Government as biosecurity communicator: the 2006 spinach advisory.

In 2006, after the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) traced Escherichia coli O157:H7 cases to spinach, the FDA went beyond communicating with consumers and enlisted the cooperation of the food industry to prevent further spinach consumption. Understanding the factors that increased or frustrated industry participation provides lessons for communicating about accidental contamination and intentional attacks on the American food supply. This qualitative research about FDA's risk communication included interviews with senior representatives of organizations serving a range of roles in the food supply system, including suppliers, distributors, grocery stores, and trade associations.

Facilitation of risk communication during the anthrax attacks of 2001: the organizational backstory.

The anthrax attacks of 2001 created risk communication problems that cannot be fully understood without appreciating the dynamics among organizations. Case studies of communication in New Jersey, consisting of interviews with a range of participants, found that existing organizational and professional networks facilitated trust among decisionmakers. This interpersonal trust improved communication among agencies and thereby risk communication with the public.

From the inside out: environmental agency views about communications with the public.

Relatively few studies have examined risk communication with the public from the viewpoint of the staff of institutions attempting such communications. This paper reports results of interviews with managers and staff of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, on their programs' current and ideal communications with the public. Q analysis revealed two orthogonal perspectives on current program communications, the Enthused and the Constrained views.

False alarms, real challenges--one university's communication response to the 2001 anthrax crisis.

Considerable research exists on how government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels communicated during the fall 2001 anthrax attacks. However, there is little research on how other institutions handled this crisis, in terms of their response to potential anthrax contamination (aka "white powder scares") and their approach to disseminating important health and safety information. In this article, we investigate a major university's communication response to the anthrax crisis.

Prospective study on combination diode laser and radiofrequency energies (ELOS) for the treatment of leg veins.

Objective: To evaluate the Polaris LV, electro-optical synergy (ELOS) technology, which combines diode laser (915 nm) and radiofrequency (RF) (1 MHz) energies, for the treatment of leg veins.

Methods: A total of 25 patients (Fitzpatrick I-IV) with a total of 35 sites (0.3-5.

Sleep deprivation for pediatric sedated procedures: not worth the effort.

Objective: Sleep deprivation is commonly used to enhance the effectiveness of pediatric sedation and to decrease sedation failures. We reviewed our sedation database to evaluate the efficacy of sleep deprivation.

Methods: The entire pediatric sedation unit database (n = 5640) was reviewed retrospectively.

How reassuring are risk comparisons to pollution standards and emission limits?

Pollutant emissions or ambient levels are often justified by reference to a higher benchmark, such as a public health standard or permit limit. However, does this risk comparison persuade the public audiences to whom it is frequently directed that such pollution levels are "acceptable"? A substantial proportion of people living within one mile of New Jersey's industrial facilities, perhaps as much as half, is indeed reassured by a comparison to such benchmarks. Positive attitudes toward discharge limits were linked to speaking English at home; positive attitudes toward drinking water standards were associated with seeing local benefits of industry as outweighing its risks, not speaking English, and relative youth (49 years old or less).

Communicating worst-case scenarios: neighbors' views of industrial accident management.

The prospect of industrial accidents motivated the U.S. Congress to require in the Clean Air Act of 1990 that manufacturing facilities develop Risk Management Plans (RMP) to submit to the U.

Evaluating risk communication about fish consumption advisories: efficacy of a brochure versus a classroom lesson in Spanish and English.

Presentation format can influence the way target audiences understand risk-related information. Brochures or fish fact sheets are the methods traditionally used by state agencies to inform the public about fish consumption advisories and the risks from consuming fish. This study examines the efficacy of presenting information about the risks from consuming contaminated fish and shellfish in two different formats: a brochure and classroom presentation.

Evaluating citizen advisory boards: the importance of theory and participant-based criteria and practical implications.

The role of risk communication and public participation in environmental and public policy decision making has significantly increased over the last 15 years and remains an important social policy issue. In spite of this emphasis, government officials and participants in the process continue to struggle with what makes for "good" public participation. This study used two frameworks--one theoretical and one participant-based-to evaluate two U.

Land application of sewage sludge: perceptions of New Jersey vegetable farmers.

Understanding farmers' perceptions and choices regarding land application of sewage sludge is key to developing locally accepted strategies for managing its sewage sludge. Semi-structured interviews, with mostly open-ended questions were conducted with 50 fruit and vegetable farmers at the New Jersey Annual Vegetable Meeting in 1999. The in-depth interviews indicated that the application of sewage sludge to land is currently not a common agricultural practice for these growers.

Organizational theory and the stages of risk communication.

The evolution of risk communication has been described as a series of communication strategies. This article suggests that organizational theory provides another dimension to understanding the evolution of risk communication, and that risk communication can be seen as an organizational adaptation of chemical manufacturers to external pressure. Following the tragedy in Bhopal the chemical manufacturing sector's loss of legitimacy led to destabilization of its authority and to increased uncertainty in its external environment.

Glutamate transport and cellular glutamine metabolism: regulation in LLC-PK1 vs. LLC-PK1-F+ cell lines.

The glutamate (Glu) transporter may modulate cellular glutamine (Gln) metabolism by regulating both the rates of hydrolysis and subsequent conversion of Glu to alpha-ketoglutarate and NH+4. By delivering Glu, a competitive inhibitor of Gln for the phosphate-dependent glutaminase (PDG) as well as an acid-load activator of glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) flux, the transporter may effectively substitute extracellularly generated Glu from the gamma-glutamyltransferase for that derived intracellularly from Gln. We tested this hypothesis in two closely related porcine kidney cell lines, LLC-PK1 and LLC-PK1-F+, the latter selected to grow in the absence of glucose, relying on Gln as their sole energy source.

Conducting Layered Organic-inorganic Halides Containing <110>-Oriented Perovskite Sheets.

Single crystals of the layered organic-inorganic perovskites, [NH(2)C(I=NH(2)](2)(CH(3)NH(3))m SnmI3m+2, were prepared by an aqueous solution growth technique. In contrast to the recently discovered family, (C(4)H(9)NH(3))(2)(CH(3)NH(3))n-1SnnI3n+1, which consists of (100)-terminated perovskite layers, structure determination reveals an unusual structural class with sets of m <110>-oriented CH(3)NH(3)SnI(3) perovskite sheets separated by iodoformamidinium cations. Whereas the m = 2 compound is semiconducting with a band gap of 0.