Enjoyment and Information Gain in Science Articles; A Way to Reach Minorities: Multicultural Awareness; A Longitudinal Task of the Selective Exposure Hypothesis; Dakota Farmers and Ranchers Evaluate Crop and Livestock Surveys

Reviews of Enjoyment and Information Gain in Science Articles, by Alan Hunsaker; A Way to Reach Minorities: Multicultural Awareness, by Benjamin Yep and Marynell Hollenbeck; A Longitudinal Task of the Selective Exposure Hypothesis, by Michael A. Milburn; and Dakota Farmers and Ranchers Evaluate Crop and Livestock Surveys, by Calvin Jones, Paul Sheatsley and Arthur Stinchcombe

Communications 1990: A Report of the Future Committee; The Misutilization of Evaluation Research: Some Pitfalls of Definition; Searching for Alternatives: Public Broadcasting

Reviews of Communications 1990: A Report of the Future Committee; The Misutilization of Evaluation Research: Some Pitfalls of Definition, by Thomas Cook , Judith Levinson-Rose and William Pollard; Searching for Alternatives: Public Broadcasting , Journal of Communication

Disseminating Crop Variety Trial Results Via Agricultural Newspaper Supplements

This study evaluated disseminating annual crop variety trial results through supplements in agricultural newspapers

Evaluation of a County Extension Office\u27s Use of Mass Media: A User Perspective

A random sample of 399 adults in a single county were phone surveyed to measure their use, preference and satisfaction with various sources of Extension informatio

Determinants of Interagency Communication in An Integrated Development Project

Planned development efforts have gradually shifted over the years from single issue rural development projects to integrated development projects. Planners have realised that most development problems do not stand in isolation, but require attention to a range of factors to bring about solutions. Because integrated developments projects simultaneously treat a broad range of development issues, they typically involve the efforts of numerous government agencies working in concert. They require some level of coordination and cooperation among these agencies if the projects are to reach their potential for success

SHIGA TOXIN-PRODUCING ESCHERICHIA COLI IN MEAT: A PRELIMINARY SIMULATION STUDY ON DETECTION CAPABILITIES FOR THREE SAMPLING METHODS

Contamination by Shiga Toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is a continuing concern for meat production facility management throughout the United States. Several methods have been used to detect STEC during meat processing, however the excessive experimental cost of determining the optimal method is rarely feasible. The objective of this preliminary simulation study is to determine which sampling method (Cozzini core sampler, core drill shaving, and N-60 surface excision) will better detect STEC at varying levels of contamination present in the meat. 1000 simulated experiments were studied using a binary model for rare occurrences to find the optimal method. We found that for meat contamination levels less than 0.1% or greater than 10% all sampling methods perform equally. At moderate levels of contamination (between 0.1% and 10%) core drill shaving and N-60 perform significantly better than Cozzini core sampler. However, there does not appear to be a significant difference between core drill shaving and N-60. This project was supported by an Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant no. 2012-68003-30155 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Fate of Listeria monocytogenes and Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli on Bresaola Slices During Storage

The viability of multistrain cocktails of genetically marked strains of Listeria monocytogenes and Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) were separately monitored on slices of one brand of a commercially produced bresaola (ca. pH 6.7 and aw 0.899) during extended storage at refrigeration and abusive temperatures. Two slices (ca. 8 g each; ca.10.2 cm wide, ca. 11 cm long) of bresaola were layered horizontally within a nylon-polyethylene bag. The outer surface of each slice was inoculated (50μL total; ca. 3.5 log colony-forming units [CFU]/package) with a rifampicin-resistant (100μg/mL) cocktail of either L. monocytogenes (5 strains) or STEC (8 strains). Bags were vacuum-sealed and then stored at 4°C or 10°C for 180 or 90 d, respectively. In each of 5 trials, 3 bags were analyzed for pathogen presence at each sampling interval via the US Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service package rinse method. In general, levels of L. monocytogenes and STEC decreased by 3.0 and 2.4 log CFU/package, respectively, after 180 d when bresaola was stored at 4°C. When bresaola was stored at 10°C for 90 d, levels of L. monocytogenes and STEC decreased by 2.4 and 3.1 log CFU/package, respectively. Thus, the sliced bresaola evaluated herein did not provide a favorable environment for either persistence or outgrowth of surface-inoculated cells of L. monocytogenes or STEC

Evaluation of post-fermentation heating times and temperatures for controlling Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli cells in a non-dried, pepperoni-type sausage

Coarse ground meat was mixed with non-meat ingredients and starter culture (Pediococcus acidilactici) and then inoculated with an 8-strain cocktail of Shiga toxinproducing Escherichia coli (ca. 7.0 log CFU/g). Batter was fine ground, stuffed into fibrous casings, and fermented at 35.6°C and ca. 85% RH to a final target pH of ca. pH 4.6 or ca. pH 5.0. After fermentation, the pepperoni- like sausage were heated to target internal temperatures of 37.8°, 43.3°, 48.9°, and 54.4°C and held for 0.5 to 12.5 h. Regardless of the heating temperature, the endpoint pH in products fermented to a target pH of pH 4.6 and pH 5.0 was pH 4.56±0.13 (range of pH 4.20 to pH 4.86) and pH 4.96±0.12 (range of pH 4.70 to pH 5.21), respectively. Fermentation alone delivered ca. a 0.3- to 1.2-log CFU/g reduction in pathogen numbers. Fermentation to ca. pH 4.6 or ca. pH 5.0 followed by post-fermentation heating to 37.8° to 54.4°C and holding for 0.5 to 12.5 h generated total reductions of ca. 2.0 to 6.7 log CFU/g

Endomyocardial Fibrosis: Still a Mystery after 60 Years

The pathologist Jack N. P. Davies identified endomyocardial fibrosis in Uganda in 1947. Since that time, reports of this restrictive cardiomyopathy have come from other parts of tropical Africa, South Asia, and South America. In Kampala, the disease accounts for 20% of heart disease patients referred for echocardiography. We conducted a systematic review of research on the epidemiology and etiology of endomyocardial fibrosis. We relied primarily on articles in the MEDLINE database with either “endomyocardial fibrosis” or “endomyocardial sclerosis” in the title. The volume of publications on endomyocardial fibrosis has declined since the 1980s. Despite several hypotheses regarding cause, no account of the etiology of this disease has yet fully explained its unique geographical distribution

Behavior of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella Typhimurium in teewurst, a raw spreadable sausage

The fate of Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella Typhimurium, or Escherichia coli O157:H7 were separately monitored both in and on teewurst, a traditional raw and spreadable sausage of Germanic origin. Multi-strain cocktails of each pathogen (ca. 5.0 log CFU/g) were used to separately inoculate teewurst that was subsequently stored at 1.5, 4, 10, and 21 °C. When inoculated into commercially-prepared batter just prior to stuffing, in general, the higher the storage temperature, the greater the lethality. Depending on the storage temperature, pathogen levels in the batter decreased by 2.3 to 3.4, ca. 3.8, and 2.2 to 3.6 log CFU/g for E. coli O157:H7, S. Typhimurium, and L. monocytogenes, respectively, during storage for 30 days. When inoculated onto both the top and bottom faces of sliced commercially-prepared finished product, the results for all four temperatures showed a decrease of 0.9 to 1.4, 1.4 to 1.8, and 2.2 to 3.0 log CFU/g for E. coli O157:H7, S. Typhimurium, and L. monocytogenes, respectively, over the course of 21 days. With the possible exceptions for salt and carbohydrate levels, chemical analyses of teewurst purchased from five commercial manufacturers revealed only subtle differences in proximate composition for this product type. Our data establish that teewurst does not provide a favourable environment for the survival of E. coli O157:H7, S. Typhimurium, or L. monocytogenes inoculated either into or onto the product