Assessment of animal impacts on bacterial water quality in a South Carolina, USA tidal creek system.

Fecal pollution may adversely impact water quality in coastal ecosystems. The goal of this study was to determine whether cattle were a source of fecal pollution in a South Carolina watershed. Surface water samples were collected in June 2002 and February through March 2003 in closed shellfish harvesting waters of Toogoodoo Creek in Charleston County, SC. Fecal coliform concentrations in 70 % of the water samples taken for this study exceeded shellfish harvesting water standards. Ribotyping was performed in order to identify animal sources contributing to elevated fecal coliform levels. Escherichia coli isolates (n = 253) from surface water samples were ribotyped and compared to a ribotype library developed from known sources of fecal material. Ribotypes from water samples that matched library ribotypes with 90 % maximum similarity or better were assigned to that source. Less than half of the unknown isolates (38 %) matched with library isolates. About half (53 %) of the matched ribotypes were assigned to cattle isolates and 43 % to raccoon. Ribotyping almost exclusively identified animal sources. While these results indicate that runoff from cattle farms was a likely source of fecal pollution in the watershed, wildlife also contributed. Given the small size of the library, ribotyping was moderately useful for determining the impact of adjacent cattle farms on Toogoodoo Creek. Increasing the number and diversity of the wildlife sources from the area would likely increase the usefulness of the method.

F+ RNA coliphage typing for microbial source tracking in surface waters.

AIMS: The utility of coliphages to detect and track faecal pollution was evaluated using South Carolina surface waters that exceeded State faecal coliform standards. METHODS AND RESULTS: Coliphages were isolated from 117 surface water samples by single agar layer (SAL) and enrichment presence/absence (EP/A) methods. Confirmed F+ RNA coliphages were typed for microbial source tracking using a library-independent approach. Concentrations of somatic coliphages using 37 and 44.5 degrees C incubation temperatures were found to be significantly different and the higher temperature may be more specific for faecal contamination. The EP/A technique detected coliphages infecting Escherichia coli Famp in 38 (66%) of the 58 surface water samples negative for F+ coliphages by the SAL method. However, coliphages isolated by EP/A were found to be less representative of coliphage diversity within a sample. Among the 2939 coliphage isolates tested from surface water and known source samples, 813 (28%) were found to be F+ RNA. The majority (94%) of surface water F+ RNA coliphage isolates typed as group I. Group II and/or III viruses were identified from 14 surface water stations, the majority of which were downstream of wastewater discharges. These sites were likely contaminated by human-source faecal pollution. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that faecal contamination in surface waters can be detected and source identifications aided by coliphage analyses. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: This study supports the premise that coliphage typing can provide useful, but not absolute, information to distinguish human from animal sources of faecal pollution. Furthermore, the comparison of coliphage isolation methods detailed in this study should provide valuable information to those wishing to incorporate coliphage detection into water quality assessments.

Understanding culture and ethnicity: basic rudiments of an "anthropsychological" perspective for understanding human behavior.

While there appears to be general consensus in the behavioral sciences as to the importance of culture and ethnicity in shaping behavior, the discipline of psychology, a major producer of psychotherapists, is often resistant to the study of the basic concepts; seeing it as the domain of other disciplines. Thus, psychologically trained practitioners may not have rudimentary understanding of these concept; while endorsing and even trying to incorporate ethnically and culturally sensitive practices and techniques. This paper provides a basic reformulation of culture and ethnicity and presents the novel concept of an "anthropsychological" model for understanding individual behavior while being sensitive to ethnicity and culture.

Perceptions of ethnic and cultural factors in the delivery of services in the treatment of sickle cell disease.

Twenty-two parents or guardians of children with sickle cell disease seen at a university medical center were administered the Service Perception Test (SPT), a pilot designed for this study to assess how ethnocultural factors of age, race, and gender were perceived as influencing quality of health care received by patients. The medical staff at the sickle cell treatment clinic were also administered the SPT. Data were analyzed for family respondents, medical staff, and a comparison of the two groups. Results consistently show that whites were perceived as getting better service than blacks; young children as receiving better service than the elderly; and the elderly as getting better service than middle age adults. Females were perceived as receiving better service than males with an interaction of race and age. Conclusions and implications for delivering health care services to ethnically and culturally diverse patients with sickle cell disease are offered.

Coping with job stress and burnout in the human services.

A mail survey of 141 human service workers investigated the effects of coping on psychological strain and "burnout" produced by job stress. The survey assessed job stressors and coping strategies with open-ended questions and measured strain using closed-ended alienation, satisfaction, and symptom scales. Because previous research suggested that individual coping responses do not alleviate strain produced by job stress, the survey elicited information on group coping (social support) and on coping strategies initiated by agencies. Job stress was associated with high levels of strain, and group coping with low levels, but individual responses had little effect. Although workers identified many strategies that agencies could use to reduce stress and strain, actual use of such strategies was slight. Because men and women worked in the same jobs, no sex differences in individual coping were predicted and none were found; women, however, reported more social support than men. There was no evidence for moderating (interaction) effects of stress and coping on strain.