Leveraging risk assessment for foodborne outbreak investigations: The Quantitative Risk Assessment-Epidemic Curve Prediction Model

Root cause analysis can be used in foodborne illness outbreak investigations to determine the underlying causes of an outbreak and to help identify actions that could be taken to prevent future outbreaks. We developed a new tool, the Quantitative Risk Assessment-Epidemic Curve Prediction Model (QRA-EC), to assist with these goals and applied it to a case study to investigate and illustrate the utility of leveraging quantitative risk assessment to provide unique insights for foodborne illness outbreak root cause analysis. We used a 2019 Salmonella outbreak linked to melons as a case study to demonstrate the utility of this model (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2019). The model was used to evaluate the impact of various root cause hypotheses (representing different contamination sources and food safety system failures in the melon supply chain) on the predicted number and timeline of illnesses. The predicted number of illnesses varied by contamination source and was strongly impacted by the prevalence and level of Salmonella contamination on the surface/inside of whole melons and inside contamination niches on equipment surfaces. The timeline of illnesses was most strongly impacted by equipment sanitation efficacy for contamination niches. Evaluations of a wide range of scenarios representing various potential root causes enabled us to identify which hypotheses, were likely to result in an outbreak of similar size and illness timeline to the 2019 Salmonella melon outbreak. The QRA-EC framework can be adapted to accommodate any food–pathogen pairs to provide insights for foodborne outbreak investigations.     

The Development of Gaze Following in a Third‐Party Context

Infants follow the gaze of an individual with whom they are directly interacting by the end of the first year. By 18 months infants are capable of learning novel words in observational (or third‐party) contexts (Floor & Akhtar, 2006). To examine third‐party gaze following in 12‐ and 18‐month‐olds, the parent and experimenter engaged in a conversation while the infant was present. For 8 trials approximately every 30 sec the experimenter would turn her head to the right or left to fixate on a toy placed on either side of the room with the parent following suit. In the first experiment, the parent was seated next to the infant and the experimenter opposite, whereas in the second experiment the positions of the adults were switched. In Experiment 1, 18‐month‐olds but not 12‐month‐olds followed gaze. In Experiment 2, 12‐month‐olds acquired a tendency to follow gaze during the experimental session. These results suggest that an incipient ability to follow third‐party gaze is present by 12 months and that infants acquire a more reliable and general ability to follow the gaze of noninteractive others between 12 and 18 months.     

中国单身女性的困境: 多元交叉的社会压力和歧视

随着中国单身人口比例的上升,单身人群特别是单身女性群体受到了社会各个层面的关注。目前国内对单身女性的研究主要通过深度访谈来探讨单身未婚女性的身心和生活状态,缺乏系统的理论观照,且访谈样本又大都局限于大城市的中产阶层单身未婚女性,因而限制了研究成果的代表性。从交叉性理论出发,分析中国单身女性面临的宏观(儒家文化和人口调控压力)、中观(媒体的形象控制和代际压力)和微观(性别歧视、年龄歧视和单身歧视)的多元交叉压力和歧视,厘清目前单身女性所受到的压力和歧视,从不同阶层单身女性的需求出发,才能为她们提供切实有效的帮助,并有助于解决目前我国单身人口比例上升的问题,缓解人口老龄化的压力。     

Parenting services for families affected by substance abuse

This article describes the development, implementation, and replication of a group-based parenting program for families affected by substance abuse. The Nurturing Program for Families in Substance Abuse Treatment and Recovery improves parenting, as measured on objective scales; enhances parents' satisfaction and competence, as measured by participant reports; and is based on principles demonstrated to be effective in reducing risk of both child abuse and neglect and substance abuse for both parents and children.     

Temporary Work,Underemployment and Workplace Accommodations: Relationship to Well‐being for Workers with Disabilities

This study examines whether employment status and workplace accommodations are associated with perceived well‐being among workers with disabilities. Data from the 2006 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey conducted by Statistics Canada were used to test the relationship between employment status, receipt of workplace accommodations and well‐being. Findings indicated that fully utilized permanent employees showed greater life satisfaction and less perceived disability‐related discrimination than either temporary workers or permanent workers who were underemployed. These findings support the theory that inadequate employment is associated with deleterious effects on employee well‐being due to inferior need fulfilment and reduced social status. Workplace accommodations were associated with higher levels of well‐being for all workers with disabilities and helped to mitigate the negative effects of temporary status and underemployment. These findings supported the theoretical extension of main effect and buffering models of workplace stress to the prediction of perceived workplace discrimination.     

Ethnic Group Differences in Adolescents' Responses to AIDS

Adolescents of Anglo-Celtic, Greek, Italian and Chinese descent attending a wide range of post-secondary institutions in Victoria (mean age = 18 years) were asked about their sexual behaviours, knowledge about AIDS, and social responses to the threat of AIDS. There was evidence of relatively high levels of sexual activity, with some members of all groups engaging in risky sexual behaviour. Anglo-Australians were more sexually active and informed about AIDS, with more equality between the sexes in these respects than the other groups. There was a distinction made between behaviours regarded as safe with regular and casual partners, but the meaning attributed to regular partnership differed. Greek- and Italian-Australian young men endorsed monogamy for their regular partners but not necessarily for themselves, and Anglo-Australians accepted a relationship of shorter duration as regular. Greater knowledge was not related to safer sexual behaviour, but discussion about a regular partner's previous sexual history correlated with more risky sexual behaviour. Overall, risk levels were not high but the casual-regular partner distinction, together with the greater use of relatively unrealistic strategies for dealing with AIDS in association with risky behaviour in the non-Anglo groups, gives cause for concern.     

Complex Interrelations of Trait Vulnerabilities in Mothers and their Infants

Despite the developmental and clinical relevance of this area of inquiry, no studies have examined the interrelations of trait vulnerabilities in the affective, behavioral, and interpersonal domains between mothers and their infants. Thus, this study examined the interrelations of three trait vulnerabilities (i.e., negative affective intensity, impulsivity, and insecure attachment) between mothers and their 12‐ to 23‐month‐old infants, focusing in particular on the unique and interactive influence of these maternal trait vulnerabilities on the expression of and precursors to these traits in their infants. Mother–infant dyads (N = 101) completed several laboratory procedures, and mothers reported on their own and their infants' expressions of the trait vulnerabilities of interest. Findings from this study provide preliminary evidence for intergenerational relations between these traits and suggest that it is the confluence of trait vulnerabilities in mothers that relates to the early expression of some of these traits in infants.