Search

In agricultural settings, microbes and antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) have the potential to be transferred across diverse environments and ecosystems. The consequences of these microbial transfers are unclear and understudied. On dairy farms, the storage of cow manure in manure pits and subsequent application to field soil as a fertilizer may facilitate the spread of the mammalian gut microbiome and its associated ARGs to the environment. To determine the extent of both taxonomic and resistance similarity during these transitions, we collected fresh manure, manure from pits, and field soil across 15 different dairy farms for three consecutive seasons. We used a combination of shotgun metagenomic sequencing and functional metagenomics to quantitatively interrogate taxonomic and ARG compositional variation on farms. We found that as the microbiome transitions from fresh dairy cow manure to manure pits, microbial taxonomic compositions and resistance profiles experience distinct restructuring, including decreases in alpha diversity and shifts in specific ARG abundances that potentially correspond to fresh manure going from a gut-structured community to an environment-structured community. Further, we did not find evidence of shared microbial community or a transfer of ARGs between manure and field soil microbiomes. Our results suggest that fresh manure experiences a compositional change in manure pits during storage and that the storage of manure in manure pits does not result in a depletion of ARGs. We did not find evidence of taxonomic or ARG restructuring of soil microbiota with the application of manure to field soils, as soil communities remained resilient to manure-induced perturbation. IMPORTANCE The addition of dairy cow manure—stored in manure pits—to field soil has the potential to introduce not only organic nutrients but also mammalian microbial communities and antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) to soil communities. Using shotgun sequencing paired with functional metagenomics, we showed that microbial community composition changed between fresh manure and manure pit samples with a decrease in gut-associated pathobionts, while ARG abundance and diversity remained high. However, field soil communities were distinct from those in manure in both microbial taxonomic and ARG composition. These results broaden our understanding of the transfer of microbial communities in agricultural settings and suggest that field soil microbial communities are resilient against the deposition of ARGs or microbial communities from manure.

▪ Abstract Agricultural work is the most prevalent type of employment in the world. In the United States only a few are engaged in creating food and fiber for many. Agriculture includes farming, ranching, fishing, and forestry, and together they carry significant risk for the development of injury or illness. There are numerous special-population issues related to agriculture. Farmers are old and growing older, many workers are children, and migrant and seasonal help, often foreign born, make up a large percentage of the workforce. It has been only relatively recently that concerns of agricultural safety and health have become a major research focus in the United States.

OBJECTIVE The aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of psychological factors on plasma lipid levels among rural women of central Wisconsin and to compare the effects of these variables among normal-weight and overweight women. METHODS Stratified sampling was used to select a random sample (n=1500) of farm and non-farm women aged 25 to 71 years from the Central Marshfield Epidemiologic Study Area. The baseline examination included measurements of blood pressure, skin folds, height, weight, and fasting blood lipids, glucose, and insulin. Framingham study questionnaires were employed to measure anger, anxiety, tension, and marital disagreement. The Spielberger Trait anger-reaction subscale was employed to assess proneness to anger. RESULTS Among normal-weight women, a positive association was found between anger-reaction scores and cholesterol (b=0.008), ratio (b=0.014), triglycerides (b=0.02), and LDL (b=0.07). The odds of elevated cholesterol were highest among women with high scores on the Speilberger anger-reaction scale (OR=2.0) and anger discussion scale (OR=2.0), while the odds were less among women with high scores on the anger-out scale (OR=0.59). However, among overweight women, we found only scores on the Framingham anger-discussion scale as an important factor to determine the plasma lipid levels. CONCLUSION Anger management may help to sever the link between psychological factors and CHD risk factors. Intervention intended to prevent cardiac events through the reduction of stress and modification of related psychological risk factors have successfully improved the CHD risk factors profile. Similar studies are needed to determine the efficacy of intervention for the primary prevention of CHD risk factors.

The OSHA Power Generation Standard states that power generation employees shall be trained in specific applications of the standard that apply to individual job requirements. The intent of the project objective, then, is to create a tailored course that identifies standard requirements that apply to wind energy technicians.The purpose of this project is to develop an OSHA Power Generation Standard (1910.269) training course for both college based wind energy technician students and for continued workforce training of already employed wind technicians.

Proxy respondents have often been used in case-control studies of cancer and pesticides. To evaluate the effect of exposure misclassification, we compared data collected during 1981-1983 from participants interviewed for a case-control study of leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with data collected during 1990-1991 from proxy respondents for participants who died or became incompetent since the initial interview (328 self-proxy pairs). As questions increased in detail, agreement percentages decreased. Agreement percentages were highest for demographic and general farming information (averages = 88-90%) and lowest for specific pesticide use (averages = 68-74%). Generally, odds ratios calculated from proxy respondent data were less than those from self-respondent data; however, several exceptions occurred. The findings indicate that pesticide data provided by proxy respondents will not necessarily result in the same estimate of risk and/or lead to the same conclusions as data provided by self-respondents.

Neuroblastoma is the most common neoplasm in children less than 1 year of age and has one of the earliest incidence peaks of all childhood cancers. Using birth registration data, a matched case-control study was undertaken to investigate potential prenatal and perinatal risk factors. Ninety-seven neuroblastoma patients who were born in Minnesota were matched with four controls each. No associations were identified for sex, race, parental age, parental education, complications of pregnancy, labor, or delivery, or the previously reported factors of birth weight greater than 4000 g or gestational duration of 36 weeks or less. In 6.6% of the cases and 0.8% of the controls, physical anomalies were noticed before discharge from the newborn nursery. Of the six anomalies reported in the cases, four were found to be the tumor itself or a complication of it. A significant protective effect (odds ratio (OR), 0.47) was noticed for a maternal history of previous fetal loss. Future studies, including biologic markers and stage stratification, may yield more insight into the cause of this disease.

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate whether sexual guilt or religion is a better predictor of three sex variables. A 1 73-item sex questionnaire was administered to 327 college students. It was found that sexual guilt is a far better and more powerful predictor of level of sex information obtained, sexual attitudes held, and sexual behavior expressed than religion. The conclusion is that religion is an intervening variable with sexual guilt such that the more frequently students attend church, the more likely they are to have high sexual guilt which interferes with their sexuality.

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of sex education on college students with respect to their sex information guilt and behaviors. A single 251 item sex questionnaire was administered to 156 college students at the beginning and end of a course on human sexuality. The major conclusion are that sex education has many positive effects such as reduction of sexual guilt inhibitions and the double standard maintaining the traditional values of love and fidelity and providing a healthier more comfortable and responsible attitude toward sex. (Authors)