A Stochastic Model to Assess the Effect of Meat Inspection Practices on the Contamination of the Pig Carcasses

The objective of meat inspection is to promote animal and public health by preventing, detecting, and controlling hazards originating from animals. With the improvements of sanitary level in pig herds, the hazards profile has shifted and the inspection procedures no longer target major foodborne pathogens (i.e., not risk based). Additionally, carcass manipulations performed when searching for macroscopic lesions can lead to cross‐contamination. We therefore developed a stochastic model to quantitatively describe cross‐contamination when consecutive carcasses are submitted to classic inspection procedures. The microbial hazard used to illustrate the model was Salmonella, the data set was obtained from Brazilian slaughterhouses, and some simplifying assumptions were made. The model predicted that due to cross‐contamination during inspection, the prevalence of contaminated carcass surfaces increased from 1.2% to 95.7%, whereas the mean contamination on contaminated surfaces decreased from 1 logCFU/cm² to ?0.87 logCFU/cm², and the standard deviations decreased from 0.65 to 0.19. These results are explained by the fact that, due to carcass manipulations with hands, knives, and hooks, including the cutting of contaminated lymph nodes, Salmonella is transferred to previously uncontaminated carcasses, but in small quantities. These small quantities can easily go undetected during sampling. Sensitivity analyses gave insight into the model performance and showed that the touching and cutting of lymph nodes during inspection can be an important source of carcass contamination. The model can serve as a tool to support discussions on the modernization of pig carcass inspection.     

Has Reform of Global Finance been Misconceived? Policy Documents and the Volcker Rule

After some hope from the mid-2000s onwards, when unprecedented resources were mobilized to provide life-saving treatment to the millions dying from HIV/AIDS in the global South, donors are reneging on their promises, bowing to the imperative of austerity of a self-inflicted economic crisis. Drawing on Galtung's typology of structural and cultural violence, this article examines how the rules and norms of global governance have shaped the context of policy responses to the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, and how these material struggles are intimately bound up with struggles over the frames through which the disease is portrayed and perceived by key policy actors and the public. First, we argue that the strikingly differential global distribution of the disease is, at least partially, attributable to the structural violence of Africa's encounter with neoliberal capitalism. Second, we focus on two dominant frames—behavioral and philanthrocapitalist—and examine how they contributed to a depoliticization of the AIDS crisis, negating the counter-framing work of transnational AIDS activism. The latter, which has done so much to unmask our shared responsibility for the unequal distribution of vulnerability and death, is critical to countering the threat the economic crisis poses to the global HIV/AIDS response.

Después de alguna esperanza desde mediados de los años 2000 en adelante, cuando se movilizaron recursos sin precedente, para proveer tratamiento para salvar vidas a las millones de personas que morían a causa del VIH/SIDA en el sur global, los donantes están fallando a sus promesas, cediendo a la austeridad imperativa de una crisis económica autoinflingida. A partir de la tipología de Galtung sobre la violencia estructural y cultural, este artículo examina cómo las reglas y las normas de la gobernanza global han dado forma al contexto de las respuestas políticas a la pandemia del sub Sahara africano, y cómo estas luchas materiales están íntimamente ligadas con las luchas sobre los marcos dentro de los cuales los actores claves de la política y el público describen y perciben la enfermedad. Primero, sostenemos que la sorprendente diferencia en la distribución global de la enfermedad, es al menos atribuible a la violencia estructural del encuentro del África con el capitalismo neoliberal. Segundo, nos enfocamos en dos marcos dominantes—uno conductual y otro filántropo capitalista—y examinamos cómo estos han contribuido a una despolitización de la crisis del SIDA, negando la formulación del trabajo del activismo trasnacional del SIDA. El segundo, que ha hecho tanto para desenmascarar nuestra responsabilidad común por la distribución desigual de la vulnerabilidad y la muerte, es crítico para enfrentar la amenaza que representa la crisis económica a la respuesta global del VIH/SIDA.

年代中期,世界动用了空前的资源,为南方国家数以百万将要死亡的艾滋病患者提供延长生命的治疗,给艾滋病防治工作带来了希望。在这之后,捐赠者们违背了其承诺,屈服于一场自己制造的经济危机的紧缩要求。通过借鉴加尔通的结构暴力和文化暴力分类,本文考察了对于撒哈拉以南非洲艾滋病的大规模爆发问题,全球治理的规则和规范如何塑造了对该问题政策回应的背景;关键政策制定者和公众描绘和认知艾滋病存在着模式之争,本文考察了资源争夺与这种模式之争是如何密切相关的。第一,本文认为,艾滋病惊人的全球差别分布,至少部分可归因于非洲与新自由资本主义碰撞产生的结构暴力。第二,本文关注了两个主导框架——行为的和慈善资本主义的,并考察它们如何促进了艾滋病危机的去政治化,否定了反对跨国艾滋病行动主义的框架。我们对艾滋病脆弱性和死亡的不平等分布负有共同责任,第二点对揭露这一事实贡献良多,是对抗经济危机给全球艾滋病防治带来的威胁的关键。

????? ???? ???? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???? ?? ????? ??? ??? 2000?? ?? ??? ?? ??, ????? ??? ??? ????? ?? ?? ??? ??? ???? ??. ? ??? ??? ???, ??? ?? ??? ???? ??? ????? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???? ?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???? ?? ????? ??? ??? ???? ???? ???? ??? ??? ???? ???? ???? ????. ??, ??? ??? ??? ??? ????? ???? ?? ?? ??? ?????? ?????? ????? ????? ??? ??? ??? ????? ????. ??, ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ????? ? ?? ???? ??? ??? ??? ??? ????? ??? ?? ????? ???? ???? ????? ??? ??? ????? ?????? ??? ???. ??? ????? ???? ??? ???? ??? ?? ??? ??? ?? ?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ????? ????.     

Partner Preferences of the Intellectually Gifted

To date, hardly anything is known about the partner preferences of the intellectually gifted. The present study therefore examined the extent to which 354 gifted individuals judged 17 characteristics to be important in a (potential) partner and compared these ratings with those obtained from a community sample (n = 554). Among other things, it was expected that, among the gifted, a (potential) partner's high intelligence would be judged to be more important than among participants from the general community. It was also expected that single gifted individuals would judge a potential partner's high intelligence to be more important than gifted individuals involved in intimate relationships. Most of our predictions were supported, and results are discussed.     

Toward Improving Food Safety in the Domestic Environment: A Multi-Item Rasch Scale for the Measurement of the Safety Efficacy of Domestic Food-Handling Practices

To reduce consumer health risks from foodborne diseases that result from improper domestic food handling, consumers need to know how to safely handle food. To realize improvements in public health, it is necessary to develop interventions that match the needs of individual consumers. Successful intervention strategies are therefore contingent on identifying not only the practices that are important for consumer protection, but also barriers that prevent consumers from responding to these interventions. A measure of food safety behavior is needed to assess the effectiveness of different intervention strategies across different groups of consumers. A nationally representative survey was conducted in the Netherlands to determine which practices are likely conducted by which consumers. Participants reported their behaviors with respect to 55 different food-handling practices. The Rasch modeling technique was used to determine a general measure for the likelihood of an average consumer performing each food-handling behavior. Simultaneously, an average performance measure was estimated for each consumer. These two measures can be combined to predict the likelihood that an individual consumer engages in a specific food-handling behavior. A single "food safety" dimension was shown to underlie all items. Some potentially safe practices (e.g., use of meat thermometers) were reported as very difficult, while other safe practices were conducted by respondents more frequently (e.g., washing of fresh fruit and vegetables). A cluster analysis was applied to the resulting data set, and five segments of consumers were identified. Different behaviors may have different effects on microbial growth in food, and thus have different consequences for human health. Once the microbial relevance of the different consumer behaviors has been confirmed by experiments and modeling, the scale developed in the research reported here can be used to develop risk communication targeted to the needs of different consumer groups, as well as to measure the efficacy of different interventions.     

Interpersonal Influences on Students' Academic and Career Decisions: The Impact of Sexual Orientation

The authors investigated differences in interpersonal influences on career decision making between gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) and heterosexual college students. Contrary to hypotheses, GLB students reported having more career role models than did heterosexual students, and the amount of inspiration received from role models did not differ between the 2 groups. However, GLB students perceived they received less support and guidance from others in their academic and career decision making. As expected, GLB students were more likely to endorse the importance of a career role model's sexual orientation and support of people with their own sexual orientation. Career intervention and research implications are discussed.     

Updating Parameters of the Chicken Processing Line Model

A mathematical model of chicken processing that quantitatively describes the transmission of Campylobacter on chicken carcasses from slaughter to chicken meat product has been developed in Nauta et al. (2005). This model was quantified with expert judgment. Recent availability of data allows updating parameters of the model to better describe processes observed in slaughterhouses. We propose Bayesian updating as a suitable technique to update expert judgment with microbiological data. Berrang and Dickens's data are used to demonstrate performance of this method in updating parameters of the chicken processing line model.     

Effectiveness and Efficiency of Controlling Campylobacter on Broiler Chicken Meat

Campylobacter bacteria are an important cause of foodborne infections. We estimated the potential costs and benefits of a large number of possible interventions to decrease human exposure to Campylobacter by consumption of chicken meat, which accounts for 20-40% of all cases of human campylobacteriosis in the Netherlands. For this purpose, a farm-to-fork risk assessment model was combined with economic analysis and epidemiological data. Reduction of contamination at broiler farms could be efficient in theory. However, it is unclear which hygienic measures need to be taken and the costs can be very high. The experimental treatment of colonized broiler flocks with bacteriophages has proven to be effective and could also be cost efficient, if confirmed in practice. Since a major decrease of infections at the broiler farm is not expected in the short term, additional measures in the processing plant were also considered. At this moment, guaranteed Campylobacter-free chicken meat at the retail level is not realistic. The most promising interventions in the processing plant are limiting fecal leakage during processing and separation of contaminated and noncontaminated flocks (scheduling), followed by decontamination of the contaminated flock. New (faster and more sensitive) test methods to detect Campylobacter colonization in broilers flocks are a prerequisite for successful scheduling scenarios. Other methods to decrease the contamination of meat of colonized flocks such as freezing and heat treatment are more expensive and/or less effective than chemical decontamination.     

A Risk Assessment Model for Campylobacter in Broiler Meat

A quantitative microbiological risk assessment model describes the transmission of Campylobacter through the broiler meat production chain and at home, from entering the processing plant until consumption of a chicken breast fillet meal. The exposure model is linked to a dose-response model to allow estimation of the incidence of human campylobacteriosis. The ultimate objective of the model is to serve as a tool to assess the effects of interventions to reduce campylobacteriosis in the Netherlands. The model describes some basic mechanistics of processing, including the nonlinear effects of cross-contamination between carcasses and their leaking feces. Model input is based on the output of an accompanying farm model and Dutch count data of Campylobacters on the birds' exterior and in the feces. When processing data are lacking, expert judgment is used for model parameter estimation. The model shows that to accurately assess of the effects of interventions, numbers of Campylobacter have to be explicitly incorporated in the model in addition to the prevalence of contamination. Also, as count data usually vary by several orders of magnitude, variability in numbers within and especially between flocks has to be accounted for. Flocks with high concentrations of Campylobacter in the feces that leak from the carcasses during industrial processing seem to have a dominant impact on the human incidence. The uncertainty in the final risk estimate is large, due to a large uncertainty at several stages of the chain. Among others, more quantitative count data at several stages of the production chain are needed to decrease this uncertainty. However, this uncertainty is smaller when relative risks of interventions are calculated with the model. Hence, the model can be effectively used by risk management in deciding on strategies to reduce human campylobacteriosis.     

The Self‐Directed Search as a Stand‐Alone Intervention With College Students

The Self‐Directed Search (SDS; Holland, 1994 ) is sometimes administered to large student groups outside of counseling to address common career development needs. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the SDS as a stand‐alone intervention by comparing a general sample of college students who completed the SDS (n = 39) with a no‐treatment control group (n = 41) on several outcomes. Completion of the SDS related to an increase in the number of career alternatives being considered 4 weeks later but did not relate to career exploration, career decision‐making self‐efficacy, career indecision, and seeking of career counseling services. If the SDS is used outside of counseling with broad student samples, the authors suggest providing additional intervention to ensure that it promotes exploration of any additional careers being considered.     

Gender patterns in Vietnam’s child mortality

We analyze child mortality in Vietnam focusing on gender aspects. Contrary to several other countries in the region, mortality rates for boys are substantially larger than for girls. The mortality rate of boys appears to be more sensitive to parents’ education levels than the mortality rate of girls. A high education level of the father is particularly protective for boys. The rural–urban mortality difference in the raw data, which is particularly large for boys, can be fully explained by differences in observable characteristics of urban and rural households.