Association of Pathogen Load in Pigs with Retail Pork Contamination.

Salmonella and Campylobacter are estimated to cause 3.9 million illnesses annually in the United States, and most of these illnesses are food-related. Pigs can be sub-clinically infected with these pathogens and fecal contamination of meat during processing is a food safety risk. Quantitative measures of foodborne safety risk are rarely reported and are a critical data gap for development of quantitative risk assessments. The goal of this study was to determine the association between the concentration of Salmonella and Campylobacter in porcine feces and hide with concentrations in meat

Prevalence and Antimicrobial Resistance of Salmonella, E. coli, and Campylobacter in Pigs from Swine Producing States in the United States

The purpose of the study was to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of Salmonella, Campylobacter and generic E. coli (commensal bacteria which may harbor antimicrobial resistance genes) from swine feces collected over one year from the top three swine producing states (Iowa, North Carolina, and Minnesota), which represent 51% of the total pig crop in the U.S, plus Ohio. The prevalence of Salmonella (n=462/4426), Campylobacter (n=994/1184) and E. coli (n=833/845) at the sample level was 10.4%, 98.6% and 83.6%, respectively

Patient engagement and communication behaviours around prompt urinary catheter removal: a prospective theory-based correlational study

Conference poste

Patients' and carers' views on communication and information provision when undergoing assessments in memory services

Objectives: To explore patients' and carers' views on what constitutes high-quality communication and information provision during diagnostic assessment in memory clinic services in three areas of England. Methods: Interviews with 27 people with cognitive impairment (13 with confirmed dementia) and 26 carers (20 matched pairs). Interviews continued until theoretical saturation was reached. Interview transcripts were subject to constant comparative analysis; data interpretation occurred in 'data clinics'. Results: People with memory problems undergoing assessment often have unmet information needs, especially patients with a diagnosis other than Alzheimer's disease and those who do not receive a diagnosis. Patients wish to be kept informed about both the assessment and its outcomes. Some have unrealistic expectations of the process (expecting assessment and diagnosis to be complete in two weeks) and some experience what appear to be long delays (over 12 months) in receiving results. Most appreciated clear and honest communication about any diagnosis. Post-diagnostic groups, organized by local memory services, afford opportunities to learn practical strategies and gain informal peer support. Voluntary organizations may be an essential source of information. Conclusions: Communication and information need improvement for patients undergoing assessment for possible dementia, especially for those considered unlikely to benefit from medication and those with mild cognitive impairment. © The Author(s) 2013

Liveable Open Public Space - From Flaneur to Cyborg

Open public spaces have always been key elements of the city. Now they are also crucial for mixed reality. It is the main carrier of urban life, place for socialization, where users rest, have fun and talk. Moreover, “Seeing others and being seen” is a condition of socialization. Intensity of life in public spaces provides qualities like safety, comfort and attractiveness. Furthermore, open public spaces represent a spatial framework for meetings and multileveled interactions, and should include virtual flows, stimulating merging of physical and digital reality. Aim of the chapter is to present a critical analysis of public open spaces, aspects of their social role and liveability. It will also suggest how new technologies, in a mixed reality world, may enhance design approaches and upgrade the relationship between a user and his surroundings. New technologies are necessary for obtaining physical/digital spaces, becoming playable and liveable which will encourage walking, cycling, standing and interacting. Hence, they will attract more citizens and visitors, assure a healthy environment, quality of life and sociability. Public space, acting as an open book of the history of the city and of its future, should play a new role, being a place of reference for the flaneur/cyborg citizen personal and social life. The key result is a framework for understanding the particular importance of cyberparks in contemporary urban life in order to better adapt technologies in the modern urban life needs

Living in several languages: Language, gender and identities

Living in several languages encompasses experiencing and constructing oneself differently in each language. The research study on which this article is based takes an intersectional approach to explore insider accounts of the place of language speaking in individuals’ constructions of self, family relationships and the wider context. Twenty-four research interviews and five published autobiographies were analysed using grounded theory, narrative and discursive analysis. A major finding was that learning a new language inducted individuals into somewhat ‘stereotyped’ gendered discourses and power relations within the new language, while also enabling them to view themselves differently in the context of their first language. This embodied process could be challenging and often required reflection and discursive work to negotiate the dissimilarities, discontinuities and contradictions between languages and cultures. However, the participants generally claimed that their linguistic multiplicity generated creativity. Women and men used their language differences differently to ‘perform their gender’. This was particularly evident in language use within families, which involved gendered differences in the choice of language for parenting – despite the fact that both men and women experience their first languages as conveying intimacy in their relationships with their children. The article argues that the notion of ‘mother tongue’ (rather than ‘first language’) is unhelpful in this process as well as in considering the implications of living in several languages for systemic therapy

Towards a positive cross-cultural lexicography: Enriching our emotional landscape through 216 ‘untranslatable’ words pertaining to well-being

Although much attention has been paid to culture-specific psychopathologies, there have been no comparable attempts to chart positive mental states that may be particular to certain cultures. This paper outlines the beginnings of a positive cross-cultural lexicography of ‘untranslatable’ words pertaining to wellbeing, culled from across the world’s languages. A quasi-systematic search uncovered 216 such terms. Using grounded theory, these words were organised into three categories: feelings (comprising positive and complex feelings); relationships (comprising intimacy and pro-sociality); and character (comprising personal resources and spirituality). The paper has two main aims. First, it aims to provide a window onto cultural differences in constructions of wellbeing, thereby enriching our understanding of wellbeing. Second, a more ambitious aim is that this lexicon may help expand the emotional vocabulary of English speakers (and indeed speakers of all languages), and consequently enrich their experiences of wellbeing. The paper concludes by setting out a research agenda to pursue these aims further

At the Crossroads of Sustainability: The Natural Recompositioning of Architecture

It is widely acknowledged that the mantra of sustainability has triggered a fundamental reversal in the core of design practice: If the original purpose of architecture was to protect humans from the destructive actions of nature,today it should protect nature from the damaging actions of humans. But sustainable design is far from being a coherent body of fully totalized ideas:it has a broad spectrum of disputing interpretations that oscillate between the deterministic models of energy control and technological efficiencies, and the moralistic and romantic approaches that attempt to see in nature and natural processes a fundamental way to de-escalate the global urban footprint and its associated patterns of consumption. However, mainstream green design has been evolving by progressively absorbing the narrative of deep ecology. Nature has been being integrated into architecture literally, by inserting vegetation onto buildings; digitally, by bringing environmental data into the design process (climate records, wind streams, sun rotation and air flows are computed, modelled and effectually shape architectures), and transcendentally, by claiming that sustainable architecture nurtures “the existing and evolving connections between spiritual and material consciousness.” The acknowledgement of the inexorable affiliation between architecture and the environment is, of course, not exactly new. What is distinctive today is the reification of the role of nature in architecture as an ideological stance, now totally intertwined with state-of-art data processing and the market-driven tools brought by Natural Capitalism. This paper will examine emblematic “green” buildings produced by leading architects such as Pelli Clarke Pelli, William McDonough, Stefano Boeri, Norman Foster and BIG in the light of Tim Morton’s, Slavoj Zizek and Bruno Latour’s critique of nature. It will illustrate how, despite being able to successfully forge new creative freedoms by exploring hybridizations between the domains of design and science, sustainability’s self-righteous “naturalistic” narrative is enabling a vision of the architect as an “expert manager” focused on producing projects of ecologic “beautification” while assumed to be “saving the world,” effectively depoliticizing the architectural practice. Nevertheless, these examples attest that there is a vast and fertile field of ideas to be explored and in this regard it is important to underline that we are still in the embryonic outset of the engagement of architecture with sustainability