Salmonellosis is the second leading cause of bacterial foodborne illness in the United States, and the great majority of these infections are associated with the consumption of products such as meat, ...poultry, eggs, milk, seafood, and fresh produce contaminated with Salmonella. The per capita consumption of meat and poultry in United States has increased significantly over the past century. This increase is especially evident with poultry products, where there has been a nearly 6-fold increase in chicken consumption and 17-fold increase in turkey consumption since 1909. The per capita consumption of pork has also increased over this time from 18.7 to 21.7 kg/yr. With this increase in meat and poultry consumption, the dynamics of animal production and consumer exposure have changed leading to new challenges in limiting salmonellosis. To meet the demands of consumers, more intensive agricultural practices have been adopted, which has likely changed the population characteristics of Salmonella present among poultry flocks and swine populations. In Salmonella isolated from swine in the United States, S. Typhimurium has replaced S. Choleraesuis as the predominant serovar in recent years. Among isolates from turkeys collected in 2004, serovars S. Senftenberg and S. Hadar were most common overall; however, S. Heidelberg was most common from clinical diagnostic sources, potentially indicating increased virulence. Salmonella Heidelberg was also the most commonly detected serovar among chicken isolates from clinically ill birds and Salmonella surveillance samples. Overall among the 10 serovars most commonly associated with human infections, 6 are also found in the top serovars of swine and poultry. These include S. Typhimurium, S. Enteritidis, S. Heidelberg, S. Montevideo, S. Saintpaul, and S. I 4,5,12:i:-.
Family involvement in interventions to reduce sedentary time may help foster appropriate long‐term screen‐based habits in children. This review systematically synthesized evidence from randomized ...controlled trials of interventions with a family component that targeted reduction of sedentary time, including TV viewing, video games and computer use, in children. MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycInfo, CINAHL and Embase were searched from inception through March 2012. Seventeen articles were considered eligible and included in the review. Studies were judged to be at low‐to‐moderate risk of bias. Despite inconsistent study results, level of parental involvement, rather than the setting itself, appeared an important determinant of intervention success. Studies including a parental component of medium‐to‐high intensity were consistently associated with statistically significant changes in sedentary behaviours. Participant age was also identified as a determinant of intervention outcomes; all three studies conducted in pre‐school children demonstrated significant decreases in sedentary time. Finally, TV exposure appeared to be related to changes in energy intake rather than physical activity. Future studies should assess the effects of greater parental involvement and child age on success of sedentary behaviour interventions. More research is required to better understand the relationship between screen time and health behaviours, particularly energy intake.
Eastern Australia is covered by extensive, thick regolith, which obfuscates much of its basement geology, making geological sampling difficult. The Bokhara River diatremes erupted through the Thomson ...Orogen in eastern Australia and are covered by ∼300 m of Cretaceous regolith cover. Hitherto, these diatremes have only been characterised by magnetic anomaly surveys and private exploration drilling. The melts were assumed to be leucititic, owing to their proximity to Miocene leucitite centres to the south, while their position along the Cosgrove hotspot track led to the assumption that the diatremes erupted at ca 20 Ma. However, whole-rock chemistry shows that the diatremes are basanites and, according to
40
Ar/
39
Ar dating, erupted during the mid-Jurassic (ca 180 Ma; estimated by reproducible slightly discordant ages), substantially older than the assumed age and coincident with widespread Mesozoic flood basalts across Gondwana. The basanites entrained abundant mantle material during accent, which contaminated the basanite with ∼12.8 wt% xenocrystic material. The xenoliths are all fertile spinel lherzolites with Mg# 87-89, CaO 2.64-5.90 wt% and Al
2
O
3
2.87-3.83 wt% that have been cryptically metasomatised by a mafic silicate melt, which resulted in chromatographic rare-earth element patterns. This demonstrates that mantle metasomatism occurred during the Mesozoic in this part of eastern Australia, revealing another expression of intraplate volcanism prior to Australia rifting away from Gondwana. The identification and characterisation of this Jurassic volcanism hosting evidence for mantle metasomatism suggest that intraplate volcanism and mantle metasomatism are synonymous within orogenic eastern Australia, and not restricted to the Cenozoic.
The oxidation of SO2 to sulfate is a key reaction in determining the role of sulfate in the environment through its effect on aerosol size distribution and composition. Sulfur isotope analysis has ...been used to investigate sources and chemical processes of sulfur dioxide and sulfate in the atmosphere, however interpretation of measured sulfur isotope ratios is challenging due to a lack of reliable information on the isotopic fractionation involved in major transformation pathways. This paper presents laboratory measurements of the fractionation factors for the major atmospheric oxidation reactions for SO2 : Gas-phase oxidation by OH radicals, and aqueous oxidation by H2 O2 , O3 and a radical chain reaction initiated by iron. The measured fractionation factor for 34 S/32 S during the gas-phase reaction is αOH = (1.0089±0.0007)-((4±5)×10-5 ) T(°C). The measured fractionation factor for 34 S/32 S during aqueous oxidation by H2 O2 or O3 is αaq = (1.0167±0.0019)-((8.7±3.5) ×10-5 )T(°C). The observed fractionation during oxidation by H2 O2 and O3 appeared to be controlled primarily by protonation and acid-base equilibria of S(IV) in solution, which is the reason that there is no significant difference between the fractionation produced by the two oxidants within the experimental error. The isotopic fractionation factor from a radical chain reaction in solution catalysed by iron is αFe = (0.9894±0.0043) at 19 °C for 34 S/32 S. Fractionation was mass-dependent with regards to 33 S/32 S for all the reactions investigated. The radical chain reaction mechanism was the only measured reaction that had a faster rate for the light isotopes. The results presented in this study will be particularly useful to determine the importance of the transition metal-catalysed oxidation pathway compared to other oxidation pathways, but other main oxidation pathways can not be distinguished based on stable sulfur isotope measurements alone.
The observations of the exceptionally bright gamma-ray burst (GRB) 130427A by the Large Area Telescope aboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope provide constraints on the nature of these unique ...astrophysical sources. GRB 130427A had the largest fluence, highest-energy photon (95 GeV), longest γ-ray duration (20 hours), and one of the largest isotropie energy releases ever observed from a GRB. Temporal and spectral analyses of GRB 130427A challenge the widely accepted model that the nonthermal high-energy emission in the afterglow phase of GRBs is synchrotron emission radiated by electrons accelerated at an external shock.
Education and training of radiographers is known to be diverse between countries and regions. Under an IAEA project, this work collected data on radiographer education for the Europe and Central Asia ...region with a particular focus on radiation protection gaps and potential actions.
Following piloting, an electronic questionnaire was distributed to all national counterparts for the IAEA Technial Coopearation (TC) Europe region (n = 33 countries) and nominated national representatives. Contacts were additionally invited to a virtual workshop to discuss and rank common problems in education and training of radiographers and to propose potential solutions.
Responses were received from 31 countries, including 14 from the European Union. Just over half of countries reported radiographer education being in higher education with 71% having program durations more than 3 years (range: 1 month-4 years). Programs included a spectrum of both clinical training and radiation protection hours with ten-fold variations noted across the region. Inclusion of core radiation protection topics within curricula varied similarly, as did radiographers’ clinical involvement in both justification and optimisation between countries. Workshop participants identified five common training problems, namely education availability, lack of standardisation, radiation protection course quality, teamwork problems and lack of equipment.
Radiographer education in the IAEA Europe region is heterogeneous with substantial differences in duration and quality of training programs between countries, which likely impact on quality of patient care delivered. Common problems have been identified and potential solutions proposed to focus quality improvement initiatives.
Radiographer education and training is diverse throughout the IAEA TC Europe region, with likely impacts on radiation protection practices applied. Clinical involvement of radiographers in justification and optimisation differs, potentially limiting adherence to radiation protection principles.
Aims: To determine the prevalence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa among dogs with suspected soft tissue infections and to characterize these isolates. Methods and Results: Swabs were taken from infected ...soft tissues of 402 dogs. Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains were confirmed phenotypically and tested for susceptibility to 11 antimicrobial agents and genotyped by SpeI pulsed‐field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The genetic basis of fluoroquinolone (FQ) resistance and the presence of integrons were also characterized. A total of 27 (6·7%) dogs tested positive for Ps. aeruginosa. Fourteen different SpeI patterns were observed in 25 typeable strains. Among the β‐lactams, three isolates presented resistance to ticarcillin and carbenicillin, while only one isolate exhibited resistance to ceftazidime. Among the aminoglycosides (AGs), three strains showed resistance to amikacin, and four strains exhibited resistance to gentamicin and tobramycin. Four strains with mutations that led to the substitution of Thr at position 83 with Ile in GyrA and the exchange of Ser at position 87 with Leu in ParC displayed resistance to all tested FQs. These strains also carried class 1 integrons and showed resistance to between 6 and 10 antimicrobials. These integrons included four different gene cassettes (aacA4‐aadA1, blaOXA‐31‐aadA2, aadA1‐arr‐3‐catB3 and cmlA5‐cmlA‐aadA1). Conclusions: A small proportion of infected dogs treated in two animal hospitals in Beijing, China carried Ps. aeruginosa isolates. Low levels of resistance to anti‐pseudomonal agents were observed in these strains. Significance and Impact of the Study: This study is the first report on the antimicrobial resistance profiles of Ps. aeruginosa isolated from infected canine origin in China. Additionally, this is the first report of the oxacillin resistance gene blaOXA‐31 in a canine Ps. aeruginosa isolate.
High-risk infants are discharged home from hospital with increased care needs and the potential for the emergence of developmental disabilities, contributing to high levels of parental stress and ...anxiety. To enable optimal outcomes for high-risk infants and their families, developmental follow-up programs need to continue following hospital discharge. However, current follow-up care for high-risk infants is variable in terms of type, access and equity, and there seems to be a gap in existing services such as supporting the transition home, parental support, and inclusion of all at-risk infants regardless of causality. Routine follow-up that identifies developmental delays or neuromotor concerns can facilitate timely referral and access to targeted intervention during critical periods of development. The Kids+ Parent Infant Program (PIP) is a unique model of developmental follow-up that shares some characteristics with established programs, but also includes additional key elements for a seamless, wrap-around service for all high-risk infants and their families living in a regional area of Australia. This community-based program provides integrated assessment and intervention of infants, alongside parent support and education, embracing a holistic model that accounts for the complexity and interrelatedness of infant, parent, medical and developmental factors. By prioritising the well-being of high-risk infants and their families, the Kids+ PIP paves the way for improved developmental outcomes and provides an innovative model for developmental follow-up, with the potential for reproduction in other healthcare settings.
The new generation of gravitational waves detectors require unprecedented levels of isolation from seismic noise. This article reviews the seismic isolation strategy and instrumentation developed for ...the Advanced LIGO observatories. It summarizes over a decade of research on active inertial isolation and shows the performance recently achieved at the Advanced LIGO observatories. The paper emphasizes the scientific and technical challenges of this endeavor and how they have been addressed. An overview of the isolation strategy is given. It combines multiple layers of passive and active inertial isolation to provide suitable rejection of seismic noise at all frequencies. A detailed presentation of the three active platforms that have been developed is given. They are the hydraulic pre-isolator, the single-stage internal isolator and the two-stage internal isolator. The architecture, instrumentation, control scheme and isolation results are presented for each of the three systems. Results show that the seismic isolation sub-system meets Advanced LIGO's stringent requirements and robustly supports the operation of the two detectors.
Objectives
Justification of medical exposures from medical imaging is fundamental to radiation protection. Referral guidelines are intended to help physicians decide when an imaging study is ...justified. For two decades, referral guidelines have been a legally binding requirement for European Union member states. Recently, the European Society of Radiology (ESR) developed iGuide tool, which provides evidence-based referral guidance for imaging inclusive of children. The aim of this survey was to assess the availability, use and familiarity of referral guidelines for medical imaging in children and knowledge about the availability of ESR iGuide among ESR member radiologists.
Methods
Over a 2-month period (15 September–15 November 2019), 33,257 ESR member radiologists were invited to respond to an anonymised web-based questionnaire, which consisted of 12 multiple-choice questions.
Results
In total, 2067/33,257 responses (6.3%) were received from 52 countries. A total of 1068 out of 2067 (51.7%) respondents were aware that imaging referral guidelines are a legal requirement. One thousand five (48.6%) of all respondents did not know whether dedicated guidelines for imaging in children were available, and only 653 (31.2%) were aware of the mainstays of the available guidelines. Similarly, just 746 (36.1%) of all respondents were aware of ESR iGuide availability and features.
Conclusions
The information gathered confirms that effective and widespread adoption of imaging referral guidelines is lacking, especially in children. Further work is required to improve uptake and awareness.
Key Points
• Justification of medical exposures is fundamental to radiation protection and evidence-based referral guidelines are crucial for practical implementation of this principle.
• About half of survey respondents are aware that the availability of imaging referral guidelines is a legal requirement, despite this being mandated since 1997.
• The information gathered from this survey confirms that, especially in children, an effective and widespread adoption of imaging referral guidelines is lacking.
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