John O'Rourke, Canon

PD-US

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The human intestine is home of an almost inconceivable large number of microorganisms. The human gut microbiota can therefore be pictured as an organ placed within a host organism. The human gut microbiome, which in total may contain >100 times the number of genes present in our genome, endows us with functional features that we did not have to evolve ourselves. It is recognized that intestinal microbiota plays an important role in human health and disease. In fact, gut bacteria other than metabolize dietary components, may play complex roles such as modulation of the immune system and in reduction of gut infections. Variations in the presence and/or abundance of certain components of the intestinal microbiota have repeatedly been observed in patients that suffer from atopic diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn disease, ulcerative colitis, infectious colitis, colon cancer and diabetes. In this context, bifidobacteria represent one of the most common bacterial members of the human gut microbiota. Bifidobacteria are anaerobic, Gram-positive, irregular or branched rod-shaped bacteria that are commonly found in the gastro-intestinal tracts (GIT) of humans, especially during the first stages of life and most animal and insects. Bifidobacterial fluctuations seem directly associated with health effects and for these reasons they are being exploited as health-promoting or probiotic bacteria. However, despite the extensive commercial exploitation of bifidobacteria as probiotic bacteria, little is known about their impact or dependency on other members of the human gut microbiota or on their host. Genome analyses have highlighted the existence of gene repertoires encoding products that are responsible for the adaptation of bifidobacteria to the human intestine and intense research efforts at international level are ongoing to understand the molecular details of these interactions. Specifically, the molecular interactions that are presumed to exist between bifidobacteria and the human host, as well as interactions between different residents of intestinal microbiota are the main topic of bifidobacterial research communities.

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Beggars and begging were ubiquitous features of pre-Famine Irish society, yet have gone largely unexamined by historians. This book explores at length for the first time the complex cultures of mendicancy, as well as how wider societal perceptions of and responses to begging were framed by social class, gender and religion. The study breaks new ground in exploring the challenges inherent in defining and measuring begging and alms-giving in pre-Famine Ireland, as well as the disparate ways in which mendicants were perceived by contemporaries. A discussion of the evolving role of parish vestries in the life of pre-Famine communities facilitates an examination of corporate responses to beggary, while a comprehensive analysis of the mendicity society movement, which flourished throughout Ireland in the three decades following 1815, highlights the significance of charitable societies and associational culture in responding to the perceived threat of mendicancy. The instance of the mendicity societies illustrates the extent to which Irish commentators and social reformers were influenced by prevailing theories and practices in the transatlantic world regarding the management of the poor and deviant. Drawing on a wide range of sources previously unused for the study of poverty and welfare, this book makes an important contribution to modern Irish social and ecclesiastical history.This book is made open access as part of the Knowledge Unlatched KU Select 2018: HSS Frontlist Books