in bovine ligated ileal loops byS. dublin, but it did not affect the recovery of S. dublin from bovine ileal mucosa, demonstrating that this attenuated mutant is still highly invasive (12). Clearly, SopB is an important virulence factor in Salmonella-induced enteritis. However, disruption of invH, and the associated blocking of the secretion of Sip's, failed to completely attenuate S. typhimurium in orally inoculated calves. Taken together, these observations implicate serotype-specific virulence factors, independent of a functional inv-spa locus, in the induction of enteritis. However, stn does not appear to be one such factor.
This work was supported by the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food.
- Received 22 August 1997.
- Returned for modification 8 October 1997.
- Accepted 22 December 1997.
- Copyright © 1998 American Society for Microbiology


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2 hand held shots merged in photoshop - taken from the palmetum in Santa Cruz Tenerife - the mountains of the Anaga region in the background - Auditorio de Tenerife - Opera house - in foreground
Briefly - I've built a 4x2x3 feet high box, with a strong timber frame and lined with fibre-glass sheet backed with heat mats then insulated with celotex. Glass doors on the front all sealed with silicone. Overhead led grow lights and a 2 inch flue to aid air exchange and vent the air out of the room.
Electrics - heaters, thermostats, lights timers and circulation fan.
Plant list - Bromeliads - Orchids - Ferns - Lycopodium - Selaginella.
Growing media - Sterilised soil / coir / peat / bark chips / cork granules / expanded clay
I think it will take several months to establish. Time will tell...
Ian Watt is a UK Based photographer and horticulturist specialising in garden photography, nature photography and landscapes.
January 2019

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Every goth has a song that is a club staple that they simply cannot stand. We don't know if it's some type of gothic hipsteritis, or if we just all have that breaking point that a DJ insists on poking until it crumbles, but there it is.
Case in point, we cannot freakin' stand "Warm Leatherette" by the Normal. No, not even when Trent Reznor and Peter Murphy duet on it. That song is completely ridiculous, and the beat is undanceable. There's a line between tongue-in-cheek and I-can't write-lyrics and "Warm Leatherette" snorts that line. Every time someone insists on playing it we just want to take Morrissey's advice and hang the DJ.
Since most of our gothic club experiences revolve around Houston's Numbers, we figured we'd do a special, H-town only edition of the Gothic Council to see what other songs they dreaded to hear over the sound system. Joining us this week is Paul Fredric from Asmodeus X, fashion designer Batty, spooky dessertier Lynda Rouner, Spleen of the Stage Frights, DJ Nick Arcia, Jvstin Whitney of Church of Melkarth, model Scarlett St. Vitus, and Jason Hebert.
Paul Fredric: That "Du Hass Mich" song by Rammstein. It was cool in the late '90s but enough already.
Gothtopia: Trust the only man I know who regularly goes to Germany to be vague on the freakin' Rammstein song.
Batty: I'm gonna have to Say "Away" by the Bolshoi. Heck we even had a chorus line to it and hand gestures worked out it was played so much. I even did a photo shoot in my modeling days holding the record in one had and my other hand down my throat making a distasteful gagging face in honor of that song and numbers.
Lynda Rouner: I would have to say anything by Marilyn Manson, because all of his songs have been played to death. Particularly his cover of the Eurythimics' "Sweet Dreams are Made of This." Meh.
Gothtopia: Even the Mechanical Animals stuff?
Lynda Rouner: Yep, even Mechanical Animals, which is not played very often.
Spleen: I would have to agree with Marilyn Manson! Yuck! Really? I mean it's enough to make me go outside and smoke!
Nick Arcia: I turned in my goth credentials long ago so I won't face sanctions when is say Sisters Of Mercy, "This Corrosion."
Lynda Rouner: Blasphemy!
Gothtopia: Ditto.
Paul Fredric: I'd say "This Corrosion" too only I'm just so thankful to hear something "kinda-goth" there every once in a while.
Batty: I know right! I used to complain bitterly about the over-played of that song, but at this point I am thankful for small miracles.
Nick Arcia: Alright here's one more I'll throw in, you can throw it back if you like. Depeche mode's "Master and Servant"... When I hear the chorus I just want to say "no let's not."
Jvstin Whitney: You elder goths only say "This Corrosion" because you had to hear it on the dance floor 20 years longer than us. I say "Major Tom." That song has cockblocked me more for bitches leaving mid conversation to dance to it than any of my friends who seek amusement watching me fail at any sort of courtship.
Scarlett St Vitus: Anything by VNV Nation. Nick, I can see you rolling your eyes from here. Everyone knows I'm not the biggest fan of EBM. If you're going to have a "goth night," play some freaking goth, god dammit.
Batty: I think most goths would have to agree that VNV is some of the least offensive EBM-esque music out there and we all know Ronan is a closet goth. I'd rather here that than Combichrist or some of that other oontz crap.
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Scarlett St Vitus: Eh, I'd rather dance to Combichrist than VNV, but maybe I'm strange. It's all overplayed, however. Unfortunately, EBM is what seems to get people on the dance floor. Last time I spun was Halloween weekend. I played a mix of old and new goth, deathrock, punk, and psychobilly. While there were a few people on the dance floor (it was early), when DJ Mina went on and started playing the EBM, that's when the floor got packed. I honestly think Numbers is too big a space for the goth/deathrock scene. I miss Bone Church.
Nick Arcia: Ah Scarlett, you hit the nail on the head, while I don't listen to much EBM or goth these days I'd rather go to a club that offers some of what I like than sit at home and complain about the purity of club nights and then not go to them when they briefly exist.
Jason Hebert: Wolfsheim, "Once in a Lifetime." Its play seems to be fair game on any night Numbers is open. I hate it. It is one of their worst songs. I have an entire pantomime dance that I often do when it is played. Sometimes I just stand in the middle of the floor and look up at the DJ angry, sad, pissed, and disappointed.
I once loved EBM, now I rarely listen to it. Too many talentless cloned bands got signed to Metropolis and now the younger generation will just stomp to anything. Many of the EBM acts I liked circa 2001 got stale or moved in the direction of shit.


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Articles >
Top 10 Plant Proteins
By Sophie Pattihis
1. Quinoa: 11g Protein / Cup. A grain like seed, quinoa is a high protein alternative to rice or pasta, served alone or over vegetables and greens. It provides a good base for a veggie burger and is also a fantastic breakfast cereal when served cold with almond or coconut milk and berries.
2. Lentils: 17.9g Protein / Cup. Delicious, nutritious and super easy to prepare, adds bulk and body to meals.
3. Beans (Black, Kidney, Mung, Pinto): 12-15g Protein / Cupa great addition to most meals, adds flavour, richness and bulk.
4. Spirulina: 6g Protein / 10 grams. A blue-green algae, spirulina is a highly bioavailable complete protein containing all essential amino acids. At 60% protein (the highest of any natural food), it's a plant-based protein powerhouse that finds it way into my Vitamix blends daily.
5. Chlorella algae is approximately 60% to 70% protein, and unlike other plant-based protein, algae's protein is complete and is thus ideal for humans. The reason it is said to be superior is, It contains 19 naturally occurring amino acids. Including all eight essentials: isoleucinc,leucine,methionine,phenylalanlne,threonine.tryptophan and valine. Making it a complete or superior protein. Amino acids are essential for tissue and cell regeneration, and with their co-factor vitamins and minerals, in the maintenance of our metabolic pathways. The only other source of complete protein, is meat and it is approximately 20% protein.
Ounce for ounce chlorella has three times more protein than meat. One tablespoon of chlorella powder contains as much food value as an ounce of steak Chlorella is a group of one-celled plants, containing no true root, stem or leaf. This particular fresh-water, single celled microscopic plant contains a host of health building nutrients. Algae is nature's method of cleaning up impure water. Chlorella does the same thing in the human body. Chlorella pulls out toxins and impurities while at the same time gives the body the nutrients which will help it heal itself.
6. Hemp Seeds: 16g Protein / 3 tbsp. With a perfect ration of omega-6 and omega-3 EFA's, hemp seeds are another bioavailable complete protein rivaled only by spirulina. A simple and great addition to a multitude of dishes, from breakfast cereal to salads to smoothies to vegetables and rice.
7. Maca Power contains 14.6% protein. This is because the amino acid proteins have not been denatured at any stage of the processing.
8. Sprouts of all kinds
9. Pumpkin seeds, ¼ cup – 8 grams
10. Bee pollen does not have the same composition as flower pollen. The substance sold as a supplement, is a blend that bees make by mixing the pollen they collect with nectar and their saliva. In general, 1 tsp. of bee pollen has 1.21 g of protein -- equal to around 2 percent of a man's daily intake.
Sophie Pattihis
Why I'm NOT Raw or Vegan
By Aimee DeFresne
Beware: Controversy may ensue.
First of all, I want to clear up some confusion.
TRUE: I am a certified raw vegan chef.
FALSE: My diet is strictly raw, strictly vegan.
Let me be clear: MY DIET IS NOT 100% RAW VEGAN! Okay, that felt good. Even though I share that with people all the time, they rarely hear it.
TRUE: I eat A LOT of raw food, in the form of fruits and vegetables.
Wait a minute, Aimee! How can you eat cooked food when you are a raw food chef? How is that possible? Why would you do that?
This is a question I get A LOT! So let me share with you the answer.
I chose my specialized training for a few reasons:
After both my parents were diagnosed with cancer, I wanted to learn more about how the body can naturally detox and prevent disease through the foods we choose to eat.
Growing up on packaged processed foods along with burgers and fries from fast food joints, I had NO IDEA how to make simple fruits and vegetables taste good to me. As far as I knew, veggies were something overcooked and covered in cheese sauce.
Why am I sharing this with you? To clear up the confusion you may be having in your own diet and lifestyle. Here are some typical questions, comments, and pleas I get over and over again:
I really want to get healthy. I've been trying to get healthy for years. I just don't have the motivation or quickly lose it.
I have a busy lifestyle I cannot change that prevents me from making healthy dietary choices.
I hate eating fruits and vegetables. Can you help me?
I keep trying to go raw vegan, but I keep going back to cooked foods. I know a raw vegan diet is the best diet but I can't seem to manage it.
Do any of these sound familiar?
Okay….let me take each of these in turn:
I really want to get healthy. I've been trying to get healthy for years. I just don't have the motivation or quickly lose it.
Does this sound like you? If so, I have some questions for you:
What does healthy mean to you? How do you define it?
What have you tried in the past? When did you stop? What else did you try? When did you lose motivation there? And the next thing you tried? Keep asking yourself these questions and you'll start to see a pattern. The point is to break the pattern and start something new. Doing this on your own can be daunting and soon you find yourself giving up. This is where a coach comes in, to assist you in breaking through to the next level of your life.
I have a busy lifestyle I cannot change that prevents me from making healthy dietary choices.
Henry Ford once said, "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't – you're right." There are plenty of ways to incorporate better health into a hectic lifestyle, but you have to open your mind to them. If you start any journey with the belief that the destination is impossible to reach, you are doomed to failure.
Gaining greater health is not as like driving up to your favorite fast food joint and placing an order (Yeah, I'll take a side of health with those fries!). If you are not experiencing the health you desire, you have to be willing to change something. Disease is a sign that something is not working. Think of it as your internal GPS system. Disease/illness and ailments are signs you are going in the wrong direction. Start changing your course to get back on the path to greater health and happiness. To continue going in the wrong direction will only steer you further and further from your desired destination. And to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the results to change is the definition of insanity.
I hate eating fruits and vegetables. Can you help me?
The real question is: Are you ready to help yourself? Are you ready to let go of the thought that you hate all fruits and vegetables? Have you tried every single fruit and vegetable? What is it you don't like about eating them?
No, I can't wave a magic wand and voila, you suddenly change all your beliefs and thus your lifestyle. But if you are ready and willing to make changes, I'm delighted to be a guide on your journey to greater health and happiness.
I keep trying to go raw vegan, but I keep going back to cooked foods. I know a raw vegan diet is the best diet but I can't seem to manage it.
Who says a raw vegan diet is the best diet? Look around and you'll see experts touting another diet to be the best, either now, in the past, or in years to come. Remember when doctors were telling you to smoke cigarettes as part of a healthy diet? Yeah, we all saw how that worked out.
Here's a suggestion. Stop blindly following all those so-called experts in the media and start listening the true expert on your health and well-being: YOU. That's right. YOU are the best expert when it comes to your body. Start listening to it. Yes, you can gain valuable information from the other experts, but remember YOU have the final say in what works for you. Quite empowering to know, right?
Wondering whether to be vegan, raw vegan, or paleo? Here's a suggestion: Be YOU. Eat the foods that make you feel good, in body and in mind.
As one of my favourite Fearless Friday guests said, 'It all falls back to love.' He is absolutely right. It all falls back to love. Love for yourself. Love for your body. Love for those around you.
I love you and I wish you all the best in your journey. I wish you great health and happiness. If I can assist you on that journey, it is my absolute pleasure to do so.
So, stop neglecting your body. Stop hurtling insults at it and telling it it is not good enough. Instead, love it and listen. Your body has a lot to tell you.
Aimee DeFresne
Raw tips to keep warm!
By Sophie Pattihis
1. Incorporate thermogenic foods.
Cinnamon. Turmeric. Ginger. Chilies. Garlic. Thermogenic foods help to raise your body temperature and burn fat by increasing circulation and metabolism. They are great for those who are feeling at a low ebb or feel they need an 'inner power' boost. These are warming for the body and we should all be having good amounts in our everyday meals. Try adding ginger to your morning smoothie or juice. Include chilies in your dehydrated nut burgers or even salads. Add some cinnamon to desserts or crush some garlic into salad dressings.
Make a thermogenic soup. For a warming vegetable soup, cut 1 whole swede, 2 whole butternut squash, 2 red onions, and a clove or two of garlic. Whizz in your high speed blender with the juice of 3 carrots, 2 courgettes, 2 apples and 1 lemon. warm 2 tspns of cumin, dried chili, coriander seed on the stove to bring their flavour to life. Add 1 tsp Himalayan pink salt and turmeric with these whole spices. Whizz up again for one minute until the mixture is fully blended. You can either warm this in your dehydrator (takes forever) or very gently on a low heat over the stove. Add some grated ginger and a pinch of cinnamon and fresh coriander on top, and a fresh grind of warming black pepper.
2. Eat cake
Raw cakes and desserts are filling, nourishing, grounding, whilst remaining indulgent and super tasty! It's a perfect opportunity to be mind full about your snacking and goes great with a cup of warming herbal cinnamon or liquorice tea. My favourite combination is a raw cacao cheesecake with a sweet chili tea from 'Yogi' teas. Try incorporating some super foods into your 'baking' lacuma, maca, cacao to name but a few!
3. Incorporate good fats into your diet.
Essential, healthy fats give us energy, make our skin soft and radiant, keeping your immune system strong and elevate our moods. Avocados, nut butters, coconut oil, durian, flax seed and olives are some of the best healthy fats out there and really easy to add to your everyday diet. Mash a whole avocado and banana together with some maca, cacao, cacai butter and mint the make a Delicious pudding. substituting your everyday cooking oil with coconut oil is always a good idea. Cut up some crunchy celery and courgette sticks to dip in or spread on some nut and seed crackers for even more warming fat.You can also make raw nut butter balls (see recipe pages) for a high energy, warming snack to take with you whilst your on the move.
4. Eat green
Start your day off with a big green juice every morning. The power of green veg is enough to keep you warm, phyto nutrients generate super energy in the body, improving chi movement, lymphatic drainage and movement, thus maintaining the flow of toxins out of the system so your body can concentrate on keeping you energised and warm.
Juice 2 apples, 1 stick of celery, a cucumber, 1 beetroot, 1 carrot, and a big handful of kale and spinach and warming watercress, rocket and ginger. Instead of adding ice, try drinking it at room temperature. Your taste buds might need some adjusting but it will stop the shivers after each mouthful. If you can't manage drinking it without ice, throw in a handful of frozen berries instead for an extra nutrient hit and to bring the temperature down of your smoothie or juice without adding extra water. Serve greens with every meal, too, a big salad or plate of veg on the side .
5. Eat chocolate
Raw chocolate that is! Cacao has a vast range of essential minerals and nutrients. I eat cacao everyday and its made a huge difference to my overall health. One of the main reasons people start to feel ill when the weather is so miserable is through lack of sunlight and light energy. A lack of stimulating energy that the body needs to keep the inner 'life force' or 'chi' alive and strong. Cacao has the nutritional power to elevate this inner chi, enabling us to assimilate any other nutrients we are obtaining from our diets even better, keeping our immunity strong and our energy alive!
6. Drink warmth
Other than tea, the obvious winter warmer for most is hot chocolate! so why not try warming chocolate smoothie teas! Use thick nut and seed milks as a base and add the herbal tea of your choice. Then add super foods, 1 tsp cacao powder, carob, lucuma, … add any super foods you like to your milky teas. Best enjoyed whilst snuggled under a blanket by the fire!
7. Eat burgers
This is a great excuse to whip out the dehydrator! Soak 1 cup pumpkin seeds and 1 cup almonds in water for a couple of hours. Rinse and discard the water. Pop in a food processor with 2 sundried tomatoes, 1 fresh tomato, fresh basil and oregano, half a red onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 carrots and 1 stick celery. Add the juice of 1 lemon and a pinch of pink salt. Process and then shape into small round patties. Put in the dehydrator overnight or for 24 hours if you want them to be crunchier and last longer. Serve with a raw salsa of freshly chopped tomatoes, chives, red onion, olive oil, agave, garlic and cloves and a fresh green salad with parsley, dill, cucumber, bok choy and spring onion.
8. Make room for the mushroom
The medicinal power of mushrooms is amazing! You can get so many varieties of mushrooms these days that are meaty, filling and packed full of antiviral, fungal, microbial and immune-boosting properties. The best, in my opinion that pack a real health-maintaining, medicinal punch are the shiitake, reishi, chaga, maitake, lion's mane enoki.
Shiitake and enoki are great in salads and soups, or marinated in some olive oil and garlic!
To use the other mushrooms, add some of these as powder to soups, smoothies, pâtés and salad dressings. Add some chili, ginger and asian spices for true authentic taste.You can also make tea with them for even more warmth!
9. Hot lemons
Boil your kettle. Pour the water into a cup. Add 2 slices of lemon, 3 thin slices of ginger, a bit of a cinnamon stick and infuse. Drink several times a day but try to drink warm rather than piping hot because drinking/ eating hot substances causes an added and unnecessary immune response, demanding precious energy that your body needs to carry out other processes. Lemons are extremely good cleansers and keep you feeling 'cleaned' from the inside out! They help support immunity and healthy liver and blood function. Their colour reminds us that the sun is always shining even if it's behind the clouds. Do this every day, even if it's just lemon and warm water… and it's a great way to end the day too. Just simple water, and lemon. Keep it warm. Keep it lovely.
10. Look after your liver
The liver is the master organ, and is the dominant organ for this time of year. Spring brings with it the colour green, the colour green, when considering nutrition is all about cleansing and detox, which is what the livers primary function is. So looking after your liver ensures that precious energy that would be better served elsewhere in the body isn't being misdirected to the liver for any excess clearing or detox it may be burdened with. So the best foods for the liver also happen to be warming too. Power spices, turmeric, ginger, dark bitter leafy veg, lemons, limes and grapefruit, cruciferous veg like cauliflower and brocolii, green tea, Olive oil, garlic, seeds, milk thistle, onions, spring onion and shallots, brazil nuts and globe artichoke. all easy to incorporate into your diets and all very tasty!
Additional tip
Placing a warm compress or hot water bottle on the lower back (kidney area) is very comforting and extremely warming. Another reason for ill health and fatigue is adrenal fatigue. Heating the area gently, is sure fire way to generate some inner heat too and keep you feeling comforted and secure.
Sophie Pattihis
Ayurveda & balancing your nervous system through food
By Marcus Felicetti
One particular characteristic of Ayurveda is the exploration and understanding of each individual's body type. These are often called doshas – air (vata), fire (pitta), water (kapha). In the West we have a similar concept called this somatotype – ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph. However in Ayurveda there are some other less known ways of understanding body types and various constitutional combinations. Two other categories are described according to their nervous system – 'sympathetic' and 'parasympathetic'. With sympathetics their nervous system is agitated easily so there are certain foods that will calm their nervous system. Actually these foods calm all nervous systems! They are sweet foods, salty foods and to some extent sour foods. The second kind of nervous system, parasympathetics already have a calmer nervous system and they do not need these foods as much. So if they take sweet, sour or salty foods they tend to become lethargic are tired and languid. Personally, I am a parasympathetic. If take sweet or salty foods I feel more grounded but any more than a little bit and it will be like I'm on sedatives.
This one reason why people crave sweets when they're upset. Because its very soothing. On the other hand, if you are a parasympathetic like me, we are much more suited to the other kinds of foods. If we take the bitter, the pungent, or the astringent foods, then our bodies and minds perform like a race car! Personally, when I am in balance I have RIDICULOUS amounts of energy.
Creating this harmony in your life through Yoga and Ayurvedic nutrition only requires two things: self knowledge about how YOUR own body works. And practicing this wisdom, integrating it with balance in your own life.
Marcus Felicetti
How to Alkalise your Body
By Marcus Julian Felicetti
The ideal pH level is 7.35. Most people are actually too acidic. The average people sits at 5.5 to 6.5. This has catastrophic effects on every system of your body.
Do these things persistently and consistently and you will increase the alkalinity and decrease acidity. The benefits will be incredible – both immediate (within a matter of days) and long term.
1. Cut out sugar altogether. Fruit is okay in moderation. But never ever eat any refined or processed sugars – no corn syrup, no agave, no maltose, no aspartame.
2. Eat raw organic fresh vegetable juices in the morning for breakfast. You can buy a juicer that squeezes the juices out of the vegetable, they're much better. The centrifugal juicers oxidise the nutrients.
3. Practice Yoga with a highly skilled and caring Yoga teacher. The ideal is to work one on one with a teacher who is interested in you and can design the practice around your needs. The practice of Yoga cleanses the acids from the joints and organs through moving the body with love and intelligence, and breathing.
4. Avoid toxic fats like transfats. Fried foods that have not been cooked with coconut oil generally are acidic. So the only oil I recommend you cook with is coconut oil. The benefits of coconut oil are many fold.
5. Essential fragrant oils are highly alkalising. They are the plant essence. This means they have a special frequency that the body and mind recognise. Applied to the air or the body the electromagnetic vibration increase cell resonance. The most powerful fragrant oils for alkalising are 1. Myrrh, 2. Frankincense, 3. Spikenard, and 4. Sandalwood.
6. Sunbathing in the morning sun for fifteen minutes each day plays a very important role in maintaining alkalinity and pH balance. It is best to have a shower before and afterward. This helps to cleanse out heavy toxins in the body.
7. Stop using commercial soaps, shampoos, deodorants, creams, toothpastes and mouthwashes. Not only do the often have a massive chemical load that makes you acidic, but they also often suppress the body's natural functions like sweating, which actually helps to eliminate acid, and pushes the acid back into the lymph nodes. This can increase the risk of cancer and weakens the immune system.
8. Stop drinking fluoridated tap water. Tap water is crap water. Buy a good quality water filter. Sodium fluoride is a toxic poison that is not fit for human consumption. Chlorine is likewise terrible for your gut and oxidises you.
9. It is a great discipline to twice a week skip your regular lunch meal and have something extremely alkalising instead. Here are some of the most highly alkalising foods you can eat for lunch:
Wheat Grass
Barely Grass
Alfalfa Grass
Kamut Grass
Oat Grass
Cucumber (best taken in the morning or lunch, not at night)
10. Cut right down on meat. Meat is very acidic. Especially red meat.
Marcus Julian Felicetti
Why Carb Diets Can Ruin Your Health
By Marcus Julian Felicetti
Both my friend and I agreed we don't consider it a fair contest between these two diets because huge volumes of research favor the Paleo – high quality nutrient dense fats and protein diet, low carbs approach. So as far as serious discussion goes there isn't really much evidence for high carb diets except anecdote. And this is what I want to explore…. Why, with all this scientific research and data that shows high quality nutrient dense fats and protein and low carbs are the best diet suited to most people, why do some people still follow 80/10/10?
If you look closely at the language that high carb eaters use, they often promote it as a weight loss diet. This appeals to a lot of less informed people. The fact is they're right, high fruit diets will help most people lose weight. But there is a reason for that, a dangerous caveat that escapes them, that no one warned them about.
When you eat a high caloric intake, assuming it is unrefined foods, then it will increase leptin levels. Leptin is the hormone that is responsible for weight loss. It increases the metabolism. You heard it correctly eat more unrefined unprocessed sugars and you will get slimmer. Are you surprised? The body is EXTREMELY intelligent and analyzes the food you put into your body, and if it is high calorie organic foods then your body will have excess energy to burn without increasing significantly toxicity. So it turns up the fire of your metabolism. Does this sound appealing? I hope not.
As a naturopath I can prescribe certain herbs and foods that will increase your leptin levels so quickly that the excess weight will tumble off faster than you can image. But I don't recommend that as a long term strategy. Why not? Because it will lead to accelerated aging. Eventually your skin will become aged, your teeth will degenerate, your muscles will look sinuous and small, flesh around your face will look drawn, gaunt and haggard, you'll need to sleep a lot. High caloric diets work as high octane fuel. But if you treat your body like a car eventually it will break down.
You have to remember that your metabolic rate is related to the pace at which your body clock is ticking. If I prescribed you certain herbs that raise your metabolism to a level where you can eat a massive amount of food an never put on a inch of body fat, have I done you a favor or disservice? In the long term if you value longevity and beauty, which myself and my other naturopath friends do, then a high leptin fast metabolism is a major disservice.
The huge volume of scientific data show that low leptin levels correlate with a long lifespan. This is why I always take a wholistic approach to my work as a naturopath and a Yoga teacher. 80/10/10 may solve one problem to create another, and therefore it's a shortsightedness approach that leads to long term problems later down the track.
80/10/10 diet leads to an emaciated wasted body because they treat their body like a car and food as fuel
For longevity and weight loss I can highly recommend the high nutritional density fats and amino acids that come from:
These food groups will make you lose excess weight and at the same time keep you young and beautiful. They do this by detoxifying and cleansing the body and giving you a massive amount of minerals, vitamins, enzymes and antioxidants.
Fruits do have some of the benefits of the other foods I mentioned above, but the ratios of nutrients to calories is poor. Most fruits are high in fructose. And fructose is one of the last things you want to eat. If you take one thing away from this article it should be that low calorie and high nutrient density is the best ratio. It is all about the ratios. Your body needs more than just fuel. Your body is far more subtle, beautiful and amazing than a car. Your body needs to constantly build and rebuild muscle and bone and connective tissue. Whereas cars are inorganic metal that don't constantly self-repair. That is why nutrient dense fats and proteins are essential. They are bone building, muscle building, connective tissue building. Regeneration happens through 'building block' nutrients known as amino acids that make up proteins, and essential fatty acids. A lack of amino acids and essential fatty acids slows the regeneration process and aging accelerates, eventually leading to degeneration and death.
Essential sugars
There is a broad category of exception amongst fruits, which do have an extreme high ration of nutrients to low calories. I am sure you can guess what they are… You guessed it, berries. Particularly raspberries, blue berries, black berries, cherries, cranberries, goji berries, açaí, maqui berry, bilberries, gubinge berries (kakadu plum), etc. Most of these do contain some small amount of fructose but actually they are sweetened from a much more beneficial sugar called xylose. Xylose is one of eight essential sugars. These are also known as monosaccharides or glyconutrients. They are: mannose, galactose, fucose, xylose, glucose, sialic acid, N-acetylglucosamine and N-acetylgalactosamine. These are extremely complex sugars that are in most cases found in bitter, astringent and pungent foods like olives, aloe vera, medicinal mushrooms like shitake, sumac, echinacea, the stem and branches of astragalus, Undaria pinnatifida seaweed.
The bitter, pungent and astringent sugars in these foods join with certain proteins and fats on the surface of cells and play a critical roll in cell-to-cell communication. When these essential sugars combine with good fats and protein they are called glycoproteins and glycolipids and act as antennae, receiving chemical messages from other cells. They are also markers and identifiers that identify the cell to other cells, increasing cell to cell communication. This strengthens the immune system.
So you can see that the generic fruits are a poor source of essential sugars. This is partly because the fruits have been hybridize by the agribusiness industry for decades to deliver caloric volume, at the cost of nutrient quality and density. They are very far from their original wildcrafted form found in nature. Fruit has been bred to taste sweeter and grow bigger and bigger, satisfying and addicting tastebuds. They mainly contain fructose which is essentially a poison. It reacts badly with protein, creating toxins. The body tries to dispose of it through the liver, which damages the liver. It is not a good source of fuel because it will spike insulin levels and high insulin levels hardens arteries and hastens aging, and it impairs the mind by causing insulin resistance in the brain, which is linked to Alzheimer's disease.
Some people do have a sluggish metabolism and in those rare cases they could benefit from raising their leptin levels slightly. But doing this through high fruit diets has many pitfalls. There are much more effective ways to raise leptin levels. I would do it through temporarily prescribing herbs and low impact exercise like Yoga and weightlifting. That way the blood sugar levels remains balanced and even, the metabolism lifts, excess fat drops away, and the body can build in wholistic health and strength.
It is all relative
If you could take away one more principle about nutrition then it should be the 'law of diminishing returns' which is also known as the concept of 'declining marginal benefits'. Simply put, the more of one thing you eat the less it benefits you, and the more likely it is to become harmful. Basically, the greatest benefit comes from the first bit of any one kind of food. So if you eat thirty bananas a day, the lack of diversity and complexity in your diet eventually leads to zero benefit. The more variety in the foods you eat throughout the day the better. If you limit your diet to just eating sugary generic fruits then you'll have less to choose from, therefore minimizing nutrients and increasing toxicity. This is why in nutrition always remember, less is more. Think economically–as quantity goes up, benefits decrease.
If you were to ask me in ernest, 'Tell me, isn't a fruit diet better than what some people eat – a junk habit of processed refined sugars, breads, dairy, meats filled with hormone laden pesticides, fungicides, antibiotics, preservatives, additives, artificial sweeteners, chemical coloring, and other things that could be created by the Joker?' And without qualification I would agree and say 'Yes'. When you compare anything to the lowest common denominator then it will seem a better option. The junk that some people choose to pollute their body with resembles nothing like food, and anything is better than that.
To eat meat, or not to eat meat
The idea of the Paleo diet is an excellent one – eat like our ancient ancestors. This is a wholistic approach. Done correctly it truly makes the body and mind strong, by:
Most people who follow the Paleo diet eat meat. Having studied the literature it is clear to me that our ancient ancestors evolved in such a vast variety of environments and parts of the world with different food habits, and still each culture attained a degree of vitality that is extraordinary. I have been a vegetarian for many years, and when I am asked whether I recommend either including some meat eating or a pure vegetarian diet, I simply reply 'It is totally your choice. See for yourself how your body feels. You cannot really know what works for your body until you've tried both. But definitely eat clean, whatever you do go organic!'
Know thy self
Experimentation is the final principle I want you to remember about nutrition. One of the greatest things you can do for your health is develop a curiosity and a deep intimacy and sensitivity with your body. Pay attention to what foods make you feel bloated, tired, increase mucus, slow elimination of wastes, cloud your thinking, make your body odor, etc. Then try cutting those foods out and see what happens.
I cannot tell you whether your body will work better including a small amount of high quality meat or as a complete vegetarian, only you can know that. Although many people will claim they know what works best for others, in reality they can only give you useful principles as guidelines. I personally see some disadvantages with meat eating and a few benefits. For me it is open to the individual to make a conscious and informed choice.
The life long journey of learning
When professional experts in the field of nutrition talk about food we are drawing from a depth of knowledge that most people cannot begin to conceive. It is a lifetime of learning and experimenting that we have dedicated ourselves to. I remember the first book my father ever read to me was a book on anatomy and physiology. As I sat up in bed listening to him and looking at the pages my eyes widened in awe and wonder at the genius and brilliance of God's creation. I would interrupt to ask questions and even dream about what I learnt in the night, intuitive visions of the organs and their functioning appeared to me as an innocent child's free imagination can do. I fell in love with health at a very young age. And this passion to constantly learn more about health only grew. As a teenager my best friend and I would study books on nutrition and have competitions who could know more, and in the process we enriched each others knowledge and exchanged a lot of wisdom.
As an adult I have made health my career and have been successful at using Yoga and nutrition and lifestyle changes to heal people of all kinds of terminal illnesses. When doctors sent people home to die and instead they came to me after everything else had failed, sometimes barely able to walk, then within months of working together I had them completely overcome their disease, journeying further and further into new levels of health by using my approaches. It demonstrated to me that God puts this fire and love for what we do in our hearts so that we can use it to serve.
The work of a naturopath is a deep one. It is our job to discover what the causes are at the source of the problem. If the cure to obesity was simply losing weight then the cure to depression would be popping a pill. The cure to anything is addressing the underlying issues. In the case of obesity it may be – digestion, metabolism, toxicity, emotional, lifestyle, etc. And through addressing the individuals unique picture the body naturally finds its own balance.
If there are any general recommendations for weight loss it is that people will lose weight by becoming healthy. Strengthening the vital force of the organs and detoxifying through Yoga and a wholistic approach to nutrition is a major piece of this puzzle. This is an intelligent long term approach. This will lead to true health, deep strength, radiant beauty, a long life, and inner peace.
Marcus Julian Felicetti
Mighty Magnesium
By Sophie Pattihis
Most of us, when considering healthy minerals and nutrients, think about antioxidants, omega oils, calcium etc. Yet we man have overlooked an essential in our diets, magnesium.
Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the body, found in teeth, bones and red blood cells. About half is found in the bones and the rest in soft tissue, 1% is left in the blood, rendering blood tests notoriously difficult to test for magnesium deficiencies.
Magnesium is the most interactive mineral, it is essential for numerous biochemical reactions in the body (350, in fact, more than zinc and iron combined!!) Our bodies use magnesium to maintain and regulate normal nerve and muscle function, regulate heart beat, and keep bones and teeth strong.
Magnesium also plays a key role in preventing disorders such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Our bodies absorb magnesium through the small intestines and excretes excess through the kidneys. However our intestines are not very good at absorbing large quantities of magnesium, so taking large doses of magnesium supplement may result in diarrhoea. Absorption of magnesium is dramatically reduced with poor digestion, particularly as we age.
Magnesium chloride is the form favoured by our bodies for the most efficient absorption and assimilation. Magnesium chloride is the direct result of evaporation of sea water, so all natural! this form is pure and perfect for absorption through the skin!
Cardiff University carried out the first clinical trial demonstrating the efficiency of magnesium absorption through the skin.
An earlier trial in 2010 indicated that the body remineralised five times faster if magnesium was applied topically rather than oral (subligual) supplementation!!
There are several causes of magnesium deficiency.
Modern western diets.
The question of 'what causes low magnesium?' in some ways is easier to answer by examining modern western diets. A visit to my local supermarket finds cashiers unable to identify basic green leafy vegetables such as kale, chard, mustard greens, all magnesium rich!
Feed your body food it can actually use!
Typical western diets are rich in fat, salt, sugar, supplemented vitamin D, phosphates, protein and supplemented calcium. These diets are not only deficient in magnesium but also increase the bodies need for magnesium!
High sat-fat diets: reduce magnesium absorption in the intestines
High sugar diets: increase excretion of magnesium through kidneys, adding to adrenal exhaustion.
Phosphates found in carbonated drinks such a dark coloured pops (cola): bind magnesium rendering it unstable and unsuitable for the body to assimilate.
Today, modern farming has depleted the soils. Artificial fertiliser favours some minerals over others. Over processing food, may increases shelf life, but depletes food of magnesium.
Whole grain wheat flour loses 80% of it magnesium when converted to white bread!
For millions of years our diets have included magnesium rich foods. But mass production and high demand means many rely on convenience rather than nutrients.
Diets rich in Magnesium include:
Magnesium deficiencies develop over time so we often miss the symptoms until they are exacerbated by old age, menopause or when the body is under stress. Symptoms include.
Low energy.
Magnesium is the key mineral involved in the enzymatic process of converting food to energy. Several studies indicate that individuals with low magnesium levels use more energy and tire quickly. Magnesium is also essential for both the synthesis and secretion of insulin,(diabetics are found to have low levels of magnesium).
PMS and Hormonal Imbalances.
low levels of magnesium are directly attributed to PMS and hormonal imbalances. Studies carried out by a Dr David Thomas showed how sufferers tend to share common dietary patterns, consuming only a quarter of their necessary magnesium, almost 80% more dairy and a staggering 275% more sugar!!
Poor sleep patterns and insomnia are strongly linked to magnesium deficiencies. Waking throughout the night, muscle spasms, cramps and restlessness are all symptomatic of low magnesium levels.
Bone health.
Although calcium is the most abundant skeletal mineral, it is very hard for the body to absorb it on its own. It requires a balance of hydrochloric acid, magnesium, phosphorus and vitamin D to be absorbed into bone. Calcification occurs when there are insufficient levels of these, calcium remains insoluble and is instead deposited throughout the body in soft tissue, joints, muscles, arteries as plaque.
Cramps and spasms.
Whilst calcium is responsible for the contraction phase of muscle movement, magnesium is responsible for the relaxation phase. Cramping at night and irritating twitches in and around the eyes are often signs of low magnesium. Restless leg syndrome (a poorly understood neurological disorder) responds wells to magnesium chloride rubbed into muscles.
Headaches can be a sign of many things going on, muscle tension, nerve problems, dehydration, straining of the eyes etc but many don't attribute low magnesium to headaches too. Many studies indicate there is a strong relationship between headaches, migraines and low levels of magnesium in the bloodstream. Magnesium allows blood vessels to relax and dilate, encouraging normal blood flow to the brain.
Anxiety, nerves, irritability.
Magnesium is tied very closely to adrenal processes and particularly the manufacturing of stress hormones. Insufficient levels of magnesium in the body can result in over-production of stress hormones such as cortisol, resulting in symptoms of anxiety and mood swings.
Kidney stones.
Kidney stones are a result of urinary deposits producing a hard mass of calcification, the most common containing calcium oxidate. Due to magnesium's effects on converting insoluble calcium into soluble, body friendly calcium in the urine, magnesium helps prevent the recurrence of calcium oxidtate kidney stones.
Skin problems.
Magnesium is one of the beauty minerals, helping to maintain skin elasticity and dermal protection. low levels can lead to skin problems, poor healing and complexion.
More magnesium.
So try incorporating more green leaves, nuts and seeds into your diet and if that isn't enough supplement and see how increasing your magnesium uptake makes you feel!
Sophie Pattihis
The benefits of self massage
By Sophie Pattihis
Massage doesn't have to be a rare treat, a guilty pleasure or a temporary fix for pain or injury. It can become part of your everyday routine, a lifestyle choice.
As a practising massage practitioner I've experienced, first hand the wonders of massage. The give and take between practitioner and client, the transfer of energy and the opportunity to connect with a another person on an intimate level.
Alongside the obvious benefits of massage:
Sometimes our bodies need a little help getting our blood and lymphatic system pumping, detoxifying, decalcifying, deoxidising.
A cleaner body leads to a cleaner mind, leaving you more likely to wake up feeling healthier, more positive and more likely to make better decisions and choices.
By incorporating massage into you daily routine you are slowing you whole system down, automatically stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system (responsible for rest and digest. Hormones such as dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin (feel good hormones) are released, giving you that feeling of tranquility and peace of mind.
The act of self massage, slows the mind and body, enhancing the mind-body connection and allowing time for reflection, clarity, peace.
Reflexology charts show the many systems stimulated by massage. Reflexology is an ancient healing therapy. The act of applying pressure to specific regions of the hands and feet, stimulating specific systems of the body.
Why not try incorporating some aromatherapy based oils and lotions to enhance the healing experience, here are a few:
(pictures from: http://www.aromatherapyandhealing.com/reflexology/)
Sophie Pattihis
10 Reasons Why We Need at Least 8 Hugs a Day
By Marcus Felicetti
Research shows a proper deep hug, where the hearts are pressing together, can benefit you in these ways:
There is a saying by Virginia Satir, a respected family therapist, "We need four hugs a day for survival. We need eight hugs a day for maintenance. We need twelve hugs a day for growth." Eight or more might seem quite high, but while researching and writing this article I asked my child, "How many hugs a day do you like?" She said, "I'm not going to tell you how many I like, but it's way more than eight." That really made me smile and touched my heart. And, I realized how organic and deep the need for hugs is.
As a loving father, I get plenty of hugs from my little princess and her Mamma. And as a yoga therapist, I often give and receive them from my students at the end of a session. I find that love, is a miracle drug.
Marcus Felicetti
Grow your own Wheatgrass to juice
By Louise Jensen
Staggeringly a shot of freshly squeezed wheatgrass juice contains the nutritional equivalent to 1kg of leafy green vegetables thus it makes perfect sense (both health wise and economically) to start growing your own to juice into an organic, nutrient rich drink. A shot a day will cleanse and rejuvenate but be warned consuming more than this amount may have a laxative effect on your system.
To grow.
Louise Jensen
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"Galaxy Life"
Here you can play the latest smash hit of online game publisher Digital Chocolate. While the game has similar building and strategy gameplay as others of this genre, it wraps it all up in a funny cartoonish sci-fi look and feel. The main actors are cute little aliens named Starlings that look like they escaped from a Dreamworks animation movie.
Like in most multiplayer building games your objective is to build a prosperous colony with cities and all kinds of needed infrastructure. Once things are running, you need to build an army to defend yourself from other hostile players. Since the game has great focus on social elements, you can also form alliances with your friends.
While you advance in the game, you will explore new characters and builings and you will have to fulfil quests and missions. To say it with the words of the publisher: there is no time for rest and boredom on Galaxy Life!
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text: We had a fantastic getaway in Quilcene, WA at an airbnb called "Modern Cabin Retreat". It was a series of cabins built with a modern design. During the day, we visited Finn River Cidery which is actually a farm that grows their own apples and other produce. They have a tasting room with some fantastic cider and a great overall experience. There's also some other great cider in the area.


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Monday October 14, 2013
From Live Music Blog
RECAP / PHOTOS: John Scofield's Uberjam Band and Dave Holland's Prism Quartet @ Royce Hall, LA, CA 10/5/13
By Jim Brock
The 6th annual Angel City Jazz Festival is as unique as the city that bears its name. Multi-venue, multi-media and highly eclectic, predictable only for its unpredictablilty. Not necessarily qualities you would attach to this tentpole town. This year mixed film with music, integrating episodes of the 'Jazz in the Present Tense' project with live performances under the theme of 'Metamorphosis; Artists on the Cutting Edge of Change'.
John Scofield's Uberjam Band and Dave Holland's Prism Quartet are a mighty pairing that land in the event's sweet spot. While some could suggest the Royce Hall double bill was more in than out, given Angel City's edgy proclamation, they fall right in between in my book. Both are established and prolific players/composers bonded by different stints with Miles Davis. Holland's years included In a Silent Way and the transformatively noisy Bitches Brew, while Scofield came later during the early to mid-'80s. Davis' electrified shift in many ways was the jazz equivalent to Dylan's groundbreaking Newport Folk appearance in 1965 '" the landscape was never the same. In Davis' case, jazz fusion was spawned and the illustrious alum have shaped contemporary jazz ever since, with both Holland and Scofield square in the middle of it.
In recent years, Scofield could be found absorbing New Orleans influences with his Piety Street Band, getting all jammy with Phil (Lesh) & Friends, or engaging the free funk of frequent collaborations with John Medeski and company. No doubt Scofield is a rocker and wears it well, yet recordings such as I Can See My House From Here (a personal favorite) with Pat Metheny (Blue Note 1994), also display a gentler side. His current project, Uberjam Deux, is a quartet revisited a decade later with Scofield on guitar, Andy Hess on bass, rhythm guitarist Avi Bortnick, and drummer Tony Mason, and had me at the name the first time. This is a band that both digs and flies. Scofield's hollow-body fuzz, the rhythm section of Mason and Hess at full gallop or reggae step, sprinkled with Bortnick's unique Strat meets Mac approach.
To read the full review click here


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Workforce reports from the U.S. National Academies have sometimes recommended large-bore, even radical changes. The best example is the 2007 report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future. It recommended ways to improve K-12 education, big changes in high-skill immigration rules, and the creation of 30,000 new scholarships to increase the number of scientists in the pipeline, among other measures. Writing in The New York Times, Thomas Friedman praised Gathering Storm as "the new New Deal urgently called for by our times."
More rare—and often more effective—are narrowly targeted, modest reports aimed at meeting a specific need. An Interim Report on Assuring DoD a Strong Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Workforce, which was released last week by the National Research Council and the National Academy of Engineering, is an example. Instead of aiming to remake America's scientific training infrastructure—with all the risks that entails—this report's recommendations aim to help the Department of Defense (DOD) attract, recruit, and retain the scientists and technical staff it needs to meet the nation's security needs, mostly from among those already in the workforce. Experts interviewed by Science Careers described the report as a breath of fresh air, although one of the report's central recommendations failed to win universal praise.
"I see the narrowness as a real strength of the report." —Paula Stephan
DOD convened the impressively named Committee on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Workforce Needs for the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Defense Industrial Base to address what DOD itself perceives as difficulty attracting high-caliber talent for its defense-related research and development projects. The report notes that many of the best young scientists are finding better pay and more exciting work opportunities in industry instead of opting for DOD employment.
To help DOD recruit successfully from that talent pool, the report's authors recommend increasing remuneration for key positions and offering more enticing scientific opportunities. To ensure that DOD is able to quickly scale up its research and development efforts in times of crisis, they encourage DOD to develop programs that can quickly train workers to a master's degree level in fields needed to meet DOD's needs. Finally, the report recommends reassessing the number and types of jobs that require a security clearance—and exploring whether some of DOD's needs could be met by hiring noncitizens.
According to C. Daniel Mote Jr., the retired president of the University of Maryland, College Park, who co-chaired the committee (with Norman Augustine, chair of the Gathering Storm committee), the available information didn't support a large-bore approach that focused on the workforce as a whole. "Initially, the committee thought this was going to be much more of a numbers problem, not being able to find enough people to recruit and so forth," he says. "The fact of the matter is that did not come up. … No one seems to think that's a big issue." According to Mote, DOD and its contractors account for about 2% of the nation's STEM workers—a lot, but not enough to swing national education or hiring policy in any particular direction. So the committee decided to focus on what DOD could do to make its jobs more attractive to the available talent, he says.
"We made a conscious decision fairly early on … to focus on things the DOD could actually do," adds committee member Sharon Levin, an economist at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. "We were well aware of the other literature out there, but the fact of the matter is, DOD cannot tackle the big picture."
A sound approach
Paula Stephan, an economist at Georgia State University in Atlanta who reviewed the report prior to publication, says she was impressed by the report's grounding in reality. "I see the narrowness as a real strength of the report," Stephan writes in an e-mail to Science Careers. "Given the size of DOD STEM workforce needs, the committee would have been hard pressed to find evidence that an overall shortage of STEM workers exists. Indeed, there is little evidence in most fields in STEM today that a shortage exists. It is refreshing that the committee refrained from using 'shortage' language."
Peter Cappelli, a professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania who has written extensively about workforce issues, also praises the committee's approach. "The idea that you shouldn't blame this on the applicants seems pretty refreshing, that [you're not saying] there's not enough of them because they're not coming to work for us. And it does seem to acknowledge that there's a market, so that's a good thing."
Though the committee didn't discuss which recommendations to prioritize, there was, Mote says, broad agreement that DOD needs to do whatever it takes to preserve its capacity for innovation as modern warfare moves away from large-scale defense systems, and as the department's "old-timers" retire. To that end, the committee recommends that DOD implement "unconventional programs" to attract and retain young scientists who want to work on cutting-edge projects. These programs would offer scientists the chance to work on open-ended projects without clear applications in mind—that is, to do innovative basic research. "Those are the kinds of problems that really highly capable STEM people would like to work on," Mote says.
The report recommends that DOD open its purse strings more widely to raise salaries for essential positions. The expected cuts to DOD's budget will make that difficult, but there's little choice: DOD will need to find the money to remain competitive in hiring for these key positions, Levin says. For entry-level and midlevel positions, many of which can be short-term, DOD salaries are already competitive with industry, Mote says.
Cappelli believes that's a good approach. If DOD can lure young scientists to work there for 5 years to 10 years before they move on, DOD will still be able to utilize those scientists during their peak productive years, and the scientists will gain experience that makes them valuable to future employers. Another good idea in the report, Cappelli says, is the recommendation to increase DOD's capacity to rapidly train educated, though not necessarily STEM-trained, soldiers and civilians in the skills needed to fill skills gaps that arise suddenly. "Inventory and human capital are really expensive to maintain," he says. "It makes perfect sense."
Should foreign scientists do DOD research?
More controversial is the report's recommendation to explore whether more defense jobs should be available to workers without security clearances so that foreign STEM workers could fill them. Norman Matloff, a computer scientist at the University of California, Davis, who studies STEM workforce issues and immigration, says the report is "a bit inconsistent" on this issue. In places, the report recognizes that there's no shortage of qualified STEM workers to fill DOD's needs. But this recommendation seems to suggest that there is a shortage. Such contradictions can arise, Matloff notes, when committee members represent different interests. Still, "it's a bad idea," Matloff says.
Stephan disagrees, noting that "although the number of STEM workers available is sufficient for DOD needs, there can always be specialized areas in which a mismatch between needs and available supply exists." Being able to reach out to foreign workers to fill those specific gaps gives DOD "flexibility in making matches of high quality," she says.
Mote acknowledges that the foreign workers recommendation is the report's most controversial, but he expects the whole report to stir debate inside DOD. "It's really asking for a lot of cultural change," he says.
DOD press operations officer Lt. Col. Melinda F. Morgan tells Science Careers via e-mail that DOD is conducting an internal review of the report but cannot comment on any of the recommendations at this time. Levin, though, hopes the report's directness—and the urgency of the issue—will make the committee's recommendations easier to swallow. "The DOD knows it's very important, it's essential, but on the other hand [DOD is] becoming a small fish in the big pool of STEM talent, which is global," she says. "So the hope is that things we've suggested can improve the ability of DOD to obtain the best quality of talent in its workforce."